USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 12
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Of the various mines being worked in 1878, Mr. Jeffries is the authority for these statements: The coal mines in Chippewa township number ten, including those known as the Jacob Wegandt mine, the Peter Frase mine, the Holm mines, the Boak mine, the California mine, the Franks mine, the Woods mine, the Simmons shaft, Muter's coal bank. The coal from the mines within this township is of an excellent quality, equal to the celebrated Mahoning coal.
In Milton township the coal measure is confined to eight sections of the civil township in the northern part. Much coal has been mined here at different periods since the coal of the county was first discovered.
In Green township the coal measure is limited to a small territory, though of recent years it has been a paying product.
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In Baughman township as early as 1877 there were mines doing a flourishing business, as follows: The Burton bank. Jacob E. Wenger's shaft, on section 28, where the coal is four and a half feet thick. It is reached at a depth of thirty-eight feet from the surface. Then there was the John Spindler mine, opened by him about 1850. Across the swamp, one-half mile northwest from Fairview, is the Todd coal mine, the Becker mines, the Neiswanger mine, the Carroll mine. It is believed that coal of fine grade exists under almost the entire surface of the land within Baughman township.
East Union township is another good coal-bearing section of the county, covering as it does the entire underlaying territory, except possibly a few sections. At first the coal was not found in thickness sufficient to be profitable, but in later years lower veins have been discovered that measure in many places seven feet in thickness and not over seventy feet from the surface. Still later developments have disclosed a still greater wealth of coal in this township.
In Paint township the mines in operation before the eighties were: The Charles Brown mine, one mile west of Mt. Eaton; the Hunsinger mine, three and one-half feet in thickness; George Mathoit's mine; Dr. Roth's coal bank; Peter Graber's mines; the Flory mines; the Mt. Eaton mines, located in the village. Later developments in this township proved that paying quantities of good coal were to be found at almost any portion of the ter- ritory, at a depth that would pay rich returns for mining and hoisting. In fact the coal here mined now is among the finest grades in Wayne county and has been a source of great revenue to the owners.
The Sugarcreek township coal mines were first opened by drift on the west side of the hill on the farm of Mr. Gochenour, one mile to the west of Dalton, about 1830, but the mine having a defective roof, it was soon abandoned. Another mine was opened a mile west of Dalton on the Peter Buchanan farm; another on the Bashford land, where the vein was over three feet thick. On the David Rudy place still another paying mine prop- erty was located many years ago. The coal of this entire township is ac- companied by a fine grade of fire clay of great value commercially ; also limestone and some iron ore and mineral paint, red and yellow ochre. In short the entire township is one vast coal and general mineral field.
The coal mines of Saltcreek township have long since come to be well known and very productive and valuable to operate. The Finley mine in 1878, on the farm of Mrs. Delano Jeffries, on section 4, was being operated by Frank Becker. Under this coal strata was found a sand rock seven feet in thickness. The Daniel Ream farm, on the southwest quarter of section
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4, has been fully described by Prof. M. C. Reed in his "Geological Survey of Ohio." The Stutz mine was opened on section 23, where a four-foot vein was disclosed and has long been worked. The Henning mine, on the Adam Henning place, is five feet in thickness. There is considerable iron ore in this section of the county.
The coal mines of Franklin township in 1877 were those of William Harrison, a mile and a half southwest of Fredericksburg. The roof of this mine was yellow sand stone. The coal was reached at the depth of eighty feet. The James Finley mines, in this township, are located on section 22, about two and a half miles from Fredericksburg, and were operated in 1878 by Asaph Rumbaugh. The coal was struck at the depth of seventy-five feet from the surface. Another Franklin township mine was Charles Story's, which vein was three feet in thickness. Coal was also found at an early date on the Miller land in section 34, but it was too thin a vein to be profitably mined. On the Jacob and Israel Franks farm, in section 35, another mine was developed, in connection with a stratum of fire clay that was used for many years in the Wooster pottery works, and fire brick were also made of this clay which was thought superior to any in the county at that day.
The coal measure in Clinton, Canaan and Wooster townships is some- what limited, says Jeffries in his article written in 1878. The absence of paying quantities of coal at and near the city of Wooster is easily accounted for when one considers the formation of the sub-strata of the earth at this point.
