USA > Ohio > Tuscarawas County > The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio > Part 73
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HISTORY OF TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XX.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.
ORGANIZATION-SURFACE FEATURES-FIRST SETTLERS-LEGEND OF GILMORE- HUFF AND THE WOLVES-NEWTON-ALBANY-GILMORE-CHURCHES- FIRST SCHOOL-JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
W ASHINGTON TOWNSHIP was organized March 5, 1827, from Oxford and Perry. It comprised then as now Township 5, of Range 2. The ualified electors of the township were directed to hold their first election at the house of Benjamin Servisson, at 10 o'clock on the first Monday of April, 1827. The southeast quarter of the township is Congress land; the remainder is military land, divided into 100-acre lots. The township is five miles square, except that the Salem Moravian tract encroaches slightly upon the northwest corner. Dunlap Creek is the only stream. It crosses the township in a northwesterly direction, and with the numerous little rivulets that feed it drains almost the entire surface. A water shed, extending east and west, is situated about one mile from the south line of the township, and divides the waters flowing north from those flowing south. Along this dividing ridge extends the old Coshocton road, a thoroughfare that was greatly traveled in early times, when emigrants sought Western homes by tedious wagon journeys. The town- ship is very hilly, and was densely wooded in early times. Its wild hills and lonely hollows were the homes of the prowling wolves, wild cats, panthers, bears and other beasts of prey. Deer were at one time so plentiful as to prove a great annoyance to the pioneer, for at night they would enter his field and garden and destroy large quantities of vegetables and grain.
Ananias Randall was probably the first settler in the township. His name is the first to appear on the county tax duplicate as a resident land owner in the territory which constitutes Washington Township. He entered the northeast quarter of Section 21, upon which the village of Newtown is sit- uated, and also the northeast quarter of Section 22. Richard Lanning was next to acquire a freehold in the township. He hailed from New Jersey, and in 1817 entered the southeast quarter of Section 19. His brother. Joseph Lanning, emigrated from New Jersey in 1819, and settled in the same local. ity. He died in 1876, and his widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Lanning, is still a resi- dent of the township, at the age of eighty five years. The first Methodist meetings were held at her cabin. She has a vivid remembrance of the pioneer's hardships and struggles, through which she and her husband passed.
Among the next settlers in the southeast part of the township were David Miller, who settled on the northwest quarter of Section 21, and at one time was the only Whig in the township; Henry Platt, who hailed from the Keystone State, settled on the southeast quarter of Section 21, and died here; Henry Smith, also a Pennsylvanian, who owned and occupied a small place in the southwest quarter of Section 19, and William Coats, who owned the south- east quarter of Section 22.
Among the pioneers of the third or southwest quarter of Washington were Anthony Asher, who owned Lot 19, and died on his farm; Henry Cramer, Lot 31; John Coats, Lot 36; Thomas Coon, Lots 32, 24 and 7; Samuel Dicks, Lot
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10; Abraham Kees, who came about 1821 from Pennsylvania, and still sur- vives, Lot 21; David Kees, Lot 23; Matthew Organ, from Pennsylvania, Lot 9; George Ord, who afterward went West, Lots 13 and 18; Laban Parks, who emigrated from New York and afterward removed to the West, Lot 6. The earliest in the northwest quarter were Robert Barr, from Pennsylvania, Lot 10; Jacob Kees, Lot 30. The northeast portion of this township was the wildest and the last settled.
The Tuscarawas Chronicle preserves the legend of the site of Gilmore: "Years before Gilmore was a town, and, beyond the memory of most of the in- habitants, there lived a family near the present site of the village who were supposed to be robbers and murderers. Travelers, passing that way through the wilderness, mysteriously disappeared; strange horses and property supposed to have belonged to travelers were seen in possession of this family, and a number of suspicious circumstances made the community tolerably sure that there were dark doings in that home. No direct evidence could be obtained, but after the family left the country it is said that a number of articles were found that could not have come into their possession honestly. It is thought that many a poor victim lost his life here, and found a grave in the ravines near town, on account of the valuables he carried."
Near Gilmore, Joe Huff, the hunter of Perry Township, once had an en- counter with wolves. He had been hunting and had slain two bears, which he dressed and hung on saplings out of the reach of the ravenous animals. Toward night he reached the vicinity of Gilmore. The day had been disa- greeable, rain and snow falling alternately most of the time. He had heard the wolves howling for some time, but they caused him no uneasiness. They grew bolder as they circled around him and increased in number to fifteen or twenty. When he reached the head of the ravine below Schneider's black- smith shop, they showed signs of attacking him. He had proceeded down the ravine but a short distance when they rushed at him from all sides. Hast- ily pointing his rifle, the piece only snapped, for the priming was wet. There was no time to change it and no safety in flight. Fortunately a bushy sap- ling stood near, and Huff lost no time in ascending it, several of the wolves springing at him before he was fairly out of reach. Replacing the wet with dry powder, he shot into the struggling mass below with fatal effect, re- loaded and repeated the operation until the bodies of ten or eleven dead wolves surrounded the tree. The rest then left him and he proceeded homeward.
