USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > Zanesville > Past and present of the city of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio > Part 40
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The first settler was Archibald Bowles, in 1817, on section 29, on Meigs creek, and who built the first log cabin and planted the first orchard in the township. During 1808-9 Elijah Collins, Jacob Baker, John Bean, Samuel Allen, Andrew Wolf and David Stevens located, the latter build- ing his cabin over a large stump, in section 9, to serve as a table. In 1810 David James located on Collins Fork of Willis creek. The pioneers in industries and improvements were: John P. Far- rell, who opened the first store and built the first frame dwelling house ; Wm. Yanger, frame barn; Casper Hollenbach, opened the first tavern on the Marietta road in 1813 and built the first brick dwelling in 1833; Thomas C. Gilkison, tanner, on Collins Fork, in 1815; Benjamin B. Seamans, wagon maker, on Marietta road; Levi Thomas, blacksmith, on Guist's fork, in 1820; Wm. Dye, distiller : Joseph Keasoner, grist mill, in 1823, on Collins Fork, with one run of buhrs; James Mc- Gleashen, a fulling mill in section 20, in 1829; Jacob Omstott, saw mill, on Meigs creek, in 1832. Israel and Benajah Doan introduced Merino sheep in 1843; Andrew and Hugh Lyons introduced Durham cattle in 1850 and Joseph Taylor brought the first cradle to the township in 1825. The first marriage was John Briggs and Mary Bowles and the first death was a child of Thomas Carlin.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
In illustration of the difference between those days and the present; of the difference between barter and sale, and of the value of roads to reach a market, it is recorded that people carried butter twenty-four miles on horseback and sold it for four cents per pound; a school teacher whose compensation was fifty cents per week in addition to board, was paid in maple sugar and feathers, two articles which were most abundant and which had no local market.
Meigsville was laid out in 1840, by Gilbert Bishop, and in 1846 an addition was made by Wm. Betz.
SCHOOLS.
The first school was taught by Mrs. Harkness, in 1813, on Wills creek, in the northeast portion of the township; there are now nine school dis- tricts, each with a one-room building, valued in the aggregate at $4,000.00 ; eight male and two fe- male teachers are employed, the enrollment being one hundred and sixteen boys and ninety-nine girls.
The color line in the public schools was the cause of considerable excitement in this township in 1845. Aquilla Lett, a quadroon, was a well to do farmer, and large tax payer, and sent his three children to the district school ; wireless telegra- phy could not have disseminated more rapidly the information that there were "niggers" in the school, and the directors immediately instructed Miss Louisa Harmon, the teacher, to place them apart in a corner until a meeting could be held to determine what should be done, but the offen- sive children refused to be set apart, contending they were not "niggers." The next day the di- rectors again called and ordered the teacher to separate them from the white children, which she declined to do for the reason that they were clean, orderly and attentive, and did not deserve to be so humiliated, and also declined to point out the unfortunate pupils. That they were not Africans must, by this time, appear to the reader, and when one of the directors, after scanning the faces, asked the eldest Lett child, "Say, my gal, ain't you one of 'em?" she inquired, "One of what?" and was answered, "Why, Africans." She in- stantly retorted, "No, sir, I am as white as you are," which appears to have been true so far as shade was concerned. He then sought to pick out one and selected the daughter of a fellow di- rector, when the father interposed with "Hold on, that's my gal." The first director then gave up the search and the other tried, and whether from design or accident selected the daughter of the man who had just made a similar error, and the father was compelled to assert her paternity. Finally, the directors cut the knot by discharging the teacher, and a Miss Eliza Wood was engaged. Prompted by their parents the white children be-
gan a system of persecution and intimidation, but the Lett girl was not to be downed in that man- ner, and retorted in kind, and to rid the school of the Lett children it was closed, and reopened ; father Lett had too much white blood in his veins to submit to a denial of education for his children, for which he was paying, and his neighbors be- gan threatening him. The excitement brought out the fact that previous to the Lett incident a school house had been burned to prevent colored children from attending, and the act was condoned on the ground that "niggers knowed too much already," and one old man declared that "niggers didn't need no edication as they didn't have no souls." Under the circumstances father Lett ap- pealed to the courts for protection against per- sonal injury, and in December, 1846, sued the di- rectors for debarring his children from the schools, and won the suit. A separate school was then provided, and in 1853 a separate fund was created for its support, and in 1864 a good frame building was erected.
