USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > A complete history of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 9
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Still-houses were numerous there at an early day, and their influences were manifested at public gatherings, such as log- rollings, corn-huskings, house-raisings and sales. There is no village of any consequence in Madison.
We mention a few of the first men, who, with their families, settled on her soil : Ewel Shæffer, Mathew Young, Robert Young, Adam Deffenbaugh. Names of other first settlers have not transpired to me.
The first saw-mill in the township was built by Isaac Shæffer. A man by the name of Aker is referred to as having been the first to carry on the blacksmith business, and the first and only tavern for the time was kept by John Sweyer. In the year 1835, there were five mills in the township, owned respectively by Shaeffer, Deffenbaugh, Welsheimer, Griffith and Guy. The Methodists and Lutherans have churches in Madison. There are two hamlets in the town- ship, known as Clearport and Mechanicsburg. Rev. Mr. Steck, Lutheran, preached there as early as 1816. John Wiley, an extensive stock dealer, settled in Madison in 1828. In 1854, a post-office was established at Clearport, commonly called Abbot's store. The Abbot family have kept the office from its beginning till now.
BERNE TOWNSHIP.
It is said that Berne Township was named in honor of the Canton of Berne, in Switzerland, by Samuel Carpenter, at the time of its organization, a citizen. There are two post-offices in the township-Sugar Grove, eight miles below Lancaster,
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
and Berne Station, on the Zanesville Railroad, six miles east of Lancaster.
Some of the first settlers were four brothers, Reams, Henry Hansel, James Harrod, William Brandon, George Beery, David Carpenter, and others.
George Reams built the first grist-mill. Daniel Reams built the first saw-mill. The township is at present credited with ten churches and prosperous Sunday-schools.
John A. Collins is remembered as an early 'Squire. Mr. Collins was favorably known, and lived to a ripe old age. He was Justice of the Peace fully thirty years.
The first wedding in Berne has been brought to my notice ; that of Joseph Loveland to Miss Shellenbarger, as having taken place in 1802.
Judge Joseph Stukey built a grist-mill on Rush Creek, just at the foot of what is now Sugar Grove, at a very early period. Mr. Stukey will be remembered as having been one of the Associate Common Pleas Judges for Fairfield County. He served a number of years, embracing the year 1840. He died several years ago.
A large portion of the surface of Berne is rough and hilly, but it also contains a great deal of rich, fertile land. That part of the township lying nearest Lancaster was first settled.
PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
Pleasant is situated north of Berne. The origin of the name has not, so far as I know, been handed down. There is a creek running through the township, known as Pleasant Run; but which was named first, or whether one took its name from the other, is not now known. But the township might very properly have been called Pleasant Township, from the extent and quantity of its pleasant and fertile land.
Pleasant Township was early settled. One of the first set- tlements of the county was in Pleasant; and the first grave of a white man was made on the bank of Fetter's Run, as early, I believe, as 1798. Two or three men pitched their tent near the present crossing of Fetter's Run, on the old Zanes- ville road, a little more than one mile north-east of the present site of Lancaster. Within less than a month after their ar- rival, one of their number, Wm. Green, sickened and died.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
There was no possibility of procuring a coffin, and one was improvised by peeling the bark from a kickory tree (it being in the month of May, when the sap was up), and in it he was buried near where the bridge over the run now stands, though I believe no one pretends to point out the spot.
In 1820, a German Reform Church was built in Pleasant, which was in use fifty years, and in 1870 was replaced by a better structure.
Pleasantville is the village of the township, and is nearly on the north line. It has a popular and flourishing seminary. Pleasant was early platted and inhabited. Nearly its en- tire area is arable, and its farmers are mostly thrifty and in good circumstances. The following may be mentioned as of the first settlers : The Hoovers, Ashbrooks, Trimbles, Beerys, Harmons, Hites, Hampsons, Cupps, Ruffners, Kellers, Ewings, Duncans, Feemens, Foglesongs, Radabaughs, Maclins, Ar- nolds, Kemerers, John Baldwin, and others.
WALNUT TOWNSHIP.
