USA > Ohio > Ashland County > History of Ashland County, Ohio > Part 19
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When Mr. Workman came to the country the territory of Vermillion and Montgomery were united in one township, under the name of the former; and Robert Newell and James Wallace were the two justices of the peace. Mr. Workman was elected in 1817, and was the successor of Mr. Wallace.
Indian Neighbors.
His nearest neighbors were Johnnycake and his squaw. He was a quiet friendly neighbor, and Mr. Workman took his first lessons in hunting wild game of this Indian.
John Scott immigrated to Vermillion township March 22, 1819, having pur- chased two hundred and twenty acres on the west line of the township.
On the 7th of January, 1831, Mr. Scott opened the first stock of goods ever offered at Hayes X-Roads.
As evidence of the integrity of his customers at that time, Mr. Scott says that, during the first four years of his business life in Hayesville, he has no recollection of having lost a dollar by bad debts. With reference to girls who supported themselves by weekly wages, he generally gave credit when it was asked, and the money was always promptly paid, according to promise.
Not until several years after Mr. Palmer came (in 1811) to the country, was there any church building in the township. The first clergymen were Presby- terian missionaries, who, in traveling to and from their missions among the Senecas and Wyandots, made it a practice for many years to preach at the house of Mr. Palmer and others. The first church building erected in the township stood upon land now owned by Joseph Boyd, and occupied the place near where Mr. Boyd's mill now stands. It was a very large building for the time, belonged to the Methodist denomination, was made of unhewn logs, and erected in about 1818. To aid in raising the building, persons came from Mansfield and other places equally distant. When quarterly meetings were held in this building, they were generally attended by people from a great distance. So utterly unable were residents of the neighborhood to entertain their friends from abroad, that the latter would often bring with them their supplies of food, cooking utensils, bed clothing, etc., and during the intervals when the church was not used for divine service, the capacious wooden fireplace would be used by the women, cooking food for themselves and families, in fact, converting the building into one for eating and lodging, as well as for religious purposes. This necessity was the result, not of any want of hospitality, but of the absence of food and house room existing in the vicinity.
Mr. Palmer said the sight of a physician to the people then residing here
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would be as great a curiosity as a wild Indian among the present generation. Their coarse, wholesome food, and active lives, secured the health of the inhabi- tants, and obviated the necessity for physicians.
William Karnahan emigrated from Jefferson county, Ohio, April 16, 1815, with his family. The country at this date was very sparsely settled, his nearest neighbor being Mr. Emerine, located one and a half miles distant. About this distance from where he erected his cabin, on the farm later owned by Mr. Stoufer, a den of rattlesnakes was discovered, near the entrance to which as many as twenty-five were killed in a single day. Another den, on or near the farm later owned by Robert Cowan, as many as seventy-five of these reptiles were killed in a single day. On one occasion the family were assailed by a panther, who approached the house on an evening within a few rods, and only disappeared after the family had secured the doors and windows of their cabin, and kindled a brilliant fire.
John Farver immigrated to Vermillion township, with his wife and two children, on the 29th of April, 1817, and commenced improvements on his farm, being the west half of the northeast quarter of section 2.
The nearest mill at this time was Shrimplin's, on Owl creek. The trip occu- pied from four to six days, and was made with four horses and a wagon, which would carry from forty to fifty bushels.
There was no wheat raised or for sale in the county at this time. Corn would bring eighty and one hundred cents. The animal food was principally venison and other wild game. About 1819 and 1820 the county began to raise a surplus of agricultural products, and from this time forward until the com- pletion of the Ohio canal, produce would hardly bear transportation to market, (which was then Sandusky City). Mr. Harper on one occasion took a load of flour to market and exchanged his flour for salt, giving two barrels of flour and half a dollar in cash for each barrel of salt. The first substantial encouragement given the farming and industrial interests was the market afforded by the com- pletion of the Ohio canal to Massillon.
At a meeting of the Ashland Pioneer Society held in 1876, Thomas Bushnell being called upon, responded by giving a short history of his life and stated that he was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1815. His father removed to Hayesville in 1821 and settled on the same place which he (Thomas) then owned.
