USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 70
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TANNERIES.
Tan-yards were about as common as still-houses, but varied greatly as to their usefulness. They shipped their goods to Cincinnati or Louisville. As bark became a branch of trade, it was sent up or down the river to supply orders from the large cities. Hides were bought up by traveling agents at a price greatly in advance of that paid by the home merchants. These things worked destruc- tion to the small establishments in the townships. John Cavin was one of the first tanners in the township of Owen. Jacob West's tan-yard, six miles southeast of New Market, was perhaps the most noted in its time. Both of these were here more than fifty years ago. Tanneries in this part of the county are scarce, but the bark business is carried on quite extensively along the river. The bark is loaded on barges or flat-boats, and floated down to the cities situated on the banks of the Ohio.
SCHOOLS.
The oldest school in Owen township stood on the Bethlehem and Bull Creek road. It had all the features of backwoods life. The stone chimney, large fire-place, puncheon door and
seats, greased paper for window glass, the noisy boys and girls,-all made the old log building very interesting. It passed away half a century ago; the scholars have many descendants in this county, but the boys and girls then are now old men and women. John Troutman taught at the Shilo school-house in 1825 and 1826. Stephen Hutchings, Robert and James Perry, William Allen, John and Henry Anderson, Samuel and Robert Applegate, George Hutchings, and Jacob Ingram were the first teachers in this end of the township. They also taught in most of the ad- joining school districts. Stephen Hutchings was one of that class who used the whip pretty freely. His left hand frequently took an unruly school by surprise, by whipping a dozen or more at the same time. None of his scholars ever rose to distinction in the public affairs of county, State, or nation.
The Possum Trot district was composed main- ly of the Boyers, Adamses, and Wardells. Rob- ert Wardell was a Revolutionary soldier, the father of the boys who made this school famous. Possum Trot school has always borne a name for everything else but docility.
Larkin Vaught's district is situated in the southeastern part of the township. It is well at- tended. In Owen township there are nve school districts. They are the redeeming features of this as well as all other divisions of land; and Owen may well take an interest in her social and edu- cational systems.
CHURCHES AND SECRET SOCIETIES.
The Olive Branch Christian church was formed out of the Dunkards and New-lights. Its history is given principally in the sketches of Oregon township. Revs. John Wright and Mr. Hughes, the former a Dunkard, the latter a New-light, were instrumental in forming the union. Both made concessions. Church disciplines were dis- carded and the religion of Dr. Campbell taken instead. Campbellite religion, as it was jeeringly called, has risen from obscurity in this township to be the most prominent of all. The old Olive Branch chapel was built of logs, and was 18 x24 feet. It was used till 1852, when the old build- ing was sold and a frame erected. It is now oc- cupied with some degree of regularity.
The Shilo Methodist Episcopal church, be- tween Westport landing and Hibernia, belongs to the New Washington circuit. It is one of
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those temples which we all turn to intuitively ; one whose history awakens the happiest and tenderest emotions. Its first members were 'Thomas Allen and wife, John Lever and wife, Job Ingram and wife, Jacob Bottorff and family, John Hutchins and wife. Calvin and John Rutter were the first preachers. They were brothers, men devoted to the work they had chosen. In 1854 the old house of worship was replaced by a better building. This class is managed tolerably well, but needs some of the early enthusiasm of its members to place it on good, solid footing.
More than forty years ago a Masonic lodge was organized at the mouth of Bull creek in the store of William Pettitt. Dr. Frank Taylor and Esquire Spenser were among the first members. The meetings were held in an upper store room. After a term of singular prosperity the lodge was left to take care of itself. The charter was re- voked and the regalia of members called in; but this all took place after the death of the organ- izers. Now there is nothing left to mark even the site of the old store.
Owen township can boast of having had three Granges, viz: Number Four district, Shilo, and Washington. They seem to have done compar- atively little good and are now apparently in a fit condition for the graveyard.
BURYING-GROUNDS.
On the road leading from West Point landing to Hibernia, on Mr. Levi's farm, is one of the oldest burying-grounds in this end of the county. It was here that many of the old settlers were buried. There are no fences now to separate it from the outside world. Briars and bushes have everything their own way.
