West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 10 by Charlie Miller

JACOB WOOLSTON lived in Northampton township, New Jersey. Northampton Township was renamed Mt. Holly in 1931 and is a suburb of Philadelphia. On February 27, 1759, he married Sarah Gosling. In the 1780 census, he owned 360 acres and had 5 horses, 17 cattle, and 3 hogs. Mr. Woolston died in March of 1799, his estate was valued at 847 Pounds Sterling or about $112,000.00 in today’s dollars. 

In a letter dated 1818 from Lucas Sullivant to Samuel Jones, who was the executor of Woolston’s estate, he claimed that he had not been paid for his survey of VMS 2836 and that Mr. Jones should settle the matter. Mr. Sullivant’s fee was one equal third of the 1000 acres, this reduced the area of the survey to 666 2/3 acres. Samuel Jones and Samuel Sexton, sons-in-law of Mr. Woolston ended up with the land which gave each of them 333 1/3 acres. 

In these early days, the settlers needed a point closer to Franklinton for someone to keep in store such necessities as were likely to be needed by them. On July 4, 1822, Samuel Jones and Samuel Sexton, who had immigrated with their families in 1818, laid out the original plat of a town named New Hampton and it was recorded at London on July 13, 1822. There were three streets east and west which were North, Main, and South, which were 60 feet wide. Two alleys North and South which were Jones and Sexton and five streets north and south. They were Friend, Center, and Pearl which were 60 feet wide, and Union and Prairie 49 ½ feet wide. The Old State Road was the main street through town. There were 93 lots 66’ X 165’. The town had a store, two or three taverns, a Post Office (1830), a Baptist church (now First Baptist in West Jefferson, and about seven families. The cemetery was located in the center of the town. The area of the town from south to north was a little north of Little Darby on the south to a little north of present Fellows Ave. and from east to west was from just east of the old high school to just west of Garfield Ave on the West. 

The 1826 tax list showed that 11 people owned the 93 lots, Mr. Samuel Sexton owned the majority. The first tavern was kept by a Mr. Atkinson on the Old State Road about 550 yards from the entrance of the New Hampton Cemetery. 

The first person to keep the store in the village was a Mr. Gilmore, who opened up soon after the town was laid out. He was a one-legged man and it was quite an inconvenience for him to get around. He soon took on a partner, Mr. Dalby, who had two legs but only one arm. Mr. Dalby would get the goods and Mr. Gilmore wrapped them up. The church was erected in 1820 and was located in the center of town, it was called the Little Darby Baptist church, present-day First Baptist Church. Rev. Isaac Jones, son of Deacon Samuel Jones was its first pastor. In 1828, the National Road was surveyed through here just a little north of New Hampton, when West Jefferson (Jefferson) was founded in 1830 the people of New Hampton moved to the new town, and all that remained of New Hampton was the cemetery.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 11 by Charlie Miller

Railroad: The railroad was built through West Jefferson in 1848-1849 by the Columbus & Xenia Railroad. At the time that the railroad was built the citizens of Madison County voted $20,000 toward its construction. The railroad company subsequently proposed to take from the county $14,000 of said stock, leaving the company with but $6,000, which was agreed to. Although the first official train ride was on February 20, 1850, the following appeared in the Madison County Democrat and was written by Mr. John Roberts who was a correspondent for that paper. “We saw a notice of the riding of two little girls on the first train that passed over the Little Miami R.R. (a later name) from West Jefferson to Florence Station. Mrs. John Roberts, Mrs. Ermine Truitt, and her sister Mahalia Godfrey rode on the same train on the same day with the Creamer girls. This was in the year 1850. Your correspondent rode on the construction train from West Jefferson to Deer Creek, on Christmas Day, 1849. 

The rail and iron used in constructing the road were shipped to Columbus on the canal. The hands-on construction work, refused to work on Christmas Day, so the engineer and fireman, who had no religious scruples concerning the Day, were all the people on the train. When it came to the water tank in Jefferson, they invited quite a number of us to ride out to the end of the line, to help unload one of the cars so the hands could ride out on it from Columbus the next day. Price Jones, Col. William Jones, (son of Isaac Jones) some of the Stutsons, and the writer were in the squad. 

