USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 37
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Old Families.
Among the oldest families at the period of 1850-58 in Norwich and of the first comers were those of Benjamin Britton, William Armisted, Asa Davis, Asa Wilcox, John Hart, Moses Hart, David Thomas, Daniel Buck, Ezekial Lattimer, David Smiley, Daniel D. Lattimner and Daniel Brunk. Half a century ago the leading religious denominations in the township were Methodists and United Brethern. The Methodists possessed a church of their own near the residence of David Smiley, and also held services in two or three of the district schoolhouses. The United Brethern held their services at the time, at what was then known as Carter's schoolhouse.
Some Additional Pioneers.
Among the other prominent early settlers and their families in the town- ship were those of Thomas Backus, Ebenezer Richards, Robert Eliott, Amaziah Hutchinson, John McCan, L. L. Lattimer, John Weeden, George
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Black, Miner Pickle, Miskell Saunders, Henry McCracken, Benjamin Sco- field, John T. Britton, John Caldwell, James H. Ralston and John Caldwell.
How He Lived and Died.
In this township resided a good citizen, Squire Miskell Saunders, above named, an intense democrat and the devoted friend of President Andrew Jackson. Some Whig neighbors, either in jest or seriously, said that he would not want it known after he was dead that he was a Democrat, and that it was incompatible for a good Christian to be a member of the demo- cratic party. He passed away October 16, 1848, aged fifty-eight, and by his direction this inscription was placed on his tombstone which may be still seen in the country graveyard. "He died a Christian and a Democrat."
The population of Norwich township in 1840 was seven hundred and thirty-one; in 1850, one thousand and fifty-three; in 1858, one thousand one hundred and fifteen; in 1900, one thousand four hundred and eighty- one. Of this three hundred and seventy-six resided in the village of Hill- iards. The population of the village in 1908, is roundly estimated at four hundred, and the township, one thousand five hundred.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
As singular as it may appear at this time, Jackson township for a num- ber of years enjoyed the distinction of being the backwoods township in the county, and the farthest away from any place and all places of any of its sister townships. But with the construction many years ago of the Harris- burg pike, the Franklin pike, and the Cottage Mill pike, all the inconveni- ences were removed, and modern roadmaking has added to its nearness to all desirable points and it has grown in population and productions as rap- idly as any of the rest of the sisterhood, except in the now extinct Mont- gomery township, of course.
Some of the Original Settlers.
The township was detached from Franklin, and organized as Jackson township in the year 1815, and was so named in honor of General Andrew Jackson, who had just covered himself and his country with military glory in the battle of New Orleans, or rather on the Plains of Chalamette, below the city. Among the early settlers of the town were William Brown, Nicho- las Haun, Jonas Orders, William Badger, Woolry Conrad, William Sinnet, and the large Branckeridge, Boror, Strader and Goldsmith families.
Grove City Laid Out.
There was neither village nor postoffice in Jackson township until 1852. In that year William F. Breck laid out the present pretty suburban town, the postoffice of Grove City was established, and Mr. Breck was made post- master. In 1857 he was succeeded by Randolph Higgy.
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Grove City Fifty Years Ago.
The founder was an optimist, as one must conclude when he scans the following description of the city by William T. Martin, for one of the Gazetteers of 1858:
"Grove City now contains about thirty families, two stores, one tavern, one physician, a large school and three churches-a Lutheran, a German Reformed and a Presbyterian. The Methodists also hold their meetings in the same house with the Presbyterians. Besides these churches there are in the township three others of the Methodist denomination; the Hopewell on the Jackson turnpike, a wooden building erected some years before, near the Shadesville pike, and Hickory Seminary, erected since both the above for the double purpose of church and schoolhouse. Rev. Benjamin Britton of Nor- wich township used to preach occasionally for the New Lights in Jackson and Rev. Chandler Rogers of Perry for the Universalists."
Jackson township is a fine agricultural section of the county, and its rural and village population is of the substantial kind. While it was a lit- ยท tle slow in the building of grist and saw mills in the earlier years, as well as the smaller workshops which characterize the growth of progressive sec- tions and communities, it is now well to the front in all these.
Growth of Population.
