BATH TOWNSHIP

      This Township is No. 3, in the 12th Range which makes it one tier of townships west of the Cuyahoga, and was included in the land purchased of the Indians, at the treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. It was originally called Wheatfield, and is so called in the original survey book of Col. Rial McArthur, and R. Warden, who surveyed the township into lots in 1808, three years after the purchase of the Indians. How long the township continued to be called by that name cannot be definitely known, as it grad­ually went out of use. In 1810 Jason Hammond, Theodore Ham­mond, and others settled in this township, and it gradually took the name of Hammondsburgh; and I have letters now in my pos­session, written in 1847, directed to "Jason Hammond, Hammondsburgh, No. 3, 12 Range, Western Reserve, State of Ohio."

     The township was organized in 1818, and when the question was put, "what shall it be called?" Deacon Jonathan Hale, who had a little of the wag in him, replied: "call it Jerusalem, or Jerico, or Bath, or anything but Hammondsburgh;" upon which it was immediately christened Bath.

     The township belonged to several proprietors, among whom were Ezekiel Williams, and Thomas Bull, of Hartford, Connecti­cut. In June, 1810, Jonathan Hale, of Glastenbury, Connecticut, exchanged his land there, with Mr. Bull, for lands in this township. Jason Hammond, of Bolton, Connecticut, had previ­ously, in the same year, exchanged his lands with Mr. Bull, for lands in this township. Mr. Hammond having the first choice, and Mr. Hale the second.

     In June 1810, Mr. Hale and Mr. Hammond both left Connecti­cut for their new homes; Mr. Hammond leaving four days before Mr. Hale, but arrived two weeks later. These were the first legal settlers in Bath, although Aaron Miller, Gibson Gates, Hez­ekiah Burdit, Aaron and Moses Decker, and Moses Latta, had squatted previously. They came into the town in the spring of 1810.

     An anecdote, here, will illustrate the mode of traveling, and expedition of those days. Mr. Hale left Connecticut, with his family, in a wagon drawn by oxen the 12th of June 1810. Just after he passed Canandaigua, in the State of New York, he over­took a man on foot, with a bag on his back, containing meat, bread, and oats—provisions for himself and family, and horse. He was followed by his wife on horseback, with a little boy be­hind her. On coming up a conversation ensued, which I cannot give any better than in Mr. Hale's own words.

     Says the footman to Mr. Hale:

    "Where stout you be going, stranger ?"

     “To Ohio."

    "I swan," says, he, " I am going there too. What part of Ohio, stranger ?"

    "To town 3, Range 12."

     "I swan," says he; "so am I."

     I said to him: "I have the second choice in the Bull tract, in that township."

     "Then," sage he, "I swan, you will go right into my house—for I have got the best house in Wheatfield. I hewed the logs and split the floor from an ash log."

     I found it to be Aaron Miller, the father of Morris Miller, one of our best men in Bath.

     Miller passed Hale and arrived in Wheatfield before him. He had located on lot eleven, built a cabin, and been back for his family. Moses Latta on the lot east of Mr. Capron's, on what is now the road from Ellis' corners to Old Portage. Mr. Hale arrived on the 4th of July 1810, and sure enough he drove right up to the house of Aaron Miller. His team being weary, he en­quired of Miller where he could find a pasture to turn them.—Miller replied the wide world is before you." Such was the accommodation of the first settlers.

     Jason Hammond, having the first claim, selected lots 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. Jonathan Hale, having the second claim, se­lected lots 11, 12, 13, and part of 14. These two locations em­braced the land lying between the Cuyahoga River and the high hills west, and were the site of the old Mingo town.

     On an old map, published by Lewis Evans in 1755, a copy of which is given on page 120 of "Ohio, its History and Antiquities," it will be seen that the Mingoes are located on the Cuyahoga River, a little above the Tawas—which were in Northampton.— The "French house," there laid down, although the author thinks it is in Brooklin, was, undoubtedly at Ponty's camp in Boston. If there is any correctness in the map, this is undoubtedly, the location of that trading post.

