USA > Ohio > Logan County > The historical review of Logan County, Ohio > Part 11
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The first store was kept by King and Hutchins in 1834 upon the beginning of the town and a couple of years later was fol- lowed by WInte and Allen.
John McCally opened a tannery in 1833 and sold it to Job Sharp, who kept it until long after the war.
James Seaman was a blacksmith and John Ewing a shoemaker and Samuel Cooke a saddler.
Sammel B. Taylor kept the first tavern.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
and was afterwards elected treasurer of the hardt. Crevistons, Secrists, Powell -. Kel- county, and moved to Bellefontaine: he leys, Culberstons. Dilleys, Judge Shelby and others.
was for many years probate judge and died while in office. in 18,7.
East Liberty has improved greatly since the new railroad has been built and is a thriving and promising trading point.
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP.
Union township had been cut off from the south part of Lake in 1820, and the township of Liberty was taken from the eastern side of Union in 1831.
The town of West Liberty had been started as early as 1817, but was not incor- porated by act of the legislature until 1834. It became quite an active and central point of trade for all the southern portion of the county, and was also drawing considerable trade from the adjoining county of Cham- paign, while the eastern part of Union town- ship which was in closer proximity to Lib- erty than to any other portion of the county. naturally drifted to the new and nearer town of Liberty with its trade.
West Liberty thus became for a time a most important trading point, and as the mills of John Enoch. Sr .. were situated at this point, it drew its customers from long distances, north, south, east and west.
In the oldlen time the mills of Mad river were patronized by the settlers of not only Logan but by adjoining counties as well. and customers came from as far north as Kenton, and even Fort Findlay to bring their grists to the Mad river mills, and pa- tiently awaited their turns in order to take back their flour or meal, less the toll.
Among the early settlers were the Enochs. MeBeths, Hilderbrands, Henrys. Bairds, Newells. Shields, Hays, Blairs. Snoddys, Grays. Dunns, Grindles, Burk-
John Enoch built a saw-mill and Thomas Baird a distillery on Muddy Run.
Hiram M. Whitte was the first merchant and for many years one of the most impor- tant and prosperous citizens of the town. Fle was a man without education but quick- witted and full of business; he not only kept a store but kept a hotel and the post- office, and was he most important man of affairs in the new village.
White's tavern was one of the stopping places on the highway between the lake and the Ohio river.
Among the prominent business men ci the place was Thomas Miller, who purchas- ed and repaired the Enoch Mill, kept a dry goods store and became one of the wealthy men of the county.
Mr. J. M. Glover married a daughter of Mr. Miller and succeeded him in business. Mr. Ira Reynedls, E. T. Cundiff and R. E. Runkle were merchants, while Doctor John Ordway practiced medicine and kept a drug store : among the other active citizens were Captain James McDonald and also William Rutan and Abner Riddle: the last two had a saddler shop and dealt largely in stock: they afterwards removed to Bellefontaine. where they entered very largely into the up- building of the county seat.
Benjamin Ginn was a tailor. but for many years kept a tavern; Samuel Taylor. William Fisher and Henry Miller were largely interested in the grain and stock trade: John Vaughn was a tanner and Houston and Robert Crockett learned the trade with him: Orin Hubbard was a car- penter : William Moore and Abner Tharp
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
wagonmakers: John Moore and John Wil- liams, blacksmiths.
West Liberty was for many years one of the most important trading points of this section, and. being situated in the rich grain- growing district, after the completion of the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad in 1849. it gathered in as a shipping point all the grain and stock of that part of the county.
The first church in the township was a Christian church, organized in 1814. and about one-half mile west of the present town on Muddy Run. The church itself was a large log building, its Elder being Richard Clark; it included. within its membership some of the most prominent families in the township; this church afterwards divided. one part organizing another congregation. and the other building a new church at Gla- dy Creek.
The Methodists organized and built a church bulding in 1830: Doctor Ordway. Thomas P. Miller and James McDonald were the most active leaders in the organiza- tion: it became and has remained a most prosperous and influential instrument for good: their first minister was Rev. Find- lay: in 1849 they built the brick church. which is still occupied by them.
