USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > Lancaster > Centennial history of Lancaster, Ohio, and Lancaster people : 1898, the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the spot where Lancaster stands > Part 3
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THOMAS STURGEON
Thomas Sturgeon, brother of Timothy, came to Lancaster in the year 1800 and opened the first hotel on the corner now owned by George Matt. This
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Centennial History of Lancaster
corner has always been known as the Sturgeon and Latta corner. John Latta came by it through his wife, who was the daughter of Thomas Sturgeon. He closed his hotel in 1824 and from that time until his death he boarded a few young men, one of whom was the late John G. Willock, long an honorable merchant of Lancaster. He died in the year 1828.
DR. WILSON
Dr. Wilson was one of the first physicians to settle in Lancaster. He came from Virginia and landed here in 1804. He practiced his profession up to the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1823, aged forty-three years. His widow became the wife of John Latta, at the time a very prominent young merchant of Lancaster. Maria, the accomplished daughter of Dr. Wilson, was prominent in Lancaster society in 1830. She presented a flag in a neat speech to one of the canal boat captains at the celebration of the opening of the lateral canal in 1834, in behalf of the ladies of Lancaster. She soon thereafter became the wife of Mr. Bull, of the firm of Ritchie & Bull, produce dealers. She had a brother named James, well known to old citizens. Mrs. Bull died in Lan- caster. What became of her husband cannot be ascer- tained. In the year 1815, Dr. Wilson was president of the town council. He owned the lots now occupied by the Blaire Block on Broadway and resided there in a cottage and had a frame office on the corner. He was an army surgeon in the War of 1812. He was a much respected citizen. Thomas Sturgeon is the only man now in Lancaster who remembers him. His wife was the daughter of Thomas Sturgeon, the hotel keeper.
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Centennial History of Lancaster
ADAM WEAVER
Adam Weaver came to Lancaster from Lancaster, Pa., in the year 1806. His first employment was clerk in Rudolph Pitcher's store. In the year 1810 he was elected justice of the peace for Hocking Township. He was a popular justice and held the office eighteen years. In 1812 he was a lieutenant in Captain Sum- ner's company of artillery. This company reported at Franklinton to the Governor, but owing to the fact that Weaver was sheriff of the county the Governor excused him, and Sosthenes McCabe was elected in his place. Weaver was elected county treasurer in the year 1826 and served four years. Adam Weaver was the father of the late John C. Weaver, and of George Weaver, once editor of the Lancaster Gazette, and of Mrs. Philip Bope. He was an active, vigorous man and one of Thomas Ewing's posse to arrest counter- feiters in 1818. He died in the year 1841.
GENERAL SANDERSON'S RECOLLECTIONS
The following are the names of the early settlers of Lancaster, and in what part of the town they settled, as far as recollected by the writer of this article, who deems it not out of place to state that he has been a resident of Lancaster and its immediate vicinity ever since the town was located, and is now in the seventy- eighth year of his age.
Samuel Coates, Sr., and Samuel Coates, Jr., erected the first cabin in the new town in 1800. It stood on the alley on a lot fronting on Front street, between Main and Chestnut. The Coateses - father and son - were from the City of Leeds, in England, where they had been engaged in business, but, failing, came to the
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Centennial History of Lancaster
United States. In 1799 a mail route was established along Zane's trace, and the elder Coates was appointed postmaster at the crossings of the Hockhocking, so called and generally known by the settlers.
The trace, for it was only an apology for a road, crossed the stream about midway between the turn- pike and railroad bridges. Here in a lonely cabin was the first postoffice established in Fairfield County. The elder Coates held the postoffice until 1807 or 8, when he departed this life, and the son succeeded to the office and held it until about the year 1814, when he was succeeded by Jacob D. Deitrick. He died in 1839, aged seventy years.
Ralph Morris, in 1800, put up a cabin on Front, between Main and Wheeling streets. He died about 1806.
General Jonathan Lynch improved the lot on the southeast corner of Front and Wheeling streets in 1800 and moved onto it in 1801. He sunk a tanyard about the same time at the base of the hill west of his residence, and was the first to commence the busi- ness of tanning in the Hockhocking Valley. General Lynch was appointed by Governor St. Clair the first coroner of Fairfield County, and held the office for several terms after the admission of the State into the Union. He also rose from a captaincy to general of brigade in the early militia of Ohio. He was a native of Fayette County, Pa. He died in 1818, aged forty- six years.
