The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 71

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

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Nathan Leggett was the first settler in the northern part of Union. He came from Pennsylvania in April, 1814, and settled on the farm now owned by John Leggett, where he lived till his death, an earnest Methodist, leaving a large family. James A. Roby was the second pioneer of this vicinity, coming to the northeast quarter of Section 30 from Charles County, Md., in May, 1814. His family and household effects he brought in a cart drawn by three horses. For a short time he tarried in Leesburg, until he could make a small clearing and erect a cabin. Mr. Roby remained thenceforth a resident of the township, and died at the age of eighty-four years. His son Hanson, one of four children, is still a citizen of the township, and has attained the ripe age of eighty-three years. Soon after the arrival of Mr. Roby, William True came from Delaware and settled on the farm now owned by John True. He was a farmer, and died on the home place at an advanced age.

Among other comparatively early settlers of Union were George Graham, John Rule, William Rutledge, Reese Baldwin, Mark Herron, Joshua Leggett, Matthew Evans, A. Mccullough, Thomas Milligan and Luke Quinn.

The Black Horse tavern was built in 1819 by James Boyd on the south- west quarter of Section 26, at the junction of the two roads. It was a noted resort in early days, and an important stopping place on the Cadiz & New Philadelphia road. When wheat was Lauled by teams from Harrison County to the Ohio Canal, it was a regular stopping place, and did a rushing business. A dozen wagons standing in the yard was a very common sight. After Mr. Boyd, Nicholas Swenigen, Mr. Kent and Joseph Thompson were proprietors of the house. It was closed to the public years ago.

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Whisky was manufactured at several little stills in the township, as it was everywhere else throughout the West in those days, and the evils resulting from its use became so marked that a firm stand was taken by some settlers against it. At the first election in the township for Justices, James Boyd and James Gray, the two tavern-keepers were candidates against George Graham and John Iler, members of the Methodist Church. The inn-keepers opened a keg of "free whisky," and by this means carried the election in their favor. The temperance element soon after rallied and obtained control, and have held it ever since. The alcoholic beverage was always an important factor at barn raisings and other public assemblages, until Joshua Leggett, Thomas Milligan, William Rutledge, Reese Baldwin and others put forth determined efforts against it and finally abolished it.

John Maxill built a little mill on Stillwater, which would grind corn about as fast as a yoke of oxen could eat it. He was a squatter, and also operated a distillery. The Langdon Mill, as it is called, was built as early as 1835 in the southeast corner of the township. For some time it was the only mill within a radius of many miles.

Most of the earliest settlers had scarcely the rudiments of education them- selves, and devoted little attention or expense to the instruction of their chil- dren. The first school is said to have been taught by a Mr. Russell in a log house about three miles east of Uhrichsville. John Pevard gave the first instruction in the northern part of the township. He was a cripple, and gave private lessons at his home in the eastern part of Section 30 about 1824. Thomas Walker was the first teacher of a regularly kept school near Rockford.

The township contains three Methodist Episcopal and one Christian or Disciple Church. Rockford Methodist Church is a neat frame building, which was erected about twenty years ago. It stands in the eastern part of Section 36. The class was organized at a private house, and for some time the meet- ings were held at the cabins of Mark Herron and John Irvin. Among the early members were Samuel Carnes, Venassa Carnes, Abel Lemasters and wife, John Lemasters, John Irvin, Mark Herron, Rees Baldwin, Hanson W. Roby and wife, Nathan Leggett, John Belch and Joseph Belch. A log church was the first house of worship, occupying the site of the present building. The lot was donated by Alexander Gray. Rev. William M. Dickerson is the pres- ent minister.

Wesley Chapel is situated near the center of the township, on the north- west quarter of Section 27, the farm of William Rutledge. The society was organized in 1830, at the residence of George Graham. For four years, serv- ices were conducted at private houses, and in 1834 a log church, 30x40 feet, was built and occupied, with occasional repairs, until 1880, when a frame ed- ifice was reared upon the same lot. It is 35x40 feet in size, and cost about $1,500. The present membership is thirty, and Rev. McAllister is pastor. The old church was furnished in primitive style, including slab seats. The original class included George Graham, John Graham and wife, George Rut- ledge and wife, William Rutledge and wife, John Rule and wife, Mrs. Ann Brock, Matthew Evans and wife, and several others.

