Early Settlers of Scioto County, Ohio

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS IN SCIOTO COUNTY.
Number Nine.
The Portsmouth Times, Saturday, July 12, 1873

It is our intention to publish, in each issue, a Sketch of one or more of the Pioneers of Scioto County, [Ohio]. We desire to present a brief Biography of all the early settlers of the county now living, and we trust that every old citizen will aid us in so doing.

SAMUEL BONSER

This gentleman, who is now nearly seventy-eight years of age, lives in Porter Township, on the California road, 1 1/4 miles north of Sciotoville, the farm being one of the first in the county where the sturdy oak yielded to the clearing ax, swung by the sturdy arm of the early pioneer.

The house that is on a little bench of a hill on Bonser’s Run is a frame building, one story and a half high, and one can stand in the door looking to the east and see apple trees set out in 1803. Their green leaves and fruit show no evidence that seven years ago, Scioto county was one vast wilderness. They were planted so that their fruit might be enjoyed four generations hence. Six of them are standing, and one yielded fifty bushels of apples last year. They were procured from Wm. Lawson’s nursery. Mr. Lawson had the first fruit-bearing orchard in the county.

PIONEER HISTORY.

Mr. Bonser, at our interview, spoke more particularly of the life and incidents connected with his father’s history. Isaac Bonser, his father, was born in Pennsylvania and died in this county in 1849 at the advanced age of 82 years. His mother, Abigail Burt, was born in New Jersey and died near Sciotoville in 1853, aged nearly 83 years.

In 1795 the elder Bonser left Northumberland County, Pa., and came down the river to look at the country and choose a place to locate. Pleased with the prospect at the mouth of the Little Scioto River, he determined to bring his family there. When near Haverhill, he found a man named Martin, with an engineering corps, in a famishing condition on his return.

They had just completed their first survey of the French Grant, the first survey in the county, had gotten all their powder wet, and were poor woodsmen; though the game was in abundance, they could not capture any. Mr. Bonser hunted for them for three days, furnishing them bountifully with bear and deer, dried their powder, and continued his journey.

In the summer of 1796, he, with his family, and Uriah Barber, John Beatty, Wm. Ward, Ephraim McAdams, and their families embarked on a flatboat and, descending the Ohio river, landed at the mouth of the Little Scioto on August 10. Uriah Barber proceeded down the river and settled at Oldtown and Ephraim McAdams at the mouth of the Miami River in Hamilton county.

At the time Mr. Bonser moved to Ohio, there were but two families living in the county. They were those of Samuel Marshall, who landed at the mouth of Lawson’s run, now the eastern corporation line of the city of Portsmouth, in March 1796, and John Lindsey, who settled at the mouth of the Little Scioto, in March or April of the same year.

The little colony, when it landed in the forest, put up blankets and quilts over branches of trees, in slanted, tent-shaped style, to protect them from the heat until the log cabin could be reared. In a week after their arrival, Mr. Bonser had, with the aid of his few neighbors, constructed a little log house, 18×20 feet, with only one room. This was the third house built in Scioto county.

He cleared the first field in the county in the fall of 1796 and planted it in corn in the spring of 1797. This field is just above the bridge across the Little Scioto, on the Portsmouth and Wheelersburg free turnpike. He was a great hunter and had a trusty flintlock rifle, with which he killed over 1,000 deer, besides many bears, buffaloes, and turkeys. He claimed to have killed the first and the last buffalo in Scioto county. He had as many as 22 deer in the house at one time.

The son relates an incident of the father; A German named Ingle or Engle had settled at Old Town in 1797, and his knowledge of the frontier life was very limited. He knew nothing of handling a gun and being unable to secure meat. His family was in a nearly famishing condition. Mounting Chris., his son of nine years, on a horse, he sent him to Bonser to beg him to furnish him with some meat.

Mr. Bonser had only one or two deer on hand then, but he gave these to the boy and directed him to return on a certain day when he would be more liberal. On that day, Chris. was on hand, and his horse was loaded with four deer. He kept the family in meat for two or three years, the boy saying in after years, “If it hadn’t been for ‘daddy Bonser,’ we would have starved.”

In 1798, the French colony, consisting of Valodin, LaCroix, Vincent, Andre, Duty, and others, settled in the [French] Grant. With small colonies that settled in different parts of the county, the country became more populous.

As the incidents narrated in the remainder of this review are from personal recollections of Isaac Bonser, the subject of this sketch, we will say in concluding the reminiscences of the elder Bonser that he was one of the first commissioners of the county and served several terms. He held nearly all the township offices and, in 1821, was elected to the Ohio Legislature. He was an uncompromising Democrat all his life.

SAMUEL BONSER

He was one of twelve children, all of whom are dead, he believes, except himself. He had a sister Hannah, who married Allen Moore, and, if living, she is 80 years of age. She lived in Montgomery County, near Crawfordsville, Indiana, when she last heard from, over a year ago. His brother John, who, if now living, would be 72 years of age, has not been heard from for two years, at which time he was living on Sourey’s Island, Washington County, Oregon.

Samuel was born in Northumberland county, Pa., on September 30, 1795, and was but one year old when his parents came to this State. He says he can recollect nearly everything that occurred since he attained his second year.

