USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > Historical collections of Coshocton County, Ohio : > Part 4
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, ctc.
Jackson township, and also of Joseph-came into Virginia in 1814.
The descendants and successors of the early settlers, as they themselves did, have given their attention almost exclusively to agricultural affairs.
The township was called Virginia, in remembrance of the old home of most of the early settlers.
KEENE TOWNSHIP.
Geo. Bible is recognized by many as the first settler in what is now Keene township. He came from Virginia very early in the century ; was a good example of the Daniel Boone type of pioneer ; loved the solitude of the woods, and was happiest roaming them, with no companion save dog and rifle, or sitting by his cabin fire " far from the haunts of busy men." James Oglesby was a very early settler in the township, some say the earliest. He also came from Vir- ginia, and is said to have traveled up the Muskingum and Walhonding rivers, in true Indian style, in a canoe. Bar- tholomew Thayer and Samuel Wiley were Revolutionary soldiers-taking up lands with their land warrants. Mr. Thayer and his wife were buried on their farm, near Keene. He died in 1826-about seventy years of age; she in 1825, at same age. A son, over ninety years of age, is reputed as still living at Elyria, O. Jesse Beal, the founder of the town of Keene, was from Nelson, Cheshire county, N. H. He died about 1835, being some forty-five years of age.
Adam Johnson (father of Dr. M. Johnson, of Roscoe) and Dr. Benjamin Hill were born in Cheshire county, N. H .; came to Keene about 1820. The doctor returned to New England and died, after burying his wife, who lies in the Keene burial-ground. Mr. Johnson was a good repre- sentative of Continental days ; strong in body and mind ; dignified in manner; wore a queue; had knowledge of the Latin language; was a student of the philosophies. James Pew was a soldier of 1812, still living in the township. The Farwells came in about 1825, from Cheshire county, N. H. Benton and Farwell built the
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
first grist and saw-mill in the township. Robert Farwell kept hotel for many years in Keene. William Livingston was a justice of the peace, shrewd in judgment, but keeping such a docket that it was nicknamed "Bulwer's Novels." He died in 1840, aged seventy-two years. Andrew and Elisha Elliott and Henry Ramsey were well-known resi- dents of Keene township, all immigrants from Ireland. Ramsey kept store in Keene about 1835. All three are dead.
Timothy Emerson was a citizen of Keene township from 1818 until 1873; came from Ashby, Mass. He reached the good old age of ninety-six; was a farmer ; died Octo- ber 30, 1873, just as arrangements were about being carried out for removal to Granville, where two children resided. He was greatly beloved-" a good man."
Jonas Child, Chancery Litchfield, Calvin Adams, Samuel Stone, and Jacob Emerson were early and active citizens of Keene township, and long dwelt in it. They were all from New England.
John Sprague, born in Cheshire county, N. H., in 1796, came to Keene in 1834; recently removed to Illinois.
It will be observed that many of the early settlers of Keene township were from Cheshire county, N. H., the county-seat of which is Keene, and hence the name of the township.
The oldest man now living in the township is doubtless John Crowley, a Virginian by birth, who came into the county about 1816. He is verging on to a century in years ; was for some time sheriff, and held other offices, including that of member of the legislature.
John Daugherty lived fifty odd years on the farm near Keene, where he died about ten years ago. George Beaver is also a very old man, full of memories of the pioneer times.
The death of two " centenarians," Mr. Humphrey, aged one hundred and three, and Mr. Oglesby, about one hun- dred, is reported as having occurred in one day.
The claim is that Keene township can show the longest
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, etc.
roll of very old people. Still people do sometimes die even in Keene.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
The first resident tax-paying landowners in Jackson township were the Fosters (Samuel, William, David, Ben- jamin, Moses, and Andrew). The family was originally from Virginia, but came to Jackson township from Har- rison county, Ohio, in 1816. The father died soon after the removal. David died some twenty years ago, and Sam- uel some two years. Moses and Andrew removed to the west a number of years ago. William still lives at ad- vanced years where he first settled upon his marriage.
Barney and Thomas Cantwell were very early settlers in that part of Jackson township which originally belonged to Tuscarawas. The run just below Roscoe was long known as " Cantwell's run." Abel Cain was another very early settler.
About 1814 a man by the name of Sible built a small distillery on the farm just south of Roscoe, now owned by John G. Stewart. A little later he put up a little mill on Cantwell's run, about a third of a mile up. It was called a thunder-gust mill, as it only ran with full force after a heavy shower.