In 1840, Jackson township had a population of seven hundred and eighty-four; in 1850 it had risen to one thousand five hundred and fifty; in 1858, one thousand six hundred and seventy-five; in 1900, two thousand two hundred and eighty-nine, including the six hundred and fifty-six popula- tion of Grove City. The estimated population of the township in 1908 is, in round numbers, two thousand five hundred, of which seven hundred is in the town of Grove City.
Some of the Pioneer People.
Among the heads of families settling in the township prior to 1850 were William C. Duff, William Seeds, Jacob Deimer, John Gantz, Joshua Glan- ville, Robert Seeds, John Dunn, Isaac Miller, H. D. Mitchell, Isaac White and E. C. Brett.
PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP.
Prairie was originally set off and organized in the year 1819. Then, however, its bounds extended farther north and took in a very considerable territory which is now an integral part of Brown township. The whole originally was embraced in Franklin township.
The Three Original Families.
The three original families in Prairie were the Samuel Higgins, the Shadrack Postle and the William Mannon, but these families were in one re-
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spect, if not in others, put into penumbra, if not wholly eclipsed by the arrival of a Virginia family in 1813, these emigrants coming to Franklin county via Chillicothe, Ross county, where they tarried a brief season and then came up to the higher latitude of the Scioto country.
Clover Blossoms and Buds.
In the year last named "The Clover Settlement" was made by Father and Mother Clover, sons Peter, Joshua, Jacob, Solomon, Henry, Samuel, Philip, John, William and Aaron Clover, and daughters Mary and Jane Clover fourteen in all. However, this was not the largest family, perhaps, that there was in Franklin county during the first half century of its exist- ence, the thing most noted at that period was the great disparity of the sexes -eleven to three.
Two Pioneer Nimrods.
Two of these boys, Solomon and Samuel (how suggestive their names of other pursuits) like Nimrod, were mighty hunters, or to give it in the more expressive and less Biblical form of expression current in that day, they were "Brag Hunters," beyond which there are no degrees of compari- son. They were extremely fond of hunting, made many excursions into the surrounding woods, filled with panthers, wolves, bears, wild turkeys, deer and many other kinds of beasts and birds, and they never failed to bring home the trophies of their prowess. They never came home empty-handed. Sol- omon was especially successful in the chase. He led every competitor in the taking of bear, deer and wolves, and that at a time when wolf scalps were worth three dollars-equal to about twenty-four dollars today, relatively speaking-as a stimulus.
A Hunter to the Last.
He lived up to the era of the great Civil war, fond of his gun and the excitement of the chase, and when nearing four score, after this section of the state was cleared up, he went annually in the hunting season, into north- western Ohio where big game still abounded.
The first justice of the peace elected in Prairie township was Peter Clover, and he was noted as the "Just Squire," and there is a Squire Clover in Prairie township who traces his lineage back to that model judge of the peo- ple's court.
Town and Mere Attempts.
In so far as the building of towns is concerned, there was one success and there were two failures in Prairie township. When the National Road was constructed in 1836, Thomas Graham laid out the town of Alton, and a postoffice was established therein. Shortly after Alton had been founded, Messrs. James Bryden and Adam Brotherlin laid out Rome, about two miles east of Alton, so that the latter had a very distinguished rival. Competition
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was lively for a few years, but Alton continued and Rome discontinued. Fifty was the high-water mark of its population.
In 1832, Job Postle laid out and plotted the town of Lafayetteville. This town never progressed further than its delineation on paper. However, it has produced fine crops of corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, etc., for more than sixty years.
Postmaster and Pioneers.
The postoffice of Alton is still doing business, and the village itself is not a sleepy one. John Graham was the first postmaster, followed by Mervin Stiarwalt, David P. Cole, Solomon Putnam, Goodhue McGill and A. W. Shearer, who held the office up to the early '60s.
Among the other pioneers were Francis Downing, Israel P. Brown, Wil- liam Stiarwalt, George Richey, Russell N. Grinnold, John G. Neff, Reuben Golliday, Thomas O'Hara, David Howard, Thomas J. Moorman, John Gantz, Samuel Kell, Andrew W. Shearer and Smith Postle.