About forty-five years ago, Rev. Henger, a Disciple or Christian minister, visited the township and held a series of revival meetings, at which many con- versions were reported. As a result, a log church was built about 1840, on the northwest quarter of Section 20. George Kail and wife, William Middleton and wife, Henry Kreager and wife, Reuben Kail and wife, and John Kreager and wife were members. For a few years the society prospered, but removals and deaths led to its extinguishment, and about 1850 the building was sold to a new Methodist class, which worshiped for a few years in the old log struct-

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ure, then built the present frame on the same site. It is known as Pleasant Valley Church. Charles Leslie and David Mccullough and their families, Nelson Barney and John Reed and wife, were early members. The society now numbers about fifty members, and is served by Rev. McAllister, who in addition to this and Wesley Chapel has two charges in Harrison County.

In the extreme southeast corner of Section 19, which is also the extreme southeast corner of the township, close to the banks of Little Stillwater, stands a little church building in which a small congregation of Disciples have for many years held occasional services.

The first church organized in the township was a Methodist society, in 1812 or 1814. The first preacher was Rev. Miner. The first services were held in an old log house, which was warmed in winter by a charcoal fire built on a raised platform in the middle of the room. The first class leader was John Graham.

The township is purely rural. It now contains neither village nor post of- fice. Rockford is the title yet applied to the site of a town plat, but no town is there, only two or three houses. It was laid out by Nathan McGrew and Abraham Ricksecker in 1816, on the southeast quarter of Section 36. The lots were forty-two in number, of equal size, 34x12 perches, and all fronted on the main street extending north thirty degrees east. Neither proprietor dwelt in the village, and a supposed insufficiency of the title deterred some from settling here. At any rate the village never prospered. It may have had six dwellings at one time. A post office was at one time kept here, of which Thomas Furby was the first Postmaster. Washington Walker was the mer- chant for many years, and John Pharis recently removed from Rockford the stock of merchandise he had been offering for sale. Dr. John D. Walker prac- ticed medicine here for many years, until his death about 1878. James Gray, Nicholas Crites and Adam Loveless were tavern keepers at different periods.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

WARREN TOWNSHIP.

FORMATION-CHANGE OF BOUNDARIES-THE PIONEERS-INDIANS-TOPOGRAPHY- ONE LEG CREEK-NEW CUMBERLAND-SCHOOLS-MILLS- JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. .

W ARREN TOWNSHIP was formed March 31, 1819, from all that part of Tuscarawas County included in Township 15, Range 7, and the west half of Township 14, Range 6. It was thus six miles in width north and south, and nine in length east and west. This land had previously formed a part of One Leg Township. When Carroll County was organized in 1832, two-thirds of Warren Township, as then constituted, became the terri- tory of the new county, leaving but eighteen square miles of the township in Tuscarawas County. This tract was too small to maintain an organization, and Warren must either acquire new territory or be dismembered. Through the efforts of Judge Israel Lappin and others, the Commissioners ceded to the shattered township a strip half a mile in width, two and one-half sections, from the eastern part of Fairfield, and one and a half sections from the north- east corner of Goshen. The original eighteen sections belong to the seven ranges; the first survey made in the State, and the four sections, afterward acquired, form a part of the the United States Military District Congress land.

The earliest settlers were mostly Pennsylvanians, a minority hailing from various other States. They were an excellent class of pioneers, sturdy, and self-reliant, and their salutary impress upon the moral character of the com- munity is still felt, for the people are to-day as intelligent, enterprising and adherent to the cardinal virtues, as may be found anywhere in the county. The fact that many of the oldest families are still well represented in the township bespeaks an excellent quality of farming land, and the thrift and contentment of its possessors. When the first pioneers made their appearance in this locality, the land in the seven ranges could be entered only by entire sections of 640 acres.

