The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-11-18
LITTLE BILLY" "
How He and the Boys" Treated
Widow st. Clair.

Some twenty-five miles south of the
capital of Ohio, in the rich valley Of the
Scoto. is the quaint town of C.
If any part of this cradle of Presidents,
Senators, Chief Justices and great Gem
erals deserves to be called 'classic
ground" this valley OF the Scioto pre-
eminently has that claim. 1t bears
abundant testimony to prehistoric oc-
cupation by people well advanced in
arts and sciences. On both sides of the
river were mounds. Notifications and
sacred Enclosures, concerning which the
Indians, who occupied these lands at
the coming of the white man, had no
traditions. Within radius of seven
miles several severe battles were fought
between the Indians and whites in
the latter part OF the eighteenth GEN.
tury.
Once this was dotted with Indian vii
lagos; here in olden times burned the
council fire of the red men; here the af-
fairs of the nation were discussed in
general council aud the important ques-
tons of peace and war decided. When
these restless tribes made incursions to
other States and captured prisoners,
they were brought here to pass through
the terrible ordeal OF running the gaunt-
let or to be inundated upon the altar of
the red mans vengeance. and made to
suffer every torture that savage inge-
nuity could invent. Here, too, Logan
made that famous speech which has
stirred the heart of every American
school boy ever since.
In the early part of the present GEN.
tury, when Pickaway County was
formed, the land which was afterward
covered with this town of C was de-
signed and laid out as the county
town. On the very center of this site
was circular fort or sacred inclosure
siyty-nine feet in diameter. This con-
tanned at its center Il remarkable
mound with semi-circular pavement at
the east. 1t was decided By those who
had the matter in charge that this an
cient fort, or whatever it might have
been, should be the center of the town,
contain the courthouse. and from it the
streets should diverge., So town with
all the streets radii of a circle was
started.
1t was well enough to begin with. but
as the years went by thriving village
sprung up. Men of stirring business
qualities became residents-men who
liked to have things like other people.
So it came about gradually that there
was something wrong with the town.
The village magistrates began to talk
thu matter over. The more they talked
the less it seemed desirable to have that
;tagon courthouse the center of every
thing. After mature deliberation it was
decided Ito square the circle" which
they at once proceeded to do. That
town was squared, and you should have
seen it a few years after the squaring
process as DID. At this time had no
idea of its mathemat cal struggle and l
stood at the hotel window and gazed in
amazement. Most of the houses within
my range of vision seemed to me to
have been built somewhere in the ether
cal blue and then deliberately dropped
down to hit as they would and then be-
come stationary, the front yards had
such a hap-hazard, crazy-quilt look.
To my young eyes the town had the
strange appearance of being governed
Ly chance, such as Hafid saw in his
dreams, and l instantly turned to the
fruit trees half expecting that the apple
trees weuld bend under their weight of
pumpkins and that the cherry trees
would Q loaded with ripe. golden Gu
cumbers.
The fruit trees were evidently all
right, and so was every thing else ex-
ce I the houses. These must certainly
have had dance BY moonligh waltzed
arnnnA ond M oA hot
they never could get back into re-
spectacle position again.
Time softens and changes all things.
It soon brought very perceptible dif-
ference in this squared town. The own
ers of these 'skew-wiff houses" as the
children were accustomed to call them,
never felt quite at home cat-a-cornered
TO the street. So those dwellings, were
torn down and others took their places.
The town had been settled mostly BY
Virgnians, blue biooded and aristo-
cratic, fond of their money bags,
thoroughbred stock and great farms on
Darby or Hckaway plains. Money was
plenty, and though the old houses dis
appeared. there was enough left OF the
circular town to give Q quaint look 70
the beautiful spot Those whose homes
had once been here regarded it a. the
garden sRot of Ohio and loved II as the
plsce Of al places. There could bN no
cosmopolites among its dwellers, the
very spirit OF the place precluded such
~Sersons.
Upon the outskirts Of this more than
half Southern town. lived the widow St.
Clair In . tiny cottage. This woman.
70 the psople said, had bean years be-
fore Selle anA hsifeas and beloved BY
every BODY. Fer twenty years she had
+ lived n Ill oottsgs, seeking no society
md dhuaaihe those who would have
fsSsly knsw just how she lived =