A local writer in 1855 says "There are three Methodist churches in this township; one at Clovers' settlement, and one in the south part of the town- ship known as the Henderson church. There is a German Lutheran church about two miles north of Rome, a hewed, log building which serves both for church and schoolhouse. In this a well conducted German school is taught."
In 1840 the township had a population of six hundred and six; in 1850, one thousand and forty three; in 1858, one thousand one hundred and seventy-two; in 1900, one thousand five hundred and eighty-two; in 1908, estimated one thousand six hundred and fifty.
PERRY TOWNSHIP.
Two half townships, in acreage, were welded together in 1820, forming Perry township, these fractions, bounding on the Scioto are in range 19, United States Military lands. Perry township has an extreme length of ten miles, north and south, along the meanderings of the Scioto river, and is from one to three miles wide according to these meanderings. Originally it was a part of Liberty township; then a part of Washington; next attached to Norwich and in 1820 organized as at present.
Without a Postoffice.
Owing to the fact that there were no postoffices in the township at the middle of the century and still later, the residents received their mail, some at Dublin, others at Worthington and still others at Columbus, according to proximity. The nearest approach to a town was Shattucksburg, so called because of the selling of some building lots by Simon Shattuck which event- ually brought several families close together.
Early Mills.
In 1813-14 Thomas Backus erected mills on the Scioto, which for a time bore his name; later they were known as McCoy's Mills, then as Matere's
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Mills and finally Marble Cliff Mills. In 1858 these mills had been success- fully operated for forty-five years and continued to do a profitable business . long afterward.
Near these mills in early days in, a rocky cliff was a famous den of rattle snakes, or rather a series of such dens, which was terror to young and old. The snakes disappeared long ago, but no explanation as to the cause of their disappearance is vouchsafed by the ancient chroniclers; so also, the records are silent as to the number of fatal snake bites.
Gen. Kosciusko's Perry Township Land.
There was a body of five hundred acres of land of great historical interest. It was patented to General Thaddeus Kosciusko, by the United States govern- ment as part payment for his services in the war of the Revolution. Shortly after the Revolutionary war this Polish patriot returned to his native land, which soon became involved in a defensive war with Russia. Kosciusko was appointed to the command of the army of defense and fell defeated and severely wounded on the battlefield and was taken prisoner, the poet describ- ing the effect of the action in the couplet :
"Hope for a season bade the world farewell, And freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell."
Kosciusko was carried to St. Petersburg as a prisoner of war where he was detained for a time, then going to France, where he died in October, 1817. When his death was announced in congress, the gifted General Wil- liam Henry Harrison, who was a member from Ohio, moved an adjournment in honor of the great patriot, and delivered the most brilliant and touching eulogy that had ever been listened to in the stately chamber. General Kos- ciusko transferred his Perry township lands to others before going back to Europe and some defect in the indorsement subsequently led to litigation between his heirs and the assignee.
Leading Perry Township Pioneers.
Among the leading pioneers of the township were Asaph Allen, Chand- ler Rogers, Uriah Clark, Robert Boyd, Amaziah Hutchinson, Samuel S. Davis, Jacob Leaf, Richardson Gale, Jr., John Hutchinson, Daniel Beard, William Mitchel, John Swisher, Jacob Poppaw, Barzilla Billingsly and Isaac Davidson.
The population of the township in 1850 was one thousand one hundred and nineteen ; in 1858 one thousand two hundred and forty-five; in 1900 one thousand six hundred and seventy-six; 1908, estimated, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five.
BROWN TOWNSHIP.
The eighteenth and penultimate township organized in Franklin county (Marion being the last) was Brown, was organized in 1830; Norwich, Prairie
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and Washington townships contributed nearly equal amounts of territory in its formation. Originally it was embraced in Franklin township.
The Darby Creek Settlers.
Along Darby creek, as far back as 1810, or twenty years before the town- ship was set off and organized, there were some improvements and a small settlement formed.
These, the original founders of the township, were James Boyd, John Hayden, John Patterson, and W. Renier and their families. Other settlers came in at intervals until 1825, but they located along the Darby banks, until a number of Welsh families came in 1825, and up to 1835 and began numerous interior settlements and the township began to show as much progress as many of the older ones.
