USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 24
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UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH, NEW HOPE.
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ville, and a church built there. After a few years the congregation declined in numbers and became extinct.
In the year 1851, under the leadership of Elder James Neal, the Union Chapel society, also of the Christian denomination, was organized in the southeastern part of the township, and a church built on the township line in section 25. This congregation held regular services until about 1890, and occasional services a few years longer, when the society passed out of exist- ence. In the year 1842 a Christian church was built at West Florence and services were held there for a few years. In 1859 people belonging to different denominations about West Florence, the Christians and Universalists lead- ing, united together and built a large brick church, known as the People's church. Services were held in this church for about twenty years, when the organization, owing to differences among the members, passed out of existence. Occasional services were held in the church until 1905, when the church building finally became the property of the owner of the land on which the building stood.
In the years 1899 a congregation of the Christian denomination was organized and a modern and well-equipped church built at Campbellstown. This society is strong and vigorous and promises to be a potent and lasting influence in the future of the community. It will thus be seen that the Christian denomination has had a church and congregation somewhere in the township from the earliest times and has been a constant factor in the religious life of the people. Among the ministers of this denomination have been David Purviance, John Adams, Reuben Dooley, Josiah Conger, Levi Purviance, James Neal, T. M. McWhinney, W. A. Gross, Hiram Simonton, W. A. Broderick and Peter Sullivan.
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In very early times a small congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church was formed in the northern part of the township. They held services first at the houses of members, but later in a building erected about 1825 for the purpose, on the farm of James Morse in section 3. This society ceased to exist after a few years. It was succeeded about 1845, largely through the efforts of Robert McCord, a local preacher, by a society which had a church about a mile south of New Westville. This society continued to hold services until about 1880, when it passed out of existence.
For more than sixty years, beginning with the year 1847, a Methodist Episcopal congregation had a church and held services at New Hope. This society has now ceased to exist and the church building is devoted to other uses. Many of the ablest men in the Methodist Episcopal church ministered
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in the early days to the congregations in this township, John Durkin, Werter Davis and W. H. Raper being among the number.
A congregation of the United Brethren existed from the earliest times, partly in Jackson and partly in Washington township. At first, services were held in the houses or barns of members, but about 1815 a log church was built, and in the year 1830 a better house was erected near the township line in Washington township. In 1847 a brick church was built in New Hope and this became the home of the congregation. A handsome frame building took the place of the brick structure in 1882, and this was remodeled and improved in 1905. This society has had a continuous existence of more than a hundred years, and has exerted a great influence on the life of the people of that community. It is flourishing and vigorous and has before it, apparently, many years of useful service. Rev. E. P. Huddle is the present minister.
About 1872 a society of the Christian denomination was organized and a church built at New Westville. Elder James Neal conducted services in the church for a few years, when it passed under the control of the Main Street Friends meeting at Richmond, Indiana. It has since been maintained as a mission branch of that society. Rev. Irwin Stegall is the present min- ister.
The Baptists had a society at one time in the southwestern part of the township and built a church about 1820, near the southeast corner of section 20. About 1840 the society passed out of existence, and a little later the church was removed.
In 1900 a society of the Disciples, or "Campbellite" church, was formed and a church built at Campbellstown. There have been no services in this church for two or three years.
BURIAL PLACES.
The first burial place in the township was in section 19 on the Indiana line. The first person buried in this graveyard and the first who died in the township was Thomas Hollet, a young man, who was killed by a fall- ing tree. This cemetery is still used and is well care for. There was a grave- yard at Shiloh church, but it was abandoned many years ago and is grown up with bushes and small trees.
At a very early time there was a graveyard near the northwest corner of section 10. Only a few persons were buried there and it has long been abandoned, and is now a part of the adjoining cultivated field. What is
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known as the Frame graveyard is in section 25. The first burial there was in July, 1816. It is still used and properly cared for. The New Westville graveyard adjoins the site of the New Westville Methodist church. The first burial there was in September, 1845. It is still used as a burying ground.
