USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 18
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A number of these names appear in no other place than on this poll record. This may be the result of bad spelling on the part of the poll-taker or the fact that the unknown voters were only "squatters" and hence have no legal connection with the county other than as a voter. On the other hand, at least half of the names represented in this list of voters in 1811 are repre- sented by descendants in the township or county in 1917.
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ENORMOUS DROVES OF SQUIRRELS.
Many interesting incidents cluster around the life of the early pioneers of this township. There are many stories of Indians, of the depredations of wild animals, of neighborhood feuds. of the building of churches and school- houses and stories without number touching the lives of the settlers them- selves. Even the squirrels of the forests come in for their share of the tra- ditions which have been handed down through succeeding generations. As early as 1808 the township trustees ordered the following resolution spread on the records: "Agreeable to the squirrel law, the trustees of this town- ship have laid on each taxable citizen, ten squirrel scalps, or one scalp for each and every twelve and one-half cents his tax amounts due. Done the 23d day of April, 1808. Attest, David Parkison, T. C."
No one now living can recall the droves of squirrels that used to make trips up and down the Mad river valley. They came by countless thousands from the south in the spring and in the early fall started on their return trip, passing through the county about the time the corn began to ripen. To quote from an old account "they appeared in such vast numbers, as apparently to cover the earth for miles and if not well guarded, they would clear the corn field as they went along. They would suffer death rather than to turn from their course; and would pass over houses and swim lakes, ponds and water courses. They traveled due south until they reached the Ohio river into which they would plunge, but here an immense number would loose their lives by drowning in the river. Those that got over alive would crawl upon the bank, dry themselves, rest a short time and resume their journey south- ward. This accounts for the necessity of levying a squirrel-scalp tax." This is not a fish story-only a squirrel story, but it is well authenticated. Similar stories abound in Indiana and Illinois.
THE CAPTIVITY OF MOLLY KISER.
James McPherson, known as "Squalicee" by the Indians, settled along the Mac-o-chee at a nearly date and at that time many Indian families were still living up and down the stream. One Indian, a chief known as Capt. John Lewis, had a woman in his family who was known as Molly Kiser. She had been taken prisoner when a small girl and reared by the Indians. Efforts were made to induce her to make her home with some of the white families, but she preferred the Indian life. She married an Indian and had
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at least two daughters. The story is told of a horse trade which she made with Daniel Corwin near the north fork of Kings creek. She had stayed one night at the house of John Thomas and the next day while riding through the woods came upon the cabin of Daniel Corwin and immediately offered to trade horses. Sometime later she was seen on the back of her new horse riding along and presenting a peculiar appearance. It appears that she had been out in a hail storm, or at least the horse had, with the result that the horse had been practically stripped of all the hair on its back.
SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
It is impossible to follow the early careers of all the first settlers; many of them left no records for the reason that they were only squatters; others left the county long before the Civil War; still others passed away leaving no descendants. In the following paragraphs there have been collected a number of facts and incidents concerning some of the early settlers; these have been collated from the newspapers, old records in the township and in the court house, former written accounts and interviews with old citizens.
A number of the first settlers of the township have already been noticed. It was natural that all the early settlers should locate along the creek or near Mad river, or along the state road first cut out by General Hull in 1812. The first settler to locate between Kings creek and the Mac-o-chee was Abram Smith. His cabin was located on what was then known as the "Barrens" and was on a hill a short distance east of the state road in section 24. He located there in 1813 and lived there until his death about 1821. Smith was one of the leaders of the township, held several local offices and was con- sidered one of the well-to-do men of his community. He, his wife and their two children died within a few days of each other in 1821 with what was then known as "milk sick."
