MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP — Local historians await results of an archaeological survey done on property with tragic roots dating to 1812.
The Cleo Redd Fisher Museum recently commissioned the work at the Copus Hill Monument ahead of plans to install better signage and a potential walking trail and parking area.
The site marks the spot of the Copus Massacre, a deadly skirmish during the War of 1812. On Sept. 15, 1812, a group of Native American warriors ambushed Rev. James Copus, a minister and early settler, and his family.
The ambush claimed the lives of Rev. Copus and three U.S. soldiers. The rest of the Copus family escaped.
Years later, in 1882, the Ashland County Pioneer Society erected a monument on what was believed to be the gravesite and near the cabin that used to house the Copus homestead.
Kenny Libben, curator of the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum in Loudonville, said no one ever marked the gravesite. Different accounts throughout history placed it at the base of an apple tree that has long since disappeared, he said.
But Sarah Copus, Rev. Copus’ daughter, was still alive when officials dedicated the monument.
“When they were planning the monument, they asked her. She just pointed to a spot and said ‘drive your stakes there,’” Libben said. “So we don’t know for sure if the monument is on the gravesite … or the cabin.”
Seeking clarity
Now, all these decades later, the new property owner wants to enhance the site by making it more accessible to the public. The Mohican Historical Society obtained the property along Township Road 1225 in November.
Libben said the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, a subsidiary of the Mohican Historical Society, received a $3,000 grant from the Ashland County Community Foundation to cover costs for new signage and trail or parking developments.
But an archaeological survey will help guide where those features go on the site, Libben said. A $10,000 grant from the Richland County Historical Society will cover those costs.
He hopes the archaeological survey, done by Ohio Valley Archaeology Inc., will help determine whether the concrete monument is located over the gravesite. The company used a magnetometer and ground penetrating radar on May 28.
Alan Wigton, director of the Richland County Historical Society, said the survey could also help locate other features of the site, including the cabin and a barn.
Both Wigton and Libben said the iron fence surrounding the monument will obstruct data by essentially blinding the magnetometer used during the survey.
Libben said if results elsewhere on the half-acre property don’t show evidence of a burial site, he has looked into the use of cadaver dogs. He hasn’t had luck getting companies who own such canines to respond to his requests, though.
“Most of them are using cadaver dogs for law enforcement,” he said. “But I’ve been told those can dogs work, even on sites up to 800 years old.”
Whatever the results, the site still needs to be treated carefully, Wigton said.
“It probably will remain a mystery, but we will have done the right thing to have done this … We feel it necessary to preserve it, because it’s a core part of Richland County history,” he said.
“Even though it’s now in Ashland County, when it took place, Ashland County didn’t exist yet.”