USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 40
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40.
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
CONCERNING ADAM POE'S DEATH.
After leaving Pennsylvania, Adam Poe removed to the West Fork of Little Beaver, in Wayne township, Columbiana county, where he entered several quarters of land. From that county he removed to Wayne county, in 1813, bringing with him his wife and youngest son David and his daugh- ter Catherine. He first settled in Wooster, on North Market. street, and he followed the business of shoemaking for three years. He was then nearly seventy years of age. He was by trade a tanner and an excellent shoemaker. He then removed to Congress township and there bought sixty acres of land from his son, George Poe, and there he resided for almost twelve years, when, growing old and infirm, he removed to Stark county, where, with his son Andrew he died. He was a member of the old Lutheran church.
Mrs. Kuffel relates this concerning his death: A great and enthu- siastic political meeting was being held in Massillon. The crowd, hearing Adam Poe, who had killed the celebrated Indian, Bigfoot, lived but a few miles distant, dispatched a delegation after him. When he appeared on the ground he was wonderfully lionized and made the hero of the day. He was caught and carried through the crowd on the shoulders of the excited multitude. As old as he was, being past ninety, he had as much pluck as any of the boys.
That day of excitement, however, sounded the death knell of the mighty borderer, the iron-nerved, heroic Adam Poe. He returned from the political meeting prostrated, enfeebled and sick and soon thereafter died. A son of Andrew Poe, at whose house Adam died, hurried to the residence of Mrs. Kuffel, at Congress, to inform her of the dangerous illness of her father. She received the news about nine o'clock and, being then forty-seven years of age, mounted a horse and rode through the darkness and over uncertain roads, reaching her father's only in time to see him, to whom this world had no ter- rors, succumb to the king of terrors and the terror of kings.
WAYNE COUNTY MAN HUNG LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS.
Gen. Thomas T. Dill, who was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1842, and who served in the Union army during the Civil war for a term of five years, had charge of the troops who were detailed to execute President Lin- coln's assassins, in the prison yard in Washington, District of Columbia, on July 9, 1865. Three details of men had to be selected before any could be
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
secured who would cut down the body of Mrs. Serratt, which woman har- bored Booth in her home the day before Lincoln was shot by him. Dill was also present when Booth's body was placed under the corner of the Arsenal, beneath the floor. Later it was moved to the family burial place of the Booth family.
General Dill died in November, 1905.
SALT WORKS ON THE KILLBUCK IN 1815.
At an early day in Wayne county and all northern Ohio the most coveted commodity sought for among all classes was salt. Prices ran from sixteen dollars to twenty dollars per barrel. This could not long be endured, so with the genuine enterprise and pluck of pioneers a project was set on foot to obviate freighting salt so long a distance as from Pittsburg and some of it was carried from points on the Ohio to Coshocton, at the head of the Muskin- gum, thence to Walhonding, and tugging it up the Killbuck in dug-outs and pirogues, as did Benjamin Jones and the triple-nerved William Totten. To bore for salt in this county was the scheme sought out and carried forth to a successful completion.
March 5, 1815. Joseph Eichar commenced this task. He went down with a chisel-shaped auger to the depth of four hundred and sixty-five feet and salt water was obtained and the product of salt was sought in great quantities at first, but the flow did not last long and the works were aban- doned. We draw the following from an old letter furnished by Mrs. Joseph Lake, of New York, daughter of Joseph Eichar :
"One of the greatest obstacles they met with in boring was the striking of a strong vein of oil, a spontaneous outburst, which shot up as high as the tops of the surrounding tree-tops. One of the workmen dropped a coal of fire into it and in less than a minute everything was a roaring blaze. The men became terribly frightened and Jim McClarran struck a bee-line for Wooster, without hat or coat, for, said he, 'we have struck through to the lower regions, and it looks as though we had set the world on fire.'
The fire was later extinguished and a bottle of the oil sent to Dr. Townsend, who pronounced it a "wonderful phenomena"-it was doubtless petroleum oil, but that article was then unknown to the world. The whole surface of Killbuck creek was covered with the oil. This mixture of oil and salt was not what the people wanted and soon the new-found salt works on Killbuck were abandoned for all time.
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
POPULATION OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Herewith is the census enumeration for Wayne county, by decades, and its population by townships and precincts, towns and cities, according to the last United States census, 1900 :
BY DECADES.
