Munger

“On Saturday morning we woke up to look upon a ground covered with snow, and the wind driving it around as it would in January. For the 13th day of April, this was extraordinary. We do not remember to have seen such continued cold weather as this season. The nearest to it was the spring of 1844 when the ground was frozen too hard to plow after the first of April.

The trace of snow still remaining on the trees, where it had not been stripped off by the wind, gave some protection from the cold to the immature leaves that had just started to form. In the fields, the wheat barely broke above the snow, which, as the newspaper pointed out, was “favorable” to the crop as it will retard rank growth which brings rust.”

The wild flowers which had burst out of the long dormant earth at the edge of the woods, and the trace of greenery in the plowed garden, were hidden from view by the drifted snow. The sky overhead had the same gray cast as seemed to have settled over the large gathering of somber-faced and shivering men, women and children patiently waiting in the carriages and wagons clustered around the farmhouse on Yankee Street.

As they sat silently waiting and watching, six men came out of the house carrying a plain wood box and placed it in a wagon draped with black cloth -- a wagon which would soon start its funereal journey up Yankee Street on its way to the burial ground of the Baptist Church of Sugar Creek, just north of Centerville. For, on this cold, blustery day of April 1850, was buried one who, although only a farmer and a part-time blacksmith, had devoted a lifetime of service to his neighbors and to his country, culminated by his distinguished service in the War of 1812 -- Brigadier General Edmund Munger.

Part One

The First Mungers in America

Edmund Munger’s deeply religious and moral nature, like his patriotism, was an inheritance from his ancestors. The progenitor of his family who was the first Munger to migrate to American was Nicholas Munger. Born in England, probably in County Surrey, about 1630-1631,1 Nicholas came to this country as an apprentice to William Chittenden,2 one of the Puritans who sailed from Cranbrook County, Kent, England in May 1639. This was the Whitfield Colony, and Chittenden’s name appears on the covenant drawn up and signed on shipboard.

After a voyage of about seven weeks, this shipload of Puritans arrived at the New Haven Colony in Connecticut about July 10. These Puritans started a new settlement near New Haven which they first called Monunkatuck, but which was soon changed to Guilford, after the shire town in County Surrey, England.

Nicholas was believed to be the stepson of Henry Goldam, an early settler in New Have Colony who later became a prominent member of the Guilford Colony. He apparently married Nicholas’ widowed mother, Frances. Goldam had a daughter, Susannah, by his first wife. In his will, Goldam gave Nicholas (referred to as “son-in-law”): “All my land in the Neck.”3 The land bequeathed him was situated in the East Parish of Guilford, now the town of Madison on the public road along the bank of the Neck River. Here, Nicholas settled in 1651. Later, he acquired additional land, including two pieces in the village, south of the Common.

Nicholas Munger took the “Oath of Fidelity” and became a “freeman” in 1652. To qualify, he had to be of age, of sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in religion, and possessed of a ratable estate of at least twenty pounds. While not a wealthy man, he was described as having been “comfortably situated and self-supporting.” However, the History of Guilford 4 states: “Munger was one of the poorer planters.”

On June 2, 1659, he married Esther Hall at Guilford, Connecticut. The couple had two sons: Samuel and John. Nicholas died at the East Parish of Guilford on October 16, 1668. His widow remarried, becoming Mrs. Dennis Crampton. She died on January 31, 1689.

John, the first son of Nicholas and Ester Munger, was born on April 26, 1660 in the East Parish of Guilford.5 Samuel also was born in the East Parish about 1662. John Munger married Mary Evarts on June 3, 1684. The daughter of James and Lydia Guttridge Evarts, Mary was born in 1664. The couple were the parents of five sons: John, Ebenezer, Caleb, Jonathan and Josiah; and four daughters: Abigail, Rachel and two Marys (the first died in infancy). Caleb also died in childhood.

Guilford Land Records state: “John Munger was a weaver, and lived at the Neck. John Munger exchanged a peace or parsell of third division land at a place commonly called the ‘Oxcaps-by-the-Neck’ riverside for a peace or parsell of upland lying and being in the Neck. John Munger’s land containing eighteen acres more or less.”6 His death occurred on November 3, 1732 and his wife lived only until June 1734.

Ebenezer, the grandfather of Edmund Munger, was born to John and Mary Evarts Munger of July 4, 1693 in East Parrish. He first married Anna Scranton on May 29, 1717. The daughter of John and Mary Seward Scranton, Anna was born in East Parrish on December 27, 1697, and died on April 20, 1725 at the age of 32 years. Prior to her death, Anna gave birth to a daughter who was accidentally smothered in bed, and four sons: Ebenezer, Caleb and twins Simeon and Reuben. The mother died shortly after the birth of the twins. Simeon also died a few days later on May 11, 1725.

After the death of his first wife, Ebenezer, Sr., married Susanna Hubbard, the daughter of Daniel and Susanna Bailey Hubbard, on July 6, 1726. By this second wife, Ebenezer fathered a second Simeon. However, one year after his second marriage, Ebenezer “became ill with measles,” and, according to the Munger Book, he “had been better but went to a meeting at Guilford and was took out of his head and died in 1727.”7 After his death, Susanna married Josiah Crampton of Guilford on February 14, 1733. She died on March 25, 1788.

Edmund’s Immediate Family

The fourth son of Ebenezer, Sr. and the father of Edmund Munger, Reuben, was born in East Parrish at Guilford, Connecticut on March 28, 1725. On June 8, 1748, he married his cousin Elizabeth Dudley, the daughter of Jonathan and Abigail Munger Dudley. Her birth date was December 24, 1727.

Reuben Munger moved to Norfolk in Littlefield County, Connecticut, probably about 1760. A farmer, his residence was “one-half mile west from the meeting house.” Of Reuben’s eleven children, the first six were born in Guilford. These were Nathaniel, born on January 30, 1749, Abigail, born on August 30, 1750; Reuben, born on April 22, 1752 and who died in infancy; a second Reuben, born on February 26, 1754; Jonathan, born on November 30, 1755; and Elizabeth, whose birth date was January 29, 1758. Those born in Norfolk included Elizur (1761); Edmund, born on September 30, 1763; Naomi (1765); Dudley (1768); and Samuel whose birth date in completely unknown and who also died in infancy.8 Reuben Munger, Sr.’s death occurred in Norfolk in 1808.

