James Rea Gass
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
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.
Submitted by James W. McCluer - December 1999