USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 73
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The first settlers of Clinton township : Nathan G. Odell, John Newkirk, Joshua and Thomas Oram, Mr. Brewer, Thomas Odell, Abner Lake, Sen., Jacob Funk, Abner Eddy, Thomas McConkey, John Jones, Stephen Morgan, Asa Griffith, Jacob Kunmere and his father, Christian and John Smith, William and J. Wells, Reuben Newkirk, John B. Brown, Henry Newkirk, Thomas Gorsuch, Joseph Newkirk, Ira and Philip Aylesworth, Shadrach Benham, Noah Whitford, Lorenzo D. Odell. After them came the Leydas, Pococks, Shreves, Keys, Bealls, Metcalfs, etc. Mr. Brewer built a cabin on the east bank of the Newkirk spring, about twenty feet from its source, which Henry Newkirk subsequently occupied for general shop pur- poses, a few shanties being built on Mr. Rainey's place, and on a knoll west of where John Aylesworth now lives, and where there are yet some apple trees stand- ing. These were the first houses built after my father's.
The first election was held in the cabin of John Jones, where Thomas A. Brown resides. Nathan G. Odell was chosen first Justice, but refused to serve,
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
when James Priest was elected and served during his life. John Smith was the first Clerk of the township. The first public road opened was the one running from Wooster to Loudonville. An Indian trail extended from the head of Odell's Lake to Millersburg, and another trail from the same point diverged to Jeromeville. This Indian town was located on the north side of the lake, and contained about three hundred inhabitants under Mohican John.
What is known as the Big Prairie, was at first looked upon as impassable swamp; it was soggy, wet, full of ponds, dangerous to cattle. In Brown's Lake a son of Samuel Shreve, aged seventeen years, was drowned. ยท
A man named Thompson, was the first man who died in the township. He was an emigrant who took sick while stopping with John Newkirk, where Mr. Rainey lives, and died there and was buried to the rear of the house. Dr. Henry Peters was the first physician in the township, and was located at the intersection of the roads, at the Newkirk graveyard. Thomas Oram's wife was the first white person who died in the township. In 1814 Renhen Newkirk and Thomas Odell, two young men, went to Wooster to procure a coffin, carrying it home on the backs of the horses. Each bore one end of it, though at times the ends would strike the trees, when they would singly, time about, have to carry it on their shoulders. The first resident of the township married was Thomas, son of Nathan G. Odell, who was joined in wedlock to Nancy Drake, of Holmes county, in 1813.
Some of Harrison's men encamped a little north of east of father's house, and he sold them meat and other provisions.
The first school-house built in the township was called the Newkirk school- house, and was situated on Henry Newkirk's land, near the stream issuing from the Big Spring, and where the road crosses it. It was a small log affair, the neigh- bors having met together, cut them and erected the house. It was covered with shingles, and contained three long benches for the children, and a fire-place running the whole length of it. The first teacher was a lady named Theory Parker, of Holmes county, who received seventy-five cents per week for her services.
The first church was built by the Disciples, about one and one-half miles north- east of Shreve, on the farm of James Moore. Revs. John Chester, Lewis Comar, Jewell Mitchell, etc., were the pioneer ministers of this denomination.
The Methodist church, near the Newkirk spring, was the first of that persua- sion in the township, and erected in about 1843. David H., son of Henry and Jane Newkirk, was the first person buried in this graveyard. The pioneer minis- ters in this denomination were Revs. John Lane, James Goff, James McIntire, Joseph Foster, Frederick Ruark, (Ruark was a half-nigger, and married a beautiful white woman on the representation that his complexion resulted only from " the burnished livery of the sun"). Henry Ditmers built this church, and its first min- ister's name was Samuel Whiteman. Jacob Lee, Nathan G. Odell, William Green- lee, Joshua Oram and Benjamin Bauer were the pioneer members of this church, and after them came Josepb and Henry Newkirk, James Leyda, etc.
The Baptist church was organized in 1816, by Priest Jones and David Kimp- ton, and its earlier members were James, Jonathan and William Wells, John and Stephen Lamert, Charles Isbell, Alpheus French. Its first minister was Rev. Alpheus French, who was licensed the year the church was constructed. The present Baptist church was built in 1855, by Samuel Bennington. In this town- ship in the early days were the following distilleries, owned by Almond Ayles- worth, Henry Shreve, Thomas McConkey, Thomas A. Brown, Mahaley McConkey, one on the land formerly owned by Samuel Power, and another near the mill of Joseph Newkirk, conducted by John Comer. * Cornelius Quick built the
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rst mill, at the outlet of the lake, 1825; his dam back-watered the region, and raised the lake about eighteen inches. Nathan G. Odell sold the land, as he did not desire litigation, to John Comer at a reduced price. Comer bore a law-suit and soon "whaled " it to Quick. It remained in court a number of years, and, as pro- tracted and malicious litigations do, well-nigh broke up both parties.