Walnut is immediately north of Pleasant. New Salem and Millersport are the villages of Walnut Township; the former is a place of some trade, and two churches; it was first settled, and is situated on the eastern border of the township. Mil- lersport is situated at the southern point of the "Big` Reser- voir," and just where the Ohio Canal enters it. Its thrift and importance is owing, in a large degree, to the fisheries of that artificial lake, which is of several miles in extent in its greatest diameter. The reservoir was formed to supply water to the canal in dry seasons; it is in the northern part of the township. Millersport has the usual churches and schools. Its commerce has been considerable, on account of the ship- ment of grain and other produce.
Walnut Township dates its municipal existence from the year 1807, since which time, I believe, it has undergone no changes of outline.
In 1806, there were not exceeding a dozen families within its borders, and they were distributed in different parts of its territory. Some of these have reached me. Of them I record, William Murphy, Asa Murphy, the Crawfords, Hendrixes, Watsons, and David Lyly.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
A man named Debold is mentioned as having preached the first sermon (of the township, I suppose), at the cabin of Wil- liam Hauer. He was a Baptist, I believe.
At that early day, Walnut, in common with all the town- ships and other parts of. the frontier country, was without roads. Old citizens speak of a trace having been blazed from the Scioto, at a point probably where Columbus now is, through to Zanesville, pushing through Walnut, which sub- sequently was opened into a wagon road.
[A brief explanation of what is meant by a blazed road is necessary, because not one in fifty of the present inhabitants of Fairfield County have any knowledge of them. They were a necessity of the pioneer age. They were called at first, " bridle-paths" and "foot-paths." The manner of opening them was in this wise : One or more men set out with axes from one point to another, say, from one cabin to another, and taking trees in range, and from twenty to forty feet apart, chopped or hewed the bark from the two sides facing in the two directions, thus making a " blaze" that caught the eye readily by the contrast between the bark and the bare wood. Then these blazed trees were followed in both directions, on foot and on horseback, until by use a beaten track rendered the blazes unnecessary. I have known guns to be fired and horns blown, at the outcome, or at points along the way, to guide the blazers].
It is related that William Hauer built the first hewed log- house in Walnut, in 1807, and made in it a puncheon floor, leveling them off with a foot-adz.
The first hand-mill used in the township is credited to Mr. Crawford. The first crop of wheat that promised well was greatly damaged by squirrels. A Mr. Holmes has the credit of building the first brick house within the township-prob- ably about the year 1812.
RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
It is believed that this township was so named because of the richness and fertility of its soil. Richland was cut down in 1817 by striking off two tiers of sections from its eastern side to be attached to Perry County, thus reducing its dimen- sions to four sections wide by six in length, which is its pres- ent area.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHTO.
East and West Rushville, one mile apart, and on opposite sides of Rush Creek, are situated in the southern third of the township. Both these villages have churches and Sabbath- Schools, and their citizens are characterized for temperance and good morals. It is understood that a man by the name of Teal first owned the land upon which West town is built, and a Mr. Turner that where the East town is.
Among the first settlers, the names below are presented : William Wiseman, Theo. Turner, Stephenson and Ijams' families. Judge William McClung was also an early-comer. Judge McClung was a prominent public man, and died in West Rushville in 1876, at a very advanced age, Abram Geil, James Rowland, and Jesse Rowles, are likewise mentioned as among the pioneers in the township. Mordecai Stevens was an early settler and leading farmer ; he lived and died on the land first entered by his father. William Coulson is remembered as a leading man of Rushville, both in trade and as an active and devoted Methodist. Patrick Owens is said to have sold the first goods in Richland; and Moses Plummer the proprietor of the first mills on Rush Creek, between the two villages, in the year 1802, or about that time.
These villages, as well as Richland Township, shared with all other parts of the county in the early organization of relig- ious societies and churches ; but their first meetings were held in the log-cabins of the settlers. Rev. Clymer and James Quinn were pioneer Methodist preachers in Richland.
The first marriage in the township was between Edward Murphy and Sarah Murphy, in 1802. The ceremony was per- formed by William Trimble.
Dr. Nathaniel Waite was a physician in West Bushville at an early day ; and Dr. Ide of East Rushville. The first Post- master's name is given as Marquette. One Harper, is named as the first blacksmith.
In former years vast quantities of tobacco were packed and shipped from both the Rushvilles. It was a staple product of that end of the county. The leading men in the tobacco trade were the Ijams', Coulson and Vansant.