" Sible's corn-juice " was very popular in that day, and the business done by him and his neighbor, Samuel Brown, was enough to warrant the idea of a town, and doubtless led James Calder to lay out in that vicinity " Caldersburg."
Brown was from Massachusetts; first located, in 1814, at Rock run, three miles south of Coshocton. In 1816 he settled on a tract about a mile and a half west of Roscoe, and, after clearing a few acres and building a cabin, sold his claim to John Demoss. He then built a saw-mill on Cantwell's run, which had head of water enough to run the mill on an average three days in the week. For a number of years (until he united with the church) he de- pended on Sunday visitors to give him a lift in getting enough logs on the skids to keep the mill at work. The neighborly feeling, mellowed with a good supply of neigh- bor Sible's corn-juice, sweetened with neighbor Creig's
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
maple-sugar (see below), was always equal to the demands thus made. Later in life Mr. Brown engaged in the making of brick. He remained in the vicinity until he died, in February, 1871, aged cighty-four years. He was for many years a useful and highly esteemed citizen.
About 1815 a man by the name of Creig bought forty acres of land, and built a cabin a little south of Robert Crawford's residence, on the tract now owned by Burns and Johnson. He was one of the most successful makers of maple-sugar, an article largely made, and in universal use in early days in Coshocton county for sweetening coffee, tea, whisky, etc. Mr. Creig died about 1826, and the family removed from the county.
Theophilus Phillips was from the State of New Jersey. He lived in Zanesville several years, and in 1815 entered and settled upon the farm now best known as the Dr. Roberts' farm, in the western part of Jackson township. In 1816 he sold this tract, and built a cabin in what is now Roscoe, and having lived in that a few years, he built, in 1821, the first brick house in the vicinity, using it for a tavern for a number of years. He moved to Indiana about 1845, and there died in 1858, being seventy-four years old. His daughter, Mrs. Hutchinson, is still living in Roscoe, under- stood to be the only person resident in Roscoe in the day of the opening of the " Phillips' tavern."
Reuben Hart was a brother-in-law of Phillips, also from New Jersey, and in 1816 occupied the farm next to Phil- lips, now known as the Wallace Sutton farm.
Wm. Starkey came from Virginia in the spring of 1815, worked for a time in Carhart's tannery, one mile north of Roscoe ; afterward lived for a time in Coshocton, but is an old settler in Jackson.
John Demoss (father of Lewis Demoss, of Empire Mill) came from Virginia, and settled in Jackson township in 1817. He bought out Samuel Brown, as elsewhere stated, and lived on the tract until his death, March 4, 1840.
Abraham Randles and Thomas J. Ramphey came from Virginia, about 1817. They have both been dead many
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, etc.
years. Jolın Randles, son of Abraham, is supposed to be the oldest citizen now in the township that was born in it.
CLARK TOWNSHIP.
The earliest settlers in Clark township are understood to have been the following : Parker Buckalew, from Vir- ginia, came in about 1817, settling in Killbuck valley ; Isaac Hoagland, from Virginia, was here at a very early day ; Abraham Miller, also a Virginian, came in about 1819 ; Andrew Weatherwax, a New Yorker, arrived about same date ; Piatt Williamson, from Virginia.
These were all farmers, and encountered the hardships and perils in that line of work.
About 1820, Eli Fox, originally from the State of New Hampshire, but directly from Zanesville, built a mill on Killbuck, to which the settlers had to blaze paths. The mill was burned in 1829. Before it was built the people went to Knox county for flour, or got it at Zanesville, as well as other goods, which they received in exchange for logs cut on the banks of the Killbuck, and rafted down to that place.
John and William Craig, from Western Pennsylvania, fixed their stakes on Doughty's fork of Killbuck before 1820.
Joel Glover, from Jefferson county, long holding the im- portant office of justice of the peace, and who (as well as his children) has " stood high " among his fellow-citizens, dates his location among the hills of Killbuck, 1829.
It is understood that the township was named in honor of old Samuel Clark, long a county commissioner, who was among the earliest and most highly esteemed citizens of the Killbuck valley.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
In 1818, the tax-paying landholders in Jefferson township were Joseph Butler, Thomas Butler, Robert Darling, Stephen Meredith, and Abner Meredith. They were all from Virginia. Darling and the Butlers came in 1806 ; the Merediths a little later. They and their descendants have been well known in the land. One of Darling's sons
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
(Thomas) was for years county commissioner. They were all farmers.
