History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 79

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060

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J. W. Barnaby.

elected April, 1866.

Joseph Barnaby appointed June 20, 1800.

Joseph Barnaby .elected April, 1867.

Joseph Barnaby elected April, 1868.

Joseph Barnaby

elected April, 1869.

Joseph Barnaby

,elected April, 1870.

1. W. Green ..

.elected April. 1872.

Frederick Berkheimer

April, 1876-two terms.

William Fouts.

April. 1880-two terms.

In the year 1847 Levi Borton and family moved into the village of Mt. Union. A few days afterward M. D. Stalleup and family moved to the village. Mr. Borton, his wife and one daughter ; M. D. Stalleup and wife were members of the Disciples' Church. Those five constituted the membership of this religious persuasion in the township in 1847. During the four years following this date by concert of action between between Borton and Stalleup, occasionally the services of this denomination were obtained at this point. Among the min- isters who preached in the interests of the Disciples at this point during the period of four years, might be mentioned Israel Bolton, John Whitacre (deceased), Benjamin Patterson (do- ceased), J. Warren, Joseph Moss and J. II. Jones. There was a small band of Baptists in Mount I'nion, whose house of worship was ob- tained to hokl the meetings ealled by those transient ministers. In March, 1852, Mr. A. B. Green, accompanied by Austin Peter, of Warren, came to Mount Union. Mr. Green preached sixteen discourses during this meet- ing. Mrs. B. W. Johnson and others connected themselves with this persuasion during this meeting. There were at this time eight indi- viduals banded together to investigate the Scriptures and meet on the first day of every

week. When steps toward an organization was taken. the Baptists refused this little band the use of their house of worship. They met thereafter for two years in the oldl Seminary or the Peoples' meeting house. The members at this time consisted of Levi Borton, wife and daughter ; Asa Silvers. M. D. Stalleup and wife. Mrs. B W. Johnson and W. S. Pettit. at pre- sent an esteemed citizen of this city. Mr. Benjamin Pigeon, of Smith Township. recently deceased, associated himself with this organi- zation. After the completion of the railroads through Alliance this band changed their loca- tion to the Christian Church, west of Alliance. at present used by Mr. Haines as a carriage house, and regularly organized. by appointing two Dea- cons and two Ehlers. Asa Silvers and Bryan Patterson, Ellers : Edwin Vanghn and Edward Pettit, Deacons. Additions ran the membership up at this time to twenty members. About this time Mr. Harman Reves held a protracted meeting, continuing for two weeks, during which time there were some sixteen additions to the church. During the year of 1856, a series of protracted meetings were held in the Baptist Church, in old Freedom, since pulled down. One of these meetings was under the manage- ment of Mr. Dibble, cantinuing some three weeks. The results of his efforts was the omersion of over forty persons. At this time father Hester, wife and two daughters con- nected themselves with this church. They were formerly Baptists. From ISIT to 1857, the church had no regular or continuous preaching. Levi Borton. Asa Silvers and Ben jamin Patterson officiated as ministers and in- struetors of the society in the absence of foreign preachers. Those three persons were the bone and sinew of this infant organization. Father Silvers and Father Patterson are both gone to their rewards. They have left with hundreds whose eyes may fall upon these lines the full memory of a right legacy of being honest, pious and true men. Mr. Borton is still with us, firm in his primitive faith. and. during the religious trials of thirty years, has never faltered in the final triumphs of his faith, and in the successful establishment of a prosperous church in this neighborhood.

The first effort made to build up a Lutheran congregation in Alliance was in 1865, under the pastoral care of Rev. J. II. Brown. lle or ganized with Dr. P. H. Barr, Peter Keplinger,

450

HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

Martin Tidd, William L. Kunkle, John Miller, Augustus Buckins, George H. Buckius, Emery Miller, and others. Judging from the records, the enterprise began in a hopeful manner. The Church Council (which is the official board of the congregation) were : Rev. J. H. Brown, Pastor ; Martin Tidd, Wm. L. Kunkle. Elders ; Geo. H. Buckins. Emery Miller, Deacons ; but, for some unexplained reason, failed. The con- gregation owned no " house of worship." which, no doubt, was to their disadvantage, as well as a mistake. After the Rev. Mr. Brown resigned andleft the field, the congregation had no regular pastor for over a year, when the Rev. A. Essie visited the congregation and endeavored to re- vive and continue the work, but it was too far gone for recovery. The members scattered : some by removal, some uniting with other churches, some losing interest in the work, whilst a few still entertained hope for a Lu- theran church.