     The Mingoes who inhabited this valley when Hale and the Hammonds located, were a band of the Cayugas, Skikellimus, the father of " Logan, the Mingo chief," was the chief of this band, and once lived at Shamokin, in the State of Pennsylvania, where he became a convert to christianity under the preaching of the Moravians. He was ever the friend of the whites, and so highly did he esteem James Logan, then the secretary of the Province, that he named his son "Logan," after him. This was the celebrated "Logan the Mingo chief," whose speech, at Old Chillicothe, in 1774, Mr. Jefferson gives in his notes on Vir­ginia.

     It will be recollected, by all who are posted in the aboriginal history of the country, that his father, brother, and sister, were murdered near the mouth of Yellow Creek, on the Ohio, in 1774 by a party commanded by Capt. David Greathouse, one of the Indian hunters. A more base and brutal murder, was never committed. In the spring of 1774, a party of Indians encamped on the north west of the Ohio, near the mouth of Yellow Creek. A party of whites called "Greathouse's party," were encamped on the opposite bank. The Indians Consisted of Logan's father, his brother, his sister and her babe. The whites got the Indians to drink rum, and when they were drunk, tomahawked the whole of them. The woman, with her babe, attempted to escape, but was shot down. Till this time Logan had been the advocate for peace—and to him the Indians had given their consent, when the news arrived from Yellow Creek. The consequence was that Logan, who had been for peace, raised the hatchet, and declared he would never bury it until he had taken ten for one. This threat he literally fulfilled. His celebrated speech, at Old Chillicothe in November, 1774, at the treaty for peace, is well known to all lovers of native eloquence.

     "I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin, hungry, and he gave him no meat—if ever he came cold, and naked, and he clothed him not. During the last, long, and bloody war, Logan remained in his cabin an advocate for peace. Nay! such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen point­ed at me, as they passed by, and said, Logan is the friend of the white man. I had even thought to live with you, but for the in­juries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold. blood, and unprovoked, cut off all the relatives of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He would not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one."

     One branch of Logan's band were settled at what was called the "Old Mingo Town," on the Ohio river, three miles below Steubenville, where Logan, at one time resided, but in the Dunmore war his Town was destroyed, and the last evidence of the existence of his tribe was in Bath. Poor old Logan, the friend of the white man, broken hearted at the murder of his family, and the destruction of his tribe became a wanderer upon the earth, and was basely murdered, near Detroit, as he sat at the door of his cabin, unsuspicious of harm- Thus perished the last of the Mingoes- The remains of their town are yet to be seen in a meadow, a little north of east from Jonathan Hale's.

     At the time Mr. Hale moved into the township, the Indians were very plenty, and generally friendly. The ruling passion among all was a love of whiskey. There was among them an old Chief by the name of Jambolas, who had one black eye, and, one of a beautiful blue. One day, being in at Mr. Hale's he be­gan to jabber over his Indian, when Mrs. Miller told him to-talk English. Jambolas shook his head, and says—"me Indian"— Mrs. Miller said, "I know you are Indian, but you can talk English if you have a mind to." Jambolas shook his head and says “me Indian" Mr. Hale handed him a glass of N. E. rum, that he brought from Connecticut, which the old chief drank off, smacked his lips and says—"damn Indian—me white," and pull­ing down the under lid, "see blue eye."

     On the surrender of Gen. Hull at Detroit, in 1812, the settlers west of the Cuyahoga, became entirely exposed to the incursions of the Indians. Not knowing when an attack might be made, the inhabitants dug holes in the earth, and buried their provis­ions, and furniture. William Hale, a son of Jonathan, who was just old enough to see the necessity of burying those articles which were most valuable, took the pudding stick, and hid it in a split rail, where it remained till the return of "the piping notes of peace," when it was returned to its long vacant place in the cabin; where it rewarded him, many a. time, with the luxury of mush, for his thoughtfulness and care.

     Throughout the war Mr. Hale, and his neighbors, lived thus exposed to the tomahawk and scalping knife. As a specimen of their exposed situation, and fears—the only opening that admitted light and air, was a small hole, made by cutting a piece out of one of the logs. Such a thing as a glass window was a luxury unknown, and was beyond coveting. Every night, at dark the lights were extinguished, and the oven board put up to close the hole in the log, so as to prevent the Indians from looking in to shoot them- Mr. Hale slept with his rifle within reach, and with a loaded pistol under his pillow, and the axe within reach of his wife—and, as the old gentleman related it to me, his eyes kindled with the fire of other days, and he said—"if they had come in she would have hewed down two or three of them."