In 1798 his father commenced building a grist mill on Bonser’s run. He got his neighbors to help him raise the building. Mrs. Lindsey and Mrs. Bonser, who had been left home that day, saw five bears enter the river on the Kentucky side. They waited awhile until they had nearly reached the Ohio side when Mrs. Lindsey said to her dog Watch, “bear!” The dog knew the meaning of the word. No sooner had the wild animals got ashore than Watch, followed by the other dogs, took after them, the two women following them and cheering them on until every bear had taken to a tree.

As their husbands had their guns with them, they were at a loss how to get their game, until Barnabus Monroe, an old hunter, [Parents were Moses and Bridget], wife Mary. was attracted to the spot by the baying of the dogs, and the cries of the women, and shot every bear. The game was divided among the house raisers, Monroe, living so far away that he refused to share it. Mr. Bonser says when one dog would tree a bear, all the dogs would know it by the peculiar bark of the animal and break for the place, while if he treed a raccoon, they would pay no attention to his barking.

Mr. Bonser’s recollections are that Scioto county was organized in 1803 and formed out of Adams County, which included all of Lawrence, Pike, and Jackson counties. The first clerk was Alex. Curran, Sheriff Wm. Parrish, surveyor John Russell, afterward Matthew Curran, then Robert Lucas.

The first court was held by either Judge Belt or Baldwin in the double log cabin used as a tavern and built by John Brown on Front Street, below the Scioto river free suspension bridge. One end of the house was used as a bar room, and the court held its sessions in it. We believe a portion of this house is still standing and has been weatherboarded. The lower end of the house was destroyed by fire.

GOING TO SCHOOL

The first schoolhouse built in the county stood where the widow Yost now lives, near Sciotoville, about one-fourth of a mile from the Ohio River. The house was put up in 1805 or 1806. It was a log building, the heavy door hanging on cumbersome wooden hinges, cracks covered with greased paper for windows. The chimney was composed of sticks and mud, the jambs of wood, with a few rocks thrown in to protect the wooden back wall.

The first school was taught by an old reed maker named Reed, a Virginian of pretty good education, who had fifteen scholars, for which he received one dollar per scholar for three months’ tuition. At noon and at morning and evening, he plied his trade vigorously. Some scholars walked from the mouth of Munn’s Run to the school. Here Mr. Bonser first learned to spell.

The next teacher, one Ayers, a lame man, he says was “as cross as the devil.” He had a block four feet long and one foot in diameter, which afforded him amusement. A disobedient scholar was compelled to mount the block, the teacher rolling it with his foot. If the scholar fell or stepped off, he was soundly thrashed. Mr. Bonser and Peter Lindsey were so well practiced on the block that it was very difficult to get them off.

EARLY PATRIOTISM

Mr. Bonser says the first public celebration of the Fourth of July in the State of Ohio was held in 1808 at his father’s place, about 150 yards from the house where he now lives. His father had a field of wheat that ripened early, and he reaped it, threshed it, took a portion of it to Maysville in a canoe, and had it ground to make bread for the celebration. He was two days into making the trip, pushing the canoe himself in one day.

People came from Chillicothe, Maysville, Gallipolis, and other places, and about 300 persons were present. They were principally hunters. Robert Lucas, afterward State Senator and Governor, delivered an oration. Fresh meat of all kinds, wild and domestic, was in abundance and baked over a large pit full of hickory coals. An old Virginia negro, a millwright employed by his father, was the cook. A great many stayed three or four days.

General Tupper of Gallipolis had a barrel of cider oil he had brought from Marietta. Whisky was plenty, and yet there was no drunkenness or quarreling. All kinds of exercise were indulged in, such as wrestling, jumping, running, &c. The old colored man-made cannon, out of a gum log, fired five or six times before it burst. Cross-eyed John Campbell was the cannoneer. He would touch the gun off and then dodge behind a huge popular tree, the trunk six feet in diameter at its base.

FAMILY HISTORY

Mr. Bonser was married on August 5, 1819, to Miss Hannah Mead, whose father came to the county in 1815. They had thirteen children, three of whom were dead. Silas, the firstborn, was drowned when but three years of age; Minerva, wife of Vinton Price, died in 1855; Mead died in 1843, aged seven years.

Those living are: Abigail, married Palmer Bennett, at Bennett’s Mills, on Tygart’s creek, Ky.; Maria, married Wm. Raynor, living in Portsmouth; Anna married Alanson Hoyt in Mason County, Ill.; Matilda married John Grubbs, living in the county. Mr. Grubbs lost his sight in the army.

Rachel married David Munn and lived in Harrison township. Hannah married James Mayher, living in Ohio, residence unknown; Adkins, bridge builder and carpenter living in Harrisonville; Lucretia, unmarried, living with her parents; Isaac, living on the place, and John, who went to Oregon in 1847, from thence to California, and from there to Idaho, and has not been heard from for three years.

Mr. Bonser resides in the place his father owned and, by occupation, is a millwright. He is in good health and does not use tobacco in any shape. After chewing for 50 years, he quit and has not had the weed about him for three years.

He has a gun owned by his father, the barrel being five feet long. His eyesight is good, and he goes out into the woods and shoots squirrels with his rifle. Politically speaking, the father’s precepts have never been forgotten by the son.