NEW WESTVILLE.
New Westville was surveyed and platted by George Worthington, due acknowledgment being made before Isaac Stephens, justice of the peace, July 16, 1816, and this became the first town in Jackson township. The town was known at first as Westville, and letters were addressed to Mc- Cowen's Cross Roads. The name was changed to New Westville in 1840, when the postoffice was established.
The first store in the village was conducted by James McCowen. The town thrived and grew, and in the forties was a place of considerable impor- tance. A number of the people of the town died in the cholera epidemic of 1849. Others were frightened away, never to return, and the building of the railroad, a mile away to the south, in 1852, was the finishing touch. The town never recovered its former importance. The population at the present time is about sixty-five. Milo Stegall keeps the general store.
WEST FLORENCE.
West Florence was laid out by John McCowen in 1816, but the plat was not recorded until March 18, 1835. McCowen named the proposed town Knoxville, after the county seat of Knox county, Tennessee, his former home. When the plat was received the name was changed to Florence, and when the postoffice was established in 1839, the name was again changed to West Florence. At first. part of the town was in Dixon township, but for many years the town has been entirely in Jackson township. John Mc- Cowen had the first store, opened in 1816. P. C. Flora conducts a gen- eral store and does a good business. The population is about sixty.
NEW HOPE.
New Hope was laid out by Daniel Hawk, June 11, 1841. Additions were made in 1842 by Abraham Leedy, and in 1847 by Jacob Cline. The first store was kept by William Brown, and he became the first postmaster April 2, 1844, the postoffice being called Upshur until it was discontinued. The population is about one hundred.
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CAMPBELLSTOWN.
Campbellstown came into existence with the coming of the railroad in 1852. A station was placed at the center of the township and named Flor- ence Station. The postoffice was named Campbellstown. Harvey Mc- Whinney opened a general store soon after the railroad began business, and bought and shipped grain and stock. Later he operated a saw-mill and pork-packing establishment. McWhinney died in 1863, and a few years later the packing business was discontinued. O. B. Cooper has the general store at the present time and W. C. Swisher ships grain and live stock. Both do a good business. Miss Amy Arrasmith has charge of the postoffice. The population of Campbellstown is about one hundred. C. C. Gard ships live stock from Riota, and Richards Brothers & Company run the grain elevator at that place. I. N. Watts owns and operates the only saw-mill in the township at the present time, at "Jughandle," on the Eaton and Rich- mond pike, in section 10. A saw-mill has been operated continuously at that place since 1850.
HIGHWAYS.
The first roads in the township probably were made by the settlers in their efforts to get to their newly purchased lands with their wagons. These trails were afterward extended in different directions as the requirements of the settlers made it convenient or necessary. For a long time but little in the way of improvement was attempted, and the roads remained prac- tically in a state of nature. About 1810 a road was surveyed and opened across the township from Eaton to Richmond, entering near the middle of the east line and leaving at the northwest corner of the township. About the year 1837 a company was formed for the purpose of grading and gravel- ing this road and making a toll road out of it. It was completed to the Indiana line in the fall of 1844, the gravel being placed on the portion from New Hope westward in that year. The gravel was hauled from banks a little more than a mile west of the Indiana line. It remained a toll road until the year 1886, when it was turned over to the county to keep up. For forty years it was practically the only improved road in the township. About the year 1885 the people began in earnest the work of improving their roads. When once begun, the work of improvement went on rapidly and at the present time there is scarcely a mile of unimproved road in the town- ship. The supply of gravel has been nearly exhausted and crushed stone is taking its place for repairing the roads.
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In 1852 the Hamilton, Eaton & Richmond railroad was built across the township, very largely through the aid of local capital. The building of this road resulted in greatly improved markets.
