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- WILLIAM SWAZEY AYE, who is the oldest native-born citizen of Marion County to-day and also the first male white child born in Claridon township, has been a resident of Marion and Morrow counties all his life and for the past 13 years has lived in the city of Marion. He is a son of Jacob and Rebecca(Hyde) Aye and was born September I9, 1821, in what is now Claridon township, Marion, Ohio, which township at that time, however, was included in Delaware County.
His great-grandfather came from Germany and settled in Fredericktown, Maryland, in 1750 and there opened a cabinet-shop. He died six months after his first and only child was born. The latter, at the age of about 18 years, married Katharine Dutrow; Jacob Aye, the fifth in the family of nine children that they reared, was our subject's father.
Jacob Aye was born February 22, 1793, in Washington, Maryland, and was nine years old when his parents removed to Berkeley, Virginia (now West Virginia), where for two years the family cultivated a rented farm, planting 75 acres to wheat one year. They then moved to Washington, Pennsylvania, and two years later, in 1806, settled in Berkshire, Delaware, Ohio. Jacob Aye and his father went to Berkshire in the spring of that year, after which they returned to harvest their wheat in Washington, Pennsylvania. The family removed to Delaware, Ohio, in November. Their journey was one of hardship and many trials. The roads were in a terrible condition, consisting in many places of a trail cut through the forest. Grandfather Aye brought five horses and a large Pennsylvania wagon; but as the roads were very crooked in the woods he was able to use only four of the horses and the wagon. Progress was tedious and difficult throughout the early portion of the trip on account of the ground being soft and the wagon was often stuck in the mud. While on the road between Granville and Berkshire the weather suddenly turned cold; while this made traveling easier, it also brought great suffering to the party, one of the daughters having her feet frozen. The first years of their residence in Delaware County were filled with many hardships and privations. They were often without what are usually considered the actual necessities of life. Salt was secured with great difficulty and expense. Mr. Aye had to travel on horseback as far as Zanesville to secure a supply of salt, for which he paid $5 per bushel; the salt was loaded on the back of the horse, which Mr. Aye led all the way to his home. Wheat and corn were also scarce. When, with arduous labor, a little clearing was made around the cabin in the forest and corn and wheat planted, it was only by exercising constant vigilance that the pioneers succeeded in saving a portion of the crop from the ravages of the birds and wild animals that abounded in the region. In order to keep the animals from doing damage to the crop it was the custom when the corn was in the roasting ear for Jacob Aye and his eldest brother to go through the field in the early part of the night while his father and a younger son took their places during the latter part of the night. The educational advantages of the district were so meager during the early period of its settlement that Jacob Aye secured only nine months' schooling during a period of nine years. In 1812 the rifle company to which he belonged was called out and sent to Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) for the purpose of building a fort. The troops beat a hasty retreat homeward when they learned of Hull's surrender at Detroit. Jacob walked all the way back, carrying his rifle and knapsack and also the sword and knapsack of his brother John, who was lst lieutenant of the company and who had gone home previously on a furlough and there had been taken seriously ill. The soldiers encamped not far from Big Island and had trouble in getting fire from their flint and steel as it had been raining for many hours. With the two-fold annoyance of rain and mosquitoes, Mr. Aye was unable to sleep. At daybreak they resumed the march and upon reaching the Little Scioto found it had overflowed its banks. They were obliged to wade across in water that came up to their necks. Upon reaching the Radnor settlement, Mr. Aye left the knapsack with his brother-in-law, John Foos. When he arrived at Delaware he found almost all the people had fled, fearing an attack from the Indians. Nearly every house in the neighborhood was deserted except the Aye home, the family having decided to remain despite what might happen, as John Aye, Jacob's brother, was too ill to be removed. Soon after the war, Jacob Aye was elected captain of a militia company that met in Berkshire.
In December, 1820, Jacob Aye was married to Rebecca Hyde, who was born in Lenox, Berkshire, Massachusetts, September 12, 1792. She had come to Ohio about two years before and had taught school the two summer seasons prior to their marriage. Shortly after their union, Jacob Aye and wife came to what in now Marion County and entered 80 acres in of land in Claridon township. The log cabin where they took up their home and where the subject of this sketch was born in the following September was located about a mile and a quarter northeast of Claridon. In the spring of 1823 Mr. Aye sold this 80-acre tract to Vincent Douce and with his brother Henry purchased 80 acres, adjoining on the southeast the present corporation limits of Caledonia. The surrounding country was heavily timbered at this time but was being rapidly settled and cleared, many of the settlers coming here from England.
About 1824 Jacob Aye and others of a society of the Methodist Episcopal Church that met at Nathan Clark's built a round-log church south of Caledonia, which was the first structure erected in Claridon township for religious purposes. Here William Swazey Aye was baptized by the Methodist circuit rider, Rev. James Gilruth. Daniel Bennett, a cooper, and Mr. Aye made the first coffin interred in the church cemetery, constructing it of a wagon box. In these early days there was a great deal of sickness, chills and fevers being especially prevalent. About the same time the church was built, John Allen erected a saw mill on the Olentangy River south of Thew Cemetery. The neighbors volunteered their services and put in a dam, Mr. Aye working at it several days. After two years a flood took out the dam, which was never rebuilt. About the same time Nigah Rice built a water mill just south of Claridon and Comfort Olds put up a horse-mill on the farm that is now the Harvey Coen farm. Previous to the completion of these improvements, Mr. Aye went to Delaware to mill.