Abner Eddy, Sen., was born in Salsbury, Conn., April 4, 1773. His father was a native of Rhode Island, and his grandfather was an Englishman. He remained with his father, who was a tanner and leather dealer, until he was twenty-five years of age, when he was married to Martha Chapman, of Litchfield, Conn., in 1798, when he removed to Birmingham, and thence to Luzerne county, 'Pa., thence to Madison county, New York, and thence to Erie county, same state, having been in the neighborhood of Buffalo when it was sacked and burned.
From Erie county he removed to what is now Clinton township, in 1815, settling on the place now occupied by Asa Eddy. Though Mr. Eddy can not be classed with the first grade of pioneers, he never- theless entered the county at a period when there were but few white settlers, and when the surrounding country was a wilder- ness. On his arrival he built a log-cabin, in which he lived for thirteen years, when he erected a brick house upon the foundation of the original one, and upon its completion, in January, 1830, he opened a place of public entertainment, called "Eddy's Inn," in which he continued until the opening up of the railroad, in 1852.
Judge Eddy's house was headquarters for stage-men, public officials and speculators, who traversed the old coach-line for nearly a quarter of a century. This coach-line was owned by Neal, Moore & Co., of Columbus, and superintended by K. R. Porter, of Wooster, who also had stock in the route. This route ex- tended from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and the travel upon it was simply immense. Mr. Eddy was appointed Postmaster in 1822, the first appointment, probably, in the township, and retained the office for many years. He was elected Justice of the Peace about 1822, the first record in the journal bearing date of May 13, 1822, and the first case he issued upon was that of Albert White against Abner Lake, in a civil transaction. From the appearance of Judge Eddy's docket, and his old files of papers, he must have done a thriving business, for he had them nearly all brought before him, " dead or alive," from John Driskel up to the Baptist min- strel or the Methodist class-leader. He slammed even justice into the face of the professional Christians the same as into the profes- sional thief. The Driskels, the Jewells, the Rowans, the Conner
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and Lytles, and the notorious Nathan Nichols and Jones, all were at times brought under his jurisdiction. One party he sent to the Wooster jail for thirty days for stealing a hog.
When Judge Eddy* settled on his place 63 years ago he en- countered many obstacles, before which men of less determination would have succumbed. In going to Wooster, for the first five years he had to go by the way of Newkirk's, for the reason that he could not cross the prairies east of him. Near his house were distinct remains of beaver dams, and rattlesnakes and blacksnakes. Deer roamed the county in abundance, and a fact notably observa- ble was that they remained in that section ten years longer than elsewhere in the county. Cranberries grew north of him in abundance, and so plenty were they that his son, Asa Eddy, re- marked to us that "he could pick a bushel in an hour." They were finally destroyed by drainage and general pasturage. He had eleven children, eight boys and three girls. His death oc- curred June 22, 1861, in his 89th year.
Judge Eddy was a useful, valuable and intelligent citizen, and performed a heroic part in the early settlement of the county. Emmet Eddy, his son, was born in Madison county, N. Y., Feb- ruary 25, 1807, and removed to Wayne county with his father in 1815, and Asa Eddy, another son, lives on the homestead farm en- tered by his father on his arrival in the county. They are men of business and intelligence, and scrupulously honest in their rela- tions to the world. They are men of independent minds, ener- getic workers, devoted to agriculture, stock-raising, and are hon- orable, hard-working, prosperous and wealthy farmers.
Thomas McConkey, was born in Washington county, Pa., in 178I, and removed to Ohio about the beginning of the war of 1812. He first stopped a short time in Wooster, purchased a farm near Millbrook, remained there a year, and then removed to the farm a short distance east of Shreve, where he lived until his death, Feburary 29, 1869, having in the meantime accumulated seven hundred acres of land. He was married to Elizabeth Hague, and had two sons and seven daughters. He was a member of the Disciple church, and served three years as Justice.
