Zanesville, Ohio

“ In 1825, after a delay which created great suspense in the West, the Cumberland Road at last leaped the Ohio River at Wheeling. Zane's Trace, now a wide, much-traveled avenue, offered a route westward to Zanesville which could be but little improved upon. The blazed tree gave way to the mile-stone and the pannier and saddle-bag to the rumbling stagecoach and the chaise. It is all a pretty, quiet picture and its story is totally unlike that of Boone's rough path over the Cumberlands. For settlements sprang up rapidly in this land of plenty ”

“ The opening of river traffic in the first two decades of the century, however, had the effect of throwing the line of the road further northward through the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Zane's Trace, diverging from the Cumberland Road at Zanesville, played an important part in the development of southwestern Ohio, becoming the course of the Lancaster and Maysville Pike. ”

“ The route to the southwest from that point through Perry, Fairfield, Pickaway, Ross, Richland, Adams, and Brown Counties may or may not have followed the path of an Indian trace. No proof to the contrary being in existence, it is most reasonable to suppose that this, like most other pioneer routes, did follow a more or less plainly outlined Indian path. The new road crossed the Muskingum at the present site of the town well named Zanesville, the Hocking at Lancaster, the Scioto at Chillicothe, and the Ohio at Aberdeen, Ohio, opposite the old-time Limestone, Kentucky. ”

“ John, deceased; Ulysses, deceased; Rose, wife of C. Barnes, Chase county, Kansas; Robert, Jackson county, Kansas; Paul, a teacher, Durant, Okla.; Mrs. Amanda Hanson, Nortonville, Kan.; Mrs. Mabel McDonald, Muscotah, Kan., and Frank, Seattle, Wash. James B. Laird, the father, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, June 13, 1834, and was a son of Thomas and Elton (Saffle) Laird, both natives of Pennsylvania. The Lairds are of Scotch descent. James was brought up on his father’s farm, and when he was thirteen years of age his parents removed to Livingston, Mo., where he grew to manhood. ”

“ It contains about 60 houses, a log court house and jail, and a large log Presbyterian meeting house. It is the seat of justice for Licking county. This tract of country is well settled as far east as Zanesville. The land father northward continues level, but is much of it low and swampy, and is thinly settled.
South of the State road as it approaches the Scioto, twenty-eight miles in a southeasterly direction from Chilicothe and 83 from Galliopolis on the Ohio, are the Great Scioto salt-works. The land is hilly and covered with a heavy growth of timber. ”

“ At Zanesville, her companion, finding some unexpected business which would detain him in that place, left her to pursue her journey alone. It is but a few hours' ride from Columbus to Bellaire (the terminus of the Central Ohio Railroad) ; but at Lewis's Mills this day a collision or some other accident occurred, by which the train was delayed [Pg 28] until late that night: no other harm was done, except to give time for poor Ellen's chance again to fail her. Joe's regiment crossed the Ohio that night and went into Virginia. ”

“ At the distance of twelve miles is the town of Adams, and twenty-three miles, by water, is the town of Waterford, within the purchase of the Ohio company. At a small distance above this purchase, the bottom lands are narrow, and the hills are many of them steep, tufted with pine, for about thirty miles. They then begin to recede from the river, and bottoms increase in width to Zanesville; at the distance of a few miles west of the river the face of the country is swelling hills, with a rich soil, and the growth principally beach and oak. ”

“ HANNAWALT, RAY, Blacksmith, Marysville, Ohio. HASBROOK, NEAL J., Wagoner, 1470 E. Wood Ave., Columbus, Ohio. HAUCK, WILLIAM, Wagoner, 1605 Mansfield St., Cincinnati, Ohio. HAVLIN, WILLARD B., Wagoner, 4217 Mad Anthony St., Cincinnati, Ohio. HEILMAN, EDWIN F., Wagoner, 1930 Wayland Ave., Norwood, Ohio. HERRON, FORREST C., Wagoner, 1238 Linden Ave., Zanesville, Ohio. HIRE, BRYAN J., Wagoner, 1234 Atlantic Ave., Lima, Ohio. HIXSON, JEREMIAH C., R.F.D. No. 1, Calla, Ohio. IGNAUT, MIKE, Pvt., 2914 Woodhill Rd., Cleveland, Ohio. JACKSON, HERSCHAL B., Wagoner, 2 McMechin St., Zanesville, Ohio. ”

