USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > Steubenville > Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, 20th > Part 68
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The township was organized soon after the formation of the territorial govern- ment. John Humphrey, John MeElroy and Benedick Wells were the first trustees elected, and Robert MeCleary was the first justice of the peace-from 1790. On the organization of the state in 1803, an elec- tion was held at the mouth of Short Creek and Robert MeCleary and George Humph- rey were elected justices, and Joseph Mc- Kee, James Reilly and John Patterson, trustees.
Other early settlers were James John- son, whose two boys made a dramatic epi- sode in border warfare; James Perdue, John Russell, William and Joseph Pumph- rey, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Sprague, Jo- seph Dorsey, William Rowe, Capt. Daniel Peck, a soldier in the war of 1812; Joseph MeKee, Solomon Schamehorn, Jeremiah Tingley, John McCormick, John Patterson, Joseph Chambers, Adam McCormick, Erasmus Beckett. John Bowne, Charles Oliver, John B. Bayless, Richard Hay- thorn (whose farm was the scene of the
Johnson episode), James Hodgens, Will- iam Smith. Moses Kimball, Charles Jones, Joseph Medill, Martin Beckett, Henry Brindley, Charles Kimball, John McElroy, Alexander and James McConnell, David Rush, David Barton, John Winters, Sam- uel Patton, James Campbell, John Ed- wards, Peter Snedeker, John Henderson, Robert and William McCullough, Joseph Moore and John Dawson. The inhabitants of the river front had a regularly organ- ized government, with seat at Mercer Town in 1785, with John Carpenter and Charles Norris, justices.
The next era was milling and shipping. among the early millers being Joseph Til- ton, Mr. Nichols, William Smith, Robert Patterson. James Hodgens, Joseph West, John C. Bayless (who had two stone mills on Short Creek), John Bone, Sherrard. Joseph aud Ralston McKee, woolen manu- facturers, four miles up the creek, further partienlars of which will be found in the chapter ou manufacturing. Thomas Liston was a flatboat builder when that industry. allied with milling, was the greatest indus- trial factor of the county. Along the water front of Warren Township hundreds of skillled mechanics were employed day and night in constructing boats to convey to the southern markets the products of the many flour mills and distilleries on the creeks. On the river front there were immense warehouses, filled from basement to roof with flour and other prodnets of grain, ready for shipment to southern ports. Hence the name Portland, in which village until recently stood three-story ware- houses, as evidence of former prosperity. It is said that in the first quarter of the century and up to 1850, one standing at any point on Short Creek conld see, at any time of day, as many as thirty four and six- horse wagons, on the way to the river loaded or returning empty. Among other followers of this industry were Joseph .Large, Nathan Borran, Stephen King, James Attis, Nathaniel Sisco, Charles Wil- son, John Driant, Joseph Hall and Charles Noble, a wagoner. All the river ware-
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houses suffered more or less from the floods of 1832 and 1852, but the demands of trade caused their restoration. It was different, however, with the flood of 1884. There was no call to repair its ravages, and what it left of the structures, which was little, rapidly went to decay. Then came wool growing and fine sheep breed- ing, in which Jacob Creamer, John Medill, .J. C. MeCleary and E. M. Norton were leaders, the latter's farm, below Portland, known as Vinecliff and still occupied by his daughter, Miss V. Norton, being cele- brated for beauty of location and high state of enltivation.
That this section was numeronsly inhab- ited in prehistorie times is evident from the abundance of relies found and mnnerous mounds on the river bottom.
WARRENTON AND TILTONVILLE.
Warrenton village was laid out by Zenas Kimberly in 1805, although, as noted, the ground was occupied by settlers some time before that date. It is situated on the river bank, just above the month of Short Creek. John Tilton is said to have had the first honse, and the third one, belonging to the Hatheway family, built in 1800-1, is still standing, along with the Tilton house. Two additions have been made to the original town. Among the early merchants were John and Thomas Shannon. The village stands on a rich alluvial bottom, but un- fortunately has suffered from such extreme foods as those of 1832, 1852 and 1884, when the town was practically under water. During the days of heavy steamboat traffic the town was a busy place, but the rail- roads running along the base of the hill have left it to one side and Rayland, aeross the creek, has become the outlet for Short Creek Valley. According to the census of 1850 Warrenton had a population of 292 in 1850, 240 in 1860, and 241 in 1870, since which time it does not appear in the census returns. The present population does not exceed two hundred.
