Furthermore, at the close of the war, a vast immigration into the new lands began. Some came to redeem soldiers' bounties, some from ruined homes along the coast sought to renew their fortunes in the rich soil of these river valleys. New sources of wealth were opened up and the opportunities of the great West drew to our shores throngs of Europeans to multiply our population and add to our wealth and power.

Finally, it may not be going too far to say that this Ohio Valley conquest developed a race of pioneers who have formed the forward moving element all through our history. Pioneers are men who keep ahead of civilization as long as there is a wilderness to conquer, and then turn to subdue the evils that grow out of civilization itself. Daniel Boone died west of the Mississippi, still pursuing the wilderness; Andrew Jackson was a product of East Tennessee in Revolutionary times, while his wife, the daughter of Donelson, went to the Cumberland Valley with her father in 1779; the younger brother of Clark shares with Lewis the credit for the exploration of the Oregon country, and Sam Houston, a product of the Tennessee frontier, was the founder of the United States power in Texas. As the first backwoodsmen went forward and took the land in the face of British and Indians, so it has been their sons or the inheritors of their spirit who have led the advance of the United States all the way to the Pacific. And Lincoln, "the first American," was essentially a backwoods product, whose pioneer instinct turned back to destroy the weeds of human slavery and in the tangles of State and party enmity to prepare the way, to make straight the paths, for a new and greater nation than the world had yet known.

Principal authorities for the facts related in the foregoing Article: Hinsdale - The Old Northwest. Winsor The Westward Movement. Roosevelt - The Winning of the West. Poole - The West, in Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. VI, Chap. IX. Jay- The Treaty of 1783 in Narrative and Critical History. English - Conquest of the Country Northwest of the Ohio River. Fiske-American Revolution. Fiske Critical Period of American History.

BENTLEY'S LAKE.

A. J. BAUGHMAN, MANSFIELD.

Secretary of the Richland County Historical Society.

The Bentley Lake, seven miles east of Mansfield, was created in 1846, and had a peculiar origin. In 1821, Jonas Ballyet entered the northwest quarter of section 15, Mifflin township, Richland county, and near the center of this tract there was a circular marsh of eight orten acres, surrounded by a rim of elevations of gentle slope, giving a bowl-like appearance in. the place. At the east side or end there was a depression in the rim, as though the marsh had at one time been a lake, and that this depression had been its outlet to the Blackfork of the Mohican river, a mile distant. Between the marsh and the river, and extending from the one to the other, is a stretch of boggy land called the "Black swamp," lower than the marsh. And "Uncle Jonas Ballyet theorized that to cut a ditch through the depression would drain the marsh through the swamp to the river, and thus add to the tillable acreage of his farm. The theory seemed so plausible that men were employed to dig a trench, the bottom of which was six feet below the surface of the marsh. The job was completed July 25, 1846. Through this ditch water flowed quite copiously, and the prospects seemed to be favorable for the marsh to be drained in a short time. But a condition existed which "Uncle Jonas" had not considered in his philosophy, for beneath was a lake, and the marsh was but a fenny cover the accumulation of a century over its deep waters. The night after the opening of the ditch, the waters underlying the morass having been lowered about six feet, the cover sank, and the next morning a lake was seen where the marsh had previously been.

The sinking of the bog-covering caused the earth to quake and tremble for miles around, and alarmed the people, some thinking it was an earthquake, others that "the end of the world" was coming, as had been prophesied by the Millerites.

The time set by the Rev. William Miller for the "second coming of Christ" was the year 1843, but as it did not occur at

that time, nor at later dates, and the people were admonished to say not in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth His coming."

The lake covers an area of about nine acres, and has an average depth of seventy feet. It presents a lovely appearance in its frame-setting of hills, with a beautiful grove to the southThe water when viewed in the lake is of a green tint, but when dipped up in the hand is pure and clear.

east.