Newtown was laid out in 1817 by Ananias Randall. The plat then made embraces forty lots, the full extent of its present bounds. It is situated in the northeast quarter of Section 21, near the southeast corner of the township. The first house was built by Samuel Hagans. Mr. Randall kept the first hotel in a two-story log building. William Peoples was the first blacksmith, also the first in the township. Joshua Brown was the first store keeper; Madison Snyder was the first Postmaster, Robert Feaster the present one, the name of the office being Peoli. The first physician was an itinerant doctor, who later in life served a term in the Ohio Penitentiary. Dr. McPherson was his suc- cessor at Newtown. The growth of the village has not been commensurate with its age. It now contains three stores, a wagon shop, a shoe shop, a black- smith shop, and two churches-a Disciple and a Methodist Episcopal.
A Baptist society was organized by Rev. Stone about 1840, and a church was erected in 1845, the first religious edifice in the village. The first mem- bers were Mortimore Wood and wife, Peter Tiderick and wife, Charles Schontz and wife, Hannah Brashears, Francis Simmerman and wife, Mrs. David Tid- erick and others. The society went down in a few years, and about 1865 a Disciple congregation was organized, which purchased the old church and re- paired it. The first membership was about thirty; the present, twenty.
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Deaths and removals are the causes of decline. Rev. Bryant, of Guernsey County, is the present pastor.
A Methodist Episcopal Society was organized about 1850, by Rev. J. Mer- riman. The first church was built in 1856, and in 1870 the present brick edi- fice took its place. Among its first members were Isaac George, Jouas George, Harlon Randall, Philip Fout, David Miller, Francis Simmerman, John Shaw and others, to the number of twenty. The membership is now about seventy- five. Rev. D. W. Knight is pastor.
Albany is the name of a post office and small cluster of houses situated on Dunlap Creek, in the extreme western part of the township. Benjamin Du- hammel was the first Postmaster and kept the office several miles farther up the creek. He also retailed merchandise there, displaying his goods at first in a corn crib, and afterward removing them to a loft to which access could be had only by mounting a flight of outside steps and squeezing through an aper- ture about two and one-half by three and one-half feet in size. As may be surmised, the stock was not very extensive, and this primitive merchant some- times refused to sell more than a small amount of various articles, through fear of exhausting the supply. Isaac Bartholow was afterward Postmaster, and dispensed mail to his neighbors a short distance below the present office. B. Robison is the present Postmaster. A store and blacksmith shop are at Albany, and adjoining it is a saw mill on Dunlap Creek, built many years ago by James Stewart, and now operated by Anthony Miller.
In 1848, Walter M. Blake founded the town of Gilmore, on the east end of Lot 9, in the first quarter of Township 5, Range 2. Including five outlots, the plat contains forty- four acres. The inlots, eighty-three in number, com- pose an L-shaped piece of land, the streets of which are Burrows, Dearth and Blake. The town is located near the northeast corner of Washington Town- ship, and adjoins Clay. It was named in honor of Nathaniel Gilmore, a wealthy Irish farmer residing in the vicinity. John Sewell, Sr., and John Dinning erected the first houses almost simultaneously. Sewell came to the newly founded town to operate a tread saw mill, which failed to work effect- ively, and was abandoned, Mr. Sewell returning to his farm. Philip Lanning erected the third house in the fall of 1848, and opened a store. He has been a merchant in the village ever since, during a period of thirty-tive years, and still commands an extensive trade. John A. Bates opened a stock of goods for sale a few weeks prior to Mr. Lanning and kept store for several years. The number of stores has varied from one to four, there being two at present. A post office was established at Gilmore about thirty years ago; Philip Lan- ning was appointed Postmaster, and has ever since retained the office. A tan- nery was started by John Myers and Hugh Smith soon after the village was laid out. William Hines, William Shears, Harrison & Gray and John Ar- nold were the subsequent proprietors, and under the last named the tannery was abandoned about 1869. The village in 1880, contained 116 people, a slight depreciation from the census of 1870 and of '1860. Besides the two stores, there are in the village a drug store, three blacksmith shops, two shoe shops and a wagon and carriage manufactory, now operated by Abraham Schneider, of Port Washington. One hundred vehicles have been manufact- ured here during the past year. Dr. Gambie was probably the first resident physician. He was succeeded by Dr. Livingston who remained several years. Dr. Daniel Slonaker then located in the village and continued a prac- tice until his death. Of the two physicians now established here, Dr. J. J. Gooding has been a resident of the village about eight years, and Dr. D. Hef- ling nearly twice as long.
