USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio : containing a brief history of the state of Ohio biographical sketches etc. V. 1 > Part 73
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church building very early, and is the resting- place of many of the pioneers of Liberty Town- ship. It is one of the oldest public burying grounds in the county.
Among the pioneer preachers of this settlement were the Methodist circuit-riders. Rev. Mr. Beach was one of the first of these itinerant min- isters, and was here before there was a regular society formed in the township. Rev. Mr. Bacon was a local preacher of the M. E. Church, and used to hold meetings at Carpenter's house before the era of organized church societies. He married Ann Case and was a permanent resident of the neigh- borhood. The first Methodist society formed in Liberty Township was organized by Rev. Mr. Emery, at the house of Jarvis Buell, as early, per- baps, as 1825. The society built its first church about 1840, just south of Powell, and across the road from where the present building stands. It was a log structure, very plainly furnished, and christened Emery Chapel, in honor of Rev. Mr. Em- ery, who organized the first society. In 1859, Em- ery Chapel was rebuilt. The new edifice was located on the opposite side of the road, and is a neat and tasty frame building still in use. It was erected under the pastorate of the Rev. Levi Cunningham. The church is flourishing, the membership is large. with an interesting Sunday school under the superintendence of A. G. Hall, which is well at- tended and maintained during the year. These two buildings are the only church edifices in the township.
Another of the landmarks of the township was the pioneer tavern of David Thomas, which stood on the west bank of the Olentangy, on the trail running from Sandusky to Franklinton, and was the general stopping-place for travelers between those towns. This tavern was kept by Mr. Thomas from 1811 until his death in 1826, and the old house, it is said, is still standing. Besides the mills, to which we have already alluded, other pioneer industries comprised the blacksmith-shops along the river trail, and the tanyard over on Mid- dlebury street, all of which are numbered among the things that were.
The first effort at merchandising was made by an Englishman, George Dean, who opened a store on Goodrich's farm about 1829-30. After con- ducting the business for a few years, he sold out to Edmund Goodrich and Henry Chapman. They sold goods in partnership for two or three years longer, when the store was discontinued. This ended the mercantile business in this section of the
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
township. The next move was made by Joseph M. Cellar, who opened a little store at Liberty Church. A post office was established at the same place about 1848-49, called Union, and for a time it was quite a lively place, consisting of a store, post office, church, schoolhouse, and-a cemetery. But after a few years, both store and post office were discontinued, thus leaving the township with- out these useful additions to civilization, until a little store was opened at " Hall Corners," or " Middlebury," by Thomas R. Hall. This was a small affair, and the date of its establishment is not remembered, but it was a number of years ago. This store at " the corners" led to an application for a post office, which, through the influence of Judge Powell, of Delaware, was obtained, and named for him in compliment for his exertions in procuring it. Joshua Pennell was appointed Post- master. With the building of the Columbus & Toledo Railroad, Powell Post Office made some pretensions toward becoming a town. It was sur- veyed and laid out as a village in February, and the plat recorded March 29, 1876, for A. G. Hall, the owner of the land upon which it is located. Joshua Pennell was the first merchant, except Hall, as well as the first Postmaster, and opened a store long before the place was laid out. The first house in the place was built by Mr. Hall. Since the laying-out of the village, it has contained as many as three stores at one time, but recently they have been consolidated, and the mercantile business proper is controlled by one house-that of C. W. Mason. In addition to his establishment, there are two drug stores, by Dr. Ingersoll and John Kidwell respectively ; two wagon and black- smith shops, by William Gardner and William Ban- inger ; one boot and shoe shop, by David Shaw. Quite a handsome little schoolhouse adorns the town. There is no church within the corporate limits, but Emery Chapel stands just outside of the village, and a little beyond the church is the saw- mill of Mr. Hall, which does a large business in its way. A few years ago a ledge of Odd Fellows was organized in the village, and is to-day one of the most flourishing lodges in the county. A half- dozen or so members of the order, who were some- what isolated and distant from lodges, conceived the idea of having a lodge of their own, bought a lot and put up a substantial building thereon; the lower story was made into a storeroom, and the upper into a hall. Upon the completion of the building, they applied for and received a charter as Powell Lodge, No. 465, I. O. O. F., with the fol-
lowing charter members: B. B. Nafzger, J. T. Gardner, Ralph Case, William P. Fuller, M. S. Case, J. N. Kidwell, M. G. Staggers, Arthur Dougherty, G. N. Warner, A. S. Goodrich and S. P. Andrews. It was instituted September 29, 1870, by Hiram J. Beebe, G. M., and W. C. Earl, Grand Secre- tary. The first officers were A. S. Goodrich, N. G .; J. T. Gardner, V. G .; M. S Case, R. S .; B. B. Nafzger, P. S .; William P. Fuller, Treasurer. The Trustees of the building are Ralph Case, M. G. Staggers and S. P. Andrews. The present officers are Ralph Case, N. G .; T. W. Case, V. G .; Jacob Stietz, R. S., and M. S. Case, P. S., with forty- seven members at last report. As remarked, the lodge owns the building, which cost $1,600; has a fund at interest of $2,000, and promptly pays every demand made upon it by the Grand Lodge, or by others. The village cemetery is a well-chosen spot, and is kept with good taste. It was laid out long before the village, and contains the moldering remains of many of the early settlers in this part of the township. The village of Powell, for a new place, and a railroad village, too, contains some very handsome residences. The houses are mostly well built, and upon the whole are much above the standard of towns of its size.