CHURCHES.
Hopewell. In 1830 the citizens in the south- west portion of the township erected a frame union meeting house, thirty by forty feet, in sec- ton twenty, which was used by all denominations until 1846, when the Presbyterians had about twenty members, and being the most numerous were organized into a church, and the owner of the land deeded the property to the congregation. This condition continued until the Presbyterians erected a church at High Hill, in 1878, when the Methodist Protestants occupied the building but the Presbyterians retained the title. The first cem- etry in the township was attached to this church.
Salem Methodist Episcopal. In 1820 a class of nineteen was organized in section three. and in 1830 a frame meeting house was erected; in 1853 a new frame, forty by fifty feet, was built.
Lytlesburg Methodist Episcopal. A class of thirteen was formed which constructed a frame meeting house, twenty-six by thirty-six feet, in 1854.
Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal, colored. In 1824 a class of thirteen, of whites and blacks, was organized at Lazarus Marshall's, and meet- ings were held at private houses until 1836 when a hewed log meeting house was built in section twenty-four, and styled the Wesley chapel. Soon after objections were made to worshipping with the colored members, and particularly to associ- ating with them in the administration of the Eucharist ; in 1843 twenty-three colored members withdrew and built a log meeting house, twenty- four by thirty, in section twenty-three, which was burned in April, 1854, and in the spring of 1857 a frame church, twenty-eight by thirty-two feet.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
was built on the same ground, and called Pleas- ant Hill. After the colored people withdrew the Wesley chapel gradually declined, and the church was converted into a dwelling.
Ark Spring Baptist. During the winter and spring of 1852 a series of religious meetings was held in school houses, and a class of seven per- sons was formed, and called the western branch of the Brookfield church ; in 1853 a frame meeting house, thirty by forty feet, was built at a cost of $400, and June 25, 1859, a separate church was organized as the Ark Spring Baptist.
SOCIETIES.
Camp No. 5,458, Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, at High Hill, was chartered March 2, 1900, and instituted March 6, by W. A. Gibbons, with fifteen members, and R. J. Richey, venerable con- sul; R. G. Downs, clerk and physician.
MORGAN RAID.
Legends of the incursion of Gen. John Morgan will survive those of the red man in the Muskin- gum valley. Thursday, July 23, 1863, the quiet of Meigs township was destroyed by the roar of artillery and the questions neighbors were asking each other on every hand, what does it mean, was soon answered by couriers hurriedly passing with the exciting warning that John Morgan's rebel cavalry was among them. Horses and valuables were secreted first and then the owners withdrew to infrequented places. Horses, clothing and pro- visions were the only "swag" the raiders desired. and those articles were cleaned from the territory traversed, except at the home of Russell Bethel, who was in the Union army, and whose valuable horse was in the stable. His mother barred the passage to the stable, and the troopers were either too chivalrous or too hurried to dispute with a woman, and the horse did not enter their service. One farmer entertained six of the cavalrymen so generously that they did not accompany their comrades, and their host surrendered them, when they became sober, to the United States' officers, and they sojourned for a season at Camp Chase. Had the citizens of the township been equally hos- pitable the entire command might have been cap- tured.
MONROE TOWNSHIP.
July 2, 1819, the Commissioners made record : "Beginning on the northeast corner of Muskin- gum county, thence west on the line dividing the sixth range, thence south to the line dividing the second and third townships in the sixth range, thence east to the county line, thence north with the county line to the place of beginning." This action was taken in connection with the creation
of Madison township, and the reduction of High- land to its present limits, and the first election was ordered to be held at the residence of James Sprague, but no record remains of the officers then chosen. Monroe township is the original survey of township number three of the fifth range of the United States' military lands ; is five miles square, and is bounded on the north by Coshocton county ; on the east by Guernsey county; south by High- land township and west by Adams township, and was named in honor of the then president of the United States.