In the year 1902 the Dayton & Western Traction Company began the construction of an electric road from Eaton to Richmond, Indiana, fol- lowing the line of the Eaton and Richmond turnpike. The work of con- struction was completed the next year, 1903. On July 4, 1903, cars were run from New Westville to Eaton during the day, carrying passengers, but regular service was not inaugurated until two or three months later.
During the year 1901, the Eaton Telephone Company extended its lines into the township, something near one hundred patrons becoming sub- scribers. Service was begun in October of that year. The Jackson town- ship business was handled at first through an exchange at Campbellstown, but later this was abandoned and the telephone connected directly with the exchange at Eaton. There are now about one hundred and sixty subscribers in the township.
Sometime during the year 1900 the United States government estab- lished a rural free mail delivery route out of Richmond, Indiana, which gave service to about twenty families in the northwestern part of Jackson township. About a year later this route was extended to include about thirty more families. April 1, 1902, E. H. Cook began delivering mail on a route starting from Campbellstown and which gave service to about one hun- dred families. Other routes starting from Eaton which had begun deliver- ing mail February Ist of the same year, gave service to a large number of families in this township. A readjustment of the routes early in the year 1906 gave service to all the families in the townships. After eleven years of carrying the mail, Mr. Cook resigned as mail carrier and J. W. O'Hara took his place March 16, 1913, and is still acting in that capacity.
SCHOOLS.
In the first years of the settlement of Jackson township the popula- tion was too sparse and the families too far apart to make it possible to establish or keep up schools. There was little or nothing in the way of a school system. There were no public school funds whatever, and the early schools were all "pay," or subscription schools, maintained wholly at the ex- pense of the patrons. The school houses were built of logs (in one case an abandoned blacksmith shop was used as a school house) and were lack- ing in about everything that goes with a modern school house. The school
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term was short, not over three months, and about all there was of the school was a teacher, often with little qualification, and the children, eager to learn. The schools were far apart and apparently were changed about from one neighborhood to another. Thus the children of one family, living near the east line of section 9 attended a school one winter near the present site of the New Westville graveyard; another winter the school was nearly a mile over into Jefferson township, and another winter it was near the east line of section II. The children made their way through the dense forest as best they could.
The first school house in the township, it is said, was built on the present site of West Florence in the year 1814, and the first school was taught there the next winter by John Taylor, known to his neighbors as "the lit- tle Scotchman." There were twenty-five children in the school and it was very difficult to get that many. Taylor appears to have been a good teacher, and afterward taught in other parts of the township. Jesse Hopkins was another one of the early teachers, and still another was Alexander Barr, a native of Ireland, who grew up to manhood in that country. He was a very well educated man for that time. He moved with his family from Pennsylvania in the year 1815, and made a home in the southern part of Jefferson township. He taught school for many years in southern Jeffer- son and northern Jackson. As the pioneer conditions passed away the township was divided into nine sub-districts, with a school house in each one, at first built of logs, but succeeded later by frame houses. During the years 1869 to 1872 substantial brick school houses were built in all the dis- tricts, with spacious yards and necessary outbuildings.
In April, 1895, the voters of the township decided, by a majority of twenty-eight, to establish a township high school. A handsome and con- venient building was erected, at a cost of five thousand dollars, and school commenced early in October, with R. K. DeMotte as teacher and fifteen pupils in attendance. The length of term was six months each year and the course of study covered three years. The term has since been extended to eight and one-half months and the course of study to four years. In the fall of 1896 Mr. DeMotte was elected county surveyor and B. S. Davis took his place in the high school in the fall of 1897. He, in turn, was suc- ceeded three years later by C. R. Coblentz, the present township superin- tendent. In November, 1912, the voters of the township gave a majority of seventy in favor of centralizing all the schools of the township. Because of decreased attendance many of the schools had already been consolidated.