Although the eighth of eleven children born to Reuben and Elizabeth Munger, Edmund received a surprisingly fine education, surpassing that of most farmers’ sons in that period, and, apparently, much more than his brothers and sisters. He excelled in penmanship and retained an active interest in books and reading well into his declining years.

On December 5, 1785, Edmund married Eunice Kellogg in Winsted, Connecticut. Eunice was the daughter of Seth and Eunice Judd Kellogg; and she was born in Winsted on August 13, 1767. Two sons were born to the couple while they resided in Norfolk, Warren (1787) and Truman (1789).

Then, in 1789, the family moved from Norfolk to Middlebury in Rutland County, Vermont where they occupied “house lot No. 44 in the first hundred acre division.” This lot was immediately south of the lot owned by Edmund’s oldest brother, Nathaniel Munger, who had been the first member of the family to make the move to Vermont.

Three more of his brothers -- Reuben, Elizur and Jonathan -- had moved to the same division of Middlebury prior to Edmund’s move to Vermont. Elizur only stayed about a year before returning to his father’s homestead in Norfolk. During the eight years in which Edmund farmed the land while supplementing his income by utilizing his trade as a blacksmith, four more children were added to the family: Edmund Kellogg (1790), Minerva (1792), Reuben (1794) and Elizur (1796).

Both Edmund and Jonathan apparently became disenchanted with farming and business prospects in Vermont, where land was relatively expensive and not too fertile. In addition, the rather limited growing season in Vermont restricted the variety of profitable crops which could be grown there. Much publicity, too, had been circulated throughout New England concerning the availability of more fertile soil, better pasture and more wild game in the newly opened Northwest Territory; and these lush lands were available at unbelievably low prices.

The new lands were particularly attractive to veterans of the Revolutionary War who were holding land warrants which had been given to them as pay for their honorable service in the various state militias. These warrants could be exchanged for bounty lands in the west. According to Connecticut military records, Jonathan Munger had served through three enlistments in this war, in both the Seventh and Eleventh Regiments of the Connecticut militia. Edmund did not reach enlistment age until the war had ended.

The Move West

For these reasons, Edmund and Jonathan decided in 1797 to jointly set out, with their families, for new homes somewhere in the “land between the Miamis” shown on the maps of that period as the Symmes Purchase. A nephew, Benjamin Maltbie, the son of Benjamin and Abigail Munger Maltbie, requested and was granted permission to accompany them on their journey.

First, the farms in Vermont had to be sold and such furniture and trinkets as could not be taken along. The latter were disposed of at a public auction. Many useful items were given to family members who remained in Vermont. A few items were traded for articles which would prove useful on their planned trip and in the new homes.

The Munger brothers decided to travel in two three-horse wagons, the wheel horse driven with lines and the leader to be ridden by a boy. The wagons were selected with great care since the survival of the party depended upon them. In preparation for their departure, the wagons were packed with clothing, cooking utensils, firearms, bedding and such tools as might be indispensable in sustaining the two families and animals on their trip and in their new homes. Edmund’s blacksmith tools were a special burden because of their weight.

The women prepared a complete medicine chest to take along. They also packed hand-sewn sacks with flour, cornmeal, dried fruits and other foodstuff; assembled dishes and cooking utensils; made candles and assembled workbaskets of various sewing tools, thread and other accessories, all of which were packed into the wagons. Farm implements and some cherished furniture were added to the loads. On the outside of the wagons they hung buckets of grease for the axles, barrels of water for humans and stock, and spare parts for the wagons.

On The Way West

The women rode on the seats in front of the wagons. Here they were sometimes joined by one of the men or some of the children, but men generally strode ahead of the wagons constantly on the alert for any unfriendly Indians. The smaller children rode at the back on the extensions built over the back wheels and the feed boxes attached to the backs of the wagons.

The older children trudged along behind, prodding and pushing the recalcitrant hogs who constantly wanted to wander off into the woods or fields on either side of the road or trail. There also were two oxen to prod out of the standing stance they repeatedly assumed. Family histories make no mention that cows were included on the trip, but the probability exists, for the 1809 tax list for Montgomery County shows that Edmund owned eight cows and Jonathan had seven that year.

As told by Joseph Nutt in 1882, and reported in Beers History of Montgomery County: “They travelled by two three-horse wagons, the wheel horses being driven with lines and the leader ridden by a boy. While coming through Pennsylvania, and moving along at a brisk trot, by a sudden jolt, Jonathan Munger, who was riding on one of the wagons, was thrown under a wheel, and before he could extricate himself both wheels passed over him. Such bold spirits were not to be thwarted by a little accident like that, and they moved on to Marietta.”9

The Stockade at Marietta, Ohio

Indian Threat Interrupts Journey

About this time, the Shawnees and their new young chief, Tecumseh, were showing signs of dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of GreenVille which the various tribes had agreed to in 1795. The possibility of an Indian uprising caused the Munger party to stay for some months within the friendly walls of the stockade at Marietta, Ohio. Then, early in 1798, they moved down the Ohio River about twelve miles below Marietta to the little settlement of Belpre. Here they stayed long enough to grow a considerable corn crop.

The year 1799 was one of relative amity between the Indians and the white settlers. Tecumseh was holding councils with all the tribes in the south and Midwest as he sought to form a confederation of the Indians strong enough to withstand the continuing encroachment of the white men into Indian Territory. Consequently, for the first time in many months, and then for a very short period only, the Ohio River was free of marauding Indians in their 20-man war canoes.

The Shawnees were masters in hiding behind bushes and trees along the river where they could intercept the boats of the settlers. The area around the mouth of the Scioto River was a favorite spot. Sometimes they dressed in the clothes of the settlers and lured passing boats to shore. In a three-year period, more than 1500 white men, women and children met their deaths along the Ohio River, many by extreme torture.

