USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 30
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Other early comers to Wheeling township were James Mercer, John Alloway, Joseph Furney and John Keast. The last named was from Corn- wall, England. These pioneers found a rough, wooded country and all had to be hewed and grubbed out from a forest in order to provide suitable fields for the cultivation of crops and good building sites. This took a great amount of hard work and of a character of which the present-day young man knows nothing. The fathers and grandfathers opened up and made it possible for the dwellers of the twentieth century to live and enjoy what they do.
TOWN OF GUERNSEY.
This is a platted, incorporated place of some commercial importance. It was platted in section 4, township 2, range 3, of the military school lands, by John Fordyce, J. W. Robins and Madison Robins, November 7, 1872. A postoffice was established here almost a half century ago. It is now located in a general store belonging to E. C. Lawyer, the present postmaster. There are numerous dwellings and a neat church building, that of the Protestant Methodist denomination.
Birds Run, or Bridgeville postoffice, as it is called now, was established
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about forty years ago. It is now kept in the general store of L. D. Car- rothers, postmaster. There are two churches represented here, the Baptist and the Methodist Episcopal.
UPON A HIGH HILL.
Upon a high hill in Wheeling township, near the county road leading from Guernsey to Bridgeville, is a rock whose strange formation and ma- jestic appearance excites wonder in every beholder. It resembles an immense haystack in shape, being about forty feet in height, twenty-five feet in circum- ference at the base, thirty-five feet at the bulge, and thirty feet at the top. The view from the summit extends over four counties and is said to be grand. The sides of this peculiar rock are carved with hieroglyphics that would make an interesting study for the student of aboriginal history. We are indebted for these facts to D. F. Stanley .- Jeffersonian, March 8, 1883.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
WESTLAND TOWNSHIP.
Westland township is one of Guernsey county's original townships, hence dates its precinct history from April 23, 1810; its first election for township officers took place in June of that year. It is in the southwestern part of the county, bounded on the west by Muskingum county, on the north by Adams township, on the east by Jackson and Cambridge townships and on the south by Spencer township and Muskingum county and contains twenty-five sections of land, it being five miles square. Crooked creek, the old National pike and the Baltimore & Ohio railroad pass through its north- western corner. Like other townships in Guernsey county, this is quite rough, hilly and broken by valley and ridge. Its only platted village is Claysville, an inland platting described elsewhere with other plattings. Once this township embraced much more territory than at present, for in 1819 Knox township was formed from parts of this and Wheeling townships.
EARLY SETTLERS.
To have been a pioneer in this section of Ohio meant hardship and an iron constitution. The names of some of the families who thus blazed the way to civilization and present enjoyment, and who resided in the township in 1876, being advanced to the ripe old age of seventy-six years or older, are as fol- lows: William B. Stewart, Thomas J. Freeman, Ephraim Barnett and wife, Susan Galloway, Joseph Kelly, Elijah Wycoff, John Hammond, James Ster- ling. J. Amspoker, Mrs. Wilson, R. R. Moore, Thomas E. Connor, WV. B. Crawford, Mr. Best, Maria White, James Lawrence and a Mrs. Sterling.
The following paragraphs will speak of others who sought out a home and became good citizens in this part of Guernsey county :
John Hartong, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1808, married, in 1835, Ruth Terril. In 1836 they removed to Centre township, this county, and later became residents of Westland township. They reared five children who matured and helped to subdue this part of the county.
James Amspoker, son of John Amspoker, born in Brooke county, Vir-
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ginia, in 1807, remained in his native state almost a half century and in 1859 settled in Westland township, this county. He married and became the father of six children, well known in this county to the older residents.
Lewis Caius McDonald, one of the first children born in Westland town- ship, the date being 1817, married Melissa Boyd and had five children; he was supervisor a number of terms in this township.
In 1850 came the Best family to Westland township from Pennsylvania Mr. Best died in 1880, leaving a family of grown children. The John Best farm of this township contained almost two hundred acres.
Robert R. Moore descended from William Moore, who was born in Ireland in 1791. After living twenty-four years in Pennsylvania, the grand- father removed to Wills township, this county. He had nine children. Rob- ert R. was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, moved to Perry county, Ohio; and in 1843 on to this county, locating in Westland township.