John Enoch came to the township when a lad of ten years, his father's family locating in the northern part of the township in 1812. Enoch became the largest landowner in the township and at one time had one thousand six hundred and fifty acres in sections 14, 20, 26, 13 and 19; he also owned a small tract of military land adjoining section 14. Enoch was known in his day as the model farmer of the county and the atlas of 1871, on its map of Salem township, labels his farm as the "Model Farm of Champaign County." He was especially noted for his fine stock. There have been many large farms in the county since its earliest history and there are now quite a num-
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ber of farms of more than two hundred acres in extent. In the spring of 1917 one farmer, David Kerfoot, who lives on the Shuey farm, had one hun- dred and forty acres of corn in one field and as far as is known this is the largest corn field in the county. There are very few corn fields of more than fifty acres in extent. A. M. Glendenning, one of the county commissioners, has a seventy-five-acre corn field in Rush township.
FREED SLAVES BECOME SETTLERS.
The vicinity of Mt. Tabor received a few settlers as early as 1810. Griffith Evans and family, natives of Greenbrier county, Virginia, bought a large tract of Alexander Dunlap, in the vicinity of Mt. Tabor, in 1810. An infant of the Evans family was the first to be buried in the cemetery at Mt. Tabor and this spot has been hallowed ground since 1811-a period of one hundred and six years. The Evans family were probably the first Meth- odists in the township, but between 1810 and 1814 a number of other families of the same faith had come to the community from Greenbrier county, Vir- ginia. The house of Griffith Evans became the first home of the Methodist church and in this humble cabin, with its dirt floor and puncheon seats, the Methodist class met for three or four years, or up to 1816. Mrs. Evans was a woman of wealth and inherited a number of slaves, but after her marriage she set them all free. According to the best authority all of these slaves came to Champaign county and settled here, many of them living in the vicinity of the Evans homestead. An extended history of the Mt. Tabor church is given in another chapter.
Another of the Greenbrier county, Virginia, families was composed of Nathaniel Hunter, his wife, Ann, and their nine children. The Hunters left Virginia in 1811 and located in Madison county, Ohio, moving thence over into Champaign county in 1814. They had purchased a large tract in section 18, about three miles north of the present village of Kingston. There four sons and five daughters, all members of the Methodist church at Mt. Tabor, grew to maturity, all married, all had large families, and the parents and all the children. as well as grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even to the fifth generation, are interred in the Mt. Tabor cemetery. Nathaniel Hunter and his four sons helped to build three churches on the site of the Mt. Tabor church.
The Black family came to the township in 1809 and settled along Mad river and soon became recognized as among the leaders of the township.
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Alexander Black was the first member of the family to come to the county. He located between the Mac-o-chee and Mad rivers. He and his wife, Jane Crocket. were natives of Virginia, early settlers in Kentucky, and were mar- ried in the latter state. They arrived in Salem township from Kentucky on May 12, 1800. Alexander Black and wife had eight children. He died in June, 1854, at the age of ninety, and his wife died in August, 1849, at the age of eighty.
Alexander Black was present at the battle of Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794, and was a great friend of the Indians. During the War of 1812. Governor Meigs rode up the river one evening to see Black about raising a company to go to the assistance of Ft. Finley, which was then being besieged. Within less than twenty-four hours Captain Black had his company on the road toward Lake Erie following Hull's trace. The siege was raised before the troops which were sent from this county reached the fort.
EVIDENCE OF MOUND BUILDERS' OCCUPANCY.
One of the interesting sites of the township in its early history was an Indian mound near where the state road crosses Kings creek. During the War of 1812 the government used the mound on which to herd cattle, which were kept there while waiting to be slaughtered from day to day for the use of the troops. The cattle tramped and horned the walls of this ancient fortification so much that they nearly destroyed evidences of it. George Petty, the owner of the land, shortly afterward plowed it for the first time and there is no vestige of the wall now to be seen. The original mound con- tained about four and one-half acres in the shape of a rectangular square, the outside wall being about four and one-half feet high. This wall sloped inward and the center of the enclosure was on a level with the ground outside the wall. In 1880 a large oak, three feet in diameter, stood on the edge of the wall and the tree was evidently more than five hundred years old. Another mound stands south of this, but although it has been excavated no bones or Indian relics have been found.
EARLY RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES.
