PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 195 CHAPTER XX. THE TOWNSHIPS, DESCRIBED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER AS THEIR ORDER OF SENIORITY HAS BEEN 1MPOSSIBLE TO DETERMINE. (RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) THE TOWNSHIPS have been the most difficult and unsatisfactory subjects in preparation ; recollections of the older residents have proven conflicting and indefinite ; private and public records are incomplete or entirely missing ; public officials are so frequently changed that the records of predecessors have been lost. Where public records have been found they have been accepted as correct nothwithstanding that they may disagree with personal statements, for the reason that a record made at the time has more to commend it than the lapses of memory which occur after a series of years, although the relator may have been a participant in the event. That the narrative of the townships is incomplete is conceded, but the exclusion of doubtful matter was preferred to the inclusion of what was far from being established. Not a single township or village clerk in the county contributed a word of information, or paid any attention to the inouiries of the editor for specific facts, perhaps for the reason that it was beyond his ability to corn- ADAMS TOWNSHIP. The Commissioners' journal of December 5. 1826, records that "A petition was presented by Caleb Jordan, signed by a number of citizens of Madison and Monroe townships. setting forth that they labor under many difficulties and disadvantages in consequence of the distance they have to travel to elections and praying that a township may be set off of part of Monroe and Madison townships, and the Commissioners believing the prayer of the petitioners necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants and township officers do hereby order a new township to be set off according to the following boundaries, to wit : Begmning at the northeast corner of Salem township line and running thence west along said line to the northwest corner of said township, thence north to the Coshocton county line; thence east to the north- 196 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. west corner of the original survey of township number three, in the fifth range, thence south to the place of beginning, comprising the original surveyed township number three in the sixth range, Military Land, which shall constitute a new township to be called Adams township. Also ordered by the Commissioners that an election be held at the house of Caleb Jordan, esquire, on the first day of January next, being January 1, 1827, to elect officers for the township." The township was named in honor of John Quincy Adams, then President, and the political boundaries are, north by Coshocton county ; east by Monroe township ; south by Salem township, and west by Mdison township. The electors assembled at the designated time and voted viva voce for officers, except justices of the peace, there being one each from Monroe and Madison townships residing in the new township. As the election had not been by ballot, as the statute directed, a new election was held April 2, 1827, when there were chosen : Caleb Jordan, township clerk; Anthony Slater, James Wilcox and Benjamin Whitebury, trustees ; Abraham Wisecarver and David Ross, overseers of the poor ; Jacob Sturtz and Powell Christman, fence viewers ; John Campbell, treasurer ; John Shona- field and John Mullen constables ; David Swigert, Thomas Green, Francis Titus and Robert Brown, supervisors. Subsequent elections alternated between private houses and school houses until 1876 when a township house was built. The first settler was James Wilcox, who built a but of brush and bark in the wilderness in 18o8-1o; wild beasts were numerous and his few domestic animals were kept in close pens for security. His immediate successors were David Brelsford, Jacob Hashmer and Hugh Ballentine, who settled at the bend of Wills creek, in 181o. Benjamin Whitebury, John and William Campbell, Abraham Wisecarver, Caleb Bidwell, Samuel Monroe, Robert Osborn, William Barton, Valentine Shirer, and Anthony Slater were located by 1818. The first blacksmith was David Brelsford, about 1810, and in 1833 he erected the second saw mill in the township on a small stream which bears his name; the first saw mill was operated by David Swigert. The threshing machme and mower were introduced by Anthony Slater. The first marriage was in 1822, of David Shirer and Lydia Gaumer ; the first frame house was built for William Barton and the first brick was erected for Jacob Gaumer, Jr., a noted hunter of the day, the brick being burned on his farm during 1840, and the building put in the following year. SCHOOLS. As in the other townships of the county, the first schools were not maintained at public expense ; the building was erected by the persons desiring it and the teacher was paid by those patronizing it. The first school house was near the location of the present township house, and the first teacher was William Jennison, in 1820. During 1824 a number of the neighbors united in erecting a log school house, eighteen by twenty feet, at the forks of the road below Fairview, on land of Mordecai Edwards ; the floor was the customary puncheon, the benches were slabs or split logs with pins for legs at the ends and middle, and the desks were slabs supported by wooden pins driven into the walls. The teacher for the first few terms was James Hayworth, an eccentric scholarly recluse and miser. In 1836 another lot of neighbors built a house on land of J. J. Bell and in 1841 one was erected on the farm of Solomon Wenner ; the latter was of hewn logs, twenty-two by twenty-four feet, with permanent desks. In 1854 a frame school building, twenty-four by twenty-five feet, was built on the Sandel farm. The township is now divided into four school districts, each of which has a one room building of an aggregate value of $2,000.00 ; four male teachers are employed, and the enumeration is sixty-seven boys and sixty-two girls. CHURCHES. Bethesda Methodist Episcopal church is the oldest religious society in the township; the first sermon preached was by a local, Jesse Roe, in 1821, and in 1826 he formed a class of eight at the residence of John E. Honnold, which in Roe’s home and a school house. In 1827 Joseph Carper and Cornelius Springer formed a class of fourteen, mostly from former members of the Wheelen church, in Madison township; in 1835 a log church was built, twenty-six by thirty feet, on a lot donated for the purpose, and before the building was completed Robert Shields and Robert Halsty bought adjoining land for purpoces, and the first interment was a child. In 1856 a frame church, thirty-eight by forty-two feet was erected upon the original site. Fairview Methodist Episcopal church is a branch from the Roe or Bethesda church; when the school house was built on "Father Edwards’” place the services which had been conducted in his home were transferred to the school house, and in the fall of 1831 a class of twelve was formed. In 1834. Edwards donated an acre of ground, on which an old pioneer and church associate was buried, and in 1835 a hewed log church, twenty-six by thirty feet, was built and dedicated in July, and called the Edwards' meeting house. In 1854 a new church was required and a location one hundred and fifty feet north was selected, on an eminence commanding a view of the surrounding country ; the new frame building was completed PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 197 in 1855 and called Fairview, and the Sunday school, organized in 1835, was moved into the new structure. Zion Evangelical Lutheran church. The German settlers desired services in their native tongue and religious faith, and in 1839 Rev. Frederick Minner organized a congregation with twenty adult members; February 22, 1840, Valentine Sandel donated a lot of ground to trustees, and in 1841 a hewed log building, twenty-six by thirty feet, was erected. Services were conducted in German until, 1868 when the younger members desired an English service and Rev. Bartholomew of Zanesville, preached the first English sermon ; the innovation gave great offense to the elder members and a division occurred, the Germans incorporated the congregation as the Evangelical Lutheran and Reformed Zion church, and held the old building and the burial ground. The church has no pastor. In 1872 Jacob Sandel donated an acre of land north of the old church and in the same year a frame church, thirty-six by fifty feet, was started ; the corner stone was laid September 22, 1872, and the structure was completed at a cost of $2.000.00 and dedicated October 5, 1873 ; the majority of the members at once affiliated with the new congregation where the services were in English. Adams Township Baptist church. Elders William Sedgwick and E. W. Handle organized a congregation of seventeen members, March 3, 1855, and a from church was built in the same year the congregation was never strong in members, but active and harmonious ; removals worked its disintegration, and in 1891 the building was sold and the congregation disbanded. BLUE ROCK TOWNSHIP. June 4, 1810 “ A petition was presented by a number of inhabitants of the township of Salt Creek praying for a division to be made of the same which was granted, and ordered to be recorded in the of Blue Rock township, and that a copy of thedivision be handed to the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas." This action by the Commissioners does not appear to have been effectual; no election was ordered and December 3, 1813, the record reads : "A number of the inhabitants of Salt Creek and Zanesville townships petitioned to be incorporated into a new township by the name of Salt Blue Rock, and it was granted. The boundary may be known by reference to the the Commissioners' office." The present boundaries are: North by Salt Creek and Wayne townships; east by Meigs township ; south by Morgan county and west by the Muskingum river. The first electon held at the house of Lawrence Allwine, above Gaysport, January 6, 1814, when the following officers were chosen : Lawrence Allwine and Joseph Smith, justices of the peace ; Eli Sherman, James Larrison and Daniel Bean, trustees; David Dutro, Sr., treasurer ; Jacob Ayers and Peter Dingman, overseers of the poor ; Samuel Johnson and William Eviland, fence viewers ; John Larrison and Daniel Bean, supervisors ; George Watson and James Larrison, constables ; Jacob Ayers, assessor ; Lawrence Allwine, clerk. James Larrison was frequently selected by his neighbors as a township officer, and on one occasion he was to meet Robert Finley at the river to be sworn in ; the stream was too high to be forded and no boat was near to cross ; Finley shouted to Larrison to hold up his right hand and with his voice keyed to its full volume, he administered the oath of office, with the river rolling between them : they were in each others presence and hearing and the law does not specify how near the parties must be, and since affidavits are now made by telephone this instance of long distance swearing may serve as a precedent for the later practice. There are no legends even upon which to trace the first settlers ; the deed books would impose too much labor, and some first things only can be enumerated. That there were young people to woo and be wooed at an early day is attested by the first marriage, April 7, 1803, of Stephen Reeves and Mary Briggs, by Lawrence Allwine, justice of the peace. who in 1810 opened the first tavern in the township above Gaysport. John Bird blacksmith, near Rural Dale ; Robert Silvey, shoemaker ; Jesse Thomas, wheelwright ; John Davis, stonemason ; J. Revenaugh, wooden plow maker ; Absalom Roberts, distiller ; James Burroughs, chairmaker ; Thomas 'White, tanner ; Joshua Crumbaker, cabinet maker ; Dr. Baker, physician, were the pioneers in the industrial and professional lines named. Caleb Hall built the first frame house near Rural Dale ; Joseph McLees erected the first stone house in the east part of the township ; Caleb Butler built the first brick house in the southern part of the township ; Nathaniel Ayers sunk the first salt well in Gaysport in 1822, and in the same year Ramey and Turner drove one near by ; in 1824 a salt well driven 572 feet deep, gave off gas, but its use was not recognized. John Trimble built the first saw mill below Rural Dale in 1820; Samuel Culbertson erected the first steam saw mill in 1827 and the first steam grist mill did not materialize until 1872, at Gaysporti operated by Worstall Brothers. The first grocery was opened by John P. Farrell, and the first general store by Rufus Putnam. A custom prevailed in the township which waS current elsewhere of cutting coin to make small change. Spanish coin was current and American was rare except in the smaller denominations ; 198 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. dollars were seldom cut into more than five pieces ; halves and quarters into four parts, and the term "bits" came from this practice. The pieces were called "sharp shins" because of their tendency to cut the pocket. Rural Dale was laid out in 1854 by J. B. Milhous, although a number of houses had been previously erected, the first as early as 1816; the original name was Rockville, but was changed to Rural vale when a postoffice was established ; the first store was kept by Briggs and Kearns in 1836, and the first tavern by William Kirk. Kiefer was laid out as Ridgeway, but the postmaster general would not approve the name for a postoffice on account of confusion of names and the shorter designation was selected. Gaysport was laid out by Asa Gay, March 20, 188o, and named after himself. SCHOOLS. The first school was near the river in 1815; in 1819 a log house in Rich Hill served the children in Rich Hill, Meigs, Salt Creek and Blue Rock ; in 1821 a union school served Blue Rock, Meigs and Salt Creek, and in the same year one school was formed for a Blue Rock neighborhood ; in 1824 a union for Blue Rock and Meigs and one for Blue Rock exclusively were established, and in 1828, 1830 and 1833 schools for Blue Rock exclusively were opened. The township is now divided into nine school districts, each with a one room building, of a total value of $8,000.00, and employing five male and four female teachers, with an enrollment of one hundred and twenty boys and one hundred and twenty-five girls. CHURCHES A Presbyterian class was held in a stone building on Joseph Wallace's land, in the early years, but was not connected with any regular denominational authority. The third church organized in the township was known as the Radical Methodists, who erected a frame church, but they have so long ceased to have an existence that only a memory of them remains. The Friends or Quakers had a meeting-house in 1811 , on the land of Enoch Harlan, and later built on the premises of Warner Mowharter, but the society has long since been extinct. Blue Rock Baptist. A class met from house to house and the first regular service was held at the home of Jesse Johns in 1822, at a meeting at the house of :lam Reyenaugh, July 25, 1828, the lilt Rock Baptist church was organized with twenty five members, and soon after a log church, thirt by fifty feet, was erected ; in 1855 a frame, forty feet square, was completed Rockville Baptist. August 13, 1844, a council of five churches was held under a large oak on the summit of a hill south of Rockville, and after a sermon sixteen persons, with letters from several congregations, were formed into Rockville Baptist church, and a meeting house was erected and dedicated November 22, 1845. Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal. George Stewart donated a site for a cemetery in which the first burial was made in 1828, and a class of twelve members built a church in 1830, which has been moved to Rural Dale. Methodist Episcopal churches are erected also at Gaysport and Rockville. SOCIETIES. Rockville Division, No. 585, Sons of Temperance, was organized at Rockville, May 1, 1849, by William Logan, J. P. Smith, Samuel Harlan, A. Hoopes and D. T. Johnson, and discontinued in 1852. Rural Lodge, No. 157, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Rural Dale, was chartered February, 1850, and instituted June 13, by W. C. Earl, grand master, with J. P. Smith, noble grand; W. A. Hawley, vice grand ; J. B. Milhous, secretary; C. H. Trimble, treasurer, and Abram Morrison; eight members were added by initiation at the institution. June 13, 1853, the Lodge took possession and dedicated a hall built by J. B. Milhous, Blue Rock Grange, No. 359, Patrons of Husbandry, was organized at Rural Dale, December 27, 1873, by S. H. Phipps, district deputy grand master, with T. M. Allen, master ; C. Frame, secretary ; E. W. Harlan, treasurer. BRUSH CREEK TOWNSHIP, although near the city of Zanesville, was among the latest to be settled. The Commissioners’ journal of February 10, 1817, states that “ A petition was presented by a number of the inhabitants of Harrison township praying that a new township be incorporated viz. : Beginning at the southeast corner of section thirty-one in township number ten in range number thirteen; thence north with the range between the thirteen; thence fourteenth ranges to the northwest corner of section number six in township number eleven in the thirteenth range, east to the Muskingum river ; thence down said river until it intersects be the range line between the twelfth and thirteenth ranges, thence to the county line, thence west to the place of beginning, called Brush Creek township." The name was taken from Brush Creek which traverses the township and bestowed on the stream of the growth of low underbrush which originally was found on its banks to the water’s edge. The township is bound on the PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 199 north by Springfield township and the Muskingum river; on the east by Harrison township ; south by Morgan county and west by Newton and Clay township. The knowledge of no living person extends to the pioneer period; records are scant and the seeker after facts connected with the early settlers must rely very largely upon family records and traditions, which are often incomplete and at times at variance with similar evidence ; the gleaner is not infrequently confronted with questions as difficult of solution as the "age of Ann," and the origin of Cain’s wife, and is obliged to determine, unaided, the reasonableness of a legend, tradition or incomplete record, that a misrepresentation be not perpetuated and succeeding generations be not misled by accepting our records as accurate when they are mere legend. This digression is made from the narrative that the reader may understand some of the difficulties under which an editor labors if he seeks the bare truth, and that the labor of days may be condensed into one line. The digression is made here because of the statements made concerning the advent of the recognized pioneer of the township; it is universally conceded that George Swingle, a German, who came with his son Nicholas, in the year 1810, was the first white man to make a residence in the township ; having selected a location the father returned to Pennsylvania for the family and left the son to erect a cabin for their reception which it is said he did “with assistance of the neighbors." Who were they? If there were neighbors, by what course of reasoning can Swingle be given the distinction of being the pioneer ? If they came immediately after him it is illogical to assume that they neglected their own comforts to mitigate his discomforts which were no greater than their own. The relation serves only to illustrate and make clear what is referred to in the digression about the ambiguous, contradictory and unreasonable statements offered as history, from which the compiler has to separate the grain from the straw. Mr. Swingle’s experience was not unlike his contemporaries but he regarded it sufficiently interesting in retrospect to recall and compare with the improvement which later years provided. During his first years’s residence he made a barrel of maple sugar and another of molasses ; parched corn was an acceptable substitute for coffee and sassafras roots made a tea which was palatable and refreshing. During his second year he built the first hewed log house in the township, set out an orchard, planted wheat and erected a barn to shelter his crops. Among his early neighbors were Thomas Davidson, the first blacksmith, in 1813 ; Samuel Stover, in the same year, dammed Brush creek to create power to operate a saw mill, and in 1819 added a grist mill at Stovertown ; the first physician was a Mrs. Addison, in 1813, who successfully treated the ailments of the people with roots and herbs, which she carried in saddle bags to the patient's home. George Swingle (2), to distinguish him from the pioneer, and Joseph Showers were the first carpenters and while the settlers were dependent upon the forest for meat, Henry Dozer, Adam Leffler and Henry Stainbrook were designated, locally, as the hunters. Archibald Buchanan operated a tannery in Turkey run in 1815 ; the first salt well was sunk by Thomas Moorehead in 1818, and a profitable business was conducted for a number of years. William Swingle made brick early in the settlement of the township and in 1820 Adam Leffler made whiskey for local consumption. The first store was opened in 1830 by Gottleib Sly der, near Stovertown, and the only village in the township is named after a prospective merchant. Samuel Stover, who was operating mills, had ordered a stock ,of goods with which to open a store on thesite of the present village, and before their arrival was murdered at Zanesville ; the store was opened and became the nucleus of the village which was laid out in 1832, and named in his memory. SCHOOLS. The first school was taught in a log house during the winter of 1814, by David Woodruff. The township is now divided into ten school districts, with eleven buildings containing thirteen rooms, valued in the aggregate at $6,000.00, and employing three male and ten female teachers, with an enrollment of two hundred and three boys and one hundred and eighty-six girl pupils. CHURCHES. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran. During the years 1812-18 Rev. William Foster, an Evangelical Lutheran itinerant, held house to house services in the township, and in 1819 his successors formed a circuit including Deavertown, Morgan county, and the Brush creer:. Roseville and Fultonham classes in Muskingum county, and in that year the Brush Creek congregation erected a log church building two miles south of Stovertown, where so many of the pioneers lie buried and where Phoebe J., daughter of George Swingle, whose death was the first in the township, was interred. In 1831 the Lutherans and Presbyterians united in the construction of a church half a mile south of Stovertown, and in 1851 the Lutherans purchased a lot adjoining the union building and built a frame church, thirty-six by forty-four feet, which was known as St. John's ; in the sprmg of 1878 additional ground was purchased adjoining the first and a Gothic frame, forty by sixty- six feet, with a steeple one hundred feet in height, 200 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. and costing $5,000.00, was erected and dedicated the same year. Presbyterian. The First Presbyterian service was held at the residence of Mrs. Turner, a widow, and the congregation which was formed from such assemblies united with the Lutherans in erecting the edifice of 1831. Antioch United Brethren. The first service was held at the house of George Swingle, the third, in 1830, and continued there until 1844, when a cabin was built on the farm of Samuel Dozer, where services were conducted until the construction of a frame church in 1869. Zion Baptist. Six persons holding certificates of former affiliation with different churches of the denomination, met in the school house on Irish Ridge, June 4, 1831, and organized a congregation. The school house was occupied until 1833 when a log meeting house was built, and in 1859 a frame church was erected. The Amity Sunday School Union was organized September 23, 1831, as a regular society, with a constitution and regulations ; the first officers were Lemuel Whitaker, president ; William Swingle, vice president ; Adam Baughman, treasurer ; John Baughman, secretary. Morning and afternoon sessions were held anu an annual meeting, to which the parents were invited. The Brush Creek Temperance Union, with fifteen members, was organized May 24, 1877, in the United Brethren church, with John Cooper, president ; J. M. Riley, vice president ; Alice McConnel, secretary ; Henry Blake, treasurer. .. Small Methodist Episcopal meeting houses are erected in Sections 27 and 28. CLAY TOWNSHIP. is the smallest of the townships, being only three miles square, and is bounded, north, by Newton township ; east, by Brush Creek township ; south, by Morgan county, and west by Perry county. The commissioners' journal of December 9, 1841, has the following entry : "A petition was presented by William Wann, signed by a majority of the householders residing within the boundaries of the proposed new township, at the last June session of the board, and laid over to the present session, which was this day taken up and the commissioners being satisfied that the necessary notice of such intended application had been given by advertisement, as required by law, proceeded to take the matter into consideration. The petitioners set forth that they labor under many difficulties and disadvantages in consequence of the distance and other difficulties they have to labor under m going to and from elections, etc., and also praying that a new township may be set off of part of Brush Creek township, and the commissioners believing the prayer of the petitioners necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants and township officers, do hereby order a new township to be set off, according to the following boundaries, to-wit : Sections 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 in Township 14, Range 14, being part Brush Creek township, in Muskingum county, which said new township is called Clay township. Also ordered by the commissioners that an election beheld at the house of Adam Rider, sr., in said township." There is no record of the election, and the name of the township was selected for its mineral wealth and had no political significance. Roseville is the only village in the township, and lies in both Muskingum and Perry counties ; the town was laid out in 1812, by Ezekial Rose, under the name of New Milford; two years later he built the first cabin, and soon after another was erected by Jeremiah Spurgeon; the name was changed to Roseville in June, 1830, when a postoffice was established, and in 1837, James Littleton made an addition to the village. In 1840 it was incorporated and Dr. James Little was chosen first mayor ; the pioneer business men were Zedekiah Wilson, blacksmith Robert Allen, merchant, and John Laughlin tavern-keeper ; clay products are the predominating industry, and several large establishments are in operation, and the commerce of the town is sufficient to sustain the First National Bank, J. Owens, cashier, and the Farmers' Mechanics' Savings Bank, A. L. Maddox, cashier, both with a capital of $25,000.00. The first settlers in the township were Chauncey Ford and David Stokely and the SCHOOL was kept in the conventional log cabin; Elisha Kennedy ; the township is now divided into three school districts ; the Roseville special district has one nine-room building, valued at $30,000.00, and employs two male high school two male and five female elementary teachers, the enrollment being one hundred and and eighty boys two hundred and forty-three girls. Each of the other two districts has a one-room building of an aggregate value of $1,000.00, the enrollment being thirteen boys and seventeen girls, but the number was so limited the schools were not continuously maintained. CHURCHES. Prior to 1820. religious meetings, when held were convened in private houses, and about the date named a union meeting house was erected. The denominations represented at Roseville are: Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant, PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 201 Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Bible Christians, each of whom has a church building. SOCIETIES. A division of the Sons of Temperance was organized at Roseville, in 1848, which soon became so popular that saloon-keeping was regarded as disreputable ; during the fall of that year a saloon was opened