USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio : containing a brief history of the state of Ohio biographical sketches etc. V. 2 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
the river; thence north on said range line to the southeast corner of fourth quarter, fifth township, and twentieth range ; thence west to the Scioto River, thence up said river to where the State road from Delaware to Derby crosses the same; thence west- ward along the south side of said road until it strikes the westerly line of survey, and extra No. 2,994 ; thence southwardly on said line and on the west line of survey Nos. 2,993, 2,989, 2,998, 3,006, 3,005 and 2,991, to Franklin County line ; thence east to the place of beginning. It was bounded on the north by Scioto, Radnor and Dela- ware Townships, on the east by Delaware and Lib- erty, on the south by Franklin County, and on the west by Union County and Scioto Township. About the year 1852. Scioto Township was allowed one school district from that portion of Concord east of the Scioto River, and extending north between the river and Delaware Township, to the south line of Radnor. A few years later, a school dis- trict in the southwestern part of Delaware Town- ship was added to Concord. This was effected by a petition of the voters of that section, setting forth their preferences for Bellepoint over Dela- ware as a voting place. The shade of politics, however, is believed to have been the true incent- ive of the petitioners. Bellepoint was strongly Democratic, and Delaware was strongly Whig and afterward Republican ; the petitioners were adher- ents of Gen. Jackson, and desired to vote with kindred spirits. A small triangular portion of the southwestern part of Liberty Township bordering on the Scioto River was once annexed to Concord, but in a few years was restored back to Liberty. Lastly, a school district was taken from the north- western part of Concord, which lay in the bend of Mill Creek, and is now that part of Scioto Town- ship lying below Ostrander and south of Mill Creek. With all these changes it would not ap- pear at all startling, if the border-settlers of
Y
492
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Concord sometimes found themselves at a loss to de- termine just where they actually belonged. At present, Concord is bounded on the north by Scioto and Delaware Townships, on the east by Delaware and Liberty, on the south by Liberty Township, Franklin and Union Counties, and on the west by Union County and Scioto Township. Its greatest length from north to south is six miles and ninety rods ; the greatest breadth is about three miles. That portion lying west of the Scioto River is em- braced in the old Virginia military lands, in the survey of which, and its division into sections, quarter-sections and lots, each settler had his own surveyor, and his own idea of boundary lines. Hence, there is but little order or regularity in these subdivisions. The Scioto River flows through from north to south, dividing the township into two almost equal divisions. Originally the river was bordered by fine forests of oak, hickory, maple, walnut and sycamore. The banks, in some places, rise into precipitous cliffs of stratified rock, twenty to thirty feet high, which present a firm wall, defy- ing further erosion. Mill Creek enters the town- ship from the west, and flows into the Scioto at Bellepoint. Big Run and Deer Lick Run have their sources in the western part, flow in a south- western direction and empty also into the Scioto. A number of other brooks and rivulets meander through different parts, but are so insignificant as to remain nameless.
The country back from the Scioto bottoms is generally undulating, except that portion lying between Bellepoint and Delaware Township. This, when the country was first settled, was a vast swamp, apparently valueless. But since the clearing-up of the forests, and an improved system of drainage instituted, the land has been gradu- ally reclaimed, and instead of bog and treacher- ous marl are fertile fields, rather flat, but of extra- ordinary richness, near the river, owing to the many little streams flowing into it; the land in places is broken by ravines, presenting quite a rolling surface, but is highly fertile. Back from the river the land is rich, and produces grain abundantly. Owing to the heavy timber in this section, and especially along the river bottoms, rafting, in the early days of the occupation of the country by white people, was carried to a consider- able extent, and was a lucrative business. Large rafts were gathered along the banks of the river and its tributaries, and at " high tide " floated down to Columbus, and sometimes even to the Ohio River. The raftsmen brought back groceries
and such other goods as pioneer life demanded. The business of rafting was begun before the river was so much obstructed with dams as at present, though there were a few at that date, and many are the anecdotes told of the way these huge rafts were made to " shoot" the dams. but our space will not admit of a repetition of them.
