The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 44

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2 > Part 44

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Wayne is now divided into seven subdistricts, and latterly substantial brick houses are taking the place of the very comfortable frame buildings which succeeded the old log cabins. Each school is controlled by a competent Board of Directors. The schools are mostly supplied with charts, etc., and the modern necessities of the schoolroom.

In 1861, when internal commotions shook this great Republic, and war was imminent between the North and South, Wayne Township was as unpre- pared as any district in Ohio. But its citizens were not slow to manifest their patriotism and love of country by every possible sacrifice that a great people could make. In victory or defeat, in camp or field, in the bivouac or on the march, at the cannon's mouth or at the quiet camp-fire, they were worthy sons of worthy sires, and every man was of himself a host. The following is as complete a list as we are enabled to obtain:

John West, Fairfax West, Reason West, S. C. Bowen, A. Evans, W. H. Strode, Charles Pidgeon, Joseph Brown, James Keach, C. Crawford, W. S. Wilkerson, J. P. Wilkerson, D. Wilkerson, George McFadden, Thomas Davis, D. B. Snow, Joseph Cox, Robert Savage, Edward Myers, J. Severs, Thomas

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McVey, J. L. Young, John Young, C. McFadden, Harvey Evans, Elkanah Ayers, Lewis Hodson, Levi Reed, Peter Fry, M. Bonesetter, F. Bonesetter, Moses Benegar, Benjamin Elliott, James English, Levi Spurlock, William Nunn, William Driscoll, M. Clements, Josh Hardesty, J. Sweetman, Eli Hod- son, Henry Adams, J. J. Harris, J. Cunningham, Robert Rodgers, J. W. Holmes, James Dabe, J. P. Clements, J. Stackhouse, D. P. Slaight, James Keef, J. Woodmansee, Simon Massie, John Whitehead, Elias Henry, Joseph Henry.

The health of the township was always reasonably good. However, ague and fevers-diseases common to Ohio -- would, during some seasons, attack many. The "milk sickness," "trembles" or "sick stomach," a very danger- ous disease, was known here. Persons attacked with it seldom recovered, and those not dying at once were sufferers from its effects for years. Several of the early settlers died with it. The cause of the disease was thought by some to be a shrub, and by others a kind of white blossom weed, evidently of the compositæ family. Both plants grew in low, rich lands, in the shade, along fence rows and around ponds of water. Cattle eating this shrub and weed would soon show symptoms of the disease, and if they were milch cows, the calves would first be affected; and persons using the milk or butter would con- tract the disease. Since the country has been cleared out, drained and culti- vated. this disease has entirely disappeared. The fever and ague has also. passed away, being remembered as one of the dreaded diseases that was.

This township has held a very conspicuous place in the county as regards politics, and, although it is, and has been, Democratic, it has representatives of about all the National parties. The Hon. Stephen Evans, Hon. D. P. Quinn and Hon. Thomas Geff's were chosen from this Township to represent the county in the Legislature of Ohio; and it is worthy of record that they filled the honorable position with credit to themselves and the county. Persons for the county offices were frequently chosen from Wayne. Our people are slowly but surely learning that in local politics, where no great National principles are involved, experience, honesty and executive ability are more important requisites in a candidate than a party pedigree, although it reach back in an unbroken line for generations.

The town of Centerville, as its name indicates, is very centrally located in the township. While it has suffered from the lack of a railroad through it, it is still a thriving village, with a good prospect for a north and south road, known as the Columbus & Maysville Railroad. It has a large and commodious church, which was erected nearly twelve years ago. The frame of the old one is still standing in the south part of town, and was built many years ago. The village has probably the best township house in the county. A. W. Mohlenpage has a very complete dry goods and clothing store in the Odd Fel- lows' building. Daniel Theobald has a very extensive grocery store, and also has charge of the post office. There are two drug stores, owned by Hussoy & Lindley and T. J. Savage. Savage and Stevenson are the physicians. There are two steam saw and grist mills and three blacksmith shops. The school- house is nearly one-half mile south of town.

Centerville Lodge, No. 531, I. O. O. F., was organized and chartered in 1872, and the membership embraces many of the leading citizens of the place. The present commodious building was erected in 1876. The membership comprises thirty-six active persons.

Lee's Creek Cemetery is situated a short distance north of town, and ranks among the best for location and beauty in the county. It was formerly known as Sharpe's Graveyard, and contains the remains of many of the early citizens of the township, having been laid out about the year 1812.

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There are several other small family burial places in the township, and one that is only second to the cemetery in the neighborhood of Thomas Geff's, where is also a very pleasant country church with a considerable membership.