Monroe township was visited by white men from Marietta before any settlements were made in the limits of the county ; Nehemiah and Jona- than Sprague, from Marietta, are reputed to have canoed up the Muskingum river and Wills creek after game, when the Indians were in the neigh- borhood, and hostile to the whites. Charles Mar- quand was the pioneer settler, in 1810, on Wills creek, where he built the first cabin, and set out the first orchard; and he and Peter Marquand, in 1819, built a dam across Wills creek to furnish power for a saw mill; in 1829 they opened a card- ing and grist mill at the same point, and in 1834 opened the first store in the township. James Sprague was the next settler, in 1812, coming from Wakatomika to Otsego, and brought the first wagon to the township. Jacob Bainter came in the same year, and his food gave out before a crop had been produced; the wheat was heading, and the family subsisted on the heads, which were rubbed out and eaten with milk, the forest furnishing game in abundance. Henry Brannon was another settler in this year, and one season he killed seven deer from the door of his cabin while they were feeding upon his turnips. Jared Cone settled in section thirteen, in 1813, and John Stoner came in 1814, and settled in the same sec- tion, and his wife opened the first school in the township, in her house. In 1817 Tunis Elson made the journey from about Meadville, Pennsyl- vania, to Wills creek, in a log canoe with his wife and four children, drifting down the Ohio and paddling up the Muskingum and the creek; in 1819 he operated the first grist mill with one run of buhrs, in section one, on White Eyes creek.
Parker Shephardson was the first blacksmith; John Thompson, the first carpenter and Joseph Walker, in 1826, the first tanner. David Richard- son built the first brick house, in section thirteen, in 1819, and opened the first tavern in 1837, and his wife was the second school teacher in the township, conducting the school in their cabin. Martin Richardson built the first frame house in section nineteen, in 1813: in 1817 operated the first saw mill on White Eyes creek, and the first stone dwelling was built by Caleb Buker. The first physician was Dr. Cass, in 1830, and in 1832, Dr. Alonzo DeLaMater was also in practice.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
The first marriage was Samuel Sprague and Mary Smoot, in October, 1820, the first birth was Lavinia Sprague, July 29, 1814, and the first death was Francis Richardson, in 1817, the burial taking place in the first public burial ground south Df Otsego. Thomas McCall introduced the threshing machine in 1835, and John S. Abbott the mowing machine in 1855.
The only village in the township is Otsego, which was laid out in 1838, and named after Ot- sego, New York.
SCHOOLS.
The first school house was erected in section eight, in 1817, and the township is now divided into five school districts, with five buildings con- taining six rooms, and valued, in the aggregate, at $3,000.00; one male teacher in the high school course and five male teachers in the elementary are employed, the enrollment being ninety-nine boys and eighty-eight girls.
CIIURCHES.
Maysville Methodist Episcopal. A class of three families was organized at Hugh Ballentine's house, in 1822, and meetings were held there un- til 1848, when a frame church, thirty by forty feet was built in section five; it was burned in 1854, and rebuilt the same size in 1855. The first burial in the church yard was made in 1841.
Pleasant Valley Methodist Protestant. In 1816 a class of nine was organized at George Bainter's, as adherents of the Methodist Episcopal denomin- ation, but in 1828 it merged with a class of eleven to form a society of Methodist Protest- ants ; the first meeting house was a frame, thirty- five by forty-two feet, built in 1835, which was replaced by one, twenty-eight by seventy feet, north of Otsego.
Otsego Baptist. Forty-two members withdrew from the Adamsville congregation, for conven- ience of worship, and July 20, 1844, formed a new society ; a brick church, thirty by forty feet, was built at a cost of $1,000.00, and in 1869 it was replaced by a larger building, forty by fifty feet, at a cost of $2,500.00.
Otsego Presbyterian. In 1848 a class of six- teen organized the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian church and erected a frame, thirty by thirty-six feet, in section nineteen, on an acre and quarter lot ; in 1849 the name was changed to Otsego, at the time of the union of the divisions of the church.
Union chapel, Methodest Protestant. In 1860 a class of twelve was formed which held meetings at private houses.
SOCIETIES.
John Trimble Post, No. 628, Grand Army of Republic, evinces the patriotism of the "boys" of 1861-65.
MUSKINGUM TOWNSHIP.
September 4, 1817, the Commissioners' journal records that "The second township of the eighth range and so much of the second township of the seventh range as lies west of the Muskingum river is erected into a new township called Muskingum township, and West Zanesville annuled. All that part which was formerly West Zanesville and not included in Muskingum township is attached to Falls township." The present boundaries are, north by Cass and a small fraction of Jackson townships; east by the Muskingum river ; south by Falls township and the Licking river, and west by Licking township. The first election for of- ficers for the new township was held during the latter part of the month of September, but the only name now known of those then chosen is Henry Butler, justice of the peace.
