USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 107
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Charter members-A. Love, T. Mosure, G. Cole, B. F. Mosure, R. Cole, N. B. Rowley, G. W. Con- don, J. Z. Griffith, Alden Snow, jr., J. B. Roberts, and J. W. Condon.
The first officers installed were: G. W. Condon, N. G .; J. Z. Griffith, V. G .; Alexander Love, sec- retary; R. Cole, treasurer.
Those initiated at the first meeting were D. S. Headley, C. G. Mount, R. Ewers.
This lodge, July 4, 1857, gave their first public celebration, P. G. John Lamb being the orator of the day.
The officers, July 1, 1880, were: L. H. Lewis, N. G .; M. Hagerity, V. G .; John Davis, secretary; A. Stephens, permanent secretary; G. W. Glosser, treasurer; J. C. Merrin, sitting past grand.
Number of deaths since organization, four. Present number of members, one hundred and ten. Representatives to Grand lodge, J. Z. Griffith, and Issacher Rowley.
In 1872 the lodge dedicated their new hall, situ- ated on Main street, with appropriate ceremonies. The building is a frame one, sixty-five by sixty feet, and three stories high. The first story is intended for commercial purposes; the second is used as a pub- lic hall, and on the third floor is the lodge. The building and finishing of the whole, cost the lodge six thousand dollars, and is considered one of the neatest halls devoted to Odd Fellowship in central Ohio, outside of the cities.
Knox Encampment, No. 211, I. O. O. F., was in- stituted at Fredericktown, June 30, 1877, by Grand
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
Patriarch J. W. Porch. of Mansfield, assisted by a number of past patriarchs from Mansfield and Belleville.
The charter members were Williamn Gordon, Henry Cassell, Abram Stephens, G. W. Glosser, Levi Cassell, M. P. Howes, and J. C. Ebersole.
The first officers were: J. C. Ebersole, C. P .. D. W. Gordon, H. P .; Levi Cassell, S. W .; G. W. Glosser, J. W .; A. Stephens, scribe; H. Cassell, treasurer.
The following persons were initiated at the first meeting: H. C. Simons, E. S. Winterbotham, Har- rison Rowley, Alex. Trahern, S. R. Glosser, Robert Darling, and George W. Ditwiler.
The officers, January 1, 1881, were: A. Trahern, C. P .; J. C. Ebersole, H. P .; M. P. Howes, S. W .; A. Stephens, J. W .; James Duncan, jr., scribe; J. S. Mosteller, treasurer.
CHAPTER LXVII.
TERRITORY DETACHED FROM KNOX COUNTY.
MADISON, GREENE, CHESTER, BLOOMFIELD, AND FRANKLIN TOWNSHIPS.
THE act establishing the county of Knox was T passed January 30, 1808, and was to go into effect March 1, 1808. An act establishing Rich- land county was also passed January 30, 1808, which contained a provision placing it under the jurisdiction of the county of Knox until the legis- lature may think proper to organize it. In pursu. ance of said provision, the commissioners of Knox county, on the eighth of June, 1809, declared the entire county of Richland a separate township, named Madison, which at the annual election of said year cast seventeen votes, and only nineteen votes at the annual election in the year 1811. The first judges of election were Melzar Tanney- hill, Isaac Pierce, and Samuel Lewis. Peter Kin- ney and Thomas Coulter were the clerks.
The election judges in 1810 were James Copus, William Gardner, and John Foglesong; and John C. Gilkison and James Cunningham were the clerks. At one of the early elections Madison
township cast fourteen votes for Jeremiah R. Mun- son for the legislature, and three votes for William Gass. In 1811 Winn Winship and John C. Gilki- son were the election clerks. Archibald Gardner was elected justice of the peace in May, 1809; Henry McCart, in 1810; George Coffinberry and Peter Kinney, in 1812: and James McClure and Andrew Coffinberry, in 1814.
On the seventh of January, 1812, the county commissioners divided Madison township, and es- tablished Greene township, which at the annual election of this year cast forty-one votes. The common pleas court of Knox county on the four- teenth of March, 1812, ordered that three justices of the peace be elected in Greene township.
