James Rea Gass, Troy Township
James Rea Gass was born August 08, 1796 in Brooke County, Virginia. He was the son of William Gass and Jane Rea McClain who lived in Troy Township as well. In the spring of 1799 emigration set in to the Northwest Territory, as Ohio and its western contiguous territory was then called, and his father, William Gass, made two visits to neighbors who had removed to the Territory; the first visit was to the valley of Tuscarawas; the second was to New Lancaster, then a village of a few log cabins. Being pleased with the prospect there he removed with his family to land afterward purchased at public sale and situated about three miles from New Lancaster. In the spring of 1806 this homestead was sold and a purchase of wild land was made just east of Mt. Vernon, where the lived till the spring of 1812, in the spring of 1806, and thence to what is now Troy Township (Richland Cnty) in the spring of 1812 arriving at their cabin on the 23rd of April where he has resided continuously ever since, never having been absent from the township six weeks at one time, since the familly first settled in it. Married in the fall of 1822 to Jane W. Burns, they raised four sons and three daughters, have now living, 1880 three sons and two daughters; his sons are now all settled on farms in Grundy Co. MO. all served awhile in the great rebellion and escaped uninjured.
He was married again to Mrs. Mary
Ann Coates on the 5th of June 1845, who died August 20th
1857.
He was married the third time on the 3d of November, 1868 to Mrs.
O.S. Campbell. Of his nine children, three sons
and one daughter survives him, only two of whom are present
today. A full history of his life would be too long, and not
appropriate to this occasion. Suffice it to say that he came into
Ohio before it was a State and when it was a vast wilderness,
inhabited principally by the red man; saw the vast forests
cleared away and their places occupied by fertile farms, cities
and villages teeming with a busy population surrounded with all
the conveniences and improvements of modern civilizations. He
died on the 15th inst., on a part of the land entered in 1811,
after this continous residence of more than seventy years, during
which he formed an important factor in the development and
progress of his township and county. The above was handed me at
the funeral and I only wish to add that the deceased was a member
of the Church of Christ for about 50 years and elder of the
church in Mansfield, O., for many years until his death. He was
always ready to do his part in all good works. A large number of
his neigbors attended his funeral. "Blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord:" - Adam Moore 29 July
1882. James R. Gass died July 15, 1882 in
Richland County, Ohio.
It is quite remarkable that we have the words in such detail about the life of a pioneer family. In 1869, James R. Gass told his story of his family, his trek to Ohio and his pioneer life in Richland County, Ohio. Here is a portion of that story. Readers may get invaluable insight to the times and travels that occurred in the 19th century. For a complete version of the story readers should peruse the James R. Gass Story in the Biographical History of Richland County, Ohio, printed in 1983 by the Richland County Genealogical Society
William Gass was the first settler in Troy Township, arriving with his family on April 21, 1812. His son James R. Gass, who was just 13 years old at the time, was in later years to write a vivid history of the family and the events that they experienced. Gass wrote the account in 1869, about the time the original Richland County Historical Society was formed. Gass was the vice president for Troy Township.
I was born on the 8th of
August 1796. I have now advanced the narrative of our family
until my own time. Now what follows is after my own recollections
began to dawn.
In the spring of 1799 some of our neighbors removed to the
Northwest Territory, as this region was then called, and settled
on the Tuscarawas River. The road we soon got into had been
opened a short time before from near Wheeling, West Virginia to
Chillicothe, Ohio by Jonathan Zanes
of Wheeling, who was employed by the government for that purpose
and received for compensation a quarter section of land at the
crossing of the Muskingum River at Zanesville. It was a miserably
poor, narrow, muddy road, cut through the wood merely wide enough
for a wagon to pass, bridged only over the small brooks and worst
mudholes with rough logs Father drove through all successfully,
did not stall any lace either in the quagmires or on the hills
during the whole difficult route. We were not much annoyed by
high waters until we came to Will's Creek, in what is now
Guernsey County. It was a deep dirty stream.