“ Authority was also given to build a branch from Hudson towards the Ohio and Pennsylvania and any line running in the direction of Columbus. A separate company afterwards constructed this "Akron Branch," or Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad, so far as Millersburgh. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad has had a serious financial struggle to go through, but it has come out as an important and prosperous line. It is now working under a consolidation of earnings with the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, formerly known as the Ohio and Pennsylvania. ”

“ By a series of locks and dams the Muskingum river has been made navigable for small vessels to the Ohio and above Zanesville to Dresden, where connexion is made with the Ohio Canal extending north to Cleveland. Within the city limits the Muskingum is crossed by seven bridges (including a notable concrete Y bridge) and the Licking by two. The business districts of the city lie on both sides of the two rivers; the residential districts being chiefly on the hills to the north and west. ”

“ Gilead, Ohio. WILLS, CLARENCE M., Pvt., 98 South Terrace St., Columbus, Ohio. WINGET, ROMIE H., Pvt. 1st class, Mt. Gilead, Ohio. WINSOR, MILFORD, Pvt., 561 Mound St., Marion, Ohio. WISMAN, WILL, Pvt., R.F.D., Fremont, Ohio. WITTISBSLAGER, IVAN E., Pvt., Cardington, Ohio. WORNOSKI, JOE, Corp., West Street, Berea, Ohio. WOSICKI, JOHN, Corp., Berea, Ohio. WYATT, WATT, Pvt., Waldo, Ohio. YOUNG, WILLIAM W., Corp., 476 Sharon Ave., Zanesville, Ohio. ZEIGLER, KENNETH, Pvt., 330 Railroad St., Urbana, Ohio. Company B Captain, OYLER, FRANK L., 1322 Oak St., Columbus, Ohio. ”

“ Under power conferred by an act of the general assembly of Ohio, approved March 9th, 1836, the authorities of the state, between 1836 and 1840, constructed a series of locks and dams on the Muskingum river between Marietta and Zanesville. ”

“ This point is called Licking Summit, because it is in Licking township, in the county of Muskingum, which contains the towns of Irville and Nashport. From Portsmouth to the highest point of the canal there are fifty-one sluices. [159] At sunrise we reached [Pg 152] Hebron, a town commenced in November, 1825, in Union township, on the great national road from Zanesville to Columbus, which commences at Hagerstown, comes from Cumberland, on the Potomac, and passes through the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. ”

“ Act of July 3, 1832, appropriates $150,000 for repairs east of the Ohio River; $100,000 for continuing the road west of Zanesville; $100,000 for continuing the road in Indiana, including bridge over east and west branch of White River; $70,000 for continuing road in Illinois; to be paid from the fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois $420,000.00
26. Act of March 2, 1833, appropriates to carry on certain improvements east of the Ohio River, $125,000; in Ohio, west [Pg 199] of Zanesville, $130,000; in Indiana, $100,000; in Illinois, $70,000 ”

“ Ohio.In Ohio.—From Warren, in the county of Trumbull, by Cleveland, to Detroit; from Chilicothe to Alexandria; from Steubenville to New Lisbon; from Chilicothe to Franklinton; from Cincinnati, through Franklin and Dayton, to Stanton; from thence, through Wainsville and Deerfield, to Charleston; from Zanesville, through Tuscorowa, to Graden-hutton; and that the post road from Georgetown to Canfield, shall pass through New Lisbon. ”

“ In our survey of Indian Thoroughfares, a slight path known as the Mingo Trail is mentioned as leading across eastern Ohio from Mingo Bottom near the present Steubenville, on the Ohio River, to the neighborhood of Zanesville on the Muskingum River. [32] Mingo Bottom was a well-known Indian camping-place; the name is preserved in the railway junction thereabouts, Mingo Junction. A distinct watershed offers thoroughfare southwesterly across to the Muskingum, and on this lay the old trail. The termini of this earliest known route were near two early settlements of whites ”

“ This solitary hunter was Colonel Ebenezer Zane. He was one of those daring men, who, as the tide of emigration started westward, had left his friends and family and had struck out alone into the wilderness. Departing from his home in Eastern Virginia he had plunged into the woods, and after many days of hunting and exploring, he reached the then far Western Ohio valley. ”

“ Eight years later he came to live in Ohio, settling near Urbana, but removing later to Zanesfield, on the site of the Indian town Wapatimika, where he was once to have been burned, and where he died peaceably in 1836, when he was eighty-one years old. He is described as a tall, handsome man, of an erect figure and carriage, a fair complexion, and a most attractive countenance. ”