The first wheat, within the recollection of Mr. Bushnell, offered for cash, was about 1822 or 1823, at the mill built by Lake and Bentley, and at the time referred to owned by Lake and Larwill, and which mill was better known in recent times as Goudy's mill, in the southeast part of Vermillion township. One hundred bushels were offered on this occasion for twenty-five dollars.
PERRY TOWNSHIP.
Perry township was surveyed in 1807 by Jonathan Cox. The township was organized September 14, 1814, and had jurisdiction over the territory of Jackson until 1819. The population of the township in 1820 was five hundred and fifty- eight; in 1860, one thousand nine hundred and eleven. At the first election,
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ST. JOHN'S GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH, MT. ZENA
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in April, 1825, Daniel Williams and Daniel Smith were elected trustees, and William Spencer, clerk. Rowsburg is the only town in the township and was laid out April 15, 1835, by Michael D. Row. At the time the plat was recorded, there was not an inhabitant within the limits of what now forms the town. A public sale of lots was held in May, 1835, and the first lot was sold to Jacob Carr for thirty-four dollars. The population of Rowsburg in 1860 was two hundred, but the village has increased materially in size since that time.
The first church in the township was a Presbyterian organization and was under the care of the Presbytery of Richland for several years. It was known as the Muddyfork church, so called from the branch of the Mohican by that name, near to which the house of worship stood. In 1831, by request of the congregation, the name of the church was changed to Mount Hope. In 1822, a Methodist church organization was formed at the house of John Hellman, since then the Lutherans, the Albrights and the United Brethren have organized congregations there.
For a number of years there was no demand for farm produce, except by newly arrived immigrants. To them wheat sold at fifty cents; oats about twelve and a half cents; corn twenty-five cents; salt twelve dollars and fifteen dollars per barrel. A small gristmill on Killbuck creek, constructed of beech poles, covered with split boards called clapboards, was built previous to 1820 by John Naftsinger. The bolting was done chiefly by hand.
There was an abundance of ginseng root in the forests. There were many who made it a business to gather it in the spring of the year. It was worth twenty-five cents per pound, and as it was one of the few productions of the country that commanded cash, large quantities were annually gathered. Michael Row, Sr., under the impression that the current rates paid by merchants in the country were much below its intrinsic value, transported a load to Philadelphia, in a one-horse wagon, and found it a paying trip.
Deer, raccoon, and wild turkey were plenty. Domestic linen and woolen goods composed the principal material for male and female dresses. The men were often dressed in buckskin pantaloons. In such attire the early settlers and their families enjoyed as much true happiness and independence as "Cesar with a senate at his heels."
Indian wigwams were numerous, built with small poles, front partly open, and covered with black ash or white elm bark, peeled from three to five feet long. Small troughs were made of the ash or elm bark to save or catch sugar water, as numbers were to be seen about large sugar trees that had been notched a number of years previous, the notches being covered with a new formation of wood amounting in thickness to two or three inches. Many trinkets or jewelry were found on cultivating the land. In the fall of 1822 there were nine Indian men and three squaws came in and encamped near the same ground for the purpose of hunting and trapping.
A pioneer said: "Day wages were about fifty cents in trade in harvest ; fifty cents or a bushel of wheat for reaping; little cradling done in harvest. Grain was threshed mostly with horses, though some was done with the flail. Flax was raised for the lint. Every housewife and maiden could spin flax or wool, and nearly one-half of them could weave. The price of spinning was a
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shilling a dozen, or by the week seventy-five cents, and twelve and a half cents for weaving linen, such as was worn for shirts; weaving of coarser fabrics, less. Muslin shirts were not worn. Female apparel consisted chiefly of home-made linen, linsey, or flannel, each endeavoring to excel in quality as well as variety. When muslin was first used among laboring men it cost twenty-five cents to thirty-eight cents per yard."
In 1815 or 1816, (about twenty years before Rowsburg was laid out) an effort was made by John Raver to establish a town on the Wooster road between the present site of Rowsburg and the Muddyfork.
Beyond the naming of the village, which was called Elizabethtown, and the offering of some lots at a public sale, no progress was made in building up the proposed town, and the scheme was abandoned.