I do not know of a single person now living, who was on the train that day except myself. We made the return trip in five minutes, from the Glade Run, so the engineer said. 

The following is taken from parts of the recollections of Mr. Jimmy Clark, in an article in the April 1934 edition of The Madison Press: “The engines of the Little Miami were wood burners. A short distance north of town was a large wood-chopping camp. The railroad laid a spur track to it on the hill east of Little Darby Creek (just east and behind the nursery on Rt.40) and would have run to the Middle Pike. The railroad at best was a flimsy affair, the engines were small and a train consisted of five or six cars. 

One day I was up at the woodshed when an old wood train engine blew up, and James Farrington was blown under the porch of O.H. Bliss’ warehouse. (On North Walnut St. near the current overpass) but was not seriously hurt. The whole block adjoining the Baptist church (which sat on the far north end of Center St.) was piled high with four-foot wood to be sawed. 

At that time, I was living in an old hotel that stood on the present site of the Building & Loan.” (Current site of the antique shop on the northwest corner of Walnut and Main Streets) 

(Jimmy Clark was the village lamp lighter for a number of years when the village had gas street lights.)

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 12 by Charlie Miller

WAR OF 1812, the War of 1812 didn’t affect West Jefferson because West Jefferson was not here, in fact, Madison Co., had just been formed in March of 1811. On April 6, 1812, Governor Return Meigs of Ohio was ordered by the President to assemble the Ohio Militia of Ohio at Dayton, Ohio to be drilled and prepared to march to Detroit. In May, the President had commissioned Gov. Hull of Michigan as a Brigadier General. He arrived at Dayton on May 25, 1812, and marched to Detroit where he was defeated on August 16, 1812. 

Ohio furnished 1,759 officers and 24,521 enlisted men. During the War, Captains John Moore and Elias Langham were the recruiting officers in London. The militia of Madison County was divided into classes to be in readiness when called upon. All able-bodied men between the ages of 18 to 45 years were required to respond to such a call. A company of 70 men was raised soon after the war broke out and was sent to Mill Creek in what is now the southern part of Union County. A blockhouse was built and general preparations were made to defend the county against the Indians. 

Jonathan Alder was in this company and after remaining about three to four weeks, he and John Johnston concocted a scheme to break up the camp and return to their homes. They were sent out scouting and after making many moccasin tracks in the vicinity of a mud hole, returned to the camp and reported that Indian signs were numerous, at the same time offering to conduct a squad to the place to investigate the matter. This news created consternation among the men, and Alder, Johnston, and Andrew Clerno were detailed on picket duty that night. Clerno was informed of the plot and about 11 o’clock, while the camp was asleep, all three fired off their guns at an imaginary foe and rushed back to the fort. A general stampede ensued, the men running like a frightened herd of cattle, pell-mell in every direction through the forest. The shouts of the officers calling upon them to halt were of no avail. 

Many ludicrous scenes took place, as well as a few accidents through coming in contact with the trees; while two brave boys plunged across Mill Creek irrespective of danger by drowning. The ruse succeeded for by 10 o’clock the following morning, all of the men were discharged and on their way to their homes. Much sport has been made of this event and many of the worthy pioneer fathers were the butt of the jokes throughout their lives on account of their participation in this campaign of the war. 

During the siege of Fort Meigs in May 1813, the militia from Madison Co. hurried to Urbana where a large force was organized and commanded by Col. Duncan MacArthur. After a four-day march, they found that the siege had been lifted and they returned home. They were called out again and marched to Sandusky where they remained for a while. Records kept on those participating in the war from Madison Co. are sketchy, but the following men from Jefferson Township listed were: Abraham Johnston, Nehemiah Gates, and Thomas Springer. Others from Madison Co. who served were: John Arbuckle, Frederick Sager, Jacob Johnston, John Johnston, Peter Paugh, Frederick Loyd, Andrew Clerno, and David Sidner. Most served between 1 to 6 months. In 1815, Congress passed a law making it obligatory for all males between 18 and 45 to perform military duty.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 13 by Charlie Miller

Life in pioneer days, if a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow man, his position was certainly a hard one. In such cases, the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose before a solid structure could be built. Usually, a number of men came into the country together and located within such distance of each other that enabled them to perform many friendly services. Scattered residents would come together to help erect the cabin. The site of the cabin was usually selected with reference to a good water supply, often by a never-failing spring of pure water, or even by digging a well. First, a number of trees were cut down, nearly of the same size. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This took most of the day. Next preparing the foundation would take most of another day. It would take as much as four days to erect the cabin. 