Two miles from Hibernia, on the Bethlehem road, is the old family burying-ground of Allen Perry. It is off the left a quarter of a mile, and is rapidly going the way of many other such places. The Perrys do not own the place at present.
In the old Patterson neighborhood, three miles above Hibernia, on the right of the Bethlehem road, is another of very great age. It is also overgrown with briars and bushes. Everything borders on dilapidation.
Captain John Armstrong founded a burying- ground at Armstrong's station, in the southeast
corner of the township. It was about 50 x 60 feet. The situation is picturesque, as the mourn- ers overlooked the Ohio while depositing their dead in the tomb. Captain Armstrong was a distinguished pioneer in this part of the Grant. His name is perpetuated by a station or steam- boat landing on the Ohio.
PHYSICIANS.
All the doctors in the surrounding township practiced medicine in Owen. From Charlestown came Dr. Hugh Lysle on foot. He treated his patients by staying with them until death or re- covery was the result. Drs. Andrew and Camp- bell Hay came from Charlestown, Dr. Goforth from New Washington. But Owen township never had any very thorough-going physicians. Her settlements were too small for any ambitious practitioner of medicine.
VILLAGES.
Herculaneum was surveyed for William S. Pettitt in 1830, by John Beggs. It is situated on tract number fifty seven of the Illinois Grant, below the mouth of Bull creek. The streets run at right angles with the river. There are twenty- two lots, which number from the lower right hand corner.
Germany was laid out by Jacob Bear, Sr., in 1829. It has nineteen lots and is crossed by two streets, Main and Main Cross streets. Both these villages are now of little consequence. Bull creek with its high bluffs passes close by, and almost makes one village out of two-if villages they can be called. Neither has a blacksmith shop. Germany has a grocery. The main bus- iness of the station is to ferry people across the river, as they come from New Market and Strick- er's corner.
These villages took their names from the German people who early made the narrow bot- toms their home. Standing on the high banks of Bull creek and looking down in the valley which follows it, the places can hardly be called either neighborhoods or hamlets. They are just between the two, and will, apparently, stay where they are for a number of years to come.
HIBERNIA.
David Hostetler, who came from Kentucky, was an early settler in this village. He owned a tract of land: the Charlestown and Bethlehem and Boyer's landing and Otisco roads crossed at
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the corner of his property. From these circum- stances a village naturally sprang up, though it never had a town plat. The Grant line was used for the course of the road to Boyer's landing. It passes directly through the village and forms the principal street.
Hostetler came here in 1828 and bought land of Daniel Kester from tract number one hundred and five. Thomas Applegate and Wil- liam Pangburn were neighbors. After a few years others gathered here, and hence the place naturally took the form of a village. Hostetler soon opened a store, and was the first to carry on this branch of industry in the village. He was also the first postmaster, as the mails were carried to Bethlehem from Charlestown. His store was used many years as the voting-place for Owen township. John Roland, Leigh Strick- er, and Isaac Crumm were storekeepers during the early experience of Hibernia. All these men kept in the same house-that used by Mr. Hos- tetler. It stood on the northwest corner of the cross roads, and in 1879 was torn down. Another was erected in the Grant. It is now the only public house, except churches and schools, in the village.
Walter Pangburn was their first blacksmith. He was really the first man who made black- smithing a business, in this part of the county. The village now has one store and one black- smith shop. The former is kept by W. H. Som- mers.
Schools in Hibernia were always similar to those of other little places or settlements. Houses were built of logs, generally without hewing. The first school-house in Hibernia stood pretty nearly where Sommers' store is now, but back from the road two or three rods. It was used until 1865, when a frame building was erected. The children of the neighborhood attend here, as well as those from the village. It is conducted systematically, and is the brightest ornament of the place.