To the foregoing, prepared by Mr. Terrell, will be added the following notes, gathered in years past by Judge R. B. Harlan, of Wilmington, now deceased :

"The first settler in what is now Wayne Township, Clinton County, was John Jackson, a native of Pennsylvania. He was taken in youth by his par- ents, Samuel and Catharine Jackson, to the Province, now the State, of North Carolina, where they settled in Surry County, on the waters of the Yadkin River, in a settlement of Friends. Here he grew up to manhood and was married. He was a brother of Jacob Jackson, an early emigrant to the State of Ohio; first a settler on Lee's Creek, near where New Lexington now is, and soon afterward near where Martinsville, Clinton County, now is, where he was for many years a well-known and much respected citizen. Both these brothers were members of the religions Society of Friends, Jacob a minister. They were not by right of birth members, as many are, their parents not belonging to that religious organization, but they became so, in the regular way, upon personal application for membership, soon after arriving at manhood. They afterward married by the mode an i formula observed among Friends. Jacob first, and afterward, John, were married at a meeting at Tom's Creek, Surry County, N. C., near the Blue Ridge; Jacob to Ann and John to Phebe Bales, daughters of Bowater Bales, of North Carolina, and sisters to John Bowater Bales, better known to the old settlers of this county as Borter Bales, from whom the old Bales Mill, on the road to Leesburg from New Lexington, was named.

"These brothers were said, upon what seemed good authority, to be near relatives, first cousins perhaps, and intimate personal friends of Gen. Andrew Jackson, who made the brilliant and successful defense of New Orleans upon the 8th of January, 1815, and it is a tradition in the county that their anti- war principles did not cause them to disown their acquaintance with or their relationship to the hero of New Orleans.

"John Jackson came to Ohio in the year 1802, directly from Tennesseo. After his marriage, he had lived for some time in Surry County, N. C., and afterward for some years in East Tennessee, Jefferson County, not far from Knoxville. He came to the point of his location in the spring of 1803, with his wife Phebe and ten children. They settled on the Middle Branch of Lee's Creek, on one of the Ransdale's surveys, No. 1,027, about one mile a little north of west from where the counties of Highland and Fayette have a corner in the east line of Clinton County. His cabin stood west of where the Urbana road is now located, upon a high piece of rolling land covered with a heavy growth of large oak trees, and near a large spring, about two hundred and fifty yards nearly southwest of the present well-known residence of James His cabins disappeared long ago, but the indications of the ground plainly show the place where they at one time stood. They were built in the wild green woods, remote from any road or path except the one which he opened for himself and family in coming to their location, with no human habitation near, if a deserted Indian wigwam on the creek, half a mile away, is not re. garded as an exception. The barn said to have been built by him was, until lately, and perhaps still is, in use for the purpose for which it was erected. The fields which he cleared and brought into cultivation are now, with the ox. ception of a few acres, cleared on the Daily farm, all merged in the home farin of Mr. James Morris.

- Morris.

"This favored spot was, at this date, in the midst of a solitary wilderness

أسى خاصة القهوة

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of great extent, peopled by Indians and abounding in wild deer, bears and wolves.

"At the date of Mr. Jackson's settlement, the whole number of families within the boundaries of what is now Clinton County did not exceed ten, the true count being, it is believed, only eight, or at most nine. In our count, Isaac Miller and Joseph Mckibben are excluded, though residing within the limits referred to as early as 1802, neither having a family at the time. Mr. Jackson's nearest neighbor on the north or Clinton County side of the line, which now divides the counties of Highland and Fayette from Clinton, was, not a doubt of it, Morgan Van Meter, at the site of what was afterward Morgan- town, now deserted, seven miles away. Three miles below Van Meter, on the East Fork of the Little Miami, near where Farmer's Station, on the Marietta Railroad, now is, Joseph Mckibben and Isaac Miller, young men and single, were keeping ' bach' in a cabin, ten miles from Jackson's improvement. At about the same distance, in a course a little west of north, on the Hinkson Prairie, in what is now Wilson Township, Amos Wilson and James Mills lived in the same dooryard, yet each in his own dwelling. On the other or south side of the same line, a few settlers, not more than half a dozen in all, had settled here and there, with wide intervals between them, in the fall of 1802. These were Bowater Bales, James Haworth, John Walters and Nathaniel Pope, and the next year, Evan Evans and James Smith, the noarest of whom to Mr. Jackson was at least three miles distant. James Haworth, a native of Penn- sylvania, was a brother of George Haworth, who settled on Todd's Fork, near where Centre Meeting-House now is, in 1803. He had lived for a time in each of the States of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. He settled upon and opened the farm owned by the late James Matthew, near New Lexington. He built the first mill erected at the junction of the West and Middle Branches of Lee's Creek, where the Eagle Mills now are, and used the water-power of both streams to run his machinery. After living in Ohio for several years, he removed once more, on this occasion to Indiana, where he died.