The Protestant Methodist Church is the only one in the village. The so- ciety was organized in 1850 by Rev. Henry Lossen. The house of worship is
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located on Lot 45, and was erected in 1878 at a cost of $1,500, during the pastorate of Rev. J. D. Murphy. The church building had occupied the same lot, and was built about 1856, prior to which date meetings had been held at private houses. Eli B. Lukens, Silas A. Souders, H. Matson, Howard Cecil, James Merchant and Philip Lanning were early members. The society now numbers thirty or more, and is in charge of Rev. O. Lowther.
A Disciple congregation was organized at Gilmore during the winter of 1875-76, by Rev. T. J. Newcombe. Religious exercises were held for some time in the village hall, and then transferred to an unoccupied building a short distance north of Gilmore, in Clay Township, where services are now con- ducted occasionally. The society is small, but contemplates the construction of a church building soon.
West Union Methodist Episcopal Church is located about a mile south of Gilmore, on the section between Lots 11 and 12. From the former lot, Mor- decai Davidson donated a half acre, and from the latter, Peyton Morris, a half acre, for a church lot. The first building was a diminutive, rough log struct- ure, erected between 1830 and 1835. It was superseded about 1855 by the present frame building. Wesley Honnel, John Stout and Paten Morris were among the earliest members. The church membership is now strong, exceed- ing 100, and the society is now ministered by Rev. Knight. A large grave- yard adjoins the church, and many of the old settlers lie buried here.
Wesley Chapel is the name of another Methodist Episcopal meeting-house. It is located in the southern part of the township, on the line between Mili- tary Lots 2 and 3, of the third quarter. The society was organized about 1839, by Rev. John Miner, with a membership of about thirty, including Jacob Meek and wife, David Ripley and wife, Thomas Taylor and wife, Ruth Chadwell, Mary Hursey, Phebe Taylor, William Peoples and wife, Anthony Asher and wife, and Liberty Miller and wife. The meetings were held in the schoolhouse until about 1843, when the present frame building was erected. The membership now exceeds seventy-five, and Rev. L. Timberlake is pastor.
Hartwood Methodist Protestant Church stands in the northwestern part of the township, in the southeast corner of Lot 18. The society was organized between 1830 and 1835. The Woodwards, McFees, Dorseys, Murphys and a few others were the earliest members. The first house was built of logs, and was of the most primitive stamp. The seats were in keeping with the building, and consisted simply of slab benches without backs.
The first school in the township is said to have been taught by John Ward, in an unoccupied log cabin in the southern part of the township. The first in Gilmore was a subscription school taught by Mrs. Nancy Donahey. A schoolhouse was afterward built on a lot donated by the proprietor of the vil- lage, and among the first teachers in it was Eliza Hughes, who was the most popular that ever taught in Gilmore.
The following have been the Justices of the township, with the date of elec. tion: John Hudson, 1831; Joseph Mathany, 1832; John Hudson, 1834; John McFadden, 1836; Joseph Mathany, 1837; John McFadden, 1838; Matthew Anderson, 1840; Jacob W. Honnold, 1840; Jacob W. Honnold, 1843; Matthew Anderson, 1843; Matthew Anderson, 1846; Benjamin Parrish, 1846; Matthew Anderson, 1848; Joshua Brown, 1848; John Murphy, 1851; Jacob W. Hon- nold, 1851; Hiram Matson, 1854; John V. Richards, 1854; Isaac Couts, 1856; Hiram Matson, 1857; Isaac Couts, 1859; Abraham Atherton, 1860; Isaac Couts, 1862; R. L. Berkshire, 1863; Isaac Couts, 1865; Robert L. Berkshire, 1866; Iaaac Couts, 1868; T. T. Chadwell, 1869; Isaac Couts, 1871; Thomas T. Chadwell, 1872 ;. Isaac Couts, 1874; Thomas T. Chadwell, 1875; Isaac Couts, 1877; Thomas T. Chadwell, 1878; Isaac Couts, 1880; Thomas T. Chad- well, 1881; Isaac Couts, 1883.
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HISTORY OF TUSCARAWAS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXI.