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The following facts relating to the schools are furnished by Mr. C. R. Coblentz, township superintendent :
Township high school, established 1895; cost of building, $5,000.00, now township house. Consolidation of sub-districts began in 1910; com- pletely centralized since January 1, 1913.
Bond issue for present centralized school building voted in January, 1910; amount, $15,000 at 5 per cent., $1,000 payable annually, with accrued interest. First direct vote on centralization, November, 1910, defeated by 33 votes.
New building occupied January 1, 1911, by high school and six sub- district schools; New Hope, New Westville and No. 7 schools being left out. No. 7 brought to the central school on September 1, 1911. New West- ville school brought in in September, 1912.
Second vote on centralization, November, 1912, carried by seventy votes. Last school, New Hope, brought in January 1, 1913, completing the consolidation of all the schools in the Central school.
COST.
Central school building. $19,572.00
Heating and ventilating system.
3,100.00
Acetylene light system 300.00
Barn, 120 ft. by 30 ft., outhouses, walks, etc.
1,200.00
Water system installation. 432.00
Four acres of land
1, 100.00
Total
$25,704.00
PRESENT SYSTEM.
Transportation : Hacks, 11 ; average cost, new, $175.00; owned by town- ship. Drivers, II : two paid $2.25 per day, eight paid $2.50 per day, and one paid $2.75 per day. Drivers under contract and bond of $100 to carry out contract to satisfaction of board of education.
PUPILS.
Enrollment, 1913-1914-
Elementary
185
High school 54
Total
239
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Enrollment 1914-15-
Elementary 191
High school 62
Total 253
High school enrollment, 1910, year before consolidation, 37; now, 62. Graduates of high school, not including class of 1915-
Boys 59
Girls 57
Total 116
TEACHERS.
Present Corps : Edna Horner, first and second grades, salary, $60 per month; Mabel Cail, third and tourth grades, sewing, $60 per month; Myrtle Benham, fifth and sixth grades, cooking, $60 per month; W. H. Wisman, seventh and eighth grades, $65 per month; Clarence Thompson, high school, manual training, $65 per month; Blanche Rinehart, high school, $100 per month; J. S. DcDivitt, principal of high school, $112.50 per month; C. R. Coblentz, superintendent, $1,200 per year.
Average wages of teachers below high school, fifty cents per day higher than before centralization of schools. Average teaching experience of entire corps, eleven years. Length of school term, now eight and one-half months.
Board of Education : W. W. Gard, president ; B. F. Campbell, vice-presi- dent ; C. F. Miller, J. H. McWhinney, G. A. Laird.
The course of study includes sewing and cooking and manual training in the grades. The high school course of study includes one and one-half years each in algebra and geometry, one year in physics, and four years in Latin. Instruction is also given in agriculture in the high school.
The Central school building is large, well arranged, well appointed and up-to-date in every respect. The school has been brought to a high degree- of efficiency through the labors of Superintendent Coblentz and his faith- ful and capable corps of assistants, and everything pertaining to the school is in every way creditable to the township.
THE OUTLOOK.
Coming now to the end of Jackson township's first century, it may not be amiss to look forward for a moment into the future. The gift of prophecy
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JACKSON TOWNSHIP CENTRALIZED SCHOOL, CAMPBELLSTOWN.
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is given to few, if any, men, but some just concept may be formed of what is to come by what has passed. In very truth, the coming event casts its shadow before.
With a school system which comes near being a model of its kind in meeting the needs and requirements of the people which it serves; with roads which are already good, and which presently are to be made better by the application of newer and more efficient methods; with steam and electric rail- roads and auto-vehicles to solve the problem of transportation; with all the world brought near by the telegraph, the telephone and the free delivery of mails; with the inventions and discoveries of the coming years, whose benefits are to be for country as well as town, and, finally, with a population, intelli- gent, progressive and capable of grasping and using the good that is in all these things, surely for Jackson township and Jackson township's people "the pathway of the future is spanned by the bow of promise."