with a stock of three barrels of liquor, and during a night some persons, with augers, tigers, lengthened for the purpose, gained access to the space under the saloon and tapped the barrels and permitted their ; contents to escape; the disgusted proprietor had no alternative but to abandon the location. The Odd Fellow bodies are Jonathan Lodge, No. 356, instituted August 8, 1859, with E. B. Bailey, noble grand; C. F. Watson, vice grand ; J. J. Walpole, secretary, and Andrew Dugan, treasurer, David Encampment, No. 217, and Fidelity Rebekah Lodge, No. 384, the latter instituted August 22, 1893. No. 606, Knights of Pythias, was instituted November 24, 1892, with thirty-eight members, in Odd Fellows' hall, by Charles Fulkerson, of Zanesville ; a charter was granted in Apr 1893, with the following as first officers : C. C. Guy, pas chancellor ; William A. McDaniel, chancellor commander ; J. B. Barbee, prelate; B. A. Eby, keeper of records and seal ; J. W. Conley, master of finance : W. H. Jeffries. Master of exchequer ; J. E. Wigton, master at inner guard ; C. W. Buchanan, outer gard. Camp No. 3729, Modern Woodmen of America, was instituted April 2, 1896, by R. E. Cornelius, with fifteen beneficial and four social members, and the following as first officers : Thomas Stevenson, venerable consul ; Henry Dobling, worthy advisor ; William Rutenbeck, clerk; M. McNeil, eminent banker ; H. Kammer, escort; L. Scott, sentry ; Gus. Wodtker, physician. Martha Washington Chapter. No. 20, Order of the Eastern Star, surrendered its charter several years ago, and March 4, 1905, was reorganized as Orion Chapter, with twenty-seven members, the ceremonies being conducted by N. W. Dick, grand patron, assisted by twenty-eight members from Zanesville Chapter, No. 52. Lone Stat, No. 109, I. 0. Rechabites. And Clay Council, No. 50, Jumor Order United American Mechanics, were formerly in existence, but have disbanded. Axline Post, No. 290, G. A. R., and a Women’s Relief Corps are in operation. FALLS TOWNSHIP is the first north of the Licking and west of the Muskingum river, and is bounded on the north by Muskingum township, on the east by the Muskingum river and the City of Zanesville, on the south by the city and Springfield township, and on the west by Hopewell township. It was created March 9, 1808, on which date the commissioners' journal states : "Sundry petitions being presented to the board praying the incorporation of sundry townships within the county were granted, the boundaries being established and ordered for record were named, to- wit : Cambridge, Salt Creek and Falls." The township was practically destroyed by the action of the commissioners on June 7, 1816, the journal stating that "A petition was presented to the commissioners praying a new township to be laid off and incorporated : Beginning at the Muskingum river at the mouth of Licking creek and up the creek to where the military line crosses the same, thence west with said line to the northwest corner of Section No. 2, Township No. 16, Range No. 14, thence north until it strikes the south line of Township No. ,2, in Range No. 8, thence west to the southwest corner of Section No. 23 of said township in second range, thence north to the northeast corner of Section No. 3. in Township No. 2, Range No. 8, thence east to the Muskingum river, thence with the meanders of said river to the place of beginning, and called 'West Zanesville.' West Zanesville township as thus formed included portions of what are now Falls and Muskingum townships, but September 4, 1817, the record reads : "The second township of the eighth range and so much of the second township of the seventh range as lies west of the Muskingum river is erected into a new township called Muskingum township, and West Zanesville annulled. All that part which was formerly West Zanesville and not included in Muskingum township is attached to Falls township." The territory was not further disturbed until the annexation of the village of West Zanesville to the city, since when several small parcels have been annexed. The first settler was Edward Tanner, who built a cabin on the south bank of the Licking, about seven miles from its mouth, in 179o. before the trading post was established at Natchez. Tanner was a native of the south branch of the Potomac, and when sixteen years of age was captured by Indians and taken to Upper Sandusky, where he remained prisoner over three years, and when released returned to Virginia ; after marriage he came to Ohio and located as above related, and by honorable dealings with the Indians, was unmolested. His son, William C. Tanner, the well-known Captain Tanner of war time, and the last generation, was born in this pioneer cabin in 1792. The next settlers were Major Bonifield and Baltzer Fletcher, in 1791 ; m 1795, John Kin- 202 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. kead, from New Jersey, and in 1798 a Mr. Priest, from Culpeper county, Virginia, arrived ; the latter, with wife and six children, walked the entire distance, the mother carrying one child and the other children and household goods being loaded on pack horses. During 1797-8 a number of immigrants settled within ten or fifteen miles of Zanesville. Abel Lewis arrived in 1800, from White Horse, Pennsylvania, and made the journey afoot ; at night he slept in trees to escape attack from wild animals and tied his body to the branches ; he was a surveyor and became first clerk of the courts, and 1812 retired to a farm ; in 1813 he became insane, and as there was then no provision made for the care of such unfortunates, he was confined in the county jail, m comfortable quarters, as the ward of the Lodge of Amity, of Freemasons, but escaped in 1826 and his fate was never ascertained. The first school held outside West Zanesville was opened in 1801 by a Mr. Black, near the line of Falls and Hopewell townships, and the first school house in the township was built on the farm owned by William Search, about 1804, in the southwest corner of the township, and about the same time J. Ranney taught school on the Kamp farm. on the north side of the Licking. In 1840. John Vandenbark donated land for a school house in the Frazevsburg road, and a hewed-log building was erected with planks fastened to the walls for desks, and soon after completion religious services were held in the room. At present the Westview school house, of three rooms, is valued at $6,000.00, and employs one male high school teacher and three female elementary teachers, the enrollment being sixty- five boys and fifty girls. The remainder of the township is divided into eight school districts, with eight buildings containing nine rooms, valued in aggregate at $8,000.00, and employing five male and four female teachers, with an enrollment of ninety-five boys and ninety-two girls. About 1803-4, Moses Dillon, then about sixty years of age, came to the neighborhood as traveling companion to a Quaker minister on a visit to the Wyandot Indians, at the head waters of the Muskingum. Mr. Dillon was impressed with the fine water power which the falls of the Licking provided and prospected for local resources which could be developed by the power ; iron ore was discovered, and upon his return to Philadelphia he purchased about three thousand acres, including the falls, and moved to the location in 1805, erected an iron furnace and foundry and manufactured the various styles of hollow ware then in use ; the Dillon furnace and foundry were perhaps the first erected west' of the Allegheny mountains. In 1806 he opened a store at Dillon's Falls, with the assortment of goods demanded by the pioneers, all of which were brought on pack horses ; many Indians were still in the neighborhood, and he traded clothing, ammunition and ornaments for pelts and other products of the chase. The town of Dillon's Falls was never regularly laid out, platted or recorded, and settlers were permitted to locate at pleasure, but no title was ever given for the ground occupied, and at one time the village numbered about fifty families. In 1814, Dillon built a grist mill and two saw mills near the falls, one on the east bank, and his combined industries, at on time, employed as many as one hundred and fifty men; in 1850 he built the first bridge across the licking at the falls. John, Isaac, and Moses Dillon, Jr., energetic men, and were all in active business alliance with their father until his death, in 1828 John continued the furnace, foundry, and mills for some years, until the dominating commercial influence of :Zanesville, and the failure of ore caused the enterprises to languish and become extinct, and Dillon's Falls is now a hamlet among hamlets. The first mail carried through the to was between Zanesville and Newark, in township horseback ; in 1825, Neile, Moore & Company established a stage line, but the roads were such in name only and traversed swamps, and the coaches sought the hill sides to avoid th frequently upset and injured the passengers. A rival line was inaugurated by way of Irville and Nashport, by John S. Dugan, and although the route was longer, it was covered in less with less time and risks, and became the more popular line. William Trago burned the first brick in township. about two miles west of Zanesville, in 1808 : about 1809-10, James Tharp opened the first distillery, about one mile west of the city and soon after James Fulton engaged in the same business, near the present infirmary; about 1823, Gen. Samuel Herrick operated same the northwest part of the township, with the same unsatisfactory experience as those on other localities. The Findley Methodist church was organized at Dillon's Falls in 1807, by Edward Tanner, Samuel Simpson, and Baltzer Fletcher, with their families, and were served, at irregular intervals, by itinerant preachers ; about 1810 a Methodist Episcopal congregation was organ only tavern at the falls, and a subscription was started to secure means to erect a log meeting house, which was soon after built, and after many years was replaced by a frame edifice the original lot. The Hayne's, or Hooper's, society was organized about the time that Tanner and his associates formed the congregation at the falls, it was located in the northwest corner of the township and a log meeting house was erected during PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 203 1810; while construction was in progress, a log was blackened by fire and its insertion in the wall caused the name "Black Log" to attach to the church. The Richvale Methodist Episcopal congregation was formed in 1842 by Nathan Kelley, E. Wilkinson, S. M. Bell, Simeon Kelley, and families, and E. V. Walker, and soon after a church was erected on the Dresden road, five miles from Zanesville. The Oakland church was organized by William Camp, John Vandenbark, D. Edwards, J. Pake, and others, and in 1844 Gen. C. B. Goddard donated land upon which a frame building was erected, and in which a Sunday school was soon after organized, the first in the township being formed at the house of Henry Cook, in 1824. The first Methodist Protestant church was organized at the house of John Tanner, in 1835, and in 1856 a church building was erected near the west line of the township, about midway its length. HARRISON TOWNSHIP is in the southern tier of townships, being bounded north and east by the Muskingum river, south by Morgan county, and west by Brush Creek township ; it was organized December 20, 1839, by detaching all of Blue Rock and Salt Creek townships, west of the Muskingum river, and one tier of sections from Brush Creek township, and was named in honor of Gen. W. H. Harrison. the proximity to the famous campaign of 1840, indicating the political complexion of the residents. The commissioners' action is recorded December 4, 1839, as follows : "A petition was presented by John Hammond, signed by a majority of the householders residing within the boundaries of the proposed new township, and the commissioners being satisfied that the necessary notice of such intended application had been given by advertisement as required by law, proceeded to take the matter into consideration. "The petitioners set forth that they labor under many difficulties and disadvantages in consequence of the distance and other difficulties they encountered in going to and from elections ; and also praying that a new township be set off of parts of Blue Rock, Brush Creek, and Salt Creek townships ; and the commissioners believing it necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants and township officers. do hereby order a new township to be set off. according to the following boundaries, to-wit : Beginning at the southwest corner of section number fourteen, in the original surveyed township. number ten, in range number thirteen, and running thence north to the center of the :Muskingum river : thence fol lowing down the center of said river according to the meanderings thereof, to the line which divides the counties of Muskingum and Morgan ; thence west on said line to the place of beginning-all in the Congress district of lands, which shall constitute a new township to be called `Harrison township.' Also ordered by the commissioners that an election be held at the house of P. Burkholter, m Taylorsville, on the loth instant (being December 20, 1839), between the hours of 8 and to a. m., and close at 4 p. m., to elect township officers according to law." The records of the township have been lost and the names of the first officers cannot be given, except that J. W. Whissen and William Price were the first justices of the peace. The name of the first settler is uncertain, but it is alleged that a family named Bean lived, in 1798, in the hollow of a large sycamore tree, which stood near the mouth of Back run. Among the earliest names were Larrison, Farley, Cobb, followed closely by Nathaniel Ayers, Samuel McBride, James Hemmet, Henry Ballou, James Neff, and Thomas Winn. George Dutro and Jacob Baker are recorded in 1804. The first blacksmith in the township was John W. Baer ; the first physician was one Bixby, whose full name is unknown, and the second was Noah Z. Mercer; among the early ministers to human ills were the names of Mason, Clapp, Groves, Suter, Ballou, Wilkins, Huff, McConnell, Terran, Atwell, Howard, Blackburn, Lyons, Ulrich, Henry, Dorr, Richie, and Evans. In 1816 Jacob and Nathaniel Ayers bored a