By act of the legislature passed January 7, 1813, which took effect on the first Monday in March of said year, Richland county was organized. On the second of April, 1809, John Heckewelder, John M. Connell, and Moses Ross, as commission- ers, established Mansfield as the county seat. In February, 1813, Thomas Coulter, William Gass, and Peter Kinney, were elected associate judges of the Richland common pleas court, who subse- quently elected Winn Winship clerk of said court. He was also the first postmaster of Mansfield.
ORGANIZATION OF MORROW COUNTY.
Knox county in 1848 contributed the three townships of Chester, Bloomfield, and Franklin, toward the creation of the county of Morrow. Chester was organized April 10, 1812; Bloomfield township June 23, 1817, and Franklin was erected December 23, 1823. They were three important townships of the county, diminishing its population nearly four thousand, and their detachment from Knox county destroyed its symmetry and marred its form and proportions.
The first election in Chester township was held April 25, 1812, the judges being Joseph Duncan, Henry George, and Evan Holt. William and Samuel Johnson were the clerks.
Rufus Dodd was the first assessor of taxable property.
A branch of Owl creek passes through this township, and Chesterville is its chief town or village. The population of the township in 1830 was seven hundred and seventy-eight; in 1840 it
573
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
was one thousand two hundred and ninety-seven, and in 1850 it was one thousand six hundred and twenty.
Enos Miles was the proprietor of Chesterville, which was situated on the road from Mt. Vernon to Mt. Gilead, distant from the former fourteen miles, and from the latter ten miles. As early as 1830 its population was two hundred and fifty.
Evan Holt, who served six years in the Revolu- tionary war, and who settled in this section of Knox county in 1808, was one of the most noted men hereabouts. He lived here nearly forty years, and died at the age of more than eighty-three years.
The following is a list of the justices of the peace of Chester township from its organization until it became a part of Morrow county, together with the time of service of each:
William Johson, 1812 to 1817; Rufus Dodd 1817-19; Joseph Denman, 1817-19; W. Van Bus- kirk, 1819-20; Enos Miles, 1820-22; Daniel Beers, 1820-22; W. Van Buskirk, 1822-23; Daniel Beers, 1823-24; John Stilley, 1824-26; John Beebe, 1826-27; Moses Powell, 1827-29; John Beebe, 1829-30; Moses Powell, 1830-32; John Beebe, 1832-33; Moses Powell, 1833; Enos Miles, 1833-35; Henry Dewitt, 1835-38; Enos Miles, 1836-39; Byram Beers, 1836-39; Henry Dewitt, 1838-42; Enos Miles, 1839-42; Byram Beers, 1839-43; P. B. Ayres, 1842-44; Thomas Peterson, 1843-45; Charles Dalrymple, 1844-48; Byram Beers, 1845-47; P. B. Ayres, 1845-46; Davis Miles, 1846-48.
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.
This was another of the western townships of Knox county that was attached to Morrow county in 1848. In 1840 the inhabitants of Bloomfield township numbered one thousand two hundred and fifty-two; in 1850 they had increased to one thou- sand three hundred and ninety-five. In 1818, the year after Bloomfield was organized, Benjamin H. Taylor served in the office of assessor of taxable property. There were but sixteen voters in the township. The first post office established in Bloomfield was Clark's ₭ Roads, and was located at the intersection of the road leading from Johns- town to New Haven, with the road leading from Mt. Vernon to Delaware-a central point-being
thirteen miles from Berkshire, Mt. Vernon, Ches- terville and Johnstown. It was subsequently called Bloomfield. The second post office was estab- lished at Sparta, a small village situated on the old State road leading from Mansfield to Columbus; Sunbury and Fredericktown being intermediate towns.