The Christian church in Hibernia is the out- growth of the Hard-shell Baptist. These two denominations erected a meeting-house in 1835, jointly. It was used up to 1860 by the two classes. In the meantime many of the old Bap- tist members had died. The Christian church had continually added to its membership. Twen- ty-five years after the old log church was put up,
the followers of Dr. Campbell found themselves in entire possession of the church property. The old church being unfit for services, they deter- mined to erect a new house. It is a handsome brick building, capable of seating three hundred persons, and stands on the Boyer landing road, on the Grant side. To it is attached a burying- ground, which dates from the beginning of the organization of the Baptist church. There is about one and a half acres in the enclosure. Calvin R. Pangburn was the first person buried in it. Among the first members of the Baptist church were William Pangburn and wife, Daniel Kester, wife and family, Levi Boyer and wife. Some of them finally changed their names to the Christian class book. Lathan Boyer and wife, Allen Boyer and wife, Benjamin Hawkins and wife, Richard and Nancy Hawkins, belonged to the Christian church. Revs. Mordecai Cole, from Charlestown, Thomas Waller and Elder Byron were their first preachers. This church now has preaching occasionally. A good Sun- day-school holds its exercises here every Sabbath. The Christian church in Owen township is more prosperous than any of the denominations.
Hibernia needs renovating. It is simply the cross-roads which makes the village. The church is the most noticeable of all the houses. About the settlement the country is poor, and of course agricultural interests are not thriving. In the hamlet there are but six or seven houses. The little store is post-office, tavern, loafers' corner, barber-shop, voting precinct, and all. Harry Scott, the township trustee, lives in a large brick house in sight. He, probably, has more to do with the successful working of the village school than any other man.
What the villages of Owen township ought to have, is some of the crust scraped off, some of the fogy notions discarded, and more interest taken in all the spiritual and temporal resources which tend to upbuild and maintain society.
OLD SETTLERS.
The oldest man in Owen township is Mr. . George Allhands. He was born December 10, 1798, in Jefferson county, Kentucky. John All- hands, his father, and Catharine, his mother, raised four sons and seven daughters. His brothers' names were as follows: John, Garrett, and Silas, the former of whom died more than
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fifty years ago. Polly, one of his sisters, is eigh- ty-six years of age. She lives in Illinois. Catharine has now been dead eighteen years. She died in Arkansas. Elizabeth died in this county. Rachael lives in Clark county at an ad- vanced age. Susan lives in Iowa. Nancy lives in Bartholomew county, Indiana. Naomi has been dead twenty-five years. Sarah lives in Owen township. When the family came to the Grant, they settled on tract number one hundred and three, and here the children were raised. The girls married young. The boys made their living by hard work and some hunting. Clark county was then almost unknown, except by hear- say. The country around Stricker's corner was a dense wilderness. The family began to clear off a small tract for growing potatoes and corn. At this time, the years previous to 1812, there were no mills in this part of the county that did good custom work; most of the grinding was done in the State beyond the Ohio. In some families there were hand-mills which were run by a staff placed horizontally, and which ground about one peck per hour. But the meal was coarse. These mills often took the place of water-power in the very earliest civilization. Hominy mortars, made out of gum logs, with a shell two or three inches in thickness, and which held a gallon or two of corn, were in every farm-house. They were burned out of good gum logs; the inside was conical-shaped, so as to allow the corn to run into the lower end.
Mr. Allhands remembers when Louisville was hal the size of Charlestown, and when it took six months for dry goods to come from New York, by way of New Orleans. The money received was carried on horseback through the wilderness. One of the remarkable facts of the times was that a highway robbery was never known to take place during these journeys.
William Stricker, the largest real-estate owner in Owen township, came to Clark county in 1816 from Virginia, when only eight years of age. The family settled first in Washington township. In 1833 he moved to Owen township, where he has resided ever since. He accumulated prop- erty fast by boating and dealing in real estate, though seldom selling a piece of land when once it came into his possession. Mr. Stricker owns twenty-three hundred acres, lying mostly along the river in the southeastern part of the township.
He is a gentleman of much experience, speaks with the ease of a firm business man, and treats his neighbors kindly.
Dr. William Taggert was born in Virginia. His father and mother were from Ireland. He owns tract number eighty-one. On the west side of his property a splendid stone fence, the long- est in the county, extends for a half-mile along the Bethlehem and Charlestown road.