     Notwithstanding the hardships and perils that the first settlers had to endure, there was not a death in the township until two years after the first settlement. In 1812 Adam Vance, an old bachelor, from Pennsylvania, was drowned in the Cuyahoga, as he was crossing it on his way to Hudson to meeting. He was the first person that died in the township, and was buried on the north side of lot 30, in what was then, the north west corner of the lot laid out for a grave yard, a little south of where William Hale now lives. His brother William was killed a few years later by a fall from a load of hay, and lies by his side.

     The first school taught in the township, was kept in 1811, in the house of Aaron Miller a little north east of Jonathan Hale's, by Rachel Hammond, who is now the wife of Leman Farnum of Richfield.

     In 1811 the inhabitants began to think a road a very conven­ient thing for a town, and they got up a petition for one, and Jonathan Hale went to Ravenna, to lay it before the Commission­ers, who, on his paying $5 cost, allowed him to cut out a road, at his own expense, from Ponty's camp, in Boston, to old Portage, a distance of eleven miles.

     The township was organized in 1818, and Dr. Henry Hutson elected the first Justice of the Peace, and Eleazer Rice the first constable. Rice was a small man and generally disliked. One Sunday Lewis Hammond and Isaiah Fowler, for sport tipped Rice's sled over and broke it. Rice complained of them to Squire Hutson, for a breach of the Sabbath, and as he was the only constable the warrant was placed in his hands for service. Just as he arrived with his captives, at the Squire's, Hammond and Fow­ler started and ran, in opposite directions. Here was a dilemma. Poor Rice could chase but one, and he, unfortunately, selected Hammond, who was a large, and powerful man. Rice came up with him, and jumping on his back, locked his arms around his neck. Hammond, without the least halt seized him by the legs, and ran away with him. This was the first trial in Bath.

     Abner Robinson, the poet, who was mentioned in the history of Richfield, was a roving genius, but generally located in this town. He was "one of 'em," and made a grant deal of sport by his crawfish manner of expression. Speaking one day, of Jake Morter, he says:

     "Jake says, Abner, come and look at my pigs. I went, and they were fine ones. Jake says, the youngest is the oldest—no —I mean the biggest is the littlest—no--I talk like a damned fool. Any how, they looked so much apart you couldn't tell 'em alike."

     This township particularly the eastern half, is rich in mineral, and fossil remains. The wealth was discovered by the surveyors, who made the following entry in their field book:

     "The attraction of the needle, on these lines (in the east part of the town) is on account of the vast quantity of iron ore that lies in the earth under where those lines pass over—or near to it. There is all the appearance of ore on the rivulets. Small pieces lifted, and held towards the needle, had particular influence on it, and by passing through these deep hollows has had particular influence on those lines.

     On examination this mark of the surveyors is confirmed. On the road from Hammond's corners to Niles the stones are mostly ferruginous; and most of the land that was swampy, in a state of nature, is underlaid with a bed of bog ore; but as the country has been cleared up, and the water drained off, it has oxydized, and become what furnace men call "dead ore." There is, however, much rock ore of an excellent quality.

     The most remarkable feature in the geological formation of this part of the town, is its fossil remains. In the field of Esq. Ham­mond, a little west of Hammond's corners, are large quantities of fossil coral, clearly showing that it was once the bed of the ocean. Fossil shells, too, underlay this part of the town, at a depth of from 30 to 50 feet. A few rods east of Judge Voris is a deep "gull," the bottom of which is a lime stone rock, of a bluish cast, composed almost entirely of salt water fossil shells.

     Two miles east of there, on lots 12 and 13, and on the verge of the hill as it descends to the river, rises a small stream, called "Hale's run," which cuts through the hill at a depth of from 40 to 50 feet to the house of Jonathan Hale. The bottom of this "gull" is also composed of fossil shell limestone, which dips with the hill, so as to preserve a pretty uniform depth from the top of the bank. This fossil shell rock, when burnt, makes the whitest of lime, and can be procured in any quantities. How this vast underlay of fossil shell came to be deposited with a stratum of 50 feet of earth above it, is for geologists to determine. It is probable that it was done by that vast flood that caused the veg­etation that formed our vast coral beds—and that it dates back to the antediluvian world.

