The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 58

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017

USA > Ohio > Tuscarawas County > The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio > Part 58

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FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.

before 1820, and his widow and child returned to Stark County. George Wal- lick, a Pennsylvanian, was an early settler, and the first tanner in Franklin. He purchased and occupied until his death, fifty acres in the western part of Section 19, now the Eberly place. Jehiel Savidge, a native of Connecticut, came from Portage County in 1818, to the plains about a mile north of Stras. burg, possessing a faith in the value of this soil, which was ridiculed by many of his neighbors, but which proved in the end to be well founded.

The first and for many years the only schoolhouse in the township stood on the Eberly place. It was a little round-log cabin. one end of which was filled by a large fire-place and chimney. The seats were only slabs. The building was built in 1816. Mr. McCarter was the first teacher; David Teeters fol- lowed bim. The Bible and the United States Speller, were the principal text books. One of the early teachers possessed an arithmetic, a copy of the " Western Calculator," which did good service in teaching the youth to cipher.

John Aultman built the first grist mill in the township. on Sugar Creek. about one and a half miles south of Strasburg. After his death, George Welty operated it. Being burnt. it was rebuilt by the Winkelpleck brothers, subsequently owned by Daniel Garber, Henry Beck, Mr. Burnett, of Dover, and at present by Rath & Syler. It is a good custom mill, contains three buhrs, and has been recently repaired. Philip Yerkey built the mill on Sugar Creek one mile north of Strasburg, about forty years ago. Michael Eberly was the second owner, and he sold it to Frederick Hartline, who now operates it. Philip Trapp erected a grist and carding mill many years ago, about a half mile south of Strasburg. It has been abandoned for a long time, but a saw mill is still in operation.

Michael Kohr started the first distillery in 1818. Wilson & Griffith then operated one on the Zimmerman, and soon after John and Jacob Garber, Isaac Deardorff and others. manufactured spirits in considerable quantities. The de- mand for whisky was great for home consumption. It was the popular bever- age, cheap, and as many thought, essential to health and happiness.

Christian Deardorff built and operated for many years a carding and saw mill at the Falls of Sugar Creek, in the northwestern part of the township. A natural waterfall of several feet is found here, and this distance was doubled by the construction of a dam. Before the railroad was built, this locality was pleasure resort of considerable note. It is a beautiful spot, and a hotel was kept close by to provide for the material needs of visitors.

The earliest attempt at town making in Franklin was in 1816, when Christian Deardorff and James Clark laid out Milton. a short distance above Sugar Creek Falls. The plat embraced fifty six lots and six outlots. It pros- pered for a brief season, containing at one time perhaps ten houses, but Wil- mot was founded about two miles above, in Stark County, and its growth proved the ruin of Milton.

Strasburg, the next and only present village of the township, lies in the eastern part of the township, west of Sugar Creek, and has a population of about 200. It is a quiet country trading place, though in former days it ob- tained a notoriety for the boisterous, rollicking element wont to congregate here. The village was laid off on the northwest quarter of Section 21, Town- ship 10, Range 3, by Jonathan Folck. in February, 1828. It embraced forty-seven lots, ranged on both sides of Main street, which extended north fifteen degrees west, and south fifteen degrees east. Main street is four perches wide, and is intersected by Cross, North and South streets. In 1874, Rudolph Kapitzky laid out an addition of eight lots between Cross and South streets, and east of the original plat. The proprietor, Folck, owned the quar- ter section upon which the village was located, and lived east of the plat, near

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the creek. Christian Metzgar built the first house. He was a weaver by trade and occupation. Frederick Harbaugh was probably the second citizen. He was a carpenter, a Justice of the Peace, and afterward owned a small store. Timothy Bacon was, however, the first store-keeper. He obtained a small stock of goods from Mr. Graham. a Dover merchant, and sold them on com. mission. A little later he purchased the Folck farm. After Bacon and Har- baugh, a Mr. Ross brought a general line of merchandise to the village and was a merchant for a number of years. Frederick Harbaugh was the first Post. master. Timothy Bacon and Henry Fansler were his successors. Philip A. Garber is the present mail official. Joseph Stout and Christian Sees were early residents. The latter was a grocer, and the former opened and operated a tannery for many years. Quite a list of physicians have hung out "a shin- gle," but most of them made a very brief sojourn. John Welty practiced for a few years, and Drs. Smith and Jacob McGie succeeded him. Dr. Goudy is the present and sole practitioner.