Rev. Thomas Allen was a Methodist preacher. He lived in sight of Hibernia, and made his liv- ing by a carding machine. Preachers who took no regular circuit seldom received a salary; so it was with Mr. Allen.
Jacob Bottorff came from South Carolina and settled on the road leading from Hibernia to New Washington. He was by faith a Dunkard, but in the Methodist church took an active part, and died leaving behind him an admirable pos- terity.
William Pangburn came originally from New Jersey. The family settled first in Pennsylvania, then in Ohio, then in Indiana. There were five sons and one daughter. Two of the sons are dead. This family has taken a prominent part in all the enterprises of the couuty.
Robert Lucas Plaskett came from Cincinnati, and settled near Stricker's corner in 1800. Here he bought one hundred acres of land from Col- onel Armstrong. His life was spent to a great extent on the river, making considerable money by his natural fitness for commercial pursuits. There are now few of the Plasketts living in this part of the country; most of them have scat- tered throughout the West. The Plasketts were originally from Pennsylvania.
John Hutchings was born in Virginia April 7, 1802, in Frederick county, of which Winchester was the county-seat. He came with the rest of his father's family from Pittsburg to Louisville on a flat-boat. Joseph, his father, was strongly op- posed to slavery, and on this account left Ken- tucky, and moved to Washington township on the line of the purchase. The younger Hutchings married Lydia Fisher in 1825. She came from North Carolina, Fayette county, about 1814. John Hutchings is the only one left out of a family of six sons and three daughters. He be- longs to that class of men whose character is worthy of imitiation.
Henry Lampin, an Englishman by birth, was
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
born January 30, 1815, and moved to Owen township in 1845. He came here from New York. Since settling in this township he has en. gaged himself in farming. Mr. Lampin belongs to the younger class of pioneers.
John Giltner, the father and grandfather of all the Giltners in Owen township, was born in Penn- sylvania and came to Clark county from Ken- tucky. He married Hannah Wilson in Kentucky, who bore him twelve children, viz: Elizabeth, Mary, Francis, Jacob, Solomon, Joseph, Daniel, Eli, William, Andrew, Susan, and Sarah. He set- tled on Camp creek, entering one hundred and sixty acres of land, and began to prepare for farm- ing by clearing off the timber, and shipping it to Louisville in the shape of cord-wood. Both he and his wife died at the age of eighty years. Jo- seph and William Giltner are the only brothers who live in this county. The former was born June 2, 1821.
Among the early settlers in the eastern part of Owen township, whose biographies are of that class which are interesting, and yet without the scope of an historical sketch, was Michael Utzler, Chrisler King, and Patterson East. They were all farmers, took an interest in funny things, and made the cares of life light and easy to carry.
But the age when frontier characters occupied the stage is fast passing away. Daily events will in a quarter of a century be facts of history.
CHAPTER XXIV. SILVER CREEK TOWNSHIP.
ORGANIZATION.
The first mention made of this township in the county records is under date of February, 1815. It seems to have come into existence after Clarksville and Springville townships, and for some reason unknown, its boundary lines are not given in the minutes of the county commissioners. The latter townships have gone out of existence by subdivisions, the townships created from them bearing other names. In the records the first mention of the township is made in the following words, dated February 15, 1815 :
On petition of a number of inhabitants of Silver Creek township, praying for a public road to be opened, commenc- ing at the town of New Albany, running thence north twelve degrees east to the uppermost fork of Camp creek, on the line between numbers sixty-four and eighty-five; thence north thirty-eight degrees east (nearly), crossing Silver creek near Abraham Littell's; from thence to Charlestown on or near the line of the Grant numbers, directly passing on the east side of Springville.
This road, it may be mentioned, was finally obtained, and for many years was used by the surrounding country.
Originally Silver Creek township embraced a very large portion of the western part of the county. On the 24th of January, 1803, the boundaries of the county were changed, that part lying west of Silver creek and running up to the corner of Silver Creek township being placed in Floyd county for the convenience of voters. This change lessened the area of the township eight to ten thousand acres. The main reason for the change was the high water in Silver creek during the spring, at the time when the township officers were elected. The voting precinct was in what is now Clark county.