William Bennett, born in Ireland in 1801, emigrated to Pennsylvania at the age of eighteen years. He married, spent four years in Union township. Muskingum county, Ohio, and in 1838 made a permanent settlement in West- land township, where he died in 1842. The children of this pioneer family numbered eleven, and are now heads of numerous families throughout the country.
George McCreary, Sr., was born in Ireland in 1790, emigrated to America in 1812 and married, in 1823, Sarah Mills. This worthy couple located in Westland township, where they passed the remainder of their lives, the wife dying in 1847 and he in 1873, leaving seven children.
Ephraim Barnett, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, born in 1801, married and moved to Westland township, this county, in the spring of 1839. He died in the autumn of 1879. This worthy man and wife were the parents of eleven children, most, if not all, of whom are now deceased.
William B. Stewart, born in Ireland in 1804, landed in Baltimore in 1830 and went direct to Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1832, then removed to Oxford township, Guernsey county. Ohio. From 1835 to 1872 he led a wandering life, but at the last named year settled in Westland township, just off the National road. He was thrice married and reared a large family.
Horatio Grumman was a son of Isaac Grumman, who settled in West- land township when the country was so new that each settler almost led the life of a hermit. Isaac was born in New Jersey in 1777. He married in 1798 and six years later moved to Fort Henry (now Wheeling), and in 1806 came to Westland township, this county. He died in 1845 and his wife in 1858. They had nine children to revere their names.
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David St. Clair was born in Maryland in 1797, and during the war of 1812 with Great Britain, went to Baltimore to sell produce, and was there during the engagement with the British. He accompanied his parents to this county and settled in Spencer township, where the family entered land on warrants.
William Cosgrove, a native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, was born in 1812 and in 1827 came to Ohio with his parents, living near Freeport, Har- rison county, three years, then went to Cambridge where he mastered the cabinetmaker's trade. In 1833 he removed to Cumberland where he engaged in chair making until 1868, when he engaged in the hotel business, being the proprietor of the old Eagle hotel. One peculiarity of this gentleman was that he never failed of taking a mid-day nap, which he argued gave great strength and long life.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP.
Londonderry is the extreme northeastern township in Guernsey county. It is six miles square, containing thirty-six sections of land, good as the county affords. It is bounded on the north by Harrison county, on the east by Bel- mont county, on the south by Oxford township and on the west by Madison and Washington townships. It has numerous streams coursing through its territory and is well suited for grazing and stock raising. Its schools and churches are treated under the general chapters on these topics.
OLD RESIDENTS.
This section of the county, in 1876, had fully its share of aged men and women, as will be seen by observing the following list compiled at that date for a centennial history of the township, which gave the persons who had reached seventy-six years or over: Samuel Wilkin, Edward Carpenter, Wil- liam Francy, Henry Crusoe, Jackson Gracy, R. F. Campbell, Robert Campbell, Samuel Bratton, Andrew Hyde, Robert Madden, John Logan, Mrs. A. Logan, Mrs. C. Carpenter, Mrs. S. Madden, Mrs. S. McElroy, Mrs. S. Smith, Mrs. E. Rankins, Mrs. J. Walker, M. Walker, Robert Blackwood, T. G. Brown, William Hartgrave, Mrs. J. Francy, Mrs. E. Mack, Mrs. Sarah Hunt, Mrs. S. Rosengrants, Mrs. E. Davis, Mrs. S. Wilkins, Mrs. Decker, Mrs. Romans, Mrs. H. Briggs, Mrs. J. Kirk, Mrs. Ingle, Mrs. S. B. Smith, Simon Rosen- grants, Jacob Baker, William Wilson, William Morrow, James Thwaite. Samuel B. Smith, Henry Briggs and Joel Kirk.
The father of John Downer was born in Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1790 and came to Guernsey county in 1813 and entered land in this township and cleared up a good farm from out the dense forests. He mar- ried Elizabeth Work and by her reared twelve children, the eldest of whom was John, born in 1818, and who spent his entire life in the township. He owned a quarter section of land and was a township official.
Other early settlers who aided in felling the forests and making the wilderness to blossom like the rose, were William Morrison, a native of Penn- sylvania ; Thomas Neilson, a native of Ohio: Absalom Frizzell, of Belmont county, Ohio; John Mack, a native of Ireland; John Stewart, born in Ireland, coming to this country in 1835; Robert Mack, who was born in Indiana, and
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accompanied his parents here when young; George Smith, born in Virginia in 1795 and in 1809 went to the vicinity of Flushing, Belmont county, and in 1819 he and his father entered eighty acres of land in Londonderry township; John Greenfield was a native of Harrison county, Ohio, born in 1820, and came to this township in 1846, settling on what was subsequently styled the Kirk farm, the most of which he helped to clear up from the native forests ; others whose names should not be forgotten as pioneers in Londonderry town- ship were Amos Hibbs, Church Cox, George Smith, William Kirk, Alexander L. Crusser, Robert Wilkins and John Stewart.