Dr. Amasa Delano built a cabin on the northeast corner of Front and Main streets in 1801, entertained the public and practiced physic for a year or two. He was succeeded as an inn-keeper by Wm. Austin, who, dying in 1803 or 4, George W. Selly, a son-in-law of
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Centennial History of Lancaster
Dr. Silas Allen, of Tobeytown (now Royalton), took the stand for a few years.
General David Reese emigrated from Virginia in 1800 and put up a cabin on the north side of Wheeling, between Front and Second streets. He was elected, on October 12, 1802, a member of the first General Assembly of the new State of Ohio, and continued to represent the county for several sessions. He also, at an early period of the new county, was elected brigadier general of the Ohio militia. In 1803 or 4, or about that time. he erected a brewery on the lot upon which St. Peter's Church now stands (shoe fac- tory now). He died in 1842, aged seventy-one years.
Henry Wetwine, a German, in 1802 improved a lot on the north side of Wheeling, between Front and Second streets, and carried on the baking business. He died in 1803.
Alexander White in 1801.lived in a cabin which he erected on the south side of Wheeling street, between Front and Second streets. He was from Winchester, Va., and was an attorney at law and became somewhat eminent in his profession during his short residence in the town. He died in 1804.
Robert McClelland built a cabin in 1800, and com- menced a public house in 1801 on the north side of Main, between Front and Second streets. He was a valuable pioneer woodsman and hunter, and was frequently employed in viewing and laying out roads in the valley. He died near New Lexington in Perry County, O., in 1848, at the age of eighty-six years. He came from Fayette County, Pa. He came to Mt. Pleasant as a scout and figures in Bennett's legend of that mountain.
Thomas Hart came from Chillicothe, O., to Lan-
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Centennial History of Lancaster
caster in 1801 and brought with him a stock of goods, which he opened on the north side of Main street, adjoining the residence of Robert McClelland. He served in the War of 1812 and died in 1825, aged forty- eight years. His wife was a McClelland.
In 1800 Rudolph Pitcher erected a cabin on the northwest corner of Broad street and the Public Square and kept tavern until 1802, when he sold out to Peter Reber, and then purchased the lot on the southwest corner of Broad street and the Public Square, upon which he erected a square log building with a shingle roof, a new thing in those days, entertained the public and sold goods. Adam Weaver and Wm. Hamilton became his clerks. In a few years, perhaps in or about 1808, he sold to Jacob Boos, and put up a dwelling on the southeast corner of Main and Center alley, the alley running north and south between Second street and the Public Square, where he resided at the time of his death in 1812. A brother, Frederick Pitcher, settled in Lancaster previous to 1802, and after a few years moved to the falls of Hockhocking. From there he moved to Michigan.
Abram Pitcher, another brother, came at an early day, and he and Rudolph built a paper mill, now in Hocking County, O., and since called Good Hope Mill. The Pitchers were natives of Switzerland. In 1801 Rudolph Pitcher and Isaac Koontz erected a sawmill on Saw Mill Run, so called, about five miles south of Lancaster.
General John Williamson came to the town in 1800. He bought the lot on the southwest corner of Wheeling street and Center alley, and in 1801 put up a shop, and in company with James Hampson carried on the car- penter business. He was from Virginia. Soon after
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Centennial History of Lancaster
the organization of Fairfield County he was elected one of the county commissioners. In 1808 he was elected sheriff of the county. He also served a term of duty as colonel of a regiment of Ohio militia in the War of 1812. In 1804 he and James Hampson be- came contractors for building the new Court House, which they completed in 1806. The inside work was done by George Welsh, then a resident of Lancaster. General Williamson was killed by lightning in 1820, about two miles north of Lancaster, on the Baltimore road, in the forty-seventh year of his age.
James Hanly came to the valley of the Hocking in 1800, bought a lot on the northeast corner of Wheel- ing and Broad streets, and in 1801 put up a blacksmith shop and cabin, and was the first to carry on the busi- ness in Lancaster. In 1804 or 5 he removed to the southeast corner of Main street and the Public Square, where he ended his days.
John Inks, Sr., and his son John Inks, Jr., settled as early as 1801 or 2 on the southwest corner of Wheel- ing and Second streets.
In 1801 or 2, David Wolford erected his cabin and lived on the northwest corner of Wheeling and Second streets.
William Ream improved and carried on the hatting business on the southwest corner of Main and Second streets in 1801. He was the first hatter in town. Wm. B. Peck first worked in his shop.
Simon Converse, a brother of James, had been mer- chandising on the north side of Main, between Second street and Center alley. He put an end to his life in 1807 in the house of his brother James.