RUSH CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Rush Creek lies south of Richland, and borders on the east of Berne and Pleasant Townships. Settlements began in this
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
township in 1799. It is a six-section township ; Bremen is its village, and is situated about the middle of the township. Rush Creek and Raccoon are the principal streams that pass- through it. The Circinnati and Zanesville Railroad cuts it in the center. Nearly all the surface of Rush Creek is arable and fertile. The name derives from Rush Creek, its principal stream. .
The survey of this township, and of that part of the county, was made by Elenathan Schofield, an early citizen of Lancas ter, soon after the first settlement of the county.
The names of the men who first entered land within the bounds of Rush Creek Township, mostly along Rush Creek, here follow : John Laremore, William Thompson, John Carr, David Martin, William Martin, John Cone, James Young, Charles McClung, Henry Sellers, John Patton, William Mc- Ginnis, John Willis, Abraham Geil, and others.
The township was organized in 1804; and its first election was at the house of a Mr. Hammels, soon after.
In 1810, Samuel Hammel built the first mill, I believe, on Rush Creek ; and a little later Mr. Leib built a saw and grist mill, also on Rush Creek; the same, I believe, is at present owned by the Shaw family. Casper Hufford also built a grist mill on Raccoon very early in the settlements ; this mill, I am told, has entirely disappeared.
The settlmements began along the creeks in 1800, but the eastern portion of the township was settled latter. Many of the first-comers settled down on the squatter plan, and after- wards, when the land came into market, bought their places at two dollars an acre. It is said that no competition was gone into in the purchases, which was the result of a mutual understanding among the squatters.
One of the Larimores was the first Justice of the Peace, and Charles McClung was elected to the same office in 1804. Wm. McClung, a brother, I believe, of Charles, was a prominent citizen of the township. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving under General Sanderson, who was then Captain of a company from Fairfield County. Subsequently he represented the county in the State Legislature, and was Associate Judge of the Common Pleas in 1840 and 1841, or about that time.
The Presbyterians built a hewed log meeting-house in 1807, and were the first religious pioneers in the township. Their
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
preacher for many years was the Rev. John Wright, of Lancas- ter, where he settled in 1801.
Bremen was laid out by George Beery in very early times, and was so named, I have been told, in honor of the city of Bremen, Germany. There is likewise a small village a little south of Bremen, called Geneva. The first woman to settle in the township is said to have been Phebe Larimore, who in 1801 married William Martin. Robert Larimore is reported as the first man to die in the township.
I could not descend into more particularity in separate town- ship histories, without swelling my work far beyond the plan contemplated. Perhaps enough has already been recorded to meet the demands of a county history. I would have been glad to have said more about the original settlers of the first ten years of Fairfield County, did the possibilities exist for acquiring correct information ; but the possibilities do not exist. As before said, the pioneers have all passed away, and with them much of their history. We are, therefore, obliged to be content to gather up what little the records give, which, together with tradition, as far as it will serve, it is hoped, will make a satisfactory reflection of the times from 1798 to 1876, of Fairfield County, Ohio.
In closing up the separate history of the townships, I must again beg readers to excuse little errors, should any be de- tected, since no pains have been spared to arrive at accuracy from all the sources of information available. It is believed the main points of history are all correct; and should small errors be found, they will be referable to differences of recol- lection.
COUNTY FAIR.
The Fairfield County Agricultural Society was first organized in 1851, and held its first Fair in October of that year. John Reeber was President, and John S. Brazee, Secretary. The first Fair-ground was on the west side of Columbus street, on lands belonging to John Reeber, lying a little south of the Reservoir. The Fair was a flattering success; but, owing to the disordered and lost state of the papers, it has been impossible to obtain statistics of that, or several of the subsequent years. Never-
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
theless, the society has held its annual Fairs, viz. : in the month of October, for twenty-five consecutive years, and has grown into one of the best County Fairs in the State.