Tiltonville, in the southeastern part of
the township, on the river bank, was laid out by John Tilton in 1806, having two streets running parallel with the river bank, on which fronted seventy-two lots. It did not grow rapidly, and in 1833 con- tained but seventeen honses. It was quite active during the days of flatboat build- ing, referred to above, which trade lasted about twenty-five years. In 1870 the popu- lation was 214, but this was increased sub- sequently by the introduction of a pottery. In 1900 the census showed 308. During the early part of Grover Cleveland's first ad- ministration it was decided to incorporate the town, and the majority of voters being of the same political faith as the then exist- ing national administration, changed the name of the village to Grover and sent a petition to the Postoffice Department to have the name of the postoffice changed to correspond. The anthorities, however, did not look favorably on the change, so the postoffice name still remains Tiltonville, as does also the railroad station, while the name of the corporation is Grover. In this connection it may be remarked that the tendeney to drop names which have a local historical significance and substitute titles of no special meaning or use except that they strike somebody's fancy cannot be too severely deprecated. A flagrant instance of this occurred in the northern end of the county, when Tunnel Mill and Moore's Salt Works, both of which told their own story, were dropped for Pravo and Holt, mean- ingless to everybody except, perhaps, to their authors. Fortunately, in that case, the extension of the rural delivery system has abolished both offices, and the new names have already sunk back into de- served oblivion. Tiltonville is fortunate in being above the highest river floods yet re- corded, and hence has not suffered like some of its neighbors. A K. of P. lodge has been formed here, and Warrenton had at one time a lodge of American Mechanics.
Yorkville is a small hamlet abont a mile below Tiltonville, which has grown np about the mines at and near that place. Just above Tiltonville a plat was laid out
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November 10, 1890, by Sarah Giesey and Catherine Hodgens, under the name of Highland City, near a large prehistoric mound, on which has been erected a small cluster of honses.
RAYLAND AND RUSH RUN.
Portland, as lins been already indicated, is one of the oldest settlements in the township, being near the Carpenter block- houses. As the country became more popu- lous it became a drovers' stopping place, cattle from the interior being driven here for the eastern market becanse in the dry season the river was fordable at this point, thus saving ferriage, and thus the place received its name. But what was an ad- vantage in this respect was a disadvantage in others, for the pool at Warrenton fur- nishing a better steamboat landing, the bulk of trade naturally went there, and Portland remained with but little more than a name. Even the coming of the rail- road at first made little change, but the location being higher and the local river business dropping off, the hamlet on the south side of the creek naturally increased at the expense of the other, until now it has become a thriving village, lately incor- porated under the name of Rayland, to which the postoffice and railroad station have been made to correspond. A lodge of I. O. O. F., No. 12, has been organized, and it has all evidences of modern prog- ress. One of the lanchinarks of the place is the old Bayless stone mansion, just west of the C. & P. Railroad, Imilt by Jolin B. Bay- less in 1838.
Rush Run, two iniles and a half above Raymond, was for a while quite a ship- ping point for coal and brick, as well as a stage connection for Smithfield, but now is a very quiet little hamlet.
Coal developments on the west side of the township a few years ago indneed rapid increase in population and the building of the mushroom village of Laurelton, which has since been abandoned by reason of the mines being worked ont. A rehe of the
boom remains, however, in Connorsville postoffice.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
There were early schools at Warrenton, Tiltonville and elsewhere in the townships, and we know of a pioneer school at Hope- well, but the records on this subject are very meager. The present schools, how- ever, are fully up to the standard, there being excellent buildings in Warrenton, Rayland and Grover. In addition there are schools in Sections 28, 30 (Short Creek), 35 (Finley), 36 (Lupton), 8 (Rush Run), 20 (Hopewell), 31 (Neel), and Spe- cial No. 9.