Silver creek township is bounded on the north by Carr and Charlestown townships; on the east by Jeffersonville, Utica, and Charlestown town- ships; on the south by Jeffersonville township and Floyd county; on the west by Floyd county and Carr township. Area, 9,789 acres, or fifteen and twenty-nine hundredths square miles. It is smaller by three thousand acres than any other township in the county ; but while the next larg- est, Union, has a total valuation of $123,000, Silver Creek has $143,000 worth of property. The township is irregular in shape. It resembles an isosceles triangle, compressed from all corners.
There is considerable speculation as to how Silver Creek derived its name. Says one au- thority: "About 1775 a band of roving Indians buried on the banks of Silver creek a keg of silver. From this incident the stream was named. The township gained its name from the stream early in 1800, or thereabouts." This statement is to be considered in a negative sense. The probabilities are, and there is much evidence to substantiate the statement, that the early naviga- tors gave the stream its name. Many of the flat-boatmen, while on their way down the Ohio river, were heard to remark that "yonder range of hills," pointing to the knobs, " is supposed to be rich in silver ore." From this circumstance,
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and probably from the striking appearance the knobs presented as they circled out into the country, resembling much the silver bow in In- dian fable, the navigators gave the stream which flows down through the valley and empties into the Ohio near the ancient site of Clarksville, the name of Silver creek. At any rate, we find no well-authenticated statement to show anything to the contrary. How the story of silver being found in the knobs originated, is a mystery. The Indians probably had much to do with it, or perhaps the original surveyors under Clark picked up specimens of something which, for want of a better name, they called silver. However, there has been found, though not in paying quantities, silver in this valley. The reader can combine the above statements and deduce his own con- clusion as to the derivation of the township name.
TOPOGRAPHY.
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The climate of this township is mild and equa- ble. There are few of those great diversities which result from the extremes of soil and surface. In winter the average temperature is about the same as in some of the colder climates. This fact results mainly from the unobstructed surface, and the complete destruction of the old forests. The level country, also, which extends continu- ously to the Ohio river, allows the winds which always follow water-courses, to spread out over this township and impart to the atmosphere an exhilarating quality. But it must be remembered that there are only a few degrees' difference be- tween this and the adjoining townships. A township of a few thousand acres can never be greatly affected, or differ materially from similar adjacent divisions of land, on account of climatic changes.
Some good agriculturist has well said, "the bottoms of Silver creek were never noted be- cause of their fertile soil." The original crops generally produced well. But that was before the ground had been tampered with and mal- treated so sadly by later farmers. Many farms in this township have been under cultivation for more than fifty years. A greater portion of this time every means has been taken to have them produce good crops. The soil is not naturally rich. It is made up of a kind of cold loam, mixed with washings from the knobs, perhaps ground to impalpable powder centuries ago. The valley of
Silver creek is fine farming land. Corn is the staple. Fruit grows in very scanty quantities, and the flavor is not always the best. There are few farmers who are now considered wealthy, who made their wealth out of their farms. Their fathers in many instances settled here during the emigration fever in the South, and, buying land at the Government office or at second-hand, waited for the increase in the value of real estate. It was in this way that many of the now well-to- do farmers became wealthy.
The surface of Silver Creek township is level. It is unbroken by any hills of more than or- dinary height. The knobs do not enter the township. The smallness of its extent prevents any great diversity of surface.
When the first settlements were made in the township, three-quarters of a century ago, a fine growth of timber covered the whole scope of country, properly called the " lower end, or level country, in the southern part of the county." Many of the first settlers describe the timber as marvelous in its growth. Oaks from four to six feet in diameter, and reaching the nineties in height, were very common. Poplar trees larger than the largest oaks were encountered all over the township. Tall hickories, which ran up as high as sixty and seventy feet without a limb, stood in great numbers along the low bottoms and the higher uplands. Beech-trees grew in profusion; there was no end to their numbers. Few of those trees which are peculiarly adapted to the soil of the knobs grew here during these early years. Since the forest has been cut away they have become somewhat acclimated. Buck- eye, maple, walnut, hackberry, and dogwood are now quite common.
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