Taking advantage of this lull in Indian atrocities, the Munger party left Belpre in the early spring of 1799 to travel down the Ohio River in pirogues -- flat bottom boats especially designed for this specific trip. They were intended to be disassembled at their destination so that the rough lumber could be sold for the building of cabins and barns. The boats were decked to protect the women and children, household goods, provisions and clothing. In addition to the above, the boats were loaded with the wagons and harness, the hogs, and much of the corn crop.

Each boat was supplied with a large steering oar at the rear, and the boat was intended to float with the current. The men kept long wood poles available for pushing off from any obstruction or shallow water area. Benjamin Maltbie and the older boys brought the horses and cattle by land, and were reunited with their families each night along the river.

Despite the seeming lack of interest in this party by the Indians, there was an ever present danger of being waylaid by some wandering braves. That the Munger party was extremely lucky is indicated by a letter written just a few weeks after the party completed their journey.

Fort Washington

May 15, 1799

By letter dated 4th May 1799, I am informed from Col. David Strong commanding at Detroit, that there is a report of a body of Indians collecting, who are meditating some hostile operations against some parts of the frontier. I am requested to make it known to the public.

Edward Miller

Captain, Commanding

Somewhere along the river, one of the boats struck an unseen object and overturned. A feather bed with one of the younger children, apparently the four-year-old Reuben, youngest son of Edmund, floated away down the river. The child was quickly rescued and the boat was pulled to shore and soon righted. The wagon with all the possessions it contained, presented a more difficult task, but everything was made ship-shape after a drying out period, and the journey was continued.

After a river voyage of approximately 225 miles from Belpre, during which the party traveled from 12 to 20 miles each day, the Mungers finally arrived at Columbia, the tiny settlement just a few miles northeast of Losantiville. Both towns now are incorporated into the city of Cincinnati. As they were landing in Columbia, the hogs became frightened and most of them swam across the wide Ohio River to the Kentucky side and the freedom of the dense forest there.

Almost immediately after arriving at Columbia, the boats were exchanged for some additional supplies, and then the horses were harnessed and hitched to the wagons which were once again loaded with all their possessions. The intrepid settlers then started north following a faint trace along the Little Miami River.

The Wilderness Trail

Ahead of them was a vast expanse of wilderness. Once started on their way, the little entourage was virtually swallowed up in the virgin forest that was broken here and there by a gash where an unknown stream wended its way; and even the stream appeared dark and forbidding. Colossal trunks soared upward until their foliage merged together far above the travelers to form a dark, leafy canopy.

The days were shortened by the darkness that closed in as soon as the sun was no longer overhead, and the bent rays of sunlight were diminished by the intermingled tops of the trees. Even at noontime, the light that filtered through the tall trees was dim and eerie.

The overland trip was made more unpleasant and hazardous because they were strangers in a virtually unexplored land and had no guide to lead them. Always there was the fear of hostile Indians who might be silently creeping up on them or waylaying them on their journey. The Treaty of GreenVille had made this Ohio country no longer Indian land, but the Shawnees still considered these settlers to be trespassers.

After nearly ten days of hard travel, the Mungers arrived at their predetermined destination in what is now Washington Township in Montgomery Country, Ohio. As Edmund told it: “We arrived here May 9, 1799, cleared off the spice bushes, girded the trees on nine acres of ground, planted corn and in the fall had a smart crop for our diligence and care.”10

Edmund Munger selected a 504.86 acre tract in Sections 4 and 5 of Township 2 and Range 5 near the headwaters of Holes Creek. The creek rises from springs near Yankee Street and Austin Road. His land was north of Austin Road and Social Row Road, bordering both sides of the present Yankee Street for almost a mile. The land patent issued to Edmund by President Thomas Jefferson is dated October 12, 1805. The 1804 county tax duplicate shows that he already had paid a tax of $2.40 on this property. In 1827, he purchased a 15-acre tract along the west side of Yankee Street, north of the intersection with Spring Valley Road. This land he sold in 1830 for same price he paid for it - $100.

Jonathan Munger selected 208.02 acres of land south of Austin Road and west of Yankee Street, near the Warren County line. Benjamin Maltbie, then 26 years old and single, claimed 208.02 acres almost opposite Jonathan’s farm site on the east side of Yankee Street and south of Social Row Road.

A New Home in the Wilderness

The children of Edmund and Eunice Munger recalled vividly their first days in their new home. The women and younger children continued to sleep in the cloth-covered wagon beds while small long cabins were being built. The men and the older boys slept alongside a large log over which a canopy of bark had been constructed.

The two families pitched in together, and with the help of Benjamin Maltbie, soon erected a log cabin on each prospective farm. Under the strokes of their axes, even the mightiest giants among the trees fell. These men had acquired, through many years of practice, an unbelievable skill with an axe. As children, when they could barely lift an axe, they were called upon to cut firewood for daily needs. They soon learned how to build a house or barn, how to fence a field, how to put handles on a plow, and even how to build a wagon or sled.

A Home in the Wilderness

Trees were felled and cut to proper length. The oxen and horses were used to haul the logs to the cabin sites. The longs were notched and placed in position by the men, utilizing the horses to pull the top longs into place by rolling or sliding them up smooth logs slanted against the sides of each structure. The forest was searched for proper logs for making clapboards used on each roof. This called for straight-grained logs. The boards were generally split about four feet in length and used without planing or shaving. Straight logs were split, hewn and smoothed with a broadaxe for the puncheon flooring.

Everyone participated in the work. The children collected stones from he creekbed for the foundations, and it was they who “chinked” the openings between the logs with a plaster made from mud and interlaced with sticks, grass, and animal hair. After a log chimney was built at one end of a cabin, the children plastered it on the inside with the same mud compound. The older children scrambled over the tops of the cabins, fastening the clapboard in place on the roofs using logs placed lengthwise and bound firmly to the structures. Where needed, wood pegs were used in place of nails which were not available.

Trees cut down and not used in building the cabins were stacked for later use in building the barns and fences. The largest trees were left standing but were killed by cutting them with an axe until the bark connection was severed. Such dead trees were removed later as time permitted.