"John Bowater Bales, better known to the old settlers as Borter Bales, settled on the West Branch of Lee's Creek, on the farm where the late Peter Adams lived at the time of his death. Near here he built a mill on the West Branch, where the road from New Lexington to Leesburg crosses that stream. He came to Ohio from North Carolina, and afterward removed from Ohio to Indiana.

"John Walters, uncle to John Walters, formerly of Todd's Fork, and Nathaniel Pope, grandfather of Judge Pope, of Wilmington, were located near Leesburg, Highland County, the former on the farm where the late Rev. Isaac Pavey lived for many years before his death, adjoining the town. Mr. Pope, it is believed, built a mill on the site of the mills now owned by Henry Pavey, on the East Branch of Lee's Creek.

"Evan Evans, father of John Evans, and James Smith, father of Job Smith, came from the Scioto River, and settled on Lee's Creek about one mile southeast of where Oak Grove Meeting-House now is, in what is now Fayette County. All these became citizens of Highland County by the erection of that county in 1805.

" Mr. Jackson, having no other neighbors, was, in the liberal construction of that day, considered as belonging to the settlement above mentioned. He seems to have been a man of industry and economy. At the time of his death, he was, for that day, quite well supplied with domestic animals, the tools and implements for farming, household and kitchen furniture and the machinery for carding, spinning, weaving, etc. The inventory of his personal estate, as estimated by Absalom Reed, Joseph Grice and Thomas Draper, the appraisers,

calón

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amounted to $423. He made his will August 2, 1810, during his last sick- ness. It was drawn by his brother Jacob, and was attested by Jacob Jackson and Enon Williams, father-in-law of the late Robert Way. The execution of it was committed to his wife Phebe and to Curtis Bales, whom he calls 'my nephew.' It was probated October 16, 1810, being the first will admitted to probate in Clinton County.

"Mr. Jackson had a large family. Six daughters and four sons lived to mature age and were married. His family was not well suited for the rugged work of opening a farm in the wildwoods. Of those who lived to come to - Ohio, the first three in the order of their birth were girls; the fourth, a son fifteen years of age; next, two daughters; then a son eight years old; then an- other daughter, and a son one year old. Of the daughters, four were married before September 2, 1810. The names of the sons wore Uriah, William, Amor and Jesse. The names of the daughters were Hannah, Charity, Sarah, Eliza- beth, Keziah and Mary. Uriah married a daughter of Jacob Allen, of String- town; Amor married Minerva Sinclair; Jesse, Phoebe Sinclair, daughters of a neighbor; William married Rebecca Pearson; Hannah married David Bran- son; Charity married Mr. Foster; Elizabeth married Joseph Rooke; Sarah married Edward Chaney; Keziah and Mary were unmarried at the time of their father's death, but afterward married, respectively, John Allen and Isham Gallamore.

"Mr. Jackson's family seems to have been reasonably industrious and economical -- all engaged in the great business of making a living. A farm was opened in due time, the land prepared for cultivation by girdling the large trees and removing the smaller ones and bushes. Crops were plantod and inclosed by a fence as a protection against the domestic animals. As soon as the grain was formed, a fierce contest began between the family, assisted by the dogs, on one side, and on the other, the birds of many kinds, and boasts quite as numerous, such as door, in droves, by night and day, squirrels by doz. ens at a time, by day, and raccoons by night.

"After Mr. Jackson had settled on Lee's Creek, Phoebe, his wife, was fol- lowed in the woods by a panther, which threatened to attack her. For safety, she was obliged to climb a tree, and to remain there until the beast took his departure.

"Mr. Jackson was what is called a squatter; that is, one who enters upon land belonging to another, without any title. This is established in two ways: First, the owner of the land lived at a distance, and was not here to sell it, and had no agent in the country; second, Jackson bought the land in 1909, six years after he settled on it, of the agent of the owner. John and Phoebe Jack- son were buried at the old graveyard in the Hoskins neighborhood, near a Friends' Meeting-House, now gone.

CENTERVILLE.