Rev. George Callahan, a farmer and Methodist preacher. held the first M. E. services in the northwest territory, so far as there is any record. at Carpenter's blockhonse in 1787. On Warren Ridge, be- tween Rush Run and Short Creek, and abont four miles from Rush Run Station, is Hopewell M. E. Church, claimed to be the oldest church of that denomination or- ganized and built in this territory, although this claim is disputed by Holmes Church, in Smithfield Township. The old church was only a few feet from the present build- ing, and the church yard is filled with graves whose marks testify to very early burials. The older stones (flagstones from the neighborhood) are now beneath the surface, and when exposed by excavating about them show neither date nor name, al- though some have initials very crudely scratched with the point of a hunting knife. evidently. One of these found by Miss Jones, danghter of Thomas T. Jones. a de- scendent of an early settler, in 1899, bore the date of 1799. She made no note of the fact, but the date was impressed upon her mind because she was a student of local history and was examining the gravestones with a view of obtaining a basis for fixing the date of the church's establishment. Bishop Matthew Simpson, in a biograph- ieal sketch, mentions that his grandfather, Jeremiah Tingley, settled on Short Creek
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in 1801, and that the family attended Hope- the cireuit including Hopewell, Rush Run well Church. The old log building had a and Yorkville. J. R. Keyes, 1906-7; Charles Simpson, 1908-9. neatly constructed gallery in it, certainly built long after the church was erected, Presbyterian services were held at War- renton early in the last century and a frame church erected. When the popula- tion began to shift over to Portland a new church was built there west of the rail- road, about 1876, and the Warrenton build- ing was soon after abandoned. The pres- ent congregation numbers about seventy- five members. Rev. J. H. Patterson was pastor here for several years before and after 1897. Rev. Mr. Bingham has present charge. and some aged men, with good memory back to childhood, recently declared that the gallery was an old structure as far back as 1813. There would seem to be good ground for the claim that Hopewell was built as early as 1798, two years before Holmes Church, which has claimed the dis- tinetion as the first Methodist Episcopal Church built northwest of the Ohio, and. according to tradition, there was elose asso- ciation by intermarriage between members of the two congregations, and considerable argument as to which of the two churches was the older, in which argument Hopewell came out ahead. It may be added, however, that tradition at Holmes tells a different story. Shortly after the building of Hope- well a chapel called MeKendrie, and after- wards Good Intent, was established on the Short Creek side of Warren Ridge, but some fifty years ago a new church was built on the run about a mile from the river, called Rush Run Church, and Good Intent abandoned. Both Hopewell and Rush Run have neat frame buildings. Rev. Nicholas Worthington preached at these churches soon after their founding and also at Oli- ver's. He entertained Lorenzo Dow and Bishop Asbury, and J. B. Finley also preached there. Hopewell was originally in Smithfield cireuit, and Rush Run in Warrenton, but both are now in Tiltonville, as is also Yorkville. M. E. services were instituted at Warrenton at an early date, and a neat frame building erected, and a congregation was organized at Tiltonville in 1825. For many years Warrenton was at the head of an important circuit, some of the later ministers being Rev. J. A. Rut- ledge, 1886; W. C. Meek, 1887-89; J. E. Cope, 1890; J. R. Hoover, 1891-93; J. S. Hollingshead, 1894-96; A. W. Harris, 1897- 1900; D. B. Cope, 1901-3; F. I. Swaney, 1904-5. In the latter year Tiltonville was made the head of the circuit, and the next year Warrenton was dropped out entirely,
A colony of Seventh-Day Baptists, head- ed by Jacob Martin, settled on Warren Ridge in 1798, and built a church and schoolhouse of logs. Enoch Martin and Messrs. Birch, Stone and Phillips were early preachers. After this the society dis- integrated and became extinct.
A mission has recently been started at Tiltonville, connected with St. Paul's Church (Protestant Episcopal), of Steu- benville. Services are held at intervals in a hall by Rev. Father Sidener and others.
Mr. Calderhead, about the time of the organization of Piney Fork, also organized an Associate Presbyterian organization on Warren Ridge, which lasted till his death. He did considerable work in the way of pioneer preaching, but had the common failing of his day-too much addiction to drink. Ezekiel Palmer conducted singing schools on Warren Ridge in the Baptist meeting house in 1807-8, also on Irish Ridge, between Mt. Pleasant and Warren- ton, being the pioneer in that direction. The new style of notes had just been published and was very popular.
Zenas Kimberly was granted a ferry license at Warrenton in 1798, and John Til- ton had a similar one at Tiltonville in 1797.
In the graveyard at Tiltonville, known as the Indian Mound Cemetery, is the grave of Susannah, wife of John Tilton, there being a monument to her memory, the inscription noting that she had "departed
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this life October 15th 1838; aged 88 years, 9 months and 20 days." Near this stone only a few months ago (1899) was one over the grave of Susannah, her daughter, bear- ing the death date of 1792, but the stone has since disappeared. Near the grave of Mrs. Tilton is that of Elizabeth Morrison, the inscription on the stone giving the date of death as September 18, 1798, and her age seventy-three years. Mrs. Tilton was the mother of seventeen children, among them Joseph, Caleb and two named John, one son of that name having been killed by Indians, the other named for him. Caleb
was born on the site of Tiltonville in 1785. William Stringer is a descendant of John Tilton, his mother having been a daughter of Joseph Tilton. A great-great-great- grandson of John and Susannah Tilton (to William and Minnie Stringer O'Brien) was born Friday, July 7, 1899, on the site (or near the site) of Fort Carpenter, and but a few yards from the corner of Township 1 of Range 1 on the land given to Ephraim (Zenas) Kimberly by the government, the conveyance being the first deed recorded in Jefferson County .- Hunter's Notes.