Our parents were in quite a quandary for they had no idea where
they were to move. Father rode through the country some days
seeking a location, but could not be suited. Had heard of Owl
Creek some fifty miles north of us and the little town of Mt.
Vernon, which had then five or six inhabitants, so he traveled
out there., was pleased with that portion of new and wild
country, and soon selected two quarter sections of Congress land
one half mile east of the village. Came home and hurried to the
land office at Chillicothe to make his entries, which he soon
accomplished.
We left our Hocking home the latter part of May, 1806, were
nearly four days traveling, had no stock but a few horses and
cattle, reached our premises late Saturday night but our wagon
stalled in a mud hole on twenty or thirty rods from our cabin and
had to be unloaded so we had to trudge on foot to our new home,
spread some bed clothes on some chips in our rustic house, lodged
there that night, and rested through the Sabbath. Early Monday
morning, Father procured his wagoner to haul a load of lumber
from Wm. Douglas's saw mill
which had been in operation a short time. It was built on Owl
Creek (now Vernon River) some three miles north west of our
residence. Our family then consisted of Father, Mother and we
four boys. Our bound boy, Stephen Bruce,
had left us suddenly three years previously to go home to his
relatives in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. All hands now
applied themselves to improve our wild premises, procured some
hired help and cleared off perhaps an acre lot and planted it
with corn, but there was not an ear of it fully matured, all
having been killed by the early autumn frosts which were much
harder here than at our Hocking home. We saw pretty hard times
the next winter, which was a pretty hard one. A few neighbors had
settled on Owl Creek below Mt. Vernon previous to our arrival,
within from one to five miles from us, and a number more within
the year, so within a year we had a good, intelligent, pious
neighborhood, mostly Pennsylvanians and Virginians.
All that part of Ohio was then attached to Fairfield County for
election purposes, as Knox County was not organized and county
seat established until 1808. Our two quarter sections were
adjoining lots, one lying south of the other, but were separate
entries, think Father paid only $80.00 on each which secured them
for five years, but payments all due in four years. Owing to the
failure of the man who bought his Fairfield farm to pay up
promptly, Father had much trouble to accomplish his last
payments. We lived on the south lot so he got it paid off first,
but had to sell the north lot in 1811 to save it from being
forfeited to the U.S. We had a cornfield on it of about eleven
acres. Very fortunately a stranger by the name of Mayers
came along and bought it for $4.00 an acres and
this enabled Father to pay it off, so he lost no time in riding
to the land office at Chillicothe for that purpose. Think at the
same time he entered two other quarter sections paying $80.000 on
each some two or three miles east of our residence. There were
good upland lots but so brushy that we did not highly prize them.
Several years previous to this time, 1811, a few of our neighbors
moved north twenty or thirty miles onto the waters of the Mohican
which district was then called "The New Purchase."
Mansfield was laid out in 1808 by Jacob Newman
and others and was expected to be the metropolis of some great
future country. The aforesaid neighbors were frequently back to
Knox County and were often at our home.
They generally gave flattering accounts of the new purchase.
Their names were Andrew Craig,
Samuel Lewis, Archibald
Gardiner, George Coffinberry
and Jephtha Middleton. The two
latter settled in Mansfield and were acquainted with Father in
Fairfield County.
In October 1811, Father, Uncle Francis Mitchel
and Joseph Mitchel prepared
for camping out a few nights and determined to explore a part of
the new purchase. They were gone some three or four days and were
so well pleased with the wild country that Father selected the
west half of Section 12, township 20, and range 19, and Francis
Mitchel, the southwest quarter of section 11.
The land office was then at Canton, Stark County, Ohio, to which
place Father hurried and entered his half section and also the
quarter section for Francis Mitchel.
