MADISON LORENZO DOW FITCH
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The Leader; Pomeroy, Ohio; Thursday, September, 15, 1898
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A Biography of One of Meigs County's Oldest and Most Esteemed Citizens
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(Photo of Madison Lorenzo Dow Fitch)
I was born in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, in the year A. D. 1810, on May 21st,: moved when about three years old to Garden Flats, Indian Reservation, owned by Mary Jimerson. I lived there five years, learnt to speak some Indian words and remember them now. Father moved to Ashtabula County, Ohio. There I saw the first school house. I went to school ther two or three weeks. My mother would not let my older brother and me go any longer on account of the rattle snakes being so think. The next winter we moved to Thompson, Geauga Co., Ohio. It was a perfect wilderness, not a house in sight of my father's log cabin, no roads and nothing but blazed trees to guide us. In a couple of years several families settled within two miles of us. In the course of three or four years the neighbors thought to put up a school house. It was made of logs that were split. The floor was of the same, split logs dressed off a little with an adz or broad-ax. Seats were split and one side hewed, four holes bored and sticks driven in for legs. For light, a log was cut out of one side and then sticks were set right where the log came out and greased paper pasted on the sticks. This was all the light we had to study by. All the schooling I ever got was in this house, not to exceed three months. My mother was a good scholar for that day and she taught us when she could get spare time.
Our living was very hard. We lived on wild meat principally, for three or four years. My father cradled grain a day for four pounds of pickled pork. There was plenty of wild game, such as deer, coon, turkey and a good many elk and bear. Their meat was all fat except the elk and we ate a great deal of elk meat in the spring; we had it salted down.
The first time I left home was to learn blacksmithing. I was about 13 years old. My great desire was to work at a mill, but summer coming I went to work at farming and mill work. The man that I worked for had two boys. One was a little younger than I was and the other was over a year older than I.
In August, 1824, I met with an accident which came very nearly taking my life. I was not able to work at all for months. I was out hunting coon in the night and jumped from the limb of a tree on a stub and run it in the bottom of my foot and it was nine months before I could walk a step on my foot, and it has always caused my ankle to be stiff. I had two spells with this ankle. The second spell I had I was in Geneva, Ashtabula County. I went there to chop wood. My ankle and foot were far from being well. It took to swelling and pained me so I had to quit work. I got home and took to my bed again. Several pieces of bone came out and it healed up. I went back to chopping in about fifteen days, taking two acres to chop into cord wood, not to be corded but pitched in piles. I got thirty-five dollars an acre. I hired two good choppers. I made good wages in this job.
The winter of '26 I threshed. I got every tenth bushel and bran. I helped father, too, on the mill and cut logs and got them to the mill. We got over 30 cherry logs and had to haul some of them a long ways. The summer of '26 I worked with my old boss again. In the winter of '27 I was at home and helped father to cut saw-logs and haul them to the mill. I took the measles the last of December or the first of January. Mother did not want me to cut logs the day before or the same day I took the measles. It was miles to where our work was and the snow was 20 inches deep. Along in the afternoon I began to get blind. We started for home and father stopped at the barn to feed. I got to the house, sat close to the fire a few minutes and I was going to faint. I got to the door, got some snow, put it in my face and went to bed. I kept my bed several weeks. I had to be lifted off the bed and back again when it was made. The doctor said there was but little blood left in me. This sickness affected my hearing and I never have heard as well since.
In the year of 1828, I left home on Christmas morning to go to chop wood for the Geauga Furnace. About sixteen miles from home I found a place to work. Next morning Mr. Beadle put me in where the timber had been girdled. I found fault, as it was dried and the bark would fall off, and he said I could chop, if I wished, the next morning in some wet ground. I told him I would try it. The day before New Year's and New Years day I chopped and put up four cords each day. The place was in a black ash swamp, hear the lake. I have never seen any black ash growing in the southern part of the Western Reserve. It is called here hoof ash. I chopped in this place and paid for a pair of shoes, and a barrel of salt for father, and had a dollar or so besides. I left this place and went about one mile to Mr. Norwood's. After chopping about two weeks we wanted to sell me a two year old colt and pay for it in cutting wood. I agreed to give him forty dollars. The price for cutting was twenty-five cents a cord. Mr. Norwood was a Baptist preacher. He said he would go to father and take the colt to him. I had no objections to it as my mother had been a member of the Baptist church ever since I could remember. He came home and was well pleased with the visit. He said father was to give him two dollars more for the colt. I didn't want anyone to meddle with my bargain. I bought a nice coat of Mr. Carl. His wife was a sister of Mr. Norwood and they did not agree very well. I did not know what was the cause until I had cut ten or twelve cords. I agreed to chop thirty cord for the coat. Mr. Norwood told me that Carl had whipped his wife when he came home drunk. The cabin they lived in was about 14 feet square, having two beds and a floor but no hearth. We would sit on the floor with one foot on the ground in front of the fire. It was a cold night. Mr. Carl sat down close to his wife. She had the child in her arms. It had been fretful all day and at supper it cried all the time. It had a crying spell when he came home. He said to its mother, "Stop that child's mouth or I will," and he grabbed the baby from its mother, struck it and knocked it out of his hands on the floor. The mother grabbed for the child and Carl grabbed for his wife. I caught him by the arms and laid him on his back. I stretched his arms out and held him until he begged and promised to behave himself. His wife went to the head of my bed. When he was begging she saw I was about to let him go. She got up and went to where my ax was and I was afraid she meant to do me some harm, but I kept my hold. She grabbed the ax, opened the door and threw it out, I let him up but I kept my eye on him until he went to bed, and to sleep. The next morning I went to chopping at the day light. After a little while I saw Mr. Carl coming to me. I thought there might be some trouble but he was very penitent and owned up that he was wrong and asked my forgiveness for his abuse to his wife. He said he was glad that I had interfered. I finished my job all in peace and friendship.