1 "Centerville was laid out December 4, 1816. The proprietor of the town was Timothy Jones, from the State of Virginia. The principal street, Main, was laid off fifty-four poles long and four poles wide, and its parallel alloys are fifty-four poles long and one pole wide. Middle street is fifty-four polos long and three poles wide. The parallel alleys are the same length, and ono pole wide. Main street runs north forty-five degrees west, and Middle stroot runs at right angles with Main street. The lots were thirty-two in numbor; are six poles in front, and run back twelve poles. A stone is placed at tho southeast corner of Lot No. 2, and at the southwest corner of Lot No. 16. Centerville is the voting precinct for Wayne Township, which was laid off as a separate township in March, 1837.

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"The first settler in Wayne as it now is was John_Jackson, a Friend, from Tonnossoo, who settled on Leo's Crook in 1803. The second settler was Edward Curtis, Sr., who settled on Leo's Crook in 1805. Ho also came from Tonnossoo. Ho settled on the farm whoro William Elliott lived for years, on the north bank of Loo's Creek. His children wore Job, who was married to Anne St. Clair July 25, 1815, by Rev. William Jackson; Martha, married to Stephon Martin November 16, 1820, by Samuel Harvey, Justice of the Peace; Franky, married to John Grice May 14, 1812, by Rev. William Jackson; Ed- ward, married to Elizabeth Lyon June 7, 1820, by Joseph Shepherd, Justice of the Peaco; Sarah, married to Jacob Compton September 16, 1824, by Sam- uel Rood, Justice of the Peace; James, married to Dorcas Elliott, July 14, 1825, by Samuel Rood, Justice of the Peace; Rachel, married to Elijah Thrail- kill December 25, 1822, by Samuel Rood, Justice of the Peace

" Job Curtis, after his marriage, lived for two or three years on the farm where Peter Adams last lived, in Clinton County. Afterward, in 1825, he was living on the northwest side of Thomas Gaskin's Survey, No. 818. Still later, in 1833, he owned land in Douse's Survey, No. 880, in the northwest corner, 100 acres of which he sold to William Holston, and 110 acres 312 (?) poles to Charles Arnold. Grassy Run flows through these lands. From here be re- moved to Grant County, Ind., near Marion, where he still lives.

"John Allen came about two years later (1807); also, David Carter and Thomas Draper. Mr. Allen came from Brownsville, Penn. He settled on the southwest side of the creek, where John Stokesberry formerly lived, on the Greene Survey. His house has disappeared, but its site is owned by David A. Terroll. He, late in life, conveyed the land to Henry Myers, taking an obli- gation from Myers for the future support of himself and wife. He and his wife were buried in the graveyard in the Terrell pasture.

"In 1814 (December), Mr. Allen was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace for Richland Township, and served three years. December 2, 1815, Mr. Allen and his wife, Sarah, conveyed by deed to John Branson, in consideration of $85, fifty acres of land out of a tract purchased by said Allen of Phillip Root, Thompson's Survey. The deed bears dato of May 4, 1805. It was re- corded in Ross County. On the 21st day of June, 1832, Mr. Allen served with David Carter and John Geffs as Commissioners for the division of Survey No. 1,023, in the name of William Whitacre, among the twenty-three manumitted slaves of James Bray, of Chesterfield County, Va. Mr. Allen had some knowl- edge of surveying. He was appointed by the Commissioners of Clinton County, June 7, 1814, to survey a proposed change in the Urbana road east of James Gillespie's Tavern, now known as the burnt tavern. His son John married Keziah Jackson, daughter of John Jackson, March 12, 1811. His daughter Esther married William Rhonemus, of Centerville, June 22, 1821. Hannah married Henry Myers April 11, 1822. Both were married by Samuel Reed, Justice of the Peace. He made deeds, May 26, 1815, to Henry Cock, for seventy-three and two-thirds acres; December 2, 1815, to John Elliott, for fifty acres; February 2, 1838, to Henry Myers. He had a family of chil- dren by his wedded wife; nevertheless, he had a large family of children by Matilda Thrailkill. He had two houses in the same yard-one occupied by nis wife, and the other by Matilda Thrailkill. Afterward, he moved the latter to a small farm near Centerville, where Hugh McFadden afterward lived.

"Benjamin Logan was an early settler on the East Branch of Lee's Creek. His residence was on the Currie land, where Peter Adams, and, afterward, Martin Ryan, lived. His wife was a sister of Aden, Robert, Thomas and Will- iam Antram. He had about twenty acres of land cleared when William El- liott came to the neighborhood, in 1812. Mr. Logan came from Tennessee,

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bringing Mike Fry, the rail-splitter, with him. This is not the same Mike Fry who camo with Thomas Dailey and the Wollards, in 1819, from Virginia. From Leo's Creek, Logan moved to the place where Samuel Zurface now lives, the same on which Samuel Reed lived at the time of his death. His house stood about one hundred yards from the house of Zurface, and back from the road.

