The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-11-26
EARLY DAYS ON THE OHIO.
A STORY BY A PARTICIPANT
Who Followed General Rufus Put.
nam from Massachusetts.
Some Incidents Which Took Place
During the Settlement OF
The State.
A STORY BY A PARTICIPANT
The Five Year Indian War Brought
Much Privation.

No contemporaneous account exists Of
the journey of General Rufus Putnam
from Rutland, Mass, to Ohio, and of
the pioneer settlement of New Eng
land in the West. This event was Of
immense historic Importance, and all
information regarding it is a treasure.
There has come into the hands of Ed
win d. Mead, editor of the New Eng
land Magazine, and will be used at
length in the magazine, an autobiog-
raphy of Benjamin Franklin Stone,
late Of Marietta, o., which is in posses
sion of his son of the same name, now
of Chillicothe, o., to whom it is ad-
dressed.
1t was begun before the war by the
author, at the age of 70, and was i'm
ished when he was Of, according to q
Boston letter to the New York Post.
He went to Ohio in the year after Cen
eral Putnam, starting from Rutland,
and presumably following the same
wagon course through Connecticut and
Pennsylvania. Stone was young boy
at the time. Mr.. Mead says that the
historical Importance of this document
is something as If there were no ac-
count of the journey and first doings
of John Winthrop in Boston, but that
there should be found an account by
one who came the next year, telling
about how things were left in the old
country and how they were found in
the new.
The writer was son of Israel Stone
OF Rutland, and came from long line of
| Puritan ancestors. He was a man of
some prominence in Ohio, taught in
| Muskingum academy in Marietta, and
held some local offices. He was born
| Feb. 22, 1852, on the old Stone farm in
Rutland, and the first part of the auto.
biography is devoted to local and child
hood affairs in that town. A bit of what
he says about Continental money (pa
| per money! is worth quoting in these
| times:
"The Continental money deprecated
down so low that the people did not pre-
tend to use it at all. About the last OF
my fathers using it was paying $40;
OF it Monday morning for the enter
tainment of himself and team over
Sabbath on his return from Boston.
never could see any reason for our gov
ernments not redeeming that paper
currency by which the army was sup
ported and kept in the field till the In
dependence of our countrywas achieved
|
ands of other patriots, was stripped o.
all his real estate This necessitatec
him to come to Ohio"
In February or March, 1889, the ia
ther, with Joel Oaks, a young man
started for Ohio in pung, and the fam
lily was distributed among the neigh
bors. The story goes on:
"Thus we were and remained scat
tered till September, 1900, when w,
started for Ohio in company with tn,
family of General Putnam, and that o
his son-in-law. Burlngame. Genera
Putnam had two OK wagons and lightel
horse wagon. My mothers family haC
one wagon. drawn by four oxen. TIL,
oxen belonged TO General Putnam.
| remember the morning of our start
ing for Ohio. Mr.. Burlingame's family
and was one of them, went to Genera
Putnam's the evening before. The mex
morning, after family prayer and break
fast, they began to tackle up the teams
and Sardine with my mothers wagol
and the family and Grandmother Bar
rett came along. Here my grandmoth
err took leave of us all and return
ed. 1t seemed, even TO the oil,
, folks, vast enterprise to go 500 miles
as it was then called, into savag
country. We were eight week
on the journey. think w
did not travel on the Sabbath, TO
distinctly remember that we tarried il
Bethleham In Pennsylvania and attend
! ed public worship. This was a settle
ment Of people of the Moravian church
Mr.. Iiakewelder, the missionary to tn
Delaware Indians, was then there.
remember seeing their Touring mill
and heard II said that the great whee
had never stopped day or night, sum
mer or winter, for my years"
J Many minor incidents of the tri
across Pennsylvania are mentioned
The author says;
~ remember how Pittsburgh looked
| quite town then. We observed tn
J western line OF Pennsylvania where
crossed the Ohio, II had been marke
by cutting down ell the trees = spac