The second undertaking : On the 4th of July. 1872, Rev. J. L. Smith arrived in Alliance un- der the auspices of the " Board of Home Mis- sions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church," to begin the work anew. There was no Lutheran organization in the city at this time, as the pre- vious one had disbanded. The missionary be- gan his work at once by preaching, visiting Lutheran families and earnestly soliciting sub- seriptions for the crection of a church. He met with many difficulties in the way, and the dis- couragements, arising from a previous failure, were hard to overcome ; but with earnest resolve and indomitable perseverance, he went forward in the work. On the 1st of September. 1872, he effected the organization of a new Lutheran congregation. styled " The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity," of Alliance, Ohio. A constitution and articles of discipline were adopted, and officers regularly elected. On the Sth of September, one week after the organiza- tion was effected, the corner-stone for a church edifice was laid according to the liturgy services of the Lutheran Church, in the presence of a very large audience. The Pastor pushed the work forward as rapidly as possible, and the edifice was completed during the winter. The church is a fine Gothic structure, with tower, and beautifully furnished within, and cost $6,000, not including the lot. It was dedicated on the 23d of March, 1873, and has no superior in the city for its beauty of situation and ele-

gance of finish. The enterprise met with much favor with many of the citizens. Too much credit cannot well be given to the little band of earnest men and women for the energy and self- denial by which they have made their work such a complete success. The whole work was done during the severest financial crisis the country has hereto felt, and yet the Pastor and his church council have with united activity provided for $5,000, leaving a debt of $1,000 to be met and collected. A Lutheran Church is now established in the city of Alhance, and as sneh commences its history. The Church Council are : Rev. J. L. Smith, Pastor ; W. D. Beeler. David Weikert, Elders ; Henry Miller. Peter D. Wonders, Deacons. The seats are free in the Trinity Lutheran Church, and the con- gregation is rejoicing with encouraging success. The congregation has a new church finished, and a membership of over fifty. The Sunday school, lately organized, is hopefully growing. The foregoing facts were obtained from the Rev. J. L. Smith, who was Pastor of the E. L. Church in Alliance.

In the year 1857, the Disciples were yet with- out a house of worship in Alliance. They met in the old Baptist Church, owned by Matthias Lester, who was then connected with the organ- ization. Mr. Hester was born in Greene County, Penn., in 1793 ; he came to Lexington Town- ship in June, 1838, and purchased 60 acres of land, part of which he still retains in the shape of town lots. After the town of Freedom was laid out, he erected his dwelling, and. in August of the same year, removed his family there. Ile has resided there since that time, and added several additions to the place, also erected a number of buiklings. At this time, there was an octagon hall in the vicinity of Mr. Hester's present residence. This building was used for publie purposes, and on one occasion of a school exhibition it was densely crowded and broke down, killing one person and injuring several others. This hall was also used by the Disciples after the advent of A. B. Way to Al- liance. In 1858, steps were taken for the erec- tion of a new meeting house. Mr. Hester fur- nished a lot, and the building was erected now occupied by this branch of the Christian Church. Mr. J. K. Picket, a number of years Superin- tendent of the Alliance Union Schools, and Dr. Clover, a physician, succeeded Benjamin Pat- terson and Asa Silvers (deceased), in the elder-

CITY OF ALLIANCE.

451

ship in the church. Mr. Elisha Teeters, a mem- ber of the church, was about this time called to the eldership. Mr. Teeters was born in Greene Township, Columbiana Co .. Ohio, on the 11th of January. 1814. and removed to this township in 1835. Mr. Teeters laid out three additions to Alliance, respectively. in 1851. 1852 and 1853. The first addition was surveyed by Ellis John- son, and the second and third by Mr. Whitaker. In these surveys, Mr. Teeters carried the chain himself, and frequently joined in the chant of the professional carrier -" stick, stuck" over the fields and flats where now stands the city of Alliance. In 1852, lots were offered at public outery by Mr. Teeters, in his first addition : the lots upon which now stand the business blocks of Bleakly. Haines. Young, and the pri- vate residences for some distance west along the north side of Main street, were bid in for the proprietor at $40 a lot, that amount being considered too tabulous, in the minds of the ad- venturous spirits present. ever to he realized again out of their sale. Some of these lots have since changed hands at $13.500 with but little improvements thereon. Mr. J. B. Milner, a prominent citizen of Alliance, moved here from Salineville, Columbiana Co., Ohio, was chosen an Elder in the Church about this date. Mr. Milner was born in Columbiana County, Ohio. in 1823. lle is just in the prime of life, and we hope he may live long and enjoy his home. The operations of Mr. Milner in our midst are somewhat extensive. le came to Alliance on the 15th of October. 1863. The cast wing of the Commercial Block was erected by him among his first efforts here. He laid out three additions to our city. The first addition con- tained 20 town lots : the second, which com- poses the old Nixon farm, where he now resides, contained 90 : the third, that of the Garwood farm, contained 190; making 300 lots in all which he has added to Alliance. lle is a large contributor to the support of the Christian Church. Mr. Pinkerton, a graduate of Bethany College, was called to the pastoral charge of the church in 1866, and continued in charge for about two and a half years, and under his man- agement the church was characterized by growth and prosperity, the membership amounting at this time to about one hundred and eighty. Dr. R. P. Johnson, Samuel Milner. Isaac Jolly, Pliny Allen and Horatius Hubbard were elected Deacons of the church in addition to Matthias