Hugh Boyle improved the lot on the northwest cor- ner of Main and Second streets in 1801 by the erection
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Centennial History of Lancaster
of the first frame building in the town, and a rough one it was, for the weatherboarding was rived out with a frow, for saw mills were then unknown. He in two or three years sold the lot to Elnathan Scofield. He was appointed clerk of the court in 1803. Served as justice of the peace and county surveyor.
George Coffinberry fixed his first place of residence on the southwest corner of Public Square and Broad street about 1801. He, after a short residence there, built upon the east half of the lot on the northeast cor- ner of Main street and Center alley and kept a house of entertainment until 1810, when he moved to Rich- land County, O. He came from Berkeley County, Va.
Wm. Babb built a cabin and lived for several years on the north side of Main, between Front and Second streets. This was earlier than 1802. He died in Som- erset, Ohio.
Dr. Wm. Irwin settled on the west side of Front street, nearly opposite the west end of Chestnut, in 1801 or 1802. He practiced medicine and served as a justice of the peace. He was also an associate judge of Common Pleas Court. He moved from Lancaster to Franklin County.
Samuel Stoops lived on the north side of Main street in the room first occupied by James Converse as a store room, on the lot adjoining General Beecher's residence, until 1804 or 5, when Thos. Fricker, a hatter by trade, became proprietor and carried on his busi- ness for about forty years.
Sosthenes McCabe, with his father, Wm. McCabe, and his brothers, David and Ezra, came to the north part of the present town in 1801 and commenced the brick making business. They made the brick for the first house of the kind in Lancaster. David McCabe
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Centennial History of Lancaster
served as lieutenant of Captain George Sanderson's company in the War of 1812 and was surrendered by General Hull at Detroit. Sosthenes McCabe served as a lieutenant in Captain Sumner's company of artil- lery in Colonel John Williamson's regiment. Mr. McCabe built the Scofield office on Main street.
Dr. Wm. Kerr commenced the practice of physic in 1801 and pursued it until his death in 1805.
Daniel Arnott was here as early as 1801 or 1802. He was a tanner and did business on a lot adjoining St. Peter's Church. He was barkeeper for Peter Reber for some years.
Joseph Beard settled here in 1801 on northeast cor- ner Public Square and Main street. He sold to Thomas Sturgeon and left the town.
Wm. Harper built a blacksmith shop and cabin on the southeast corner of Wheeling and Fourth streets in 1801 or 2.
John Irvin came to Lancaster in 1801 with his brother, Wm. W. Irvin. He was a single man and failing to obtain office, after several trials, left the town forever.
David Firestone put up a one-story cabin on the southeast corner of Main street and Center alley in 1802. He kept the sign of the Black Horse and sold Monongahela.
Brice T. Sterrett came here in 1801, from Pennsyl- vania. He owned the tract of land-590 acres-upon which East Lancaster now stands. After a residence here of more than twenty years he returned to his native state and died there. He was a bachelor.
William Martin owned the lot on the southeast cor- ner of Wheeling and Second streets. He was in Lan-
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Centennial History of Lancaster
caster in 1802 and died in 1825, aged sixty years. He was a bachelor.
Wm. B. Peck came to Lancaster as a journeyman hatter in 1801 or 2, and worked for William Ream. He built the brick house now standing on the south- west corner of Broad and Chestnut streets, and was famous for manufacturing furred and Koram hats. In 1833 he closed his life in death, aged sixty-three years. He was from Boston, Mass. He was the father of Mrs. Charles Hood and of W. B. Peck, Jr. His wife was a daughter of Charles Babb.
Daniel Shope improved and lived upon a lot on the south side of Main, between the Public Square and High alley as early as 1801 or 2. In a few years he moved to Missouri.
Rev. John Wright, a native of Westmoreland County, Pa., visited Lancaster in 1802 and in 1803, as a missionary, and having received a call from a little flock of Presbyterians, settled himself down in 1805 as their pastor. He erected the second brick house in the town on the northwest corner of Main street and High alley. He continued his care of the church until 1836, when he removed to Logansport, Indiana. He died at the residence of his son, Edward F. Wright, in Delphi, Indiana, while on a visit, on the 31st of August, 1854, aged seventy-eight years. He was the father of the Presbyterian Church in Fairfield County.
Jacob Gaster, a Switzer, built a cabin in the new town in 1801 or 2. He was a boot and shoemaker, and kept a public house on Main street, where the Hocking Valley Bank now stands. He died early.
Henry Miers, Sr., and William Duffield, emigrants from Virginia, fixed their abode in the town in 1804. They were brothers-in-law and carpenters by trade.