The logs were raised to their places with hand spikes and skid poles and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid. Soon the cabin would be several logs high and the work would become more difficult. The gables were formed by beveling the logs and making them shorter and shorter. The gable logs were held in place by poles that extended across the cabin from end to end and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the clapboard roof. The clapboards were five or six feet in length and were split from oak or ash logs and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side and other split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out the rain. 

The chimney was an important part of the structure and taxed the builders with their poor tools to the utmost. In rare cases, it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in a manner similar to those which formed the cabin. In most cases, it was built outside of the cabin, and at its base, a huge opening was cut through the wall to answer as a fireplace. The sticks were held in place by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. An opening was sawed or chopped on one side of the cabin for a doorway. The door itself was a clumsy piece of woodwork. It was made of boards rived from an oak log and held together by heavy cross pieces. There was a wooden latch on the inside raised by a string that passed through a hole and hung upon the outside. The string was pulled in at night and the door latched. Many cabins had no door and the entrance was protected by a blanket or skin of some wild animal. The window was a small opening often devoid of anything resembling a sash and very seldom having glass. The greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter. 

The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons, pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter and hewed smooth with the broad ax. Many of the first cabins in this area had no floor at all. Some cabins had cellars which were simply small excavations in the ground for the storage of a few articles of food. Access to the cellar was gained by lifting a loose puncheon. Sometimes there was a loft, it was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of saplings, put together like everything else in the house without nails.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 14 by Charlie Miller

Life in Pioneer Day, Cont’d: Pioneer food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys, and the many varieties of smaller game. Plain cornbread, baked in a kettle, in the ashes, or upon a board in front of the great open fireplace. The corn was among the earlier pioneers, pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones at a considerable distance away. 

Wild fruits, in their season, were made use of and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes a special effort was made to prepare a delicacy when a woman experimented with mince pies by pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust and used crab apples for fruit. Usually found was a collection of articles that made up the pioneer’s medicine. Herb medicines and spices, catnip, sage, fennel, pennyroyal, and wormwood, each gathered in its season. There was also a store of nuts and strings of dried pumpkin with bags of berries and fruits. 

In some of the cabins were usually a few books such as the Bible, hymn book, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Robinson Crusoe. The long winter nights were spent poring over a few well-thumbed volumes by the light of the great log fire while also knitting, mending, curing furs, etc. 

It is a well-authenticated fact that a great portion of Madison County originally was covered with water most of the year. The first settlers called these lands “barrens” and looked upon them as utterly unfit for farming. The pioneers located upon the streams, where the land was elevated and dry and the best of timber grew in abundance. The land speculators cared little for the prairie lands, therefore all the first warrants were laid upon the land next to the streams. 

The prairies consisted of level stretches of country covered with sedge grass and dotted here and there with patches of scrubby burr oak growing upon the highest points of land. The sedge grass grew to an enormous height, sometimes sufficient to hide man and horse riding through it. Every autumn prairie fires swept over the county. An early pioneer Dr. J. Converse says, “It was majestically grand to see these prairies on fire. The blaze of the burning grass seemed to reach the very clouds, or when driven by the wind would leap forty or fifty feet into the air” This whole county was a sea of wild grass and flowering herbs. Add to this was a line of devouring elements three miles in length, mounting upward and leaping madly forward with a lapping tongue, as it was trying to devour the very earth, and you have a faint idea of some of the scenes that were witnessed by the early settlers of this county. 

In the early days, Madison County was one vast hunting ground. The elk had become extinct prior to the occupancy of this county by the whites, but that there was evidence of there being large herds here by the evidence of the large number of horns that were found on top of the ground and also beneath the soil.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 15 by Charlie Miller

The 1850s: Information printed in the 1934 Jefferson Centennial edition of the Madison Press, brought to light the diary of one John Melvin, who in 1853 was the Madison County Auditor, living in West Jefferson and commuted to London on the train. 

