USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > Portrait and biographical record of Guernsey County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States > Part 69
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The first Presbyterian Church was erected in 1833. It remained for several years in an un- finished condition. The first Sunday-school was organized here in 1836, and was undenomina- tional.
Among the interesting reminiscences of the olden times, we cite that of Dixon Sugar Camp. One season old Harvey was running the camp. Ile used for the back wall of his fire a large poplar tree, the kettles being suspended over the fire by the use of poles and forks. One morning after Harvey had started up his fire and was busily en- gaged in gathering the sap, he was surprised to see a large black bear drinking his syrup from one of the kettles. The bear had taken up quarters in a
log. IIe was disposed to take the camp, Harvey and all, and was for a time master of the situation, for IIarvey returned to town as fast as he could. IJe reported to John Dixon that the bear had taken possession and was eating all the sugar and drinking the syrup. Dixon was an old hunter. He hurried on to the camp and shot bruin as he was standing up at one of the kettles, trying to get at the foaming syrup.
Sol Kinney, an old colored man, made a record as a traveler in the '40s. He wanted to ride from Zanesville to Cambridge without paying the price of the passage. The driver wouldn't take him, wherenpon he said he would beat the coach. Down the hills and stretches the coach-and-four held him close, but on the heavy up-grades Sol gained, and when the coach pulled up at the Huteh- ison Ilouse Sol was voting himself a good winner.
MILLWOOD TOWNSHIP.
The first settlement in Millwood Township was inade by Joseph Williams, who came from New Jersey with a large family in 1804. He settled in what is now the northwest corner of the town- ship, on the farm occupied by his descendants. Au- gust 4, 1806, Jolin IIall, of Wayne County, N. C., began work on the northeast quarter of section 13, Millwood Township. Ile settled on the site of the present residence of Eli Hall's family. Ever after he was intimately connected with the affairs of the community. Soon after John Webster and his brother-in-law, Henry Sidwell, came here from Lancaster County, Pa., on horseback, with a view to a permanent residence. Mr. Sidwell entered three hundred and twenty acres of Congress land, and afterward settled on the part of it now known as the Flood Farm. John Webster, a carpenter by trade, came from Lancaster County, Pa., and en- tered eight hundred acres in Millwood Township, or eighty acres for each of his ten children, and moved here in the autumn of 1806. They built a large two-story hewed-log .house, it being the first
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house of more than one story in this part of the country. It stood about eighty rods east of the present railroad station at Quaker City, and was torn down to make way for the railroad. Jolın Webster in 1807 turned his attention to the build- ing of a grist and saw mill on Leatherwood Creek, a little above the railroad bridge south of Quaker City. This was finished the same fall, and was the first mill erected in the valley of Leatherwood, and probably in Guernsey County. It was a great blessing to the settlers in the community, for be- fore this crop of corn, in 1807, they were com- pelled to go east of Barnesville for the corn, and then take it to Morristown, eighteen iniles distant, to be ground in a mill run by horse power. Mr. Webster, who died soon after the completion of his mill, about eighteen months after coming to Ohio, left nine children, and was the founder of all the Webster families of this vicinity. He was the first person to die in this community, and was buried on his own farm, there being no burying- ground at that time. In the same year, 1806, Michael King, of Lancaster County, Pa., settled a little north of the present residence of Thomas Webster, on one hundred and sixty acres of land he had previously entered.
The first improvement on the present site of Quaker City was made by Joseph Rogers, who came from Pennsylvania in 1811. February 8, 1847, the first charter was granted for a railroad in eastern Ohio, known as the Central Ohio Rail- road, commencing at Columbus and extending eastward through Newark and Zanesville to the Ohio River. April 26, 1854, it was opened for travel to Cambridge, and on the evening of Au- gust 26 the first locomotive ascended the Leather- wood Valley to the cut west of Millwood, now Quaker City, and, in addition to a partial load of iron and ties, unloaded several cars of logs upon the farm of John S. Smith, now owned by Thomas Webster. This was the first freight ever carried by railway in Millwood Township or the eastern half of Guernsey County. The early settlers of Millwood Township, with few exceptions, were members of the Society of Friends, and in 1812 a log meeting-house was built on their present loca- tion near Quaker City. Here a school was soon
after established, probably in 1813, which was the first school taught between Barnesville and Cam- bridge. The first teacher was Samuel King. He was succeeded by Joseph Garrettson, and after- ward by William Mott. A term of three months was usually taught each winter.
