ULYSSES A. PLYLEY
BY FRANK WARNER, M. D., COLUMBUS, OHIO
On the 19th of May, 1930, Ulysses A.
Plyley died at
the age of 85 years. He was born in the
house in which
he died. This house is located on
Plyley's Ridge, a few
miles west of Chillicothe, Ohio, on the
pike leading to
Greenfield. He was the last child to
occupy this old
homestead of his father, William
Plyley, who had lived
there through his entire married life
and had raised
eight children. The eldest child, Clinton,
was born there
June 20, 1827, and lived until May 8,
1916. His son,
Lindley, now lives across the road in
the ancestral home
established in about the year 1800 by
his great grand-
parents, Casper and Margaret (Gossard)
Plyley, who
came from Eastern Pennsylvania and
settled upon this
plateau which afterwards came to be
known as Plyley's
Ridge, and is still so designated.
These people were
sturdy Dutch descendants. With their
energetic and
economic habits they laid the
foundation for a prosper-
ous future, not alone for themselves
but for those mem-
bers of the family they left behind;
for they raised a
large family and provided them with
farms as they
reached maturity and married. Like all these early
pioneers, it was not without many
hardships and heart-
aches that a sure and prosperous
footing was secured.
In their early years, it was necessary
for the boys to go
barefooted in winter. It was not long,
however, until
this economic difficulty was overcome;
then they could
(200)
Ulysses A. Plyley 201
not only properly clothe the boys but
found satisfaction
and laudable pride in the fact that
some farmers living
in the more fertile valleys were
obliged to come to the
less productive hills to borrow money.
Plyley's Ridge is scarcely a mile wide
and perhaps
four miles long. It is situated between
two narrow val-
leys made by the waters of the North
Fork of Paint
Creek on the north and Owl Creek on the
south. It
rises some three hundred feet above the
valleys below,
the scenery being beautiful from this
height. Mount
Logan and the range of hills extending
north of it are in
plain evidence from certain parts of
the plateau and af-
ford a beautiful view. The inspiring
range of hills on
which is situated Maple Grove Hotel is
seen on the
north; and range after range of hills,
seemingly piled
one upon another, looms on the south.
If these Pennsylvania Dutch emigrants
arrived on
this ridge in the early hours of the
morning, in the early
days of the opening of the nineteenth
century, and ob-
served the glorious sunlit hills all
about them, no won-
der they concluded to tarry there and
found their future
home.
It not only afforded beautiful scenery
about them
but the elevation took them above the
valleys which were
often fever-infected. It was harder to
dig a living from
the poorer soil of the hills than from
the black, rich and
thick soil of the fertile valleys below
them. But there
was a compensation in the better health
these upland
people usually enjoyed. The
malaria-infected valleys
were a constant menace to their
inhabitants. At that
time, it was supposed that a malarial
atmosphere settled
down into the valleys, covering them
and their inhab-
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
itants and causing malarial fevers. Now
we under-
stand what they did not: that a certain
species of mos-
quito, the anopheles, is responsible
for these malarial
infections, and that mosquitoes develop
only around
stagnant water. On the hills, the only
water the resi-
dents usually had was from the wells
they dug. It is
true, an infected mosquito may fly from
its stagnant
breeding-pool onto hills, yet its
flying range seldom ex-
ceeds one-half mile and if it found no
stagnant water
on the hilltop, it would not likely
repeat its flight after
returning to its breeding-place below.
The father of Ulysses, William Plyley,
was born in
1800 and died March 25, 1892. Whether
he was born
on the Ridge or brought as an infant at
the time of his
parents' emigration from Pennsylvania
in 1800, is un-
certain. However that may be, he
continued to live, as
stated, in the same house he founded at
the time of his
marriage, until the time of his death.
His wife, Mar-
garet Zimmerman, died February 14,
1881, at the age of
74 years. The death of Ulysses Plyley
closes this home
to the Plyley family after this
wonderfully long period
of occupancy. As long a period as this
is to occupy one
house, we must remember that William
Plyley had lived
across the road with his parents a
quarter of a century
before his marriage and the building of
this new home
for his bride and himself.
Casper Plyley, the father of William,
and the grand-
father of Ulysses, founded the Ridge
home, as stated,
in 1800. He was born in 1762; fought
through the
War of the Revolution, boy as he was;
came to his new
home in the Northwest Territory, out of
which was soon
carved the State of Ohio, lived until
his death in 1848, at
Ulysses A. Plyley 203
the age of 86, in his new home which is
still occupied by
his great-grandson, Lindlay Plyley.
