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Delaware County, Ohio (July 1, 1914) - In July 1914, John Richey Newhouse1 detailed "the toils and privations of early pioneer life" by documenting the details of the life of his grandfather Anthony Newhouse when he published his genealogy of the Newhouse family, in a book entitled "The Newhouse Family". J. R. Newhouse wrote the following story about the adventurous life of his grandfather, Anthony. "Anthony Newhouse2, the third son of the writer's great grandfather, was born in Louden County, Va., February 10, 1772. He was four years old when his father enlisted in the Revolutionary War, and 8 years old when his father died in the service. He remained with his mother and assisted in raising the family until 17843 when he enlisted in the army ordered out by General Washington for the suppression of the Whisky Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The army was under the command of General Lee, of Virginia. Anthony Newhouse went with the army as far as Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "He remained with the army six months and the insurrection being suppressed, he was discharged. He then returned to Louden County, where he remained six months. From there he went to Old Red Stone Fort in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He then became acquainted with Nancy Coons and married her March 28, 1799. From this place Anthony Newhouse and wife, his father-in-law, John Coons and family, and a man by the name of Henry Moore and his wife, all moved to the Territory of Ohio. They settled on Scippo Creek which is in the present limits of Pickaway county, Ohio, Salt Creek Township. They moved there in the early part of 1800, settled on a place formerly occupied by the Indians. The nearest settlement was Circleville, 13 miles, and Lancaster, 18 miles. They went from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to the Ohio River in Virginia. There Anthony Newhouse put his wife and goods with the other families on the oldfashioned reel boat, the only boat then running on the Ohio River. Anthony Newhouse and John Coons rode their horses, driving their stock before them. They took what was called the Ganes4 Track, a road cut out from Wheeling, W. Va., to Chillicothe, Ohio, by a man by the name of Ebeneezer Gane. For the cutting out of this road Gane received from the government three sections of land. The family of Anthony Newhouse with the other families and their goods went down the Ohio river until they came to the mouth of the Scioto river. There they transferred to the old Piergan boat and went up the Scioto to Chillicothe, where Anthony Newhouse and John Coons met them. "From there they went to Scippo creek, now in Pickaway county, Ohio. They built their cabins close together, it being a wilderness, and they were visited almost daily by the Indians. "There had been no survey made at that time. The land was all government land. Pickaway county was the first county organized in the State. "The first year these families subsisted on corn brought from the Ohio river on pack horses. Deer, bear, wild turkey and wild honey being very plentiful, they got along very well. There were no mills in the country to grind their corn. They made their corn meal as follows: they sawed a log off about 2 feet long and about 18 inches in diameter, burned out one end and dug out until they made what they called a mortar, they then fastened an iron wedge in the end of a stick. With it they pounded the corn in the mortar until it was fine enough for meal. They then fanned the meal with a turkey wing, and it was then ready to be made into bread. "The first year Mrs. Moore died, and Anthony Newhouse and John Coons made a coffin for her out of a Blue Ash tree. They cut off a log and split it into slabs, then hewed the slabs nicely, placed them in the ground for a coffin, lowered the body into the coffin, placing a slab over the top and filled up the grave. This was the first white person buried in that part of the country. "While Anthony Newhouse and wife lived in Pickaway county, they had the following children: "William, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, John, Isaac, Margaret and Eura. "In 1812, Anthony Newhouse enlisted in the second war with Great Brittain from Pickaway county, in the Company of which John Boggs was Captain. This Company was in command of General Tupper. They were sent to Fort Defiance, Ohio, against the Indians. General Winchester was there with his troops from Kentucky. General Harrison was Commander in Chief. "From Fort Defiance, General Tupper went to the town of Wapakoneta, and from there to Urbana, Ohio, where they were discharged. "On their way in the night the Indians stuck a Tommyhock in the thigh of Anthony Newhouse's horse. The horse was badly crippled. He led it back to Pickaway County, Ohio. "While living in Pickaway County, Anthony Newhouse had to go below Chillicothe to what was known as Tuppe Prairie to get seed for planting and sowing and also for hogs to start a herd of swine. He first made his trip for seed potatoes. He went to a man by the name of Henry Abrams, who gave him all the seed potatoes he needed, and also gave him two of the nicest pigs in his lot. He carried the potatoes and pigs on horseback fourteen miles back home. In two years he had all the hogs he needed. "Wolves and panthers were numerous and made night hideous with their screams and howling. "Sometime before the war of 1812-14 a large party of Indians passed through the settlement from east to west, a number of ponies being loaded with lead. Where they got it was unknown, but it was supposed they were preparing for the coming war. "In 1814 Anthony Newhouse sold his farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Pickaway county to Henry Holland and went to Chillicothe