John Hall, upon coming to Millwood Township, began clearing for a house on the northeast quar- ter of section 13, and had the ground cleared and was ready to raise in four days. The first night he spent under a white oak tree near the building.
In the summer of 1838 Dr. T. J. Romans taught a subseription school in a building which stood where W. H. Hartley & Sons' hardware store now stands. In September, 1838, he taught a school on the hill sontheast of town, where the Friends' Meeting-house now stands. Thomas Dillehey was the first school teacher who was paid ont of pub- lie funds, in 1839.
Among the early settlers of Millwood Township were Joseph Williams and family, who came from New Jersey about the year 1805. In their New Jersey home they lived neighbors to Joseph Bona- parte, a brother of Napoleon.
Joseph Rogers, a brother-in-law of Michael King, moved from Nottingham, Md., and settled on the southwest quarter of section 20, township 9, it be- ing the tract on which Quaker City now stands. He lived here for a number of years, and his fa- thier-in-law, Jacob Gatehel, was the first person buried in the Friends' Burying-ground at Rich- land Meeting-house.
Michael King and family came to Ohio from Lancaster County, Pa., in the autumn of 1806, and settled on section 20, Millwood Township, west of where Quaker City now stands. They were the parents of eight children.
Isaac Copick came from Lancaster County, Pa., and settled north of Michael King.
Henry Baily and family came to Ohio from North Carolina at an early period, and settled on section 1, Millwood Township.
These families before mentioned comprised the first meeting of Friends in this part of the country, which took place about the year 1811. This meet- ing was held at the home of John Hall for more than a year, and was the only place where people
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assembled for worship in the whole neighborhood, so all the inhabitants for some distance around used to meet with the Friends for a social and re- ligious time, and afterward there was a mid-week meeting established. Most of the meetings were held in silence, a living silence being thought pref- crable to an uncertain sound. The Friends hold themselves amenable to the civil laws of their country so far as those laws do not conflict with the rights of conscience or the known laws of God, written in the heart and manifested in the understanding. They believe that no statute or human law is, or should be, binding that has for its object the promotion of war, either offensive or defensive, or that imposes any military perform- ance, such as training for or learning the arts of war, or that assesses a fine instead thereof. So when the War of 1812 broke out, they refused to take a hand in the conflict, and consequently were sub- ject to fines, and the depredations imposed upon these good and quiet people in the name of the law is almost too villainous for repetition. These fine-collectors were cold-blooded, hard-hearted vil- lains. They collected fines and plundered in the name of the law, and appropriated the amounts to themselves. Charles Hammond, a shrewd lawyer of Belmont County, and also editor of the Bel- mont Journal, took up his pen in defense of the good Quakers, and proclaimed the villainy of these illegal collections. Elijah Dyson, Sheriff of Guern- sey County, who during his first term of office had served with credit, became during his second term reckless both with his private affairs and in per- formance of his official duties. Although he had always been an apparent friend to the Quakers, and had often accepted their hospitality, he now joined their enemies, and by his superior knowl- edge, together with a natural cunning and treacli- ery, soon worked incalculable injury to them.
QUAKER CITY.
In 1804 John Hall came with his father's family from Wayne County, N. C., and settled with them near what is now Barnesville, Belmont County.
Two years later he entered the land about Spencer Station, just east of Quaker City, thus becoming the first who acquired a title to land in this part of Millwood Township. In October of the same year, John Webster settled himself in the valley of Leatherwood Creek, entering many acres of its fertile hills and bottom lands. The families of these two pioneers inter-married in one or two in- stances, and are both represented in the neighbor- hood of Quaker City.
Jolin Ilall died May 22, 1852. Cyrus IIall was the first white child born in Millwood Township, and he was born May 31, 1808.