Excerpts: March 12, 1853-Went to Columbus, and got money changed and railroad tickets for my wife to go to New York. 

March 21, 1853- remained at home all day with the exception of going to hear Rev. Uriah Heath preach a first-rate sermon. Revival at the M. E. Church commences. (The Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1862 and sat on the current site of a dentist's office, previously it was the Hunting Bank. (Your writer has a pew and organ from that church.) 

April 4, 1853- Stayed at home today, it being Election Day. Temperance ticket carried in Jefferson Town, Township went whiskey. 

May 13, 1853- Gray and his wife and negro John, were arrested today for stealing Stutson’s pork and sent to jail. 

December 15, 1853- On this day Mr. Melvin says he gave up the key to his home and moved. Mr. Melvin died on January 15, 1857. He was an ardent lodge member, and while a resident of West Jefferson, founded Madison Lodge #221, F&AM. 

Madison Chronicle, June 5, 1854- Petition for a road beginning at the Urbana Pike, on a line between Luther Johnson and William Burell, east to Little Darby Creek, crossing opposite the foot of the hill where line of George Goodson and William Burell continues on the east side of the Creek, running with said line to where it connects with the county road leading from Jefferson to Byerly’s Mill. Abner Johnson and others. (This is now Byerly Mill Rd. which runs from Ohio Rt. 29 to Little Darby Creek. Byerly’s mill sat on the creek and there must have been a fording across the creek and the road continued to connect with Taylor-Blair Rd.) 

June 1854- The milling business of Stutson and Olmstead dissolved on June 20, 1854. Jennett Stutson & F,H. Olmstead. 

September 1855- Saw Mill for sale, five miles northwest of Jefferson, ½ mile from the Urbana & Jefferson Turnpike. (this is the mill that was located on the Byerly Mill Rd. at the creek.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 16 by Charlie Miller

Mills: With Little Darby Creek in this area there were several mills erected at an early day. Probably the first was erected by Nehemiah Gates in 1814. He came to Jefferson Township around 1800 and remained here until after the War of 1812 when he returned to Virginia, married a Miss Johnson, and returned to the Township. To this union were born nine children. His wife later died and he married three more times. Mr. Gates was an industrious, hardworking man, who was much respected by the pioneers of his time. He owned land behind the current Dollar General store which ran down to the creek. In 1814, he erected a grist mill along the creek. At this time Old Springfield Road was part of the current Taylor-Blair Road. In 1819, he attached a sawmill and later a carding machine. He later sold this to his son-in-law, John Mills. 

Rev. Isaac Jones erected a sawmill at an early date but due to an argument with the managers of the National Pike, in regards to the race crossing the road, he moved the mill and erected it in Jefferson on Little Darby Creek and it was known as a “flutter mill,” ( A flutter mill was a very small mill) This mill was on a mill race that ran from Little Darby starting on the west side of the Middle Pike, it ran into a mill pond which was located on the current site of the West Jefferson village garage, from there it ran east and emptied into the creek just north of the National Road bridge over the creek. In 1836 he erected a grist mill on the same site, run by an undershot wheel. (This mill was located behind his house which still sits at 138 E. Main St.) A few years later he added a carding machine. After his death, his widow sold the machinery to Thomas Cartmill, who soon built a new grist mill and added a carding mill in 1848. In 1857 he built another mill farther down the creek. This cost was about $5000. The mill was known as “The Oak Ridge Mill,” by being built on a ridge covered with oak trees. This mill sat at the end of the current Mill Road. 

Rev Isaac Jones was the son of Deacon Jones who along with Samuel Sexton laid out the village of New Hampton. Deacon Jones performed marriages at an early date. In 1830, he sold his son Isaac, 110 acres who then laid out the town of (West) Jefferson and had it recorded. Rev. Jones also founded the Little Darby Baptist Church in 1820 now the First Baptist Church. He also served as an Associate Judge in the Madison County court, he died at the age of 40 in 1840 and is buried in the Hampton Cemetery. 