Once the cabins were completed, a rough puncheon table was built for each cabin along with three-legged stools. Wide, low platforms were built to support the featherbed mattresses brought from the East. Long wooden pins were driven into the log walls to support shelves upon which were displayed the pewter or potmetal owned by each family. Other pegs held clothing or strings of fruit being dried for winter use.

Greased paper admitted a dim light through the windows. Later, the paper was replaced with glass when it was brought up from Cincinnati. Once the more essential work was completed, a puncheon ceiling was built and a ladder was added for access to a loft sleeping area for the children.

Women in the Wilderness

The women helped by “clearing the land,” cutting off the spice bushes and other undergrowth, and grubbing out their roots so that they could then plant the corn, potatoes, turnips, beans, cabbage and flax. It was a very laborious life for these women.

They still had to do the cooking washing, sewing, cleaning the wild game that the men had killed, and smoking such game as was kept for winter eating. With the help of the children, they made the soap and candles, milked the cows and fed the pigs and cattle. For the first few months, until pens and fences could be built, the pigs were allowed to roam unrestricted in the forest where they found much of their food.

Only Eunice Munger was free of the more laborious tasks. She was “with child” during all of the hazardous trip from Belpre; and less than three weeks after arrival at the new homesite, on May 29, 1799, Festus was born. Perhaps the journey down the Ohio was too hard on Eunice, especially the misadventure when the boat upset, for this sixth child of Edmund and Eunice Munger only lived a very short time.

In those early days, the Mungers never lacked for food. There was an abundance of game all around them -- deer, elk, black bears, beaver, raccoon, rabbits and squirrels as well as wolves, foxes, opossum, wildcats and porcupines. Wild turkeys, pheasants and passenger pigeons were especially plentiful. The passenger pigeons, now extinct, were a primary food source just as they had been for the Indians. They could be knocked off low-lying tree limbs with a club; as many as twenty could be killed with one swing of the club. An ornithologist in 1806 reported a flight of these birds three miles wide and forty miles long. A few years later, another birdwatcher reported a migration of passenger pigeons one mile wide and 240 miles long -- more than two and a quarter billion birds.11 The sun was hidden for many hours.

Beers, in The History of Montgomery County, tells of a man named Clawson, a celebrated hunter, who went to the blacksmith shop of Edmund Munger to have some work done and was told that: “...he could not do the work as his family was out of meat and he (Edmund) must go into the woods to kill some turkeys.” “I can kill more turkeys than you can,” said Clawson, “and if you’ll go into your shop and work on my horse, I’ll go into the woods and do your hunting.” The proposition was accepted, and Clawson, borrowing an old horse with one of the boys as a helper, started into the woods. In the evening he returned and made good his boast, for the old horse was loaded with twenty-one fine, fat turkeys.12

One night, Jonathan Munger, hearing a noise in the top of an old elm tree which he had cut down near his house, fired his rifle in the direction of the sound and re-entered his home. He forgot about the incident until about noon the next day when he discovered his hogs devouring the carcass of a deer which his random shot had killed.13

On another occasion, Jonathan had a run-in with a black bear cub on his property. His children had never seen a bear until one day one of them reported that a “monster black cat” was in a tree near the cabin. Jonathan, a spry man, promptly went after the cub, climbing the tree, clubbing the bear and knocking him to the ground where the dog and the Munger children finished him off. Jonathan never realized the danger he and the children would have been in if the mother bear had shown up; but he said, “Them that knows nothin’, fears nothin’.”14

In addition to the wild game, the Mungers found an abundant supply of wild berries and fruit: strawberries, blackberries, elderberries and grapes. The forest was full of walnut, hickory and butternut trees, plus many hollow trees loaded with honey.

By late August 1799, young Chief Tecumseh again was holding councils with the various Indian tribes in northern Ohio. This led to a panic among the early settlers as ungrounded fears of an Indian uprising increased. A stockade and fort were quickly built on Peter Sunderland’s land near the northeast corner of what is now the intersection of Far HiIls Avenue and the Alexandersville-Bellbrook Road. Actually, the settlers were entering upon an unusually quiet period with the Indians. There were many stories of Indians who shared the game they had killed with the settlers. Still, the men kept their guns nearby when working in the fields and even carried them on the Sabbath when the families went to a neighbor’s house for religious services.

The Yankee Settlement

In the next few years after the arrival of the Mungers, there was an influx of settlers in the general area. Noah and Jemima Tibbals arrived from Norfolk, Connecticut and built a cabin on 575 acres of land just north of and adjacent to Edmund Munger’s homestead. Jemima Tibbals was a sister of Eunice Munger.15

Seth and Eunice Judd Kellogg, the parents of Jemima Tibbals and Eunice Munger, followed their daughters by leaving Norfolk in 1805 for a new home in Ohio. They selected a 127-acre tract along the south side of Social Row Road in Section 34. Their two sons, Ethel and Elihu Kellogg, established homesteads in 1808 on the west side of Yankee Street just south of the Miamisburg-Centerville Pike (State Route 725). Ethel Kellogg was married to Charlotte Munger, a daughter of Jonathan.16

With so many families living near one another it was not long before a road was constructed connecting the various properties, which collectively became known as the Yankee Settlement since only families from the East lived there. The road, when it was laid out in 1804, was first known as “the road to Major Munger’s settlement.” Later, the other township settlers who came in large numbers from southern states such as Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky labeled it “Yankee Street”.

The rapid settlement of the township established a security blanket over the area. No longer were the people so afraid of marauding bands of Indians sweeping down on an isolated cabin to kill, plunder and steal horses. Although there still was an encampment at PiquaTown, most of the Indians had gathered in the northwestern part of the state.

While these New Englanders had very little in worldly goods in this new land, their wants were few and exceedingly simple.

Even when game was still plentiful, they depended essentially on agriculture. They soon had fields of corn, wheat, oats and flax growing near their homes, as well as vegetable plots of generous size.

Tools were very primitive. The axe continued to be the most important tool, for with it they grubbed and cleared off the land after which they dug holes with a hoe to plant the corn, flax or vegetable seeds. Later, they used a plow in the fields, but for some years they literally took their lives in their hands when they plowed. There were hidden stumps, roots and rocks in their paths as well as nest of poisonous snakes or angry bees.

