USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 10
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completed until March 29, 1865. In 1869 it passed into the hands of the Baltimore & Ohio corporation, and it is their property still.
Work commenced on the south end of the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark division in June, 1847, and it was let out in short mileage contracts, Peter Davis having a mile contract near Utica and Frederick Bumpus the one near Mt. Vernon. During the autumn of 1850 the construction train first made its appearance near Dry creek. The bridges over Dry creek and Kokos- ing river were rapidly nearing completion. The Mt. Vernon Banner, under date of December 3, 1850, said: "Hereafter the Newark, or eastern mail, will arrive in the cars at nine o'clock in the morning, and go out at- four in the evening. The Columbus mail will be sent via Newark in a short time." Again in the same local paper, under date of January 7, 1851, is found this notice: "The whole railroad line between Newark and Sandusky City is finally completed, and last night, January 6th, a train of four cars passed Mt. Vernon, presenting quite a fine appearance." The connecting of the two ends of the road was effected January 5, 1851, thus giving Mt. Vernon its first complete line of railroad.
OTHER RAILROADS IN THE COUNTY.
Many of the first railroad companies failed and had to have receivers appointed by the courts. Such has been the fate of new railway schemes in almost every section of the country. The Pittsburg, Mount Vernon, Colum- bus & London Railroad Company was incorporated in May, 1869, to be built from a point in Wayne county, on the line of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago line, at or near Orville, through the counties of Holmes, Knox, Licking, Delaware, Franklin, through Columbus to Madison county, at or near London. After a number of assignments, purchases and sheriff sales, with the usual complications in courts, the above named line of railway was bought, and merged into what is now known as the Pennsylvania system. The main line was completed to Columbus and train service established there- on September 1, 1873.
The Ohio Central railroad passes through Hilliar township, this county, with Centerburg as a station point. This road was built under various names and under many trying circumstances, by local and foreign capitalists-most- ly foreign, however. It was at first projected as a coal road, strictly speak -- ing. It was built as far as Fostoria, then extended on to Toledo, its present northern terminus. It is but of little value to Knox county, save that portion running through Centerburg.
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The only other railway line touching the territory of Knox county is the one traversing parts of Jefferson township, in the extreme northeastern part of the county. This is the T., W. V. & O. railroad, completed through this county in 1893. Its station point in the county is the crossing of the Pennsylvania line at Brinkhaven.
The railroad mileage in Knox county in 1911 is: The Cleveland, Akron & Columbus ( Pennsylvania line), thirty-six miles; the Baltimore & Ohio, twenty-three and one-half miles ; the T., W. V. & O. line, twelve miles; the Toledo & Ohio Central line, five miles, a total of seventy-six miles.
TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.
A few years prior to the advent of the first railroad, a telegraph line had been established, and an office opened in Mt. Vernon, with John W. White in charge. Two young telegraph experts undertook to put in a line from Zanesville to Sandusky. The line ran along the wagon road from Zanesville to Mt. Vernon, dropping an office at Irville, and Mashport, Muskingum county ; Newark and Granville, in Licking county; and to Mt. Vernon via Alexandria, Homer and Brandon, leaving no office between Granville and Mt. Vernon. At Mt. Vernon the office was opened in the Hosmer Curtis brick block, north of the public square, and moved about from one business point to another for a number of years. In 1861, Mr. Bucking- ham offering the operator a position as assistant bookkeeper, the office was re- moved to his foundry, it occupying the counting room. There it remained all through the dark days of the Civil war, when it was taken to the depot of the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark railroad, the operator, a Mr. White, having been selected and appointed as deputy depot agent at the Mt. Vernon station.