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CHAPTER XXIII
CENTRAL AND WESTERN TOWNSHIPS
Mt. Pleasant, Smithfield, Wayne, Salem, Springfield, Ross and Brush Creek-A String of Enterprising Towns-Interesting Quaker Episodes-First Silk Factory in the United States -- Higher Institutions of Learning-Early Salt Industry-Oldest Post- masters-The "Old Log Schoolhouse."
MT. PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
Outside of Steubenville Mt. Pleasant Township probably figures more largely in Jefferson County history than any other township in the county. It has furnished eight members of the state Legislature- Dr. William Hamilton, George Mitchell, Ezekiel Harris, Joseph Kitheart, Amos Jones, Cyrus Mendenhall, Pinkney Lewis, Benjamin Comley and Dr. J. T. Updegraff, the three last state senators. It has also furnished three lieutenant governors- Benjamin Stanton, who was a member of Congress from Bellefontaine; Thomas. B. Ford and Robert B. Kirk, afterwards min- ister to one of the South American repub- lies; Senator Sharon, the great California capitalist; Congressman J. T. Updegraff, the Howells, Flanner and others of liter- ary fame. Ex-Congressman J. J. Gill was brought up here. Although small in both territory and population, like ancient Greece, it made up in quality what is lacked in quantity. The township was originally part of Short Creek, but on March 3, 1807. that part of the seventh township. range three, remaining in Jefferson County after Belmont had been set off was separated from Smithfield, leaving eighteen sections in the southwestern corner of the county, to
which was given the name of Mt. Pleasant, from the village already established. This was just one-half of the size of a govern- ment standard township. Settlers, how- ever, had been there long before. Robert Carothers and Jesse Thomas were said to have been among the first, they coming from Pennsylvania in 1796, and 'settling where the village now stands. Adam Dun- lap came the same year and settled east of the present town, on what was after- wards the John Weatherton farm. Colo- nel McCune, John Tygart, Joseph McKee, William Finney, Adam Dunlap. David Robinson. John Pollock, William Cham- bers and Benjamin Scott came in 1798-99, with doubtless others. These settlers were not Quakers or Friends. The first two were from Pennsylvania and the others from that state, Virginia or Maryland.
In 1800 there was another class of immi- grants. North Carolina contained a con- siderable Quaker element, which was dis- satisfied with the situation in regard to slavery. When the Constitution of the United States was adopted the belief was held by Washington and other statesmen that the slavery question would ultimately solve itself by dying a natural death. If there had been any prospect of realizing that hope it was dissipated by Whitney's
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invention of the cotton gin in 1793, by which the value of slave labor was in- creased many fold. As there was no hope of the abolishment of slavery in the cotton states, its opponents had to accept the sit- uation or emigrate, and our Quaker friends chose the latter. Jonathan Taylor was among the advance guard who came in the spring of 1800 and settled west of town on the farm afterwards owned by D. B. Updegraff. (Joseph Dew came on July 6, locating in what is now the western part of the village. John Hurford and Amasa Lipsey came the same year, Robert Black- ledge in 1801, Jeremiah and Faith Patter- son and son Malılon, Nathan Updegraff and wife Ann, and Aaron Thompson in 1802, and Elisha Morris and son Enoch in 1804. The latter brought with them apple seeds from North Carolina and planted the germs of the first apple orchard. Nathan Updegraff built the first mill, and was a leading Friend for many years in the Short Creek monthly meeting. His son Daniel was the father of Hon J. T. and D. B. Updegraff. Other early settlers were Aaron Kinsey, Isaac Rateliff, Joseph Steers, Merrick Starr, John Hogg, Archi- bald Job (a Defoe descendant), William McConnaughy (in the battle of Bunker Hill), Joseph Gill, William Hawthorne, Aaron Packer, Samuel Irons, Elizabeth Sharon (grandmother of the late Sena- tor Sharon), Eli Kirk (pioneer hatter and grandfather of Mrs. J. W. Gill, of Steuben- ville. and father of Robert Kirk, lieutenant governor of Ohio), Elisha, Caleb and Solo- mon Bracken, Thomas, Clark and Mat- thew Terrell Osborne Ricks, George W. Mitchell, Porter Mitchell, Robert Evans, R. B. Smith James Johnson, Joseph Kitheart, William Woods, Isaac Brown, Jacob Flanner (uncle of Abbie), Paren Cuppy (who killed an Indian on a stream named for him in Smithfield Township), James Taylor, Edward Law- rence, William Robinson, William Cham- bers, William Lewis, Benjamin Scott (whose wife's mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Davidson, was the first buried in the town-
ship on the present Kitheart farm in Feb- ruary, 1800). Jolin Taggart's team was the first to pass over the road to Irish Ridge from Short Creek, and William Mc- Connaughey's the second. Trees are still standing grown from apple seeds brought by Taggart from the East.