In 1810 the population was 332; 1820, 11,993; 1830, 23,327; 1840, 36,015; 1850, 32,681 ; 1860, 32,438; 1870, 35,116; 1880, 40,036; 1890, 39,005; 1900, 37,870.
POPULATION BY TOWNSHIPS AND CITIES, 1900.
Chippewa Township .2,937 Franklin Township 1,20I
Canaan Township . 2,40I
Paint Township 1,276
Congress Township 2,407 Plain Township 1,666
Chester Township 1,648 Wayne Township
1,7II
Clinton Township 2,028 Salt Creek Township
1,556
Baughman Township
2,497 Sugar Creek Township 2,274
Greene Township
3.318 Wooster Township 7,160
East Union Township
1,805 Milton Township 1,978
City of Wooster 6,063
CITY, TOWN AND VILLAGE POPULATION.
Applecreek
387 Marshallville 357
Burbank
325 Mount Eaton 232
Congress
198 Orrville 1,90I
Creston
893 Shreve 1,043
Dalton
666 Smithville
473
Fredericksburg
5II
West Salem 650
Doylestown
1,057 Wooster 6,063
CITY OF WOOSTER BY WARDS.
First ward, 1, 102; second ward, 2,227; third ward, 1,211; fourth ward, 839; fifth ward, 684.
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
VILLAGE PLATS OF THE COUNTY.
There have been almost fifty villages platted within Wayne county since its organization. The following is a list of a large per cent. of the plattings :
Aukerman, in Congress township, platted.
Amwell (Sterling), in Milton township, platted January, 1880. Apple Creek Station, East Union township, April 11, 1854. Austen, "Hamlet," Plain township, December 7, 1894.
Burbank (Bridgeport), Canaan township, December 3, 1868.
Burton City (Fairview), Baughman township, December 14, 1850.
Blachleyville, Plain township, December 16, 1833.
Bloomington (near Wooster), Wayne township, July 3, 1907. Canaan, Canaan township.
Chippewa, Chippewa township, May, 1816.
Congress (Waynesburg), Congress township, March 6, 1827.
Creston, Canaan township, June 30, 1881 (known as Saville Station in 1865).
Cedar Valley, Chester township.
Centerville, Clinton township, March 5, 1851.
Dalton (Dover), Sugar Creek township, October 16, 1817.
Doylestown, Chippewa township, December 9, 1827.
Edinburg, East Union township, August 16, 1822.
Fairview, Baughman township, December 14, 1850.
Fredericksburg. Salt Creek township, 1843.
Jefferson, Plain township, June 30, 1829.
Lattasburg (West Union), Chester township, February, 1851.
Milton Station ( Rittman), Milton township, 1869.
Millbrook, Plain and Clinton townships, August 10, 1829.
Moscow, Sugar Creek township, 1815, vacated 1878.
Madison (first county seat), Wooster township, vacated 1814.
Marshallville, Baughman and Chippewa townships, February 7, 1817.
Mount Eaton (Paintville), Paint township, 1813.
Moreland, Franklin township, January 17. 1829.
Madisonburg, Wayne township, 1873.
New Pittsburg, Chester township, May 6, 1829.
Overton, Chester township.
Orville, Greene and Baughman townships, September 9, 1864.
Pleasant Home, Congress township.
Rittman Station, Milton township, 1869.
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Reedsburg, Plain township, December 23, 1835.
Seville, May, 1865.
Slankersville, Chippewa township, February 24, 1843.
Springville, Plain township. December 16, 1844.
Shreve, Clinton township, 1853.
Smithville, Greene township, 1831.
Sterling (Russell), Milton township, January 21, 1880.
Wooster (original), Wooster township, September 7, 1816.
West Lebanon, Paint township, 1833.
West Salem, Congress township, June 13. 1834.
West Union (Lattasburg), Chester township, 1854.
INDIANS CAUSE POWDER EXPLOSION.
Howe in his "Historic Collections" mentions a singular incident as having occurred in a small building near or adjoining the old Stibbs mills, built in 1809 near Wooster. This building had been fitted up for a small general store, such as would accommodate the settlers and the few remain- ing bands of Indians. It was managed by Michael Switzer. In this store were William Smith, Hugh Moore. Jesse Richards, J. H. Larwill and five or six Indians. Switzer was in the act of weighing out some gunpowder from an eighteen-pound keg, 'while the Indians were quietly smoking their pipes, filled with a mixture of tobacco, sumach leaves and kinnikinnick, or yellow willow bark, when a puff of wind coming in at the open window blew a spark of fire from one of their pipes into the powder. A terrific explosion occurred. The roof of the building was blown off and carried a long distance, the sides fell out, the joists came to the floor and the door and chimney alone were left. Switzer died in a few minutes; Smith was blown through the mill and badly injured; Richards and the Indians were also badly hurt and seriously burned. Larwill, who happened to be standing against the chimney, escaped with little or no harm, except, like all the rest, his face was well blackened and he was knocked down by the shock.
