Zimmer Massacre - Martin Ruffner

Martin Ruffner

Martin Ruffner came from Shenandoah County, Virginia, and settled in Pleasant Township, Fairfield County, Ohio in 1807. He was accompanied by his mother, brother Michael, and a sister, who married one Richard Hughes. Martin Ruffner returned to Virginia a year or two before he settled in Richland County, and married. In the spring of 1812, he and his relatives located on what is now Staman's Run, in Mifflin Township, half a mile (800 m) a little north of west of the present village of Mifflin. He was of German origin, a bold, fearless backwoodsman, and an uncompromising enemy of the Indians, several of his friends and relatives having been murdered by them. On his arrival in Mifflin he built a cabin on the brow of the hill, not far from the Black Fork, about five minutes walk from the present residence of Mr. Jacob Seaman and on the latter's farm. While building this cabin and clearing around it, with the help of a bound boy named Levi Franghiser, his mother and brother Michael boarded with his brother-in-law. Richard Hughes, while he and Franghiser kept "bachelors hall" at the cabin. They had just entered their lands at Canton, and were preparing for a permanent residence.