These New Englanders were able to be independent and free of major financial entanglements. They provided whatever they needed. The yield from their farm work and hunting was shared with each other in those first years. They enjoyed a very harmonious relationship and they made it a point to always know who needed help or care if someone was ill. They worked together to provide welfare for all.

The settlers assisted one another when a new house or barn was built. They made a joint project out of providing cloth for wear. Children also joined in turning flax into cloth: pulling it, spreading and watering it, winding or “scotching” it, and then hacking, spinning and weaving the final cloth. At harvest time, the children made a game out of thrashing out the small grains by beating them out with flails. Road making and bridge building were community work.

Food Plain But Plentiful

The food was quite plain, consisting generally of coarse cornbread with potatoes, cabbage and turnips to go with the venison or turkey. For winter consumption, meats and carrier pigeons were smoked, herbs and vegetables were dried; and corn was dried and ground by hand into meal for bread, mush and pudding. Corn, barley and rye were parched and used as a substitute for coffee. Tea was made from sassafras roots and sage. Sugar came from maple sap. Every spring, a year’s supply of brown sugar was put away in a barrel. The herd of cows, which grew to twenty-one by 1826 on Edmund’s farm, provided milk in adequate amounts to assure a continuing supply of butter.

The cooking was done on an open fire in the fireplace. A three-legged Dutch oven, some skillets and an iron pot were the chief utensils. A turkey or a joint of meat often was hung in front of the fire, suspended on a strong cord; and one of the children usually was kept busy turning it so it would roast well. Baking was done in the Dutch oven, although, when the weather permitted, it was more often done outdoors in a clay oven kept heated with wood and brush. Cornmeal, molded into “Johnny cakes” was baked on a slanting board before the fire.

Open Fireplace Cooking

The supply of wild game gradually diminished when the saturation of the area with new farms led to the destruction of ground cover as trees and bushes were replaced by tillable land. At the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the larger animals had virtually been eliminated. The last bear to be killed in the township was shot in the fall of 1826 on the farm of Daniel Himes at the southeast corner of the present intersection of Normandy Lane with Alexandersville-Bellbrook Road.17

The Mungers continued to work their respective farms and, as more of their land was cleared, the farms became more productive. The raising of hogs was especially profitable. Hogs were relatively east to raise, for they got fat on the profusion of acorns and beechnuts that covered the floor of the surrounding forest. Edmund’s son, Festus Elizur, recalled frequently driving his father’s hogs through what was still a virtual wilderness all the way to the market in Cincinnnati.18

By this time, there were enough stores and mills in the township that any needed food supplies were readily available to supplement the vegetables, fruits and domestic animals raised on township farms. As trade routes into this newly opened land were developed, better furniture and other necessities became available from the East to replace the more crude, homemade counterparts in the cabins. Also, as the families continued to grow in numbers, the cabins were enlarged by the addition of rooms.

When Edmund and Eunice Munger moved into their Yankee Street home, there were five children in the family: Warren, age twelve years; Truman, age ten years; Edmund Kellogg, age eight years; Minerva, six years; and Reuben, four years. Elizur, who was born in Middlebury, Vermont just a year before the family left that town, died before the Mungers reached their new home; and Festus, as we have noted, also died in infancy. The family continued to grow with the addition of Eunice in 1801, Sarah in 1803, a second Festus Elizur in 1805, Milton in 1807 and Isaac Newton in 1812.

The Puritan Training

Religion was of major importance in the lives of the Mungers. When they were first establishing their homes in this wilderness, a large group of Baptists from Kentucky formed the first church congregation in Centerville: the Baptist Church of Sugar Creek, now the First Baptist (Cross Point) Church of Centerville. These New Englanders, however, were unswerving Presbyterians. It was almost 30 years before they built a church, probably because of the vast amount of work that had to be done in grubbing out their homesites. The lack of money in those early years also was a major factor in the delayed building of a church.

So, in these first years, these settlers from Vermont and Connecticut met informally on Sundays to observe the Sabbath with seriousness, sincerity and reverence. They first met in the various cabins, but as the little settlement grew, the meetings were transferred to the larger barns on the farms. When the weather permitted, the ceremonies were conducted out-of-doors.

Generally, however, they met in Edmund Munger’s barn, in which case the animals and farm implements were always moved out of the way. There are two barns in back of Edmund’s home on Yankee Street, with the one nearest the house judged to be the older of the two. This may be the barn that sheltered the congregation. James H. Munger, a grandson of Jonathan, recalled that the first religious meetings he ever attended “were held in General (Edmund) Munger’s barn where everything was always in perfect order with rakes and forks all hung up out of the way.”19

At this period in the congregation’s history, the preaching of a virile type was done usually by one of the male members. Sometimes a traveling minister or so-called “circuit preacher” performed these services. Such ministers always found a warm welcome at the homes of both Munger brothers.

These religious meetings performed another function. They became a public clearinghouse for important news of the day. These Sabbath meetings also constituted social gatherings at which neighborhood gossip was exchanged after the more serious religious observance had been completed. For one day of the week, the drudgery and stress of the frontier life was put aside. Prepared lunches were taken to the religious setting, and everyone gathered around for the most sumptuous meal of the week.

Edmund Enters Politics

Edmund Munger’s Puritan background soon became even more evident as he became active in township and county political, educational and cultural affairs after having first established his farm and his blacksmith business. He entered political affairs shortly after Congress recognized Ohio as the seventeenth state on February 19, 1803 with Dr. Edward Tiffin as the first governor.

With the ratification of the new state, eight new counties were created, including Montgomery County, formed out of a section of Hamilton County. Edmund was one of twelve county residents whose names appeared on the April 3, 1804 ballot for County Commissioner. Of the 769 votes cast, Edmund received 249 to lead the other two elected officials: John Darst and William Browne. Daniel C. Cooper of Dayton received less than half as many votes as Munger’s total.20

The first session of these commissioners was held at Newcom Tavern in Dayton on June 11, 1804. The length of time each commissioner was to serve was determined by lot. Edmund Munger drew the two-year term. The county at that time included the territory in what is now Montgomery County, plus Miami, Preble and a portion of Darke County.