Since the writings on the coal measure of Wayne county in 1878, there have been many developments and great has been the tonnage of good bitumi- nous coal from the scores of mines in the vicinity, but more especially in the townships named and carefully described by him, and also confirmed by the state geologists.
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CHAPTER V.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY.
Where late the savage, hid in ambush, lay,
Or roamed the uncultured valleys for his prey, Her hardy gifts rough industry extends, The groves bow down, the lofty forest bends ; And see the lofty spires of towns and cities rise,
And domes and cities swell unto the skies.
-Meigs.
Wayne county's earliest pioneers were largely from Pennsylvania, Mary- land, Virginia and far-away. New Jersey. New England also was fairly represented among the early settlers. But by far the greater number came in from Pennsylvania.
Intelligence was the rule among the first band of settlers who here sought out lands and builded for themselves homes. They possessed iron nerve and a will that made the dreary wilderness soon take on the aspect of a blooming garden spot. They had to encounter many a hardship ere this was accomplished. They contended with the hostile Indian tribes, the perils of storm and flood, the unbridged and swollen streams, with new country sick- ness, "homesickness" and a hundred and one trials and privations unknown to the population of the twentieth century.
These hardy pioneers never surrendered to disaster or trembled before uncalculating misfortune. Manhood was fully tested. His adversities made him, oak-like, grow the stronger. When memory caused the eye at times to weep,-when the flood interposed-when the ravine stayed his progress- when the mountain and hillside overshadowed him,-then it was that the Wayne county pioneer forgot father and mother, home and childhood; then it was that his moral stature developed into giant outlines. His ax was his trusty companion ; his devoted wife his assurance of triumph and well poised confidence. His cause was religion, civilization and man. He trod the for- ests of the county, viewing its "green, glad solitude" with an ever open and keen eye.
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As another has written, "He persistently struggled, and how heroically he suffered, how faithfully he toiled, we who succeed him and have lived to see what he foresaw, and whose privilege it is to honor and venerate him, most tenderly remember and sensitively know. They had an unshaken faith in their mission and the benign and comprehensive results that were to flow from it."
Washington might well say of the colony that was settled upon the Muskingum: "None in America were occupied under such favorable aus- pices. Information, property and strength will be its characteristics. I know many of the settlers personally, and there never were better men calculated to promote the welfare of such a community."
It was not their sole motive to establish government, but to make it the protector and hand-maid of religion, for, said they, "Religion and government commenced in those parts of the globe where the sun first rose in its effulgent majesty. They have followed after him in his brilliant course; nor will they cease till they have accomplished in this western world the consummation of all things."
So may it be recorded of Wayne county's early settlers. While it may be partly true that many of them were actuated by a desire to augment their riches and possess innumerable acres, they were also inspired by a nobler ambition and had loftier incitements than the dread omnipotence of gold. While they were seeking to promote their own welfare and discharge their duties to themselves and their government, they were not forgetful of their higher Christian duties. In many instances, with the smoke that curled from the chimneys of their cabins ascended the incense of prayer. The rude pio- neer hut, instead of being the abode of the little family cluster alone, became a temple of worship, and the gray old woods resounded with the simple but pathetic and eloquent prayers of pious men.
What a contrast between those long-ago days of the early years of the nineteenth century and those of today-a hundred years later? Again let us linger with and talk of the early emigrants in Wayne county, who verily builded better than they' knew. They were lone dwellers of the forests. Their daily necessities and wants were as numerous and multiplied as the inhabitants of older communities. Necessarily they were so situated as to make it impossible for all of them to be gratified. Schools and churches, there were none. The intellectual as well as the moral training of their children devolved upon themselves to a great extent. The child was the pupil, while the parents were of necessity the real educators. If they were fortunate enough to have a minister in their midst, all the better: if not, their spiritual
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recreations consisted in prayer meetings and the private but equally orthodox methods of interchange of Christian views and religious experiences.
Streams were then all unbridged and roads were cut by the pioneers through the dense forests. Cabins were to be built, but the saw-mill existed only in the memory of the older states from which they had emigrated. The professional tradesman was missing, unless perchance he was an integral of the colony; but a market would have been superfluous, as there was little either for sale or exchange.