At present Strasburg contains two dry goods stores, one notion store, one brewery, three saloons, two hotels, three wagon shops, two blacksmith shops. two shoe shops, a meat market, a cabinet shop, a school, a church and a rail- road. The Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling connects it direct, with Dover. New Philadelphia and Uhrichsville. The schoolhouse is a two-story brick structure, and a model of architectural beauty. It contains four apartments. but two of which are in use, and was erected in 1881, at a cost of $5,000.

The church edifice in Strasburg is the property of the United Brethren society. It is a frame building 34x44 feet, and was built about 1853, at an expense of $1,200. Prior to this, the society had held services in a union church, built in 1833, one-half mile north of the village. The United Breth. ren, Methodists and Lutherans contributed to its erection. The earliest meet- ings of the United Brethren society were conducted at private houses. The earliest membership included Abraham Forney, John Forney, George Sees, Christian Gnagy, Benjamin Gundy and John Shisler. Abraham Forney. Mathias Burchfield and Christian Gnagy were early local preachers. Among the earliest ministers were Revs. Joseph Gundy, George Pfrimer, George Krum and Jacob Winters. Rev. B. F. Booth is the present minister. The congregation exceeds 100 members.

Scarcely a half mile north of Strasburg, stands St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is a neat, commodious frame structure, built in 1854 Two congregations worship here, the German and the English Lutheran. The building occupies the site of the old Union Church, built nearly twenty years earlier. It was about that time that the Lutheran congregations were formed. Rev. Gollister was the first German minister and Rev. Abraham Snyder the first English Lutheran. Among the earliest members were George Wallick. Isaac Deardorff and George Welty. The German Lutheran congregation is the stronger of the two, numbering perhaps 150 members. Near the south west corner of Franklin Township is an Evangelical English Lutheran Church. where a large congregation now worships. Rev. W. L. Tedrow is the present pastor. The society is quite an old one.

About two and one-half miles west of Strasburg, on School Lot No. 1, is a small Dunkard, or German Baptist, house of worship, where occasional serr. ices are held. They were commenced here but a few years ago, and the mem- bers in the vicinity are few.

The earliest preaching in the township was probably by Rev. J. B. Finley. of the Methodist Church, in 1809. He had a very extended circuit, but made an appointment for divine services at Sugar Creek Falls. His pulpit was a large stump in a clear patch of ground, surrounded by plum thickets. During

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the sermon, his congregation would not come forth from behind the bushes, and the zealous minister had the novel experience of speaking apparently to the open air. A second appointment was made, and this time the assembling people threw off their shyness and bravely faced the pioneer missionary. The preaching, however effective, did not result in the formation of a class. A Methodist society was organized however a few years later in the southwestern part of the township, and about 1820 a log meeting house was built on the John Casebeer farm, northwest quarter of Section 12. Mr. Casebeer, John and Richard Burrell and others were members. Preaching was continued for nearly twenty years, when the church was abandoned and has long since dis- appeared.

A Winebrennerian Church formerly stood on School Lot 21, in the south- west part of the township. It was built largely through the efforts of Andrew Swinehart and Mr. Keplinger. The membership of the congregation was not large, and services ceased here years ago.

CHAPTER VIII.

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.

ERECTION-BOUNDARIES-SURFACE FEATURES-PRODUCTS-FIRST SETTLERS-MILLS, SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-PLEASANT VALLEY-PHILLIPSBURG-JUSTICES.

J EFFERSON TOWNSHIP was formed from Bucks and York March 7, 1837. Its bounds were then established as follows: Commencing at the southwest corner of Township 7, Range 3; thence east to the southeast corner of the same township; thence north to the northeast corner of the fourth quarter of the same; thence west to the southeast corner of Lot 17, in the first quarter of Township 7, Range 3; thence north to the northeast corner of Lot 21 in the same quarter; thence west to the line between the first and second quarters of the same township; thence north to the northeast corner of the northwest quarter of Section 18, Township 8, Range 3; thence west to the line between Ranges 3 and 4; thence south to the place of beginning. It included besides the greater part of what now constitutes Jefferson a large portion of Eastern Auburn. It is now bounded as follows: On the north by Auburn and York, on the east by York and Clay, on the south by Salem, and on the west by Bucks. The southern part of Jefferson is mostly the south half of Township 7, Range 3, which is Congress land, twelve and one-half sections in all. The northern portion of Jefferson is military land, and includes forty-nine of the eighty 100-acre lots, which form the northern half of Township 7, Range 3. Besides these there are ten 100-acre lots in the soutbeast part of the township, off the third quarter of Township 7, Range 2.