A few other families joined the infant colony in what is now Millwood Township during the years from 1806 to 1818; and tradition has it that a log schoolhouse was built in 1810 by the road- side on what is now called Walnut Street, a street that has practically fallen into disuse, running parallel with Main Street, higher up on the hillside north of it. Here a school was taught in the ap- proved style of those days, when discipline was enforced by the systematic application of the rod. No especial change seems to have taken place in the few following years up to 1818. Jonah Smith's father came from Loudoun County, Va. and settled near Barnesville, and some, time after- ward entered one hundred and sixty acres of land on the present site of Quaker City, which he gave to his son. Jonah Smithi took possession of his wil- derness farm in 1818, or shortly previous, and built a log cabin in what is now the eastern suburb. This cabin has since been incorporated with the old house where the roads fork in the eastern part of the town, and has been disguised with a cover- ing of boards, so that it passes for a one-story at- tacliment to the main building. The fine spring of pure water just north of Main Street doubtless determined the location of the cabin. Mr. Smith gave the name of Millwood to his wilderness home in memory of his old Virginia residence. Early in the history of the place Jolin Webster built a mill (1806 or 1807), which has long since disap- peared. In the chronicles of the place, which are mostly traditional, the family of Noah Hartley is said to have joined the colony in 1827. This fam- ily, like the Smiths, Websters, Halls and Doudnas,
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still hold their own among the many who have since crowded into the fertile valley.
More population came and clustered about the place, until in 1834 Jonah Smith laid out the town of Millwood. The plat consisted of what is now Main and Pike Streets, Main Street running almost east and west, lapping over the point of the hill and hugging close to its steeper part, joined to what is now called Pike Street, in the lower ground to the west of the town. There seems to have been a few log cabins scattered along East Main Street, but as yet the place gave no signs of future greatness. In 1831 the Friends had built a meet- ing-house on the low hill east of the town, which burned and was rebuilt in 1834. In 1835 the Methodists built a log church on Walnut Street, so that the place was provided with two places of worship, a schoolhouse and a mill near by. In the same year Dr. E. Williams built the first frame house, on East Main Street, and occupied it as a residence. Through his efforts, a postoffice was established here, in a small building still standing on East Main Street, and Jonah Smith was ap- pointed Postmaster. To make sure that the Post- master should have something to do, a weekly Inail service was secured, and Dr. Williams sub- scribed for a Philadelphia weekly paper, which was the only one taken in the place. One, how- ever, was sufficient, for the whole reading popula- tion perused it carefully in turn. Meanwhile Mr. Smith had built a more pretentious house at the forks of the road, and afterward sold or rented it to James Pyles, who opened the first hotel in the place in 1837. Mr. Smith had also been elected Justice of the Peace, an office he held for fourteen years.
The town seems to have taken a boom in 1837. A hotel had been opened and six additional houses built during the year. In 1839 Isaac W. Hall started a general store in a building erected for the purpose, a short distance west of where the bank now stands. He opened his store for busi- ness on election day, 1839. The population of the United States in 1840 was 17,068,666, but what portion of these resided in Millwood is not accur- ately known. It was probably much less than one hundred. The event of 1841 was the erection of
a brick house by J. Rodgers. This is the house now occupied by B. I. Johnson. Here a Miss Sarah Beall opened the first millinery store in Millwood, in 1842. In 1844 came the fulling-mill and card- ing-machine, built by Thomas Moore. In 1845 came Richard English, the first blacksmith, who began business where the bank building now stands. and the same year came Dr. T. J. Romans. The population in 1845 was about one hundred and fifty. In 1848 James Cleves established the first saddler-shop. March 22, 1850, Millwood was in- corporated, and by an act of the Legislature, April 12, 1871, the name was changed to Quaker City. Pennington Scott was elected first Mayor, and Thomas Moore was elected second Mayor. No record was left of the town Officials from that time until the name of the town was changed, in 1871. In 1854 the building of the Eastern Olio Rail- road gave a stimulus to the place, but from 1855 to 1870 the town kept going back. The year 1870 witnessed the arrival of Alexander Cochran. He bought property and laid out what was known as "Cochran's Addition" or Broadway. The Chris- tian Church erected a brick structure on Broad- way in 1874, and Mr. Cochran built the Beecher House, a large three-story hotel building, in 1875, and also the large three-story frame building known as the Cochran Block, corner of South Street and Broadway. The first fair was held in 1871 and was a success. After two or three years of fairs, the town seemed to demand more room, so the fair grounds were laid out in town lots and Fair Street opened. The Mayors of recent years have been: W. H. Hartley, 1871; J. C. Steel, 1872; G. W. Arnold, 1873; J. B. Lydick. 1874 to 1884; L. J. Ileskett, 1884 to 1886; and David Scott, 1886. The Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Masons, Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of Veterans, and Independent Order of Good Templars are the secret societies.
THE CHURCHES.