About seven years after this happened, Mr. Carl came to where I had the heaviest job of work I ever did. He asked me to come and see him. I told him I would come the next Sunday. I went to the place. It was so changed I could hardly believe it was the same place. A found a comfortable farm house a good log barn. We talked over the past. They both said that was the last trouble they ever had. They gave me a good dinner, we parted friends, and I have never seen any of the family since.
I must go back to chopping wood for the colt. Norwood met me very friendly, I told him I would chop the wood to pay the $42.00 for the colt if he would give me a piece of ground to chop off from that would make the amount of wood, and he concluded to do it. It had to be split, all the limbs trimmed that were the size of an ax handle, and the wood put in ricks or piles. I went to work with a good heart and worked late and early. I thought I cut about 2 ‡ cords a day. When I told Mr. Norwood he thought I had out-chopped any hand he ever hired. My father came down and helped to split wood one week. Now I give you the amount of the wood I chopped that winter. For Mr. Beadle 25 cords; for Mr. Norwood, 168 cords; for Mr. Carl 30 cords; making in all 213 cords. This winter was a very mild winter for the Lake country.
The coat I bought of Carl was the first fine cloth coat I ever had and this was about the last of my chopping cord wood. I went home on the first of May and was 18 years old the 21st of May.
This summer I was in my 19th year. I helped father put up his barn, which was 30 by 40 feet. Soon after the barn was raised I got my left arm put out of place. It was done by foul means. The back of my hand lay under the back of my neck. When I got on my feet my arm was hanging backwards. I sat in a chair. The bones had shot by each other, one man put his arm under the left shoulder and a couple of men got hold of my wrist and they pulled. When I was gripping the bones back to their place the elbow was soon in place. I got a think piece of board and laid it on the inside of the arm. Some of the ladies of the house let me have a strip of cloth and I soon had it bound up solid; but I began to get faint and sick. The doctor came about four o'clock. He said it was set right but was done up badly. My shoulder was badly wrenched. I had to keep still for a day or two. I went home in two or three weeks. I helped to side up the barn, and then shingled the roof. I did not work any at my trade in the fall. I tended a sawmill for father with a man by the name of Harris Pomeroy. We had the other half of the mill rented for a year of the other owner of the mill. When winter set in father told me I could have all I could make if I would take care of the mill, keep it in repair and pay my board. I boarded with Mr. Pomeroy. I settled, with all satisfactory with Mr. Pomeroy, who was some in debt to me. I gave it to him, as he was kind and gave me instructions, as I had no education.
I was in my 20th year this summer. In the spring, after being in the mill, I went to chopping on my own land. I had traded for 50 acres. I gave 40 acres of land that was two or three miles from any settlement, giving $18 to boot. I got five acres cleared and in wheat. I sold the land to a man by the name of Brisco and took his note. He moved on it and lived several years. The land was worth double the amount I got for it, and in a year or two would have sold for as much. I didn't work much at mill work or in a mill this summer. I worked in harvest and got the money for it.
In the fall before I was 21 my uncle Miller came and got me to work for him and thresh his crop out. He was a good farmer and had a good farm. He was getting wood chopped and carrying on the charcoal business quite extensively. There was nothing said about wages. I was to stay with him until I saw it to leave and he was to do what was right by me. I worked at any kind of work. I hauled coal to the furnace, wood to the pits and chopped many a cord of wood. When winter set in I went into the barn to do threshing. I did not thresh steady. I got the threshing all done in five or six weeks.
My uncle and four or five others of the wealthiest farmers got up a company and agreed to build a steam sawmill, near the center of Madison, and that was only about 200 yards from uncle's. I told uncle I wanted to have a bargain with him another summer, and that was when they went to work on the mill. I was to be one of the hands, and the boss should show me when I should ask him; and he said he would speak to the company. They met in a few days. Uncle told me the company all agreed. I stayed with uncle until the mill was finished. I learned a great many useful principles of work I never knew before, and I have never forgotten them. They put me in head sawyer. I hung the saw, filed it and sawed the first log that was ever sawed on the mill, and it was hard sawing. They were all hickory logs. The company had a contract for the hickory lumber to be delivered at Buffalo, Erie County, N. Y. It was the most tedious sawing I ever did in my life, owing to it being all small logs, the hickory logs all being out in a low wet piece of land close to the lake. They were from one foot to twenty inches, and tough. They hired a man to cut the slabs into wood and gave him eight dollars a month and boarded him. I told my uncle I would chop those slabs into wood for the same money he was paying the hired man. My watch on the mill came on at 12 o'clock in the daytime and off at 12 o'clock at night, and I went to my boarding house which was at my uncle's. Then after breakfast I went to the mill, chopped up my slabs into wood, went to my dinner, went back to the mill and began sawing. And I was almost on time at 12 o'clock to go into the mill to relieve the man that was on watch. I worked about two months at this mill work. I had become tired of mill work, as I had been working on it since they commenced to build it; so I concluded to buy a span of horses. I had an opportunity to buy a span of horses, harness, wagon and the whole out-fit for a good team, of a man by the name of Nathan Cram. He offered me the whole rig for $200. I accepted his offer and paid him. I had loaned my uncle $50 when I first went there. It was all in silver, and he paid that for me on the team. I let him have an old yoke of oxen I had at my father's at $60, and the balance I paid on the team in cash notes that people were owing.