In 1840 the Rev. Joseph Stephenson or- ganized the First Presbyterian church. Rev. Robert Holliday was its first pastor. Rev. Stephenson came from Pennsylvania, and preached at Stony Creek and organized the Presbyterian churches at Stony Creek. Bellefontaine and Cherokee, and was for many years one of the great leaders in the religious movement of this new county : he lived to see the vineyards he had planted in the wilderness become most fruitful and bring forth most abundantly in the cause of his Master.
The Lutheran church began with occa- sional services, by Rev. J. G. Harris. of Bellefontaine, who preached for them every few Sundays: the services were held in private houses; Rev. Brickley, of Belleion- taine, succeeded Rev. Harris, and continued his ministry as he could find it convenient to do so: Rev. Brickley died of cholera in 1852, and J. W. Goodlin succeeded him. and from time to time assisted the West Lib- erty branch. The church was not regularly organized until 1857. Rev. M. B. Little be- coming its pastor: the first meetings were held in the Christian church, and until 1860 the congregation was without a church edi- fice. when it completed and dedicated its present church: Rev. A. R. Howbert preached for this congregation, and the one at Philadelphia, in 1863. and continued to do so until 1876, a period of thirteen years. The schools of West Liberty have always been of a high standard, and the instructors men of prominence in the profession, includ- ing such men as Quincy Gwynn, J. N. Drake. Duncan McDonald. F. N. Mather. and Profs. Surface and Search: West Lib- erty contains the finest school building in the county, built of stone from the neigh- boring quarries, and containing every mod- ern improvement. West Liberty has from time to time furnished a good many literary efforts in the newspaper line: they flourished for a season, and quietly dropped from pub- lie notice as the exigencies of the case com- pelled.
The Banner, the present newspaper, has long survived all storms and seasons, and continued prosperous: it is ably conduct- ed. and is a most successful and local paper. In May. 1880, West Liberty was visited by a disastrous fire, which destroyed about $150,000 worth of property.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
Like many such calamities, while it in- paper printed at this place: Donn Piatt, of jmed many property holders. it has given Macochee, has made this locality famous by his wit, philosophy and song.
way to new structures, better and more commodious than the okl.
GRAND VIEW.
The cemetery at West Liberty, rightful- " named "Grand View." is situated upon a : ' tom overlooking the village and the val- ly of the Mad River; it is a beautiful bur- :1 ground and well improved: the view Fem the hilltop to the south and east of the rometery is without question one of the trest to be found in the whole state; it ctumands a magnificent outlook, and from fase points you can behold the valley which the Indians for so many centuries claimed del held for their own. It was here that 1'i Miamis found, in years long before the " bite man came to claim and conquer it. : " contentment of the campfire and the weil chamber: it was here that the Wy- : 44. the Mingos, the Delawares and Sha- Notre es built their rude villages and hunted ed nished before the crack of the white Don's ritle was heard, and the march of his ·gens was known; it was these hilltops fut looked down upon the peaceful valley .Ilheld the conqueror who was to drive out the Indian and to destroy his villages.
They are now looking down upon fruit -. il fields, dotted with magnificent homes, in the center of the great empire, which has ken buildled by the toils and fashioned by the hands of the most wonderful and mar- sabine people the world has ever known : all within the limits of a single century.
Lil city township has been the home of Be distinguished literary men; Coates they was for a time a resident of West 1. Testy, and one of the editors of a news- 6
His castle, a splendid stone structure, fit for a baronet or an earl, still stands on the banks of the Macochee, whose rippling mu- sie he translated into poetry and song.
General A. Saunders Piatt still lives by the stream where his father lived before him; he was one of the loyal, patriotic men who gave his whole heart to the cause of the union, and from his wealth and abundance advanced to the government an amount sufficient to arm, equip and clothe a regiment for the field at the beginning of the Rebellion of 1801, and served with dis- tinction to the end of the war.
It was near "The Babbling Macochce" that Wiwelespea, the Indian orator, used to pour out the wondrous pathos of his soul and sweep before his marvelous eloquence the tears and sympathy of his tribes and kinsmen, and melt into tenderness the hearts that before were only intent on strategy and spoils.