By the time Messrs. Kent and Garlock had reached Mt. Vernon from Zanesville, J. H. Wade had completed a line of wire from Cleveland, on his way to Columbus and Cincinnati. The last named bought out the rights of the Zanesville line and after that it was known as the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Telegraph Company. A new corporation made Mr. Wade its president and J. W. White its secretary. In a few years, the Wade lines were united with the Speed and Cornell eastern lines, when the secretary's office was removed to Rochester, New York. Not many years passed away before all was merged into what is now known as the Western Union Tele- graph Company. The small shareholders in the original lines lost heavily. One of the many interesting incidents connected with early-day telegraphy at this station must here find space for permanent record :
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The oldest of present citizens of Mt. Vernon doubtless recall the quite famous Hinton mail robbery. It occurred in the palmy days of Neil, Moore & Company's stage line. Mr. Hinton was the superintendent of the stage line from Newark to Cleveland, via this city. Money letters were so fre- quently missed that the postal department placed detectives on the track. A detective visited every postoffice on the route on the arrival of mails from the stages. The losses were sustained between Mt. Vernon and Wooster. Another remarkable fact was made known, that all losses occurred on the occasions that Hinton accompanied the stage. Then it took about thirty-six hours to perform the trip; the night driving occurred between Mt. Vernon and Wooster. A. J. Smith, then a banker at Newark, ascertaining that Hinton would pass through over the route on a certain day, prepared a large decoy package for that day's mail, directed to Cleveland. Arrangements were made at Newark by Smith and General Jones, United States marshal, at Mt. Ver- non, that they should have exclusive control of the wires that night after eight o'clock. Smith prepared a complete description of every note in the package, the letter, the bank and the denomination. All bills were for small amounts so as to make the package look as large as possible. Smith had forgotten to furnish Jones with a descriptive sheet, hence the wire came in good place that night. That message was probably the longest local message ever passing over the wire at that early period in the history of telegraphy in Ohio. At ten o'clock that night Thomas Jones, a brother of the marshal, started on horseback for Mansfield with that message in his pocket. At Mansfield he took the train for Cleveland, arriving there at daylight. Hinton was arrested, and bound over for trial. By some unknown miscarriage he escaped the hard clutches of the postal laws. A few years later he was seen in Cuba, where he bore another name, and that ended the whole matter so far as can be learned.
EXPRESS COMPANIES.
On the heels of the swift-flying railroad trains, came the express business, and the organization of numerous "legal robbers," as these soulless corpora- tions have come to be known these latter days. The first to establish a busi- ness in Mt. Vernon was the American company, whose office was kept at the depot, and up to 1873 the station agent was the express agent also. About 1878 the United States company established its local office in Mt. Vernon. However, in 1866 there had been a company, known then as the Merchants, that attempted to do express business here, but failed. Upon the coming of the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Columbus railroad the Union Express Company
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was established in an office in Mt. Vernon, with W. J. Horner as agent. Later he became the only express agent in the city, all employing him to attend to the combined business of all offices.
Late in the seventies, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company con- cluded to control their own express business here and opened an office, with John W. Stephenson in charge.
Among the early and largest shippers by express carriers in Mt. Vernon was George B. Potwin, who was engaged in the produce business. Frequently fifty barrels of eggs were sent by express by him, at one time. He also sent a hundreds tubs of butter to New York markets this same way. But perhaps the most valuable commodity ever sent from here was in Civil war days when on one day fifty thousand dollars in money was sent by the banks here in gold coin billed to the New York city markets. Some brought as high as two dol- lars and eighty-five cents in greenbacks for every dollar in gold.
CHAPTER XI.
EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF THE COUNTY.