Henry Carr came from Virginia in 1805, and, after rais- ing a few crops in the prairie in Bethlehem township, set- tled in Jefferson. He was the grandfather of ex-sheriff J. H. Carr.
Colonel Wm. Simmons, a Virginian, who had been a colonel in the Revolutionary War, received for his services " Simmons section," the southeast quarter of this town- ship, and settled thereon about 1819. He died at a good old age, and was buried on his farm. The family was one of the few who brought a carriage with them to the county. A son, C. W. Simmons, was in the Legislature ; now re- sides in Iowa at very advanced age. A daughter was mar- ried by General Wm. Carhart.
John Elder emigrated from Ireland to Virginia in 1804, and thence came with the Darlings to the Walhonding valley, in 1806. After making several other locations, he settled in Jefferson township about 1820. He died in 1851, on his farm, now occupied by his son, Cyrus Elder, a little west of Warsaw. He was a full-blooded, county Antrim, Presbyterian. He was twice married, and reared a large family, still prominent in the township. During the War of 1812, he spent some months in hauling supplies to the soldiers.
The Thompsons, Givens, and Moores have also long been among the well-known citizens of this township, and the two first named were very early settlers in it, coming from land Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio. The Tredaways have also been long in the land.
CRAWFORD TOWNSHIP.
The early settlers in Crawford township were almost, without exception, Pennsylvania Germans, and the leading element of the township is even yet of at least German descent; Protestant as to religious faith. Most of the tracts of land originally taken up were small, and it is the most densely populated-more inhabitants to the square mile-of any of the townships in the county. In 1822 the
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, etc.
resident landholders were Philip and John Fernsler, George and William Gotshall, John and Jacob Luke, John Smith, Daniel Salsbury, John Albert, and William Stall. These were all in the township a little before that time, but then were tax-paying residents. The township was organized in 1828, and from 1830 to 1850 the inflow of pop- ulation was very great, the township having in the latter year some 1,500 people in it. The Crawfords and Hime- baughs and Lorentzs and Lowens and Everharts and Winklplecks and Doaks are reported as old and well- known families of this township. From 1850 to 1870 the population of Crawford fell off nearly three hundred, and it is said many of the old " first families " in point of settle- ment are now scarcely represented in it. The name of the township is said to have been given in honor of Associate Judge Crawford, who held a considerable tract of land in it, and was very popular.
MONROE TOWNSHIP.
Among the pioneers of Monroe were James Parker, William Tipton, Daniel and Jeremiah Fetrow, William Griffith, Thomas J. Northrup, William Bailey, Anthony Evans, and Jonas Stanberry.
The population has never been very distinctly marked as to nationality. In later years there was for a time a considerable inflow of Germans, but the tide, even in respect to these, soon ebbed rather than flowed. The modesty of the people, or the fact that there has actually been little of general interest in "the previous condition" of the early settlers or the movements of the township, makes these notices exceedingly brief. The capital of the township was originally designated Van Buren, but a change having been determined upon, the gallant citizens, it is said, con- ferred the honor of selecting the new name upon the wife of the principal of the academy (George Conant, now of Coshocton), and she, with an eye to natural fitness, called it Spring Mountain. The region may be called the high- lands of the county, and the population likely to be drawn to it, as hitherto it has been, will be chiefly of the frugal
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
and contented sort. It has furnished what indeed some of the more fertile and famous townships have not-a mem- ber of the legislature (Hon. E. L. Lybarger), to say noth- ing of the present auditor and of other county officers. Evidently the early settlers gave the township a good " send-off."
TIVERTON TOWNSHIP.
In 1817, the only settler who had got his name into the books as a resident land-owner in this township was Isaac Draper. He had indeed been in for some time before, as were a few others ; but getting a name and a place in a new country even yet takes some time. "Tomahawk titles " were no longer recognized ; but transfers of titles, and verifying of lines, etc., took time when nothing else did.
A few years later than Draper's entering, the following were in Tiverton : Thomas Borden, Wm. Humphrey, Mat- thew and William Hirt, Charles Ryan, James and John Conner, Wm. Durban, John Holt, and Isaac Thatcher.
Tiverton has always been a sparsely settled township- her people almost purely agricultural, frugal, hardy, boasting of the good health found in their highlands. Some of the early settlers came in from counties in Ohio, somewhat further east or south ; but a very noticeable ele- ment was of New England or New York origin. Several of the older branches of the early settlers have paid the debt of nature-in almost every case attaining to a good old age, and passing away as quietly as they had lived; but the families of forty years ago in Tiverton are, in noticeable degree, the families of to-day.