PLATTING OF LONDONDERRY.
The only platting of a village within this township is Londonderry, platted by Robert Wilkins, August 19, 1815, on section 20, in the northern part of the township. It never grew to a place of more importance than a country hamlet, with a postoffice and a store and small collection of houses.
Among the early settlers of Londonderry township were Cornelius Dud- dall, James McCoy, Henry Dillon, Anthony Arnold, Edward Carpenter, Mathew Law, and George Anderson. Edward Carpenter was born in 1761 in Pennsylvania, and died here in 1827, having settled in this township in 1802, with his wife, Catherine (De Long) Carpenter, who died here in 1845. Their son, Edward, Jr., was born in this township in 1802, and was a justice of the peace for thirty-two years.
A society of Friends (Quakers) was organized in this township in 1819, a half mile south of Smyrna. The first building, a log one, was burned in the winter of 1856-57, and a small frame structure took its place. In 1880 this was removed and a large, commodious church erected.
In 1801 Edward Carpenter, son of John Carpenter, one of the pioneers who crossed the Ohio in 1781 and built what was known as "Carpenter' Fort," a short distance above Warrenton, took a contract for cutting out eighteen miles of the road extending from Big Stillwater to within seven miles of Cam- bridge, for which he received the sum of three hundred dollars. As thus opened, the road passed through where Londonderry now stands. Here Mr. Carpenter settled about 1807.
The early-day school facilities here were anything but good. About 1819 or 1820 the pioneers succeeded in employing Robert Jamison, an Irish schoolmaster, who taught the first school in this township, and to whom Mr. Carpenter paid thirty-six dollars a quarter and a Mr. Wilkins as much. To- day school houses are in evidence everywhere and education and religious elements predominate equal to any part of the county.
CHAPTER XXXV.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.
Washington township, one of the northeastern townships of this county, is a five-mile-square, twenty-five-section sub-division of Guernsey county, and is bounded on the north by Tuscarawas county, on the east by Harrison county and a part of Londonderry township in this county, on the south by Madison township and on the west by Monroe township. It is well watered and drained by numerous streams and flowing springs of the purest water. It is devoted largely to agriculture and has many fine and thrifty looking farms within its borders. This civil township was organized in 1823, its early settle- ment preceding this a number of years. It is one of the townships without town or hamlet.
ITS EARLY SETTLERS.
Just who was the first white man to unfold the virgin soil and clear away the first tract of farm land, as well as erect the first cabin .in this township, may never be recorded correctly in history, the matter having been so long neglected. But fortunately there was, during the Centennial Exposition year, a list made of the persons then residing in this township, and who at that date -a third of a century ago-were seventy-six years, or more, of age. This constituted many of the original band of settlers in this part of the county. This list is as follows: Robert Vance. Sol Shers, John Allison, Louis Myers, Jonah George, John Williams, Finley McGrew, Robert Maxwell, Benjamin Temple, Edward Logan, James Hastings, Miss Ediburne, Mary Burris, Mrs. A. Mckinney, Mrs. S. Mckinney, Mrs. R. Vance, Mrs. Louis Myers, Mrs. J. Williams, Mrs. F. McGrew, Mrs. P. Smith, Mrs. William Hastings, Mrs. Nancy Frazer, Mrs. R. Maxwell, Mrs. O. Brashar, Mrs. W. Smith, Mrs. B. Temple, Mrs. E. Logan, and Mrs. J. Logan. These women, for the most part were wives of some one of the early pioneers.
John Owens, a native of Wales, born in 1773, at the age of seven years settled in Sherman's valley, Pennsylvania, and came to this township in 1844. He married in 1813 and had ten children, including J. W. Owens, who was born in 1836, in Trumbull county. He came to this county and permanently
(22)
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located in 1844. He married Cynthia E. Galligher. Mr. Owens in the early eighties owned almost three hundred acres of land, was an excellent farmer and held many local offices.