I went to the furnace and got a contract to haul hollow ware and pig-iron. When I went to the furnace to get a job, I asked the clerk. He said I could have all the hauling I wanted to do. I could haul hollow ware and when there wasn't enough ware to haul I could haul pig iron to Madison dock on the lake shore. There was a tavern there that I boarded at and at which I kept my horses. Before I finished this job I took sick. I had on thin clothes and the lake wind was cold, and I had to go home. I wasn't able to get up in the morning and feed my team; so there was a girl went out, hursked the corn, fed my team, and I managed to get in my wagon and start for my fathers. While I was on the way home I met Dr. Emory and he gave me some medicine, which I took and was able to be out in a few days.
I went back to hauling iron again and about one-half to three-fourths of a mile of the road was a corduroy road across a swamp, and the mud and water was three or four inches deep all the way. I got sick of this, and there was a man from our neighborhood who came and wanted me to haul a load of hops to Pittsburg. I made more money hauling iron than hops, for I only got $1 a day hauling hops, and board for myself and team. I was two weeks hauling hops to Pittsburg, and before I got home the snow was falling. It commenced to snow in the morning and when I got home just after noon there were several inches of snow on the ground. I drove under the barn and put my horses up in the stable, and that was the last time I had my wagon out that winter. I went to the woods and found a white oak tree that had the right crook in the root for sleigh runners, went to work and finished me a number one two-horse sleigh out and out. Then I took a job hauling a set of hearth stones to the furnace, the heaviest stone weighing 4000. These stones were blocked out and roughed dressed at the quarry. The other stones weighed from 2000 to 3000 apiece, and there were eight stones in all. It was bitter cold weather, the roads were smooth and the snow deep. I hired three men to go with me one day to haul a load of stone with their horses and sleds. We got there early in the morning. We had to haul seven or eight miles from the quarry to the furnace, and had a long hill to go up and then to cross the Grand River bridge. My men all backed out on account of the cold and left me alone with the heaviest load of stone. I wouldn't back out. I was dressed warm, so I started with my load, which weighed 4000 pounds and I got a handspike, thinking when I got to the bridge the sled would cut through; but it went across the bridge all right; but in going up the hill I would have to lift with the handspike under the back of the rock to get the team to start, and they would go about the length of the sled, sometimes a little farther and stop. I worked this way until I got to the top of the hell and had no more trouble to get the balance of the way to the furnace. I went back to the quarry this same night, and the next morning the three men came and hitched to their loads, and I rolled another stone on my sled and we got to the furnace all right. There was but one stone left and one of the men hauled it next day, the boss received the stone and paid me for them.
Late in the winter that I was in my 22nd year I traded my team to a man by the name of Bosley for his little farm of 40 acres. There was a good-sized creek running through it close to the road. I went to getting out timbers for a saw-mill. I got the timber all out, and hauled. The timber was all given me in the woods; so all I wanted was a mill and dam. I got the mill and dam framed. Mr. Sprague, who lived close to me wanted me to hew for a barn 26X36 feet, which I did, and he paid me back in work on the mill. I got the mill and dam ready to raise by the first of July. I was now in my 23rd year. I was paying board for myself and hands. Bosley was about to move in a house on his father-in-law's farm and help to attend to stock. I got the mill to running by fall. I got married June 28, 1833, when I was in my 23d year and went to keeping house soon. The mill was constructed to my own satisfaction. I had put a wheel in it different from the old flutter wheel.
I kept this property for over five years. My mill was the first frame building that was put up for a mile or more around where I lived. After I put up my mill the people got a craze for frame buildings. I framed four buildings, with my own house, in a couple of years. I pushed this little saw-mill night and day when I had water. I would get up before daylight and saw out a pond full and then I would go to my day's work, wherever my job was, and return home in the evening and saw another pond full out, which would take two or three hours.
I took a contract for 25,000 feet of weather-boarding to ship to Toledo, to be used there for the first commencement of building at Toledo. When my job was so far away that I couldn't attend my mill night and morning, I left it in charge of a man that always worked with me when I run the mill. His name was Sprague. He lived just across the road from my house. After living here five years I sold out farm and mill and bought another small farm joining my father-in-law's farm with a good hewed log house, a splendid well of water and a small peach orchard. This trade and move pleased my wife very much. For the balance of my property I took a mortgage and notes. We moved into this house and lived here about two years and I took a notion to buy two village lots in the center of Thompson. I sold one lot to a man who built a shoe shop and dwelling house on it; and on the other lot I built myself a house. I took lumber from the man that bought the mill of me and it went to pay off the mortgage I held. I built my house with this lumber and in a short time after this the mill that I had the mortgage on burned down; but I still held the mill seat and this man sold out to a man by the name Bostic, and he and his sons built a new mill; but still my claim on the property was good and I finally collected it from Bostic, but I had to sacrifice a good deal. I finished my house in town. It was a nice house, well finished from top to bottom. This house was still standing when I was there on a visit in 1883, but they had built a large two-story house and connected it on to it. I lived in this house about nine years. After I built this house and got my family settled in it I was well prepared to follow my trade and ramble.