The Indians, fearful of being accused of causing the accident intention- ally, some days later called a council of citizens for an investigation, which was held on the bottom, on Christmas run, west of Wooster.
THE FULLER SISTERS.
Among the literary characters produced in Wayne county should not be forgotten the names of two sisters-Frances and Metta Fuller-whose com- bined poems were compiled within one joint volume. The former was a
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
native of Rome, New York, while the latter was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. In 1839 the family removed to Wooster, when Metta was but a babe of but a few months old. At the age of fourteen Frances was supplying the local press with gems of poetry and prose. She rose rapidly and soon established a reputation in the literary world. Willis and Morris, of the Home Journal, a popular literary paper of New York city, containing sweet stanzas of her writings, pronounced her as among the most brilliant of women writers. Edgar Allen Poe, famous as author of the "Raven," classed her with the most imaginative of American poets. In 1853 she married Jackson Barrett, of Pontiac, Michigan, to which state she removed. Later she moved to the Pacific coast where "rolls the Oregon." She did not live happily and was divorced and later married a Mr. Victor, brother to the husband of her sister Metta. In that far-away clime she improved in her literary tastes and did most excellent work.
Metta, like her sister, attended the schools of Wooster, and at fifteen years of age composed a romance founded upon the supposed history of the dead cities of Yucatan, entitled "The Last Days of Tul." Metta's nom de plume was the "Singing Sybil." She grew to be a woman of charming graces and wonderful endowments highly improved upon. "The Senator's Son," a plea for the Maine law, written at the age of twenty, had an ex- tensive sale both at home and in foreign lands. She married, in July, 1856, O. J. Victor and removed to New York city where for many years she fol- lowed literary work with success. One of her poems was "Body and Soul," one stanza of which reads :
"A living soul came to the world- Whence came it? Who can tell? Of where that soul went forth again, When it bade the earth farewell? A body it had this spirit knew And the body was given a name."
No less authority than the celebrated N. P. Willis wrote concerning this Wooster girl after this fashion :
"We suppose ourselves to be throwing no shade of disparagement upon anyone in declaring that in the 'Singing Sybil,' her not less gifted sister, we discern more unquestionable marks of true genius, and a greater portion of the unmistakable inspiration of true poetic art than in any of the lady min- strels-delightful and splendid as some of them have been-that we have heretofore ushered to the applause of the public. One in spirit, and equal in
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
genius, the most interesting and brilliant ladies-both still in their youth- are undoubtedly destined to occupy a very distinguished and permanent place among the native authors of this land."
AN AMERICAN "OLE BULL."
Wooster produced Alf Howard and he became the American violinist -named "America's Ole Bull." He was the son of Horace Howard and brother to Harvey, Charles and William Howard, of Wooster. He died aged fifty years, in February, 1873, at Prophetstown, Illinois. He was a man of a phenomenal musical genius. Early in life, even before his tenth summer had passed, he developed a peculiar fondness for instrumental music. At the age of fifteen he went to Detroit, Michigan, engaged as a dry-goods clerk, but soon repaired to Niles, Michigan, where he conceived his niche in life and at once set about developing his talents. He organized a troupe and appeared before many western audiences beyond the Mississippi river. In 1841 he joined the June, Turner & Company circus, with which he traveled one season, then returned to Wooster. Here he formed a minstrel company, traveled throughout the entire West and finally, like a shining star, appeared suddenly in Philadelphia, where he was first known as the "Ole Bull" of this continent. After 1844 he was connected with Barnum's show of New York, where, with his single violin, he drew immense throngs of music-loving peo- ple. He next went to the Old World, where he sought and won great musical fame as a violinist. After coming home, he traveled and played in almost every state in this country. He made money fast, but this was not his aim- it being rather to entertain and excel in his chosen profession.
"JOHNNY APPLESEED."