The first brick house built in Bloomfield town- ship was erected in 1825, by Roswell Clark: and the first two-story frame building was built in 1828, being the one long occupied by Sheldon Clark. The first church erected in Bloomfield township was by the Methodist Episcopal church in 1839. The same denomination built the second church in Sparta in 1846; and in the same year the Christian church erected a church edifice in Sparta. Revs. Thomas Kerr and Mr. Cooper, of the Meth- odist church, and Rev. James Smith and a Mr. Britton were Christian or New Light pioneer preachers. In 1850 the Wesleyan Methodists built a small church near Sparta, in which the distinguished abolitionist, Rev. Edward Smith, offi- ciated, and near which he was buried in 1859.
Marshall Clark died in 1818, and was the first death in the territory that soon after became Bloomfield township. The family of Artemas Swetland settled in this section of the county in 1812, and are generally regarded as the first set- tlers. Those that succeeded them not long after were the Clarks, Walker Lyon, Preston Hubbell, Seth Nash, John Helt, William Ayres, John Blinn, Dr. Bliss, Samuel Whitney, Lucius French, Stephen Marvin, Samuel Mead, Lemuel Potter, and others. The Clarks were from New Haven county, Connecticut; as were also Lyon, Hubbell, Nash, Whitney, French, Marvin, and Mead. Helt and Ayres were from Washington county, Pennsyl- vania.
In Norton's History of Knox County it is stated that Bloomfield township received its name in this wise: Several of the settlers were at the house of Sheldon Clark early in the spring of 1817, talking about the prospective township, when John Blinn called attention to the flowers in the field in which they were, and suggested that as the field was in bloom the new township should be called Bloom- field, and it was so called.
Matthew Marvin was the first justice of the peace
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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
of Bloomfield township. He was elected in 1818; Walker Lyon, 1819; John Manville, 1820; Walker Lyon, 1822; Stephen Dodd, 1823; James Thomp- son, 1824; David Bliss, 1825; John Manville, 1827; R. Clark, 1828; John Manville, 1830; James Thompson, 1833; David Bliss, 1834; James Shu- mate, 1836; David Bliss, 1837; John Beebe, 1837; David Bliss, 1840; John Beebe, 1840; Jared Irvine, 1843; Jacob T. Thompson, 1844; Jared Irvine, 1846; Wheeler Ashley, 1846; Charles M. Eaton, 1848.
One of the noteworthy incidents of Bloomfield township, given by Norton, is as follows:
An aeronaut by the name of F. H. Westbrook met with a terrible end on the Fourth of July, 1862. There was a large concourse of people at Sparta, commemorating our national anniversary, who were addressed by Rev. Mills Harrod, W. L. Bane, esq., and Hon. A. Banning Norton, and at 5 o'clock P. M., as previously announced, a balloon went up with Westbrook in it, to the height of perhaps five hundred feet, when it burst in pieces and fell to the earth, killing him instantly. About three thousand people witnessed the sad termination of an otherwise joyful occasion.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, KNOX COUNTY.
Franklin is the third and last of the western town- ships of Knox county that were annexed to the county of Morrow in 1848. It was authorized De- cember 3, 1832, named in honor of Benjamin and the first election for township officers was held on the first Monday of April, 1824. The popula- tion of Franklin township in 1830 was eight hun- dred; in 1840 it was one thousand three hundred and forty-three; and in 1850 it was one thousand four hundred and fifty-six. Pulaskiville is the principal business place of the township. Allen Kelly, an emigrant from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, was one of the earliest settlers here. David Peoples, David Shaw, William T. Campbell, Washington Strong, the Petersons, Hickmans, Blairs, and Van Buskirk's were also pioneer settlers.
Abraham Blair, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, settled upon the farm in 1811, on which. he died in his ninetieth year, on the second of October, 1846. He served as a minute-man during the Revolu- tionary war, and participated in the battles of Tren- ton and Monmouth.
David Shaw served his fellow-citizens over twen- ty-one years as a justice of the peace, and was a county commissioner nine years.
Colonel Strong was one of the noted military men and politicians of Franklin township. So also was Lieutenant Bernard Fields. Among office holders or prominent men of Franklin township may be named the Swingleys (emigrants from Ha- gerstown, Maryland), Samuel Livingston, Henry Weatherby, Anson Prouty, William Faris, William Gordon, Benjamin Corwin, Alexander Wilson, Jon- athan Olin, William Lavering, Caleb Barton, H. P. Eldridge, C. Sapp, William Linn, B. O. Pitman. David Ewers, Ebenezer Hartwell, B. and E. Lyon, Benjamin Hathaway, and Thomas Morrison.