May 21, 1836. This is my birthday, and I am 26 years old. I shipped on the steamboat Commodore Perry with my chest of tools and trunk. I was in Toledo the next day. I was offered two dollars a day and board. I went to work on the first hotel that was ever built in Toledo. I worked on this building until the 25th of June. The postmaster received a letter from a man in Ann Arbor, asking him if there was a man by the name of M. L. Fitch; if so tell him that he was going to build a mill and that he could have the work to do if he would come out here. I packed my tools and in a couple of days I was on the same boat I come here on. I left the tools and trunk on the wharfboat. I got acquainted with some men from New York. They got sea-sick and drank freely of brandy to keep from getting sea-sick. When we got to Detroit these four men left the boat at once. I had my chest and trunk to see to and get receipted. I went to a tavern and registered, got my supper, lodging and breakfast. Soon came the team with four large horses and open carriages. I got aboard. We soon came across these four jovial fellows and what a jolly time we had on our journey. We stayed all night at a house that had no roof on it-only canvas spread over the top, and slept on a sod floor. The building was put up for a large tavern but wasn't finished; so it had no floor in it. They threw down beds on this sod and gave us blankets and pillows, but we came out all right in the morning and went on our journey.
I got to the man the next day. I found him just alive-not able to talk; so I went back to Toledo. I got back on the second or third day of July. A man by the name of Wilcox wanted me to put up a grist-mill for him and a Mr. Lambert wanted his saw-mill rebuilt. But I must tell you what I saw when I back to Detroit from Ann Arbor.
I lay over there from Saturday until the next Sunday morning. There was a report in circulation that the big battle ship, "Queen of Detroit," built by the British at Detroit, was lying at the wharf. The people were flocking to see her. She was commodore Barclay's flag-ship. She was captured by Commodore Perry and taken to Erie and sunk with the balance of the fleet. A company purchased her of the government, raised and repaired her. Where the cannon balls had gone through, they cut out and put in a patch, and where the balls didn't go clear, through they smoothed it down and put pitch over. They had reserved the stairs on her that they carried Commodore Barclay down on when he was wounded. The opposite side of the ship was badly riddled by the cannon shots. One cannon ball, lodged on the inside, could be plainly felt by running your hand into the deep hole. It had gone clear through one side and lodged in the timbers on the other side. She was a three-masted ship and they had put new masts to her when they repaired her. I also got in a yawl and went around the stern of her and measured the plank with which she was sided up, which were six by eight inches. I also heard some of the people say that she was the heaviest loaded ship they had ever seen at that wharf.
Mr. Lambert wanted his saw mill rebuilt. I didn't care about going up in that part of Michigan, called Summerfield Road. Several of our neighbors had moved there and died. Both of these men who wanted me to work for them were rich. They were willing to pay $2 a day. I sent word for Mr. Wilcox to come up after my tools. He came on the 4th of July and I left Toledo that day. The next day I was hewing timber. This job was pushed from the start, until the frame was up. My old boss, John Glass, lived four miles above this place. He wanted to come and work with me and said he would work for a dollar a day. I told him I had full control of hiring and discharging the hands. So I told him to come to work and I would give him $1.25 a day. This mill was a two-story, and each story was 10 feet high on the side next to the creek and at the back it wasn't so high. All the work was put in for the hang, the wheel and the husks. It was not quite three weeks from the time the first lick was struck until it was finished. One of the hands that had helped frame this mill was named Boson. He had taken the job to put in a 14 foot dam and was to enclose the mill.
I went up to John Lambert's and commenced his job. Our first was all of the old works below, and to get new timber for bulk-head and flume. We got all this work in new. Wilcox had got lumber on to build the water-wheel, and some other heavy work. I went to work on the grist mill and had Boson and my old friend Glass to work with me. I left patterns to get the work out and took a notion to go home. I left my tools at Lambert's and told them I would be back in a week.
I went to Toledo, took the first steamboat that was going down and was at home in about 36 hours. I found my family all well and spent a day or two with my friends in town. They all thought I looked bad and I felt bad, but I said nothing. Some said if I went back I would never get home again. My brother-in-law came to see me and took me to the boat and I was in Toledo the next day. I had to walk 12 miles and it took part of the next day to get back to Wilcox's. I was not gone quite eight days.
Boson and my old friend had a fuss while I was gone and Glass had quit. He was an old friend of mine and he gave me the first idea of mechanical work. Wilcox didn't like to have Glass leave. I hired a man by the name of Phelps, and sent word to Glass to come back. I pushed this job with all the force I had, finished the water-wheel, hung it and dressed out the lumber for all the heaviest work of the mill. Boson had commenced his work on the dam. I was going up to Lambert's to finish his mill, as he wanted to run it as soon as there was water. On Monday I commenced Lambert's mill. A shaft was the first thing we had to work at, and we hadn't worked but a little while when Mr. Holaway came to me to make a coffin for one of our old settlers, old Mrs. Lane. She formerly came from Thompson. They had lived in Michigan two years. Mr. Lambert found the lumber and I went to work at the coffin. I told him to take shavings and polish it over for I could not do it. That night I suffered with a burning fever. Lambert brought me up some water and said my face was as red as fire. He gave me a dose of pills and said they were his cure-all. I got a little sleep before morning. In the morning I went back to Wilcox's, got worse and went to bed. Mr. Wilcox went for the doctor, but the doctor would not go out in the night and he sent he a dose of calomel which I took and the doctor the next morning. He told them to let me have all the water I wanted to drink. The next day I thought I would die. They would not let me have any water. I told the doctor when he came that day and so I got all the water I wanted after that. In about three weeks I walked to the door. I paid my doctor bill which was $25.25, but I still had take medicine to prevent taking the ague. As soon as I could walk I started for home, which was Sept. 26th. The doctor gave me a bottle of medicine to take home with me. I took it and I think it was all that prevented me from taking the ague, for I was all the patient this doctor had of 30, but what had it. My appetite was good and I soon gained 20 pounds. I felt like going to work again. Cold weather was coming on and this made me feel better. I had left my chest of tools up to Lambert's and my trunk at Mr. Glasses. Lambert's work was almost done.