From the beginning this was a Quaker neighbor- hood. The Halls planted the church here in the wilderness in the beginning of the century, and they still maintain a meeting-house near the city, and have a good society. The Methodists have been here from an early day. Their present build-
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ing, which was erected in 1871, was dedicated October 3 of that year, by Rev. J. C. Pershing. It stands on the corner of Pike and Main Streets.
The Christians have been here for a long time. In 1859 they had a building in the eastern sub- urbs of the town, which was dedicated by A. E. Myers, of Bethany, W. Va. This was abandoned in March, 1875, for the neat brick church on the corner of South Street and Broadway.
THE SCHOOLS.
The Quaker City schools are on a very high plane of excellence. Prof. W. H. Gregg is Prin- cipal, and is assisted by a thorough and painstak- ing corps of teachers. The new school building was erected in 1878, at a cost of $15,500. It con- tains six large rooms and stands at the corner of South and Fair Streets. The grounds are ample.
THE NEWSPAPER.
The Quaker City Independent was established in 1875 by J. D. Olmstead & Son. In 1882 it was bought by its present proprietors, J. W. & A. B. HIill, who were then the youngest newspaper firm in the state. It is especially devoted to the inter- ests of the town, and under the management of the present owners it is prosperous and has become a permanent fixture.
THIE LEATIIERWOOD GOD SUPERSTITION.
The following is an account of the appearance and pretensions of Joseph C. Dylks in Guernsey County in 1828. Religious impostors have flour- ished in almost every portion of the historic period, and these religious cheats have always found ready subjects. Such an impostor was Joseph C. Dylks, whose advent, teachings, etc., are here truthfully rehearsed:
In August, 1828, a camp-meeting was held on the land of one Casper Overley, two and a-half miles north of Salesville, in the vicinity of the Methodist Episcopal Chapel, called Miller's Meet- ing-house, under the auspices of the United Breth- ren Church. On Sunday the attendance was very large. The Rev. John Crum, Presiding Elder, ad- dressed the congregation at the afternoon service. He had proceeded half-way in his discourse, and had the entire attention of his audience, when
during a solemn silence a tremendous voice shout- ed, "Salvation!" followed instantly by a strange sound, likened by all who heard it to the snort of a frightened horse. The minister was taken by surprise and stopped preaching. All eyes were turned to the spot whence the sound seemed to proceed, and were fixed on a stranger of odd ap- pearance seated about midway in the congrega- tion. He sat steadfastly in his seat, with a coun- tenance of marked solemnity, and totally unmoved by the excitement he had produced. That stranger was Joseph C. Dylks, the noted "Leatherwood God." The shout and snort of Dylks are de- scribed by every one who heard them as imparting to all within their sound both awe and fear. Some of the men jumped to their feet, women shrieked, and every cheek blanched. No one had seen him enter. Dylks appeared to be between forty-five and fifty years old, five feet eight inches tall, and as straight as an arrow, with large flashing eyes and a mass of hair that reached nearly to the mid- dle of his back. His face was pale and tinged with melancholy. His acquaintance was sought by members of the congregation, and he visited much among them, and sometimes led at the ineetings in the temple. In three weeks he quietly mnade pros- elytes and then announced himself "God." Strange to say, so many believed that the Dylksites got possession of the temple. Religious fanaticism never spread faster, and even Rev. Samuel Davis and Rev. John Mason were led astray. Dylks' star, however, which had rushed to the zenith so rap- idly, shortly began to wane. The unbelievers called for a miracle as evidence of his truth, but as none came they grew bolder, and as he liad stated that no one could take a single hair from his head, he was knocked down by a party and a handful of hair removed. He was then taken before Esquire Omstot at Washington, but managed to escape and ran out of the Esquire's office and up the pike, followed by a shower of stones thrown by the angry mob. He was afterward concealed by some who believed him to be their "God," and, strange to say, proselytes were more numerous than ever. In October, however, he left with three of the better class of his converts on a journey to Philadelphia, whither he promised to bring down
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from heaven the "Celestial City." When near Philadelphia he disappeared and they returned home. He was never seen afterward, but the Dylksites never lost their faith in him.
LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP.