When the Walhonding canal was being built, some expectation was indulged of Tiverton attaining quite a degree of commercial importance, and especially of its Rochester reaching prominence as a manufacturing point ; but this failed with the failure to extend the canal.
BETIILEHEM TOWNSHIP.
When this township was organized, the honor of naming it was given to the then oldest resident of the region, who
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, etc.
was Wm. Speaks, a Revolutionary soldier, and he named it Bethlehem.
Very early in the century, say about 1801, Wm. and Samuel Morrison, Ira Kimberly, and James Craig lived in what is now Bethlehem township. The first three were from Virginia. Craig, after a few years, moved to Coshoc- ton, where he and all his family died, about 1814, of " Cold Plague." John Bantham and Henry Carr came to Bethle- hem about 1806-the former from Virginia, the latter from near Baltimore, Md. The Burrells were early settlers in the township. Joseph Burrell died in the township in August, 1874, being about eighty-eight years of age. Benjamin Fry, occupying the land about "Fry's Ford," was also an early settler. Adam Markley, about 1808, came in with a large family-eight sons and four daughters. They were all farmers, and nearly all have been buried in this county. Barbara Markley, in her ninety-first year, and probably the oldest person now living in the township, is the widow of Wm. Markley. John Markley, killed by Geo. Arnold, at an election in Coshocton, in 1816, was of this family; also David Markley, now living at Lewisville.
Samuel Clark came from Virginia to Coshocton county about 1801, settling a few years later in Bethlehem, and there dying, a few years since, at a good old age. He was a justice of the peace during nearly all his active life; was also county commissioner several times. Gabriel Clark came about same time. Three sons of Samuel Clark (William, John, and Gabriel), with many descendants, are still living in the county .* Michael Hogle, John Merri- hew, and David Ash settled in the township, April, 1814. They were all from Vermont. Michael Hogle raised a family of nineteen children; removed to Illinois in 1845, and died there in June, 1846.
The first mechanic (blacksmith) in the township was Albert Torrey, about 1814.
* William Clark died, April 14, 1876, of lung fever, at his home in the township. He had been for some time a justice of the peace. Was sixty-five years old.
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
The first school (in a log house) was taught by Charles Elliott, afterward the famous Methodist preacher, editor, and college president.
ADAMS TOWNSHIP.
One-half of this township was military land, and the other half Congress land. Much of the latter was entered after the township was organized, which was in 1832. Wm. Addy was the first tax-paying freeholder (in 1819). Among the earliest settlers were Robert Corbit; James Jones, who, while the region was yet a part of Oxford township, served as justice of the peace, and his brother Wm. Jones ; Wm. Norris, from Virginia, whose distinction was that of having twenty-one children ; Thomas Powell, an emigrant from England ; John Baker, the founder of Bakersville, coming from New Jersey ; another branch of the Norris family settled near Bakersville, and of a some- what later date, but still in before the township was organ- ized ; the Campbells from Steubenville, and the Walters from Eastern Ohio. The first justice of the peace was Patrick Steele Campbell, who held the office until his death in 1850. Vincent De Witt, and Leonard Hawk were early settlers, and the latter name is still represented in the township. The Mysers and Shannons, too, have long had a place " in the land."
LAFAYETTE TOWNSHIP.
Although Lafayette township was the last to be organ- ized, the territory in it was among the first occupied. As early as 1801, Charles and Esaias Baker were raising corn on what is now known as the Colonel Andrew Ferguson farm. In 1802, George and Wendell Miller came out from Virginia, and continued to dwell in the township until they died at advanced years. Thomas Wiggins, also from Vir- ginia, came in about the same time. In 1804, Francis McGuire, who had lived in the same locality (on the south branch of the Potomac, near Romney), whence the Millers and Wiggins had come, moved to the Tuscarawas valley
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Notices of Earlier Settlers, etc.
above New Comerstown, and in 1807 came on down the valley to the locality in Lafayette township still known as the " McGuire settlement." The family were carried in a wagon which was driven along on the bank of the river, sometimes in it, and they afterward used the wagon-bed as their shelter and sleeping-place until a cabin could be built, which, in the want of help to any considerable extent from neighbors, took more time than in after years. Mr. McGuire died on the place thus taken up by him in 1853, being about seventy-six years of age.