Upon the organization of this township William Van Buskirk, a justice of the peace within the ter- ritory, who had been reelected in 1822, continued to act until again elected in 1824. In 1824 John Truas was also elected, and in 1827 David Shaw was again elected, and reelected until 1848, when the township was carried over into Morrow county. H. W. Strong was elected in 1834, and reelected in 1837. William Van Buskirk was elected in 1840, reelected in 1843, and in 1846, and during his term of service the connection with Knox county was severed.
OSS
A. B. Alvesional
575
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
CHAPTER LXVIII. PIKE TOWNSHIP .*
ERECTION-BOUNDARIES-TOPOGRAPHY-FIRST SETTLERS ELECTIONS - PRESENT OFFICERS - JUSTICES-MILLS- SCHOOLS-CHURCHES-AMITY-ODD FELLOWS-KNIGHTS OF HONOR-NORTH LIBERTY-STATISTICS.
DIKE TOWNSHIP was established June 8, 1819, by act of the county commissioners and given the name of Pike in honor of General Pike. The following extract is taken from their journal for the date above given :
Ordered. That the following boundaries be and are hereby set apart into a separete township, viz .: Beginning at the south- east corner of township number eight, and range number twelve, and running west to the east line of range number thir- teen; thence north to the southeast corner of township number eight in range thirteen; thence west to the southwest corner of said eighth township; thence north on the line between the thirteenth and fourteenth ranges to the north boundary of said Knox county; thence east on said boundary to where the line between the eleventh and twelfth ranges intersects said boun- dary; thence north on said range line to the place of beginning, which shall henceforth be considered a separate and distinct township, and enjoy all the privileges of such, which shall be called and known by the name of Pike township.
At their session the next day the commissioners ordered an election to be held at the house of Michael Harter, on the twenty-sixth day of June instant, for the election of township officers.
On the ninth of March, 1825, the commission- ers changed the boundaries of Pike as follows:
Pike township shall be composed of the eighth and ninth township in the twelfth range, and the twentieth township in the seventeenth range.
Pike township is situated in the northern part of the county, and contains thirty-six square miles of territory, a portion of which lies north of the Green- ville Treaty line, adjacent to Richland county. The surface of the country is somewhat broken by Schenck's creek, which traverses the township from north to south. The soil is not of the best, being principally composed of the debris of the Waverly sandstones, but is well adapted to the production of grass, oats and wheat. About one-fourth of the township is still in woods, chestnut, white oak and hickory predominating. By judicious farming Pike township has been enabled to rival her more favored sisters in wealth and improvement.
The date of the first settlement has not been ascertained; but in 1816 an Irishman named Henry Lander was found living on the southwest quarter of section No. 13. He was a man of giant stature and Herculean strength, and had been a member of the Irish dragoons, the exploits of which he used to relate with great gusto. He was six feet six inches high, weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and would wager whiskey for the crowd that seven men could not take off his hat. He would then back up against a wall or tree, and with his long arms swinging in the air defy all approach of his adversaries.
John Arnold was born in Maryland in r785, came to Pike township in 1816, and located on the southwest quarter of section No. 8, where he reared his family, one of whom, William Arnold, is still living in the township, aged seventy-seven.
Charles McBride also came from Maryland, and settled on the southwest quarter of section No. 4, in 1816, where he lived and died. His sons, Hugh and William, moved to the west about 1855. None of his descendants now live in the township.
Aaron Bixby came from Huron county, Ohio, to Howard township, and moved from there to Pike township in 1816, and located on the southeast quarter of section No. 16, known as the Josiah Crawford place. Mr. Bixby taught school in the first school-house built in the township. It was a rude, round log structure, and stood about one-half mile south of the present town of North Liberty, in 1823. He has now no representative in the township.