One continuous sweep of high and rolling hills is the characteristic feature of Jefferson's topography. Stone Creek is the principal stream, though its banks can anywhere in the township be overstepped at a single bound. It takes its source in the southwestern part of the township and threads its way in a northeasterly course into York Township. Old Town Creek is the next stream in importance. Its origin is in the southern part of the township, and its course is east of and parallel with Stone Creek. Buckhorn and Evans' Creeks rise in the sonthern part of the township, and flow southward. These

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HISTORY OF TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.

streams, with their numerous little tributaries penetrate the township in all directions, a id are usually accompanied by beautiful but narrow little valleys which break the monotony of the hills and afford the township many level roads. The Cleveland & Marietta Railroad crosses the township from north to south. It ascends Stone Creek Valley, and a mile south of Phillipsburg crosses the ridge to Buckhorn Valley through a tunnel 900 feet long.

An abundant supply of excellent timber, including white, red, black and swamp oak. poplar, hickory and black and white walnut, covered hill and dale, but the greater portion of it has long ago been felled. The soil is chiefly argillaceous, with a slight admixture of sand. In the bottoms the blue clay predominates. Wheat is the principal crop, and much corn and hay are pro- duced.

There are five dairies in the township, conducted on the co-operative sys- tem, where Swiss cheese is manufactured in large quantities. It finds a ready market and is shipped to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and other distant points. Coal of excellent quality is found plentifully in veins ranging from two to three feet in thickness, and is mined for home consumption. There are also rich deposits of black-band and kidney iron ore in the township, and some of them are now mined for the Dover blast, furnace.

The settlers of Jefferson Township have been of two general classes, Penn- sylvania Germans and Germans newly arrived from the fatherland. The former class was the first to take possession of the sweeping hills of the town- ship. Many of them came directly from their homes in Pennsylvania, while others tarried for a period in Eastern Ohio before locating here. They were, as a rule, poorly supplied with this world's goods, and consequently theirs was a life of toil and privation. Yet they possessed advantages superior to those pioneers who first peopled the surrounding townships on account of the later . period at which Jefferson was settled. The universal rule in new settlements, in accordance with which they began at the mouths of the larger water-courses and gradually ascended the various branches. left this township uninhabited, until the deep, woody recesses on all sides of it had become the homes of sturdy pioneers. for Jefferson is located at the head-waters of some of the smallest streams in the county. It was as late as 1827 that the stillness of its solitudes was first broken by the sound of the woodman's ax. At that time the Ohio Canal was in process of construction and afforded the first pioneers of Jefferson the opportunity of laboring for ready money on this public highway within a few miles of home. There was scarcely a half dozen families in the township before the canal was completed, and the great advance in the price of grain instantly stimulated the settlement of this adjacent territory, and within a few years from the time the settlement thus began all the land in the town- ship was entered and occupied. The Congress land, which composes some- what more than one-half the territory, was entered to a great extent in tracts of eighty acres, but still more generally in forty-acre pieces, a fact which con- clusively establisbes the impecunious circumstances of most of the first set- tlers, for the payment of $50 was all that was required to become the pos- sessor of a forty-acre farm. Most of the earliest settlers entered eighty acres, and many of them a few years later, sold their improved little farms for a sum sufficient to enter an entire quarter section farther West. The steep hillsides were tilled with great impatience by the Pennsylvania Germans; and lured by more fertile and expansive farming lands in the West, many of them sold out as fast as opportunities were afforded their successors to the inheritance of the perverse soil, being generally German emigrants. The objective Western point to which a greater share of Jefferson's pioneers emigrated than to any other locality was Wabash County, Ind. Daniel Lower, a German, who had settled

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on Lot 33 in the northeastern part of Jefferson, was the first to make that his destination, about 1850, and many of his neighbors and acquaintances rap- idly followed him. The population of Jefferson is now almost wholly Ger- man. They are of a thrifty and frugal race, and many are becoming quite wealthy. It is believed that there are now not more than twenty- five families in the township, the heads of which are not of German nativity.