Casper's wife,
Margaret Gossard, died in 1836 at the
age of 60 years.
They, with many of the Plyleys, are
buried in the nearby
peaceful Concord Cemetery.
In their new location, they must have
encountered
for a number of years hardships of
which they little
dreamed. They were surrounded by
Indians, bears and
wolves for many years after their
arrival. I do not
know that they were ill-used by the
Indians or that they
had any especially exciting encounters
with the wild
animals; but the vicissitudes of an
early pioneer life
were all there and that the hardships
were not a few by
any means we may well feel assured.
Other children of Casper, who continued
to live on
the Ridge for a time, in addition to
William, were Jef-
ferson, Philip and Joseph.
Five characteristic features stand out
prominently
in the Plyley family. They were a
thrifty agricultural
people, showing no disposition to move
about; all rep-
resented a desirable type of
citizenship; nearly all of
them reached advanced years at the time
of their re-
spective deaths, and all of them were
of a religious type
of people; the Concord Presbyterian
Church, near them,
claimed many of its members from the
Plyley family;
and its church cemetery now holds the
remains not alone
of the original settlers of the Ridge
but many of the
descendants down to the most recent
death in the family.
A daughter of William and Margaret
Zimmerman
Plyley, and sister of Ulysses, Mary
Ellen Dolohan, who
died November 6, 1923, at the age of
82, is buried in this
cemetery; as is also her sister, Eliza
Jane Plyley, the
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Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
wife of Thomas J. Cook. She was born in
1830 and
died May
A brother of Ulysses, Carson Plyley,
who was born
October 30, 1834, died October 5, 1894.
This last death, in the passing of
Ulysses, leaves a
lone sister of this once large family,
Alice Plyley Groves,
the youngest of the family, who has now
reached the
age of 83. She lives near Greenfield,
Ohio, comforted
by her son who lives with her, and
where they conduct
a fine farm.
It was not scenery alone that these
newcomers found
among these glorious hills, though they
found that in
abundance, but they found those things
that help to sus-
tain life: an abundance of wild animals
for their meat;
pasturage for whatever stock they may
have brought
with them, for in addition to the
horses they brought
for the motive power to do their
plowing and other
necessary things about the farm life,
these emigrants
usually had a cow or two trailing
behind their moving
wagon; they found an abundance of
berries growing
about these hills; walnuts,
hickorynuts, chestnuts, hazel-
nuts; an abundance of maple-trees from
which to extract
maple juice from which they made their
winter molasses
and maple sugar. Wild turkeys were in
abundance, as
well as wild geese and ducks; also deer
and bears.
These emigrants going to the frontiers,
usually tried to
arrive in the fall of the year, so that
they might get their
farm started in the early spring; their
corn, oats and
garden vegetables planted, as well as
the hay seed, that
they might make the necessary provision
for the ap-
proaching winter. Then with whatever
hogs they may
have raised, together with chickens and
other fowls and
Ulysses A. Plyley 205
animals, they were pretty well prepared
to carry them-
selves over the non-productive period
of the long winter
months. In early spring, great numbers
of wild pigeons
were easily secured.
These people found the ridge on which
they located
their new home, which they and their
descendants were
to occupy so long, to be a wonderful
fruit-growing
situation. Fruit will grow on these
southern Ohio hills
that it is difficult to raise in the
valleys below. A por-
tion of the great Keefaber Fruit Farm
is now located
on Plyley's Ridge. In fact, all through
the range hills
extending south to the Ohio River fruit
trees abound.
Sheep were raised and the wool obtained
found its
way to the spinning wheel and the loom,
and the cloth
for their clothing and the blankets for
their bedding
were produced in this manner.
It was not all hardship that they
experienced. Their
descendants relate many happy days
spent among their
neighbors and friends. This helped to
visibly lighten
the hardships encountered. The elder
families held
faithfully to their tasks of the farm
development and to
acquiring an economic independence that
their descend-
ants might be better prepared to meet
life's problems
than they had been able themselves to
do.
One might search the State over to find
an example
which better exemplified the impress
which the family
and their descendants have made upon
their community
by hard work and honorable living. The
name Plyley's
Ridge will stand as a monument to.the
family who, 130
years ago, settled upon this plateau
and where one of
the descendants still keeps alive the
fires of the old
ancestral home.