In 1852, Mr. Reeber, as President, was vested by the Board with power to purchase permanent Fair-grounds, which he accomplished by buying a part of the farm of Thes. Wright, deceased, at the foot of Mount Pleasant, on its western side. The purchase was made from John A. Fetters, Administrator of Thos. Wright, and on very advantageous terms to the so- ciety. The first purchase was twelve or fifteen acres, perhaps less. Subsequently the Widner place was purchased and added to the west of the grounds, and two or three acres from Mrs. Van Pearce on the north, thus making the aggregate of twenty- two acres, which is the present Fair-ground.
The trotting park, amphitheaters, exibition halls, music stand and all other appointments of the grounds are of the best, and have been engineered and executed by skillful and competent men. From the first the citizens of Fairfield County have taken the matter of their Fair in hand with a pride and zeal, nowhere surpassed; nor has the interest at any time seemed to flag in the least.
During the last six or seven years a systematic course of book-keeping has been kept up, from the pages of which some extracts are here introduced. I deem it right, however, first, to say, that Mr. Reeber, first President, served in that capacity for several years, then was out, and subsequently again elected. I would be glad to introduce the names of the various men who, for the first sixteen or eighteen years, filled the principal offices of the society, but for the want of records at hand I am unable to do so.
In 1868, which begins the regular records, John S. Brazee was President, and John G. Reeves, Secretary.
In 1869, John Reeber was elected President, and John G. Reeves continued Secretary ; John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
In 1870, John Reeber was President ; John G. Reeves, Secre- tary; and John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
In 1871, B. W. Carlisle was President; John G. Reeves, Sec- retary; and John C. Weaver, Treasurer.
In 1872, Andrew J. Musser was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary ; and William Noble, Treasurer. 7
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
In 1873, Andrew J. Musser was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary ; and William Noble, Treasurer.
In 1874, Joseph C. Kinkead was President; John G. Reeves, Secretary ; and William Noble, Treasurer.
In 1875, Joseph C. Kinkead was President ; William David- son, Secretary ; and William Noble, Treasurer.
In 1876, T. H. Busby was President ; William Davidson, Secretary ; and S. J. Wolf, Treasurer.
The first financial showing on the available records is the total cost of the erection of the two amphitheaters, in the year 1873, which was $2,115.57.
In 1874, the Art and Horticultural Hall was erected at a total cost, as shown by the report of the Building Committee, of $3,111.59.
Other improvements and expenditures for the same year, not including premiums awarded, amounted to $927.39.
For the year 1874, the total receipts of the Society from all sources was.
$10,369 15
Total expenditures for the same year .. 10,631 15
Showing a deficit of .. $262 00
Then due the Society from various sources $262 69
Deduct the deficit. 262 00
Balance in Treasury 69
This was the settlement on the 1st of December, 1874, which shows the financial condition at the beginning of the year 1875.
The total amount paid by the Society in the items of pre- miums, as shown by the Treasurer's report, was $2,800.50.
The receipts of the Society for the year 1876, from all sources, as furnished by the Treasurer, J. S. Wolf, was $6,001.31, and the expenditures for all purposes, for the same year, $5,888.42, leaving a balance in favor of treasury of $112.89.
The Society is reported in a flourishing condition, and out of debt.
GENERAL SANDERSON'S NOTES.
After nearly a full year's research, I have at last, and just when my manuscript was nearly completed, succeeded in un- earthing a copy of General George Sanderson's pamphlet, pub_
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
lished in 1851, by Thomas Wetzler, and entitled "A Brief History of the Early Settlement of Fairfield County."
The pamphlet embodies the substance of a lecture delivered by the General in 1844, before the Lancaster Literary Society, but with extended additions. Extracts of his lecture have al- ready appeared in this work ; but, so indispensable to a com- plete history of Fairfield County are the notes of .George San- derson, that I proceed here to give copious quotations from the pages of the book just come to hand. I give them literally and full, although much of their matter is a repetition, in part, of the same points already incorporated in this work.