William H. Brown, was born March 23, 1815, in Pike, or
# When living in Erie, New York, the Governor of that State appointed him one of the Associate Judges of the Court.
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what is now Clinton township. His father, John B. Brown, was a native of Loudon county, Virginia, and immigrated to Wayne county with the Funks, in 1813. April 6, 1837, he married Phobe Lee, the union resulting in the following children: Elias, James, Hugh, Caroline, William W., Mary M., Millard Fillmore, David, Stephen, Phoebe E. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1845, and held that office fifteen years consecutively, and served as township Trustee and School Director for the last thirty-five years. He is an excellent citizen and successful farmer.
Thomas Shreve was a native of Westmoreland county, Pa., where he was born July 28, 1787. He visited Wayne county in 1817, and April 21, 1821, settled in Clinton township with his father, his wife (Mary Wigle) and five children, five more being born to him in Ohio. He was a miller by occupation, and imme- diately bought the mill now owned by George W. England, and cleared land, farmed and run the mill. In time he became highly prosperous, owning at one time 1,400 acres of land in Wayne and Holmes counties. He held many public offices-was Justice of the Peace; member of the Legislature in 1839-40; in 1841 was a candidate for State Senate, but beaten by Charles Wolcott, of Wooster ; was delegate frequently to State conventions; held nearly all the township offices; and was President of the conven- tion held in Wooster to take action on the construction of the P., Ft. W. & C. Railway through the county. He died July 4, 1858.
Henry Shreve, the eighth child and fourth son of Thomas Shreve, was born near Shreve, March 5, 1826, and has always been a citizen of Clinton township, and a man of prominence in the county. He is a steadfast Democrat, and has held all the township offices. He was elected County Commissioner in 1859 over Benj. Norton, and re-elected over James Aylesworth in 1862. He has had seven children, one of whom, a daughter, is dead. His son, Ezra D. Shreve, of Wooster, is the present County Surveyor.
Ira H. Aylesworth, Sr., was born in Vermont, and was mar- ried to Esther Gray, a native of Massachusetts, by whom he had six children, four of whom are living. He emigrated from the State of New York to Wayne county in October, 1816, and set- tled in Clinton township, near where the brick house now stands, and directly south of the late residence of W. P. Aylesworth.
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He bought the land of William Larwill, paying therefor $5 per acre. About two years after locating here he returned to New York on business, and made the trip on foot, a distance of 500 miles, and returned in the same manner. He was a man of busi- ness energy ; was Justice of the Peace, Trustee, and held various other offices, and accumulated considerable property. He died in May, 1861, death resulting from an accident caused by his horses running away.
James Aylesworth, oldest son and child of Ira H., was born in Otsego county, New York, September 1, 1812, and came with his parents to Wayne county in 1816, where he resided until his death. He had all his life been devoted successfully to agricul- ture and stock-raising, and was a useful man and first class citizen. He held every office within the gift of the township; was in fa- vor of all public improvements; canvassed for the Wooster Uni- versity, and gave liberally to it of his means. In 1852 he was elected Justice of the Peace, and held that office uninterruptedly a period of twenty-five years. He had seven children.
Philip Aylesworth, was born in Otsego county, New York, in 1793, his father being a farmer. He was married in Otsego county, to Miss Mary Gray, in 1812, and removed to Wayne county in the spring of 1815, bringing his wife and son John, then two years old. He settled a short distance north-west of Dogtown, on eighty acres he entered from the Government, and the family had to camp out until he put up a cabin, 16x18 feet, with stick and mud chimney and puncheon floor. He remained on this place six years, then sold it, and moved to the farm where Mr. Carl now lives, which he bought of Elder French, paying $500 for fifty acres. Here he lived until about 1830, in the meantime buying the bal- ance of the quarter, one hundred and ten acres, all of which he then sold and moved to where John Aylesworth now lives, where he died in June, 1856, his wife surviving him until March 3, 1877. He had eight children, namely: John, Elvira, Ira, Aurilla, Elliott, Eli, Electa, Eunice. Ira married Jane Bealer, of Holmes county, and removed to Porter county, Indiana, and died in 1875; Elliott married Caroline Priest, of Holmes county, and died there in Oc- tober, 1857; Eli died unmarried, in his twenty-first year; Electa married Washington Porter, and died in Holmes county, in 1864;
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Alvira married James Sawyer, of New York, and lives in Porter county, Ind .; Aurilla, married Richard Jones, and lives in Valpa- raiso, Ind .; Eunice married John Au, and lives in Mansfield, Ohio.