Among other noted residents of Mt. Pleasant Township were Robert Kirk, who was a member of Congress, lieutenant governor and minister to the Argentine Confederation ; M. E. Bishop Merrill; Will- iam Lawrence, who was five times elected to Congress, and was subsequently comp- troller of the treasury under President Grant, and Hon. J. T. Updegraff, three times elected a member of the House of Representatives, whose daughter, Miss Grace, became a distinguished vocalist.
The township, watered on the north side by the waters of Short Creek and its tribu- taries, is mostly high, rolling land and con- tains some of the model farms of the county. The great coal development along this valley and up Long Run is treated else- where.
MT. PLEASANT VILLAGE.
Mt. Pleasant Village was laid out by Carothers and Thomas in the fall of 1803, the plat being recorded on October 1 of that year, the former owning the eastern and the latter the western end. The land on which the village was located was con- sidered so attractive that it is said that when the government offered the land for sale in 1800, twenty men camped on the site awaiting their chance to purchase the section. The matter was decided by lot, Carothers drawing the prize. The village was nick-named Jesse-Bob Town, probably by some of the disappointed ones, but that title soon died. The original plat contained 132 lots 60x160 feet, with two main streets, Concord and Union, eighty feet wide, and North. South, East and West streets each sixty feet. Enoch Harris started the first store in Mt. Pleasant in 1804 in a small log building near where A. D. Humphreville's cabinet shop was afterwards located. The
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house disappeared long ago, and the lot came into the possession of Joseph Walker. Joseph Gill started the second store in 1806, between what was afterwards the drug store and Chambers's tinshop. Be- sides carrying on mercantile business hie conducted a tannery, packed pork, had a farm and dealt extensively in wild lands. This property passed into the hands of Frank Mitchell. Jolin Hogg started the third store in 1812. He manufactured woolen goods, flour, leather and often re- duced the leather to harness and saddles, and during the War of 1812 he employed many workmen in producing saddles, har- ness, belts and cartridge boxes for the American troops. The pork packing indus- try carried on by these men was very ex- tensive. Before the Stillwater Canal was in operation Mt. Pleasant was the most extensive wheat market in the state, there being numerous mills in the Short Creek Valley redneing the grain to flour, which found profitable market on the lower Mis- sissippi. Hogg also manufactured nails, which were so high in price, compared with farm produce, that the necessity was very urgent if the settlers used them. It is re- lated that Robert Harriman, of Ham- mond's Cross Roads, carried two bushels of oats to Mt. Pleasant and received in exchange one pound of nails ! In Mt. Pleas- ant there were numerous blacksmiths, cab- inetmakers, tailors, hatters, weavers, shoe- makers. spinners, tanners and printers. Benjamin Scott opened the first tavern in 1806, opposite what was afterwards the Burris house. It was removed many years ago. Soon after Mr. Buchanan started a second tavern in the building afterwards used by David N. Miller as a harness shop. The barroom was made of hewn logs, and in this room soldiers were enlisted and their bonnties paid in the War of 1812. The old cupboard is yet in existence, with its shelves and wooden doors. Dr. Will- iam Hamilton was the first physician, and Dr. Isaac Parker the second. The former, in 1835, established in Mt. Pleasant a small hospital for the care of insane
patients, one of the first in the state. Dr. Robert E. Finley studied medicine under Dr. Hamilton, and with his brothers, Pat- rick and Thomas, manufactured salt on Short Creek in 1817. The town seems to have made little progress previous to 1812, but the war which began that year im- parted new life and prodneed the indus- trial activity noted above. Three additions have been made to the original plat of the village, by Caleb Dilworth, Enoch Harris and Israel French. The town became not only an industrial but a literary and pub- lishing center, and perhaps the only rural community in the county where such an occurrence as the Flanner episode could be expected. The Howells family came in 1813 and soon after moved to Steubenville. Ellwood Rateliff was an early wagon manu- facturer. He sold a wagon to William Still- well for $12 in beef and $6 in cash, no one piece of which represented a greater amount than a "fip" (614 cents). He manufactured hames, splitting them out of tree stumps and hauling them to Steuben- ville and exchanged them for wagon iron. Banknote paper was among the manufac- tured articles.
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