Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/430

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��It is related that lute one evening in Novem- ber, an Indian liunter, whom the whites called "Greasy,"' concluded he would tr}' "shining"' on the Black Fork for deer. Placing fire in one end of his bark canoe and seating himself in the other, gun in hand, he dropped quietly down the stream, the fire lighting up either bank. After going half a mile, the hunter saw in the bushes two bright e^'es gazing at his beacon light. When he fired, the e^'es disap- peared, but a wounded deer struck the water so near the canoe as to upset it, putting out the light and leaving " Greasy '' to exercise his swimming powers in the darkness to reach the bank. He soon came shivering back to camp minus canoe, gun. deer and temper.

Blacksnakes and rattlesnakes were quite numerous here as well as elsewhere in earh' da^'S. Illustrative of this unpleasant fact in pioneer life, Mr. Isaac Charles relates that an Indian named Cornstalk came to his calnn one evening in the fall of 1816, and, taking a seat with a solemn, despondent look, remarked, "Injin tired. Injin hunt all day on hill for deer." " Did you kill any?" asked Mr. Charles. " Me no kill any deer. Too sh}^ ! Me hunt for bear. Me no kill bear. Injin hungry ! Injin tired. After a short pause he continued : " Injin bad scared to-day." " What scared you ? " asked Mr. Charles. " Me look in rocks for bear sign. Ugh ! Snake, big ! Me turn round, ugh ! Snake there too ; me look on this side, on that side ; snake here, snake there, snake all around. Ugh ! Injin scared. Injin run fast." They afterward hunted up this spot, a deep ravine called the "snake den," where hun- dreds of these reptiles were killed.

The township settled up quite rapidly after the war of 1812 ; many of the soldiers who passed through the count}' with the army, after- ward returned and settled permanently in these northern townships of the county.

One of the oldest voting-places in the north- ern part of the county was in a cabin on the

��fann now owned b}' Samuel Graham. This cabin, afterward aliandoned, served many years as a voting-place for settlers. William Holister and Jacob Cline were the first Justices of the Peace. A short time after his election, a hard case coming before Mr. Cline, he resigned, and Jacob Osbun was elected in his place. The people then, as now, were not politicians, and for several years, the elections went b}' default. They would forget about election day, and the consequence was the}' were occasionally' with- out either a Justice of the Peace or Constable. They did not feel in« particular need of these oflficers.

The early settlers were compelled to go great distances to get their milling done, water-power being scarce within the limits of the township.

The Spring Mill, in Springfield Township, was patronized by them after its erection, but before that they were compelled to go to Beam's and to Fredericktown. Beam's mill, they said, was so overrun with business in these early daj'S, that the}' were often compeDed to wait three or four days for a grist, and often were not able to get it at all. Nearly all the early mills were primitive affairs, and could not meet promptly the wants of the settlers. Water was not wanting in Franklin, l)ut it was stagnant water and could not be made to fur- nish power. A few saw-mills were erected, but even these could onl}' run occasionally ; a flood would fill up the mill-races with earth and de- bris, and block the mill. A great deal of labor and expense was required to keep them clear. The first of these saw-mills was erected bj John Ross, on Brubaker Run, on Section 21. Jacob Whisler afterward owned and conducted this mill several 3-ears. About 1840, John Ralston also erected a saw-mill on Brubaker Run, on Section 22, which he conducted eight or ten years. Several other saw-mills were erected in an early day, but all have long since disap- peared. As the country was cleared and drained, the ruins of these old mills were left

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