The Mad River and the Macochee will flow onward forever, while the hands that cleared their obstructions and curbed them for duty or destiny are one by one being crossed in the pulseless sleep that knows no waking. But the wondrous civilization that has taken them into its keeping and has mastered the century, and is uphokling the cross and the crucifix, will go on bringing to all the coming ages a better and a broader liberty, and a more gracious civilization. founded upon the teachings of that Master whose words and works are still the safe- guard of the people and the guiding star of the nations of the earth.
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HISTORIC.IL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
F.LOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Bloomfield township was not cut off from Miami until IS32.
It is separated from Washington town- ship by the Great Miami river, which is its castern boundary: it is watered by several streams, the most important of which. the Miami, the Muchinippi. Four Mile, Brandy- wine and Rum Creek, are all tributary to the Miami.
The northwest part of Logan county until 1832 was the home of the Indians, and was occupied by them mostly for hunting and fishing: game was tolerably abundant. and the streams and lakes furnished a good supply of fish. After the purchase of the Indian lands, and their removal to the west- ward, this part of Logan county began to fill up with white settlers: it was almost entirely in the woods, and with the excep- tion of the Indian traces and bridle paths. was without roads.
To clear up and bring under cultivation this wilderness was no small undertaking. and yet the settlers of the northwestern townships were more fortunate than those who came at any earlier day. for they had the advantage of their experience, and the markets and opportunities of trade and bar- ter, which the first settlers did not have; hence the wilderness was soon brought un- der subjection, and the fast coming popula- tion soon brought the families in the neigh- borhood into closer communication.
Two families, named Keith and Stew- art. settled in the southern part of Bloom- field in 1830. and about 1832 or 1833 nu- merous families moved into the township and found homes: James Dillon came in IS33, and Isaac Stockwell, Benjamin Nick- ols and William Smith lived in the south-
eastern part of the township; while farther west lived Richard and I-ase Dillon. Ed- ward Timmons, Jacob and William Keith, William and John Schuler, Colbert Wright and William Moore.
In the northeast. William Rogers and William Campbell found homes.
Another Dillon. William, came in 1834. Henry Hone and Edward Wren in 1835. and these were soon followed by Wliliam Donaldson. John Price. James Woodfield. John Ellis, Joseph Danielson, Philip Hoy and George Wolf.
There were neither stores. mills nor trading points nearer than Bellefontaine. Quincy and Wapakoneta, until 1840, when a man named Mel'ailand built a cabin and opened a store about one mile west of the present town of Bloem Center: this was about the only trading post in the western portion of the county for several years. Some time near 1858 Andrew Halboth built a store house and dwelling at the present site of Bloom Center, and about this gath- ered a blacksmith shop, drug store, school- house, churches, tile-mill and hotel, and it is quite a point for trade and traffic.
As early as 1832 religious services were held in a log school-house, and in 1836 a log meeting-house was built.
In 1854 the German Reformed church began holding meetings in the township, and in 1855 erected a church at Bloom Cen- ter, while in 1854 a church had been built in the northern part of the township on the Muchinippi.
It was in this township that the Hopkins child was lost in 1838: he was unques- tionably carried off by the Indians, and. like many others who preceded him. hecame at- tached to the people with whom his lot was cast, and remained with them, during life,
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HISTORICAL REVIENT OF LOGIN COUNTY.
or possibly be may have never known his of the most important and influential citi- Worthright or the family from whence he zens of the county. came. This township is a rich agricultural settlement, and its people are especially prosperous.
HARRISON TOWNSHIP.
Harrison township under the old divis- fis of the county was a part of Lake town- and so remained until 1832. when it was att off and formed into a township, and named after General William Henry Har- : 1-011.
It has two stream. the Bokongebelas. muted after an Indian chief of the Dela- sares, whose village was situated on this cam, and Blue Jacket, named after the Beit war chief of the Shawonoes: there i. amother small stream running through n and emptying into the Bokongehelas. Hul Tucker's Run, named after a curious elriracter named Tucker, who lived on the banks of the streams 'in very early times.
It is entirely within the Congress land district, and was therefore settled by the purchases of land from the general govern- ment. rather than by Virginia military land warrants.
The first white settler was Colonel James MePherson, who was taken by the English and held prisoner some seven years: after the end of hostilities and the declaration of peace he came to Ohio in 1795, as an Indian agent, and became at once influential with the tribes in this section of the country.