salt well, 482 feet deep, above the mouth of Sycamore run, and later about 400 feet distant; another ; the apparatus for evaporation was crude and imperfect and the business proved unprofitable, and after passing through several hands came into possession of the Neff family, who rebored and deepened the wells, improved the machinery and have conducted the enterprise until the present day, at Big Bloom, now known as Durant. Other salt operators were Stephen Guthrie, who drove wells 488 and 495 feet deep, south of Sycamore run, and Moses Ayers, in 1830, who sunk one 500 feet, and after operating several years abandoned the business ; several other persons stink wells and money coincidently to prove the unprofitable nature of the business. TAYLORSVILLE is the only municipality and the only village in the township ; the pioneer store was opened by Gearing Scarvell, on the site of the town, and was its first house ; the building was diminutive and the stock of goods adapted to its proportions ; in 1829, James Taylor built a dam across the Muskingum to Duncansis Falls and erected a saw 204 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. mill on the west bank, and in the following year constructed a grist mill with six run of stones. He was an energetic, public-minded citizen, conducted a ferry, built the first frame house in the town, in 183o, and engaged in numerous enterprises ; in 1833 he laid out the town of Taylorsville, upon the high bluff, and at the same time laid out the first cemetery in the township ; reverses were experienced and from a condition of comparative wealth Mr. Taylor died at Dun- can's Falls a poor man. In 183o, James Curran opened a tavern at Taylorsville, and the first blacksmith was William B. Rose, who was murdered by a man named Annon, who was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary ; Humphrey Black was the first shoemaker, James McBride the first cabinetmaker, and the first brick house was built in 1836 by Amos F. Whissen. A postoffice was established in 1850, and Dr. Fearnes named as the postmaster. William Bagley erected a woolen mill, but it was not profitable and was moved and converted into a grist mill. When the Muskingum improvement was made Taylor's dam was rebuilt by the state and a canal dug, one mile long, through the town, making the "island" referred to in local affairs. A bridge across the river was projected as a private enterprise, but the commissioners were persuaded to erect a free bridge, and work was begun July 1, 1874 ; the substructure was built by T. B. Townsend, of Zanesville, and the superstructure by the Smith Bridge Company, of Toledo, and completed in November, 1874. The bridge is sixteen feet wide and 798 feet long, supported by four piers, each 33 feet high, and cost $28,000.00. SCHOOLS. Early schools were held in private houses, or in small cabins erected for the purpose, at the expense of the patrons ; the first public school was opened in a two-story frame in Taylorsville, in 1834, with Robert Sheppard as teacher. The township now consists of five sub-districts, with five one-room school houses, valued at $2,000.00, and three male and two female teachers are employed, the enrollment being sixty-nine boys and forty-four girls. In Taylorsville, the enrollment is forty-five boys and seventy girls, and one three- room school building, valued at $3,000.00, is maintained, with one male and two female teachers. The aggregate in the township is six school districts ; six buildings, containing eight rooms, and valued at $5,000.00, with a corps of four male and four female teachers, and an enrollment of 228 children of school age divided equally according to sex. SOCIETIES. Taylorsville Lodge, No. 534, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted July 3o, 1872, by Henry Lindenburg: special deputy grand master, with Basil Craig, noble grand ; Oliver Dempster, vice grand ; J. S. Craig, recording secretary ; J. R. Peach, permanent secretary ; Peter Mast, treasurer ; and ten others as charter members. The first meetings were held in a hall leased from Mrs. Stout, and after five years a hall was built at a cost of $950, and dedicated July 4, 1877. Olive Branch Lodge, No. 368, Knights of Pythias, was chartered July 14, 1889, and instituted the following day by Charles Fulkerson, of Zanesville, in the Odd Fellows' hall, at Taylorsville, with fifty-four charter members, the following being the first officers : D. Brittigan, past chancellor ; 0. W. Ward, chancellor commander ; W. E. Peach; vice chancellor ; D. S. Priest, prelate ; 'L. C. Burcholter, master of finance ; J. J. Kassell, master of exchequer ; D. Olive, keeper of records and seal ; J. H. Wilson, master-at-arms ; S. S. Waxier, inner guard ; A. Roemer, outer guard. Conventions have been held at both Philo and Duncan's Falls, the char tered location being on the west side of the river. CHURCHES. United Brethren. Services were held in the dwelling of Jacob Baker, by Rev. John Russell, and about 1820, a class was organized ; about 1822, Rev. Harding visited the neighborhood and for three years held services in the same place until, in 1825, the house became too small, and meetings were held in the Duncan school house, where "Father" Hastings ministered two years; Elder Case and others served until 1852, when a hewed-log meeting house, 25 by 3o feet, was erected on Prescottls land, there being about eight or ten members. This was used until June, 1876, when a meeting house, 30 by 4o feet, was built in Taylorsville and dedicated August 27, 1876, and in which a Sunday school is maintained. Roman Catholic. For a long time a mission was maintained and supplied from Zanesville, but in 1836 a frame church, 25 by 40 feet, was built by Anton Erbst, at a cost of $1,000.00, and dedicated to St. Anna, by Bishop Purcell ; the parish is now supplied from McConnelsville. Methodist Episcopal. In 1830, Rev. Goff organized a class of twenty-one at James Hemmett's, Duncan Run, which was later moved to Taylorsville, and meetings held, where practicable, until 1840, when a frame meeting house, 40 by 5o feet, was built and a Sunday school opened : a new church is being erected in 1905. PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 205 The first class of what is now known as the Blue Rock M. E. church, was formed by Rev. Samuel Hamilton, and the first meeting house, 20 by 25 feet, was built of hewed-logs, in the southwest portion of the township, between the forks of Blue Rock creek, and in 1852 it was replaced by a frame, 26 by 3o feet, on the same site. Methodist Protestant. In 1842, Rev. Nathaniel Linder preached in the woods on the banks of the Muskingum, and organized a class of fifteen or twenty persons. In the following year Revs. J. Huntsman and J. Winn conducted a revival and the membership increased to 112, and a meeting house 24 by 28 feet, was erected, about the center of the township ; in 1869, it was replaced by a frame. 24 by 38 feet, at a cost of $1,100.00, and dedicated in May, 1870. Evangelical Lutheran. April 11, 1878, the St. Johnls church was organized by Rev. Andrew Birch with fifty members, and in October a lot was bought in Taylorsville and the following spring the corner-stone of a frame structure, 36 by 50 feet, was laid, and the building completed at a cost of $1,000.00, and dedicated September 28, 1879. The dedicatory sermon, in German, was delivered by Rev. H. Cramer, of Zanesville, and in English by Prof. M. Loy. HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP. March 7, 1814, the journal of the Commissioners reads : "A petition was presented by a number of inhabitants of the northeast division of Muskingum county, praying that the fifth and sixth ranges, thence south to the line that divides the first and second townships, east to the county line, thence north to the place of beginning, mav be incorporated into a new township by the name of Highland," a name selected on account of the elevation of the section. The tract included what is now Adams, Salem, Monroe and Highland townships, and the journal records, under date of the 8th, that the commissioners "Then took into consideration the petition from the inhabitants of the northeast section of the county, taking in the fifth and sixth ranges and the third and second townships, which was granted and incorported and named Highland." An election was ordered at the house of Wm. Denison, who lived one and one half miles south of Adamsville, on the first Monday in April, but no record exists of the election then held. By the formation of the other townships the area has been reduced to the present limits, the last amputation occurring July 2, 1819. Highland is a full township of the original survey of the United States' military lands, five miles square, and is bounded north by Monroe township ; east by Guernsey county ; south by Union township and west by Salem township. The earliest recorded settler is Mathew Trace, in 1808, in section eleven, and shortly after Lot Wortman, on section sixteen and James Honnold on section fifteen, who engaged also in blacksmithing. Between 1810-12, Peter Bond settled on section thirteen and brought the first wagon to the township; he was buried in 1853 in private ground, and when his remains were exhumed in 1878 for re-interment in the Bethel cemetery, they were found to have been entirely petrified. During 1813 the settlers were Thomas Rambo, on section nineteen ; Alex. Mayes and J. K. McCune, on section twenty-two ; John, Casper, Peter and William Bradford, on section eight; David, Benjamin, John and William Davis on section seven. Frame houses, of the balloon pattern, were erected in 1835, but the first actual frame house was erected for Samuel Scott in 1845, and the first brick house for Thomas Roberts, near Bethel, in 185o. The first blacksmith was Robert Baxter ; David T. Bigger was the first tanner, in 1835, and Dr. E. S. Wortman, the first physician in 1839 ; Joseph Graham was the first merchant, in 1853. The first saw mill was erected by Noah Decker in 1815, in section fourteen, and soon after it was converted into a distillery, a pair of buhr stones having been brought from Philadelphia to macerate the grain. John Geyer erected a grist mill at an early date, and 1830 James McMichael operated a grist mill with an overshot wheel and two runs of buhrs, in section twenty-one, but the water supply was insufficient and the enterprise was abandoned in 1842. In 1833 John Reynolds operated a saw mill on White Eves creek, and in 1857 John Bell introduced fine wool sheep and later, short horn cattle. The original site of Bloomfield was owned by David Rankin, but November 8, 1853, Thomas Clegg laid out seven lots, Wm. Weylie six lots and Daniel McLane three lots, and an addition was made in March, 1873, and in September. 1879. The cemetery has been in use since 1818 but in 1879 Walter Hogseed deeded three and one half acres in perpetuity. SCHOOLS. The first school was held in a round log cabin, 24 by 24 feet, in section eleven in 1818, with Lorenzo Dow as teacher, who died in the same year and was the first person- buried in the Bloomfield cemetery. The school house was also used for religious services. The township is now divided into six school districts with six houses containing seven rooms of an aggregate value of $5.000 ; four male and three female teachers are employed, the enrollment being sixty-seven boys and eighty-five girls. 206 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. Bloomfield College. In 1862 Rev. Wm. Ballentine tendered his service to several young men as tutor in a theological course, and the number multiplied until his study was too limited and the meeting house was used as a class room, and the school became known as the Bloomfield High School ; in 1866 the synod recognized the school and named a board of trustees. In 1869 the Bloomfreld Academy was incorporated and a house was purchased for the students ; soon a college building became necessary and the foundations were laid during the fall of 1872. The college term began April 3, 1873, in the basement, the college having been chartered February 12, 1873, and clothed with university privileges, with Rev. W. Ballentine, A. M., president ; James Hindman, A. B., vice president ; R. C. Kerr, A. B., professor of languages. CHURCHES. Bethel Methodist Episcopal. A class of six was formed in 1816 and in 1820 was about doubled ; in 1828 a hewed log building, 30 by 40 feet, called the Honnold meeting house, was erected on a lot deeded by Lot Wortman and a Sunday school organized ; in 183o it was replaced by a brick, 35 by 45 feet, which was burned in January, 1854, when a new frame, 4o by 5o feet, was erected at a cost of $1,251.00 and named the Bethel. Bloomfield United Presbyterian. January 10, 1818, a sermon was preached at the home of David Duff and five families were organized into a congregation at the same place March 20th and called the Bloomfield Associate Presbyterian, which rapidly increased in membership. The first services were held in a tent, which was erected where desired, until the erection of a log meeting house, 24 by 24 feet, in 1822, on the east side of the graveyard; in 1831 a hewed log house, 25 by 4o feet, with two wings, each ten feet square, was built and in 1847 a frame building, 5o by 6o feet, was constructed at a cost of $1,300.00. In 1858 the Associate Presbyterian and Associate Reformed Presbyterian societies amalgamated as the United Presbyterian church, and this congregation affiliated with the new authority. Bloomfield Associate Presbyterian. The union of the societies as just mentioned was not concurred in by about twenty of the old congregation and June 12, 1858, they held a meeting at which they declared they would "stand firm to the doctrine held to and witnessed for the Associate Church of North America," and declared themselves to be the Associate congregation of Bloomfield, notwithstanding that their late pastor and the large majority of the members had gone into the union and the church building was held by the majority ; further, the Muskingum presbytery had joined the United Presbyterian, and there being no authority to appeal to in the state they applied to and were supplied from Indiana, and in 1863 the congregation erected their own building. SOCIETIES. Camp No. 389o, Modern Woodmen of America, at Bloomfield, was chartered May 19, 1896, and instituted