     As I have had, frequently, to remark, the Cuyahoga, Portage Path, and Tuscarawas were formerly the boundary between "the six nations" and the western Indians. On the east of it were the Mohawks, Senecas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Ottaways. On the west were the Delawares, Potowatomies, Wyandot, Weas, &c., and the small band of Mingoes. By reference to Lewis Evans' map of the middle British Colonies, published in 1755, and to which I have already referred, it will be seen that the Tawas, which were located in Northampton, were a little lower down than the Mingoes. This map, made at the time the Indians were at their several locations, fixes the Mingoes in Bath; the Tawas in Northampton. The Wyandots, Potawatomies, Senecas, Mohawks, and other tribes hunted on the Cuyahoga, but had no villages on the river. As would be expected, the boundary be­tween so many nations became the theatre of war, and forts, breastworks, and entrenchments, on both sides of the river give evidence of a high state of military science and of oft repeated conflicts.

     Directly east of William Hale's house, on lot eleven, is a high ridge, about a hundred rods long, terminating on the north and south ends in a perpendicular bank. On the north end of this ridge, are the remains of a fort fifteen rods in circumference, with bastions, curtains, and every other part that characterizes a scientific fortification at the present day. It was so located as to control or defend the Mingo town, when there, being about a quarter of a mile from it, and from thirty to fifty feet above it.

     About a quarter of a mile north-east of this fort is another of the same form, and size, but on ground about ten feet lower down. This last is on a plateau of about a half mile in width, terminat­ing, towards the river, very abruptly. It is covered over, as are the walls and interior of the fort, with trees of the largest growth. The curtains, bastions, and indeed the whole outline is easily traced as the walls are generally from two to three feet high.

     About half a mile east of this fort is a large number of mounds, from ten to twenty feet diameter, and from three to ten feet high. These, too, with one exception, are covered with large trees, and must have existed for centuries.

     A little to the south-east of these mounds is another fort, of the same size and form as the others, except it has a double wall towards the river, as is represented in the annexed figure:

[Bierce IMAGE: pg 37]

     It is in the south-east corner of lot eleven in Bath. The main work is exactly like the others in size and form. The river is now nearly a mile distant, though it is apparent that it once ran at the foot of the hill some twenty feet below the fort.

     About a mile from this fort, on the opposite side of the river, and a little further up, is another fort, on the river bottom, in Northampton. This last fortification is much larger than either of those on the Bath side of the river. This containing, probably, an acre and a half. As it is in a cultivated field, the plow is fast destroying this relic of antiquity.

     A short distance on the North of the mounds, and about a mile South of the North line of Northampton, is a very singular for­tification. Hale's run comes in from the west, and Furnace run from the north-west cutting deep channels. At a point where the banks are a hundred feet high they come so near each other as to form a sliding ridge, so narrow that but one person can pass it at a time. They then diverge and the bank between them gradually widens for 130 rods where the plat is between three and four rods wide, terminating on the north end, as well as on the sides in perpendicular slide banks, which no one can ascend. Near the north end are four holes, about ten feet apart, arranged in a square. They have the appearance of old wells, partly filled up, and are now about four feet deep.

     From this point, passing south, a few rods from the narrowest point of the neck, is a breastwork, eight rods long, with a ditch on the inside next to the neck. There is a space at each end of the breast work, of two rods, between the breast work and the bank, which is not fortified.

Two miles south-east, at the junction of "the feeder" with the canal, on the north-west corner formed by Yellow creek crossing the canal, is an extensive grave yard. It is covered with a forest of a growth as large as the surrounding woods, and its size, and number of graves, prove it to be the final resting place of an im­mense population. Crockery of a good quality has been taken from the graves, but nothing to fix the date of this ancient people. All we know is that they once existed—their works prove that they were almost numberless—their fortifications show them to have been warlike—their burial mounds are monuments of their desire to have their names, deeds, and memories handed down to posterity—but this evidence of their desire is all that remains. They are forgotten and their history is unknown.