The Blacks, MeIllwains and many of the other early settlers from Ken- tucky were members of the Christian ( New Light) church. and they seemed to have made arrangements to establish a congregation as soon as they reached the county. In 1813 a camp meeting of this denomination was held
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along Hull's trace between the homes of Captain Black and Moses McIlwain, Richard Clark, of Kentucky, being the preacher in charge. Another early preacher of this faith was Joseph Thomas, familiarly known as the "White Pilgrim." Caleb and Nathan Worley, Virginians, were also early preachers of this faith in Salem township.
THE INFLUENCE OF HULL'S TRACE.
William Copes was one of a number of settlers who came to the town- ship in 1814. The making of Hull's trace through the county made it pos- sible for settlers to have an easy ingress into the northern part of the county and it is interesting to note that so many of the early settlers located on either side of the "trace." Copes settled on the west side of the trace in sec- tion 22, bought one hundred and sixty acres for two dollars an acre, became dissatisfied with his tract, sold it with the improvements for the same price he gave for it and bought another quarter section in another part of the township for four dollars an acre. Thomas Thomas bought the first farm of Copes and opened a tavern along the road which became well patronized by the movers, drovers, teamsters and travelers of all kinds who were continually traveling the old trace, later the state road, and now known as the Urbana- Bellefontaine pike.
Charles McClay, a brother-in-law of the Abram Smith previously men- tioned as the first settler on the "Barrens," was another settler in section 22 along the trace; Robert Latta, John Williams and Archibald Stewart settled east of the trace in 1814 and 1815.
William Mayse was one of the prominent early settlers north of Ken- nard and later moved to the farm which was subsequently owned by Levi Cowgill. John Thomas, born in Charles county, Maryland, in 1779, located on Kings creek in 1800. On the Thomas farm north of Kennard was one of the early block houses of the county. James Turner and his wife, Ann. settled about two and one-half miles west of Kennard in 1808 or 1809. Mrs. Turner died shortly afterward and was the first person buried in the ceme- tery at Kingston. It is recorded that her grave was dug by Thomas Stewart, Isaac McAdams and Edward L. Morgan.
THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE.
The arrival of George Leonard in Salem township in 1805 and his uncle. Jacob Leonard, the following year has already been noted. Both were born
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in Virginia, the former on April 26. 1777. He died in this county in December, 1868. Jacob Leonard died in 1835. B. B. Leonard, a resident of West Liberty in 1880, in writing of the Leonard family and their early connection with the county conveyed the following information :
"The first school house that I remember was a little brick one, built on the south bank of Kings creek, a half mile west of where Kingston now is. The first teacher was Edward L. Morgan. This house was also used as a place of worship. *
* * The first Sabbath school in the neighborhood was held in the school house referred to and Joel Funk and his neighbors of the same age were the leading managers. It must have been as early as 1829 or 1830. A debating society was organized and continued in this 'Little Brick,' as it was called, which was well attended and attracted gen- eral interest. Among the disputants who entered into the war of words, I remember Thomas Parker, Peter Walker, afterward an eminent surgeon, and Moses B. Walker, who studied law, became a state senator, became a briga- dier general in the Civil War and subsequently was elected to the supreme bench in a neighboring state. Other young people in the society were Jesse Leonard, T. A. Gifford, Joseph Weidman, Russell B. Spain, I. P. Leonard and James Tolman." (This extract is taken from a letter written by Leonard to Dr. Thomas Cowgill, July 19, 1880.)
COMING OF THE MORGAN FAMILY.
The Morgan family date their connection with the township from 1813. They came from the same part of Virginia which had been the home of John Taylor, pioneer of Kingston. John Morgan was the first of the family to come and in the fall of 1813 sent his son, Edward L., to this county to select a suitable site. Hle selected fractional section 3, township 5, range 12, two miles due east of the present village of Kingston. The family left Virginia on September 10, 1814, with a single wagon and one extra horse, the women riding the horse alternately. They arrived in Champaign county on October 1, and settled temporarily in a house along the creek about half a mile east of Kingston, near the present railroad bridge. In 1816 they moved into their own house and there John Morgan died on July 16, 1833. While he had ten children there was only one who became prominently identified with the early history of the county, Edward Lloyd Morgan.