On the next polling date, October 2, 1805, only two county commissioners were to be elected. Again Edmund was the top vote getter with 274 out of the 675 votes cast for nine candidates. It is interesting to note that in this election, Jonathan Munger received 54 votes for county commissioner in Washington Township to only four votes for his brother.

The First Statehouse of Ohio

Edmund continued to hold this county political office until 1808, when, on October 21, he was elected to the Ohio Seventh General Assembly which met at the state capitol in Chillicothe in December.21 Daniel Hoover was elected to fill his position as County Commissioner. However, Munger’s service as an elected state representative was of rather short duration, for his duties as an officer in the state militia demanded more of his time in the county as war clouds darkened.

Forced to confine his activities to his home area, Edmund ran for and was elected Clerk of Washington Township on March 10, 1809.22 He continued to be re-elected to this office every year, even through the War of 1812, until he finally withdrew his name from further consideration in 1827. His fine legible penmanship was especially valuable in this post. When he ended this career, he was nearing his 65th birthday.

It was also in March of 1809 that Edmund Munger was first appointed a Grand Juror. There is nothing remarkable about such an appointment except that he was constantly called upon to serve in this capacity. No one else in Washington Township ever was appointed to this service so many times. This service continued through 1828.

The First Schools

With the recognition of Ohio as a state in 1803, it is probable that the first schools were started in Washington Township. Edmund Munger was one of the first to press for the establishment of formal schooling. The Munger children attended school in a log cabin where puncheons were used as desks. The boys sat on one side of the small room and the girls on the other side. The fireplace at one end of the cabin offered the only good light if there was a fire, for the windows were small and, at first, covered with greased paper.

Schoolteachers were hired on subscription contracts whereby room and board was provided in exchange for their services. The teacher would spend a week or two with one family before moving into another household. The Bible and a speller generally were the only books. Hervey Munger, a son of Jonathan, stated that “the first schools were very poor and the children were not given much opportunity for an education.”23 Schooling also had to take second place to farm work. James H. Munger recalled that he sometimes went to school only two or three weeks during the winter, depending on the weather and the work that had to be done.24

After a state education law was passed in the mid-1820’s, and a mandatory county one-mill property tax was imposed, the schools improved as local tax money was made available. In Washington Township, nine district schools were built. Schoolhouse Number 7 was built on land leased from Edmund Munger in 1827.25 The rather extensive collection of books which Edmund owned provide some measure of his continuing interest in education and the acquisition of knowledge and is further evidence of his strict Puritan training. When the executors for his estate were listing his many possessions after his death in 1850, they noted the following titles: the Bible; Statute Laws of Ohio, 1804; Dialogue of Devils (2 volumes); Dodridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul; John Bunyan’s Works (3 volumes); Publication of the American Tract Society (Volume 3); Bunden Village Sermons; Bunyan’s Holy War; Swift’s Discourses; Blair’s Sermons; and Banter’s Saints.26 This is an unusually large collection of books for a frontier home. Oddly enough, after Edmund’s death, the Court awarded this library to his widow, Eunice, who could neither read nor write.

His interest in books led to Edmund’s joining some other township residents in 1810 to form the first library in Centerville.27 A joint stock company was formed on February 19 by 16 township residents to establish the Washington Social Library Company, incorporated under state law and operated under a state charter. Edmund Munger, Benjamin Maltbie, Daniel Bradstreet, Noah Tibbals, John Harris, Ethel Kellogg and Jeremiah Hole were appointed directors. Five other members of the Munger family were among the charter subscribers.

The library was kept in operation under the charter provisions for 30 years, and was a source of culture and knowledge for the entire township. It came to an end when a stranger in the community deviously gained control by surreptitiously buying up a controlling number of shares. Even though the charter had been obtained with a pledge that it would only be used for a library, the conniving stranger converted the charter to the establishment of a bank in Miamisburg that soon failed.

Edmund Munger and the Ohio Militia

Early in 1804, Governor Edward Tiffin issued a call for the organization of a state militia in Ohio. All free, able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 were enrolled in the militia “with the exception of preachers, judges of courts, jailkeepers, customs and post officers, stage drivers and ferrymen on mail routes.” They were required to have a good smooth-bore, muzzle loading flintlock or musket or a more modern rifle, a bayonet, belt and knapsack, two spare flints, a pouch for 24 cartridges, or a powder horn, a fourth pound of powder and 24 balls. Officers had to wear a sword or hanger. Training days and the Fourth of July were big days for all citizens whether in the militia or not; but, in truth, there was very little training the first two years.

The First Division of the Ohio militia included recruits from Hamilton, Clermont, Warren, Butler, Greene, Montgomery and Champaign Counties. When first formed, recruits from Greene, Montgomery and Champaign Counties made up the Third Brigade. By 1807, Miami County was established, with Preble County being formed in 1808. As the population grew and more counties were formed, a reorganization of the militia, just prior to the War of 1812, led to Montgomery County being assigned to the Fifth Brigade along with Preble and Miami Counties.

Major General John S. Gano of Cincinnati was appointed by Governor Tiffin to command the First Division. Brigades nominally were under the command of brigadier generals, battalions under majors, and companies under captains. The company officers were elected by the amateur soldiers who sometimes ended up dismissing them, too. Brigadier generals, lieutenant colonels and majors were elected by company officers.

Unswerving in his service to his neighbors and to his country, Edmund Munger was one of the first to sign up for militia duty although he was then 41 years old. Too young to serve in the Revolutionary War, he lacked battle experience and command experience. Yet, his qualities of leadership were so evident that he was immediately elected a major. As Lazarus Munger, one of his grandsons wrote: “He was a man of great enterprise and strong individuality, looked up to and considered as one having authority.”28

Sometime before July 17, 1809, Edmund was promoted to colonel and was assigned to the temporary command of the Fifth Brigade of the First Division of Ohio militia, for on that date he wrote a letter to General Gano: a letter now in the files of the Cincinnati Historical Society, and signed it Col. Edmund Munger. On May 25 of that year, an election was held to name a brigadier general to command the Fifth Brigade. Munger won the election to this high rank although a contingent of officers from Miami County contested the election of the basis that they had not been properly notified or polled.