WAYNE TOWNSHIP.
LOCATION-FORMATION - MAGISTRATES- PHYSICAL FEATURES-SCHOOL LANDS- FIRST SETTLERS-MILL-SCHOOLS-DUNDEE-CHURCHES.
W AYNE TOWNSHIP occupies the northwest corner of Tuscarawas County; Stark County bounds it on the north and Holmes on the west, Franklin Township on the east and Sugar Creek on the south. Its northern line is the Greenville Indian treaty line, established in 1795 by Gen. Wayne and the tribes he had recently subdued in battle. Wayne is one of the oldest townships in the county. March 5, 1810, a petition of thirty-one subscribers of Lawrence Township, praying for a division of their township, was presented to the County Commissioners, and granted the next day by the establishment of Wayne with the following boundaries: Beginning at the southeast corner of the second quarter, Township 9, Range 2 (in Dover Township); thence west to the county line; thence north to the old boundary line; thence east- wardly along said boundary line to Range 2; thence south to Township 10; thence east to the northeast corner of the second quarter of Township 9, Range 2; thence south to the place of beginning. As thus formed, it included a portion of Holmes County, all of Wayne and Franklin Townships, and a frac- tion of Dover. The electors were directed to meet at the house of William Bacher, in what is now Franklin Township, on the first Monday in April, 1810, and elect officers.
The record of the earliest Justices of Wayne Township is not quite com- plete. Those whose names have been preserved in the book of oaths adminis- tered, with date of election, are as follows: Isaac Deardorff, 1810; Isaac Deardorff, 1813; Benjamin Wallick, 1817; John Casebeer, 1819; John Hall, 1820; Isaac Deardorff, 1822; Philip Knappenberger, 1823; John Hall (Ross Township), 1823; Michael Hossack (Ross Township), 1826; Isaac Deardorff, 1826; Joseph Williamson, 1828; Thomas Mills, 1830; Abraham Shupe, 1830; Frederick C. Harbaugh, 1832; Thomas Mills, 1833; John McCurdy, 1833; Frederick C. Harbaugh, 1834; Thomas Mills, 1836; Joseph Lewis, 1836; Frederick C. Harbaugh, 1838; Thomas Bays, 1839; George Augustine, 1839; Robert M. Kilgore, 1841; Thomas Bays, 1842; George Augustine, 1842; Robert M. Kilgore, 1844; Thomas Bays, 1845; Jacob Oxford, 1845; Daniel Zeigler, 1845; Jacob Arford, 1848; Michael I. Kohr, 1847; Michael I. Kohr, 1850; Aaron Dillon, 1851; Charles Linerode, 1851; John Minard, 1853; Christian Swartz, 1854; Aaron Dillon, 1854; Henry Benfer, 1856; Valentine Biddle, 1857; Henry Benfer, 1859; Valentine Biddle, 1860; Henry Benfer, 1862; Daniel Smiley, 1863; Henry Benfer, 1865; Samuel Boyd, 1867; Jacob Yanney, 1868; James Catton, 1870; John Lower, 1871; J. H. Benfer, 1872; M. Ayers Robinett, 1873; Conrad Koehler, 1874: John H. Benfer, 1875; Con- rad Koehler. 1877; Christian Hoelzer, 1878; M. J. Kobr, 1880; John Welter, 1881; James W. Stout, 1883.
The surface of the township is hilly, though not so rough as in some other portions of the county. Sugar Creek crosses from south to north, and is met by Walnut Creek from the west. The soil is clayey and in places sandstone
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crops freely from the hillsides. Coal is found, but is mined only for home consumption. Wheat is the staple product, and fruit of all kinds is abundant.
The township consists of fractions of Townships 9 and 10, of Ranges 3 and 4. It is four and a half miles wide, east and west, and has an average length of about six miles. The line dividing the counties of Tuscarawas and Holmes. if continued to the Greenville line, would have cut in twain a 100-acre lot, and placed part of the owner's farm in each county, and for his convenience, by arrangement between the Commissioners of the two counties, the entire lot was relegated to Tuscarawas, thus producing a slight irregularity or knob in the outline of Wayne Township. Most of the township is Connecticut Re- serve School Land. The first quarter of Township 9, and the fourth quarter of Township 10, Range 4, and three-fifths of the second quarter of Township 9, Range 3, in all sixty-five 160-acre lots, are of this description. There are also in the township five sections of Congress land, and about twenty-eight 100-acre military lots.