I left home again on the 20th of October and got to Lambert's on the 23. On the 24th I commenced to work again. I found I could not do any thing much like work, but I could use my square, compasses and scratch-awl. I sent for Mr. Glass and we completed the job. It became quite cold. I had Mr. Glass to work on the Wilcox mill, and hired Mr. Phelps also. I was taken sick again and my doctor lived twelve miles from where I was. A man told me he was troubled as I was after he had the fever and he advised me to get a quart of good brandy and put in it as much loaf sugar as it would dissolve and take a little three times a day, and this cured me. I was soon able to go to work. I kept the two hands to work until I had all the work done that could be done until some irons could be got which Phelps and I hunted.
I killed two deer. I gave Phelps one and I took the other home and the old woman cooked us many a good meal from it. Wilcox said there was a furnace close by that he knew of and he thought the cast irons could be got there. I went with him and the old lady went also. They had some old friends there they wanted to see. It was about a day's drive. The furnace was nothing but a little pocket concern. When we got home I tried again to have Wilcox get the cast irons at Cleveland where there was all kind of mill irons. Navigation had closed on the lake. No irons could be got until spring; so I concluded to go home and remain until spring. I left my tools with Mr. Phelps and I told the old man if he had the irons I would finish it in the spring. I took my trunk and Wilcox took me to Toledo. In two days I got a team that was going within eight miles of my place. He took me for $1.50. The balance of the way I rode in a sleigh, free.
Jan. 27, 1837, being at home, I got eight or ten cords of wood corded in the back yard, all ready to leave home. I had a good many sleigh-rides this winter. I returned to Wilcox's as soon as the lake opened. I found no irons. I was not in a very good humor. I thought they could keep me there to help build the dam. Bosan, the man that was to build the dam, had got all the pay and had done nothing. I had advised the old man in the first place to put a dam six or seven feet and an upright wheel. As for a dam fourteen feet high, he could never make it stand. This job gave me more trouble and took more time than any other I had done. Money would not have hired me to stay there until hot weather. The spring, or hole in the ground I had to drink water out of, produced a scum that I could write my name on. The tenth of a barrel was as deep as you had to go to get living water. I paid a boy, when I had the fever, to go to Lambert's spring and get me a jug of water every day.
After this job I worked close to home.
I built a mill for a man by the name of Nicklson. I put the frame up and put the running gears into it; and part of one summer I was engaged in buying up cattle for a drover, and helped drive it to Philadelphia to market. I put up one store house in the town in which I lived and helped to finish it off. I put up several other buildings and I was making arrangements to come to Meigs County, and my last job in Thompson, before I started for Meigs County, was on a dwelling house for James Brisco. My father came back to Thompson for some things he had left there. He advised me to come to Meigs County as I could do so much better here and especially on mill-wright work, and wages were so much better. I concluded I would go and I sent my chest of tools by my father, and as soon as I finished my job and my family was in condition to leave them I left for Meigs County.
(to be continued)
THE LEADER, POMEROY, OHIO; Thursday, September 22, 1898.
A Biography of One of Meigs County's Oldest and Most Esteemed Citizens
I left my home in Thompson for Meigs county on the 27 day of August, 1839. I had a tedious journey. I got to my father's house in Chester on the 4th day of September and on the 5th my father, Joseph Smart, their wives and myself went in father's wagon to attend the funeral of Charles Smart, and also to see Mr. Cooly, as Smart & Cooly owned the Coolville mill in partnership. Mr. Cooly said he couldn't do anything for me. I went home with father and there was a man by the name of Burnap building a mill a short distance below my father's. Burnap came to see me and I explained to him the difference between the iron wheel and the wooden wheel. There had been three men to work a few days. I had told Mr. Burnap what I would build a good mill for, and warrant it to give good satisfaction. Mr. Burnap went home and discharged his hands. I had to hunt up some hands. I got Wm. Griffin who was working on a building in Chester for $1.25 a day. I told him I would give him $1.50 per day. He came on, went to work, and remained with me as long as I worked in Meigs and Athens counties.
My next job of work was on the mills in Chester for Benjamin Knight. After finishing this job I went to work putting the running gear in a mill for Johnathan Quimby in Meigs county. I finished this job on Christmas day, 1839. This ended my work for this year. Enos Quimby and Griffin were my main hands to do this job. We worked all day on Christmas day in the snow. It commenced snowing in the morning and snowed all day, but we finished the job by night, and when done my tools were all snowed under, as we had no protection from the snow. I had made arrangements to go home up north, so I left the work of getting my tools from under the snow, and cleaning them, with Mr. Quimby, and to take care of them until I returned.