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Centennial History of Lancaster
Miers settled on the southeast corner of Chestnut and Second streets (Columbus street). He built the Sco- field house, the house of General Beecher, the old academy and the Swan Hotel. He was a man of in- tegrity and highly esteemed. He died in 1828, aged fifty-eight years.
Duffield built his house on southeast corner of Main and Fourth streets (High street), where the Court House now stands. He lost his life on a trading voy- age to New Orleans.
David Gates, Timothy Gates, Benedict Hutchins, Barnabas Golden and Henry Meisie were residents on Mulberry, between Front and Second streets as early as 1801 or 2.
Charles Daily built on Chestnut, between Second and Broad streets, and Bucker on the northwest cor- ner of Chestnut street and Center alley, when that part of the town was a forest. Both those old buildings are now standing and occupied.
Ralph Selby was an early citizen of Lancaster. He is remembered as a famous horseman.
Robert Russell, long a resident of Columbus, lived in Lancaster with his brother-in-law, Dr. Amasa Del- ano, in 1800 and 1801. He died in Tiffin, Ohio. He opened a store in Franklinton as early as the year 1803 or 1804.
Elijah B. Merwin, from Vermont, commenced the practice of law here in 1804. He represented this county in the Legislature in 1808. He married a sister of Mrs. Judge Scofield. He moved to Zanesville, Ohio, about the year 1815.
In 1804 Dr. Ezra Torrence came from Vermont with E. B. Merwin and commenced the practice of medicine. In 1815 he kept hotel and in one of his
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Centennial History of Lancaster
rooms a guest, Robert Edmund, was robbed of $1,500 in cash. The doctor died in the year 1818.
William and Joseph Tomlinson were early mer- chants on Main street, between. Second and the Pub- lic Square. Their business was not a success and they did not remain long.
Andrew Crocket, son-in-law of Rudolph Pitcher, was an early merchant, but not successful.
John Schurr, from Germany, commenced the bak- ing business in 1803. He did business on the south- west corner of Main and Second streets, where he died by his own hand.
Hugh Driver, an Irishman by birth and a tailor by trade, settled on the south side of Chestnut street between Broad and High alley.
John Bly commenced the potter business on Wheel- ing street east of Fourth in 1804. His location was then out of town.
Jacob Greene and his brothers, Timothy and Jo- seph A. Greene, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Lan- caster in 1805. Jacob purchased the northwest cor- ner of Main street and the Public Square, sold goods here and kept hotel. He died in 1850, aged sixty- three years. John Neel built a square log house and entertained the public before the property passed into the hands of Greene.
General Jesse Beecher, brother of General P. Beecher, located in Lancaster in 1805. At one time he was a merchant. He died in Missouri.
Colonel Wm. Sumner, a native of Connecticut, was a resident of the town as early as 1804. He com- manded a company of artillery in General John Wil- liamson's regiment in the War of 1812. In January, 1828 he married the widow of General John Wil-
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Centennial History of Lancaster
liamson, his old colonel. He died in 1838, aged fifty- nine years. His widow survived him many years and was a popular woman.
Warren Spitler was an early resident and put up a residence on the southeast corner of Chestnut street and Center alley. He died in Amanda, and was buried at the Sweyer graveyard by Rev. D. M. Martens, now of the Lutheran Book Concern, Columbus, February 9, 1859.
Jacob Boos, a native of Switzerland, in 1806 pur- chased the property on the southwest corner of Main street and the Public Square, and kept tavern there. He was succeeded in the business by his son-in-law, Frederick A. Shaeffer. He died in 1848 in his eighty- second year.
Dr. Robert Wilcox came here an old man in 1806. He had been an army surgeon in the War of the Revolution. He died in 1812.
Henry Sutzen, a Switzer and tanner by trade, lived on Front Street near Chestnut at an early day. He died young in 1822. He was the father of Henry Sutzen, the tanner, who, late in life, moved to Iowa. His wife was a sister of the wife of Jacob Beck.
George Little, from Berkeley County, Va., was a pioneer and died in 1816, aged forty-five years. John N. and George Henry were his sons.
Henry Johns, a native of Lancaster, Penn., was a citizen of Lancaster in 1802 or 1803. He afterwards lived a few years in Greenfield Township, then at the mouth of Rush Creek. He moved to Indiana, city of Fort Wayne, in 1832, where he died at an advanced age.
John Graham came from Maryland, and was a mer- chant as early as 1803 or 1804. He died in 1806.
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Centennial History of Lancaster
Graham, Judge Scofield and E. B. Merwin married sisters by the name of Reed, who came from the county of Allegheny, Md.