These were the first entries of land made in this township. We
were all anxious to see our land in the new purchase, so on the
last day of October 1811, brother Benjamin and I were each
mounted on a two year old colt, Father riding an older mare, all
furnished with a few days rations, blankets, axe and guns, and
posted off to Mohican. Night overtook us soon after crossing the
creek near where Bower's
gristmill stands. So we struck fire, tied up our horses, and
camped out for the night in an old vacated wigwam. Early in the
morning of Nov. 1, 1811, we pursued our journey through the woods
but along an Indian trail and halted to warm, as it was a cold
cloudy morning, at an Indian village of some six or seven
families. An Indian trail from there to Upper Sandusky passed
through our land so we followed it until we arrived at our
premises, then halted and built up a large fire some two or three
rods north of where A. O. Easton's
saw mil now stands. Father was desirous of seeing the south east
quarter of section 11, on which O.C. Gass
now lives, so he tied the fore feet of the old mare closely
together and turned our ponies out to pasture along the run
bottom - left me to keep camp while he and Benjamin steered off
west to view the land, calculated to buy it if it suited. The day
seemed long and dreary to me, as it was cold and snowy. They
returned in the afternoon much pleased with the land, so we
brought up our horses and camped there for the night. Saturday
morning, November 2, 1811, a clear frosty morning, after feeding
our horses a few ears of corn which we brought with us we took an
early start for home, quite well pleased with our wild premises.
We steered east into what is now Washington Township until we
reached the State road from Mt. Vernon to Mansfield, which was
then opened so that wagons could barely pass, then south to where
Bellville now is.
Mr. James McClure then owned
that quarter section and lived there. He was uncle of our Samuel
and James McClure. We had
dinner there and arrived home late at night and gave a good
report of our new purchase. Father then sold his two brushy lots
in Knox County, getting only his $80.00 refunded on each lot and
hired a neighbor, Mr. William Marquis,
to go to Canton and enter for him the aforesaid land. Father
could not go himself as that fall he was elected to the
legislature, which convened at Zanesville the first of December
1811. Must here digress so far as to tell of my first ear hunt -
think it was the autumn of 1808 that the raccoons were numerous
and destructive on our cornfield a half mile distant. Upon
arriving there the dogs soon began to pursue something quite
furiously, they ran out into the woods some sixty or eighty rods,
when they had started a fierce barking and I knew they had
something larger than a coon, so when I got in sight I found it
was a bear about twenty feet up a large ash. It had no limbs to
rest on and was quite uneasy. I kept myself a respectful
distance, know that Father would hear the dogs and soon would be
there with his gun. Father ran up quite close and bruin began to
scramble down holding fast to the tree but a well timed shot
brought him down to the ground where the dogs seized him and he
soon breathed his last.
Mother was well pleased with our neighbors and home in Knox
County and preferred staying there but Father and the boys were
desirous to sell out and move to Mohican. So in the spring of
1812 he sold our farm for nine hundred dollars to Mr. John
Adams who had recently moved into our county
from Virginia. He was a native of Ireland, grandfather of Judge John
Adams of Mt. Vernon.
Immediately after selling out, Father hired a man to go with us
and took Benjamin and me with a three horse wagon load of tools,
provisions, etc. and started to build a cabin on our Mohican
land. We left home in the afternoon and were part of three days
on our journey. A Mr. McMichael
of Knox County had got out before us and built his cabin on the
farm where old Mr. Hamilton
died a few years ago. From there we had to cut out a road through
the woods some two and a half miles until we arrived at the
spring near which our home was to be. We then struck a fire,
built a temporary hut to shelter us while we were cutting logs
and erecting our cabin - cleared off a site and soon laid the
foundation for our new home, 14 feet square. Our cabin was built
three or four rods west of where Mr. Hainer's
house now stands. In a few days of hard labor without assistance
we had our small unhewn logs raised into a rustic house. We had a
frow with us but had no cross cut saw. Cut down a large read oak,
chopped off our clapboards into four foot lengths and soon had a
roof on our new edifice, but no floor. Brought a door with us
made by a carpenter of Mt. Vernon which we hung on wooden hinges
- must have been about a week in building. This was the middle of
April. The wild pasture was so plentiful that our horses could
live well without any feeding. Having completed our lonely
habitation and gathered our property into it we nailed it up
securely and at noon, took our departure for home. After
traveling for three or four miles we met two cousins, Solomon and
Samuel Walker. They were two
young men who Father had engaged to work for us. We had some
flour, bacon, sugar and other provisions stored up in the cabin
which Father directed how to find, also where to make rails,
telling them that before they split two thousand we would be back
with the family. They said they could easily cook for themselves
that long and cheerfully trudged on to their new scene of
operations, and we wagoned on to Mr. James
McClure's where we put up for the night.
