Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/582

570 said this rude song had some striking and beautiful passages.

"After the Indians had concluded their dance, they proposed that the whites should dance in their fashion, and they would join. Accordingly the whites formed 'on the floor,' to dance the 'French four.' Two Indians danced, one with Miss Moyer, the mother of the late Mrs. Stephen Marvin, and the other with Mrs. Swan. The Indians unexpectedly proved to be very graceful dancers. After each dance, the bottle was freely passed around, and the dance was kept up until the wee sma' hours of morning. The music was furnished by the white women, who sang the tunes.

"This incident occurred at a cabin near the cross-roads, two miles east of Shelby, and is here given as an illustration of early times in the history of our pioneers, and was vouched for as entirely correct, by some of those who were witnesses to it.

"The forest abounded in game of all kinds, especially deer and turkeys. The Indians were constantly passing and repassing, on the 'trail' leading from an Indian town on the lower Black Fork to Lower Sandusky, and on smaller trails from the cabins of settlers, to the road leading from Ganges to Mansfield. They traded with the early settlers for venison and furs, taking blacksmith work and 'necessaries' in exchange therefor.

"The Indians also engaged in other amusements with the whites, such as running foot-races with them, locking fingers and pulling to see which could hold out the longest. The whites could usually outrun the Indians for a short distance, but the latter could hold out the longest, while the whites invariably proved the strongest in their fingers. No murders were committed by the Indians in this vicinity.

"When John Gamble came, he erected a horse-mill on the corner where the Kerr & Marvin Block now stands. Levi Bargaheiser, the late Jay Smiley and others soon followed."

Though the early settlers of Sharon, as well as the larger part of Richland County, came mostly from Western Pennsylvania, yet a small "sprinkling" were New England people. The "Reserve" in Northern Ohio, at that time owned by the State of Connecticut, was the means of bringing large numbers of Connecticut "Yankees," with their peculiar ways and indomitable push and energy, passion for money-getting and enterprise, to Ohio. These people did not all settle on Connecticut lands, but pushed on into the northern townships of Richland County, and the northern part of Sharon received a small portion of them. The Whitneys, Marvins, Swans, Wilsons, Smileys, and probably the Rockwells, Hunters and others, were all from New England, and were among the earliest settlers. These people were intelligent, generally well educated, and formed a valuable ingredient in the first settlement of the township.

Among the early settlers were Christopher Wetz, John Rice, Joseph Cox and John Kerr, the latter of whom erected the first blacksmith-shop in the township in 1826, and later erected two of the first mills.

When the township was organized, in 1819, all the residents met at the house of Mrs. Rockwell, which stood on the farm now owned by M. M. Barber. Fourteen persons were present, and after the petition was duly signed they appointed Mr. Henry Taylor to present it to the Commissioners at Mansfield. The petition was granted and the new township named Sharon, after some town in Connecticut. At the election held in April, 1823, fourteen voters were present, viz.: Giles H. Swan, John B. Taylor. Joseph Curran, Eli Wilson, Almon Hayes. Harvey Camp, Henry Whitney, Mathew Curran, James Smith, Adam Swan, James Kerr, James Rockwell, Levi Bargaheiser and De Lanson Rockwell, most of whom resided within the present limits of Jackson Township. From these fourteen persons, seventeen officers were chosen. Two Democratic, or, as then called,