" Thomas N. Adams was an early settler on the Gallatin Survey, made for Edward Douse, No. 811. He was a squatter there. Mr. Adams was mar- ried twice. By the first marriage, he had three children-Absalom, Henry and Mrs. Isaac Pavey; by the second, Thomas N., John, Charles, William, Henry Long and others. He is said to have been about one hundred and seven years of age at the time of his death. On his ono-hundredth birth-day, he split 100 rails -- one for each year he had lived. Thomas N., his sou, claimed, in 1867, to have been born September 10, 1772, but the record of his age in Isaac Pa- vey's Bible, seen at Manlif Adams' house, gives his birth on June 4, 1783. He died in September, 1876. His brother John has no date for his birth, but claims to have been called out by Gon. McArthur's call (the general call) in 1812, when he was about twenty-four years of age. This would make him about eighty-eight years of age (July 23, 1874). He died in September, 1876. " Absalom Adams lived close to the Urbana road, on the farm now owned by Thomas Guffs. He was the father of Edward and John Adams, both now dead. Edward married Leah, sister of Jesse Mckay. Absalom Adams ownod 151g acres in Survey 1,027.

"Henry Adams, brother to Absalom, lived adjoining him, farther east and north. They were own brothers to Isaac Pavey's first wife. Henry Adams' farm was afterward owned by Richard Lutterall, and descended to his sons at his death.

"John Lyon, Sr., lived on the Urbana road when the Elliotts came, where there was an old shingle-roofed barn formerly, east of the road. He was from the Red Stone country in Pennsylvania, and came to Wayne Township, as it now is, before 1812. In the spring of 1813, he went to live in a cabin on the Carrington Survey, 1,449, built by David Evans, on the Job Haines land, where Martin Hester formerly lived, on the old Miami trace. Lyon owned about one hundred and fifty acres in 1,027, between the Urbana road and the creek. His house was nearly in a line with the Peter Adams house and the James Morris house, on the same land formerly owned by John Jackson. He was a blacksmith, and had a blacksmith shop there. Cinders and other waste aro still plowed up where the shop stood.

"Richard Lyon lived where the Morris dwelling now is. He sold liquor and made things lively generally. His house was not made tight by chinking or daubing. He sold his land to Luther McVey, who sold 104 acres of his farm to James Morris in 1833. The road formerly ran about where the barn now is and so on south. The old house back of his residence, eighteen by twenty feet, still standing, was Edward Curtis' (commonly called Old Neddy) dwelling, where he had twenty one children in the family, composed of his wife's children by a former marriage, his own by his first marriage, and his and his wife's by the second marriage. Richard Lyon's wife was Sarah An. tram. -

"Two lots of land were, on November 3, 1824, conveyed by James Macher, of Hardy County, Va., to sons of John Lyon, Sr. To each of these doods ho was one of the witnesses. To Robert was conveyed sixty-seven acres, for a consideration of $100; and to Richard, sixty-seven acres. John,' Jr., bought fifty-four and three-fourths acres from John Watts, part of survey of P. Nov. ille, 766, in the north corner of the survey, near Sabina. He moved there in

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1827. His wife was Betsey Brown, to whom ho was married by Samuel Reod, Justice of the Poace, May 1, 1812. John Lyon, Sr., died in the Poollo neigh- borhood, it is believed, on the farm of John Carter.

" The Antram family were among the early settlers in Wayne Township. The mother came to Ohio with her children, hor husband having died before 1

they left Tennessee. Her sons were William, Thomas, Robert and Aden. Thomas married the Widow Fry, mother of Miko Fry, the rail-splitter. This Mike lived in the neighborhood, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another. At the time of his death he lived on a small lot of about five acres, on the west sido of the branch. His brother, Jacob Fry, died in Highland County. His sister, Jane, was married to Henry Leeka, Esq., March 7, 1816. Leeka moved West in 1838. William Antram was married to Sarah Sharp November 4, 1810. by Rev. William Jackson. June 8, 1826, he was married to Eleanor McCoy, by Joseph Roberds, Justice of the Peace. William Antram bought fifty-two acres off the west corner of William Stewart's tract of 300 acres, part, of E. Meade's Survey, No. 808. His tract cornered with James Barrett, and also with William Hardwick. This purchase was made February 26, 1813. He afterward owned about one hundred acres in William Gray's largest sur- vey. This he sold to Francis Stone, Sr., and moved . West. The land was purchased about 1815 or 1816, and sold about 1838 or 1839.

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The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 44

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410