In 1804, Seth McLain, also from Virginia, settled near the Bakers, putting up a cabin near the fine spring which now supplies Colonel Ferguson's house. After residing some ten years, the " settlers " discovered they were on the " Higby section " of military land, and moved over into Linton township, becoming thus early settlers therein. McLain married one of the Sells, whose connec- tions had settled further up the river. His son James (father of Seth and Colonel R. W. McLain) died a couple of years ago, aged about seventy-five years. Thomas McLain came into Lafayette township in 1805, and re- mained until his death. A son (Isaac) is probably the old- est citizen now in the township, about seventy-two years of age.
Joseph C. Higbee, from Trenton, New Jersey, settled on his military section about 1820, and remained there until his death, about 1873, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. It is said his death was hastened, if not caused, by a violent abuse he received from some one who, it is believed, purposed robbery. His first wife was Miss Hackinson. One of his daughters was married to Rev. Mr. Southard, who was for a time a minister of Trinity Church, New York. Another is said to have married Mr. Hay, a lawyer, in Pittsburg. John Richmond, of Orange, married a daughter by the second wife. As illustrating "the style" of the man, the story was long current in the neighborhood, that, when he first came to the country, then in comparatively a wilderness condition, he brought with him six dozen ruffled shirts.
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
James M. Burt and Andrew Ferguson, long prominent citizens of the township, do not lay claim to being among the " old settlers," but they were in the neighborhood be- fore it was organized.
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Advancement of County in Wealth, etc.
CHAPTER VI.
ADVANCEMENT OF COUNTY IN WEALTH, TAXATION, ETC.
THE wealth of the first settlers of Coshocton county was almost wholly in their bold hearts and brawny arms. Some of them readily carried all their stuff in a small watercraft or on horseback. A few of them had in addition their broad, uncleared acres. Many of these were entered with land-warrants at nominal cost. Many acres were bought for from one to three dollars apiece. Even as late as 1830, the farm now occupied by J. W. Dwyer was bought at nine dollars an acre. It had, however, it is only fair to say, been sold for ten dollars, and the lower price above given was owing in part to the depression in lands on the east side of the river, in consequence of the canal having been built upon the other side. About the same time, some good lots in Coshocton were sold at sheriff's sale for from six to ten dollars. A few years later, after the bridges had been built, the land again changed hands at fifteen dollars per acre. Some of the early settlers spent the first season in bark or branch huts. The rifle and fishing-line secured much of the subsistence. It is claimed that old Michael Miller lived for weeks upon bear and deer meat, most of the time being even without corn-bread. For many years barter was the only kind of trade, and at first the skins of wild animals entered into it largely .* As late as 1825, the only surplus products of the county were ginseng, maple sugar, honey, bacon, and whisky. But lands were being cleared and improved, and appreciated every year. Do-
* Bear and deer meat occasionally graced the tables of the settlers as late as 1830. Bagnell and Retilley, of Roscoe, about that time traded for many a venison ham at twenty-five cents apiece. Still later, General Burns took a wolf-skin as pay for a marriage-license. Rattlesnakes were never quite so plenty after the exploit of Joseph Williams, who reports himself as having killed eighty-four in the sum- mer of 1812.
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Historical Collections of Coshocton County.
mestic stock was increasing rapidly, and soon hogs and cattle were markcted in large numbers. Droves were taken east, and store-goods brought back. After the opening of the Ohio canal, the advancement of the county, in wealth as in population, was quite marked. Even the mineral resources . of the county began to be regarded as elements of wealth. Coal was shipped to Newark and Columbus. Flour, bacon, and whisky, and even dried fruits,* became very considera- ble features of commercial transactions. Then fine cattle and sheep began to count largely. The opening of the railroad gave an impulse to the improvement and advance- ment of the county unequalled by anything else in its his- tory. Butter and eggs and domestic fowls soon had more in them than would pay all the taxes of the people. Ship- ments of coal in an extensive and systematic way began, and, despite occasional interruptions, steadily grew, bringing into the county large sums to flow into other wealth- bearing channels. Better buildings were erected in both town and country, and fitted with more costly furniture .; Much improvement was made in farm appliances, the grow- ing scarcity of labor, especially during the war, necessitat- ing these. Manufacturing interests were much enlarged ; and at length when, in 1875, an examination was made by the proper officers, it was found that the valuation for tax- ation of the real and personal property was $13,672,770. As the valuation in 1850 was only $5,026,561, it appears that even duly allowing for the fact that the later valuation was affected by the current inflation, the county has in the last twenty-five years more than doubled its wealth ; and this, too, in the face of a diminishing population, as else- where noted. Of the total valuation about nine and a half millions are in real, and the other four in personal property. The principal items of the latter are as follows : horses,
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