Age: 104 years

Year of Birth: 1859

Date of Interview: 1963

006 You've heard of John Morgan Haven't you? Well he was suppose to be everywhere that night you know. People were excited about it and they formed a home guard here at Amesville and organized John Paterson who lived here in Amesville was Captain my father was first lieutenant and the other offerers followed in rotation in the community here.

019 And they drilled every Saturday afternoon. Drilled in this bottom down here mostly in that bottom , they'd go various places and drill but it was usually in this bottom here.

026 Drilled on horseback and my father drove a little bay horse, Prince, nice little fellow when they got through drilling they'd have a horse race and run their horses.

036 John Morgan started in Kentucky and came north and the mission was destroying property and stealing horses, I guess, was about all they did. And they come to Long Bottom. They went through Meigs County and from there on to Long Bottom.

045 And the Home Guards were out from Amesville here, seeing what was going on,they saw them over on Long Bottom on an island, no I'm ahead of my story, this happened on Long Bottom. There was a man named Orville Potter, lived in Athens. He was riding a fine little dapple grey saddle mare and they were talking about Morgan's men being over there and Potter said,"Let's go over and see them." He didn't get much opinion about that and finally he said, "I'm going." My father said if you ride that mare over there you'll come back afoot. He went. Sure enough, Potter lost his mare. They took her and that's the last he ever saw of her.

068 Well Morgan's men went from there on North and they disbanded at Smithfield or near there, some little town near there. At Smithfield they run across a stagecoach hauled by four horses and filled with passengers and they stopped them, unhitched their horses, through the harness on the ground, got on the horses and rode away. That's what they wanted you know, good horses. They disbanded near Smithfield....

084 Well I had 2 older brothers. I was on the tailend, tagging along behind all of this. And we, they said John Morgan would be here that night and the folks generally went to the woods or somewhere to hide their stuff. My mother she got her valuables, consisted of a featherbed and some other articles that she carried. The boys, we had a pair of black mares, Bess and Queen. They put those featherbed tics on the mares and then took clothes line and tied them on. They started up this hill back her, its pretty steep and they, bed tics of course are light, they side back over the mares and cut into their bellies. The boys took their wool hats and stuffed them under the clothes lines to protect the mattress. They took them on into the woods and my mother she went afoot and my sister and I followed behind and we went back there and stayed that night and Morgan didn't visit us at all. He went some other way.

113 My uncle lived right across the way here. They had a family, three girls and a boy, he wasn't born yet and they knew what was coming on Morgan was going to be here. and a family named Belou?? lived across the creek and there was another farm on east.

145 I don't know if you know about my grandfather or not. He was an Irishman. He came from Ireland/1788 and they landed at Nova Scotia. They come down the Ohio River. The next place they landed was here at Harmer, opposite Marietta. He stayed there for a while and bought a farm 4 miles below. At Gravelbank. It was pretty low for him. Water got over it and bothered his crops a good deal.

164 He went west and come to this place and contracted for it. That was in 14. Bought it them But he didn't move his family here until 17. But they come out her every - this side hill, I don't know if you noticed or not, but it lays to the south and it was all timber here. When he came here there was just a cabin where the east room of this house , about where the east room of this house stands now. And about three acres cleared. That's all there was cleared at this place. But every spring , at sugar making time they'd come out here and make syrup and sugar for their supply to live on. In 17 they moved here, moved the family here. Then he had to go to work to clear out a home.

188 140 - 240 acres, wasn't it? ... He bought this whole section, a piece at a time, and more besides. And he raised quite a little family. he was married twice. First time he was 10, next time 9. So that made quite a bunch. And as they grew up and got married. each boy got married, my father, my grandfather gave them a farm and a house on it. And as the girls came along and got married, he gave them a featherbed and a cow.

203 That was the custom then. Custom has a good deal to do with law you know, sometimes and later, when it come to fencing and it was more thickly settled the people made a law among themselves about what kind of a fence they were to build and so forth. They were divided on the line evenly and each was to build his part of the fence and the law was the fence should be horse high, hog tight and bull strong.

216 Right over southwest of here, in this field across the road. There used to be Indians here in this country and there was an Indian Fort over there. The creek had a steep bank on the north side and it was built in the form of a horseshoe with the heel to the bank, to the creek. The Indians could come along under the willows along next to the creek and the bank and come in at that end of the horseshoe which was thrown up 2 or 300 feet in the field about 3 feet high. Just line a, you don't remember when they used to make circus rings do you?

232 They'd throw dirt up around so the horses could have a track around there. And there were posts ... set on end. They'd set 2 post on down close, together on that embankment and then they'd set a post in between like you'd set between you finders her. Set right in that way. That's so they couldn't shoot through. that covered all the space you know. Do you understand?

245 I remember that very well. I remember one post set over near the creek. My father said it had always been there since he knew. And he said this post was a locust post that had been seasoned in there and lasted. I remember seeing it and it's the only post I saw. The only indications I was that horseshoe around there. And when the railroad from Marietta to Cincinnati, operated for a good many years before it was abandoned. Marietta people wanted an outlet and they built a railroad from Marietta to Columbus. And it went right through that horseshoe and I was grown then and married and had a big bay team and I had to plow that Indian Fort down. I hated awful to do it but I was working for the railroad company and I was doing the plowing and other. teams were doing the grading and I went on farming and I gathered a lot of Indian relics.

268 I have some here yet . And it was asked of me several times what tribe it was and my second boy happened to be in New York and he happened to talk to a man who was an Indian relic dealer and he said it must have been the mohawks...

305 As I plowed this farm here. I had to watch the plow, the horse and watch for Indian relics. My eyes were pretty busy.

322 I done general farming. I cleared a lot of land here. and kept a good herd of cattle. 50 or 60 head. One year I started into the winter with 74 head of cattle. Varied of course. And we always kept a flock of good sheep. We usually tired to winter about 100 ewes and the they would increase,have laws you know,and then the next winter we'd keep them and sell off in the fall the older sheep. Never used to kill a lamb you know. That's a recent thing. You usually killed a yearling for mutton, never thought of killing a lamb. I tried to keep good sheep. Delane wool. I looked at the form of the sheep. I wanted a certain kind of sheep. i didn't object to wrinkles....

350 Hogs....walnut trees ... rooting hogs....

378 Oh yes, we always had horses. One time I had 4 brood mares. county fair .... colts won prize.

404 Their coat was just like your hair, it had to be tended to to make it look nice...

440 End