in the month of March, 1844. General Sanderson was identified with the very earliest times of Fairfield county and Lancaster, having come to the settlement at the beginning of the present century, in company with his fathers' family, and continuing to be a resident of Lancaster till the close of his life, in the year 1870. His contribution to the early history of Fairfield county is therefore most valuable, as there are few, if any of the earliest pioneers left to tell of the events and times now three quarters of a century past.

"In 1797, Zanes' Trace having opened a communication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals in both directions wishing to better their conditions in life by emigrating and settling in the "back woods", so called, visited the Hocking Valley for that purpose and finding the country surpassingly fertile,-abounding in fine springs of pure water, they determined to make it their new home.

"In April 1798, Capt. Joseph Hunter, a bold and enterprising man, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky and settled on Zanes' Trace, upon the bank of the prairie west of the crossings, and about two hundred yards north of the present turnpike road, and which place was called "Hunter's settlement."-Here he cleared off the under-brush, felled the forest trees, and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. This was the commencement of the settlement in the upper Hocking Valley, and Capt. Hunter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous county of Fairfield. He lived to see the country densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and died about the year 1829. His wife was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and shared with her husband the toils, sufferings, hardships and privations incident to the formation of new settlements in the wilderness. During the spring of the same year, (1798) Nathaniel Wilson, the elder, John and Allen Green, and Joseph McMullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shæffer, and a few others, reached the valley, erected cabins and put in crops.

"In 1799 the tide of emigration set in with great force. In the spring of this year, two settlements were begun in the present township of Greenfield; each settlement contained twenty or thirty families. One was the falls of Hocking, and the other was Yankeytown. Settlements were also made

along the river below Hunters, on Rush Creek, Fetters Run, Raccoon, Pleasant Run, Toby Town, Mudy Prairie, and on Clear Creek. In the fall of 1799, Joseph Loveland and Hezekiah Smith erected a log grist mill at the upper falls of Hocking, now called the Rock Mill. This was the first mill built on the Hockhocking.

"In April 1799, Samuel Coates, Sen., and Samuel Coates, Jun., from England, built a cabin in the prairie, at the "Crossing of Hocking"; kept bachelors hall, and raised a crop of corn. In the latter part of the year a mail route was established along Zanes' Trace from Wheeling to Limestone. The mail was carried through on horseback, and at first only once a week. Samuel Coates, Sen., was the postmaster, and kept his office at the Crossing. This was the first established mail route through the interior of the territory, and Samuel Coates was the first postmaster at the new settlement.

"The settlers subsisted principally on corn bread, potatoes, milk and butter, and wild meats, flour, tea, and coffee were scarcely to be had, and when brought to the country, such prices were asked as to put it out of the power of many to purchase. Salt was an indispensable article, and cost, at the Scioto salt works, $5.00 for fifty pounds; flour cost $16.00 per barrel; tea $2.50 per pound; coffee $1.50; spice and pepper $1.00 per pound."

Such was the beginning of the settlements in the Hocking Valley, where Fairfield county is situated, coeval with the commencement of the nineteenth century. It is proper to pause here and speak of the beginning of Lancaster, before further developing our history, because Lancaster was laid out before the county of Fairfield was declared, and two years previous to the adoption of the constitution of the state of Ohio.

LANCASTER.

Ebenezer Zane was the original proprietor of the town. It will be remembered that he was already the owner of one section of land at the crossing of Hocking. Upon that tract Lancaster now stands. In the fall of 1800, Mr. Zane laid out and sold the first lots. The rates ranged from $5.00 to $50.00 a lot, according to location. A large proportion of the first settlers of Lancaster were mechanics, who erected cabins

with little delay, finding the materials mainly on their lots. To encourage emigration, Mr. Zane gave a few lots to such mechanics as would agree to build cabins on them and go to work at their respective trades; and it is said, that the work of organization went on so rapidly, that by the spring of 1801 the streets and alleys in the central part of the town assumed the shape they still retain. "New Lancaster" was the name first given to the place, in compliment to emigrants from Lancaster, Pa., who made up a considerable proportion of the first settlers. The name however was changed by the Legislature in 1805, to Lancaster, Ohio, to avoid confusion in the postal service. The title, New Lancaster, nevertheless continued to be used for more than twenty years afterwards. We continue quotations from General Sanderson's address.

"About this time merchants and professional men made their appearance. The Reverend John Wright, of the Pres byterian church, settled in Lancaster in 1801; and the Rev. Asa Shin, and the Rev. James Quinn, of the Methodist church, traveled the Fairfield circuit very early.

"Shortly after the settlement, and while the stumps remained in the streets, a small portion of the settlers indulged in drinking frolicks, ending frequently in fights. In the absence of law, the better disposed part of the population determined to stop the growing evil. They accordingly met, and resolved, that any person of the town found intoxicated, should, for every such offence, dig a stump out of the streets, or suffer personal chastisement. The result was, that after several offenders had expiated their crimes, dram drinking ceased, and for a time all became a sober, temperate and happy people.

"On the 9. of December, 1800, the Governor and council of the North Western territory organized the county of Fairfield, and designated New Lancaster as the seat of justice. The county then embraced within its limits all, or nearly all, of present counties of Licking and Knox, a large portion of Perry, and small parts of Pickaway and Hocking counties."

FIRST BORN.

It has been a subject of some discussion of late years, as to who was the first born white male child within the borders of Fairfield county. In Howe's history of Ohio, published in

1848, he says, that Buhama Green (Builderback) gave birth to the first boy. This is beyond question an error. It has commonly been understood about Lancaster, that the late Hocking H. Hunter of Lancaster, son of Capt. Joseph Hunter, first emigrant, was the first born. This however is contested. Mr. Levi Stuart, now a citizen of Lancaster, whose father was among the first settlers at Yankeytown, in conversation with the writer, recently, said it was understood between him and Mr. Hunter, that he, Mr. Stuart, was thirteen months the oldest. And I have been told there is a fourth contestant on Clear Creek. We will not try to settle the question, since it is of small importance in history.

Mrs. Buhama Green, as Mrs. Builderback, has a tragic history that deserves full mention, as she was not only a pioneer, but long and well known, she having lived in the same neighborhood where she first settled, three miles west of Lancaster, about fourty-four years, or until the close of her life, which took place in 1842, at a very advanced age. Following is a transcription of the tragic part of her life from the pen of Colonel John McDonald, of Ross county. It is probably the fullest and most authentic account of any written.

"Mrs. Buhama Green was born and raised in Jefferson county, Virginia. In 1785 she was married to Charles Builderback, and with him crossed the mountains and settled at the mouth of Short Creek, on the east bank of the Ohio river, a few miles above Wheeling. Her husband, a brave man, had on many occasions distinguished himself in repelling the Indians, who had often felt the sure aim of his unerring rifle. They therefore determined at all hazards to kill him.

"On a beautiful summer morning in June, 1789, at a time. when it was thought the enemy had abandoned the western shores of the Ohio, Captain Charles Builderback and his wife, and brother Jacob Builderback, crossed the Ohio to look after some cattle. On reaching the shore, a party of fifteen or twenty Indians rushed out from an ambush and fired upon them, wounding Jacob in the shoulder. Charles was taken while running to escape. In the meantime Mrs. Builderback secreted herself in some drift wood near the bank of the river. As soon as the Indians had secured and tied her husband, and not being able to discover her hiding place, they compelled him, with threats of immediate death, to call her to