John McCrary was the pioneer settler of the township. He was a Penn- sylvanian, and entered Section 28. In 1804, he arrived after a long and toil- some journey, with a maiden sister, Margaret, and a brother, William Mc- Crary, and family. They erected the first cabin within the township, near the eastern line of Section 28, on the northern bank of Indian Fork, in which they all dwelt, and near which they cleared the first year about six acres of land. They had no neighbors, save roving Indians, nearer than eight or ten miles. John McCrary was at this time an old bachelor. He had followed boating and trading on the Ohio and Mississippi, extending his business trips to New Orleans. He decided to invest a portion of his savings in Western land, and accordingly entered Section 28. Having a large surplus of money on hand after making the first payment on the land, he loaned it to a New Or- leans trader, who soon after failed in business, and Mr. McCrary had no fur- ther means with which to meet subsequent payments. In consequence he was obliged to sell his section, and succeeded in disposing of it advantageously

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to a non-resident of the county. An act of Congress having been passed, per- mitting the entering of land in quarter sections, John McCrary located and removed to the southeast quarter of Section 2, Fairfield Township. William McCrary, his brother, who had come with him, entered the southwest quarter of Section 29, Warren Township, and removed thither with his family. His religious preferences were with the Seceders, and occasional services of this denomination were held at his cabin. In his old age, he sold out, and started with his family, by team, for Southeastern Indiana, but, before reaching his destination, died at Cincinnati.

The next section entered and occupied was 35. Samuel Lappin, a farmer from Fayette County, Penn., had removed to what is now Jefferson County, Ohio, about 1803, and soon after entered into an arrangement with James and Finley McGrew and John Leatherman by which he was to locate and enter a section of land, to be divided equally among them and equally paid for. Coming to the extreme western line of the seven ranges, Mr. Lappin selected Section 35, through the eastern part of which flowed One Leg Creek. Finley McGrew was a surveyor, and divided the land into four equal parts, by run- ning three lines east and west through the section. The northern part became Lappin's. The two McGrews obtained the central half, and Leatherman the southern division. Lappin was. the first of them to settle on this tract. He made a journey out in the spring of 1805, accompanied by two employes, with whose assistance he constructed a rude log cabin. Then returning to Jeffer- son County, he piloted his family to their future home, arriving June 18, 1805. The cabin into which they moved contained but two apertures-one in the roof for a chimney, and a door-way. It was doorless and floorless for some time. Mr. Lappin remained upon this farm through life, and died at the age of eighty-seven years, leaving a family of five children. Both he and his wife, Nancy, were members of the Methodist Church. He was Justice of the Peace while this territory was in One Leg Township, and Commissioner of the county. His son, Judge Israel S. Lappin, now in the eighty-third year of his age, is still an active and highly respected resident of the township.

Finley MoGrew died, unmarried, before removing to Warren Township, and James McGrew became, by purchase, the owner of his Western estate. He removed to it from Westmoreland County, Penn., several years after the Lap- pins arrived. He was of Quaker ancestry, and, after a residence of many years in Warren Township, moved to Sandusky County, Ohio, where he died. John Leatherman was also a Pennsylvanian, and emigrated to Section 35, with a large family, about the time the McGrews came. He was a Dunkard minister, and conducted religious services at his own cabin. Later in life he became a resident of North Bend, Ind., where he died at the age of ninety- three years.

In a few years, other settlers began to arrive in the neighborhood. Among the earliest were Joseph Hayes, John Edgington, John Davy, Martin Huffman, James McKee and Abel Williams, all of whom probably arrived before 1812. Joseph Hayes entered and settled on the southwest quarter of Section 26. He was a Marylander and a Baptist, and died and was buried on his farm. His family is scattered. John Edgington, hailing from Brooke County, Va., en- tered land in Sections 33 and 34. Both he and his brother Aaron occupied farms in the latter section, and both in after life removed from the county. John Davy emigrated from Frederick, Md., in 1808, and entered and settled on the southeast quarter of Section 1, of the land taken from Fairfield Town- ship, where he died many years later. Ruth (Dorsey), his wife, was a noted midwife and medical practitioner in pioneer times. Martin Huffmann's pio- neer home was in the southwest quarter of Section 30, which he occupied