He established a trading post and built Mock-house near the present county in- Ermary : by good trading and careful man- Werment he obtained from the Indians and the government large tracts of lands in this p wn-hip, and lived for many years, one
Ile was always present and exercised great influence over the Indians in all their meetings for conference or treaty; he was a Pennsylvanian by birth, but almost his entire life was spent in the army or on the frontier: he was one of the associate judges of the county, and was always held in the highest esteem by his fellow citizens.
One George Blaylock, a blacksmith, set- tled in the township about the same time as McPherson, or a little after. He lived at Silver Lake, then called Blaylock's Lake, where he hunted, fished and did blacksmith- ing for the settlers; he removed to Belle- fontaine, and later to an island near the present Reservoir, and died at that place.
James Manning Reed, a son of Colonel Seth Reed. of the Fifteenth Massachusetts Infantry, in the Revolution, came next ; he was born in Uxbridge, Mass., January 7th. 1770, and he came with his father in 1786 to Geneva. New York, and from thence to Erie. Pennsylvania, in 1795: he must have come to Logan county as early as 1806 and settled at Zanestown, for in 1807 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Isaac Zane, who was the widow of Robert Robi- taille. In 1812 Mr. Reed moved to a farmi mn Ilarrison township, where he died May 5th, 1847.
He was the first voter in the new coun- ty of Logan, and is so recorded in the elec- tion of Belleville in 1818, being then a resi- dent of Lake township.
At that election Lake had not been divided, and included Liberty, Union, Me- Arthur, Harrison and Richland townships. and the voters came from long distances : and the Moores, McBeths, Alexanders, Grays. Newells, Covingtons and others
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HISTORIC.IL REVIENT OF LOG.IN COUNTY.
within these townships voted at Belleville, in Lake township.
Soon after the Reed settlement came the Rev. Robert Casebolt, a Methodist Episco- pal minister, and settled upon the lands where he afterwards died; he was active in the organization of the First Methodist church, and officiated as minister, and was also largely interested in farming and stock raising, and was one of the first to bring blooded cattle into the county; he took an active interest in the first county fair, and exhibited the finest cattle at that time in the county.
A man named Jeremiah Stansberry set- tled near Manary's block-house, and after- wards removed to a place near the lake.
There was quite a family of the Blay- locks, including Vachel. Merida, George and Oliver, four brothers. A man named John Tucker lived in a cabin as early as 1812.
There were two block-houses in this township. McPherson's, near the present infirmary, and Manary's, a mile or two east of MePherson's, situated on the old Beal farm, now owned by Mr. Emrey.
The real settlement of Harrison did not begin until about 1820 or 1822: then came Samuel Carter. George Heath. Thomas Sutherland. Michael Carnes, John Houtz, Daniel Shawver and John Horn.
Hull's trace ran through his township. and was the first opening of a road reaching north and south: it passed through the lands now owned by George Aikin, and for many years was well marked and distinct ; the trees had been cut away, leaving a track some thirty or forty feet wide.
A small log grist-mill and a distillery was built on Bokongehelas, and another
grist-mill and distillery built on Blue Jacket by one George Walpers, a Canadian.
In 1821 John Houtz built a saw-mill on Blue Jacket, and a large brick house near it, where John Gray now lives: the dam was in front. near the road; while Daniel Shawver built a grist and saw-mill, where Kaylor's mill now stands, which was for- merly the Millner mill.
Three lines of railroad now run through this township, and turnpikes are now con- structed on all public roads.
James McPherson kept the first store at his block-house.
Schoolhouses were built after the com- ing of the settlers. the first being a log build- ing with puncheon floor, split log seats and oiled papers for windows: with a generous freplace in one end. big enough to accom- modate a two-foot back-log.
Some of the names of the scholars at- tending this school would be quite familiar to cur okler citizens, Henry McPherson. Poter Powell, Alexander Long. Silas More- house. Anna, Margaret, and Maria Smith, James Reed, James Robitaille, called Ro- berdi.
Sebastian Keller was one of the early teachers, and was one of the most useful and painstaking of pedagogues.
The county infirmary was located in this township in the year 1849, the lands being purchased of Joseph Lawrence, and com- prised 164 acres of fine farming lands. The first house was built in 1851.