Other early mills were built on the creek, John Johnson 1834, known as the Byerly Mill, Charles Roberts 1847 1 ½ miles below Jefferson at the end of Roberts Road which runs from the Plain City-Georgesville Rd west to the creek. George W. Blair 1852, on the creek behind Blair Cemetery located on the Taylor-Blair Rd. George Blair was born May 20, 1817, and died March 29, 1886. The mill was located behind the cemetery where the current King Pike intersects with Blair Road. In 1853 George Blair was instrumental in erecting the Blair Chapel (Methodist) beside the cemetery. 

The church later was moved to the intersection of U.S. Route 42 and Blair Road and was known as the Gillivan Methodist church. It is still a church under a different denomination.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 17 by Charlie Miller

THE NATIONAL ROAD: In 1805 Congress passed a law entitled “An act to regulate the laying out and making of a road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio.” The road was surveyed as far as Columbus in 1825 and to the Illinois State line in 1827. The real construction was much slower, ground was not broken at St. Clairsville until 1825 and was not completed in Columbus until 1833. In 1836-37 the road was built through Madison County. Along it sprang up three villages, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Summerford. Between Jefferson and Lafayette along Glade Run was a tavern called “The Golden Lamb,” located about the area where the current Byerly Rd. meets the National Road. Also built around this time was the Red Brick Tavern in Lafayette. 

Passing through Jefferson in later years were such famous people as Henry Clay, Gen. Andrew Jackson, and Davey Crockett. Sometimes as many as 16 coaches ran each way on this busy highway. The coaches stopped running in 1853 due to the railroads. So much traffic was reduced in 1876 the State Legislature reduced it to the level of other pikes. 

The following has been taken from the London Ohio Democrat, dated July 1911 and written by H.H. Prugh. There are only a few pioneers of those stirring days now living. Every root was removed with the aid of a mattock, pick, crowbar, and shovel leaving a large opening in the earth. These openings were filled with the dirt accumulated from removing the mighty roots. Next came grading, heavy plows, and scrappers were drawn by three large yokes of oxen. It took three men to lift one of these plows. Another team of men was set to work pulverizing the rock. The stone was broken into pieces to weigh three ounces. It was then filled with fine-screened gravel making the road bed five inches thick. 

The width of the road was originally 80 feet, but the traveler passing over it will find that the property owners have encroached to some places it is only 10 feet between fences. When the Pike was in its prime the stream of emigrants was so immense that every house abandoned by the hunter was pressed into service as inns and taverns, and many of them had but one or two rooms. 

Jonathan Greer can narrate many interesting stories of these exciting scenes while the Pike was in its glory. He speaks about sleeping in hospitable inns, where there was music, dancing, and carousing. Pallets were laid all along the sides of the house, on them perhaps would be 25 persons, lying side by side. In the women’s apartment, it was pretty much the same. 

Wagons from the smallest to the great mountain ships, fast express nicknamed “Shakerguts” tore along the highway and moving wagons by the hundreds, in many instances four abreast with the motto, inscribed on the canvas covers of their wagons, “To the Western Empire or Bust.” Gay coaches of four and six sprightly horses rolling through the valleys and over the hills, carrying thousands of passengers, and important messages of State, from the East to the young empire of the West….pioneers say.”

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 18 by Charlie Miller

NATION RD. CONT’D: From H.H. Prugh 1911: “The first coaches to run on the Road were similar in shape to that of an old canoe, without springs or braces, with seats running crosswise. The door was in the front when the passengers entered they had to climb over the seats to find a place to sit. These old coaches were cumbersome and uncomfortable to ride in. Long before the Road reached Madison County, they had been replaced with ones that were fully up to the standard of present-day coaches, but on a larger scale. The bed of the old freighters was long and deep, scooping upward from the bottom at either end. As much as 11,000 pounds could be hauled drawn by six large horses. 

It is doubtful whether you could find a single old stage coach now, as many were sold to showmen and adventurers going over the overland route west of the Rocky Mountains. 

The drivers were generally men of fine and splendid physique, and they actively vied with one another in making acquaintances with distinguished guests. Whenever there was a political campaign, large gatherings were held along the Pike to which farmers would come in their wagons or on foot within a radius of 40 miles distance, and it would take them three or four days to return home. 