General Sanderson, as has previously been said, was identi- fied with Fairfield County from its very beginning until his death in 1871. He was, moreover, a man of careful observa- tion and wonderful memory, and during a large portion of his life a public man in offices of trust and responsibility. I proceed with the extracts:
" The present generation can form no just conception of the wild and wilderness appearance of the country in which we now dwell, previous to its settlement by the white people; it was, in short, a country
' Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey, Or men as fierce and wild as they. '
" The lands watered by the sources of the Hockhocking river, and now comprehended within the present limits of the County of Fairfield, were, when discovered by some of the early settlers of Marietta, owned and occupied by the Wyan- dot tribe of Indians, and were highly prized by the occupants as a valuable hunting-ground, being filled by almost all kinds of game and animals of fur. The principal town of the nation stood along the margin of the prairie, between the mouth of Broad street and Thomas Ewing's canal-basin, and extending back as far as the base of the hill south of the Methodist Church. It is said that the town contained in 1790 about one hundred wigwams, and five hundred souls. It was called Tarhe, or in English, Cranetown, and derived its name from that of the principal chief of the tribe. The Chief's wigwam in Tarhe stood upon the bank of the prairie, near where the fourth lock is built on the Hocking Canal, and near where a beautiful spring of water flows into the Hocking river. The wigwams were built of the bark of trees set on poles, in the L. of C.
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HISTORY OF, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
form of a sugar-camp, with one square open, fronting a fire, and about the hight of a man. The Wyandot tribe at that day numbered about five hundred warriors, and were a ferocious and savage people. They made frequent attacks on the white settlements along the Ohio river, killing, scalping and capturing the settlers without regard to age, sex or con- dition. War parties on various occasions attacked flat-boats descending the river, containing emigrants from the Middle States seeking new homes in Kentucky, by which, in many instances, whole families became victims to the tomahawk and scalping-knife. * * The Crane Chief had a white wife in his old age. She was Indian in every sense of the word, except her fair skin and red hair. Her history, as far as I have been able to learn it, is this: Tarhe, in one of his predatory excursions along the Ohio river, on the east side, near Wheeling, had taken her prisoner and brought her to his town on the Hocking river. She was then about eight years old; and, never having been reclaimed by her relatives or friends, remained with the nation, and afterwards became the wife of her captor. * * * *
"On the 17th of May, 1796, Congress, with a view no doubt to the early settlement of their acquired possessions by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, passed an act granting to Ebene- zer Zane three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each, in consideratiou that he would open a road on the most eligible route, between Wheeling, Virginia, and Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky. Zane performed his part of the contract the same year, and selected one of his tracts on the Hocking, where Lancaster now stands. The road was opened by only blazing the trees and cutting out the underbrush, which gave it more the appearance of an Indian path, or trace, than a road, and from that circumstance it took the name of ' Zane's Trace '-a name it bore for many years after the settlement of the county.
* It crossed the Hocking at a ripple, or ford, about three hundred yards below the turnpike-road, west of the present town of Lancaster, and was called the 'Crossing of Hocking.' This was the first at- tempt to open a public highway through the interior of the North-western Territory.
"In 1797, Zane's trace having opened .a communication between the Eastern States and Kentucky, many individuals
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, OHIO.
from both directions wishing to better their conditions in life by emigrating and settling in the ' back woods,' then so-called, visited the Hockhocking for that purpose, and finding the country surpassingly fertile-abounding in springs of purest water, determined to make it their new home.
" In April, 1798, Captain Joseph Hunter, a bold and enter- prising man, with his family, emigrated from Kentucky and settled on Zane's trace, upon the bank of the prairie west of the crossings, and about one hundred and fifty yards north- west of the present turnpike-road, and was called ' Hunter's Settlement.' Capt. Hunter cleared off the underbrush, felled the forest trees, and erected a cabin, at a time when he had not a neighbor nearer than the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. This was the commencement of the first settlement in the upper Hockhocking Valley; and Captain Hunter is regarded as the founder of the flourishing and populous County of Fair- field. He lived to see the county densely settled and in a high state of improvement, and paid the debt of nature about 20 years ago. His aged companion, Mrs. Dorotha Hunter, yet lives, (in 1851) enjoying the kind and affectionate attentions of her family, and the respect and esteem of her acquaintances. She was the first white woman that settled in the valley, and shared with her late husband all the toils, sufferings, hard- ships and privations incident to the formation of the new set- tlement, without a murmur or word of complaint. During the spring of the same year, Nathaniel Wilson, the elder ; John Green, Allen Green, John and Joseph McMullen, Robert Cooper, Isaac Shaeffer, and a few others, reached the valley, erected cabins, and put in crops.
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