Hester and others formerly mentioned. Isaae Everett, President of the Alliance College, Profs. Benton, Hinsdale and other members of the faculty of the college served the church as ministers during the years following Mr. Pinker- ton's administration. Mr. J. Il. Jones followed, and during one or more years was Pastor of the church. W. S. Pettit, who connected himself with the church during boyhood. in Mount Union, was elected to the eldership about this time, also A. W. Coates. Mr. F. M. Green fol- lowed Mr. Jones in a year of pastoral labors for the Alliance church. Mr. E. L. Fraizer, from Dayton, Ohio, is at present the efficient Pastor of the church, and is in the second year of his tabors.

Rev. James O'leary, of Alliance, writes as follows : " I find, for the first time, mention made of a Catholic priest's holding service at Alliance in 1848. A Rev. Father Pendergast attended Leetonia, East Liverpool, and as far west as Louisville, until 1853, when he went West. Ile held divine services occasionally in some of the . shanties ' at AAlliance, then occu- pied by some poor t'atholie families. In 1859, Father Lindsmith, then stationed at Canton, where there was only one small church, rented Lamborn Hall, and changed its name to C'atho- lic llall. This okl hall constitutes the upper story of Mr. MeElroy's present business store. In 1861. Roy. Edward Hannen, now stationed at Toledo, bought the first church property owned by the Catholics (two lots) from L. Teeters, for $125. According to the tradition. this amount was paid for one lot, and Mr. Teeters donated the other. Rev. Hannen col- lected from both Protestants and Catholics. and built the old frame church in 1562. Rev. P. H. Brown, of lludson, attended from 1862 to 1864. when Rey. L. Hoffer. of Louisville. supplied his place until 1865. Rev. Mantrier was the first resident Pastor. He came in 1865. and left in 1867. After Mantrier came Father Lindsmith, who attended Alliance and Leetonia together until 1872, when he resigned Alliance, but retained the other charge. Dur- ing his pastorate, a brick house, on Market street, was purchased for a parsonage. Between four and five aeres were bought, south of town, for a cemetery. Other improvements in church property, amounting in all to about $5,000. Nearly all had been paid for when Rev. Mona- ghan eame, and remained until 1875. This

452

HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

Pastor contemplated building a new chureh. and for that purpose bought three more lots for $1,800. On one of these the foundations of a new church were laid, and the walls built almost to grade. About this time the mill shut down, many of the congregation, which then numbered about 150 families, left, and the pro- ject was abandoned. When Father Ahone came, in 1875, there was a debt of $700. Dur- ing his stay nothing was done in the way of improvements, and when he left, in 1877, the debt had been reduced to $400. In 1877, Rev. James O'Leary was appointed, and still con- tinnes in charge. During the first two years the oldl debts were paid, and between $2,000 and 83,000 saved. Abont April, 1880, the foundation laid by Rev. Monaghan was raised.

and a new church commenced, which was nearly completed in about October of the same year. This chureh, 97x60, will cost, when fully finished, about $10,000. It is expected that when the work is complete a debt of only about $600 will rest upon the church. In 1880, the old church lots were sold, and three, situated south of the new church and joining the lots upon which it is built, were bought of Dr. L. L. Lamborn. The lots where the okl church was located are to be used in future for a Catholic school. The parsonage was also sold, and the money used toward building the new church. The congregation at present (1881) numbers abont one hundred families. In 1859 there were about 12, and in 1877 there were 60.

CHAPTER XVIII .*

LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP -ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWNSHIP - EARLY SETTLERS - CHURCHES -

VILLAGES OF FULTON AND LAWRENCE, ETC.