In 1837 Isaac Hayden erected a saw mill on Darby, and later, when the Urbana and Western Railway was in process of building, a steam sawmill was erected which furnished the cumbersome railway timbers on which the strap iron was laid in that day in lieu of the present steel rails.
Postoffice Established.
Darby postoffice was established in 1848 and Joseph O'Harra was ap- pointed as the first postmaster and he held the office for ten or twelve years. An association of negroes bought a tract of land in the township in 1847, and erected a seminary, which, for a time, had a precarious existence. At the middle of the century there was a single church in the township and it be- longed to the Methodists. The schoolhouses, however, were open for church services to all denominations.
Pioneer Families.
Among the other pioneer families in the township were those of Jacob Rogers, James Langton, John D. Acton, Paul Alder, William Walker, Henry Francis, James Huggett, Chauncey Beach, N. E. Fares, George M. Clover and John Kilgore.
The Population.
In 1840 the population of the township was four hundred and twenty- five ; in 1850, six hundred and eighty-one; in 1858, seven hundred and thirty- nine; in 1900, eight hundred and in 1908, estimated eight hundred and seventy-five.
MARION TOWNSHIP.
Marion township was organized February 24, 1873. It lies in a nar- row strip in the form of a half bracket, along the eastern line of the city (originally Montgomery township) and partially across the northern and
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southern boundaries almost half encircling the city proper. The township was named after William Marion, Sr., who came to Ohio from Boston, Mass- achusetts, in 1807, accompanied by William Palmer. In 1807 he married Sally Waite, who came from Johnstown, New York, with her father, Jenks Waite, in the previous year. He died in 1837 at the age of fifty. William Marion in connection with his brother, Nathaniel Marion, owned between eighteen hundred and two thousand acres of refugees lands in Truro and Marion townships, which they had purchased shortly after their arrival on favorable terms.
First Settlement and Settlers.
The first settlement was made in Marion along Alum in 1799. Among the first settlers were John White and wife, Colonel E. C. Livingston and wife of New York, David Nelson, Colonel Frankenburg, an officer of the Hanoverian army, George Turner, William Show, William Reed, John Starr, Nathaniel Hamlin, John McGown, Andrew Culbertson, William Moobrey, Thomas Hamilton, Alfred E. Stuart, David Aultman, Jacob Hare, John Wallace and Herman Ochs.
Population.
The population of Marion township in 1900 numbered five thousand five hundred and thirteen, and in 1908 it is estimated at something over eight thousand, while almost the whole of it is within the assimilating influ- ence of the constantly expanding city.
MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP.
Montgomery township was organized in 1807 (originally it was a part of Liberty township). When organized it was limited to four and a half miles square, being half a mile smaller or two sides than the standard mil- itary land township. It was the western township in the refugee lands and its western boundary was the Scioto river. As has been stated the city of Columbus is coextensive with Montgomery township, with recent additions on all sides of the township, and covers more than double the area of the originally surveyed township. The first settlements within its borders were along the banks of Alum creek and to all intents and purposes may be re- garded as synonymous with the early settlements of what was later organ- ized into Marion township on the east, south and west, and were made in 1799 and 1800. In 1801 a settlement was made in the northwestern corner of the township by John Hunter on the banks of the "Whetstone," the early name for the Olentangy river. Soon after Hunter came into that section, he was joined by William Shaw, John Starr, Sr., Nathaniel Hamlin and John McGown and their families.
At that time the whole of the present site of Columbus was a dense forest and in places a tangled wilderness, inhabited by bears, wolves, panthers and other wild animals, and where the statehouse now stands, was the
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habitant of wild animals. This wilderness was slowly reclaimed, so that in a quarter of a century it was the site of a thriving village and the capital of a great state. In 1812, it was beginning to show promise of becoming an important township, and proudly boasted of the Nelson and Eberly Mills on Alum creek that gave the township great prestige, in connection with the shops and factories in the town itself. In the district lying south of the state- house, and "out in the woods" in the parlance of the day, was N. Gregory's very considerable distillery. In 1843 Messrs. C. Colgate and Julius J. Wood purchased it and changed it into a starch factory, which for more than a quar- ter of a century was the leading manufactory of the kind in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and equal to any in the east. The business was con- ducted by the firm of C. Colgate & Company for some years and was then changed to Clark & Wood, Sumner Clark having purchased the interest of Mr. Colgate. The large establishment was destroyed by fire in 1852, but was rebuilt on a more extensive scale and continued to do a profitable busi- ness after the Civil war.