The village of Hyattsville was laid out Febru- ary 6, 1876. by Henry A. Hyatt. Ed Nalz opened the first store. Henry Cook bought him out, when Nalz opened a store in the depot build- ing. A post office was established in 1877, with H. A. Hyatt as Postmaster. Hyatt originally kept a few goods, but makes no pretensions in mercantile business at present. He keeps a grain warehouse and does considerable shipping. The business may be thus summarized: In addition to the stores of Cook and Nalz, there is a black- smith-shop by B. Poole, cooper-shop by English, shoe-shop by James Wallace, saw-mill by Henry Oller. One of the best schoolhouses in the town- ship is located here. There is one saloon, which adds little to the morals of the place.
Both Hyattsville and Powell are the result of the building of the Columbus & Toledo Railroad through the township. There was a store and post office at Powell previous to the building of the road ; but for the road, however, it doubtless would never have been anything more than merely "Powell Post Office," as it had been known for years before. Hyattsville, it is quite evi- dent, owes its existence to the road. But it was not in the birth of these thriving little villages that the great benefit to the township of this road
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
lay; it was in bringing the best markets in the country into the midst of the people. With two shipping stations in the limits of the township, the people are well supplied with facilities for
getting rid of their surplus produce and stock. Then, the road itself is a valuable one, and one that any section should be proud of. It is one of the best-ballasted and best-equipped roads in the State.
CHAPTER XV.
BERKSHIRE TOWNSHIP-INCIDENTS OF EARLY SETTLEMENT-INDIAN ALARMS-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
"Where nothing dwelt but beasts of prey, Or men as fierce and wild as they, He bids the oppressed and poor repair, And builds them towns and cities there." -Oid Hymn.
"THE world is now taking time to look back, and the story of the pioneer is becoming one of absorbing interest. Ohio was for so long a time considered "out West," that its people, scarcely yet out of the woods, took little interest in those traditions relating to a condition of society but little removed from their own. But
" While History's muse the memorial was keeping Of all that the dark hand of Destiny weaves,"
the onward rush of civilization has pressed back the Western frontier, making the once Northwest- ern Territory the central link in the brilliant chain of States. This awakening to the true value of the pioneer history of this country, comes in many respects too late. The children of the pioneer settlements have been gathered to their fathers within the past decade, and the old landmarks, one `by one, have decayed and passed away with those who placed them. The men who opened up the forest of Berkshire to the illuminating rays of civ- ilization, though possessed of an unusual degree of culture for that day, were practical men. They came to better their material prospects, and, while they labored to bring about them those influences which would mold the new community into the highest form of social life, they did not undertake to demonstrate a theory in social philosophy. Their labor has not been in vain. To the thoughtful observer, the traces of their earnest watchfulness is everywhere apparent. In but few places elsewhere in the county did the schoolhouse and the church take such early and deep root as in Berkshire, and the careers of her sons and daughters at home and abroad, could they be spread before us, would fur- nish ample proof of the wisdom and pious fidelity
of the early founders. But they are now gone. " O'er a' the ills o' life victorious," crowned with the " ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," the pioneer has been laid to rest.
" No ominous hour
Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. Far off is he, above desire and fear ; No more subjected to the change and chance Of the unsteady planets."
But we who remain, upon whose untutored shoulders the burden of responsibility rests with so poor a grace, look in vain to the story of the early days for the secret of their success. They lived wiser than they knew, and, glad to think that the rising generation would be wiser than they, died and made no sign. The historian finds him- self not more favored than the socialist. The men who faced the difficulties of frontier life in the opening decades of the nineteenth century, found no time to trace their record, and the following pages are presented more as the result of a fortu- nate groping in the dark than as an historical array of facts.
Berkshire was formed of United States Military land, and is five miles square. It is bounded on the north by Kingston, on the east by Trenton, on the south by Genoa, on the west by Berlin. and was known in the United States Military Survey as Township 4, Range 17. The first organization of Berkshire as a separate township was in 1806. Previous to this time, it was a part of Sharon Township, in Franklin County, but on petition it was set off by itself and consisted of certain sec- tions of townships which will be better understood if we use the names subsequently acquired. As originally erected, it included the fourth section of Brown, the third section of Kingston, the east half of Berlin and Orange Townships and the west half of Genoa. and the present Berkshire Township. June 8, 1813, the west half of Genoa
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