Indian scout looking at tracks at the edge of Lake Loretta in Alley Park during a performance of Frontier Spirit 1799 presented by the Frontier Players Associaton, Lancaster, Ohio Indian scout looking at tracks at the edge of Lake Loretta in Alley Park during a performance of Frontier Spirit 1799 presented by the Frontier Players Associaton, Lancaster, Ohio Frontier Spirit celebrates it's 25 anniversary performance during Ohio's bi-centennial during 2003 at Alley Park, Lancaster, Ohio
Frontier Players Association presents Frontier Spirit 1799, Alley Park, Lancaster, Ohio last Sat. and Sun in September. Frontier Players Association presents Frontier Spirit 1799, Alley Park, Lancaster, Ohio last Sat. and Sun in September.


 

Captain Joseph Hunter
Fairfield County's First White Settler


Joseph Hunter House
Joseph Hunter Cabin


  
Homepage of the Frontier Players Association, Lancaster, Ohio
General Information about the Frontier Players Association Living Drama Frontier Spirit 1799
Trail Scenes describing 2003 25 yr celebration and bicentennial of the state of Ohio performance
Timeline 1785-1799
Christian Services at the Frontier Spirit 1799 production by the Frontier Players Association, Lancaster, Ohio
Financial Support for the Frontier Players Association
Ohio History in Fairfield County
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Frontier Spirit 1799 presented each year in Alley Park, Lancaster Ohio in September by the Frontier Players Association

Captain Joseph Hunter

By Mark Howes, biographer.


Captain Joseph Hunter was an officer in the Virginia Militia during the American Revolution. Like many of his fellow officers in the new rag-tag Army of the United States, he fought well and bravely. It might be assumed however, he was not paid for his wartime endeavors. In fact, a total of 268 officers of the Revolutionary Army were not paid for their patriotism. They petitioned the young Congress for bounty lands in the Ohio Territory. The Territory had been divided up into twelve land divisions by the mid to late 1790's.

It appears that Capt. Hunter staked his claim in the "Congress Lands" division, and ended up along the Hockhocking River in April of 1798. He built a crude log house about 300 yards south of where present day Route 22 crosses the Hocking River. He and his wife Dorthea allowed the intrepid merchant James Converse to stay with them for a time.

The Hunters were the first to settle in what is today Fairfield County. It is said that at one point their closest neighbor was fifty miles away. Franklinton (present day Columbus) had become a settlement in 1797. The Hunters, arriving from Kentucky established their own little community which soon became known as Hunter's Settlement.

They later had a son, Hocking H. Hunter, who would become a prominent attorney.

By September 1799, Zane's Trace had become a well-established corduroy road over which thousands of new settlers passed each year. Mail was coming through on a weekly basis, and a grist mill was being built by Hezekiah Smith at the place of the bottle in the river or Weh-tha-kagh-gua-sepe in the Shawnee language. The frontier was becoming civilized, and much of the credit goes to the bold and enterprising man from Kentucky known as Captain Joseph Hunter.



A Brief History: Early Settlement of Fairfield County
Tarhe The Crane: Noblest of All Indians
Captain Joseph Hunter
 


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* NOTE: Pictures show scenes from former "Frontier Spirit 1799 productions"
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