“ Ebenezer Zane had been among the first, to explore the country from the South Branch, through the Alleghany glades, and west of them. He was accompanied in that excursion by Isaac Williams, two gentlemen of the name of Robinson and some others; but setting off rather late in the season, and the weather being very severe, they were compelled to return, without having penetrated to the Ohio river. On their way home, such was the extremity of cold, that one of the Robinsons died of its effects. ”

“ She had seen those ominous signs before. "Can you find nothing better to talk about?"
Meanwhile Colonel Zane and his companions were earnestly discussing certain information which had arrived that day. A friendly Indian runner had brought news to Short Creek, a settlement on the river between Fort Henry and Fort Pitt of an intended raid by the Indians all along the Ohio valley. ”

“ This day was the happiest of Colonel Zane's life. The task he had set himself, and which he had hardly ever hoped to see completed, was ended. The West had been won. What Boone achieved in Kentucky he had accomplished in Ohio and West Virginia. ”

“ Simon Girty migrated to Canada and lived with a few Indians who remained true to him. His confederates slowly sank into oblivion. The Shawnee tribe sullenly retreated westward, far into the interior of Ohio; the Delawares buried the war hatchet, and smoked the pipe of peace they had ever before refused. For them the dark, mysterious, fatal wind had ceased to moan along the trails, or sigh through tree-tops over lonely Indian camp-fires.
The beautiful Ohio valley had been wrested from the savages and from those parasites who for years had hung around the necks of the red men. ”

“ Sheppard laughed at the pioneer's reply. "It's not difficult, Colonel Zane, to understand why Fort Henry has stood all these years, with you as its leader. Certainly the location for your cabin is the finest in the settlement. What a view!"
High upon a bluff overhanging the majestic, slow-winding Ohio, the colonel's cabin afforded a commanding position from which to view the picturesque valley. Sheppard's eye first caught the outline of the huge, bold, time-blackened fort which frowned protectingly over surrounding log-cabins ”

“ The voyagers spoke not, nor whispered, nor scarcely moved, so menacing had become the slow, listening caution of Wetzel and Zane. Snapping of twigs somewhere in the inscrutable darkness delayed them for long moments. Any movement the air might resound with the horrible Indian war-whoop. Every second was heavy with fear. How marvelous that these scouts, penetrating the wilderness of gloom, glided on surely, silently, safely! Instinct, or the eyes of the lynx, guide their course. ”

“ At a distance, Shawneetown appears as if built upon higher land than the neighboring bottom; but this proves, on approach, to be an optical illusion, for the town is walled in by a [pg 268] levee some thirty feet in height, above the top of which loom its chimneys and spires. Shawneetown, laid out in 1808, soon became an important post on the Lower Ohio, and indeed ranked with Kaskaskia as one of the principal Illinois towns, although in 1817 it still only contained from thirty to forty log dwellings. ”

“ To-day the beautiful city of Wheeling rises on the banks of the Ohio, where the yells of the Indians once blanched the cheeks of the pioneers. The broad, winding river rolls on as of yore; it alone remains unchanged. What were Indians and pioneers, forts and cities to it? Eons of time before human beings lived it flowed slowly toward the sea, and ages after men and their works are dust, it will roll on placidly with its eternal scheme of nature. ”

“ All the territory of present Ohio was red, and in Ohio and adjacent Indiana the Shawnees, Miamis, Wyandot Hurons, the Mingos, the war Delawares, and such, had their principal towns. The Wheeling settlements in the pan-handle were within short striking distance of the Indian strongholds.
The War of the Revolution had been in full stride for a year. The majority of the Indians of the northwest sided with the British, in the hopes of keeping their country from the Americans. It is said that Isaac Zane, the white Wyandot, sent the word of danger to the commanding officer at Fort Pitt. ”

“ It is very fertile, and is all cultivated as a farm by Mr. Zanes. The post and stage road to Chilicothe in Ohio, goes across it, which occasions two ferries, an inconvenience which will be remedied by the new state road crossing by one ferry below the island.
Indian Wheeling creek, a fine mill stream joins the Ohio from the N. W. opposite the middle of the island, and Mr. Zanes has lately laid out a new town there named Canton, which has now thirteen houses, but from its proximity to Wheeling, it never can become considerable. ”