The next day we arrived safely at home, but owing to wet weather
and numerous troubles did not get started back as soon as we
wished. After several disappointments and delays we got two large
Pennsylvania wagons, belong to two neighbors, loaded full of
house hold goods, five horse teams hitched to each, and on
Tuesday, April 21st, 1812 bade adieu to our Knox County home and
took our departure for our wild Mohican habitation, staid at Mr. Casper
Fitting's the first night, about ten miles from
Mt. Vernon. The second night we camped at the woods on the bank
of the Mohican one mile above where Bellville now is. Next
afternoon we reached Daniel McMichael's
and had to cut our road much wider from there for our long teams.
We traveled slowly as the roads were soft and deep, arrived at
our solitary little cabin about noon on Thursday, the 23rd of
April 1812.
We found our Walker boys hard
at work, they had split their two thousand rails and commenced
clearing a cornfield. We brought with us five head of horses,
some cattle and sheep, left our hogs to be cared for and fattened
for one half by Mr. Adams.
Our family consisted of Father, Mother, a bound girl, Charlotte
Hedric, about thirteen years of age, and we
four boys. Our first work was putting a puncheon floor in the
house and building an addition to the west side of it, also
putting up a small stable. Then we applied all our force to
clearing off a cornfield. In a week or two, Nathan
Magers came. We all labored hard a chopping and
burning logs, got about ten acres party cleared off so that we
began to plant about the latter part of May and finished the
eighth or tenth of June; but towards the last, only ran one
furrow and crossed it with the plow before planting, broke up the
middle afterwards. Also fenced in our field after planting.
The ground was mellow and rich so that our corn grew rapidly but
so many green trees were left standing that it could not produce
much or mature well but made good fodder. Our two Walker
boys left us in May, then Nathan Magers.
The McWilliams remained until
the last of June. Father paid the me all 50 cents per hundred for
splitting rails and $4.00 acre for clearing, they chopped all
under a foot thick, cutting up the logs and burning the brush,
and 50 cents per day when they assisted by the day. After the
first of June we were left alone for the balance of the summer.
We cut down a number of green trees after planting, burnt the
brush around the standing ones, and jumped the shovel plow over
the logs when plowing corn.
In the summer of 1812, war was declared against Great Britain and
a number of Indians became hostile. This made dangerous times on
the frontier and stopped emigration to the New Purchase. When
General Hull surrendered
Detroit in August 1812, many of the families near Lake Erie fled
south as far as Knox County. The residents of our township, were
then Amariah Watson, his
brother Samuel, Elisha Robbins
(brother-in-law to the Watsons), Calvin Culver,
Francis Mitchel (who had his cabin built and his family there
only a few days) and ourselves. We all held possession and
labored in much dread until the Seymour family and Ruffner were
killed on the Blackfork. We then thought it too dangerous to
remain longer, and all pulled stakes and retreated to Knox County
where all had previously resided. In a few days after our
departure, the Copus family
and some six or eight soldiers who were with them were attacked
by Indians early in the morning. Mr. Copus
and one soldier were killed, several others were wounded and
borne away by their companions.
Previous to this time several companies of militia from Knox County, Coshocton and Guernsey Counties had been sent to Mansfield to protect the pioneers. Father, with us, were back to see our premises every few days. So he got a number of our old neighbors who were then soldiers to assist in transforming our cabin into a block house, which was accomplished by taking logs which we had provided for a larger house, and with them building the upper story of the cabin two feet wider than the lower, having the logs extend out a foot at all the corners and leaving a space all around and affording a chance to shoot down the outside of the lower wall and producing numerous portholes for firing out at a foe. Our friendly Indians were taken away, I believe to Dayton, and supported for a time by the government. When the cold weather commenced we thought danger was over for the present and in November we moved our family back into our new blockhouse.
