Rush Creek History part 2

The first settlers of  Rush Creek township were the Stanfield family.  The family consisted of Thomas, his wife, and ten children. He had nine daughters and one son. They came to this area, from Tennessee, in 1805.  Shortly thereafter came William Hall, hailing from North Carolina. It just so happens that this family also had ten children.  The interesting thing is, they had nine sons and just one daughter. The mirror image of the Stanfield family! As it worked out, Thomas junior, the only son of Mr. Stanfield married Mr. Hall's only daughter in May of 1814.

Now Mr. Stanfield was a Quaker and actually got along well with the native american indians in the area. They visited with his family and actually had friendships with each other. This was the case except for one time during the war of 1812. As the story goes, during this time period the native indians became terribly upset with Mr. Stanfield. The plan was that the indians would massacre the Stanfield family one night as they lay sleeping. On this fateful night, the indians had quietly surrounded the Stanfield cabin, waiting for the darkest part of the night to make their attack.

Now, a Mr. Daniel McCoy who was a settler from a nearby town, heard of the plot that was about to unfold. He decided that he needed to do something and so set about trying to get some men to go with him to help save the family. Evidently, no one else wanted to get involved.  So, Mr. McCoy took some "good old rye" ( I guess to give himself courage) and jumped on his horse heading in the direction of the Stanfield cabin. When he got about a quarter mile from their homestead he had his horse gallop back and forth in the woods around the cabin. The whole time he was making the noisy commotion he was yelling,  "Here they are; come on!" , making it sound as if he had thousands of men with him. He went along with this facade for quite awhile making as much noise as he was able.  Finally, he galloped up to the house and told the Stanfields what was about to take place.  They all fled to a nearby town.  After some time they came back to their house, which had been left undisturbed. After peace came back to the area between the native indians and the settlers,  the Stanfields were told that Mr. McCoy's daring run that night had indeed saved their lives.

Mr. Stanfield and his wife, Hannah, went on to live for many more years. He dying in May of 1824 at the age of 76. Hannah passed in 1830 at what people guessed was around 80 years of age.  So, by my calculations the Stanfield's had to be in their mid to late 50's when they traveled and settled in Rush Creek township, Ohio.  I cannot imagine the hard travel and back breaking work it would have been to move and start over at that age. True pioneers, they were!

I hoped you enjoyed these stories that are apart of the Rush Creek history.  (for more information read the HISTORY OF LOGAN COUNTY AND OHIO written by: William Henry Perrin and  J.H. Battle and published by O.L Baskin and Co.  I have so enjoyed reading about the area of which I now live!)  I will be back tomorrow to share another interesting story with you.