John Aylesworth, son of Philip, was born in Otsego county, New York, March 1, 1813, and when two years of age removed with his father to Wayne county. He worked with his father until twenty, and then started peddling clocks in Medina, Lorain, Holmes, Coshocton and Knox counties, following that pursuit for two years. Then he went to Kentucky and sold wind-mills, dis- posing of $3,000 worth in four months. After he quit peddling he bought a farm one and one-half miles from Goudy's mill, Ash- land county, 160 acres for $625 ; kept it a year and sold it for $1,400-then removed to where his son, Peter Aylesworth, now lives, and continued adding to the farm until he had 400 acres. September 20, 1833, he was married to Miss Sallie Jones, daughter of Richard Jones, of Fayette county, Pa., the union resulting in the following children : Elias, married to Julia Beebe in 1858, and died in January, 1874; Sylvanus, married to Martha Rose in 1861 ; Peter B., married to Ella Munson in 1870; William J., married to Catharine Zaring in 1866; Nancy O., married to John W. Myers in 1865 ; Mary N., married to Alexander Carl in 1869; M. J., married to Harvey Ross in 1874; Neal N., married to Martha Smith in 1874.
John Aylesworth is a respectable and industrious farmer, who, by his energy and frugality, has acquired much and valuable real estate. His sons are hard-working and prosperous young men, and own some of the best farms in the township.
Joseph W. Kean, a native of Pennsylvania, but whose father came from Ireland, removed to Wayne county in the spring of 1821, bringing his family, consisting of his wife and nine children, first settling about a mile west of Wooster on a farm owned by William Kelley, a brother-in-law of Alexander McBride. Here Mr. Kean lived until spring, when he removed to East Union township, north of King's Tavern about a mile, and lived here a year on a farm rented from Hubbard Carr. He then removed to Plain township, where DeWitt Kean now lives, where he entered 80 acres of land, plain lands chiefly, but also some growths of good timber, on which he built a cabin 21x21 feet of round logs.
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At the raising of this cabin he got severely hurt by one of the logs falling on him, and he had to be carried to Jacob Weltmer's, where he lay some time before he was well enough to be taken home. He died September 15, 1826, from the effects of that hurt. He was married in Mifflin county, Pa., to Miss Sophia Kearns, May 25, 1801, and had nine children, as follows: Elizabeth, Wil- liam, Catharine, Thomas, John S., Sophie, Joseph A., Mary and Hezekiah.
William Kean, son of Joseph W., was born January 12, 1805, in Mifflin county, Pa., six miles east of Lewistown. His father left Mifflin county in 1815, and staid in Beaver and Allegheny counties, Pa., for six years, and then removed to Wayne county. He was nearly 21 years of age when his father died, and after his death remained eleven years working on the farm to help support his mother and the family. After her death, in 1836, he went west to look up a home, but became discouraged, and returned and bought the old homestead. He was married January 13, 1831, to Elizabeth Case, daughter of Augustus Case, of New Jersey, who settled in Plain township, on the plains, in the spring of 1815. He had six children, viz: D. C., Sophie, Anner, Augustus C., John, Tamer, all of whom are living, except John, a member of Captain J. H. Downing's company, 120th Regiment, who died at Vicks- burg, March 12, 1863. Mr. Kean, with his wife, has been a mem- ber of the Methodist church nearly forty years. He served as Justice of the Peace two terms, and has held every township office but Constable. Mr. Kean is one of the intelligent and reliable men in his township whose public and private lives are without re- proach or blemish.
The Leyda Family .- Jacob Leyda, the oldest of three brothers, was born in Washington county, Pa., and removed to Wayne county prior to 1819. He married Elizabeth Wolf, of Lake town- ship, Ashland county. He died about 1836; his wife is also dead. James Leyda was born in Washington county, Pa., July 17, 1801, and removed to Holmes county, Ohio, in March, 1826, and from thence to Wayne county in 1833, settling where he now lives, although he had visited the county in 1819. He was twice mar- ried-first to Susannah Harman, of Washington county, Pa., who died in January, 1831, leaving two children; second, in the fall of 1831, to Huldah Sanford, of Wayne county, by whom he has had
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nine children. Benjamin Leyda was born in Washington county, Pa., September 29, 1806, and settled in Clinton township in 1825, where he married Elizabeth Newkirk, daughter of John Newkirk, who was born June 3, 1812, and died December 9, 1845. She was the mother of the following children: Reuben N., Cyrus, Louisa, Christena, Elmira, Newton, John N., of whom Louisa, Christena and Elmira are dead. Mr. Leyda was married a second time to Elizabeth Betz, of Holmes county, but a native of Germany, and by this marriage had six children, viz: Henry A., George W., Frank P., Flora E., Clinton C., and Mary J. George W. Leyda was born October 3, 1850, in Clinton township, and on October 25, 1873, was married to Miss Ella C. Eberly, sister of Professor J. B. Eberly, of Smithville Academy. In 1871, with his brother Newton, he engaged in mercantile business in Big Prairie ; was burned out August 6, 1876, and erected his present building in 1877. He is the present postmaster of Big Prairie, and railroad agent at that station.