Walter Turner was a resident as early as 1804, and carried on the business of hatter on Main street in the store-room formerly occupied by Mathews & Sco- field. He came from Martinsburg, Va. Long since dead. In 1801 or 1802 Jacob Wolford became the owner of the lot on the southeast corner of Main and Second streets. He was a hatter and carried on that business.
Wm. H. Tong put up buildings on the west half of lot on the northeast corner of Main street and Center alley, at an early period of the town, and man- ufactured spinning wheels. He was the proprietor of the town of Carroll. (He was doubtless the Mr. Tong mentioned by Bishop Asbury, and entertained him at dinner the day he preached in the new Court House in 1809.)
Alexander Sanderson emigrated from the state of Pennsylvania to Kentucky in 1797 and thence to the Hockhocking Valley in the spring of 1800. In the early part of 1801 he moved into the cabin at the crossings of the Hockhocking after Coateses had changed their residence to the new town, and lived there until the spring of 1802, when he moved to a cabin which stood near the west end of Main street of the present city, and resided there two or three years. He died at his residence in Perry County in 1815. He was the father of the writer of this article.
John Trump was a pioneer settler of the town and was living on the northwest corner of Main street and the Public Square, where his son, Colonel P. Van Trump, was born in 1810. He was at one time
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Centennial History of Lancaster
a tavern keeper in Lancaster. He died in Franklin County in 1835, aged sixty-eight years.
John U. Giesy was a native of Switzerland. He came to Liberty Township with his father's family in 1804. In 1809 he became an employee of John Shurr, and in a few years commenced business for himself on the south side of Main street, west of and adjoining the present Hocking Valley Bank. He operated a bakery and kept a hotel, in which business he accumulated a good estate. He died on his farm in Bern Township in 1856, aged sixty-eight years.
Jacob Shaeffer was living here as early as 1809. He was a saddler by trade. He resided on the south- west corner of Wheeling street and Center alley. He built a two-story brick block on Main street. He died on his farm south of the city.
Thos. Cisna was an early inhabitant. He lived on the south side of Main, about midway between Fourth street and Broad. In 1815 he was a farmer one mile west of town and a breeder of fine Merino sheep, as he announced in Ohio Eagle. He died many years ago while on a trading voyage to New Orleans.
Samuel Matlack, a venerable old man, settled in Lancaster on Wheeling, between Front and Second streets. He was the father-in-law of H. H. Hunter, Esq., and brother-in-law of General Lynch. He was the father-in-law of John B. Reed and George H. Smith. He was a native of Fayette County, Penn.
John Woodbridge was merchandizing on Main street before 1806. He changed residence to Chilli- cothe, where he was cashier of one of the State Banks for many years.
Archibald Carnahan sold goods in Lancaster be- fore the War of 1812, and died soon after that date. He lost his life by drowning.
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Centennial History of Lancaster
It is a remarkable fact that all the mercantile men of Lancaster, between its commencement and the War of 1812, were unsuccessful in business. Some left the town, others withdrew from trade, others lost their all.
Ernest Mollenhaur and Peter Nearling, foreigners, were citizens of Lancaster previous to 1812.
John Koontz, John Foglesong, Dorman Lofland, Samuel Jewell, Larkin Reynolds, John Lynch, a brother of General Lynch, Thomas Lofland, John Lofland, John Robinson, Edward McCalla, Job Comp- ton, John Boyle, a brother of Hugh Boyle, and Henry McCart, were residents about 1812. Their localities are lost to the writer.
John H. Cooper and Henry W. Cooper, saddlers by occupation, carried on the business in 1806. John died in 1806, and Henry went to Missouri.
Jacob Burton as early as 1802 lived in the town. In 1806 he was an associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He and Elnathan Scofield repre- sented the county in the Legislature, the Senate branch, 1809.
Wm. and Charles Babb were pioneers of the Scioto Valley in 1798 and came to Lancaster about 1802. The latter named was the father-in-law of the late Michael Garaghty and W. B. Peck.
Robert, Daniel, James and Benjamin Smith came from Rockingham County, Va., about the year 1810. Robert kept a store several years, traded to New Orleans, and late in life moved onto his father's farm in Pleasant Township, Benjamin Smith, Sr. James died in 1835. He was a partner of Tunis Cox from 1827 to 1835. Benjamin Smith was a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1813, 1814 and 1815. About the year
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Centennial History of Lancaster
1820 he moved to Charleston, W. Va., where he became a distinguished lawyer and politician. Dr. Daniel Smith was a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1817 and 1818.
Henry, Jacob, Isaac and Wm. P. Darst, brothers, became residents in 1806. They did not remain many years in Lancaster. W. P. returned in his old age.
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