Philip Armentrout located on the northwest quarter of section No. 8, where he remained till his death. None of his family now reside in the township.
Nicholas Headington was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, and moved to Pike township, Knox county, in 1822. His son, Nicholas, brought the first tobacco seed to Knox county, and raised the first tobacco for shipment.
Aaron Wilson was also an early settler and a use- ful citizen. He moved west in 1837. His son Lewis still lives in the township, and has reared a large family.
William Wright came to where Amity is now located when quite small-about 1819.
*The manuscript history of this township was received by the printers too late for insertion in its proper place.
576
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
The first election was held at the house of Mich- ael Harter, June 26, 1819, but as no records have been preserved the names of the officers elected cannot be given. The entire number of voters in the township in 1822 was nineteen. Their names were John Arnold, Robert Kennedy, Jacob Swartz, Thomas Elwell, William Wright, Aaron Wilson, John Scoles, William Smith, Thomas Scoles, An- drew Scoles, George H. Scoles, Phillip Armen- trout, Benjamin Austin, John Butler, William Spry, Francis Popham, David Holloway, John Gordon, and Cyrus McDonald.
The present board of township officers is con- structed as follows: John Nichols and Henry Lockhart, justices of the peace; Philip Arnold and Henry Philips, constables; James J. P. Mishey, treasurer; John Wallace, assessor; John .Wyman, Joseph Stoffer, and George Shipley, trustees ; John Fletcher, clerk; S. D. Parrish, Thomas Simmons, John T. Read, Joseph Stoffer, John Nichols, Sam- uel Burger, Calvin Loney, John Wineland, board of education; Wesley Bryant, Silas Daniels, Wil- liam Horn, Henry Stoffer, Miles Dakins, Samuel Burger, David Leedy and Samuel Horton, board of supervisors.
The elections have generally been held at the school-house near the centre of the township, but about 1840 the polls were changed to the Six Cor- ners, and vibrated between the two places for some time. Finally the present location, school-house No. 4, was settled upon.
The following is a consecutive list of justices: Andrew Scoles and Robert Silcost, 1819; William Smith, 1820; Bernard Reece, 1822; William Smith and Aaron Bixby, 1823; Bernard Reece, William Johnson and William McNear, 1825; Andrew Scoles, 1827; William Smith, 1829; Hugh Kirk- patrick, 1850; F. Popham and John Cochran, jr., 1831; William Smith, 1833; John Gordon and F. Popham, 1834; John Cochran, jr., 1836; John Gordon and J. Y. Barnhard, 1837; John Cochran, jr., 1839; John Gordon, 1840; Emanuel Wagoner, 1842; John Gordon and William Arnold, 1843; John Ramsey, 1844; Amos De Haven and W. W. Maneer, 1846; John Ramsey, 1847; W. W. Ma- neer and Eli Dickerson, 1840; C. P. Frederick, 1850; El: Dickerson and W. W. Maneer, 1852; R. C. Sweeney, 1853; H. P. Roberts and J. D.
Hammell, 1855; R. C. Sweeney and David Brad- dock, 1856; J. D. Hammell and Samuel Kirkpat- rick, 1858; John Weis, 1859; R. C. Sweeney, 1860; J. D. Hammell, 1861; Matthew Cunning- ham, 1862; R. C. Sweeney, 1863; John B. Scar- borough, 1864; R. C. Sweeney, 1866; David Porch and J. B. Scarborough, 1867; W. W. Wal- key and J. Scarborough, 1870; W. W. Walkey and S. F. Hunter, 1873; Henry Lockhart and John Nichols, 1876 and 1879.
The first grist-mill in Pike township was built by John Arnold in 1831, or. Schenck's creek, on the southwest quarter of section No. 8. It was a small mill, containing but one run of buhrs, but did a good business for one of its size, grinding sometimes one hundred bushels in the course of twenty-four hours. It continued in operation till about 1851. The next grist-mill was built by a man by the name of Hillis, who erected a small mill on the northwest quarter of section No. 23, in 1834. He sold out to James Stephens. Ste- phens sold to Benjamin Spry, who sold to John Walkey in 1836. Mr. Walkey put in two run of buhrs, and operated the mill until 1874.