Robert Vance, born in Maryland in 1791, spent his youth in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, and came to this township in 1825. He married and was the father of twelve children. Robert, Jr., was born on the old homestead in 1823 and ever after lived in the township. In 1845 he married Eliza J. Campbell, by whom eight children were born. Mr. Vance was a successful farmer and stock raiser.
George Frazer, born in 1786 in Maryland, moved to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1795 and in 1837 settled on section 13 of Washington township, this county, and remained until his death on the farm of which he was owner. He married and was the father of thirteen children, one of whom was George. Jr., born in 1830 in Trumbull county, Ohio, and who came to this township in 1837. He married in 1867 and they had four children. Mr. Frazer served three years and two months in the Union army during the Civil war. After his return home, he resumed farming and stock raising, in which he was highly successful.
Levi Williams, a native of Virginia, born near Winchester in 1777, set- tled in Belmont county in 1796, and moved to where the town of Washington, this county, stands in 1800. There he did the first clearing up the native for- ests. He married in Virginia and was the father of eight children. He was one of the men who assisted in cutting the National road through the heavy timber from Wheeling to Zanesville.
The reader is referred to the general chapters of this work for an account of the schools and churches of this township.
Washington Scott was the first justice of the peace and the first clerk of the township and became state senator.
It is claimed by some that Levi Williams was the first settler in this town- ship. Then came the pioneers, Robert Carnes and James Anderson. In 1815 and 1816 came several families and then the township was organized by eighteen voters. Thomas Hannah received seventeen votes at the first elec- tion for representative to the Ohio Legislature. In 1882 there were two saw mills and two grist mills ; a United Brethren and Protestant Methodist church. The first church, however, was the Methodist Episcopal, formed in 1816.
Of the first settler, Levi Williams, let it be recorded that he located in 1796 where Washington now stands, and did the first clearing in Wills town- ship. He was a great hunter and was a first lieutenant under "Mad" An- thony Wayne in the Indian war, also under Harrison in 1812. The general
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opinion is that the first three men in this county were Messrs. Graham, Wil- liams and John Mahoney, all coming at about the same dates.
John W. McBride's father, Frederick McBride, was a native of Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, born in 1806, and at the age of ten years ac- companied his parents to this county and here he grew to manhood and be- came a prosperous farmer and the head of a large family.
Another of the sturdy men of his day and generation was William Logan, born in the Emerald isle in 1771; he married and in 1817 came to America, first locating in Canada, where he lived one year and then moved to a point about ten miles from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but in 1826 came to Guernsey county, Ohio, and chopped a handsome farm from out the big woods of this county. He had ten children, bringing seven to this country.
Robert Campbell, born in Ireland in 1797, lived with his father in Alle- gheny county, Pennsylvania, while learning the carding trade. He there mar- ried and they had eight children. John M. was born in Londonderry town- ship, but when two years of age the family removed to Madison township. He married, in 1847, Mary McBride and they had six children. His father, Robert, became a large farmer and stock raiser, was commissioner and repre- sentative for two terms each, and died suddenly in Iowa. He had been mar- ried thrice, but had no children except by his last wife.
George B. Carlisle, born on the Juniata river in Pennsylvania in 1813, came here in 1819 and ever afterwards made this township his home. In 1834 he married Elizabeth Hanna, a native of Guernsey county, and they reared eleven children. John H., one of the children of this union, was born here in 1835; in 1880 he married Mary E. Bridgman. He farmed until 1876, when he engaged in mercantile pursuits. He served as a lieutenant in Com- pany A, Ninety-seventh Ohio Infantry, three months during the Civil war, and later became a captain in Company B of the same regiment.
James Stockdale, Sr., married, in 1825, a Miss Phebe Lening, eighteen years of age, and she became the mother of eleven children. Mr. Stockdale owned a good farm in this township, consisting of two hundred and sixty- five acres. He farmed all his life, except ten years when he was engaged as a merchant. In an early day he taught school and sat on one end of the back- log and the scholars on the other end.
William May made this township his permanent home after 1836. He was a farmer and stock raiser and worked at the carpenter's trade.
James English, born in this county in 1793. married Rachel Rolston in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1816. They had nine children; James, the eldest, was a native of Guernsey county, born in 1817.
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Jacob Baker, a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, born in 1774, moved to the old Gottengen farm, where he died some years later. He mar- ried and had nine children born to him by his wife, whose maiden name was Rebecca McCutchin. He served his country in the war of 1812. His chil- dren all became important factors in the township of their birth.