" He cometh nnto you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner."-Sir Philip Sidney.

"Don't give up the ship."-Capt. James Lawrence, U. S. N

rTIIIS township. one of the best in the county in point of material wealth, agricultural resources. and social advantages generally. is known as Township No. 1, Range 10. That portion of the township lying on the east side of the Tuscarawas Branch of the Muskingum River was surveyed in the year 1800 by Messrs. Buckingham and Carpenter, and being included in the treaty of Fort McIntosh. the Indian title was extinguished in 1785. That on the west side was surveyed by the late Hon. Joseph H. Larwill. Judge William Henry. and Judge John Harris. The surveys made by Messrs. Larwill, llenry and Ilarris were the result of the treaty of Fort Industry, made in 1805. Twenty years elapsed between the two treaties, but at a period when little was done on either side of the river in the way of settlements. Adventurers, even at that early day, penetrated the country by means of the Cuyahoga, from Cleveland. south. reaching the portage, after- ward known as the New Portage, between the the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas, and, going down

the Tuscarawas, reached the Muskingum, Ohio, Mississippi. and the Gulf of Mexico. On the organization of Stark County. in 1809. the territory above named formed a part of the connty. and, as has been seen, surveys had been made on both sides of the river. lines had been run, entries had been made of lands, and the rude cabin of the settler was found here and there in the wilderness, indicating that the

"Chaos of a mighty world Was rounding into form."

and nowhere did that chaos assume the form and comeliness of social order with more rapidity than in this portion of the county.

On the 4th day of December, 1815, the Com- missioners of Stark County made the following entry on their journal :

Ordered, That the First Township in the Tenth Range be and the same is hereby erected into a new township by the name of Lawrence.

Ordered. That advertisements he put up at the houses of George Vaneman, John Morehead, and at Leonard Kerstetter's Mill, notifying the electors of said township to meet at the house of Robert Lythe. on the first Monday of April, next, and then and there elect township officers.

The township was named after Capt. James Lawrence, of the United States Navy, in the

*Contributed by Robt. H. Folger

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LAWRENCE TOWNSIMP.

war of 1812. and who, with the ill-fated Chesa- peake, fought the British frigate Shannon, on the first of June, 1813, almost in Boston har- bor, and of whom it is said. that when carried below, mortally wounded. his last order was : " Don't give up the ship. ' Those words are the motto of the township, and in political pro- cessions, her banner, with that inscription, always soars aloft.

The township records show that on the Ist day of April. 1815. the qualified electors of the township did meet at the house of Robert Lytle. and elected the following officers for the town ship: James F. Leonard, Township Clerk ; William Alban, John Campbell, Jacob Kirk, Trustees ; William Whiteraft. Joseph Hobson. Overseers of the Poor ; Stephen Wilkin, Joseph Tritt, Fence Viewers : Hugh S. Vaneman, Robt. Lytle, Appraisers of Property ; George Vane- man, John Meese, George Waggoner, Super- visors of Highways ; Richard Hardgrove, Jacob Klick. Constables ; Treasurer, John Morehead ; Richard Hardgrove, Lister of Taxables. The Township Clerk certified that " On the 9th of April. 1516. personally appeared the different officers elected, and took the oath of office, as the law directs, except Joseph Hobson. Signed, J. F. Leonard, Township Clerk." On the same page it appears, as follows, in the handwriting of James F. Leonard : " I hereby certify that Joseph Hobson personally appeared before me. Jacob Kirk, a Justice of the Peace, and was qualified as Overseer of the Poor for Lawrence Township, according to law. Given under my hand, April 9. 1816."

It appears, therefore, that all the officers of the township above named were " qualified " on the same day, namely, the 9th of April. 1816, but it nowhere shows on the record that Justices of the Peace had been elected for Lawrence Township at the election on the 1st of April. Was Jacob Kirk a Justice of the Peace for Lawrence Township, at the time he certified for the " qualifying of Joseph llob- son ? James F. Leonard. the Township Clerk. certifies to having administered un ooth to all except Joseph Hobson, who was well known to the writer as a member of the Society of Friends, a most conscientious and upright man ; he died in 1827. and was buried at the Friends' burying ground at Kendal. in Perry Township .. now in the Fourth Ward of the city of Mas sillon : his widow married Charles Coffin, re-