The first white men who located were David Devore and James Beach, in 1797; James Black came in the same year, but was a trapper, and did not settle. Devore first located and erected a log cabin near the Muskingum, but later moved near a stream which bears his name, and 1810 opened his house for the entertainment of travelers, and in 1812 built a crude grist mill, the bolting being done by hand. In 1798 John Bland, Elijah Strad- ley and Ebenezer Ryan were located, and there were others whose names have not been preserved as there are records of the burial of Timothy Prior, 1799, and Jesse Dowell and James Devore in 1800.
Among the early settlers were Elias Hughes and John Ratliff, from the mouth of Licking, who were crowded out of West Zanesville when people began to locate there. Indians were still in the neighborhood, and at times were troublesome, but usually limited their depredations to running off stock and committing other misdemeanors which exasperated the settlers. Occasionally murder was added to their other crimes, and a young woman who was affianced to Hughes met a vio- lent death at their hands ; he and Ratliff had been engaged in many affairs together and they joined in an oath of vengeance. In April, 1800, both suffered the loss of horses and enlisted John Bland in their alliance for Indian blood; a light fall of snow enabled them to trail the thieves and they were followed thirty miles into Knox county, where it was discovered there were only two In- dians, and the sense of honor of having a fair fight asserted itself and lots were cast to determine who should be the avengers, and choice fell on Hughes
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
and Bland. Ratliff accompanied the party as spectator, and creeping stealthily upon their ene- mies Hughes killed one, but Bland's flint lock missed fire and the Indian plead for his life, con- tessed he was a bad Indian, but would be so no more; Ratliff instantly made it possible for him to never violate his vow by shooting him on the spot, and-the horses were recovered.
In 1803, William Bland ; in 1808, Levi Cooper, Samuel McCann and Joseph Spencer, and in 1810 Rev. Joseph Thrapp ; John Dorsey
and Samuel Guest became settlers. In 1812 Rev. Thrapp erected a saw mill and Dalton Lane, a tannery on the Dresden road, and in 1820 the latter conducted a tavern with a special room for guests. The first blacksmith was John M. Lane, prior to 1815, and the first distil- lery was built by Col. George Jackson in 1818, and in 1820 he was engaged in the manufacture of salt near the river; in 1825 Firman Spencer built the first brick house in the township, near Shannon, and in 1845 Robert Welsh opened the first store in the same neighborhood.
SCHOOLS.
The first school was opened in 1815 by one Shutliff in the Pierson school house; there are now eight school districts, each with a one-room building, valued in the aggregate at $3,000.00 and employing four male and four female teachers, the enrollment being ninety-three boys and seventy- eight girls.
CHURCHES.
Methodist Episcopal. A class of four families was organized at the home of Rev. Joseph Thrapp, in 1810, and services have been since conducted and are now held in the Sherrard chapel. Archi- bald McCann, a school teacher, was an earnest worker among the young people, and formed a Sunday school which he held all day for the study of the Bible; during the night of March 29, 1839, he was crossing a bridge at Zanesville, and walked into the canal through the draw, which had been carelessly left open, and was drowned.
Baxter Baptist church was organized with nine members in 1813, and a church was soon after built upon a three acre lot donated for church and cemetery purposes.
The Pierson Presbyterian church was organized in 1814 by a few families: David Pierson and George Welsh donated an acre of ground upon which a church was erected, and a Sunday school was organized in 1849.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was opened at the residence of William Mattingly and mass celebrated in 1834 ; services were held with great regularity at Mr. Mattingly's until the construc- tion, in 1856, of the brick church, thirty-five by
seventy feet, on an acre of ground donated by Mr. Mattingly, who died April 7, 1857, and was the first person to be interred in the cemetery he had provided. Services are regularly held by a priest from Zanesville.
NEWTON TOWNSHIP
is an older corporation than the county, having been formed in the spring of 1802, while the ter- ritory was attached to Washington county ; the first trustees were John Beckwith, Andrew Crooks and Benjamin Redman. The township is now at the southwest corner of the county, being bounded on the north by Hopewell and Springfield town- ships ; east by Springfield and Brush Creek town- ships ; south by Clay township and Perry county and west by Perry county.