With the exception of mere patches along the larger streams or on the lowlands, the surface was overgrown or covered with trees and bushes. The bear, wolf, catamount and deer held sway, with no one to contest their rights as supreme rulers. The passage from the settlers' homes through the wilder- ness was attended with much discomfort, privation and peril. Their journey- ings were slow and painfully tedious. They were not made in the stateroom of a Pullman palace car, speeding like a mighty whirlwind around curves of the iron highway of this day and age. A footman was no prodigy of the road in those long-ago days. To bestride the faithful horse, mount the wagon or help draw the cart, was no disgrace then to either man or woman. Weeks and even months were consumed in their journeyings westward, and their nightly bedchamber was but the tent or bare ground beneath the cov- ered wagon. Here husband, wife and infant sank to slumbers, serenaded by the cry of wild beasts and wild winds. Here the uncertain flint-lock gun and the trusty dog were ever on watch and in readiness to repel invasion. They made their own farm utensils, as well as the apparel they wore. Wild turkeys and deer were in abundance, so they were supplied with meats; and in the absence of Oolong and Young Hyson tea, they sipped the sassafras and spice-wood teas. But contentment was there, if not riches.
As to the good housewife and mother of the pioneer band in Wayne county, one writer has beautifully spoken: "Heaven's blessings be upon them! How comforting to believe that in that procession of beatified and redeemed souls which forever circle around the throne and remain the near- est to the Master, the mothers are there! If it be so endearing in heaven as it is on earth, angels will whisper it, and the name of Mother will be next in sweetness to 'Our Father, which are in Heaven.'"
Among the unalloyed traits of the pioneer in this, as well as in most new countries, hospitality was ever foremost. The stranger never failed to receive a hearty welcome at the cabin home of these friendly people. Did he ask for bread, he always received the best loaf at hand. Lodging was seldom, if indeed ever, refused the weary one. While the fare was coarse, it was
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handed out freely and graciously received. Then, too, there was a warmth and genuineness in the hand-shake hardly known to the twentieth-century generation. Women used no cosmetics; they were false in no sense, but lived as nature had formed them and home life was pure, sweet and simple. From these pioneer homes came forth the Garfields and Mckinleys and many of the noble men who have from time to time graced the loftiest positions in the nation. These fathers and mothers taught their children to be useful, and always insisted that the useful should be the foundation for the orna- mental.
But now the kind reader is asked to leap the chasm of a hundred years in the history of the kingdom of Wayne-span the distance between the his- toric Then and the eventful Now.
The pioneer cabin has long since gone to decay and most of the inmates of these primitive homes have years and decades ago joined that innumerable caravan that has crossed the deep waters of the river of death, leaving only their well-trained offspring and the sweet memory of the summer of their lives as monuments to who they were and what works they wrought out in this section of the Buckeye state. But be it recorded to their credit that they left an imperishable. name for honor and patriotism and that their virtues have been handed down even to this the first decade in the progressive twen- tieth century. The departure from the ways of the forefathers has, of course, been wide and very marked. New systems have obtained. New systems of farming and new business methods have been ushered in with the passing of the years since the first settlers blazed their way through this goodly land and finally selected a spot on which to erect their cabin home. New imple- ments are used, new plans of agriculture and merchandise have long since been employed. The human savage and the savage beast that roamed at will through the dark forest have forever gone and a new type of Christian civilization has come in, yet the foundation for all this modern greatness was laid by the axman of ninety and more years ago.
In reality, it is to be questioned whether that high moral type of noble fatherhood, motherhood and childhood obtains here that once prevailed. Yet with the loss of some of the priceless virtues Wayne county possessed in the century past, it should be said that, in the main, the present-day progress in morality and religious sentiment is indeed praiseworthy of an enlightened. educated and highly refined people. Since the first generations of this county passed from earth's shining circle, it should be remembered that Ohio and Wayne county have produced many eminent statesmen and religionists. It
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was after all these pioneer characters passed away that the world was made better by such loyal liberty-loving men as Grant, Garfield and Mckinley, all of whom were children of this soil. Ohio need not simply point to the Presi- dents, but to the larger number of gallant soldiers and later true statesmen.