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through life. James McKee entered and removed to the northeast quarter of Section 11, of the former Fairfield Township land, about 1808, coming from Pennsylvania. He raised four children-Robert, James, William, and Mary Ann (Van Buskirk) -- and lived in the township to the day of his death; his son William still occupies and tills the old homestead. Abel Williams was a Revolutionary soldier. He entered the northeast quarter of Section 10, and emigrated to it from Pennsylvania with a large family, dying not many . years later. Joseph Van Buskirk, born in 1782, came from Pennsylvania to Section 34, in 1812, and was thenceforth a life-long citizen of the township. He was & Presbyterian by faith, and reared a family of twelve children. Henry Moughiman, in 1816, emigrated from Washington County, Penn., and settled on the northeast quarter of Section 23, entered by his father-in-law, Daniel Shuster. Mr. Moughiman and his wife both died about 1868, leaving a nu- merous posterity. Daniel Shuster was one of the early settlers. He came to the township, an old man, from Washington County, Penn., and did not survive many years. His family consisted of two sons, Samuel and John, and nine daughters, and for each of his children he provided a quarter section of land. To Samuel was given the northwest quarter of Section 27, where he died. John occupied the northeast quarter of the same quarter, and afterward re- moved to Hardin County, where he died. John Yant, a brother-in-law of Daniel Shuster, removed from the same county to the southeast quarter of Section 22, which he had entered, and where he afterward died. George Tressel, with his wife Catherine (Shuster) and family, emigrated in 1808 from Pennsylvania to the northeast quarter of Section 36, entered by Daniel Shuster, where he raised a large family, and died at a good old age. Jacob Steese, in 1816, settled on the southeast quarter of Section 23. He had emigrated from Northumberland County, Penn., to Harrison County, Ohio, in 1806, and thence removed to Warren Township.

Besides the above, the following land owners were living in the township in 1820; Absalom Butler, Thomas Cordery, Abraham Lane, Robert Meek, Jacob Riggle, George Strawn, John and Ephraim Sparks, Samuel Slutts, Philip Suter and Peter Sell. Many of them had come many years before that date. Abraham Lane was a Marylander. He owned fifty acres in the southwest quarter of Section 29, and died in the township. Absalom Butler, his son-in- law, was the possessor of a small piece of land in the northeast quarter of the same quarter. He remained but a few years, then moved West. Thomas Cordery was well advanced in life when he became the owner and occupant of the southeast quarter of Section 20. He came from Maryland, and died in this township. Robert Meek was a Virginian, and purchased a farm in Sec- tion 34, entered by John Edgington, and afterward removed to Iowa, where he died. Jacob Riggle settled on the northeast quarter of Section 33. George, David, Philip and John Riggle were also early settlers. George Strawn came to the southeast quarter of Section 10, from Pennsylvania, at an early date, where he lived to a good old age. John and Ephraim Sparks, brothers, from Fayette County, Penn., settled on the northeast quarter of Section 9, which was entered for them by their father. Both were citizens of Warren Town- ship through life. William Slutts was the first settler on the northwest quarter of Section 36, but soon after sold his possessions here to his brother Samuel. Philip Suter entered the northwest quarter of Section 29, settled there, and afterward laid out New Cumberland. Peter Sell, a son-in-law of Abraham Lane, was the owner in fee simple of fifteen acres, in the northeast quarter of Section 29, but after a brief residence here for some years, disposed of this realty, and became a citizen of Zanesville.

Jacob Strawn came to the township in 1816. John Mowl had been an

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early resident, and in 1814 removed to what is now Carroll County. He came from Virginia.

Indians frequented the valley of One Leg during the period in which the white settlers took possession of the land, but so far as known amicable rela- tions were always maintained between the two races. The first settlers, before their number equaled that of their dusky neighbors, stood somewhat in dread of them. The red men occupied the valley usually only during the summer as a hunting ground, but occasionally a party remained through the winter. A large party of them encamped near New Cumberland during the winter of 1808-9. They often visited the cabins of the whites, but invariably left their guns outside as a token of friendship. Mrs. Lappin made it a rule, which she followed without exception, to treat the Indians to victuals whenever they visited her husband's cabin, and thus secured their firm friendship. Mr. Lap. pin had brought no gun with him to his Western home, but the Indians often supplied him with turkeys, venison and other wild game in return for which they received bread and potatoes or other favors. During the troublesome period of the war of 1812, the Indians left this region. One old man, John Henry, departed with great reluctance. He had become strongly attached to the Lappin family, and assured them, with tears in his eyes, that if any danger menaced them during the war, he or his son would apprise them of it. The war checked emigration, but at the termination of hostilities the settle- ment of the township was renewed, and rapidly continued till all the lands were taken. A few of the Indians returned, and for a time haunted their old hunting grounds, but the encroaching corn-fields of their successors in the pos- session of the soil drove them at last to a wilder Western land.