On the west bank of the Scioto River, about two miles south of Bellepoint, and one mile from White Sulphur Springs, stands an old gray-colored stone house. In this old house, built in 1823, lives Mr. Benjamin Hill, the last of the " hermits." and a son of the first white settler in Concord Township. His father, George Hill, came to Ohio, and settled in this division of the county in 1811. He was a soldier of the war for independ- ence, and, on the long winter evenings, when his children gathered around his knee for a story, he used to take down his old, long-barreled, flint-lock rifle from its customary place above the fire, and recount to them the hardships he had experienced in the old war of the Revolution, when, half-fed and half-clothed, he had followed the banner of Liberty under the immortal Washington. He came from Pennsylvania. Westmoreland County, and made the trip on pack-horses. Upon his ar- rival, he built a log cabin upon the site of the old stone house occupied by Ben Hill. and settled down among the Indians. Joseph Hill, another son of George Hill, served in the war of 1812, and carried the same rifle that his father had car- ried in the Revolutionary struggle. He was out but five months, and, on his return, reported to the few scattering settlers in this part of the country the surrender of Hull and the capture of Detroit. Mr. Hill's cabin stood on the direct trail north and south, and hence many of the soldiers of 1812 used to pass by, in going to and from the seat of war, and many were the exciting stories they told of the Indians, and " wars and rumors of wars." A man named Saunders, from Tennessee, being badly wounded, remained at Hill's cabin for some time. He reached the place by floating down the Scioto River in a canoe, which several of his friends had made for him in Hardin County, of linden bark.
There were no roads to Delaware as early as 1812. A great and almost impassable swamp lay between that place and the ford on the Scioto, at the mouth. of Mill Creek. Even the pack-horse trail wound two miles south to avoid the treacher- ous bogs. The usual and safest way of reaching Delaware was by going north to what was known as
493
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Riggers' Ford, and then striking the State road, one of the first roads through this portion of the county. Benjamin Hill, relating some of his recol- lections of pioneer life, when he came here a boy with his father, says: "The woods were full of wolves, which, in along, hard winter, driven wild by cold and famine, would come often at night, and jump against my father's cabin door, in vain endeavors to break through. Many and many a night, we children would huddle closer together in bed, and cover our heads with the bed-clothes, when we heard the sound of the wolves around the cabin, shuddering as they made night hideous with their dismal howls, the lullaby most common to the children of the frontier. Woe betide the benighted traveler ; if he escaped them it was by a miracle. The Indians told us that a pack once broke into their camp, and, before they could be driven off, had devoured two men and several children.
" Rattlesnakes were very numerous, often cover- ing the driftwood in the river so completely that their mottled skins gave it the appearance of calico. They had a den in the cedar cliffs just below our house. My brother 'Josh ' killed the king rattle- snake in our orchard. It was the largest of its kind ever seen in this locality, and weighed thirty pounds. Brother 'Josh' was once bitten by a rattlesnake, but upon frequent potations of whisky, he came out all right. George Freshwater met a similar accident, and was cured by a poultice given him by the Indians. We often tried to find out from them of what the poultice was composed, but without success. The secret they would never impart, and when they left the country they car- ried it with them."
Mr. Hill, the original settler of this township, has long since passed to his reward, and lies buried in the little graveyard on his original settlement, and, as we have already said, Benjamin, his last surviving offspring, lives upon the old homestead. His relatives are scattered around him. Solomon Hill, his cousin, lives just below him-a short dis- tance from the sulphur springs. A niece, Mrs. Robinson, lives opposite him on the road to Belle- point. His brother " Josh" and a sister, who were his constant companions for years, died two years ago. "Uncle Ben," of all his father's large family, is alone left; the grim tyrant has claimed the rest for his own.
" He laid his pallid hand Upon the strong man, and the haughty form Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim."
For forty years, Mr. Hill has not left his farm ; the things that are transpiring in the busy, bustling world around are unknown and unheeded by him. The Mexican war, the great rebellion, the trials and triumphs of the Government for nearly a half- century are to him as a sealed book, or " as a tale that is told." Once a pioneer, fifty years in advance of the time, he now stands half a century behind-a living monument of the past. Old and feeble, he is tottering on the brink of the hereafter, and soon he will know all.