E. L. Morgan was born on February 10, 1794, and died on February 23, 1875. His wife died on October 9, 1850. E. L. Morgan was an excep-
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tional man in many ways and just such a man as was needed in the new county. He taught school near Kingston as early as 1815: was engaged every summer in surveying, serving twelve years as county surveyor; was elected to the Legislature in 1824, 1832 and 1837; served several years as township clerk and township treasurer, and, during the last years of his life, served as justice of the peace. He was one of the first members of the Masonic lodge at Urbana, helped organize the lodge at Kingston in 1866 and served as worshipful master of the lodge until he was too old to attend the meetings. Of a family of eight children only one is living, Maskel E. Morgan. who has probably done more surveying in Champaign county than any other man who has ever lived in it, although he never served as the official county surveyor.
SOME "FIRSTS" IN SALEM TOWNSHIP.
The first settler in the township was Pierre Dugan, although it is main- tained that a Frenchman by the name of Deshicket was living in the north- western part of the township as early as 1794. The late Doctor Cowgill always asseverated that Deshicket was not only the first resident of Salem, but also the first white settler in what is now Champaign county.
The first mill was built by Arthur Thomas at the mouth of Kings creek, between 1803 and 1805. The first school house was built on the Black farm in the northwestern part of the township and Robert Crocket is known to have taught the second term of school in it. The first children in this first school house were William, John, Samuel and James Kavanaugh, Moses McIlwain's children, Captain Black's children and George Petty's adopted daughter.
Moses McIlwain built the first brick house in the township in 1817, Martin Marmon being the mason; Captain Black had a brick house built the following year by a mason by the name of Whitus.
The first church at Mt. Tabor was built in 1816; the first person buried in the cemetery at that place was the daughter of Griffith Evans, about 1815. The first meeting of the Friends was held about 1812, and the first woman minister to preach in the township was Mildred Ratliff.
The first postoffice was opened at Kennard in 1866, with Thomas A. Cowgill as postmaster.
The first Mennonites came to the county and to Salem township in 1845. the first being Joseph N. Kauffman, closely followed by Jacob Hooley, his
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brother-in-law. The first meeting of this sect was held in Salem township in 1849 at Christopher Yoder's house. The first church was erected in 1857, just west of the Ludlow Line, and at this church a cemetery was laid out. In 1877 the church built a much larger structure a mile northwest of the first church and cemetery, but the old cemetery was still used.
RAILROADS.
Salem township is crossed by three railroads-the Big Four, the Penn- sylvania and the Erie. The Big Four was originally known as the Mad River & Lake Erie railroad and was surveyed through Champaign county in 1832 and completed through the county in 1848. It runs the full length of Salem township, north and south, but there is not and never has been a station on the road in this township. The Pennsylvania was known as the "Pan Handle" railroad at the time of the Civil War, and it is still called by that name. It was built through the township in the fifties, but there has never been a village along the railroad in this township. There is a flag stop at Hagenbuch. The third railroad to pass through Salem township was the Erie, first known as the Franklin & Warren railroad, later known as the Atlantic & Great Western railroad. Kennard was platted along this road after it was built through the township in 1865. but for some reason the road as laid out missed Kingston by about half a mile. There is an elevator and station for the benefit of Kingston half a mile east of the village. The town- ship is also crossed by the Ohio Electric Line which runs from Springfield through Urbana and Bellefontaine to Lima. The electric line follows the state road practically across the township.
FARMING CONDITIONS IN TOWNSHIP.