May 23 by R. E. Cornelius, with fourteen beneficial members. The first officers were C. M. Trace, venerable consul; J. J. Campbell, worthy advisor ; Hugh Given, clerk ; G. C. Watson, eminent banker and physician; J. B. Smock, escort; J. H. McCloud, watchman ; J. T. Bell, sentry ; J. R. Trace, Z. D. Lovejoy and J. B. Cochin, managers. HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP. A petition was presented to the commissioners, March 3, 1812, for the formation of a township to be known as Hopewell, and at the same time a remonstrance was presented, which the commissioners disregarded, and decided to comply with the request and ordered an election for township officers, at the home of John Colvin ; September 1, 1817, all of the first township of the ninth range of military lands included in Falls township was annexed to Hopewell township, and February 22, 1819, so much of Hopewell township as was east of the Licking creek was re- annexed to Falls township, and the boundaries now are : north by Licking township and the Licking creek ; east by the Licking creek and Falls and Springfield townships ; south by Newton and Springfield townships and Perry county; west by Licking county. It is extremely difficult to determine the earliest settlers, and the evidence points to Wm. Hamilton and Rev. Robert Manley, very early in the last century; during or prior to 1806 the settlers were John Carr, Joseph Jennings, Samuel Bonafield, and Hinton, Faid and Hensley. In 1812 Peter Crumrine was working as a blacksmith; Dr. Dusenbury was teaching school and practicing medicine, and a man named Shinn was operating a distillery on Kent's run. Wm. Heath, as first carpenter, appeared in 1814, in which year the first saw mill was in operation on Kent's run by one Reese. In the early twenties pottery was made by one Burley, near Mt. Sterling and others were soon in the same line of manufacture ; in 1825 buhr mill stones were quarried by Samuel Drumm, from Flint Ridge buhr and hauled to Nashport and shipped by canal to all points in the country. Francis Tresize opened the first store with a small stock of goods, east of the bridge over PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 207 Kent's run, on the Thornville road, and in 1827, when the National road was built, moved to Mt. Sterling. In 1828 Dr. E. B. Bain became first resident physician, near Hopewell, and during 183o a tannery at Mt. Sterling and one at Gratiot were started, but neither were remunerative and were soon closed down. Hopewell was laid out in 1829, by John and James Rickey, and in the same year Mt. Sterling was laid out, one mile distant, by Nathan Wilson ; the first postoffice was opened at Hopewell, but was soon moved to Mt. Sterling where the former name was retained. SCHOOLS. The first school was opened in an old cabin in 1814, and in 1815 a log house was built, and a new house in 1854 ; old cabins and churches were used in new districts until school buildings were constructed ; at present the township is divided into ten districts, with ten buildings containing eleven rooms, of a total value of $Io,5oo.00, and employing one male teacher, in high school branches, and seven male and three female in the elementary ; the aggregate enrollment is one hundred and sixty-four boys and one hundred and nineteen girls. CHURCHES. Details respecting churches have been very difficult to collect and merely an enumeration can be made : Timber Run Predestinarian Baptist, erected in 1832 ; Round Top Baptist, Pleasant Valley; Beulah Baptist, Cottage Hill ; Disciple, Cottage Hill ; United Brethren, on the Ridge ; Methodist Protestant, Gratiot ; Free Methodist, Coal Dale : Union church, Hopewell Methodist Episcopal,. Tanner's chapel ; Mt. Sterling ; New Macedonia ; Oak Grove and Mt. Olive. SOCIETIES. Hamilton Post, No. 311, G. A. R., is established at Gratiot. Camp No. 8296, Modern Woodmen of America, at Hopewell, was chartered June 2o, 1900. and instituted June 25th, by Charles P. Gooding, with thirteen beneficial and two social members, the first officers being : J. H. Sniff, venerable consul ; W. H. Fink, worthy advisor ; T. P. Kreager, clerk ; J. R. Allison, eminent banker ; C. I. Kreager, escort ; E. W. Van Allen, watchman ; J. W. Varney, sentinel ; Dr. J. M. Shrader, physician ; C. Johnson, W. E. Fink and W. D. Ekmann, managers. JACKSON TOWNSHIP was named for Andrew Jackson and that fact indicates the sterling democracy of the majority of the resident voters of the time. The commissioners' journal of June 6, 1815, states that "A petition to the commissioners by a number of the inhabitants of Licking township praying that the said township be divided agreeable to the following boundaries : Beginning at the county line at the southwest quarter of the third section (township), thence east to the township that divides the eighth range, thence with said line north five miles to the county line, thence with the county line west to the county line five miles, thence with the county line south five miles to the place of beginning ; ordered that the aforesaid boundaries be set off in a new township to be called Jackson township and that they hold their election at the house of Thomas Blizzard, on the last Saturday in July, 1815." Whether the election was held is unknown and the probabilities are it was not as on July 2, 1819, the commissioners ordered "The third township in the ninth range to be Jackson township." Jackson is a full township of the United States military lands, five miles square, and is bounded north by Coshocton county, east by Cass township ; south by Licking township and west by Licking county. The only village in the township is Frazeysburg, the site of which was owned by Clark Hollenback and was surveyed June 6, 1827, by John Roberts for the owner, and called Knoxville ; in 1828 Hollenback sold the platted land to Samuel Frazey, who changed the name to Frazeysburg, when the postoffice was opened in 1828-9, there being a Knoxville already in the state. In 1868 the town was incorporated and L. W. Doane was the first mayor ; subsequent additions have been made until the town plat has an area of 312 acres. In 1811 Samuel Mendenhall entered thirteen hundred acres one and one-fourth miles west of Frazeysburg and built a cabin, and Richard Mendenhall located near by. During 1815 Col. Wm. Blizzard located in section twelve, Wm. McClintock on the site of Frazevsburg and Thomas Wilkins in the southeast corner of the township ; and in 1816 Joshua Bennett was a settler. In 1819 Samuel Mendenhall built the first saw and grist mill, with two run of stones, on Wakatomaka creek, and in 1820-22 Clark Hollenback was operating a saw mill ; the first surveyors were John and Charles Roberts, in 1822; the first blacksmith was Henry Shephard, in 1827, and 1828 the first store was opened in Frazeysburg by one Whitney. In 182o Charles Morrow, John Ruckles and Samuel Mills, carpenters, were located ; in 1827-8 Samuel Mills opened the first tavern at Frazeysburg. It was a saying in those days that a distillery could be found on every run in the county, and in 1832 Samuel Mills operated one three- fourths of a mile south of Frazeysburg, and in 1843 a large distillery was conducted in Frazeyszurg,, which the whigs of the day alleged was a powerful factor in increasing the democratic vote for Polk and Dallas in 1844. The first frame building was erected by Joshua Bennett and the first brick for Wm. Blizzard, in 1830. 208 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. In 1871 the township erected a two-story brick building, in Frazeysburg, at a cost of $3,300.00, of which amount the Masonic lodge contributed $800.00 and was given a ninety-nine year lease upon the upper floor for lodge purposes. SCHOOLS. The first school was held in 1822 by James Morgan in a log house about half a mile northeast of Frazeysburg. At present the village constitutes a special school district with a six-room building valued at $8,000.00, in which are employed one male high school and two male and three female elementary teachers, the enrollment being one hundred boys and one hundred and thirty-one girls. The remainder of the township is divided into three districts, each with a one- room building, of a total value of $2,000.00 and employing two male and one female teacher, with an enrollment of seventy-seven boys and seventy- five girls. CHURCHES. Some time prior to 1820 David Evans donated land and assisted in the erection of a small cabin for religious purposes, which was known as the Evans church and was the first building, for religious uses in the township. Frazeysburg Methodist Episcopal. In 1815 a class was organized at the house of Zachariah Bonham and meetings were held there and at the residences of R. C. Mendenhall and John Wimmer, with an occasional one at other homes, until houses became too small to accommodate them and the school house at the north end of town was used. R. C. Mendenhall built a large barn in which services were occasionally held and in it in 1839-40 a very successful protracted meeting was held and the congregation was financially able to erect a plain church, in 1840, at a cost of $1,000.00, which was used until 1878, when a frame was built at a cost of $1,800.00. Mt. Zion Christian congregation was organized in 1832 with eight members, and meetings were held at George McDonald's house until 1845, when a frame building was erected two miles north of Frazeysburg, at a cost of $500.00, seating four hundred persons, and in 1881 a Sunday school was organized. Frazeysburg Disciples, or Church of Christ. There are no records of the origin of this congregation and the only known facts are that it was organized in 1843 and held meetings at private houses; in 188o interest was awakened and a church was built at Frazeysburg. Frazeysburg Presbyterian. An organization was effected in 1876 with thirty-four members and a brick church was erected at a cost of $2,370.00 and dedicated September 8, 1877. SOCIETIES. Frazeysburg Lodge, No. 490, F. & A. M. A dispensation was issued July 4, 1874, to J. George Hagerty, worshipful master ; David Jones, senior warden, and Joshua B. Bennett, junior warden, to open a lodge at Frazeysburg, and July 21st the first meeting was held. October 21, 1874, a charter was issued to the same officers and Jasper Corn, T. J. Patterson, Albert Norris, J. B. Pierson, C. M. Bell, I. B. Bard, Isaac Pryor, Philip Nethers and J. H. Hamilton. Glendale Lodge, No. 649, I. 0. O. F., was instituted July 25, 1876, with L. E. Karnes, noble grand; H. L. Sherman, vice grand; Samuel Austen and I. C. Franks, secretaries ; T. H. Holman, treasurer, and C. H. Wire, Howard Norris, Lyman Fulk, Samuel Hunter, Hugh Brown, Joseph Noland, J. C. Furguson, R. E. Finley and James W. Finch. Griffee Post, No. 331, G. A. R., maintained its camp fires for the boys in blue, and Council No. 79, Junior Order American Mechanics was organized in May, 1890. Camp No. 7902, Modern Woodmen of America, was chartered October 28, 1901, and instituted November 2d by C. D. Alward with eighteen members, the first officers being M. Mathews, venerable consul ; George Mortimer, worthy advisor ; F. Hamilton, clerk; Dr. W. E. Boyer, eminent banker and physician ; John Untied, escort ; P. McKee, watchman ; Charles Molter, sentry ; B. M. Sobel, S. Harrah and E. Mortimer, managers. JEFFERSON AND CASS TOWNSHIPS. So far as preserved records reveal Jefferson township is as old as the county ; the commissioners' journal for the first three years does not exist, but there is a record of an election for township officers on the first Monday of April, 1805, which indicates that it was not the first for such a purpose. The original area has been reduced by the formation of other townships, but the history of Jefferson and Cass is so intermingled that it must be considered together. The commissioners' journal of September 6, 1853 states that they "resumed the consideration of the matter relating to the erection of a new township, out of the territory comprising Jefferson township, and order that a new township shall be created out of said territor:-, to be known by the name of Cass township, and to contain territory agreeably to the petition in relation to the same; which petition included the whole of Jefferson township, except the district included within the following boundaries, viz : Commencing on the Muskingum river, below Dresden, at a point where the southeast corner of Charles Dick- PAGE - 209 - SUSPPENSION BRIDGE, DRESDON, OHIO PAGE - 210 - BLANK PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 211 enson's land, and the northeast corner of Thompson Ferrell's land unite, being on the east boundary of Jefferson township, running thence west on the line between said Dickenson and Ferrell's land, to the southeast corner of George W. Lane's land, being lot number seventeen ; thence north to the center of Wakatomaka creek ; thence down said creek, in the center thereof, to the eastern boundary of Jefferson township ; thence along said eastern boundary, down the Muskingum river to the place of beginning." The commissioners sent written notices to James Morgan with instructions to place them in three of the most conspicuous public positions within the new township, appointing the Toth of September for the election of the first officers of the new township. The first settler is unknown but Major Jonathan Cass became one in 1799, in which year he located four thousand acres of land, and in 18or brought his family ; he died August 4, 1830. aged 77 years, and was buried in the family burying ground on the Cass farm, but in 1875 the remains were removed to the Dresden cemetery. and the Cass monument, erected by his grandson, Dr. Edward Cass, was inscribed : "He was a soldier at the battle of Bunker Hill ; an officer of the Revolution, and of the army which, under General Wayne, gave peace to the frontier. From New England he emigrated to this part of the wilds of the Northwest Territory. On the military land he purchased he lived a peaceful and quiet life thirty years until death claimed him for a victim." Seth Adams was also a settler in 1799 and is said to have cultivated the first tomatoes in the county from seed received from New Orleans : he was among the first to plant apple trees and was the pioneer in introducing full blooded Merino sheep into the United States. In 1804 he had a "corn-cracker" mill