The next settler in Concord was Christopher Freshwater. He came to the township about the same tiine as Hill, probably with Hill. They were brothers-in-law and neighbors in Pennsylvania. He bought fifty acres of land adjoining Hill, and was a carpenter by trade. On his trip from Penn- sylvania to this State, which was made on foot, be carried his gun and " broad-ax " on his shoulder. Many of his relatives still live in the township, among them C. Freshwater, Jr .. B. H. Fresh- water, D. Freshwater, and George Freshwater. The latter is his son, and was the first white child born in the township. Joel Marsh settled here soon after Hill and Freshwater, and located near them. It may be that the handsome daughter of George Hill was the attraction which prompted him to build his cabin adjacent. At any rate, he was not long in wooing and winning this frontier maiden, whose marriage is chronicled among the early historical incidents of this section. They both sleep in the Hill Cemetery after a long life of usefulness. Josiah Marsh, their son, an old man now of eighty-eight years, lives but a short distance below Benjamin Hill's. He is a man of considerable natural ability, and, withal, quite a poet. At the close of the war, then past his threescore and ten years, he wrote a little poem, dedicated to the Union and the soldiers who fought to maintain it. which contains considerable merit, and, would our space permit it, we would gladly give it in this connection.
Another of the pioneers of this township, Will- iam Carson, came from Pennsylvania in 1806, and settled in Ross County. In 1821, he came to Concord and settled on the place where his son, C. T. Carson, now lives. Here he died in 1873, in his seventy-second year. George Oller came. here from Loudoun County, Va., in 1839, and settled in a small cabin on the east bank of the Scioto River. He was an old soldier of 1812, and died at the age of eighty-four years. His sons. John, George and M. Oller, still live in the township.
(0)
494 -495
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
and are wealthy and influential farmers. J. E. Hughes also came in 1839, and is a minister of the United Brethren Church. He was born in 1822, and his father dying soon after, his mother married James Kooken, the original proprietor of the town of Bellepoint. Mr. Hughes lives on the east side of the river, on the old section-line road, about half a mile from Bellepoint. His grand- father, J. O. Hughes, was, at one time, President of Miami University, and his father, J. S. Hughes, who came to the county in 1810, was the first Presbyterian preacher within its limits, and es- tablished the first church of that denomination in Liberty and Radnor Townships. He was a chap- lain in the war of 1812, and was taken prisoner at the surrender of Hull, but was soon after exchanged and returned to his home at Delaware, where he died in 1823. James Kooken was from the neigh- borhood of Philadelphia, and came to Ohio in 1810. Soon after his arrival, the war of 1812 broke out, when he enlisted, and fought until peace was de- clared. After the close of the war, he carried the mail from Chillicothe to the frontier, and from 1816 to 1823, he was Warden of the Ohio Peni- tentiary. About the year 1824, he moved to Delaware County, and started a tavern three miles south of Delaware, near where the town of Strat- ford is located. In 1833, he moved to this neigh- borhood, and two years later, laid out the village of Bellepoint. John Robinson, from London, England, settled here early. A short time after his settlement in Concord, his wife died, when he married a neiee of Benjamin Hills, and now lives just opposite to him on the road to White Sulphur Springs. William Jackson came to the township with his father when he was a mere child, and now lives about a mile from White Sulphur Springs. He relates as an incident of some interest, the fact that his grandfather was one of those, who, in colonial days, had to choose his wife by lot. He shut his eyes and " selected" her from a shipload of females that had been sent over to the colonies from the old country. Thus he " drew " what he always termed his " little Dutch girl." When he first married her, they were unable to under- stand each other, but soon learned enough to get along without trouble.
D. W. C. Lugenbeel, the veteran school teacher, lives near the Sulphur Springs. He is now engaged in teaching his fifty-third term without a ·single interruption. He was one of the first students admitted to the Ohio Wesleyan University after its opening, but left it after a course of several
years without graduating. John Cutler was among the old settlers of Concord, and came from Delaware. He remained in his native State until some thirty years of age, when he came West and enlisted in the war of 1812, in a company com- manded by Capt. Brush. After the close of the war, he returned to the State of Delaware, but came to Ohio in 1828, stopping first in Chillicothe, where he remained but a short time, then went to Columbus, and in 1830 came to Concord Town- ship, and bought 800 acres of land. Here he lived until his death, which occurred about ten years ago, at the advanced age of ninety years. He was the first Treasurer of Concord Township. The following are a few of the early settlers who " bore the toil and endured the privations " of frontier life, and whose records could not be fully obtained : Daniel Creamer, Francis Marley, the old blacksmith, Joel Liggitt, Daniel Gardner, William Stone, Aaron Gillett. John Artz, Thomas Bryson, Gilbert Smith, John Black, Jacob Wolford, John Jones, and others, perhaps, who are entitled to the same honors, but whose names are now forgotten.