In December, brother Benjamin shot a huge bear which when whole, without the intestines, weighed a few pounds over four hundred pounds. The dogs were fighting him in the little brook north of where Mr. Griebling's barn now stands. We had many chases after bears, wolves, deer and other wild animals.
The summer of 1813 we raised a good crop of corn but had no wheat to harvest yet. The war still raged and there was danger of the Indians along the frontier. Levi Jones of Mansfield was killed and scalped by two Indians in daylight in what is now the north part of town. This occurred in August. We thought it too dangerous to remain here and in a few days started back with our horses and cattle to our old neighborhood near Mr. Vernon. About this time, Major Croghan defeated a small army of British and Indians at Fr. Stephenson, where Fremont is, and on the memorable 10th of September 1813, Commodore Perry defeated and captured the British fleet on Lake Erie. The war movements were then arrested in this region and people felt more secure, so when the leaves began to fall, we repaired back to our block house feeling quite relieved from Indian troubles and applied ourselves to hard work, hunting, etc.
In the fall of 1813, Father was elected to the legislature as representative of this county and Knox. In the spring of 1814, a few neighbors settled in our township, among them were John and Aaron Young, Noah Cook, Ichabod Clark, Andrew Perkins, and perhaps some others. In the fall of 1814, Father was again elected to the legislature.
In the winter of 1815, peace was concluded with Great Britain and during the spring we had quite a rush of immigrants from the south and east settling in this township and Springfield.
In the winder of 1812 and 1813, Mr. Amariah Watson got his first sawmill started and in the autumn of '13 raised his grist mill, and had it in operation in 1814; and about that time, laid out the village of Lexington. Mansfield took a new start and immigration poured into all parts of our county. From that time, old Richland seemed to put off it wilderness garb and assume the aspect of civilization. During the winter of 1816-17, our first school was taught in Lexington by a young gentleman named Levi Woodruff. Had not been to school myself since the winter of 1811-12, so I attended school, I think eighteen days, trying to study arithmetic most of the time, but could not succeed well as our teacher was not very good at explaining in that branch. Mother lay sick all winter so that our attendance at school was very irregular. Our worth and much beloved Mother died on Sabbath, the 23rd of March 1817, of dropsy, with which she had been afflicted and suffered severely from for many years. Our bound girl was free about the time of Mother's death but remained with us until the spring of 1818 when she went to her friends in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.
During the winter of 1817-18, our school was taught by a youth from Guernsey County, William Kennon, who had studied surveying with Esquire John Stewart, our County Surveyor. He was an excellent teacher of arithmetic and to him I went something over forty days and made rapid progress. He recommended me strongly to study surveying. From the time our bound girl us we kept bachelor's hall (Aunt Mitchel doing our baking and washing) until Father was married to Mrs. Rebecca Meredith of Coshocton County, which event occurred the first week of July 1818. Our stepmother was a native of Virginia, had a family of four sons and six daughters, her two oldest daughters, being married before she and Father were, and the next two sons after. She came to live with us about the middle of July, brought her five youngest children with her, three sons and two daughters, which more than doubled the number of our family. I feel duty bound to pay this tribute to her memory and say she was a most worthy and estimable woman with whom we lived in peace and comfort.
I had a strong desire to study surveying, so in the autumn of 1818, I visited the two schools then kept in Mansfield and several others but could find no one who could teach surveying.