In his letter to General Gano on July 17, 1809, Colonel Edmund Munger stated, in part:

“I understand that the officers in Miami County have contested the Election for Brigadier General. But I think they have the least reason to complain of any in the Brigade, for they had notice before any other Regiment in the Brigade and had all their strength collected at the Election and how they knew that they had not gained the Election is more than I can tell for I never have heard how the votes turned out.

“I received Notice that they intended to contest the Election on the grounds that they were not legally Notified, agreeable to the 6th Section of the Militia Law. The General Orders were read when the officers were all present, except two in the Regiment, at the Election for Colonel, the 16th day of May and the Election for General was on the 25th which was at least nine days notice.”29

There must have been considerable delay in the formal notification of his higher rank, for on October 20, 1809, he submitted a Return of the Fifth Brigade and signed it as Colonel Commanding. There were then 1,824 men under his command, including 150 officers, 224 non-commissioned officers and 1,449 rank and file. This total included a detachment of 44 cavalrymen and another of 194 riflemen. There also were 40 musicians, either fife or drum. Barely 15 percent of the men were properly equipped with a musket or rifle.30

Tecumseh’s Dream of a Confederation

The Shawnee chief, Tecumseh (Rising Star) and his younger brother, Tenskwatawa (The Prophet) had been stirring up the Indian tribes for several years. The fear that Tecumseh would lead an uprising had led President Thomas Jefferson to issue a call on October 29, 1808 to hold the Ohio militia in readiness for combat service. While this order was rescinded by President James Madison on May 18, 1809, the order did serve to bring the militia to full strength and to be more completely equipped.

Tecumseh, Chief of the Shawnees

Tecumseh had a dream -- a dream of a confederation of all Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River from the south of Canada all the way to Florida. He believed that such a confederation, united in one purpose and under his direction, could form a barrier against any further penetration of the white man into Indian lands; and, conceivably could drive the white settlers back to the sea from whence they had come.

Only Tecumseh could create such a confederation of the various Indian tribes which seldom were united in any endeavor and often fought with one another. Tecumseh was a most unusual Indian chief. In fact, he was one of the most outstanding individuals of his day -- a born leader and a military genius. Born near the Indian village of Chillicothe in Ohio on March 9, 1768, the son of the Shawnee chief, Puckeshinwah, he was one of nine children delivered of a Creek woman. The Prophet was one of younger triplet brothers and made claim to psychic powers as he sought to lead the Indian tribes back to their old way of life and morality.

Extremely intelligent, Tecumseh was a statesman, a visionary, an eloquent speaker; and, apparently, he was endowed with considerable psychic power, considering the accuracy of his predictions. He had learned to speak and write the English language. William K. Beall, the assistant quartermaster in the Army of the Northwest during the War of 1812, wrote in his diary that Tecumseh “...is a very plane man, rather above middle size, stout built, a noble set of features and an admirable eye.”31

Others who had met him described Tecumseh as handsome, naturally pleasant and gentle except when he believed that he and other Indians were being mistreated or deceived. He was said to have been about five feet ten inches tall, perfectly proportioned as a natural athlete, strong, and possessed of an enormous power of endurance. He never allowed any torturing or scalping of his enemies.

Harrison’s Treaty with the Indians

Governor William Henry Harrison of the Territory of Indiana may have helped to precipitate the War of 1812 in the West when he effected a treaty on September 30, 1809, with a select few peaceable chiefs of the Miami, Eel River, Delaware and Potawatomi tribes. This fraudulent treaty, made at Fort Wayne, transferred to the United States approximately three million acres of Indian land lying east of the Wabash River -- land not solely theirs to barter away since a previous treaty had assigned this land to a dozen tribes for their exclusive community use as hunting grounds. Some said that Harrison hoped to emulate his father-in-law (John Cleves Symmes) by acquiring a large portion of this land for his own use and at a very low price. The treaty, however, was arranged with the approval of President Madison; and cost a cash price of only $8,000 plus an annuity totaling $2,350.

Harrison waited to arrange the treaty meeting until he received word that Tecumseh had left the Territory on one of his trips to unite the southern tribes. When Tecumseh heard about this treaty that gave away the hunting grounds of the Shawnees, he was infuriated and refused to abide by it. He began seriously to plan a campaign of retribution against Harrison and the settlers.

Part Two

War Fever

By 1811, the settlers on the western frontier were convinced that another war with the British and the Indians was inevitable. Once again, Governor William Henry Harrison executed a military action that certainly speeded up the outbreak of the war. Disturbed by the mass movement of Indian tribes in the area, he marched into Indian lands with an army of 1020 men. They ascended the Wabash River Valley to Terra Haute where they built a fort.

Tenskwatawa – The Prophet

Then, using the stealing by the Indians of some horses from the settlers as an excuse, Harrison marched his army to Prophet’s Town at the junction of the Wabash River and the Tippecanoe River where there was a large enclave of Indians. There, at 4:00 a.m. on November 7, 1811, the aroused Indian warriors attacked Harrison’s army. The fighting continued until the Indians discovered that the Prophet had deserted them. Tecumseh was out of the state at the time.

The Indians then fled their town, leaving it for Harrison to destroy by burning, after first carting away the cases of new British rifles his men found in the town. He claimed an impressive victory, even though he lost 82 men plus over 100 wounded versus 36 Indians killed. Tecumseh, furious over this disruption of his carefully planned campaign, branded his brother for his cowardice, to be forever shunned and despised. He then traveled to Canada where he offered his services to the British and accepted a command post equivalent to a general in the regular army.