Ohio, including Knox county, has always been fully up to the standard of the free, common school system. Her early pioneers came from eastern countries where education was at par, and in settling here in the wilderness they first provided a home and then at once began to erect log schools houses in which was held the subscription school. Elsewhere in this chapter will be given a full account of such schools. Down as late as 1840 there were hun- dreds of little log school houses nestled in the timber and ravines and on the hillsides of this county, and many were used for church purposes as well as for schools. About three months each year was all the farmer boy got of schooling. He had to "do chores" and work on the farm, mostly between the ages of five and twenty-one years. There was no school in the spring or fall, for the student had to help at home. The schools were indeed poor systems, taught by quite inferior teachers, yet they managed to impress many with the notion of gaining knowledge. Their books were anything that the parents thought best to provide them with. The teacher was hired to teach and no question was asked about what kind of books should be taught from. Up to 1850 there was no regular school book system in Ohio, as a general rule. For example, Patrick Gass' "Journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Mouth of the Columbia river in 1804-5-6," and Weem's "Life of George Washington," constituted the "readers." Parents bought children whatever books fitted their fancy, regardless of the value as a text book, and the teach- ers were supposed to let them use them-no matter what number and variety were sent to him from the cabin homes of the district in which he taught. A geography was a geography and a grammar was a grammar-just so the leaves were all in the book. However, the rule was to teach reading, writing. arithmetic and spelling, and later, geography and grammar. Boys would commence and study these books for three months and then work at home nine months and commence in the fore part of the same books again, as usually they had forgotten nearly all they had learned in the previous term, unless exceptionally bright scholars, and these sometimes were allowed to begin part way through the book at the second term.
Teachers changed frequently and this made matters still worse. One student might get as far as "vulgar fractions," or the "rule of three," and in
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Webster's Speller, the first class probably got as far as "antiscorbutic" and maybe through; while the second class would get as far as "cessation," and the third class over to "baker," certainly not farther than "amity." These old books were conned over year after year until literally worn out and the children grown up to be of a marriageable age. Many never did learn what the back part of their first school books contained. Yet these subscription schools cannot altogether be despised when we remember that men like Lin- coln, Douglas, Edwin M. Stanton, etc .. attended such educational institu- tions. In the spelling classes there was always much rivalry to see how many "head marks" could be gained in a given term of three months. Later, the best speller would stand at the head until he or she missed. These classes sometimes contained thirty and even forty scholars, which made it hard work for a pupil to gain the head of his class. The spelling schools were the beauty and real glory of the olden-time country and village school days. Teachers were ever being implored to appoint a given night for a "spelling school." About twice each month this desire was gratified. A moonshiny evening was generally selected, and at a time when good sleighing obtained, when the neighboring schools were invited to take part in the program, especially in "spelling down." Everybody came from far and near; the old folks, the young folks, the children and every dog on the premises followed the jingle of the merry sleigh bells. The great box stove filled up with the best fuel on earth, hickory wood, crackled and sent forth a glow appreciated by all till way along in the program, when the air in the log building became intense. The good spellers were permitted to choose sides, drawing cuts for who should be selected first. A tally sheet was carefully kept to see who missed the most words. After recess the "spelling down" began in earnest, and the home stretch was always interesting. He or she who stood the longest against the jaw-breaking words found in Webster was accounted a hero or heroine indeed.
It is noticed of late years that men and women do not spell as correctly as did their fathers and mothers, and a good feature of this, the first decade of the twentieth century, is the spelling matches which, in many sections of this country, are being revived.
Probably the first school house erected in Berlin township was the one built on the site of Ankenytown, on a lot directly opposite where Mr. Gregor's store was located at one time. John Lewis, a son of Governor Lewis, taught there once. The building was a log house later used as a dwelling. The next school house was placed on land donated by Abraham Leedy.
In Brown township, the first school house, so far as is now known, was built near the village of Jelloway about 1830, and in it Joseph Dunlap taught the first school of the township. The district in which it stood embraced a
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large portion of the township and children of all ages came a long distance through the forests to get an education. This, as nearly all primitive school houses, was also used for a meeting house and for lectures, speeches, singing and spelling schools. Another early instructor there was Joseph Pinkley.