It was settled very early and obviously very rapidly ; the first recorded settler was Jacob Smith, who entered the west half of section twenty-three, township fifteen, range fourteen, in 1799, but did not settle on the land until 1802. Andrew Crooks, who came from Virginia, and was the second set- tler at Natchez, was an actual settler, near New- tonville, or White Cottage, in 1800, as were also John Axline and others, and that there were num- erous settlers at this early day is apparent from the provisions made for schools. In 1805 the name of Jacob Baker, Benjamin Croy, David Horn and Peter Fauley are found and a Dr. Kent located near White Cottage, in 1802, but did not remain and no further record of him remains.
Andrew Crooks was a famous hunter and opened his house as a tavern in 1804; the floor was the couch, but an ample supply of skins made it comfortable and restful, and whatever the dor- mitory lacked in accommodations was fully com- pensated in the abundance in food supplies. The traveler of that day valued the quality of the wel- come above the service, and there does not appear to have been any complaint at "Crooks' Tavern." In 1804 Chauncy Ford cared for travelers in the neighborhood of Roseville, now in Clay township.
The first store in the township was opened by Isaac James, on Jonathan's creek ; the first grist mill and saw mill was on the same stream, one mile east of Fultonham, and was operated by Moses Plummer ; the first distillery, a business which ranked second in importance to flouring mills, was conducted by John Leonard, and soon after Anthony Mank was similarly employed ; the first tanner was Benjamin Redman, in 1810, and an early competitor was John Hendricks, on Jon- athan's creek, near Uniontown, where his son, Thomas A., afterward vice president of the United States, was born. The first stoneware pottery was constructed for Joseph Rosier, in 1814, and the second was for A. Ensminger, in 1828; the first blacksmith was Jacob Funk, in 1812, at Ful-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY.
tonham; the first birth was a son to Joseph Car- penter, in 1804, and the second a son to John Crooks, March 20, 1806.
SCHOOLS.
In 1800 Andrew Crooks gave the use of a lot for school purposes and William McElree was teacher; in the same year the Springer school house, on Jacob Springer's land, south of Union- town, was built, and Timothy Wheeler installed as teacher, and about the same time a school house was erected on the Abbott place about half a mile east of White Cottage, with John Mathews as teacher. In 1810 a log cabin was built on the Ran- kin place, with Daniel Poe in charge; the Lamb school house was built near the original Crooks' school, and was succeeded by the Walpole school, in the Athens' road, and about the same time a school house was erected in the Maysville pike, one mile west of White Cottage; and in 1818 a school was organized at Fultonham. These were all subscription schools and the first common, or public, school was opened at Fultonham, in 1848, under the supervision of Rev. William Ferguson, who was president of the school board.
At present the township has one special and thirteen regular school districts; the Fultonham special district has one building of three rooms, valued at $8,000.00, with two female teachers, in elementary grades, and one male in high school, and an enrollment of seventy-six boys and sixty- two girls. The thirteen regular districts have an aggregate of thirteen houses, containing fourteen rooms, of a total value of $8,000.00, with ten male and four female teachers, and an enrollment of two hundred and fifteen boys and one hundred and seventy-five girls.
FULTONHAM ACADEMY.
In 1870 Drs. E. Van Atta and O. M. Norman and Mr. Jeremiah Zeigler, directors of the special school district, and Mr. A. W. Search, teacher in the public schools, organized the Fultonham Academy, and incorporated it under that title in 1880 with Rev. B. F. Thomas, president ; E. Van Atta, M. D., vice president ; D. W. Parks, secre- tary and principal ; George Axline, treasurer, and W. H. Bugh, Charles E. Weller, George W. Faut- ley and James Cusac, incorporators. A two- story brick building, with basement forty by sixty feet, was erected upon a one-acre lot at a cost of $10,000.00.
FULTONIIAM,
or Uniontown, was laid out in 1815 by John Por- ter and Henry Hummel, several houses having already been erected, the first store and tavern being kept by John Porter. In 1835 Andrew Du-
gan, tanner, Caleb Hitchcock, merchant, and Sto- fel Lenhart, saw mill, were the local industries. The first cemetery in the township was set apart at Fultonham, in 1836, and the first burial in it was the body of Thomas Hardy, May 19, 1835.
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