As mentioned in a former chapter, the Connecticut Reserve School Lands were granted in 1802, by Congress, to that portion of Ohio known as the Western Reserve, for school purposes. There being at that time little or no demand for land, it was deemed expedient by the Reserve to lease the school lots for a period of years, until their value would be so enhanced that the pro- ceeds derived from their sale would be considerable. It is not known when the first leases were made, but it was probably about 1810. The terms were highly advantageous to the lessee. By the terms of the lease, in considera- tion of clearing fifteen acres of land and erecting a cabin, he bad the use of a lot of 160 acres rent free for fifteen years. In reality, the lessees usually cleared a much greater amount, in order to obtain the use of so much more land. In 1820, all, or nearly all, the school lots in this township were leased. The lessees were usnally a class of people whose means were too scant for them to purchase land from the Government, and the opportunity thus offered to obtain a free home for fifteen years, where life could be passed unmolest- edly in hunting and trapping, was gladly seized. Many of the occupants of these lands were genuine backwoodsmen, to whom the restraints of civilization were irksome. Rough in manners and habits, they kept on the foremost wave of emigration, constantly advancing deeper into the wilderness as the coun- try cleared up around them. In 1830 or 1831, the school lots were disposed of at public sale. The land office was located at Millersburg, Holmes County. Some of the lessees were sufficiently enterprising to purchase homes, but most of them were unable to do so. A few speculators bought lands, but the great majority of the owners became residents on their property. The lots sold at from about $240 to $700 each, and those not sold at public auction could be purchased at their appraised value.
The first permanent settlement was made on the Congress land in the north- east portion of the township. No one is known to have preceded Aaron Pat- terson in the occupancy of the soil. He was a New Jersey farmer, entered the southeast quarter of Section 25, about a mile east cf Dundee, settled there in 1808 and remained through life. He is said to have wedded five wives in suc- cession. His children were John, who died in early manhood; William, who was a Methodist, and attained a ripe old age in this township; Uriah and Aaron, who removed to Pittsburgh, Penn .; Obadiah, who went West; Jesse, a resident of Sandusky; Rachel (Hoagland), who returned to New Jersey; Han- nah (Jennings), who moved to the West, and Mary (Kint), who became a resi- dent of Sugar Creek Township. Obadiah served in the war of 1812.
The next settlers, reaching the solitudes of Wayne within a few years, were Jacob Bartlett, John Knistrick, Peter Bartlett, Joseph Brown and Henry
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Knable. Jacob Bartlett entered the southwest quarter of Section 25. He was a Methodist, and died in the township, leaving no children. John Knistrick purchased from Jacob Bartlett and dwelt upon tifty acres in the southwest quarter of Section 25. He hailed from Maryland, was a Methodist, raised a large family and died in the township. Peter Bartlett was a brother to Jacob, and remained in the township the remainder of his life. Joseph Brown came from Pennsylvania. He entered the southwest quarter of Section 24, was a hunter of note, and subsequently removed with his family to Indiana. Henry Knable settled about a mile southwest from Dundee, on a school lot, where he died.
In 1820, besides most of the above, the following were resident land-own- ers in Wayne: Richard Burrell, William Collett and Elias Melone. Richard Burrell was a Marylander. He entered the northwest quarter of Section 25, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and remained in Wayne through life. His son Richard is still a resident of the township. William Collett entered and occupied the northeast quarter of Section 16; he afterward moved to the West. Elias Melone came from Maryland about 1814; he owned and settled on Lots 2, 3 and 4, on the western line of the township, where he died. He was a member of the Winebrenner Church.
A few years later, Samuel Boyd, from Pennsylvania, owned and dwelt upon Military Lot 1, on the western line of the township. He belonged to the Unit- ed Brethren, the head of a numerous family, and a resident of the township until death. Cornelius Hance entered and settled on the northwest quarter of Section 16. Other early land-holders were Aaron Vananda, John I. Wade, John C. Wright, Martin Walter and William Wade.
The Jennings, Amos, Lewis and Bayless families were among the foremost pioneers of the township. Amos came with his father, Augustus, to the county in 1807, and in 1809 settled in Wayne Township. The Jennings first settled in what is now Fairfield Township. Jacob Steffe, a German Lutheran from Maryland, emigrated to Holmes County, and shortly afterward, in 1814, campe to Wayne Township and settled on Lot 12, about a mile south of Dundee. Quite a settlement of colored people, fifteen or more families, settled years ago in the vicinity of Dundee, but most of them have since removed elsewhere. For some time a German emigration has been steadily entering the township, and the people of this nationality will soon preponderate. The emigration of Wayne's people has been more largely to Davis County, Ind, than to any other locality. La Grange and Owen Counties, of the same State, have also received large accessions from this township.
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