In Butler township, for several years after the beginning of the settle- ment, little attention was paid to schools or churches. The teachers were very illiterate and the school buildings were simply abominable, as viewed from a modern Ohio standpoint. Pioneer George McLarnan once described one of the school houses which he attended when a boy: "It was situated on a knoll about four rods from a fine spring of water in the midst. of a dense forest. It was constructed of round logs, twelve and sixteen feet long, one- story high, with a log across the north end placed four to five feet high from the floor, and about the same distance from the wall, upon which and against the end wall .was erected a large stick chimney, plastered with mortar, joined in a stone back-wall cemented with the same material.
The roof was made of clapboards that were held in their places by weight poles, which in turn were held by a small log, notched into the ends of the top logs, and called a butting pole. Not a single nail was used. Greased paper was employed in place of window glass. The ground floor was com- posed of rough puncheons, faced and jointed by some pioneer with his sharp broad-ax, and then laid upon large logs placed as sleepers. The seats were made from small trees, cut into logs, the proper length, and split in two, the bark taken off, and the other side hewn and made reasonably smooth; two- inch holes were then bored into the ends and middle, into which sticks were placed as legs. Holes were bored into the walls on the west side and south end and large wooden supporters placed therein, upon which were laid boards to write upon; then, to complete the structure, the door was made by cutting a hole in the southeast corner of the house five and one-half feet by three and a half feet ; the same was then cased with timber, split, hewn and shaved and fastened with wooden pins.
Among the first teachers in this district was William Braddock, whose educational qualifications allowed him to "read, write and cipher some," as one of his pupils has related. These rude school houses have all disappeared from the county and instead are to be seen the neat frame or brick buildings with modern furnishings and everything to entice, rather than drive the young from the building as was the case in the olden time-yet many a smart man and woman had the grit to obtain the elements of their later excellent education within the dingy walls of those old log school houses.
Another one of the early teachers in this township was "Judge" Davis, from Maryland. One of his pupils related away back in the eighties the fol-
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lowing concerning him: "He wore linsey-woolsey pants and home-made linen vests, a red flannel wammus, cowhide shoes, the sole and upper leather both of his own tanning, together with overshoes made from sheep skins with the wool on. He was born, reared and educated near Hagerstown, Maryland, emigrated to old Virginia, and from there to Knox county, where he set up as farmer, tanner, politician and school teacher. He was a believer of the Methodist religious faith and in politics voted the good old Democratic ticket, of course, and he was among the best of citizens in the township over which he chiefly presided in official matters. The books used in this school were the "United States Speller," the "Stories of Gulliver's Travels," "Rob- inson Crusoe," lives of Washington, Penn and Marion for reading books Geographies, grammers and higher arithmetics were unknown here then.
In Clay township the first school was taught by an Irishman named Samuel Hill. He taught in a small log building, with greased paper windows. Reading, writing and arithmetic constituted the branches taught. Not over eight scholars ever attended at any one time. The second school in this town- ship was taught in a small log cabin, near the present village of Martinsburg cemetery. In place of such rude places, the township is now dotted with beautiful farm houses and school houses to match.
In Clinton township, in 1880 there were (outside the city of Mt. Ver- non) six fine school buildings which had displaced the few log "shacks" found there in the first decades of the township's settlement.
In Harrison township the first school was taught in a small log building in the Dudgeon settlement. Moses, Jane, Charles and Thomas Dudgeon, John, Charlotte, Levi, David and Elizabeth Harrod, Levi, Mary and John Riggs and Mary Ross were among the scholars. Samuel Hill was among the earlier teachers in this, as well as Clay, Butler and Jackson townships. For many years after the first settlement was effected, schools were either taught in dwellings or in very small log houses built of poles for school purposes. The establishment of the Martinsburg Academy and Kenyon College, both near by, was of lasting use to the youth of Harrison township.
In Howard township the same style of log school house obtained as has been frequently described in other places in this chapter. The earliest of these was built on Joseph Critchfield's farm. The early instructors, "mas- ters," as they were called, were Joseph Dunlap, Nathan Heddington, William Williams and Jacob Lyons. With the building of the college at Gambier, education was soon on an up-grade and has kept apace with Ohio schools everywhere.