Among the earlier settlers in various parts of the township were the families of Michael Fisher, John Shields, Michael Patton, James Marshall, William Long, Eli C. King, Townsend Nichols, William Richardson, David W. Deshler, Thomas Wood, Davies Francis, John Kelly, Warren Jenkins, James Cherry, Alexander Patton, J. P. Bruck, Daniel Evans, William Had- dock, Nathan Brooks, William Field and John G. Miller.
Three Offices Abolished.
Public officers seldom resign and remunerative public offices are seldom abolished. But in both cases there are exceptions. The Franklin county exception was in the matter of the offices of county collector, county as- sessor and judge of the superior court. The two offices first named were not only important, but remunerative, taking into consideration the necessary qualifications of the incumbent.
The County Collector.
This office was created by act of the legislature in 1803. From 1803 to 1806, the chattel or personalty tax was collected by the township assessors and turned over to the county treasurer, while the land tax, both local or resident, and foreign was collected by the assessor for the county and by him deposited with the treasurer.
The following persons were chosen to this office during its continuance, the date of their selection preceding their names respectively. 1803, Benja- min White; 1804, Adam Hosack; 1808, Elias N. Delashmut; 1811, John M. White; 1812, Samuel Shannon; 1815, Francis Stewart; 1818, Jacob Kellar; 1822, Andrew Dill; 1823, Aurora Buttles; 1824, Peter Sells; 1826, Robert Brotherton. In 1837 the office was abolished and the collection of taxes devolved on the county treasurer.
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DAVID W. DESHLER, COLUMBUS.
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The County Assessor.
This official fixed the basis of taxation by assessing all forms of values upon real, personal and mixed property. Tax values had been ascertained by various methods previously, and largely by local or township assessors, and special boards provided from time to time, as exigency required. The act creating the office of county assessor was passed February 3, 1825. The first assessor was appointed by the commissioners and thereafter they were chosen at the regular October election.
The following persons served in that capacity beginning their official duties and serving as indicated. 1825-27, James Kilbourne; 1827-35, John Swisher; 1835-37 James Graham; 1837-41, William Donigan. The office was abolished in 1841 and substantially the former system was revived, which, in some respects, is preserved in the present more elaborate system of fixing assessments.
The Superior Court.
By an act of the legislature at its session in 1856-7, the superior court of the city of Columbus was created having practically common pleas juris- diction, and, presumably, for the purpose of hearing and determining cases arising within the municipality. The term was for five years, but the court was, after a brief period, abolished.
Two judges of this court were men of distinguished legal abilities. They were Fitch J. Matthews and William J. Baldwin.
Franklin County in the Legislature.
During the whole period of the state's existence, and the county's organ- ization, 1803, Franklin has been represented in the senate and the house of representatives, either as an independent constituency, or as a part of a legis- lative district. Herewith are given, the names of those legislators, in their order of election, grouped in decades for the sake of convenience, and as a compendious reference to the more elaborate legislative histories that are accessible in the libraries. While the name of each senator and represent- ative is given, with the decade in which he served, it by no means follows that the terms of his service is given, some served but a single term; others numerous terms and some served throughout an entire decade, and into a second or even in a third-their names occur only once in each decade when it is due to appear.
From 1803 to 1851 members of the house were elected annually and the members of the senate biennially and the original terms being so allotted that one half of the senators would be elected at the annual election. But under the constitution adopted in 1851, both branches of the general as- sembly were made elective biennially, concurrent with the election of the governor. Theoretically, there were to be biennial sessions of the legislature, but in practice this was not the case, there having been adjourned sessions during one-half the period between 1851 and the present.
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The State Senators.
The following were the senators during the several decades:
Between 1803 and 1810.
Abraham Claypool, Joseph Kerr, Joseph Foos, Duncan McArthur. Between 1810 and 1820.
Joseph Foos, John Barr, Thomas Johnson, Richard Hooker.
Between 1820 and 1830.
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