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In September 1786, Captain Benjamin Logan of Kentucky captured a young Indian boy during a raid across the Ohio River on the Machachac tribe towns of the Shawnee nation. Upon returning to Kentucky, Captain Logan made the 14 year old boy part of his family until he was forced by treaty to return him to his native people. From the period of residence in Kentucky to the time of his death, Johnny Logan, as he was named, was a friend of the United States. Following the declaration of war against England in 1812, he joined the American service. He was employed by the Indian Agent John Johnston at Piqua to help evacuate Ohio women and children living near Fort Wayne. The siege of that fort was later lifted by the combined force of Kentucky and Ohio troops under the command of General William Henry Harrison. [continued on other side]
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Named for the Native Americans who first dwelled here along both sides of the Kokosing River, the Little Indian Fields is adjacent to the site of the first white settlement of Knox County. Early white inhabitants of this land were Andrew and Catherine Craig and Benjamin and John Butler. John “Appleseed” Chapman planted an apple orchard near here at the confluence of the Kokosing River and Centre Run and in 1809 bought two lots in Mount Vernon. In 1808 the Ohio Legislature created Knox County and later designated Mount Vernon as the county seat.
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Tensions between Native Americans and Euro-American settlers remained high on the Ohio frontier during the War of 1812. Grievances mounted rapidly following the forced removal of the Greentown Delawares to Piqua in the late summer of 1812. On September 10, British-allied Indians attacked and killed the Frederick Zimmer family and neighbor Martin Ruffner one mile north of here. Five days later, on September 15, Reverend James Copus and three militiamen–George Shipley, John Tedrick, and Robert Warnock–were killed while defending Copus’ family from a raiding party one mile south of this site. (continued on other side)
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The killing of local shopkeeper Levi Jones stirred rumors of an impending Indian attack. Mansfield’s settlers needed help. On the evening of August 9, 1813, Johnny Appleseed is believed to have embarked from here on a daring overnight journey to the settlements of Clinton and Mount Vernon for reinforcements. At the time of Appleseed’s run, this square was the site of two blockhouses erected during the War of 1812. One blockhouse, constructed of round logs by a Captain Schaeffer of Fairfield County, stood at the intersection of Main Street and Park Avenue West. Colonel Charles Williams of Coshocton built the other blockhouse of hewn logs. It was located in the middle of the north side of the square and later served as Mansfield’s first courthouse.
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Spring, 1800, Benjamin Green and family become the first legal settlers in Licking County, followed by the Stadden family; Col. John Stadden marries Elizabeth Green on Christmas Day. Spring, 1801, clearings cut for cabins on Hog Run; Johnny Appleseed plants his orchards. 1808, John Beard family settles. 1810, first burial. 1811-41, these families bury six Revolutionary War veterans.
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This is the site of Johnny Appleseed’s earliest known recorded landholdings. Appleseed (whose legal name was John Chapman) purchased two parcels from Joseph Walker on September 14, 1809: Mount Vernon town lot 147, upon which you stand, and lot 145, which is across the road and north of this site. Johnny Appleseed likely rested here on August 10, 1813, after arriving from Mansfield with alarming news of a rumored Indian attack. Appleseed returned to Mansfield with reinforcements from Mount Vernon that same day–a round trip of over fifty miles.
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A migration of Indians throughout Ohio began due to unstable conditions created by the American Revolution. The massacre of Christian Indians at the Moravian mission of Gnadenhutten in 1782 and Colonel William Crawford’s expedition against Wyandot and Delaware towns along the Sandusky fueled insecurities. Delaware, including a small group of Mingo Indians, abandoned the village of Helltown, five miles southwest of this site, and settled Greentown as early as 1783. Greentown, situated on an elevation on the Black Fork beyond the clearing behind this site, was presumably named for British loyalist, Thomas Green. John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) had an amicable relationship with the Delaware, owned land throughout the Black Fork Valley, and was known to visit Greentown on his travels throughout Ohio. Other visitors to the village included the Shawnee Prophet; Munsee Delaware leader, Captain Pipe; and local preacher, James Copus.
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Urbana University was established by the Swedenborgian Church in 1850. Bailey Hall (1853), named after Francis Bailey (1735-1815), was designed by W. Russell West, architect of the Statehouse of Ohio. Bailey was an American Revolutionary War hero, official printer of the Continental Congress and printer of The Freeman’s Journal or the North American Intelligencer. He also printed The True Christian Religion papers. John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman (1774-1845) distributed The True Christian Religion papers along with his famous apple trees throughout Ohio as a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church. Barclay Hall (1883) was named after Hester Barclay, a ward of Francis Bailey. It was Hester Barclay’s brother-in-law, John Young, who converted Chapman to the Swedenborg faith. Francis Bailey and Hester Barclay were the first male and female Swedenborgian converts in North America. Both Bailey and Barclay halls appear on the National Register of Historic Places.
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