John Hawk, a native of Pennsylvania, was the first settler. In the spring of 1827, accompanied by his wife, Catherine, and his three children, Rebecca, now the wife of Jacob Wherley; Elizabeth, married to Joseph Murphy, and John, he came through the woods from near Leesburg, now Carroll County, to the northwest quarter of Section 18. The Indians had then left the country, bears had disappeared, but wolves and deer were yet abundant. Mr. Hawk re- mained a life-long resident of the farm he frat entered. He was a farmer, a Lutheran and a Domocrat, and died about 1860, aged sixty-one years. Of the four children born to him subsequent to his settlement here, two, Eli and Cath. erine (Hensel) are deceased; Daniel and Jacob survive. Mrs. Hawk is still living, a spry old lady of eighty-two years, on the home farm with her son-in- law, Jacob Wherley.

A few weeks after the advent of the Hawk family, Daniel Ridenour removed with his family from Jefferson County, Ohio, and settled in Stone Creek Val- loy, in the southern part of Section 18. He was of German parentage and of Pennsylvania birth. He was a blacksmith, and the first to pursue that avoca- tion here, having time, in connection with his farm labors, to attend to the few blacksmithing needs of his neighbors. He reared a large family, and was by faith a Lutheran and a Democrat. Later in life, Mr. Ridenour moved to Evans Creek, and there passed the remainder of his days.

A year or two elapsed before the next inroad was made upon the trackless forests of Jefferson. In 1829, Francis Putt, a young man, left his paternal home in York Township, and settled at the site of the cheese factory, just south of Phillipsburg. He remained a few years, then sold his farm to Samuel Shawyer and removed to Ragersville, where he died. Shawyer was from Harrison County. In a short time ho disposed of his property to John Bealer and went West.

In 1831, Samuel Dickey, a Pennsylvanian, settlel on forty acres in the northeast corner of Section 24. He afterward migrated to Wabash County, Ind The same year Michael Wherley, a young married man, came from Harrison County and located in the northeast portion of Section 24. He is still a resident of that farm. and is now an aged pioneer of eighty years. The following year, 1832, his father, Heury Wherley, who was a native of York County, Penn., but had sojourned for a few years in Stark and Harrison Counties, Ohio, settled with his family on the northeast quarter of Section 18. Like most of his early neighbors, he was politically a Democrat, and in religion a Lutheran. He remained on his first farm in this township to the day of his death, which occurred after he had attained the age of seventy years. William Sattler and his family, accompanied by an aged couple, Michael Harmon and wife, entered Jefferson in 1832 or 1833, and became the owners of the farm upon which Phillipsburg is located. They were Pennsylvania Germans, and Mr. Sattler, some years later, sold his farm to Philip Leonhart and emigrated to Iowa. Jacob Wyant was one of the first settlers in the southwestern portion of the township, locating in the northern part of Section 25. He was from Harrison County, and when nearly eighty years of age departed from this township for the State of Oregon, where he died within a year of his arrival.

Among other early settlers may be mentioned Henry Nusbaum, who owned

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forty acres in Section 23, and removed to Wabash County, Ind. ; Thomas Fisher, from Harrison County, who owned forty acres in Section 12, and removed to Wabash County, Ind., and afterward to Kansas; Philip Dotts, who also was from Harrison County, and owned Lot 15, in the northwest part of the town- ship; Philip Murphy, the possessor of Lot 18 in the northeast portion of town- ship, a native of York County, Penn., who removed to Wabash County, Ind., and there died: Eli Morgan, who came from Harrison County, and afterward removed to Licking County; Jacob Border, a settler on Section 25, hailing from Stark County; Samuel Shawyer, from Jefferson County; Jacob Shaffer, who located on Section 25, and came from Stark County; Robert Barclay, on Section 16; and Daniel Crites, Chris Forney and Mr. Keffer, Pennsylvanians, settled on Old Town Creek.

John Hawk erected the first and only water saw-mill in the township. It was located on Stone Creek, in the northwest quarter of Section 18, and was built about 1835. The mill supplied the surrounding farmers with what little lumber they required, and was operated whenever the water supply was suffi- cient until Mr. Hawk's death in 1860. Philip Dotts built a log grist mill on his farm, on the west branch of Stone Creek, where for years both corn and wheat were pulverized between the rude mill-stones to a tolerable fineness for meal.