Almost simultaneously with the Battle of Tippecanoe, the Ohio militia were mustered. Brigadier General Edmund Munger reported on November 10, 1811 that the strength of the Fifth Brigade had increased to 2,413 men, including 147 officers, 297 non-commissioned officers and 1,969 rank and file. Among these were 79 in the cavalry and 290 riflemen, plus 62 musicians. Still not completely equipped, there was a vast improvement over the previous report -- for now the brigade had 794 muskets and 631 rifles, while the officers were equipped with 38 swords and 18 pistols. The cavalry had 73 horses, only six less than the minimum needed.32

Tecumseh’s Sign

Apparently gifted with psychic power, as noted earlier, Tecumseh had been preaching to the Indians for some months that the Great Spirit was behind their efforts to drive back the settlers into the sea, and that he would give them a sign when the time had come. The Indians were told to expect the most extraordinary sign ever to fall upon the land, when rives would run backward, mountains and lakes would disappear and new ones would form.33

Between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. on Monday, December 16, 1811, everything that Tecumseh foretold happened just as he had stated. Beginning near St. Louis, the earth shook and continued to shake throughout a wide area that included Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana Territory, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and the Southwest. The quake was felt as far away as Boston and Philadelphia. Another violent shock occurred the same morning at 8:00, continuing for half a minute.

For a time the waters of the Mississippi River reversed and ran upstream, and its banks were forever changed. Near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, a few miles from the Mississippi River, a huge section of earth sank and water gushed forth to form for the first time Reelfoot Lake. Riverbeds rose in the air and became dry land from then on. The contour of the land changed as Tecumseh had predicted. Whole forests fell in tangles. Streams abruptly ran dry while new ones broke out of the land. Giant waves broke over Lake Erie and Lake Michigan even though there was no wind.

On the Western plains, the land shuddered with a loud grinding sound and herds of buffalo fell to the ground, then staggered to their feet to stampede in utmost terror. Homes through the general area fell in clouds of debris. Bridges collapsed and dams built by man and beaver were torn asunder. No one ever anticipated such a phenomenal happening except Tecumseh.

A third earthquake struck on January 23, 1812, and a fourth four days later. Finally, on February 13 occurred the last and most severe of all -- one that lasted for an hour, with the motion from the southwest. Little material damage occurred in Dayton or Washington Township; just some chimneys cracked, windows broken and pottery that broke when it was jarred off tables or shelves. The settlers and the animals, both domestic and wild, were much alarmed.

Never had the Indians experienced such powerful medicine, and nevermore would they question Tecumseh. Quietly they began to drift north to join with him and his British allies. Those who chose to remain in their villages began savage attacks upon the settlers. A cabin was burned here and there, a horse stolen, cattle slaughtered.

Governor Return Jonathan Meigs at Zanesville received a letter on January 14, 1812, from the commanding officer of the state militia near Greenville in Darke County on the subject of such terror tactics:

“The people of this county are much alarmed at this time by the near approach of the Indian Prophet and his party, consisting of about forty-five warriors, who are hunting about thirty miles from here. We were told by two Mingo Indians who say they are camped about ten miles from this place, that the Prophet and his party are hunting about twenty miles from here, in a western direction. They say they were told by two of the Prophet’s men who came to their camp and said the Prophet’s men would kill every white man they came across. We are about to send out spies immediately to discover whether the Prophet is there or not. Our exposed position would render us an easy prey to the Indians should they attack us...The inhabitants have earnestly requested that troops be send for our protection, and the sooner they are here the better.”34

On April 29th, a man was tomahawked and scalped near the mill at Greenville. Another man was killed near Springfield, still another near Urbana, and a soldier was killed near Fort Recovery. Three men on the Detroit Trace near Fort Defiance were used as targets in a knife-throwing contest. The hostilities had begun.

The War of 1812

The second war with England, usually called the War of 1812, developed out of a long series of oppressions on the part of Great Britain. The treaty of peace signed by representatives of the two countries in 1783 was succeeded by a nominal cessation of hostilities. Great Britain, however, continued to flout the authority of the United States and to ignore the provisions of the treaty by maintaining forts and trading posts on American soil near Detroit and along the Great Lakes.

The western settlers were convinced that the British were encouraging barbarities by Indians, even paying the “savages” for American scalps. There was considerable proof that the Indians were encouraged to murder Americans, to plunder their property and, in general, to spread depredation and devastation throughout the land. There were about 75,000 Indians in twenty tribes in and around Ohio. Their raids in early 1812 were beginning to terrorize the settlers.

In its arrogance, England also assumed the right to stop American ships on the high seas and to search for and impress into British naval service all seamen who had at any time been its subjects. Since this had been true of most American citizens born before the Revolutionary War, many of them, as well as naturalized citizens entitled to protection by the United States, were impressed into British service -- in all, about 7,000 citizen of this country. The British officers were the judges as to whether a seaman should be pronounced a native of America or Britain, and if their ships were short of crew, the decisions were always in favor of Britain.

England, at the beginning of 1812, already was at war with France; and “Orders in Council” were issued to prohibit Americans from trading with the French. An embargo virtually destroyed for a time all American commerce on the seas. At least 400 American ships were captured by the British.

Still the clamor for another war came from the west and the always belligerent south, with New England strongly opposing it. Ohio had much to do with precipitating the war, for the settlers wanted to eliminate the Indian menace on the frontier for all time and to spread out over the territory that had been set aside for the Indian tribes. The greed for cheap land by restless pioneers who always imagined the distant lands to be better than where they were located, was a strong force in the promotion of new hostilities with Great Britain.

For Ohio, a war at this time would be the culmination of a struggle that had been going on for years as the settlers constantly pressured the Indians into smaller and smaller areas of land set aside by treaties now broken. Still, Ohio was woefully unprepared for war. The militia was ignorant of military discipline, lacking in equipment and far short of commissary supplies and transportation.

There was widespread evidence of a lack of unity throughout the nation in support of war. An almost total lack of recruits for the regular army seemed to reinforce this sagging support. Problems of organization, logistics and leadership were staggering. Still, Congress approved a bill early in April 1812, to enlist an additional 15,000 men into the army for a period of 18 months, each man to be paid a bounty of $16 in addition to his regular pay.

Dayton - The Center of Action

Following the action by Congress, President Madison released a requisition for 1,200 of Ohio militia for one year’s service. Governor Meigs then issued orders to Ohio major generals to furnish the required quota of 300 men from each militia division. He designated Dayton as the place for such troops to report to by April 29, armed and equipped as the law required. In Dayton, these men were to be outfitted with new muskets and uniforms.