In Jefferson township, as in most if not all the townships in Ohio, at that date. the schools were of the "subscription" kind, there not being any
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school fund at that time in Ohio. At first these schools were taught in private houses. The first school house was erected in 1826 on Nicholas Helm's farm. It stood eighty rods west of Greersville and was made from hewn logs. An- other was erected in nearly the center of the township, on Phillip Hardin- ger's farm, and a third was built a few years later near where later still was erected Wesley chapel. These were all log structures. Among the very earliest to teach and flog in these school houses were Elisha Ross, Robert Greer, David Buzzard and Isaac Beann.
In Milford township the first school house of any considerable note was on the extreme northwest part of the southwest quarter of section 9, and near the Johnstown road, about 1829. This was a substantial hewed- log building, twenty-two feet square, with a large fire place and brick chim- ney. Previous to 1830 all schools were supported by private subscription, but at that date a small school fund was provided for by the state of Ohio and districts were ordered set off and a fair school system provided for the people. By 1880 this township had nine school houses of modern style of architecture and accommodations.
In Miller township the early school house facilities were coupled with those of Morgan township, as the settlements were in the corners of the two subdivisions of the county. The first school house in Miller township was erected on the Granville road, a mile north of Brandon. This was a log house built about 1817, erected for the scholars in the northern part of the township. In the spring of 1825 two more schools were added, one on the farm later owned by Dana Miller, a short distance from the road west of his house. The other was on the farm later known as the Lewis Gates prop- erty, about midway between his residence and the cross-roads west of it. Here, as everywhere prior to about 1830, the schools were all supported by private or individual subscription. But about that year the state changed its school laws and an appropriation was allowed from each county for school purposes and districts were organized which were under the immediate con- trol of the township trustees. In 1833 a school house in district No. I was erected and others soon followed, until in 1850 there were nine school houses within the township. In 1853 the Ohio Legislature passed virtually the pres- ent system of school laws and created a board of education for each town- ship, thus making a free instead of a subscription school system.
The first frame school house in this township was erected in 1839 in what came to be styled No. 6 district. This was about a mile and a half south of Brandon and during that year a brick school house was erected in the village of Brandon. The last named was destroyed by a tornado. Things moved along until 1867, when the board of education decided to reduce the
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districts to eight and erect a new building for each sub-district; the houses to be made of brick, twenty-four feet wide and thirty feet long, with ten feet in the clear between floor and ceiling. The first seven of these school houses were built by L. W. Gates and the last by N. W. Buxton. Hence it will be observed that no child growing up within Miller township has ever had to complain of its lack of opportunity of gaining a good common school education.
In Morgan township it is claimed by those who are in a position to know that the first school was taught there by Ziba Leonard, Jr., who later resided in Martinsburg. The school house was a small log building on the old Benjamin Bell farm. It was without floor and had greased paper for window lights. The first school was a summer term and neither teacher nor pupils wore any covering on their feet the entire summer season. Mr. Leon- ard charged a dollar and a half per scholar tuition, and tradition says he never received half of that amount. James Kirkland taught the next school in the township and it is related that every child who was old enough in the township was enrolled and generally attended school. Nearly half a century ago the log school house disappeared and in their place were erected neat frame or substantial brick buildings.
In Morris township the first attempt at schools was in 1812, when Ichabod Marshall taught in a little log house that stood where J. R. Banning's residence was afterward built, on Clinton and Main streets, Clinton village. The second school was taught in a building erected especially for that purpose, northeast of Smith's hotel. Silas Knapp taught there first. As the years went by and the settlement grew, more school buildings were erected in the township and by 1880 there were six modern buildings, all provided with up- to-date teachers.
In Pleasant township the first teacher was William Marquis, who taught a school in a log cabin on the property of James Colville about 1825. The township now has good educational facilities and is fully up to the Ohio standard of public schools.
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