May the memory of the departed pioneers-our good ancestors-long be cherished and their names be held in admiring esteem and true reverence. The shore, the palm, the victory-their rest is yonder!
THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN WAYNE COUNTY.
The first four settlements effected in Wayne county, Ohio, were made as follows (substantiated by former historians, including Ben Douglas- lately deceased-and John Larwill, both of whom made careful investigation along this important line ) :
The first settlement by white men in this county of whom there is now any authentic account was William Larwill, a native of Kent, England, who dated his settlement as far back as 1806. He was a brother of Joseph and John Larwill, who came to the county a year later, 1807, the former in the employment of John Bever, United States surveyor, who was then en- gaged in running off the county into sections. And here on the present site of Wooster was made the first settlement in Wayne county.
The second settlement in the county was made by James Morgan, a native of Virginia, but of Welsh ancestry, who selected a place in Franklin township, early in the spring of 1808. He came in to Ohio and squatted on the Mohican, in 1806, but removed to Franklin township in the year above named, entering lands composing the farm owned later by Thomas Doty. Thomas Butler, born in Virginia also, emigrated to this township in 1808, and married Rebecca, daughter of James Morgan, April 12, 1809.
The third settlement in the county was made by James Goudy, father of John Goudy, who later resided in Dalton, Sugarcreek township. He re- moved from Jefferson county, Ohio, and located two miles southwest of Dalton, in the autumn of 1809. James Goudy was in General St. Clair's de- feat, November 4, 1791, and was wounded in the thigh by a bullet, which for many years he carried in his body and which finally caused his death.
The fourth settlement was brought about by the coming of Oliver Day in either 1809 or 1810 (Hon. John Larwill was of the opinion that he came first in 1809). He removed to East Union township, not far from "Cross Keys," and settled on the farm later owned by Jonas Huntsberger. He was a native of Vermont, as were his companions, Ezekiel Wells, M. D .; old Jonathan Mansfield and Vestey Frary, who accompanied him-this being the first of the New England settlement-and "Square Day," as he was
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called was keeping a place of entertainment at what was long afterwards known as "Carr's tavern" when General Beall's army passed. The first trans- fer of real estate on the public records of the county recorder's office of Wayne county was made by Oliver Day.
The settlements in the various townships of the county of which this volume is an authentic history, will be found under the various township headings in the Township History chapter.
PIONEER FAMILIES.
The subjoined is a list of the heads of families residing in Wayne county in 1810, according to the United States census returns: Jacob Amman, Andrew Alexander, Benjamin Bunn, Conrad Bowers, James Beam, Josiah Crawford, Jesse Cornelius, Daniel Doty, John L. Dawson, John Driskel, Thomas Eagle, Alexander Finley, Jacob Foulks, Jonathan Grant, Philip Griffith, Richard Healey, Joseph Hughes, Baptiste Jerome, David Kimpton, William Kelley, William Laylin, Andrew Luckey, Robert Meeks, Hugh Moore, William Metcalf, Samuel Matin, Stephen Morgan, Vatchel Metcalf, Benjamin Miller, John Newell, Amos Norris, William Nixon, James S. Priest, Westel Ridgley, Jesse Richards, David Smith, Valentine Smith, Jr., Isariah Smith, Christian Smith, John Smith, Philip Smith. Valentine Smith, Sr., Michael Switzer, Ebenezer Warner.
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CHAPTER VI.
ORGANIZATION OF WAYNE COUNTY.
No historian was able to correctly define the boundary lines of Wayne county until the problem was solved by the zealous research of Hon. John P. Jeffries, assisted by Ben Douglas and Hon. R. M. Stimson, state librarian, and this was not accomplished until 1878. This statement has reference to the original county, its bounds and the various changes which narrowed it down to its present limits.