I remember one old pioneer of Summerford, named Abraham Orpet, who walked to Dayton to hear Gen. Harrison and Thomas Corbin speak. He left Dayton the next evening and walked all night returning home sometime in the morning. 

To the rising generation to whom tollgates are almost unknown, an explanation of the tollgate system may be of interest. The Governor appointed toll gatekeepers, he invariably appointed some cripple. It was wholly proper that he showed favor to the unfortunate. The keeper’s salary was $200 per year. The rate of toll was determined by the width of the tires used, the narrower the tires the more the roadbed was cut up. Tires over 6 inches went free, practically serving as rollers. No toll was charged to persons going to or returning from church services, or muster, commonplace of business or marketing within the county in which they resided. This included wagons, carriages, horses, or oxen drawing the same. None was charged school children or persons in employment or doing services for the United States Government. Tolls ranged from 5c. for sheep, 20c. for cows, horse and rider, and 5c. 

Vehicles with wheels under 2 ½” 10c., vehicles with wheels under 4” 8c., vehicles over 4” but not exceeding 5” 4c., every person occupying a seat in a mail stage, 3c. 

Later the operation was transferred to the individual states. In Ohio toll gates and houses were erected every 15 miles. The traveler will still notice the milepost which marks the successive steps of the road. On the eastern portion, they are made of iron, and those of the western, sandstone which are fast disappearing under the actions of the weather. (one still stands in the middle of West Jefferson.)

It is doubtful if there are in the world such monumental relics of old ponderous bridges, culverts, small bridges, and milestones which at one time was the pride and mainstay of the Nation, and has almost now passed from human recollection.” H.H. Prugh 1911.

West Jefferson in Days Gone By - series 19 by Charlie Miller

J.M. ROBERTS REMINISCENCES: “The cutting down of Markley Hill on the National Road was quite a task and attracted quite a number of unique characters to that locality. The chief contractors were named Duffey, two brothers. The older one was named Felix. My father resided on the hill for a short time and the stone masons who built the bridges and culverts then boarded at our home. Two of the chief architects and boss masons were named James Vanderlyne and his son, Daniel. They were boarding at our house in October of 1836. The masons who built the bridges were French and German. Hugh McGloughlin and mother boarded hands that worked on the Pike.” 

The advent of the broad highway into Madison County in 1836 like all other places along the line, was hailed with joyful delight as it gave employment to hundreds of contractors and thousands of laborers whose services were well worthy of their vast efforts, and the work, so well done, stands today as a lasting monument to their skill.” With the coming of the automobile in the first part of the 20th century and with the beginning of much long-distance travel in the late 1920s and early 30s, the highway again gained the status it had in prior years. (John Roberts was a school teacher born in 1833 and died in 1914. His father, Charles, built the Roberts Mill on Little Darby) 

ANIMALS: In the pioneer days of Madison County it was a vast hunting ground. The elk had become extinct prior to the coming of the whites, but a great number of horns were found everywhere on top of the ground and partly and wholly buried beneath the soil. 

Bears were not very numerous, but enough were left to remind the settler that when bruin made a raid upon the pigsty, his assured rights were to be respected. They were not considered dangerous animals except when they suffered from hunger or their cubs were in danger. In the fall and winter, they were hunted for their meat and skins. Their flesh was rich and savory, while their skins were tanned and used for robes and bed coverings in the winter. 

The wolf was the pioneer’s dreaded enemy and was of two kinds, black and gray. The first settlers suffered more from the actions of these animals than all others and often great numbers would congregate under cover of night and attack individuals who happened to be out. The wolf had a peculiar and instinctive howl which was quickly taken up by others and in an incredibly short space of time the bark could be heard in every direction. Around 1835, the wolf, disappeared from this region, although an odd one was seen and killed at intervals. 

The beautiful red deer was a Godsend to the pioneers. Deer were very numerous and more than fifty in one flock have been seen grazing. Not only did they provide food but the hide when tanned was made into vests and breeches. Untanned it was cut into strips, twisted, and then dried after which it served the purpose of tugs, or chains for the harnesses, bridles, mittens, moccasins, and other items.