Jonathan Chapman, better known as "Johnny Appleseed," was born in Boston, Massachusetts, about 1775, and become somewhat of a noted char- acter in Wayne county, Ohio. As a fruit grower and early-day nurseryman. he was celebrated. Hon. John H. James, of Urbana, Ohio, in an address before the Cincinnati Horticultural Society many years ago, had this to re- late of him :
"I saw him first in 1826, and have since learned something of his history. He came to my office in Urbana, bearing a letter from Alexander Kimmont. The letter spoke of him as a man generally styled 'Johnny Appleseed' and
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
that he might desire some counsel about a nursery he had in Champaign county. His case was this : Some years after he had planted a nursery on the land of a person who gave him leave to do so, he was told the land had been sold, and was now in other hands, and that the present owner might not recognize his right to the trees. He did not seem to be very anxious about it, and continued walking to and fro as he talked, and at the same time continued eating nuts. Having advised him to go and see the person that he might have no difficulty, the conversation turned. I asked him about the nursery, and whether the trees were grafted. He answered 'no' rather decidedly, and said that the proper and natural mode was to raise fruit trees from the seed.
"In 1801 he came into the Territory with a horse load of appleseeds, gathered from cider presses in western Pennsylvania. The seeds were con- tained in leather bags, which were better suited for his journey than linen sacks. He came first to Licking county, Ohio, where he planted his seeds. I am able to say that it was on the farm of Isaac Stadden. In this instance, as in others afterwards, he would clear a spot for the purpose and make some light enclosures. He would then return for more seeds and select other sites for new nurseries. When the trees were ready for sale, he left them in charge of some one to sell for him, at a low price, which was seldom if ever paid in money. If persons were too poor to pay they received the trees free. Nearly all of the nurseries in Licking county were planted from his nursery. He also had numerous nurseries in Knox, Richland and Wayne counties.
"It is claimed that on the remote borders of Chester and Congress town- ships he scattered seeds, and that some of the earliest orchards of that settle- ment were produced from his nurseries. One thing is certain, that his nurser- ies in Wayne county prior to the establishment of the county of Ashland supplied the pioneers of that and adjacent counties with the settings of their future orchards. In East Union township there is no doubt that this fanatical wanderer located one of the nurseries. On Little Sugar creek, near the resi- dence of David Carr, he selected the site, which a hundred years ago, in the primal silence of its wild environments, must have been poetically picturesque.
"On account of superstition among the Indians, and as he dressed in a fantastic manner and seemed to interpret their strange dreams for them, - they were all his fast friends. They looked upon him as a great white medi- cine man. During the war of 1812. when the other settlers on the frontier were harassed and butchered by the Indians, he pursued the even tenor of his ways, undisturbed by the brutal savages. He, being in their confidence, gained many points which benefited the whites, whom he warned to flee when
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
danger seemed lurking near. At the time of Hull's surrender, Johnny Chap- man rode day and night to herald the disaster and admonish the people to flee for safety and life. Indeed he was an odd, but humane man. He dis- liked to injure or kill even the least insect, or reptile, or bird of the forest. Kind, true to man and beast, endowed with genius and intellect far above the average person, it is no wonder that newspapers and state historians have ever kept publishing details of his half nomadic, half civilized life. He died in Allen county, Ohio, in the summer of 1847, aged seventy-two years, forty- six of which had been consecrated to his self-imposed mission, of giving out apple seeds and doing self-sacrificing deeds for his fellow pioneers. Peace to his ashes!"
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CITY OF WOOSTER.
Wooster, the county seat of Wayne county, so named by Hon. Joseph H. Larwill in honor of Major-Gen. David Wooster, of Revolutionary war fame and a member of a celebrated colonial family, is situated at nearly the center of the county, within Wooster township, and is three hundred and seventy-seven feet above Lake Erie. It was made the seat of justice May 30, 18II, having been platted by John Bever, William Henry and Joseph H. Larwill in the autumn of 1808.
Wooster was not the original county seat of Wayne county. The place designated as such by the first commissioners was on the elevated land lying southeast of the city of today and on lands owned then by Bazaleel Wells & Company, and was called Madison. This not suiting a majority of the citizens, the Legislature appointed new commissioners, when the present Wooster was selected for the county seat. Only a single log cabin had been erected on the site of Madison. The townsite proprietors had sold some few town lots in Madison, but after the change was made they at once refunded the money paid for same to the purchasers. John Good- enow, their attorney, applied to the court on February 21, 1814, to legally vacate Madison, which was done in April, 1814.