There were two churches in the township in 1824: one Presbyterian, called Mount Hope, near the northeast corner of the township; the other a Lutheran, on the south side of the township. The size of each was about thirty by thirty- five feet, and both were built of hewn logs.
The first person who died in the township was James Campbell. His body was removed to Wooster for interment.
The first grist and sawmill in Perry township was erected by John Raver, in 1818, on the present site of the mill owned by Arthur Campbell, about one- fourth of a mile north of Rowsburg, on what is known as Raver's Run. This mill, when built, was not only the first in the township, but also the first within what is now the limits of Ashland county. Prior to this, corn and corn meal were obtained on Owl creek, at Odell's, and at Stibb's, near Wooster.
It is supposed from the large number that were discovered and killed in the vicinity, that a rattlesnake den existed in a ledge of rocks near the northwest corner of land later owned by Mr. Cory.
MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP.
Mifflin township was surveyed in 1807, and settlements were made there in 1809. Before the creation of Ashland county, Mifflin was in Richland and was a full township, but it was divided when Ashland was erected, less than one-half of the territory and population falling within the boundaries of the new county. For the most part the western limit is the center of the Blackfork.
The surface is generally broken and hilly, but the soil yields bountifully to cultivation. The township is well watered by the Blackfork and smaller streams.
Long before Mifflin was settled by white men, it was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians, as all kinds of game abounded in the primeval forests. The settlement and history of Mifflin township have been similar to that of the other townships of the county. In the beginning there were dangers from savages and from the climatic diseases of a new country. But in time Mifflin grew, improved and prospered, keeping step with her sister townships and is hopeful that trolley cars will in a few years traverse her territory.
Interlaken, Switzerland, is said by tourists to be a small place unless you
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count the mountains ; and Mifflin is a small place unless you count its environing hills and its chain of beautiful lakes, the latter lying placidly between the village and the Blackfork of the Mohican.
Among the oldtime residents of Mifflin township mention should be made of J. F. Benninghof, who was born in Germany and came with his parents to America when he was seven years of age and settled in Mifflin township a few years later, where he became quite prominent and served for a number of years as justice of the peace. As a printer, he held a "case" in a number of offices, both German and English, but is now living in retirement in Mansfield.
Prominent among the first settlers were the Bradens, the Croningers, the Cullers, the Harlands, the Hersheys, the Selbys, the Stamans, the Zeimers, the Copuses, and others.
The Zeimer-Ruffner massacre and the Copus battle occurred in this town- ship, accounts of which are published elsewhere in this work.
THE PETERSBURG LAKES.
"And still it is said, when the day is fled, And moonbeams gild the night, That the sheen of the lake is grander Than in the mid-day light."
Those who have never visited the lakes may want to know more about them, for the contemplated improvements will make the place more noted. The number and location of the lakes, the size and depth of each, and other matters pertaining to the locality are objects of inquiry now, and it is the purpose of this article to give information along these lines.
The Petersburg lakes are situated in Ashland county, eight miles east of Mansfield, and are three in number, forming a chain. The upper lake is the smallest, having an area of only about ten acres, and is called Mud lake. The middle, called the Bell lake, has an area of about thirty acres, and the lower or Big lake (sometimes called Culler's) has an area of fifty to sixty acres, and is a half-mile or more in length. There is a surface connection between the lakes, and it is supposed there is also a subterrean one. There is an outlet from the lower lake into the Blackfork, a short distance to the west. The lower lake has a depth of from fifty to one hundred feet. The lakes are fed by subterranean springs from the Mifflin hills on the east, and the waters are clear and cold. These lakes are noted for their abundance of fish and the locality for its myriads of mosquitoes.
Interlaken, Switzerland, is not a large town, it is said, unless you count the mountains ; and Mifflin is a small village, unless you count the Petersburg (or Mifflin) lakes that lie between the town and the Blackfork. These lakes are evidently counted-figuratively- and have aided in making Mifflin one of the most noted villages in this part of Ohio, and its prominence will be still further enhanced when a trolley line connects it with the city of Mansfield.