Elijah Pocock, was born in Hartford county, Maryland, Decem- ber 29, 1770. At an early age he was apprenticed to a black- smith, with whom, after five years service, he arrived at the age of manhood and maturity. He immediately began the duties of his trade, of which he had acquired a superior knowledge and mastery, and in the course of a few years of persevering industry, unre- mitting labor and rigid economy, he accumulated a handsome amount of money-in fact, a little fortune.
A man of resolute purpose, of firm, unbending will, and with a determination of placing himself in a situation where no man could be his master or dictator, he concluded on a trip west of the mountains. He was married in the summer of 1815 to Catharine Hughes, and in the summer of that year he immigrated to Wayne county, where he purchased from the Government and at private sale over 2,000 acres of land, 1,760 acres in Clinton township, Wayne county, and 640 in Ashland county. He then returned to Maryland, where he remained till 1820, when he removed his fam- ily to Ohio and settled upon his land. He now devoted himself wholly to his farm, abandoning his trade altogether. An unfortunate occurrence transpired soon after his arrival, in the death of his wife, who had borne him five children, all of whom are dead. He was married a second time, to Grace Smith, by whom he had ten children. Jabez, the oldest of the boys, married
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Hester Dull, of Plain township, and lives in Montgomery county, Illinois, and is a farmer-a high-minded gentleman, whose life has been successful and prosperous. Cornelius is unmarried, and lives in Iowa. Robert was married to Keziah White, lived in Clinton township, dying July 12, 1865. Elias H. lives in Walnut, Indiana, and is a practicing physician. He had one daughter, Eleanor C. Pocock, who married Hiram Whitney, and who died in Mansfield, Ohio, May 16, 1861, leaving one son, Harvey W., who now resides in Nokomis, Montgomery county, Illinois, and is a teacher. John is a citizen of Shreve, and is married to Alice, daughter of John Moore. Eli D. Pocock, M. D., was born June 13, 1845, read medicine with Dr. J. H. Todd, and graduated at Bellevue Hos- pital in February, 1870, began practice in Mansfield, staid there three years, and came to Shreve in 1873. He was married Octo- ber 18, 1870, to Luilla B. Foltz, of Shreve.
Elijah Pocock, the apprenticed blacksmith, the owner of over 2,000 acres of land in the primal days of the county, was indeed and emphatically a forest nobleman. He started upon life in pov- erty, and by the blows struck upon the anvil, carved out the means with which he laid the basis of his fortune. He was a man distin- guished for his prudence and sterling honesty. He detested and despised the indolent man, and his disposition was most liberal, charitable and benevolent. He believed that God helped the man who helped himself, and he was ever ready to bestow assistance and benefactions upon all worthy objects. We pronounce him the best type of the pioneers who settled in the county-a man of re- markable life and signal achievements.
John Newkirk was born in Washington county, Pa., and re- moved to Clinton township in 1814. He was among the earliest of the settlers, and upon his arrival purchased from Joshua Oram the farm now owned and occupied by John Rainey. He was mar- ried to Christena Clouse, and had seven children, to wit: Eliza- beth, Milton, Newton, Ursula, Cyrus, George W. and Rhoda. Her death occurred September 17, 1827, and his, October 2, 1827, he being but forty-one years of age. He was better known as Captain John Newkirk, and in the early days kept a stage-office, running from his place to Wooster. He was among the first Justices of the township, and taught the first school in Lake town- ship. His name is of frequent occurrence in the county records, and he was a brilliant, keen, public-spirited man.
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Henry Newkirk, a native of Washington county, Pa., emigrated to Clinton township, Wayne county, as early as 1814. He settled. upon a farm, which his father, Isaac Newkirk, a soldier under Gen- eral Crawford, had entered, and immediately addressed himself to. its improvement. As early as 1815 he had erected upon his own farm, near the Big Spring, a frame dwelling for himself.
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