Isaac Bonnel, a native of Maryland, was born in 1800 and when twelve years of age he and his father cleared up a farm and laid out Winchester. In 1824 he married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Lindsey, and had eleven children born to him. John M. was born near the old homestead in 1832 and married Elizabeth Orr, by whom eight children were born.
John Hanna was born on the banks of the blue Juniata river in Pennsyl- vania, in 1777, and came to this county in 1806. He built the first mill run by horse power in Washington township, and later built a water mill on the Salt fork of Wills creek. He married Rebecca Harris in 1805, near Warren- town, Virginia. Henry Hanna, a son, was born on the Madison township homestead in 1813 and in 1838 married Phebe Carlisle. Mr. Hanna owned a two-hundred-acre farm in 1882 and was accounted an influential man of his township.
TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
The two town site plattings within Madison township are Antrim and Winchester. Antrim was laid out by Alexander Alexander, March 1, 1830, on lot 12 in the first quarter of township 3, range I, of the United States military school lands. It is in the northeastern portion of the township and lias never materialized to be a place of much importance, being inland and some distance from the National road and also from railroad communication. It has long been a convenient postoffice for that section of the county and has at various times had some small stores and shops, with a collection of a few houses.
Winchester, the other platted village of this township, was surveyed for village purposes on section 14, township 3, range I, August 18, 1836, by its proprietor, Isaac Bonnell.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
WILLS TOWNSHIP.
Wills township is located just east of the central portion of Guernsey county and, when first organized April 23, 1810, was one of the original sub- divisions of the county. As now constituted, after having undergone many changes in form, it contains about thirty-nine sections of land in one of the best portions of the county. The National pike runs through this township from east to west, with villages, named Washington and Elizabethtown, upon its course, hence it has not been altogether unobserved and for the last four score and more years has been the passage way of thousands going over the "Pike" headed for the "far, illimitable, ever-changing West." There are numerous streams coursing through its domain, affording an abundance of pure water. It is of such shape that it is bounded by six townships. Of the schools, churches, etc., the general chapters of this work will go into detail.
At an accounting in 1876, there were the following persons aged seventy- six years and over residing within Wills township. The list includes many of the more prominent early settlers: William Campbell, Mrs. W. Campbell. Lemon Ferguson, Mrs. L. Ferguson, P. Blazer, William Englehart, Mrs. W. Englehart, George Chance and wife, Thomas Boyd and wife, William Rich- ards and wife, William Garey, Robert Weaver, Edward Hall and wife, Rob- ert Perry, Moses Frame and wife, John McCurdy, James Gattrell, Mrs. James Gattrell, John La Rue, Elijah Lowry, Joseph Williams, Mrs. W. D. Frame. William McElhaney, and wife, William Norris and wife, Mrs. I. Parlett, William McElhaney and wife, William Norris and wife, Mrs. I. Parlett, Mrs. L. Waddel, Mrs. Clary, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Forsythe, John Webster, John Doyle, Matthew Doyle, Mrs. J. La Rue, Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Flemming, Mrs. Arch Shipley, Mrs. Totten, Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Ransom, Mrs. John Craig. Mrs. J. Dorsey, John Kendall, Christopher Sutton, C. McDowell, Albert Vorhes, Thomas Stillions and wife, Lewis Ransom, Joseph King, Roland Swan, J. Montgomery, Mrs. Denoon, Mrs. McBurney, Robert Dunn, Jacob Heiner, G. Hixenbaugh and wife, Mrs. E. Carlisle, Mrs. Connor, Mrs. Jor- don, Mrs. Barton, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Moss, John Bonnell, Mrs. A. Vorhes, Hezekiah Clements, Mrs. Harkness, George Razor, M. Bumgardner, Mrs. Donahoo.
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WOOLEN FACTORY.
Bigger and McLeran,
Respectfully inform the people of Guernsey and adjoining counties, that their machinery is now in full operation-that they are prepared to manufacture, either on shares, or for pay by the yard, the following kinds of goods :
Cloths, Cassimeres, Cassinetts,
Tweeds,
Lindseys, Jeans,
etc., Flannels, Blankets,
etc.
of any color, stripe or mixture, that may be desired by customers. Those who wish their wool carded and spun only, can have it done for fifteen cents per pound, and Ic per pound for reeling.
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