These Petersburg lakes are in an oblong basin on the east side of the Black-
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fork and are surrounded by native forests, the greater part of their direct environs being marshy ground, too wet for cultivation. However, the elevation on which the summer hotel stands is high and dry and commands a good view of the lake. The Big lake is a clear, beautiful sheet of water, but the forest surroundings impart a feeling of loneliness, and causes one to exclaim :
"O, Solitude ! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face ?"
With suitable buildings and other improvements, the lakes could be made a desirable summer resort.
In this Blackfork region there may yet be developed a more lucrative industry than a summer resort. Ore mines may be opened there.
When General Hedges made a survey of that locality in 1807, he was em- barrassed over the variations of his compass. In order to test the accuracy of the survey, the lines were resurveyed, still the variations existed. He thought the chaining might be imperfect, and had the lines surveyed the third time, with the same results. Jonathan Cox, in 1808, had a similar experience. The con- sensus of opinion was that magnetic ores in the earth influenced the needle.
But the only ore yet discovered in that village is "bog ore" at the lakes. Bog iron-ore is a mineral of variable composition and is found in alluvial soils, in bogs and lakes. There may, however, be other ore in that locality, which, if unearthed, would add another page to that storied valley and material wealth to its people.
"UNCLE" JONAS' LAKE.
"Uncle" Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, Richland county, but being within a mile of the Ashland county line and its history being a very interesting one, an account of its creation is here given :
"Uncle" Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, seven miles east of Mansfield. It covers an area of eight acres and its depth is about seventy feet. This little body of water has been called by different names, such as Sites', Swearingen's and others, but in the past was simply "Uncle Jonas' lake," after Jonas Ballyet, the first owner. It is now more generally known as the lake where the wagon load of hay sunk, meadow and all, according to tradition.
In 1821, Jonas Ballyet entered the northwest quarter of section 15, Mifflin township, and near its center he found a lake covering about an acre. Its immediate surrounding was level land to the extent of eight acres, all enclosed with a rim of hills of gentle slope, except a place at the east side where the ground was lower as though inviting an outlet for the pent-up waters of the lake. Through this depression, "Uncle Jonas" cut a ditch with the view of making the low land about the lake tillable.
The lake lies a mile west of the Blackfork of the Mohican, and between them is a tract of marshy land called the Black Swamp, into this a ditch was cut from the lake.
"Uncle Jonas' " theory seemed quite plausible, but he was later confronted with a condition he had not anticipated. The ditch was opened on the 25th day
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of July, 1846, and was of sufficient depth to lower the surface of the lake eight feet. On the day following the greater part of the level land surrounding the lake, comprising about six acres, was engulfed-sank out of sight-leaving only the tops of the higher trees, with which the land had been covered, visible. And in time the tree tops also disappeared. The opinion was that the lake was of greater size beneath than was apparent upon its surface and that lowering the water caused the ground to break off from the rim of hills, and being thus loosened, sank to the bottom.
This sinking caused the earth to quake and tremble for miles around, and alarmed the people of that vicinity, some thinking the "end of the world" had come, began to pray as they had never prayed before.
As this incident occurred during the Millerism period, people were more prone to attribute the trembling and jar to heavenly than to earthly causes, for although there may not have been a Millerite in that neighborhood, yet the doc- trine and teachings of the Rev. William Miller had been so universally disseminated and propagated that they influenced many unconsciously.
The time set by Miller for the "second coming of Christ" was the year 1843, as he interpreted the prophecies, but as the expected event did not occur other dates were given later, and the people were admonished to say not in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth His coming."
Digging this ditch outlet to the lake was a losing enterprise to "Uncle Jonas," for instead of reclaiming land, he lost six acres thereof, timber and all.
A few years later there was another sinking of grounds into the water, in- creasing the lake to its present size of between eight and nine acres, but as the low land has all been engulfed, no apprehension is felt that any similar occur- rence will take place in the future, as it is not believed that the lake extends beneath the hills.
Prior to this land sinking episode, catfish, sunfish and some other varieties abounded in the lake in great quantities but are not so abundant there now.