Wayne county was established by proclamation of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who, when the Northwest Territory was created into a government, was chosen as its governor. He was appointed in 1788, and continued to hold his office until Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in 1803. The proclamation for that purpose bears date August 15. 1796. It was the third county formed in the great Northwest Territory, Washington county being the first, and Hamilton county the second, the former embracing all of the territory *east of the Scioto and Cuyahoga rivers, and the latter what is now south- western Ohio, which includes all the territory between the Big and Little Miami rivers, and extending north to what is known as the "Standing Stone Forks," on the first designated stream. The early boundaries were illy sur- veyed and were in no sense accurate. The investigations carried on by the historians above mentioned-especially that made by Ben Douglas-record the bounds of Wayne county (original) as follows :
MOUTH OF THE CUYAHOGA RIVER,
where it empties into Lake Erie, at Cleveland, thence following up that river to the "Old Portage" (a carrying place from which goods were trans- ferred on the river to what is known as "New Portage," in Summit county, on the Tuscarawas river), now known as Akron, Summit county, thence diverging from the Cuyahoga river in a southerly direction, across the sum- mit to a point on the Tuscarawas river, near New Portage, in the same county ; thence following the Tuscarawas through the county of Stark to the junction of the Big Sandy and Tuscarawas, at the north line of Tus-
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carawas county, and there terminating the eastern original boundary of Wayne county; thence in a southwestern direction on the Greenville treaty line.
THE OLD GREENVILLE TREATY LINE.
On the county line between Stark and Tuscarawas, to the east line of Holmes county; thence across Holmes county to the northeast corner of Knox county; thence on the line between Knox and Ashland county to the southeast corner of Richland county; thence to the line between Richland and Knox counties, to the northeast corner of Pike township, Knox county; thence across the townships of Pike, Berlin, Middlebury, in Knox county, to the east line of Morrow county; thence across Morrow county on the south line of the townships of Franklin, Gilead and Cardington, in Morrow county, to the southeast corner of Marion county; thence on the line be- tween Marion and Morrow counties to the northeast corner of Waldo town- ship, in Marion county; thence on the line between Waldo and Richland townships, to the southwest corner of Richland township; thence across the townships of Waldo and Prospect, to the east line of Union county ; thence across Union county, on the south line of the townships of Jackson and Wash- ington, to the east line of Logan county ; thence across Bokescreek and Rush- creek townships to the southeast corner of McArthur township; thence on a line between McArthur, Lake and Harrison townships, to the east line of Shelby county; thence across Shelby county, between Jackson and Salem townships, and across the townships of Franklin, Turtle Creek and McLean, to the present site of old Fort Loramie, in McLean township, in Shelby county, this line terminating at the point of the beginning of the old Greenville treaty line; thence in a northwestern direction from Fort Loramie to the southeast corner of Darke county; thence continuing on the same bearing across section 7, of Jackson township, Auglaize county ; thence across the townships of Marion and Greenville, to the southeast corner of Recovery township to Fort Recovery, in Mercer county ; thence north, bearing to the west through Recovery township, crossing the state line near the northwest corner of section 7, entering the state of Indiana in the county of Jay; thence continuing in the same direction through Adams county, to Fort Wayne, in Allen county ; thence west bearing to the north through the coun- ties of Allen, Whitley, Kosciusko, Marshall, Starke, Porter and Lake, in the state of Indiana, to the most southern point of Lake Michigan : thence around that lake northward through the counties of Cook and Lake, in the state of Illinois, striking the summit of the highest lands to the westward of the lake far enough to include the lands upon the streams emptying into Lake Mich-
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
igan, crossing the state line between Illinois and Wisconsin about twenty miles west of the lake shore; thence in a northerly direction through the counties of Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha and Ozoukee, near the western shore of Lake Michigan; thence turning in a northwestern direction, following the summit of the high lands which divide the waters flowing into the lakes from those running into the Mississippi, through the counties of Sheboygan and Fond du Lac; thence in a western direction, crossing the southeastern corner of Green Lake county, through the northern part of Columbia county, near the site of old Fort Winnebago, to the southeast corner of Adams county, the west- ern part of Waushaka county, the southeast corner of Portage county, the western part of Waupaca county, the western part of Shawanaw, along the western line of Oconto, following the dividing ridge to the state line between Wisconsin and Michigan; thence along the line between Canada and the United States; thence along that boundary, through Lake Superior, Lake Huron, the River St. Clair, and Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, to the mouth of Cuyahoga river, the place of beginning.
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