ferred to in the history of Perry Township, and with him is sleeping " the sleep that knows not breaking," in Friends' burying ground at Rich- mond, Jefferson Co JJoseph Hobson and his wife, Rebecca, were rare specimens of those who felt that they were led by "that inward voice, uncreated by schools, independent of re- finement, and is that which opens to the unlet- tered kind, not less than to the polished scholar, a sure pathway into the enfranchisements of eternal truth." They believed and regulated their lives by the conviction that " a spiritual unity binds together every member of the human family, and every heart contains an in- corruptible seed, capable of springing up and producing all that man can know of God and duty and the soul." They were faithful in their belief ot the truth of the teachings of William Penn, George Fox and Robert Barclay, and the few who yet remember them as mem- bers of the Society of Friends will reverence their memories. " Swear not at all," is a cardinal principle of human conduct with Quakers; hence, Joseph Hobson was not sworn; he affirmed that, as Overseer of the Poor for Law- rence Township, he would discharge his duties according to the best of his skill and under- standing, and for any failure, he would be lia- ble, under the pains and penalties of the law punishing perjury.

On the same day, the 9th of April. the Trust- ces ordered that. until otherwise ordered, the township elections should be held at the house of William Whiteraft. Wilham Whiteraft was a sturdy Irish Presbyterian, and made his faith manifest by his works ; his two sons. John and Thomas, were worthy representatives of their ancestor.

On the same day, the township was laid out into three Road Districts ; No. I was assigned to George Vaneman ; No. 2 to John Meck, and No. 3 to George Waggoner, the Supervisors eleet, and it was ordered that John Morehead. Town- ship Treasurer, draw from Jackson Township, the sum of $5.70, which is the sum due to Law- renee from Jackson.

The founders and framers of the political or- ganization known as Lawrence Township went at once into the business of organizing upon a sound basis : they made a map of their town- ship. showing its thirty six sections, with the Tuscarawas River running through it from the northwest at section 6, to the southeast. near

454

HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY.

Section 36, with the Missilla Creek entering the river on Section 9; Fox Run, running almost across the township, and entering the river on Section 26, near the northeast corner of the northeast quarter of the section. and New- mans t'reek running entirely across the town- ship. leaving it on the southwest corner of the southeast quarter, and running through the northwest corner of Perry into the Tuscarawas River. Newmans Creek Swamp, in Wayne County. is also well drawn on the same map, the drawing of which was done by James F. Leonard, a most accomplished surveyor and draftsman, without the name of whom no history of scarcely any part of Stark County could be correctly written. Mr. Leonard was a representative man in everything he under- took to do; modest and unassuming, he com- manded the respect of the pioneer settlers of what is now one of the grandest townships, in the grandest county of the grandest State, carved out of the Northwestern Territory, un- der the provisions of the Ordinance of Con- gress of July 13, 1787. The fact has found its way on to the record. that James F. Leonard and Sarah Barber were the first couple married in Stark County, and the date of their mar- riage is fixed as being on the 6th of June, 1806. At that time, there was no Stark County. Columbiana included Stark and what is now Wayne, and when it is assumed that the mar- riage " was very likely without a license." it is an assumption that is hardly justifiable.

Mr. Leonard was one of those handy men. who was always in the front rank of advanc- ing civilization ; he is shown in these sketches to have been a Surveyor. Township Clerk, School Examiner and Justice of the Peace, all of which offices he tilled to the ae- ceptance of his neighbors.

The record kept by Mr. Leonard does not show when the Trustees adjourned, nor to what time they adjourned, but it appears that, on the 10th of August, 1816, they met, and a petition. signed by James Campbell, William Whiteraft, James Patton, James F. Leonard, John More- head, John Morehead, Jr., Daniel Boiles, Rich- ard Hardgrove, John Meese, William Hills, John Roach, Ebenezer A. Roach, Francis Pumroy, James Barber. Abram Stevens, Jolm MeCad- den, Isaac Edgington and Joseph Futton, was filed with the Clerk, praying for a road from Kerstetter's Mill. thence to the county line, at

or near where Abram Stevens lives, on Section No. 7, in Township No. 7, in Range 10. On that petition "Louis Rogers, William Elliott and Henry Clapper were appointed to view said road, and Alexander Porter was appointed to survey the same." The Viewers and Surveyor were "ordered to meet at Kerstetter's Mill on the first Monday in September next." Under the above proceedings a meeting was had, the Viewers were duly qualified, and the road was laid out, in length seven miles and sixty-seven perches. Every report being signed, and an order made for opening the road, and which was the first road opened in the township, by order of the Trustees. On the 19th day of July, 1816, Matthew Rowland and John Morehead, Esqs., were commissioned Justices of the Peace for Lawrence Township.

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History of Stark County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 79

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1060

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? ed
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1060