The surface of the township is well adapted to agricultural purposes. One Leg Creek, flanked by a beautiful valley a half mile in width, meanders through much of its territory. Numerous rivulets enter the channel of the principal stream, and along their banks are level vales, which possess a rich soil. The hills back of these are mostly rolling, with little of the steep rugged- ness found in some parts of the county. A forest growth covered the land so dense that the pioneers believed centuries must elapse before it would all be removed. They had little inducement to fell the stately timber, for agricult- ural products were not in demand, and commanded no price that would stim- ulate their production, until after the Ohio Canal was completed. The bot- tom lands were at first considered the best, but now the uplands are regarded as equally valuable for coru and superior for wheat.

One Leg Creek received its name from a red man dwelling near its mouth, who in some now forgotten way had lost one of his limbs of locomotion. This stream was declared navigable by the State Legislature in 1808, but in 1816 the act was repealed, probably to permit the construction of mill dams across its bed. In early times the stream had greater volume than now, and the Corderys once made a trip by boat down its placid waters into the Tusca- rawas as far as Coshocton and returned in the same way laden with corn. A disposition has been manifested by some of late to substitute the more euphon- ic term Connotton for the early cognomen of Warren's principal stream, but not without determined opposition. Judge Lappin is the stanch supporter of the ancient title, One Leg, and has clearly shown that name to be the proper appellation of the creek.

New Cumberland was laid out by Philip Suter in May, 1826, on the northwest quarter of Section 29. The plat included thirty-two lots, each three perches in width and twelve in length, sixteen of them fronting on Main street, which extends east and west, and sixteen on Cross street, extending north and south. James Meek, in 1841, made an addition of ten lots east of South Cross Y

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street; and, in 1847, John Suter made an addition of twenty lots on East Main street. Shortly before making the plat, Mr. Suter induced Samuel Lappin, Jr., to open a store on the site of the village. John Black, a wagon. maker, built the first house, and kept the first tavern. His residence here, however, was very brief, for the Ohio Canal, then building through Bolivar, attracted him thither, with the prospect of more work. Israel S. Lappin erected the next dwelling, designing to follow the avocation of house-carpenter and cabinet-maker. His brother Samuel, however, dying in 1827, Israel abandoned his craft at the solicitation of friends and took charge of the store, continuing a merchant of the little village fourteen years. David McConnell started the second store about 1830. A post office was established in 1831 or 1832, with Mr. McConnell as Postmaster. Since its foundation, the village has been the center of a fine agricultural trade. It can boast of no extensive manufactories. It reached the zenith of its glory in point of population in 1850, the census for that year accrediting it with 203 people. Since then it has slightly declined; in 1880 having a population of 163. During its prime, the little village aspired to incorporation, and secured a charter. Joseph Kerr was elected Mayor in 1849; but, resigning the same year, Joseph Hunt was appointed by the Council to fill the vacancy. John McNall was also soon after Mayor by appointment. Daniel Stoody was elected to this official position in 1851, and James Stein in the following year. The people soon tired of main- taining the village government, and by common consent it was allowed to lapse through neglect to elect officers. New Cumberland now contains a hard- ware store, a shoe store, a dry goods store and grocery, a clothing store, & drug store, a notion store, two blacksmith shops, one shoe shop, one harness shop, a schoolhouse and three churches.

The Methodist Church was the first one built. The date of its erection was about 1830, and the location was the site of the present edifice on Cross street, which is larger than the old one, and was built in 1878, during the pastorate of Rev. John Hunter. The first Methodist class in the township met at the cabins of its members-at Abel Williams', Samuel Lappin's and else- where. Among the earliest members besides these two, were William Hall and Daniel Smith. One of the most successful revivals was conducted by Rev. Henry Wharton, in the old church, during which about eighty members united with the church. Rev. Weaver is the present minister, and the society is in a prosperous state.

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The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Part 71

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

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