Clark County, Ohio

The Ax

From The History of Clark County, Ohio
Chicago: W.H. Beers & Co., 1881 - Page 253

No implement, tool, insignia nor device is more worthy of being wrought in gold, or of receiving the honest regards of mankind, than this emblem of the efficacy of that early edict which decalred that "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread."

Whether "Baltimore pattern," "Yankee," single or double bitted, concave or ridged, "jumped" or new, patent or home-made, double portioned, light or heavy, the tool was essentially the same. It was the consort of the rifle, and the constant companion of the frontiersman, while its echoing ring through the forest was the herald of the coming of "light and law."

It is the medium through which the mighty force of "God's image" in man was made potential, to the end that the wild kingdoms of nature should become the gardens of Christian civilization. It was the wand in the hands of that great conjurer called Progress, whereby the haunts of the savage were transformed into the homes of "My chosen people."