I had taken a job of Abner Halsey to commence in the spring as soon as the weather would permit, which was to put the frame up and all the machinery. This mill was on Kingsbury Fork of Shade River. I went to S. A. Burnap and got a couple of poles and built me a jumper, also go a collar and harness of Burnap. I bought some bed cording and a dry goods box of David Barber in Chester. The cord I used for tugs and lines. I used my bridle on my horse instead of a blind bridle. I put the box on the jumper for a bed, put my baggage in, got myself in, and started for home. I got out the other side of Athens and the snow seemed to be mixed with sand, and my jumper ran hard. I was about to unhitch when I met a man on horseback. He told me I needn't be alarmed for when I got out back a little farther I would find smooth roads and plenty of snow. I went on, the roads got better, the snow grew deeper and kept getting better until I got very near home when it was from two inches to a foot deep. When I got out on the Western Reserve there was a continual sound of sleigh-bells, the sleighs were thick and it kept me turning out of the road all the time, which was bad, because the snow was so deep, and my jumper wasn't built in a shape for it. The snow was so deep that my horse had to travel in it in the center of the road or one runner of my jumper had to be in it, and it worried my horse.
I reached Charden on the 2nd of January, 1840, and there I left my jumper. This was the county seat of Geauga county. I drove up to Campfield's tavern. There I met the first person of old acquaintance, which was the landlord of this tavern. I gave this man my jumper, which he kept two years, telling a great many people about the trip I had made in it. Previous to this time I held a military commission and had to drill two days out of a year, and I always put up at this tavern, as the place we drilled was close by it; and as I was passing by this tavern two years after I left the jumper, I saw it standing there in an old field.
I put the saddle on my mare, with what rigging I had, and started for home next morning, which was eleven miles away. While I was at home this winter some parties engaged me to go to a drove of cattle they had in New York State below Newbury, kept on a farm owned by a man named Hurd; but I failed to find the cattle there. The man had taken the cattle across the Hudson river on the ice to Washington Hollow, 12 miles back of Poughkeepsie. I hired a young man with a horse and buggy to take me from Washington Hollow to the tavern, where I found the man and cattle. The man that owned the tavern was Seymour Tombleson. I remained there until the cattle were all sold out. I collected all the money that could be got at that time, and for the balance I took a note of three brothers by the name of Baldwin for $1500, payable to the bank.
I returned home, but went back to York state when this note came due the first of March. Hazard Baldwin was the youngest of three boys and lived at home with his parents. They were rich people. He had the principal part of the business to see to, but when I got there he hadn't the means to pay me, but said if I would stay a few days he would get the money for me. I was detained there five days waiting for the money; and one morning early, before I had got up, Baldwin came in, wakened me, and told me he had business arranged that morning. He had to go to New York and appeared to be in a great hurry. He handed me two 20-dollar gold pieces. We got ready as quickly as possible and started for New York and when we got to New York we met a man by the name of Crane in an office and this man told me I would have to take some checks on banks in Ohio. I asked him how much I would have to take in checks, and what banks they would be on. One bank was the Franklin bank of Cincinnati on which a check was drawn for three hundred; one was on the bank of Circleville, one on the bank of Columbus, another on a bank in Sandusky. They both pledged themselves that if there was anything wrong with these checks they would make them good, but they all proved to be good. After giving me the checks they paid the balance to me in money, which was about $1000.
I came right from New York direct to Meigs County. I went to my father's at Chester and spent the Sabbath there, going from there to Halsey's and commenced his mill. There comes a very rainy time, rain falling 18 days in succession, and I couldn't work; so I went to Cincinnati and collected the check that was on the Franklin bank. I then came back to my job at Halsey's again. I pushed this job with all the energy I had. I finished this mill on or about the 12th day of July, went to Circleville, collected that check, and on my way home I collected the other two at Columbus and Sandusky.
This was the year of 1840. I put up over night at Columbus and there was a Whig meeting in a log house they had built for that purpose. They had a barrel of hard cider stuck up on a pole, a fox skin hung on the door, and a latch string to pull the latch up with. I was called on to sing two songs by a mail agent that I rode with from Portsmouth to Columbus. I met with great cheering from the crowd, and when the meeting was over there was a gentleman solicited me to go home and stay over night with him. I objected going until the mail agent told me he was one of the first men of the city, and that it would be perfectly safe to go with him. He lived in a splendid house and I hadn't been in the house long until he went up stairs, and returned with a couple of ladies. Then he requested me to sing those two songs again, which I did, and then I had to repeat them over until they could write them down. I had to ------ ---- ------ ----- be at the bank early in the morning to get a check cashed, and he told me he would see that I got there early enough. I got up early, had a splendid breakfast, and we went to the bank, but the bank was closed; so I didn't know what to do. Then the man says, "Come with me and I will see that you get your money." He took me to the stage office and spoke to the man and he told me to present my check, which I did, and he handed me the money.
From there I went on by stage to Sandusky, and there I put up over night, and as soon as the bank opened in the morning I presented my check and demanded the pay in coin, but they wouldn't pay it. I went back to the tavern and inquired of my landlord where the heaviest merchants lived in that city. The banks refused to pay coin because the government was receiving nothing but coin for government debts; but I had to have a few hundred in coin, for one of the men that received this money wanted to go west to purchase land, and he had to have coin to buy with.
I went to one of the merchants. I asked him if he was buying New York funds. He said he was. I asked him if he had a supply of what he wanted, and what premium he would give Sandusky money. He said from three to four cents premium. He said he had arrangement with the bank for New York funds, but he wouldn't like to purchase until he went to the bank first to let them know. I strolled around the city and went out of the dock with quite a number of other spectators. This was about 12 o'clock in the day, and while I was looking, somebody came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw it was the banker that I went to in the first place, and he told me the money was ready for me. I went up to the bank with him. He brought out a box with money from the vault. I stood by him and saw him count it out. After he counted it out I ran it over myself. I asked him if he would put it in small packages so I could handle it better. He refused me very sharply, and said, "No, sir; there is your money; do as you please with it." I was wearing a linen coat. I removed my coat, took a piece of tape from my vest, tied the end of my coat sleeve, scraped the money off the counter into that sleeve, and went right to the tavern. I took dinner and after the meal was over I secured a room, and with my valise went up into this room.