There is quite a colony of colored people who may be reckoned among the early settlers of Con- cord. The first of this race of "American citizens" who settled in this region was John Day. He was brought to Ohio a slave, by George Hill, when he came here in 1811, but immediately upon ar- rival he was given his freedom by Mr. Hill. John remained in the township for a time, when he went to the town of Delaware and opened a barber- shop. He is still living there, a feeble old man, and the business of barber is carried on by his son, John Day, Jr. A. Depp, another colored man. came to the township in 1834, and bought 400 acres of land. He is dead, and his wife, a very old woman, lives still upon the land where her husband first settled. John Day came long before Depp, but did not identify himself with the township as did Depp; who was a man exerting a large influence in his neighorhood. Upon his land was built the old colored Baptist Church, which is said by some to be the oldest church in Concord Township. "Depp's church," as it was called, was built of logs, and the cracks stopped with clay-mortar. However, the congregation growing smaller year by year, left the church nearly empty, and it was finally abandoned and torn down. Dr. Samuel White, another old colored settler, is well and fa- vorably known to the citizens of the township, and came to the place where he now lives, half a mile south of the Industrial Home, ia 1836. He
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
- 497
was born a slave, in the State of Virginia, but was a free man when he came here. His father bought him and his mother from their master, and then brought them to this settlement. Samuel White is a physician. and, although now sixty-four years of age, is still actively engaged in the practice of his profession ; he ranks among the well-informed men of Concord Township.
The Mill Creek Settlement, as it is called, was made on Mill Creek. One of the first settlers in this locality was Seburn Hinton, who bought 1,000 acres of land here and settled upon it at a very early date. Col. Hinton, who received his military title, we believe, in the peace establishment, like many of the pioneers, had experienced few oppor- tunities for obtaining an education, and was rather illiterate, but possessed excellent business qualities. He built a saw and grist mill on the creek, the first in the township, and did a large business in lumber ; also in rafting logs and lumber to Colum- bus, and even down the Scioto to the Ohio River. He kept a store at his mill, which was another of the pioneer institutions of the township. Just the date of the building of the old Hinton mill is not known, but in 1838 it was somewhat enlarged, and a few years later, on account of the increase of business, new machinery was put in it. However, it still contains one buhr-stone, which was put in it by Col. Hinton, and to this day it is moved and shifted in the old-fashioned way-by a crane. Col. Hinton knew nothing of figures, and used to keep account by means of characters that he him- self originated ; each character standing for a cer- tain sum of money. Although he did a large business, and, in its various branches, employed many hands, it is traditional of him that he was never known to make a mistake. In 1838, he sold out to Jabez Coles, and removed to Goshen, Ind., where he died some years ago at a ripe old age. Coles, who bought him out, continued the business as Hinton had begun it. He came from New York, but was originally from Connecticut. He married in New York, and his widow is still living in the western part of Delaware Township. She is eighty-seven years of age, and still persists in doing her own washing, regardless of the ex- postulations of her relatives, and. only a year ago, she spun a large day's work of wool, illustrating in a striking manner the energy of the pioneer ladies. After Coles had operated the mill for a few years, it became the property of Mr. Decker, who finally sold it to Cruikshank. Several other changes were made in the proprietorship, when Dr. Blymyer
bought it. He made considerable improvements in it. Soon after it passed into the hands of Dr. Morrison, of Delaware, who still owns it.
Another of the early settlers in Mill Creek was William Smart, who came from Pennsylvania. He cleared and opened up a fine farm in this neighbor- hood, where he finally died, and was buried in the Mill Creek graveyard. Many of his relatives still live in this locality. Presley Said. another old settler, came from Bath County, Ky., in 1821. His son, Abner, is now Postmaster at Ostrander, but the old gentleman himself moved to Illinois some years ago. Daniel Robbins and Ran- dall Murphy are also old settlers in this section. Robbins came in early and settled a farm upon which he died several years ago. Murphy bought land from Hinton, but at present lives in Delaware.