The first school was taught about 1835 in a small, round-log cabin, about 16x20, situated on the farm of John Hawk. Samuel Shook, a young man from Salem Township, was the first teacher. His pupils numbered ten or fif- teen, and were members of the Ridenour. Hawk, Morgan and Wherley fami- lies. The wages received by Mr. Shook was 50 cents per month for each scholar. Paul Miller was the second teacher here. The second schoolhouse was built on Old Town Creek.

In 1840, a small frame Evangelical Lutheran Church was built on the hill about a half mile north of Phillipsburg, on a lot donated by John Hawk for a church and graveyard. Before that time, occasional services were conducted, sometimes in German and sometimes in English, in the barn of John Hawk, and it was some time after the erection of the little church that services were regularly held. John Hawk, Daniel Ridenour, Daniel Richey, Samuel Shawyer and others constructed with their slender means this house of wor- ship. Revs. Baer and Colerado were early ministers. The incoming tide of Germans brought many members of the German Reform faith, and they, too, began to worship in this meeting-house. It was occupied by the two congre- gations until 1877, when a frame church, 40x60 feet, was erected in Phillips- burg through the joint efforts of the two societies at a cost of over $1,900. It is surmounted by a bell purchased for $125, and contains an organ that is valued at $140. The services of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation are held each alternate Sunday in the English language, and the German Re- formed Church has services every Sunday. Rev. J. Y. Marks is the present pastor of the former congregation, which numbers about sixty members. Rev. William Steckow preaches to the latter congregation, which includes about a hundred families in its membership.

Those members of the German Reform Church, who settled in the northwestern part of the township, at first attended church in the old building near Phillipsburg, but in a little while their numbers increased, and they erected a small frame building in their own community near the north line of Section 15, and called it Jacob's Church. Jacob Stephan, Michael Haas, John Miller, John Dentzer and Mr. Rhodes were early members. The membership is now strong, and, besides Jefferson, includes many residents of Bucks and Auburn Townships. The pastor is Rev. William Steckow.

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Pleasant Valley was the title of a village plat laid out by Adam Sherrets in 1848, on the southwest portion of Lot 30, first quarter, Township 7, Range 3, just north of the junction of Dott's Fork with Stone Creek. With its thirty-five lots and spacious streets, it presents a pleasing appearance on paper, but it came to naught as an actual village.

The foundation of Phillipsburg was more successful. It was laid out on Stone Creek by Philip Leonhart in 1854. The original plot includes thirty- four lots, facing on either side of Jefferson street, and on the south side of Bridge and Dover streets, which form one continuous highway. In 1875, Frederick Regula made an addition of eleven Jots on Bridge and Marietta streets, and east of Allen street. In 1882, George Meese laid out on the southeast an addition of eleven lots, five of which are outlots. The original proprietor, Philip Leonhart, was a native of Germany. Some time after he laid out this village he retired to a farm on Old Town Creek. Adam Regula was the first merchant, soon after followed by Frederick Wagner. There was need in the township of a country trading place, and Phillipsburg supplied that want. But it grew slowly. In 1865, there were but thirteen houses in town. The construction of the Marietta & Cleveland Railroad along the val- ley gave life to the village, and added materially to its size. It has now a population of almost 200, and its dwellings are for the most part new and neat. It contains two general stores, owned by Lieser Brothers and Regula & Froelich; a stove and tin store, Rolli & Sibert; one drug store, S. P. Putt; two hotels, Charles Angel and J. W. Shull; three saloons, one wagon shop, two blacksmith shops, one cooper shop, one bone mill, two shoe shops, a plan- ing and a grist mill. The planing and saw mill was started in 1876 by George W. Meese & Co., and is now operated by Mr. Meese alone. The grist mill, which does a general custom business, wss built about six years ago, and is owned by Adam Stocker, of Port Washington. The two physicians are Drs. John Parks and S. P. Putts; the former has been in active practice here since 1865, the latter for several years. Dr. Chapman is said to have been the first resident physician. He was followed by Drs. G. W. C. Gamble, John Black and others who remained but a short time.

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The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 58

Author: Warner, Beers & Co. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1017

Author: Warner, Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1017