on Wakatomaka creek : George Wilson operated a saw mill early, and in T8o1 a flour mill was conducted by E. and G. Adams at Preston : the first efficient grist mill being soon after erected near the Adams' by George Gertie. Isaac Cordray and son, George : Mordacai Ogle and George Dowell were settlers in 1804: Wyllys Silliman operated a saw mill and grist mill on Wakatomaka creek, near the railroad bridge, in 1806, and at an early day engaged in the Utopian occupation of acquiring wealth from the manufacture of salt, which was done near his mills. Otho Miller and Jacob Houser were the blacksmiths : Judge Stillwell operated a ferry 1812 and in 1815, Joseph F. Monroe conducted distillery on his farm about four-miles above Dresden, on the Muskingum. He was among the to plant peach and apple trees, and the distillery was discontinued after the completion of the Ohio canal. E. and G. Adams had a store at Adams' Mills in 1830 and a few years later operated a store and grain warehouse at Webb's Port, where Benjamin and Nathan Webb had a large grain warehouse. The first public house in the township was kept by John Parker, at Preston, and Thomas Smith had a tavern at Webb's Port in 1830. Hugh F. Hogan built a saw mill and grist mill four miles west of Dresden, in 1832, in the Frazeysburg road, which was later known as the Lovett mill and Prior mill, from the owners, until demolished in 1875. Dresden Junction was surveyed by Joseph Taylor in 1873-4. Dresden was laid out in 1817 and was incorporated March 8, 1835, and its limits now embrace the territory of Jefferson township. A postoffice was established early, but the allegation that it occurred in 1800 is entirely unfounded : the records of the postoffice department contain no indications of such service, and an office was not opened at Zanesville until 1801 : the first mail was carried on horseback, weekly ; semi-weekly service was later furnished and in 1832 it was made tri-weekly, developing into daily in 1843. A telegraph line from Zanesville to Wooster passed through Dresden in 1848 and an office was opened, but it was discontinued a number of years before the Western Union opened its office in 1868, with T. B. Dorsey as first manager. The first birth in the township is said to have been Dr. B. F. Lemert and the first physicians were Benjamin Webb. in 1819. and Francis Fowler, in 1823. The pioneer merchant was Laban Lemert who began business in a log house in 1817, and John Cordray opened a tavern in a log cabin about one year later. Peter D. Reasoner was engaged in tanning in 1818, and a weaver bearing the alliterative name of Morgan Morgan, from Maryland, practiced his trade at an early day. The ubiquitous distillery was conducted by Laban Lemert in 1822. and in 1833 Henry and Benjamin Roop were engaged in the same business. The first castor oil mill west of the Alleghany mountains was erected at Dresden by Dr. Nathan Webb and son, who came in 1821 and cultivated the bean. The first public cemetery was east of where the canal was located and when that improvement was constructed the bodies were exhumed and re-interred in the present cemetery, which is owned by the town and was laid out in 1829. The third wire suspension bridge in the United States was erected across the Muskingum river at Dresden, in 1852 ; the structure is one thousand feet in length, cost $30,000.00 and was made of material manufactured at Dresden. SCHOOLS. The first school house was a log structure in the rear of where was, in later years, erected the 212 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. Central Hotel, and was opened in 1822, with a male teacher named Timberlake ; he was a heavy whiskey drinker and frequently fell asleep during school hours ; the pupils were alive to the opportunities of the occasion and practiced all sorts of mischievousness, at one time removing his shoes and stockings. The next teacher was Abraham Smith, who opened the second tavern in the town, in which the school was kept and his wife conducted a millinery store. In 1828-9 a brick school house was built on a mound in the present cemetery, and in 1845-6 a second school house was erected on the site of the present one. The existing equipment of Dresden or Jefferson township is a two-story brick building, containing nine rooms and valued at $16,300.00, in which seven female teachers, in elementary grades, and two male, in high school, are employed ; the enrollment is one hundred and sixty-two boys and one hundred and thirty-one girls. In Cass township Rev. Joseph W. Pigman preached on Sundays, in 1808, and during the week served as justice of the peace and taught school, in a cabin two and one-half miles west of Dresden ; and in 1816 Sanford Ramey taught a school in the country districts. In the present township the Trinway special district has one building of four rooms, valued at $9,000.00, and employs two female elementary and one male high school teacher, the enrollment being fifty-eight boys and fifty-three girls. In the remainder of the township there are five districts, each with a one-room building, of an aggregate value of $4,000.00, and employing two male and three female teachers, the enrollment being eighty-three boys and sixty-four girls. DRESDEN CHURCHES. Presbyterian. The congregation was formed in 1819 in a log school house one mile south of Adams' Mill, with seven or eight members ; the first elder was Joseph F. Monroe and services were held every third Sunday, the minister coming from Irville. In 1825 service was first held at Dresden, occasionally in private houses but usually in a log school house on the site of the Union school building, and upon the completion of the brick school house, in 1829, it was occupied as a church ; the minister's wife organized a female prayer meeting, and a Sunday school and conducted the latter at the parsonage, as the only teacher. The first effort to erect a church was made in 1833 but nothing was accomplished until May 14, 1836, when Laban Lemert, G. W. Cass, Wm. W. Brice, T. M. Barrow and Dr. A. H. Brown were appointed a building committee and in the latter part of the year a brick church was commenced, and completed in the spring of 1838, at a cost of $1,500.00. In 1842 a choir was organized and July 4, 1850, the ladies of the church served a dinner, and summoned the residents by ringing, for the first time, a bell which had been placed upon the church; a short time after it was tolled half a day, on the occasion of the death of President Zachary Taylor. In May, 1852, a pipe organ was procured. The present handsome brick edifice, in Chestnut street was completed at a cost of $5,500.00 and dedicated February 29, 1880, being the fifth Sunday in that month. Methodist Episcopal. A brick church was erected in Main street, in 1835, but all records antedating that event have been lost ; a Sunday school was organized in 1838 and in 1852 the original building was replaced by a more substantial and commodious brick at a cost of $3,000.00. German Methodist Episcopal. The congregation was organized in . 1852 with twenty-four members, and services were held in the Market house until a frame church was built, in 1858, at a cost of $600.00, with a seating capacity of 125. Zion Protestant Episcopal. The congregation was formed in 1839, with Rev. Cushman, rector ; Wm. Evans, senior warden ; Benjamin Adams, junior warden ; a Sunday school was organized with the inception of the church and both assembled in the old market house, adjoining the Methodist Episcopal church, where they remained until the present church was built, in 1848, at a cost of $3.500.00. In 1855-6 a brick parsonage was erected at an expense of $3,500.00. Baptist. The first meetings were held in the old Market house, in 1840, and were continued there until a frame church was erected in 18456, at a cost of $500.00. In 188o a brick church, 36 by 78 feet, was built on the site of the frame, at a cost of $4,000.00. The Sunday school was organized about 1848 and has continued, without interruption, and the prosperity of the church has been attributed to the efficiency of this adjunct. Roman Catholic. In 1843 a congregation was organized by Father Gallinger, who held monthly services at the residence of G. A. Peffer in 1847 a frame church was built at a cost of $600.00 and in 1890 a brick church was erected ; a Sunday school is now maintained and the congregation is served by a priest from St. Nicholas church, at Zanesville. German Lutheran. In 1848 a congregation was formed in the old Market house and in 1853 a brick church was erected in Hie, street, with a seating capacity of 200, at a cost of $2,000.00. There has been no pastor since 1879 and the building has been unoccupied for many years. Christian, or Disciples of Christ. The congregation was organized in 1861 and for about one year met in the Lutheran church until the completion of a substantial brick edifice, which cost PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 213 $2,000.00. A Sunday school was established at the organization and at one time possessed a library of considerable dimensions but has been lost by improper distribution. RURAL CHURCHES. In 1808, Rev. Joseph W. Pigman, Methodist Episcopal, preached at the residence of Wm. Blount, three and one-half miles west of Dresden, and in the same year Amos Weeks and Wm. Spencer, itinerant Baptists, were conducting religious services in the neighborhood. The first church at Preston was built in 1836. Liberty Chapel, Christian. About 1840 James Ogle donated the use of some ground, three miles south of Dresden, for the erection of Liberty Chapel, of the Christian denomination, upon which a building was erected by means of contributions from members of various denominations, upon condition that the house should be free to all users without expense for the room ; in 1863 it had ceased to he used and the owner moved and converted it into a stable. Hopper's Grove, Methodist Episcopal. About 1840 Benjamin Hopper deeded one acre of ground, three miles west of Dresden, for a church and graveyard, and about 1855 a neat frame was built in a grove upon the tract : the land passed to another owner who discovered that the church society had not recorded the deed and he sold the building to a man who removed and converted it into a stable. SOCIETIES. Dresden Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M., was opened in 1837 by authority of a dispensation granted to Thomas Powell, worshipful master ; Thomas Launder, senior warden, and Andrew \\Talker. junior warden, as Friendship Lodge, at Dresden : and a charter was granted as No. 103. June 20, 1838. Dissentious arose and October 17. 1839. the Grand Lodge enjoined it from further labor until harmony was restored, and April 14. 1840, D. W. Rhodes, of Zanesville, acting deputy grand master, gave his sanction for resumption. In accordance with a resolution of the Grand Lodge, of October 21, 1852, to avoid the confusion resulting from a duplication of names of lodges and which permitted the oldest to retain the original name, the lodge at Dresden lost its chartered designation and took that of the town. Dresden Chapter, No. 145, Royal Arch Masons, was chartered September 22, 1881. Wakatomaka Lodge, No. 186. I. 0. 0. F., is carried on the register of the Grand Lodge as chartered July 17, 1851 ; members assert that the lodge was formed in 1847-8 with Alex. Culbertson, B. F. Lemert, Alfred Barrow, Elon Jones and E. Granger. and on account of dissentions respecting the management of the lodges' finances the original charter was surrendered. Lovinia Rebecca Lodge, No. 413, was chartered July 22, 1895. Cass Post, No. 415, G. A. R., has an organization which, like all other similar bodies, is diminishing as the "boys" answer the last roll call. Camp No. 10097, Modern Woodmen of America, was chartered October 1, i9oi, and was instituted October 5th by J. B. Kipe, with twelve beneficial and one social member ; the first officers were: H. H. Bainter, M. D., venerable consul and physician ; L. R. Schumacher, worthy advisor ; Thomas Miles, clerk ; L. B. Blake, eminent banker ; F. Sandel, escort ; Charles Lacey, watchman ; C. W. Carter, sentry ; H. Cox, Benjamin Lacey and F. Marshall, managers. FINANCIAL. L. J. Lemert established a bank of discount and deposit in 1852 and conducted it alone until 1873 when his sons were given an interest and the style of the firm was changed to L. J. Lemert and Sons. G. Eaton established a hank in 1866, with a capital of $25,000.00. The present financial institutions are : Dresden Banking Company, F. W. Gasche, cashier: First National Bank, C. S. Littick, cashier ; Dresden National Bank, John Hornung, cashier: Dresden Building and Loan Association. LICKING TOWNSHIP. As has been previously stated the early records of the commissioners are missing and the official entry of the organization of Licking township cannot be found, but it is alleged that the organization occurred prior to 18o6 ; it is one of the original townships of the survey of the United States' military lands, is five miles square and is bounded on the north by Jackson township : east by Muskingum township : south by Hopewell and Falls townships ; and west by Licking county. David Devore is mentioned as the first settler in 1802, but it is more probable that he was a trapper, as he was settled in Muskingum township, and although he had a cabin on the site of Irville it was occupied in common with John Thrapp. The earliest actual settler appears to have been Col. Nathan Fleming, who built a cabin on the site of Irville in 1805, and in 1815 was operating a saw mill: in 1825 he opened a store at Irville with a good stock of goods. John R. Roger, Jacob Victor, Leonard Stump. Solomon and Jonathan Wool became settlers in 1807: Stump built a saw mill in 1820: Jonathan Wood was a surveyor, and in 1812 built the first hewed log house as an addition to his round log house. and opened a hotel ; he died in 1824 from rupture caused by lifting a heavy bag of wheat. Henry Barrackman and David Vandenbark settled in 1808 ; the latter had an orchard of peach trees in 1812, and erected the first stone dwelling 214 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. in the township ; it is related that he deeded a forty-acre tract of land to Rev. Prescott Smith on condition that he would preach to Vandenbark and family during their lives, but the reverend gentleman