The general condition of farming in Salem township in 1917 would be hard to discuss. There are some of the best farms in the county in the township and some of the poorest. Being one of the larger townships in the county it is one of the best producers of grain and live stock. A trip through the township in June. 1917, shows as fine farming land, as good crops and as well-arranged homes as may be seen in any county in the state. On the state road running north of Urbana are seen fine homes from one end of the township to the other, and the same may be said of most of the other roads of the county. Since Mad river was dredged and the mouths of the streams flowing into it have been lowered the land in the valley of the
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river had greatly appreciated in value. The old Jennings homesteads, those of A. C. and Edward, have long been considered well-tilled farms. Refer- ence has previously been made to the fine farm of John Enoch. Other large landowners of the township of a past generation were Samuel Taylor, John H. James, G. Fous, John Eichholtz, J. B. Thomas, J. G. Thomas, Jacob Hooley, William Stewart, James and Mary Black and Benjamin Gehman. Among the large land owners of 1917 are Effie M. Shuey, R. H. Rogers, Jesse B. Kellogg, Julia B. Jennings, Q. and W. R. Yocum, E. W. McBeth, T. B. Gest, Robert Henderson, Jonas Hooley, B. M. Madden, Harley H. and E. Shaffer. W. A. Grandstaff, Elizabeth Maguire, W. H. Madden, John F. Miller, B. F. Harris and Edwin Hagenbuch.
The township is fortunate in having good roads, and they are being improved each year. All the main highways are either graveled or macadam- ized, with the result that the farmers are able to get to the county seat at all times of the year, something which they could not do twenty-five years ago. With the improved drainage brought about by the dredging of Mad river, the excellent system of good roads and as fine soil as may be found in the state, there is no reason why Salem township should not one day be the banner township of the county.
KINGSTON, OR KINGS CREEK.
The village of Kingston is nearly as old as the county itself. There were people living on the site of the town when the county was laid out in 1805 and five years later John Taylor had built a race and started a grist-mill on the site where a mill has been in continuous operation since that time, one of the oldest mills in continuous operation in the state. It had been running for several years when Simon Kenton rode up to it with his corn to get it ground. For nearly seventy years the village made no attempt to set itself apart from the township, not even taking the trouble to have a survey of its lots made a matter of record. The first survey which has been found is dated April 1, 1870, this survey crediting the town with fifty lots of varying sizes and shapes. The village was first known as Taylorstown and later as Kingston. When the postoffice was established it was necessary to have another name, because there was another Kingston in the state. It was at this time that the name Kings Creek came into use and gradually this name has been applied to the village itself. However, both names are still heard, and maps are still printed with both names.
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The town has never been incorporated and practically every house in it is found on either side of what the villagers call "Main street". The early history of the town is not different from that of all the other villages of this section of the state. It has had a Methodist and Baptist church since its earliest days and they are still in existence. It has had stores, black- smith shops and the flouring-mill for more than a hundred years. Among the early storekeepers of the town may be mentioned J. F. Rettberg. Rett- berg had a store at Powhattan. in Urbana township, several years before the Civil War and located in Kingston a year or two before the Civil War and continued in business there until the eighties. John McIntosh and James Colgan were early wagon-makers and C. R. Stonebraker had a cooper shop at the time of the Civil War. Blacksmiths have flourished since the earliest settlers located in this section of the township. In 1917 there were two stores, M. O. Ireland and S. Garard, being the proprietors. Blair Swisher had a blacksmith shop; the Beatly elevator is located at the Erie railroad station, half a mile east of the village. The Gregg brothers own and operate the flouring-mill, which has been running continuously since John Taylor first located the mill on its present site in 1810. A history of the churches and schools of the village may be found in other chapters.
KENNARD.
The village of Kennard was laid out as Kent by C. W. I .. Taylor, acting county surveyor. on November 18 and 19. 1863, the plat being recorded on December 31, 1863. The proprietor of the townsite was Samuel H. Robin- son, who owned a considerable tract of land, including parts of surveys 4925 and 11066, the seventy-five lots of the town being on both surveys. The town was laid out because of the coming of the railroad through that part of the township. The lots were on either side of the Great Atlantic & Pacific railroad, now the Frie railroad. The original proprietor seemed to have met with reverses of some kind; at least, before the plat was recorded on the last day of the year, 1863, the whole townsite had passed into the hands of Jonas Hedges. A record, dated December 30, 1863. states that Hedges was "the surviving assignee of Samuel H. Robinson." The town grew slowly and for various reasons never attracted the attention which fell to the lot of some of the other small towns of the county. Doctor Cowgill was the first physician; the Thomas brothers started the first elevator ; John W. Pearce became the first railroad agent: John Sarten was probably the first
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