I packed the money in with my clothes, so that it wouldn't make any noise when I was carrying it. As soon as I could get my tavern bill paid I went out on the wharf, and took the Commodore Perry for Fairport. It was four o'clock and I within 15 miles of home. I took a public conveyance from Fairport to Painesville, which was one-and-a-half miles. I couldn't get a conveyance from there home that night, so I remained all night at Painesville. A young man from my home was there studying law; he had come down with his horse and buggy and I rode home with him. I sent for the parties I had been collecting this money for, and I settled up with them all satisfactory. This was the 18th day of July. I went to work and with some help, got a big pole called a liberty pole, 125 feet long, with one splice, and raised it on the public square of Thompson on the 10th of September.
I took the steamer New Richmond and attended a great celebration at Erie, Pa. I spent my time when I has at home attending political meetings and speeches, and did no other work, as the year 1840 was the greatest year for political excitement I ever knew. The second day I was on the New Richmond I was called on in the morning to sing. The boat was loaded with Whigs and Democrats. I went forward on the upper deck and commenced singing, and after singing the first verse I was called to a halt and requested to stop at the end of every verse. They mashed up all their buckeye canes in hurrahing and cheering, and there were hundreds of them. We had a grand convention. It lasted two days, both parties being represented.
(to be continued)
THE LEADER, POMEROY, OHIO; Thursday, September 29, 1898.
A Biography of One of Meigs County's Oldest and Most Esteemed Citizens
I came back to Coolville and did a $100 job on Coolville mill. After this I repaired a mill on Leading for Holt & Jacobs. My next job was for Rodney Halsey on Shade river, the main fork of Shade. I gave the mill a thorough repairing. Joshua O. Tolbert came to me to build a new mill on Shade river. He had a man hired to work on the grist mill but I built the saw-mill running gears all out and out.
The next job I went to was Heman Frost's on Big Hocking, above Coolville. This was a $30 job. This was in 1841. Then I returned to Joshua Tolbert's, and there did some work on the grist mill this other man had done wrong; and while I was at work at Holt & Jacob's mill I cast my first vote for president for William Henry Harrison. This was on Sugar Run. I was 24 years old. While I was still at work on Tolbert's grist-mill, Cummings Jackson from West Virginia, came over to get me to work on his mill. I told him I would do his work, and would commence in March. I gave him a bill of lumber to saw. I commenced in March 1st, 1841, and I finished on the 4th of July. While I was working on this job there was a nephew of Cummings Jackson's staying there also; his name was Thomas J. Jackson. He was constable at that time, his authority extending over the whole county. He had very poor health at that time. Many a time I have seen the mill door and stable door posted all over with his sale notices. This Thomas J. Jackson was the only man there that took a newspaper, and he was a great hand to attend church. He went to Clarksburg to get a stage to go to West Point. He got his appointment by the influence of Samuel L. Hayes of that district. This Thomas J. Jackson is the same man that was called Stonewall Jackson after the rebellion.
After finishing this job for Jackson I went to work for Judge Duncan at Clarksburg. I put in the improvements at this mill, which were a grist-mill, saw-mill and carding machine combined. My work amounted to over $200. I put in a $100 job for Jesse Jarris on Sycamore creek.
The next job was for John Hayes in Janelew in Lewis County. I put the frame up, which was a heavy one. It was within 10 feet of the grist-mill and storehouse. I put all the work in this and started it, but it lacked power. This job was finished the First of January, 1842. This was the longest time I was ever away from home at one time and I was so homesick I would have been glad to see a yellow dog from Ohio. My apprentice had been with me over three years and he wanted to start in for himself, and wanted to buy my tools, which I sold him for sixty dollars. I sold my tools with the determination to quit the mill-wright business and stay at home with my family, which consisted of my wife and three children. The oldest of the children was a son and the other two were daughters. They are all dead now. My son was killed at Decatur, Georgia. He was shot on the battle field and died in a few days from the wound.
I came to Meigs County to collect some notes that were due me. I collected some of them and some I couldn't get. I had bought me a fine saddle horse of Cummings Jackson, seven years old. She had been run some but couldn't run fast enough to make money. This horse I rode home to the lake and kept her about one year. I got home about the middle of January and the following spring I ran for constable, and was elected by a good majority, receiving two-thirds of the vote. I had the constable's work to do in Center Thompson and South Thompson, which kept me busy about all the time. This summer passed without my doing a job to amount to anything; but the next winter I worked on a flouring mill for a man by the name of Trumbull. I sold my fine big horse for $80 and bought me another fine chest of tools. During this time I was constable three years in all, two years of which I was alone, the third year another man being elected to help. I worked odd days in a wagon shop with my brother. I put up a mill for my father-in-law. It was quite an old mill and had been swept away by high water. I repaired what was left, and what was gone I rebuilt. I had a fine chest filled with new tools.