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CHAPTER XIX.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
.By C. W. Bloom.
The formation of Jefferson township as a separate entity as it now exists, is fully set out in the chapter on Organization of the County. Suffice it to state that in 1916 the township will round out a century as now formed.
If there were any further public records of the early organization they were very meager and have not been preserved. It is proable that there was not, for several years, any real official organization, for the population was sparse, consisting only of a very few settlers who had established themselves in log cabin homes in little "clearings" they had made in the primeval forest which covered practically the entire territory of the township. In this dense native woods were thousand of noble and giant specimens of oak, ash, walnut, poplar and other now valuable timber, and thousands of feet of it was split into rails or burned to make room for cultivation of crops. Not until 1829, so far as any available records reveal, was there a board of trustees, and this first one was composed of James Jackson, James Graham and John Camp- bell.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
Jefferson is the northwest township of the county, and lies along the Indiana-Ohio state line. Darke county is on the north, Monroe township on the east and Jackson on the south.
A watershed, which passes through Somers, Israel, Dixon and Jackson township, enters Jefferson in section 33, trends nearly north into section 22 and then east and northeast into the northwest corner of Monroe, through section 12 of Jefferson. This divides the waters flowing westerly into White- water and easterly into Seven Mile creek, which takes its rise in section 22, in a county ditch, which runs southeasterly and passes out of the township a short distance below the hamlet of Gettysburg.
The most easterly branch of Whitewater, known as Little creek, draws
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the water from the western slope of the dividing ridge, and the eastern slope of a smaller ridge running between the branch stream and Whitewater creek.
Elkhorn creek has its source in the drainage ditches of section 34 on the south boundary of the township and just east of the main ridge.
In the southwestern part a short spur of the main ridge runs west and empties its southern waters into another branch of the Whitewater and the northern waters into the creek proper.
Entering at the middle of the western boundary, and passing northeast and north through section 18, 8 and 5, is a ridge separating the waters of Whitewater on the east from those of a smaller stream on the west.
The landscape of Jefferson township is varied and very pleasing in its scenic features. The southeastern half is greatly rolling, and excellent agri- cultural land, while in the northwestern part, along the course of the larger streams, the surface is more rugged, the hills, in places, being suggestive of a mountainous country, though these hills are not lacking in fertility and pro- duce good crops. Extensive and charming views are obtained from almost any one of the range of hills bordering the Whitewater in the neighborhood of New Paris. North and south may be seen the silvery thread of the stream, winding between the bordering hills, while to the west the horizon loses itself in the beautiful hills of Indiana.
All along the Whitewater and its tributaries are enormous deposits of excellent gravel, the sedimentary deposits, no doubt, of the glacial epoch. This gravel is first-class material for road buildings and has been utilized to the extent that practically all of the seventy-five miles of road in the township is good, graveled highway. These roads are well cared for by the authorities and are known as among the best in the county. These deposits of glacial gravel are of enormous extent and many of them are yet prac- tically untouched. Originally there extended across the township from northwest to southeast a glacial moraine of granite boulders, many of them of great size, and in places in great number, but as the land has been cleared and brought under cultivation they have been gradually removed by the farmers until they are no longer much in evidence.
In the valley in the vicinity of New Paris there is an outcrop of lime- stone of the Niagara group, one hundred feet in thickness and of the best quality. From very early days this has been quarried for building stone and hundreds of thousands of bushels of lime have been burned and shipped. Changing conditions, however, within recent years have led to the aban- donment of both these industries. and now the stone is quarried and crushed for the market in one of the largest crushing plants of the state.
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STATISTICS.
The area of the township embraces 22,095 acres of farm land, valued for taxation at $1,610,680. Adding to this real estate of New Paris, $403,870, gives a total valuation of real property of $2,014,550. The per- sonal property of the township is $1,118,730, and of New Paris $409,910, a total of $1,528,640, or a total valuation of the entire township of $3,543,190.
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