I sought an interview with our County Surveyor, John Stewart, Esq., and found him glad to take me in. So early in the winter of 1818-19 I went to live with him, assisted in taking care of his stock, chopping wood, etc., and attended laboriously to my studies in which I was much interested and made much progress. I was there in all twenty-eight days and nights. This was all the tuition I had under a living teacher in the branch of mathematics never went to school afterwards. In the fall of 1820, I taught a school through the winter in a new log cabin built for that purpose on Esquire John Mitchel's land about a half mile west of what now is known as King's Corners, finished up three months term of seventy two days the latter part of February, 1821, had about twenty three scholars at two dollars a scholar, boarded around among the employers. There was no school district or school tax in Ohio and teaching was not the fortune making business it now is. I got through with my term quite successfully, had the pleasure of being well liked as a teacher, but never undertook the business again. Our former teacher, William Kennon, became a prominent lawyer of Belmont County, was judge of the court and several times elected to Congress.
On Christmas Day 1821, I left home on horseback to visit my grandparents then living in Brooke County, Virginia, and other relatives in western Pennsylvania. The first night after leaving home I put up at Mr. John Burn's of near Ashland (which was then called Uniontown). There I first saw her who afterwards became my wife and mother of all my children. There I learned that here youngest sister, Cynthia Burns, was to be married the next week to Mr. John Carr of that neighborhood. On the following morning I bade them adieu without having intention of visiting them soon again, though quite favorably impressed toward the family. I pursued my journey eastward until Saturday the 29th of December when I arrived at the home of Mr. Bailey in Jefferson County, whose wife was a full cousin of my father. I tarried with them a few days. Two of their sons had informed me how to find them. Think it was on Wednesday the 2nd of January 1822, that I ferried over the Ohio River at Steubenville and landed in Virginia, the first time I had seen my native state since leaving it the summer of 1800. Traveled down the River to Wellsburg where I happened to meet Uncle Patrick Gass who soon piloted me home to his parents with whom he then lived.
My grandparents, of course, did not know me, and my grandmother seemed reluctant to believe it was me. She said I looked so much stouter and bigger than she thought I would ever be. Their family then consisted of the two old folks, Uncle Patrick (who was still single) and the hired girl. Grandfather was then seventy-eight years old but could with Uncle Pat's assistance, still attend to his fulling mill.
After fixing things up generally for a few days, providing them with a good supply of fuel, Uncle Pat went along with me over the rough hills of Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, visiting our relatives who were mostly strangers to me.
After remaining some weeks among my kind relatives in the latter part of January, I bade them all an affectionate adieu and started for home by way of Wheeling. Arrived safely home according to appointment on the last night of January 1822. Then applied the mattock and axe pretty hard at clearing what is now our middle ten acre field on the west side. Had it deadened some years before, and with some assistance from brother Benjamin, William and the Meredith boys, and a good amount of hard labor, we succeeded in planting it in corn that spring. About this time I began to be impressed with that ancient truth that "it was not good for man to be alone," so acquired the habit of making acceptable visits to Mr. Burn's family. The old gentleman was a widower but got married that summer to Mrs. Rosanna Reznor, an amiable widow lady, who had two sons, perhaps twelve and fourteen years old. Immediately after harvest, I commenced chopping and hewing logs for a house at which I labored hard and got it raised on the first day of October, finished it off with clapboard roof and puncheon floor, all split and hewed with my own hands and chimney built in the south end of it, and fire place for cooking, did not think of a stove that day. On the 21st day of November, 1822, I was married to Miss Jane Burns at the residence of her parents near Ashland, by Rev. Robert Lee, a venerable Presbyterian clergyman.
In a few days after our marriage we commenced housekeeping in our bright and shining log cabin. It was then quite a stylish residence in our little neighborhood. In the spring of 1823, I was elected Justice of the Peace which office I held for fifteen consecutive years, found it attended with a large amount of responsibility and trouble but not much honor or profit. James R. Gass - 1869
by James W. McCluer - December 1999
1. JAMES
R. GASS FAMILY HISTORY, Biographical History of Richland County, Ohio,
1983, The Richland County Genealogical Society, Library of
Congress Catalog No. 83-062557, printed in U.S.A. by Walsworth
Publishing Company; excerpts.
2. Obituary, James R. Gass, 1882, Richland
County, Ohio. Unknown newspaper.