The water of the lake when viewed as a body is an ocean-green in tint of coloring, yet when dipped up seems pure and clear. The lake is circular in form and in its hill-frame setting is one of the most beautiful of the many attractive places in old Richland. The slope at the southeast is covered by a shady grove, from whose retreat one might imagine some highland maid might appear and-
With hasty oar Push her light shallop from the shore,"
to meet her Malcolm at the other side. But, alas, no Ellen comes in answer to the hunter's call.
The lake is not only beautiful in sunshine but is interesting in storms, when the thunder's deep reverberations roll like billows over its waters. And when the gleaming rainbow sheds it lustre upon the placid surface, no artist can sketch its beauty, while in the background of the picture may be read by faith the eternal promise that the earth shall not again be destroyed by water.
Pleasure parties find "Uncle Jonas' " lake interesting by day and still more attractive under the pale light of the stars.
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ORANGE TOWNSHIP.
Orange township was surveyed in 1807 and settled in 1814. It is one of the best agricultural townships in the county, and is well supplied with water. The township was surveyed by Maxfield Ludlow and was organized by the com- missioners of Richland county in 1818. The Jeromefork and several tributaries, while they afford very little water power, are living streams and waters a majority of the farms in the township, rendering the land particularly valuable for stock growing.
Of the early residents of Orange township, the following names are recalled :
Wesley Richards was born in Loudon county, West Virginia, August 9, 1793, came to Orange township in an early day and died September 12, 1882, aged eighty-nine years, one month and three days. Mrs. Mary Rickett, born in West Bethlehem township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1796, came to Orange township in 1822 and died in the winter of 1883, aged eighty-five years, eleven months and eleven days. She was the mother of fifteen children, had forty-five grandchildren and sixty-one great-grandchildren. Valentine Vance, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1797, and in 1814 came with his father to Canton, Ohio, thence to Richland county near Mansfield, thence to Orange township where he died November 20, 1882, aged eighty-four years, eleven months and eleven days. Mrs. Margaret Heiffner, wife of John Heiffner and daughter of Ludwic Cline was born in Montgomery township, March 23. 1818, was married to John Heiffner, July 7, 1835, and died in Orange township December 15, 1882, aged sixty-six years, eight months and twenty-two days. John Richey was born in Virginia in 1801, in 1804 came with his parents to Columbiana county, Ohio, and in 1833 came to Orange township where he died February 23, 1883, aged eighty-two years. Mrs. Eliza Thomas, wife of Josiah Thomas, whose maiden name was Zimmerman, was born in Union county, Pennsylvania. December 25, 1809, came to Montgomery township in the spring of 1829, and died in Orange township, March 25, 1883, aged seventy-three years and three months. Mrs. Mary Donley, born in America, her parents came from Ireland in 1776. She lived to be about one hundred and four years old and died in Ashland on Sunday, October 1, 1882, and was buried at Orange.
Vachel Metcalf and Amos Norris were the first settlers in Orange. They removed into it from Bunn's Settlement, in Mohican township, in the spring of 1814. Jacob Young and Jacob Crouse emigrated from Columbiana county, during the same spring, without their families. Young built a camphouse within a few rods of where the bridge crosses the Jeromefork of the Mohican, on the road now leading from Ashland to Orange.
The total number of white families in Orange township, during the winter commencing December. 1814, amounted to five. In addition to these, however, Solomon Urie and his two sons. Samuel and Thomas, were in the township.
In the spring of 1815. Thomas Green, Mordecai Chilcote, Martin Hester, Patrick Murray, Christian and Nicholas Fast, and Henry Hampson removed to the township with their families. During the same year. John Bishop, an unmarried man, came into the township.
In the fall of 1815 Martin Mason commenced the erection of a mill on the
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site of the one now owned by Samuel Leidigh, two miles west of the present village of Orange. The stones were "hard-heads" and would grind sixty bushels per day. The mill commenced operations in March, 1816. That the settlers in Orange and adjacent townships appreciated the advantages of this mill, may be understood when it is stated that, prior to its erection, the nearest mill was that of Stibbs, one mile east of Wooster. While the millwrights were engaged in the erection of the watermill, they would employ their evenings in aiding Mr. Mason's family to work the handmill in producing the necessary supplies for the following day.
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