In the camping party in the view given, is Gen. R. Brinkerhoff, president of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society;

BENTLEY'S LAKE — PRESIDENT BRINKERHOFF SEATED ON THE LOG.

the Hon. M. B. Bushnell and members of their families. Mr. Bushnell and the wife of General Brinkerhoff are grandchildren of Gen. Robert Bentley, for whom the lake is named. General Bentley was one of the pioneers of Richland county. He settled. in the Bentley lake vincinity in 1815. He built the first brick farm house in the county. He was judge of the court in 1821-8, served two terms in the state senate and was a major-general of militia. History and historical associations are interestingly woven about the lake and its locality.

SONG WRITERS OF OHIO.

ALEXANDER COFFMAN ROSS.

AUTHOR OF "TIPPECANOE AND TYLER, TOO."

"I am a Buckeye, from the Buckeye State." This was the proud declaration of the author of Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, as he faced a large and enthusiastic audience in New York City, just before he gave to fame that political campaign song- the most effective ever sung in the history of the Republic.

Alexander Coffman Ross first opened his eyes to the light in Zanesville, O., May 31, 1812. His father, Elijah Ross,1 born in Brownsville, Pa., November, 1786, located in Zanestown, (Zanesville) in 1804, and died there February 29, 1864. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and, being a gunsmith, was ordered to remain in his home town to repair guns, swords and accoutrements. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Coffman, was born at Fredericktown, Pa., September 10, 1788, and died in Zanesville December 29, 1862. Their family numbered twelve

In 1804, Elijah Ross came to Zanestown (Zanesville) and prospected through the Muskingum and Miami valleys. He was a gunsmith by trade, the first of this section, and soon after his arrival in the new country settled in the village and erected a cabin, which served as dwelling and shop, on what is now the northeast corner of Locust alley and Second street. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he entered the service as third corporal, and was detailed to remain at home and repair arms for the soldiers. In 1816 he moved to West Zanesville. In 1823 he returned to the east side of the river, where he continued to work at his trade. He bored his own gun barrels, made the first blow-pipes there used for blowing glass (1815), and sometimes aided the glass-blowers in their work. He was especially fond of fox hunting, and seemed never happier than when following his hounds over the Muskingum hills. A genial, unassuming man and a total abstainer from intoxicants, he lived to the ripe age of seventy-nine years, and died respected for his industry and honesty. (62)

children, two of whom, Mrs. Daniel Hurd, of Denver, Col., and Mrs. George W. Keene, of New York City, still survive.

The parents were of the sturdy pioneers of the new state. They began life on the frontier in a typical log cabin of the period. Here the subject of this sketch passed his boyhood in the midst of healthful home influences and the not unfortunate environment of this growing and ambitious western town, located on the banks of the Muskingum, and directly in the line of the great overland thoroughfare along which the tide of civilization was moving to regions more remote. At the close of the second decade of the last century, the "town of Zane,,1 ranked second among the incorporated places of Ohio and stood without a rival north of the "River Beautiful" in thrift, aspiration and progressive spirit. The old road, known in history as "Zane's Trace," leading backward toward the base of American culture and expansive energy in the East, and downward southwesterly to the realm of forests primeval, was an avenue for the exchange of ideas as well as merchandise. The youth who in "that elder day" dwelt at the junction of the waterway and the highway, though surrounded by the wilderness, felt that he was still on the line of communication with the cities of the far-away Atlantic coast.

Especially was this true of young Ross, who seems to have been from early years studious, industrious and prompt to make the best of his opportunities.

His daughter, Ellen, writing interestingly of his social qualities, says:

His grandfather was a canny Scotchman, and I think it must have been from this ancestor that Alexander inherited his social traits and love of dancing, for one of the sisters, Margaret, used to say that the only recollection of her grandfather was seeing the old gentleman, on one of his visits to his son in Ohio, come dancing into the room in his black velvet knee breeches and silver shoe buckles, as gay and active as any young dandy of his day.

From his father he doubtless inherited and acquired a fondness and aptness for mechanical pursuits. In the little shop at home he witnessed the repair and manufacture of guns, and early 1 Including Putnam, now a part of Zanesville.