The first saw-mill was built by an Englishman named Thomas Smith, on the southwest quarter of section No. 18, about 1832. This mill sawed a great deal of lumber, and was a very useful one. Silas Daniels bought it in 1836.
Jacob Wineland built a saw-mill on the southwest quarter of section No. 4, in 1833, which is now owned by his son, John Wineland, and is running.
A saw-mill was also built by Daniel Armentrout in 1854, and sold to Martin Kunkel. It is not now in operation.
In 1849 John Walkey built an excellent saw- mill on Schenck's creek, near the centre of section No. 23, which is still operated by Mr. Walkey, he filing his own saw without glasses at the age of eighty-four.
The first school was taught by William Scoles, in a part of his own house in the southwest quar- ter of section No. 13.
The first hewed log school house was built on the land of Robert Kirkpatrick, near the present election house, about the year 1833.
The first brick house in the township was built by Francis Popham on his property.
577
HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.
David Braddock kept store at Braddock's Cross roads from 1840 till 1850, being the only store kept outside the villages of Amity and North Liberty. David Hatch, the son-in-law of Isaac Vernon, who located on the northwest quarter of section twenty-four now occupied by J. R. Phillips, in 1834 brought with him the first threshing-machine and first cooking stove seen in Pike township.
John Arnold and Daniel Grubb at one time ran a distillery, but at the present time Pike township, with a population of one thousand three hundred and seven, has not a single saloon, or other place within its borders, where intoxicating drinks are sold.
The first Methodist preaching in Pike township was held in private houses, by Rev. - Goff. Meetings were held at McBride's, Wilson's, Bixby's, and Vernon's. The first class leader was Aaron Wilson; and the early members were Aaron Bixby and Nancy, his wife; Isaac Vernon and Martha. his wife; Charles, Thomas, and William McBride, Thomas and Sally Wilson, the Fletchers, Elwells, Deems, and others. The first quarterly meeting was held in Aaron Bixby's barn-the first frame barn erected in the neighborhood-now owned by Henry Eckenrode. A great revival occurred at this meeting, and the accessions to the church were so numerous that it was determined to build a house of worship. Accordingly a small plat of ground was obtained of Hugh Hardesty, on the southwest quarter of section twenty-four, and in 1827 Hugh and John Cochran built a log church, which served the purpose until 1850, when a more commodious and substantial edifice was erected. The new building is a frame, forty by fifty feet, the lumber for which was hauled from Waterford, Mid- dlebury township. The building committee were Richard Scoles, Joseph Hollis, and Reuben Kettle.
Among the ministers who preached in the old log church were Revs. John Scoles, John Morey, James Quigley, Elnathan Raymond, Daniel and William Conant, Zephaniah Bell, Revs. Block, Clark, and Blue, Oliver Burgess, John Burgess, and Daniel Lambert. The present preacher in charge is Rev. John Thompson. The present number of members is about seventy-five. Allen Kirkpatrick is recording steward, and Lyman Magers, W. W. Walkey, and George H. Scoles class leaders.
North Liberty Methodist Episcopal church is an offshoot of the old Pike Methodist church; and some of the same persons who were early members of that congregation were early members of this. Among them were Francis Blakeney and Hannah, his wife; George Frizzle and wife, Charles Mc- Bride and wife, Thomas McBride and wife, William McBride and wife, J. Nelson Dean and wife, John Arnold and wife, William Arnold and wife, Henry Armentrout and wife, and Simon Armentrout and wife. Charles McBride was the class leader.
About the year 1840 a frame church, thirty-five by forty-five feet square, was built in the village of North Liberty, which is still used as a house of worship. In 1861 the demon of political discord entered this church, and it was rent in twain. During the war, and for some time afterwards, the church stood idle; but after the settlement of the vexed question, slavery, the church revived, meet- ings were once more held, and now there is a mem- bership of about fifty. William Penrose and Lock- hart Arnold are the class leaders. Rev. John Thompson is the preacher in charge.
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