and bought 200 acres in Scioto Township, Delaware County, Ohio. He bought this land from Henry Massie and paid two dollars an acre. "After buying this land he went to see it. He walked from Pickaway county to Franklinton, now Columbus, Ohio, the first day, and the next forenoon to the Calls settlement, now Dublin, Ohio. "They advised him there not to go further for the reason that he could not cross Mill creek because of high water. But being young, strong and full of life, he determined to go on. He walked ten miles further north to the mouth of Mill creek-Bellpoint-and found its banks full and floating with slush and ice. It was beginning to get dark and the wolves were commencing to howl around him. To go back was ten miles to the first settlement, to go forward it was five miles to the next settlement. He determined to wade the creek. He cut a pole and using it for a brace started across the stream. The water came up to his arms but he got safely over. He had not left the water but a few minutes when his clothes commenced to freeze. He ran all the way to the Hushaw settlement, afterward Millville, now Warrensburg. In his pitiable condition he rushed to the door, reached forward to knock, but the hogs had rooted a deep hole right in front of the door and he slipped into the hole, fell against the door, burst it open and fell full length into the house, and frightened the old lady and children badly. They supposed it was Indians, the man of the house not being at home and it was just at the time there were so many Indian raids. After an explanation Mrs. Hushaw let him warm and dry his clothes. He then walked up the river a half mile further to James McCume's, who kept a house of entertainment, where he staid all night. This was the house that Col. Richard M. Johnson was brought to after being wounded at the Battle of the Thames. He rested at this house one week before he was able to go to his home in Kentucky. Col. Richard M. Johnson became Vice President under President Martin Van Buren. The next day Anthony Newhouse went on up the river two and one-half miles to the residence of his brother-in-law, Michael Dilsaver. From there he went to see the land he had bought. He then returned to Pickaway county. This was in the month of January, 18445. "The British soldiers who were taken prisoners by Commodore Perry on Lake Erie were marched through the Newhouse settlement about this time on their way to Chillicothe, where they were guarded until they were exchanged. the prisoners and guards numbered about seven hundred. They stopped at Mr. Newhouse's home to get water and rest. "In May, 1814, Anthony Newhouse and family started to move to Scioto township, Delaware county. They brought with them their cattle and three head of horses. After he started he fell in company with a colored man who was going to Franklinton with a four-horse team loaded with corn and a hen coop on top of the load of corn filled with chickens. The colored man persuaded Anthony Newhouse to cross the river two miles below Franklinton. He claimed he knew of a good ford and offered to take the children with him. The children were put on the load of corn and started across the river. By the time the front wheels were in the water the lead horses were swimming. There was no turning back so the four horses, wagon and all swam the river. The wagon bed raised out of the standards, barely holding to the hind standards, when they struck the opposite bank. The hen coop floated off and down the river with the chickens squawking. "Anthony Newhouse and wife stood on the bank unable to render any assistance. They took the children back across the river in a canoe, and then went up the river to Franklinton and crossed in a ferry boat. In two days travel they reached the Hushaw settlement, now Warrensburg, where they remained until after harvest. "Anthony Newhouse farmed some at this settlement and in August of the same year built a log cabin on his own land, one mile west of Millville, now Warrensburg, and moved there in the fall. "That fall the entire family was afflicted with chills and fever but all recovered. Anthony Newhouse cleared two acres of ground, sowed it in wheat and raised a good crop and it made good bread. "The next year he sowed the same ground in wheat. It produced a good crop but proved to be what is called a sick wheat. There was something strange about it. When it was made into bread and eaten it made the person eating it dreadfully sick. No kind of stock would eat it and even hogs would not touch it. The same wheat when sowed again would raise a good crop and the wheat would make good healthy bread. "While living in Scioto township, Delaware County, Ohio, the following children were born to them: "Elijah, Samuel and Anthony. "The first fall he farmed in Scioto township the Wyandotte Indians from Upper Sandusky stole his horses. He never recovered them. "In 1825 he made a trip through the west. While traveling among the Indians he found a family of Newhouses, a brother and two sisters. They proved to be his cousins. The brother was a Baptist minister by the name of John Newhouse. The settlement where they lived was called Flat Rock. "Anthoney Newhouse and his wife Nancy Coons Newhouse, continued to live on the old home farm in Scioto township until they were removed by death. "Anthony Newhouse died July 17, 1851, aged 79 years, 5 months and 7 days. "Nancy Coons Newhouse died April 21, 1863, aged 80 years. "These aged people were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church from early youth. In the early history of the country their house was a place of public worship. In 1840 they were largely instrumental in building one of the first log churches in Scioto township. They were buried in the Newhouse Cemetery on the Old Home farm."
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