The water privileges of Mill Creek are excellent. The mills built upon its banks are able to perform their allotted tasks long after those on the Scioto cease operations in the dry season. This fact ren- ders these mills of vast benefit to the surrounding country.
Among the early incidents of this township, we may mention that the first white child born was George Freshwater, who at present resides on Mill Creek. The first marriages were Christopher Freshwater and a sister of George Hill, and Joel Marsh, who married George Hill's daughter. MIr. Hill's mother was the first death. She was eighty years old when he determined to remove to the Western country, and, nothing daunted at the dan- ger of such a trip and the great distance, came with her son to Ohio. She died in 1821, at the age of ninety years, and was the first burial in the Hill Cemetery-the first laid-out cemetery in the township. At her burial, many Indians were present, and looked on in great wonderment and curiosity at the ceremonies performed in the burial of the Christian dead.
The first road through Concord was the old military road, over which supplies were conveyed to our army at Fort Meigs. An Indian trail led up Mill Creek, and a pack-horse trail through the swamps to Delaware. But no township in the county is better supplied with excellent highways than Concord is at the present day. The first mill. that of Col. Hinton, has already been mentioned. The name of the first Justice of the Peace we were unable to learn. The first bridge in the township was built over Mill Creek, on the line of the old Sandusky Military Road, and was built by the peo- I ple of the neighborhood. The first over the Scioto
498
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
River (in this township) was at the White Sulphur Springs. There was one built over the Scioto at Bellepoint, by Henry and Everet Sherwin. The span being long, however, and considered dangerous, it was taken down. A new bridge was afterward erected in its stead.
Upon the farm of Mr. Courtwright, about one mile below the Girls' Industrial Home, on the west side of the river, is a spot to which is at- tached a romantic legend ; upon this spot stands the ruins of the " Haunted House." This ghost- like appellation long since became current among the good people of the township, and the county, for the matter of that. But the nursery stories told of this "haunted habitation " are too absurd for a work of this kind, and we leave them to newspaper reporters who wish to regale their read- ers with something to make their hair stand on end.
The first church building in Concord Township was an old granary, donated for that purpose by James Kooken. Soon after this, A. Depp (col- ored) put up a log-cabin church on his farm, as a place of worship for the colored Baptists. The Bellepoint United Brethren Church was formerly situated in close proximity to the old Oller Ceme- tery, about a mile below Bellepoint, on the east side of the river. The church was originally started by the Ollers, Jacob, Peter and George, and was a frame building. The early records are lost, and hence much of its history cannot be obtained. In 1864, being somewhat torn by internal strife and differences, some of the most prominent mem- bers left and formed a new society called the Christian Union Church. The frame structure, after existing for thirty-five years, was torn down, and the charge transferred to Bellepoint. The present church is a fine brick building, and is the first built at the village. It cost about $2,600, and the fund for its erection was raised by gen- eral subscription. It was dedicated by Bishop Weaver, of the Northern Ohio Conference, in June, 1873, and the first sermon preached in it was by Elder Long, a Christian minister. The names of the different ministers since its removal to the vil- lage are as follows : Revs. John V. Potts, J. C. Beady, D. W. Downey, J. B. Resler, J. H. Cray- ton, C. L. Barlow, C. F. Cinder, J. E. Hill and E. Barnard.
The new Christian Church was formed of dis- satisfied members of the old United Brethren Church. The society was organized the first Sun- day in April, 1864, at the house of Rev. R. Gates,
and the first sermon was preached by him. For several years, the society had no meeting-house. They made an effort to buy the old frame church, but owing to the high price they were unable to do so, and for a time their meetings were held in private residences and, when the weather would admit, in the groves, "God's first temples." After great exertions, they at length succeeded in build- ing a comfortable brick edifice, 40x30 feet, at a cost of $1,050. It was erected on the site occu- pied by the United Brethren Church. The follow- ing ministers have officiated since its formation : Revs. R. Gates, W. W. Lacy, George W. Higgins, Jacob Haskins, Levi Ely, Purdy King, William Davis and Hawermalt.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.