Wooster is forty-two miles south of Cleveland and is within one of the richest, most fertile portions of Ohio. It is the seat of Wooster University and the Ohio State Experimental Station. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, is one hundred and thirty-five miles to the east, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, one hun- dred and eighty-five miles to the west, while Cincinnati, Ohio, is two hundred and thirty-nine miles south and Chicago Illinois, is three hundred and thirty- four miles to the west.
The earliest settlers in Wooster were brothers, William, Joseph and John Larwill, who came in 1808.
The first house erected in the town, and Wayne county as well, was a log cabin on East Liberty street, directly west of what was later designated as the William Larwill property. The tools employed in the construction
4II
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
of this pioneer "temple" were a broad-ax and drawing-knife. It was raised at the time the town was being laid out, and its first occupants were William Larwill and a young man named Abraham Miller, whose father, Benjamin Miller, removed in the spring of 1809 from Stark county, with his wife and family, and opened a house of entertainment.
The first married man who settled in Wayne county, or Wooster, was Benjamin Miller, who also kept the first tavern in the county, on land where later stood the J. B. Power dry goods store. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were also honored by being the parents of the first white child born in town and county. It was a daughter and was christened Tillie Miller, the honor of naming her being bestowed upon Hon. John Bever. She attained woman- hood and married John Lawrence, father-in-law of the pioneer editor, Joseph Clingan, by which union there resulted seven children, one of whom became a distinguished Disciple minister.
The first attempt at merchandise in Wooster was the opening of a gen- eral store by William Larwill.
The first brick house in town was built in 1810 by John Bever, on the corner subsequently occupied by J. S. Bissell & Brother, dry goods mer- chants. This was also the first brick structure of Wayne county.
The first wagon road cut through the dense timber in this county was the one from Wooster to Massillon in 1808.
The first state road running through the county, from Canton to Wooster, was laid out by the commissioners in 1810.
The first mill for grinding purposes in the vicinity was built at Wooster in 1809 by Joseph Stibbs, then a resident of Canton.
In 1811 Hon. Benjamin Jones left Youngstown, Ohio, passed through Wooster and on to Mansfield, in search of a location for "Priest" Jones. He finally selected Wooster and so reported to the "Priest." The following year the Priest Jones family came on, bringing with them goods, and started a store in a rough wooden building erected by Robert McClarran.
The first carpenter of the town was Robert McClarran, who was also the first justice of the peace in the town and county.
It is believed that the first white man to die in Wooster was Alex. Crawford, in 1808.
The first resident lawyer, who died in Wooster, was a Mr. Raymond.
The first physician in Wooster was Thomas Townsend, as early as 1813. The first in Wayne county was Dr. Ezekiel Wells, of East Union.
The first minister of the gospel was Rev. Thomas G. Jones-"Priest" Jones-who was a Baptist and arrived in 1812, and this denomination erected the first church building. The date was 1814.
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WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
The first school teacher was Carlos Mather, a young lawyer of New Haven, Connecticut, who taught in 1814.
The first postmaster in Wooster was "Priest" Jones.
The first school house-a brick-was built on the site of the third ward school building of later days.
The first Fourth of July celebration in Wooster, or Wayne county, was west of town on Christmas's run, the water for cooking purposes being procured from a spring at the base of the hill, on land later owned by Judge Downing. The dinner was under the supervision of William Hughes; the Declaration of Independence was read by James Hindman, and "Priest" Jones made the oration.
The first mail from Wooster, New Lisbon and Mansfield was carried by Rensselaer Curtis.
The first will on record in the county recorder's office was made by Frederick Brown, of East Union township.
The first real estate transfer recorded at Wooster is from Oliver Day to Elam Day, of East Union township.
The first court of common pleas was held in Wooster in 1812.
The first election held in Wooster was on the first Monday in April, 1810. The subjoined is a list of the electors: Josiah Crawford, Jesse Cornelius, Jacob Matthews, William Larwill, Addy Chest, Robert Carn, Benjamin Miller. Jacob Wetzel, Luke Miller, Samuel Martin, Matthew Riley, John Driskel, William Smith, John Rodgers, John Wright, Christian Smith, Joseph Hughes and William Riter.
The first fire company in Wooster was established in 1827.
The first town watchman was Frederick Kauke, assisted by Joseph Ber- gen, in 1829, at a salary of eleven dollars per month.
When Wooster was first settled there were no white inhabitants between it and the Great Lakes; on the west none nearer than Maumee, Fort Wayne and Vincennes ; on the south, none until within a few miles of Coshocton.
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