The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-01-06


near the head waters of several streams,
the county is elevated Some of the
mead waters of Raccoon Creek, or River
as it is sometimes called, have their rise
IN the townships on the east side of the
county. In the southern and center tiers
of townships are the head waters of two
or three branches of Symmes Creek. On
the west the Creeks empty into the Lit
tie Scioto, while large portion of the
north and west parts of the county are
drained by Salt Creek, which empties
into the Scioto river. Jackson county
being located in the great bend of the
Ohio river, is nearly an equal distance
from that river at various points. A
straight line from Pon1eroy to Cincin-
natl would pass near the town of Jack
son, and nearly the center of Jackson
county. The distances from the town of
Jackson to the Ohio river at Pomeroy,
Gallipolis, Portsmouth, &c, are nearly
the same.
Near the heads of the several creeks
the land is low and marshy, and there
are many ponds of stagnant water Many
of these have been drained by shallow
bitches, and the soil is rich, producing
excellent grass, and even good corn.
Lower down the creeks the land becomes
hilly. and it may be said generally Of the
surface Of the land in the county that it
is rough and hilly. These hills are not
fertile, but they produce good crops of
grass and clover, and are well adapted
pasturage. Fair crops of corn, oats, pota-
toes, &c, grow in these hills; but wheat
growing never was a success in this coun-
ty. At an early day the warm season
was longer than it has been since so
much of the timber has been taken off,
and tobacco and cotton came to maturi-
ty, and considerably 10 quantities of these
were grown by the first settlers, for home
use. | will speak more at length of the
cultivation and manner of manufacture
of these hereafter, when describing the
manners and customs of the early set
tiers.
Originally the lands Of Jackson county
were heavily timbered. There was no
county, except in the extreme south part,
which was embraced in the county of
Gallia until the county of Vinton was
organized, some twenty-five years ago,
when portion of Gallia was attached to
the south part of Jackson. In the north
part of the county there was heavy pine
timber, as well as oak, and other kinds
Of timber. In the other parts of the
county there were oak, poplar, black
walnut ash, maple, beech, &c. In the
low lands there were immense quantities
of the swamp maple, which were de-
stroyed when the lands were cleared. On
the hills large quantities of large chest
nut trees grew, as well as the various
kinds of oak No kind of timber was
very valuable then, as there were no saw
mills and no demand for lumber l will
refer to the timber originally growing in
this county, when | come to speak of the
clearing of the land by the pioneers.
At what period of time, and by what
race of men, Jac kson county was settled,
or inhabited, is a mystery that never will
be solved. 1t is evident, however, that
it was inhabited many hundreds of years
ago, perhaps thousands of years ago.
This is proven by the existence all over
the county of the remains of forts,
mounds, instruments of warfare, &c,
many of which show that the county
was quite thIckly inhabited by a race
quite different from the Indians, and
prior to their occupancy of the country.
The mounds were places for burial of the
dead, and are almost always found in
pal rs. Where you would find one, you
might be almost certain to find another
within a half a mile. Some of these
mounds are at the present day ten feet
above the surrounding surface. When
was boy dug into the top of a small
mound in my fathers field, half a mile
south east from Jefferson Furnace. 1t
was on the top Of hill. About half a
mile south east of this was the other
mound, much larger than the one into
which / dug. When / got down about
even with the surrounding surface,
found an abundance of ashes, charcoal
and bones. The bones broke up into
pieces about the size of persons thumb
nail, and appeared like they might have
been pieces of thigh bones, or other large
bones of some animal as large as a man.
The mounds being so large, and contain
ing such quantities of bones, leads me to
believe that they contain the bodies OF
persons slain in battle think the bod
les of the slain were burned in one pile,
and then covered with this great mass oil
earth The two mounds nearly always
found in the same locality is further evil
dence that each army buried its slain in
the vicinity where they fell. There were
large numbers of flint arrow-points, and
stone axes found around these mounds.
These stone axes would weigh from three
to five pounds. They were made of a
hard, black stone, of a quality | never
found in any of the quarries or strata of
stone in the county. A groove was cut
around these axes, where / think a hick-
ory wythe was fastened for a handle
The arrow-points were made of beautiful
flint, some two to three inches in length,
fat, and Clipped off to pretty sharp