The orphans' home is also situated in this township, having been built in 1886: it is one of the most complete and best equip- ped institutions of the kind in the state; the farm consists of about 100 acres of fine land, situated on the road leading from Bellefontaine to Sidney.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
As early as 1825 Robert Casebolt hell meetings and conducted religious services in this township.
The business of the township is now al- most entirely done in Bellefontaine, and it brings its trade and finds it markets at this joint. It is a rich and productive body of land. and its citizens are among the best of the county.
BOKES CREEK TOWNSHIP.
Perhaps no other township in Logan county has shown such marked changes and improvements as Bokes Creek township.
It was cut off of the north end of Perry township, and from what had originally been Zane township, in 1837.
It was in the beginning one of the low- est-lying parcels of land in the county, and was for a great part of the year either cov- ered with water or was so wet and marshy as to be almost entirely useless: three streams running through it. in early days. overflowed their banks, and kept the whole country in a boggy, wet and malarious con- dition, unfit for cultivation and almost unfit for occupancy.
To the beholder of today the Bokes Creek township of the present is as unlike the Bokes Creek of early days as it is possi- ble to imagine: now we see rich farms and well cultivated fields, good and comfortable homes, and a general improvement which surrounds a prosperous and thrifty people.
Rush creek passes through the north- ern part of the township on its way to the Scioto. Mill creek flows through the southwestern part of the township and gues into Perry; while Bokes creek, from which the township is named, rising in the west- ern part of the township, from two sources. one in the southern and the other in the
northern part, flows eastward through the townships into Union county, where, join- ing their waters, they flow onward together into the Scioto.
The early settlers found nothing but woods, brush, water and game to induce set- tlement. The great windstorm of May. 1825, which passed entirely through Logan county, from its southwestern to its north- eastern boundary, had left a tract of devas- tation of about one-half mile wide behind it : everything in its path had been destroyed and the timber was blown down as com- pletely as if it had been felled by man and ax: this section was for many years known as the Fallen Timbers, and was a wild, un- cultivated country, overgrown with briers. and filled with the smaller game. It was, however, the means in one respect of in- ducing settlement: the storm coming from the west to the east had blown the timber so that the tops were all lying prone, in one direction. to the eastward, and it was not so difficult to clear away the fallen trees as it was to cut down and clear away the green timber standing on the ground.
Ditches were cut. and the streams run- ning through the township were so far as possible cleared out and straightened, and the waters confined within their banks, and the clearing, draining and drying process began: the lands, naturally rich, had be- come still more so by the long-continued accumulation of debris and deposit, which had been gathering for centuries, and which remained to make of Bokes Creek township an exceptionally rich and fertile body of farming land.
There were but few settlements in the township until about 1830, when Lewis and Gardner Bates, Robert and David Rea, and
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HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LOGAN COUNTY.
the Skidmore- came to begin the formation the new county, and the carly settlers were of a new settlement.
In 1831 they were joined by the Hath- aways, who came from Massachusetts, and from time to time other families, drawn Here by the opportunities offered, or by the location of military land warrants, came to join these pioneers, and to assist in the clear- ing away and opening up of this new country.
It is claimed, however, that one John Hill was the first settler in this township. having come as early as 1827, and began the first clearing in the windfall, and wa; s on after followed by Mr. Bell: in 1839 they were joined by the Bells, the Coffells. (lines, Callahans, and others who settled in the northern part, and still later by the Southards. Kellers, and others who assisted in clearing up the southern part.
Ridgeway, in the northern part of the township, was laid out after the railroad was built through that portion, in 1852, by Samuel McColloch. West Mansfield was located and plotted by Levi Southard in 1848. he afterwards went into the army and died in the hospital in 1861.
In the settlement of the disputed bound- ary question between Hardin and Logan counties, the village of Ridgeway was di- vided about equally between the two cotta- tres, the southern half remaining in Logan and the northern half in Hardin county.
With the opening up and improving of the township, new settlers came, with in- ereased means and better opportunity, the Thorntons. Wilsons, Williams. Furrows. Greens, Swysgoods. Ramseys, Wilklows. Winners and many others, all of whom were adding materially to its growth and prosperity.
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