was called to a more remunerative field, and accepted, and the grantor was obliged to "search the scriptures" for himself and family, as the congregation soon disbanded. John Van Voorhis settled in 1811 and in the succeeding year his son, Daniel, planted half a bushel of peach stones from the Vandenbark orchard ; Mr. Van Voorhis built the first brick residence in 1817 from brick burned on his own land. David Devore operated a mill in April, 1814, and in the following year John Sidle erected a saw mill and corn-cracker grist mill, the bolting being done by hand. In 1818 Stephen White engaged in tanning ; Elmas Wheaton began the practice of medicine, and Jared Brush opened a small store at Irville. In the same year Elias Green began blacksmithing and later in the year E. Birkholter fired his forge and made a specialty of axes, in the manufacture of which he was an expert. Irville was laid out in 1815 by John Irvine and Richard Ayers, both tavern keepers, who were desirous "to draw people together for sociability," and in 1818 a postoffice was established. Nashport was laid out in 1827, on forty acres, and named for Captain Thomas Nash, and when the Ohio canal was completed through the township, in 183o, trade at Nashport was materially improved. SCHOOLS. The first school was opened in 1814-16, north of Nashport, in the conventional round log cabin, with slab seats and desks, mammoth fire place and oiled paper windows ; 1835-6 a hewed log house was constructed at Nashport by private contributions. The township is now divided into five school districts with five houses containing eight rooms, valued in the aggregate at $12,000.00, and employing four male and three female teachf_rs in the elementary branches, and one male :n the high school, the enrollment being one hundred and four boys and eighty-two girls. CHURCHES. Irville Methodist Episcopal. A class of fifteen members was formed in 1812 ; Jonathan Wood donated a site and most of the lumber for a frame structure which was built in 1816. and when a new church, costing $1,200.00. was built in 1847. the original was moved and converted into a cabinet shop ; about 1823 a Sunday school was organized in the church as a union school, but about two years later it was attached to the church. Irville Presbyterian. In 1815 a frame church, 30 by 40 feet, was built for a congregation of this society, but the soil was not productive and the church as an organization was disbanded. When the Methodist Protestant society was formed it occupied the building temporarily, and later it became the meeting place of the Sons of Temperance ; when that society disbanded it was employed as a carpenter shop and in 1862 it was destroyed by fire. Irville Methodist Protestant church was organized 1829-3o, in the Presbyterian edifice, and in 1842 a church building of its own was erected at a cost of $1,5oo.00, and in 1843 a Sunday school was formed. The Irville cemetery, of one acre, was donated by Daniel Fleming. Macedonia Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1835, about three miles south of Irville but was abandoned in 1880 as the congregation had moved to another township. Highland Methodist Episcopal church was a small hewed log structure erected in 1840, two and one-half miles north of Irville, which was vacated about 1876. Nashport Methodist Episcopal church records have been destroyed for the early years and definite details cannot be secured ; the origin is placed in 1844-47, in a log school house then on a lot adjoining the present church. In 1854 a subscripton was started for a new building to be deeded to the Methodist Episcopal congregation, which was to have the use of the structure one-half of the time and. the remainder to be at the service of other religious organizations, but when not so used by others to be at the service of the Methodist Episcopal congregation. It was stipulated that protracted meetings were not to be interrupted notwithstanding that the allotment of time might be exceeded, or that others might be excluded during the period. The Masonic Lodge at Irville subscribed $275.00 and the additional subscriptions aggregating $671.50 were obtained, and a structure, 36 by 45 feet, was erected at a cost of $1,000.00, the lot being donated by Thomas Nash ; in 1855 a Sunday school was organized. SOCIETIES. Irville Lodge. No. 184, F. & A. M. A dispensation was issued December 10, ,1849, to Thomas Edwards, worshipful master ; Abner Wood, senior warden : Wm. Munhall. junior warden, to open Union Lodge at Irville, and a charter was issued October 16, 1850, to the same officers and A. T. Claypool, A. Ball, R. A. Walters, David Sherrard, Wm. Barrick, J. W. Hollister, J. K. Palmer, Jacob Molter and James Moore as members. October 20, 1852, the lodge was authorized to move to Nashport, and December. 1853, the name was changed to Irville, by a committee of the Grand Lodge, in accordance with a resolution of that PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 215 body, October 21, 1852, to dispense with duplication of names, the lodge having taken no action to select one for itself. Nashport Division, No. 24, Sons of Temperance, was instituted November 24, 1870, with thirty-four charter members, and was disbanded in 1878. A division of the order existed previously at Irvine. and later a lodge of Good Templars was formed but no information about them can be secured. Durban Lodge, No. 487, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted at Nashport, January 24, 1871, with D. M. Thompson, noble grand ; S. J. Perry, vice grand ; M. H. Bennett, secretary ; H. Cooper. treasurer, and G. W. Perry, George Varner and D. Eichler. Center Star Rebecca Lodge, No. 455, was instituted November 18, 1896. MADISON TOWNSHIP is named in honor of President Madison. and was taken from Jefferson township ; the commissioners' journal of July 2, 1819, designated the reduced limits of Jefferson township and defined the boundaries of Madison which were the same as at present, except that it embraced the western half of what is now Adams township. Its present boundaries are : North by Coshocton county and the Muskingum river ; east by Adams and Salem townships : south by Washington township. and west by the river. The first election was held at the residence of Martin Wheelen, July 31, 1819. and subsequent ones were held principally in the school house, on Wm. Minner's land until 1848 when a township hous, 18 by 24 feet was built. The pioneer settlers were nomadic : Jacob Swigert settled on the bottom lands of the Muskingum, built a cabin and cleared a field, in 1800. but within the ensuing year he sold to J. S. Copland and he to John Painter : Wyllys Silliman entered a quarter section on Symmes' creek and sold to James Sprague, a Canadian, in 1802: Valentine Shriver and John Stoner located in 1804. and George Adams, a Virginian, built the first hewed log house in the township, and became a settler, in 1808. and some years later made a frame addition to the log residence, and had the first frame house in the township. Charles Copland settled near the mouth of Symmes' creek, in 1817, and built the first brick house. The first marriage was George Stoner and Elizabeth Shirer, in 181o, and the first death was of Godfrey Bainter. in 1805, who was buried in the woods, and the site became a cemetery and the oldest in the township. In 1807 James Sprague and his son. Samuel, were canoing up the Muskingum and saw an Indian encampment a short distance below the mouth of Wills creek ; upon going ashore an Indian offered to show him a salt spring for $1,400.00, which proposition was promptly declined, and soon after the wily savage disclosed his secret to Wm. Maples for a rifle, and the proprietor was one of the few who found the manufacture of salt a profitable business ; the works were operated by several owners until 1865. About 1812 a distillery was in operation below the mouth of Wakatomaka. Alexander Struthers built a grist mill on the south branch of Symmes' creek, above the forks, in 1813, and in 1818 added a saw mill, and the business was continued by various owners until 1866. Valentine Shirer and his brother David erected a saw mill in the forks of Symmes' creek, in 1833. Thomas Pierce erected a grist mill at the dam of Symmes' creek, in 1837, and the distinction of opening the first store in the township lies between him and Copland and Parmall, about 1840, both having begun about the same time. In 1818 Abraham Wood and Elias Ebert built a blast furnace half a mile from the mouth of Symmes' creek, and made pig iron which found a ready market at Zanesville, but lack of capital compelled the suspension of the enterprise in 1822 the first blacksmith was Daniel Milton, who located at the furnace. In 1869 Wm. Minner opened a pottery at the fork of Symmes' creek and in 1879 Jacob S. King and John T. Swope established one on the Dresden road one mile north of Symmes' creek. SCHOOLS. The first school was opened on the land of Alexander Struthers, near the forks of Symmes' creek; at first it was conducted in German, and the first teacher in English was one Decker, in 1811. At present there are six school districts in the township, each of which has a one-room school house, the aggregate value of which is $3.000.00 ; four male and two female teachers are employed, the enumeration being one hundred and twenty-four boys and ninety-eight girls. CHURCHES. Methodist Episcopal. The first church in the township was known as the Wheelen church, so named for the donor of the site ; the first class was organized about 1820 and consisted of eleven members of the Wheelen family and thirteen others. The first meetings were held in Struthers' school house, and in 1823 a hewn log meeting house. 24 by 36 feet, was built ; a partition was erected in the building and the tardy or indifferent members were classed as sinners and were not admitted to the inner room where the love feasts were held. The room assigned to the sinners became too limited sooner than the one for the saints, and the partition was removed, and not 216 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. moved, and salvation was freer than before. A prominent itinerant of the period, who often preached to the congregation, once complained that the support given him in Zanesville was insufficient to furnish him money to pay tolls on the turnpike, and the "sinners" of the Wheelen church made up a purse of $1.00.00 for him. Of another supply of this congregation, who had more than the usual ministerial appetite for fowl, it is reported that he once declared "a turkey is a very unhandy fowl : it is too much for one and not enough for two." The Wheelen church became dormant about 1830. Methodist Protestant. About 1831 Rev. Gilbreath formed a class from former members of the Wheelen church, with Leonard Hurdle as leader, and held meetings at John Walker's house until 1838, when a log church, 24 by 36 feet, was erected on land donated by Hurdle. In June. 1861, John Stone deeded a lot for a new church and in 1862 a frame, 34 by 4o feet, was built and is known as the Prospect church. Salem. Rev. Wm. Marshall organized a class of sixteen members in 1834, with John Mahan as leader, as a Methodist Protestant congregation. In 1838 a hewed log church, 24 by 36 feet, was built one mile southeast from the mouth of Symmes' creek, on land donated by John Brice, and about 1868 a frame, 34 by 42 feet. was built. Pleasant Hill, Methodist Protestant church. In 1835 Judge Daniel Stillwell, a Presbyterian, built a church on his land, for the use of his fellow believers, but to be free to any denomination when not wanted by the Presbyterians. In 1868 Rev. Wm. Baldwin organized a class of fifteen as adherents of the Methodist Protestant church, with Samuel Hammond as leader, and occupied the building. St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal church. The first services were held in the Presbyterian church at Pleasant Hill, in October, 1837, and were conducted by Rev. W. A. Smallwood, of Zanesville. A meeting was held at the home of John C. Stockton, October 22, 1838, and St. Matthew's parish was formed with twenty-four members, and the following official organization: John C. Stockton, senior warden ; Thomas Armstrong, junior warden ; Royal Humphreys, Charles Long, Christopher Burnside and Robert Armstrong, vestrymen. At a meeting of the vestry, April 21, 1839, a site for a church was Selected on land donated by Evan James, and June 15, 1839, the committee contracted for the erection of a frame church, 27 by 4o feet, for $900.00, and August 4, 1839. the corner stone was laid by Rev. Smallwood. In 1840 Christopher Armstrong donated the parish one hundred acres of land. About 1900 the church was replaced by a Gothic structure in rough rubble masonry to the square, the gables being finished in concrete, and is one of the most ornamental architectural creations in the county ; it has a seating capacity of one hundred and fifty ; the chancel windows are of stained glass and the side windows of cathedral glass. Otterbein chapel, United Brethren. A class of eight persons was formed in 1848 and preaching was conducted in a school house ; in 1861 Zachariah Adams donated one acre of ground to trustees and in 1864 a frame church building, 25 by 32 feet, was erected. MEIGS TOWNSHIP as now formed is a complete Congressional township, six miles square, and bounded north by Rich Hill township ; east by Noble county ; south by Morgan county and west by Blue Rock township, and named in honor of Governor Return Jonathan Meigs. The commissioners' journal of July 13, 1819, records that "A petition was presented to the commissioners praying a division of Rich Hill township. The commissioners therefore erected the twelfth original surveyed township in the eleventh range to be a separate township to be called Meigs township. The qualified electors to meet at the house of Zoath Hammond, on the last Saturday of the present month to choose township officers." Of the officers then chosen the only record extant is John Hammond and Llewellyn Pierce, justices of the peace, and Jacob Wortman, clerk. The first settler was Archibald Bowles, in 1817, on section 29, on Meigs creek, and who built the first log cabin and planted the first orchard in the township. During 1808-9 Elijah Collins, ,Jacob Baker. John Bean, Samuel Allen, Andrew Wolf and David Stevens