The original proprietor of the township was Robert Wilkin, who emigrated from the North of Ireland in 1807, and settled on the present site of the town. The town, however, was not laid out until in August, 1815, when fifty-six lots were surveyed, with a ten-rod square in the center, called the "Diamond," which is not visible at the present day. Many of the settlers followed Mr. Wilkin from the North of Ireland, and then the town was laid out. They called it Londonderry, in honor of or for some fancied resemblance to the city of that name in the Old Country. The town- ship, which was organized June 3, 1816, is included in one of the seven ranges of land to which the Indian titles were extinguished by the treaty of Ft. Stanwix. October 27, 1784, and when the land office was opened at Steubenville. It: 1801 the Government proceeded to open up these lands to entry and settlement. As emigrants from Penn- sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ireland and Scot- land were flocking into the country in great num- bers, and as the roads were of primary necessity, one was located and blazed from Steubenville to Zane's Crossing, which, as we know, struck Zane's Trail at Cambridge, forming the route of what has since become the Cambridge, Cadiz and Steuben- ville free turnpike.
In 1801 Edward Carpenter, a son of John Car- penter, one of the pioneers who crossed the Ohio River in 1781 and built what was known as Car- penter's Fort, a short distance aboye where the town of Warrenton now stands, took a contract for cutting out eighteen miles of this road, extending west from Big Stillwater to within seven or eight miles of Cambridge, for which he received the sum of $300. The road, as then opened, passed through
the present site of Londonderry, to which Mr. Carpenter afterward removed in 1807 and entered the northeast quarter of section 26, which is still owned by his son, Edward Carpenter, who was born in 1802, and was only five years of age when his father removed to the place, then an almost un- broken wilderness, abounding in wild game, espe- cially deer, "bar," wolves and turkeys, which con- stituted their principal reliance for subsistence for some years afterward.
Some idea of the quantity of the game then found in the Stillwater hills and valleys may be formed from the fact that during the fall and winter of 1812 Mr. Carpenter killed thirty-five deer and his son George forty-four deer and one "bar." They were also very much annoyed by wolves, which were not only numerous, but trouble- some, and as the Government paid a bounty of $4 for wolf scalps and the county $2, trapping for them was quite a business.
The school facilities at that time were limited, hut about 1819 or 1820 they sneceeded in employ- ing Robert Jamison, an Irish schoolmaster, who taught the first school ever opened in London- derry, and to the support of which Mr. Carpenter paid $36 a quarter, and Mr. Wilkin and others no doubt were equally as liberal. The fact that the characteristics of the first settlers often remain impressed upon communities for years is strongly exemplified in the history of Londonderry, and the industry, integrity, morality and rigid exact- ness of the Irish and Scotch Presbyterians have ex- erted an influence that is yet apparent in that community, and has no doubt contributed much to the temporal prosperity and religious character of the people.
WHEELING TOWNSHIP.
The township of Wheeling was organized Sep- tember 5, 1810, and an election for two Justices of the Peace ordered to be held at the house of Will- iam Gibson Saturday, September 15, 1810. It was
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Bo named by Robert Atkinson, John Hedge, Paul Dewit and others, who had removed into the lo- cality from the east side of the Ohio River, some miles above Wheeling. The township at its organ- ization included the territory now forming Liberty Township, and the place of election was the old Gibson residence, on the cast bank of Wills Creek, opposite the present village of Liberty. How long this continued cannot now be determined, as the Commissioners' journal does not show when Lib- erty Township was organized; but April 8, 1819, it was ordered that the south row of sections in the third township and third range be stricken off Wheeling Township and attached to Cambridge. The organization of Liberty must have taken place some time between the date last named and the 3d of December, 1822, as on the latter date it was ordered that the south row of sections in the fourth township and third range be stricken from Wheeling and attached to Liberty Township.
The first, settler was Robert Atkinson, who set- tled on section 21', but somebody from Belmont County, Ohio, entered the quarter-section before Atkinson, whereupon lie moved across Wills Creek and located on a part of the same section. At this time his only neighbor was a man by the name of Bird, who had located at the big spring where John Booth afterward lived, and where he had built a shanty and cleared off a small piece of ground; this was eight miles distant and is across the line in Tuscarawas County. This man Bird had no family and less principle, as the sequel well shows. Atkinson's wife died while thus liv- ing, and Bird and some Indians living in huts along the creek bottom helped him to bury her; and then Atkinson got Bird to take care of his property while he went back to Virginia for an- other wife. During his absence Bird took a canoe which Atkinson kept in the small creek, filled it with the most valuable goods taken from Atkin- son's cabin, then passed down the stream into Wills Creek, thence into the Muskingum River and dis- appeared, never being heard of after passing Zanes- ville. Hence the stream is called Bird's Run to this day.
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