The Indians were frequent visitors at the home of Jacob Aye. On one occasion when alone, Mrs. Aye observed someone pass around the house; the door latch was gently raised, the door pushed upon and a large Indian came into the room. He began to talk in broken English and to make her understand drew a large butcher knife from beneath his jacket. On seeing it, she screamed and he drew back and left. A few days later he met her husband and explained to him that he wanted to sell her a broom made of a hickory sapling by stripping the wood in small splints and had attempted to explain to her with his knife the process of manufacture. From old Tom Lyon, a Delaware Indian, Mrs. Aye secured a butter ladle of buckeye wood that was used until very recent years and is still in the possession of the family. On another occasion two Indians came to the home and bought the dog, a large and ferocious beast, that Mr. Aye never set on anything unless he wanted to kill it. For this they gave $1.50 in money, a red cotton shawl and a cotton handkerchief.
Early in 1826 Mr. Aye and his brother Henry sold their 80-acre farm in Claridon township to John McCue and each entered 80 acres in Canaan township in what is now Morrow County. They followed a trail for some four and a half miles to their new possessions, selected a suitable site, to which they hauled as many logs as was possible. Four days afterwards they returned with their neighbors, in all a party of 14 men, finished the cutting of the logs, put up a house, made the clapboards and cut out a door and a fire-place, all in one day. Into this primitive structure the family moved about the 1st of April. Jacob Aye planted three and a half acres to corn on the 18th of June and raised a good crop. In the following year he planted nine acres, but unfortunately the squirrels ate more than half the corn in the roasting ear and the family had, therefore, but little for themselves. They obtained some corn in exchange for a cow sold to English John Hines. Their hogs were stolen by some thieves which left them almost entirely without meat. During a visit to his daughter, the father of Mrs. Jacob Aye made a loom for her and she aided in supporting the family by taking in weaving. Day after day she plied the loom early and late, the children helping her with the spooling and quilting. In the harvest season Mr. Aye secured work as a reaper for which he received a bushel of wheat per day, while Mrs. Aye at home with her loom earned a bushel of wheat a day; besides plain weaving, she wove table linen, figured blankets and coverlets. About that time they had their last visit from an Indian, Peter Standingstone by name, who brought with him a dozen ponies. One morning when it rained so hard that he was unable to hunt, he came to the house where he enjoyed a hearty dinner. A day or two later he repaid the kindness shown him by bringing to Mrs. Aye the forequarter of a young deer. This farm continued to be the home of Jacob Aye for the remainder of his life, with the exception of a short period spent in Delaware County. In January, 1831, he moved seven miles east of Delaware, where he took charge of a mill for his father-in-law, Mr. Hyde and his brother-in-law, Salina Hyde, and on the latter's death he purchased the property from the heirs, but in the spring of 1834 he sold the mill and moved back to the farm. One object in moving to Delaware County had been to secure better school advantages for his children. His death took place on the homestead in Morrow, August 24, 1871. Mrs. Aye died in her 78th year, September 12, 1871.
In the summer of 1828 the subject of this sketch attended his first school, which was taught in a building located near the present site of the Denmark schoolhouse, the path to it being marked by blazed trees. He attended there about six weeks, his sister accompanying him. In the following year they went about the same length of time. They also went regularly to school while living in Delaware, attending winter and summer terms. On the return of the family to Morrow, the children were obliged to work on the farm in the summer and walk a long distance to school in the winter. In the fall of 1837 the people of the neighborhood built a log schoolhouse on the township line of Claridon and Canaan townships and in this building our subject was a pupil four winter terms. In the spring of 1841 he completed his education by attending for one term the Marion Academy, which was conducted by John J. Williams. Subsequently he taught 11 months, boarding himself and receiving $12 per month.
On October 10, 1844, Mr. Aye was married to Sarah Jane Mitchell, who was born March 27, 1829, in Ross, Ohio, of Irish extraction. They became the parents of eight children, four of whom still survive, namely: Maria P., who is the wife of John Nelson Campbell, a retired farmer residing at Marion; Melville C., who resides at Marion; William M., who resides at Manhattan, Kansas; and Laura F., who is the wife of W. J. Myers, residing at Marion. Mr. and Mrs. Aye continued to reside on the farm one and a half mile east of Claridon for a period of nearly 50 years. In April, 1894, they removed to Marion, where, in the following October, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Aye died February 12, 1906, when almost 77 years of age. For many years she had been a very active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Aye has been a member since 1842. He had served in almost every church office.
Mr. Aye still retains the farm in Canaan township, Morrow, on which his father settled when all the country round about was forest and the red men still resided here. The forest and all its primitive grandeur now live only in the memory of a few pioneers like Mr. Aye. Marion from a hamlet of one store and a few houses, has grown to the importance o£ a thriving and prosperous city with all modern improvements, inhabited by cultured, prosperous and wealthy people. Mr. Aye has always performed the duties of a good citizen and has assisted materially in developing the country, but he has never accepted any political office save that of township treasurer.
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1821 - 1908 (86 years)
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