I left home on the last of April or the First of May, to go to Dekalb County, Ill., where my wife's parents lived. I had to stop in Meigs County to collect a note I had on Josiah Smith. I landed at a wood yard owned by James Bell on Long Bottom. I left my chest of tools with Mr. Bell, also my trunk, until I could call for them. I went to Tolbert's who appeared to be much pleased to see me. I had been gone to the lake about four years. Tolbert had written me one or two letters, stating that he would sell me one-half of the mill and one-half of the section of land. I concluded if Tolbert and wife and Williamson were satisfied I would buy. They were all pleased with the idea of selling to me, so all the parties went to Mr. Gale's and he made out the papers. I gave $1000 for one-half of the mill and one-half of the section of land. I paid what I could at that time. They made me a deed and I gave them a mortgage for the balance, payable to the estate of James Williamson. I paid all up for this, bought Tolbert's half of the will and paid up as the court ordered. W. C. Williamson bid against me for his sister, Adaline Tolbert. I ran it up as far as I had calculated to go, and after some delay the mill was struck off to me. I went to the office and paid the money. I repaired the grist-mill by putting in a new Bolting cloth and other new work. I traded this mill to John Smith with two hundred acres of land for his steam mill at the mouth of Dewitt's Run and 35 acres of land. I moved into the house I now live in on the 14th day of April, 1854. I sold out here in the spring of '57 took the steamboat Ohio on the 28th day of June, '57, bound for DeKalb County, Illinois. I left my affairs here with Major Reed, of Long Bottom. There was near $2000 due me from the Bartletts. They refused to pay me a dollar on the first note. Mr. Reed wrote me that the Bartletts would not pay any more. They went to selling everything that was loose out of the mill-one chain 200 feet long. I got the mill back by paying them a little money and the balance in lumber, in six months. About the 15th of November, 1858, I had $200 in money. I went to Parkersburg and got a check of $200 on the bank of Earlville, Lasalle County, Ill.
My family did not get back until late in December, 1858. I had bought two good cows that were giving milk. I had made some three-legged stools and we had them to sit on. I had bought a bedstead and mattress of the Bartletts. The neighbors were very kind to us, and loaned us anything we needed. I told Capt. Blagg, of the steamer Ohio, about our goods. He said he would find them and bring them when he came up again. He found them and brought them up on the same boat we moved away on.
(To be continued).
THE LEADER, POMEROY, OHIO; Thursday, October 6, 1898.
A Biography of One of Meigs County's Oldest and Most Esteemed Citizens
This Illinois trip cost me over $1000. I had bought a soldier's claim before I left here. I laid it on 160 acres in Minnesota. I traded the Minnesota land for 65 acres of land that joined me. I also bought five acres that was called the Fisher lot. This is the last land I bought close to the mouth of DeWitt's Run. In the year of 1864 I bought 550 acres of Edward F. Hunt, who lived in Jackson, Michigan. He came to me, as I had written to him a letter concerning this in the winter of 1859, to know on what terms he would sell. He wrote to me favorably and in the year 1865 Mr. Hunt came to my house to sell me the land. My wife was greatly opposed to my buying this land. Mr. Hunt and I walked out onto the bank of the river, and there he told me the least he would take for it, which was $2,260. It was well timbered except along the run where it had been stolen years before. He gave me five years to pay for it, the interest to be paid annually on the whole amount at 6%. I had two good horses at this time, and we saddled these horses and went to Pomeroy and drew up the writings. I went to work on this land. I had a portable mill on this land, sold the pine timber on the stump on a certain part, and they sawed between three and four hundred thousand feet of lumber. I got $3.50 a thousand; and I sold to John Smith and Andrew Rose 214 acres on the East end. They paid me $7.12 ‡ an acre. I kept a force of men busy all the time cutting timber and making staves. I paid up for this land without any trouble, and cleared about $1,000. I sold this land after I had taken the choice timber off for $10 an acre, except what I sold to Smith and Rose and given to my children.
I have met with a great deal of bad luck. I had my foot nearly sawed off between the instep and ankle, and it was over a year before I could walk without crutches, and I have had to walk with a cane ever since. This happened on the 22nd day of October 1869. My mill was burned on the 25th day of the following March, and the burning of this mill without any doubt was the work of an incendiary.
I lost about $2000 in this fire. I wasn't in favor of building a new mill, but my wife and boys wanted me to rebuild it, and so the next fall we commenced building a new mill, and when I commenced setting out the frame I had to go on a crutch. Cassius, my son, stayed with me and worked faithfully, Lester hauled the timber and we all managed to finish it, and the frame is now standing.
We started this mill to sawing in about one year from the time we commenced to build it, with the old fashioned up and down saw. The people along the river said it was one of the best mills they ever saw of the kind. The flood of 1884 floated the mill, except the upper end, where the heavy iron and the machinery were placed to keep it from floating. We tied it with a cable and when the water went down I told the boys to take hold of it, repair it up and they could have it, if they would do what little sawing I wanted done. They repaired it up and put in a circle saw. I had five buildings afloat at one time in the '84 flood, losing one and saving the others. I lost 400 bushels of corn and four tons of hay also in this flood. I had a store house also burned since the '84 flood. I met with other losses, but I will not mention them.
I have lived here 45 years, moving to the place on the 14th of April, 1853. I was post-master here until I resigned. I was school director over 20 years. I also served as constable several years. I didn't hold any of these offices to benefit myself, but for the benefit of the neighborhood I live in. I never sought any office, for I had work at home that was more profitable than holding any office.
I was born in a log cabin, was reared in one, and never lived in a frame house until after I was married.. And I might say I was married in a log cabin. All my neighbors lived in log houses, and our meeting house and town house were log structures. And where I was reared it was years before we had a frame house. So you see I am a member of the log cabin family.
Well, I have made this writing quite lengthy, but my acquaintance in this county is very extensive; therefore I think it may be interesting for some to read.
MADISON L. FITCH,
Hazael, Ohio.
Transcribed by: Diana Hart
January 2006