located, the latter building his cabin over a large stump, in section 9, to serve as a table. In rg'to David James located on Collins Fork of Willis creek. The pioneers in industries and improvements were : John P. Farrell, who opened the first store and built the first frame dwelling house : Wm. Yanger, frame barn : Casper Hollenbach, opened the first tavern on the Marietta road in 1813 and built the first brick dwelling in 1833 ; Thomas C. Gilkison, tanner, on Collins Fork, in 1815 ; Benjamin B. Seamans, wagon maker, on Marietta road ; Levi Thomas, blacksmith, on Guist's fork, in 1820 ; Wm. Dye, distiller ; Joseph Reasoner, grist mill, in 1823, on Collins Fork, with one run of buhrs ; James McGleashen, a fulling mill in sectior 20, in 1829; Jacob Omstott, saw mill, on Meigs creek, in 1832, Israel and Benajah Doan introduced Merino sheep in 1843 ; Andrew and Hugh Lyons introduced Durham cattle in 1850 and Joseph Taylor brought the first cradle to the township in 1825. The first marriage was John Briggs and Mary Bowles and the first death was a child of Thomas Carlin. PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 217 In illustration of the difference between those days and the present ; of the difference between barter and sale, and of the value of roads to reach a market, it is recorded that people carried butter twenty-four miles on horseback and sold it for four cents per pound ; a school teacher whose compensation was fifty cents per week in addition to board, was paid in maple sugar and feathers, two articles which were most abundant and which had no local market. Meigsville was laid out in 1840, by Gilbert Bishop, and in 1846 an addition was made by Wm. Betz. SCHOOLS. The first school was taught by Mrs. Harkness, in 1813, on Wills creek, in the northeast portion of the township ; there are now nine school districts, each with a one-room building, valued in the aggregate at $4,000.00 ; eight male and two female teachers are employed, the enrollment being one hundred and sixteen boys and ninety-nine girls. The color line in the public schools was the cause of considerable excitement in this township in 1845. Aquilla Lett, a quadroon, was a well to do farmer, and large tax payer, and sent his three children to the district school ; wireless telegraphy could not have disseminated more rapidly the information that there were "niggers" in the school, and the directors Immediately instructed iss Louisa Harmon, the teacher, to place them apart in a corner until a meeting could he held to determine what should be done, but the offensive children refused to be set apart, contending they were not "niggers." The next day the directors again called and ordered the teacher to separate them from the white children, which she declined to do for the reason that they were clean, orderly and attentive, and (lid not deserve to be so humiliated, and also declined to point out the unfortunate pupils. That they were not Africans must, by this time, appear to the reader, and when one of the directors, after scanning the faces, asked the eldest Lett child, "Say, my gal, ain't ‘-ou one of 'em ?" she inquired, "One of what?" and was answered, "Why, Africans." She instantly retorted, "No, sir, I am as white as you are." which appears to have been true so far as shade was concerned. He then sought to pick out one and selected the daughter of a fellow director, when the father interposed with "Hold on. that's my gal." The first director then gave lip the search and the other tried, and whether from design or accident selected the daughter of the man who had just made a similar error, and the father was compelled to assert her paternity. Finally, the directors cut the knot by discharging the teacher, and a Miss Eliza Wood was engaged. Prompted by their parents the white children be gan a system of persecution and intimidation, but the Lett girl was not to be downed in that manner, and retorted in kind, and to rid the school of the Lett children it was closed, and reopened ; father Lett had too much white blood in his veins to submit to a denial of education for his children, for whom he was paying, and his neighbors began threatening him. The excitement brought out the fact that previous to the Lett incident a school house had been burned to prevent colored children from attending, and the act was condoned on the ground that "niggers knowed too much already," and one old man declared that "niggers didn't need no education as they didn't have no souls." Under the circumstances father Lett appealed to the courts for protection against personal injury, and in December, 1846, stied the directors for debarring his children from the schools, and won the suit. A separate school was then provided, and in 1853 a separate fund was created for its suppott, and in 1864 a good frame building was erected. CHURCHES. Hopewell. In 183o the citizens in the southwest portion of the township erected a frame union meeting house, thirty by forty feet, in section twenty, which was used by all denominations until 1846, when the Presbyterians had about twenty members, and being the most numerous were organized into a church, and the owner of the land deeded the property to the congregation. This condition continued until the Presbyterians erected a church at High Hill, in 1878, when the Methodist Protestants occupied the building but the Presbyterians retained the title. The first cemetery in the township was attached to this church. Salem Methodist Episcopal. In 1820 a class of nineteen was organized in section three, and in 1830 a frame meeting house was erected ; in 1853 a new frame, forty by fifty feet, was built. Lytlesburg Methodist Episcopal. A class of thirteen was formed which constructed a frame meeting house, twenty-six by thirty-six feet, in 1854. Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal, colored. In 1824 a class of thirteen, of whites and blacks, was organized at Lazarus Marshall's, and meetings were held at private houses until 1836 when a hewed log meeting house was built in section twenty-four, and styled the Wesley chapel. Soon after objections were made to worshipping with the colored members, and particularly to associating-, with them in the administration of the Eucharist ; in 1843 twenty-three colored members withdrew and built a log meeting house, twenty- four by thirty, in section twenty-three, which was burned in April, 1854, and in the spring of 1857 a frame church, twenty-eight by thirty-two feet, 218 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. was built on the same ground, and called Pleasant Hill. After the colored people withdrew the Wesley chapel gradually declined, and the church was converted into a dwelling. Ark Spring Baptist. During the winter and spring of 1852 a series of religious meetings was held in school houses. and a class of seven persons was formed, and called the western branch of the Brookfield church ; in 1853 a frame meeting house, thirty by forty feet, was built at a cost of $400, and June 25, 1859, a separate church was organized as the Ark Spring Baptist. SOCIETIES. Camp No. 5458, Modern Woodmen of America, at High Hill, was chartered March 2. 1900, and instituted March 6, by W. A. Gibbons, with fifteen members, and R. J. Richey, venerable consul: R. G. Downs, clerk and physician. MORGAN RAID. Legends of the incursion of Gen. John \lorgan will survive those of the red man in the Muskingum valley. Thursday, July 23, 1863. the quiet of Meigs township was destroyed by the roar of artillery and the questions neighbors were asking each other on every hand, what does it mean, was soon answered by couriers hurriedly passing with the exciting warning that John Morgan's rebel cavalry was among them. Horses and valuables were secreted first and then the owners withdrew to infrequented places. Horses, clothing and provisions were the only "swag" the raiders desired, and those articles were cleaned from the territory traversed, except at the home of Russell Bethel, who was in the Union army, and whose valuable horse was in the stable. His. another barred the passage to the stable, and the troopers were either too chivalrous or too hurried to dispute with a woman, and the horse did not enter their service. One farmer entertained six of the cavalrymen so generously that they did not accompany their comrades, and their host surrendered them, when they became sober, to the United States' officers, and they sojourned for a season at Camp Chase. Had the citizens of the township been equally hospitable the entire command might have been captured. MONROE TOWNSHIP. July 2, 1819, the Commissioners made record : "Beginning on the northeast corner of Muskingum county. thence west on the line dividing the sixth range, thence south to the line dividing the second and third townships in the sixth range, thence east to the county line, thence north with the county line to the place of beginning." This action was taken in connection with the creation of Madison township, and the reduction of Highland to its present limits, and the first election was ordered to be held at the residence of James Sprague, but no record remains. of the officers then chosen. Monroe township is the original survey of township number three of the fifth range of the United States' military lands ; is five miles square, and is bounded on the north by Coshocton county; on the east by Guernsey county ; south by Highland township and west by Adams township, and was named in honor of the then president of the United States. Monroe township was visited by white men from Marietta before any settlements were made in the limits of the county ; Nehemiah and Jonathan Sprague, from Marietta, are reputed to have canoed up the Muskingum river and Wills creek after game, when the Indians were in the neighborhood, and hostile to the whites. Charles Marquand was the pioneer settler, in 1810, on Wills creek, where he built the first cabin, and set out the first orchard ; and he and Peter Marquand, in 1819, built a dam across Wills creek to furnish power for a saw mill ; in 1829 they opened a carding and grist mill at the same point, and in 1834 opened the first store in the township. James Sprague was the next settler, in 1812, coming from Wakatomika to Otsego, and brought the first wagon to the township. Jacob Bainter came in the same year, and his food gave out before a crop had been produced ; the wheat was heading, and the family subsisted on the heads, which were rubbed out and eaten with milk, the forest furnishing game in abundance. Henry Brannon was another settler in this year. and one season be killed seven deer from the door of his cabin while they were feeding upon his turnips. Jared Cone settled in section thirteen, in 1813, and John Stoner came in 1814, and settled in the same section, and his wife opened the first school in the township. in her house. in 1817 Tunis Elson made the journey from about Meadville, Pennsylvania. to Wills creek, in a log canoe with his wife and four children, drifting down the Ohio and paddling up the Muskingum and the creek; in 1819 he operated the first grist mill with one run of buhrs, in section one, on White Eyes creek. Parker Shephardson was the first blacksmith : John Thompson, the first carpenter and Joseph Walker, in 1826, the first tanner. David Richard built the first brick house, in section thirteen, in 1819, and opened the first tavern in 1837, and his wife was the second school teacher in the township, conducting the school in their cabin. Martin Richardson built the first frame house in section nineteen, in 1813; in 1817 operated the first saw mill on White Eyes creek, and the first stone dwelling was built by Caleb Buker. The first physician was Dr. Cass, in 1830, and in 1832, Dr. Alonzo DeLaMater was also in practice. PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY - 219 The first marriage was Samuel Sprague and Mary Smoot, in October, 182o, the first birth was Lavinia Sprague, July 29, 1814, and the first death was Francis Richardson, in 1817, the burial taking place in the first public burial ground south of Otsego. Thomas McCall introduced the threshing machine in 1835, and John S. Abbott the mowing machine in 1855. The only village in the township is Otsego, which was laid out in 1838, and named after Otsego, New York. SCHOOLS. The first school house was erected in section eight, in 1817, and the township is now divided into five school districts, with five buildings containing six rooms, and valued, in the aggregate, at $3,000.00; one male teacher in the high school course and five male teachers in the elementary are employed. the enrollment being ninety-nine hogs and eighty-eight girls. CHURCHES. Maysville Methodist Episcopal. A class of three families was organized at Hugh Ballentine's house, in 1822, and meetings were held there until 1848. when a frame church. thirty by forty feet was built in section five : it was burned in 1854, and rebuilt the same size in 1855. The first burial in the church yard was made in 1841. Pleasant Valley Methodist Protestant. In 1816 a class of nine was organized at George lIainter's, as adherents of the 1\ ethodist Episcopal denomination. but in 1828 it merged with a class of eleven to form a society of Methodist Protestants : the first meeting house was a frame, thirty- five by forty-two feet. built in 1835. which was replaced by one, twenty-eight by seventy feet, north of Otsego. Otsego Baptist. Forty-two members withdrew from the Adamsville congregation, for convenience of worship, and July 20, 1844. formed a new society ; a brick church. thirty by forty feet. was built at a cost of $1,000.00, and in 1869 it was replaced by a larger building, forty by fifty feet, at a cost of $2,500.00. Otsego Presbyterian. In 1848 a class of sixteen organized the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian church and erected a frame, thirty by thirty-six feet, in section nineteen, on an acre and quarter lot ; in 1849 the name was changed to Otsego, at the time of the union of the divisions of the church. Union chapel, Methodist Protestant. In 1860 a class of twelve was formed which held meetings at private houses. SOCIETIES. John Trimble Post, No. 628, Grand Army of Republic, evinces the patriotism of the "boys" of 1861-65. MUSKINGUM TOWNSHIP. September 4, 1817, the Commissioners' journal records that "The second township of the eighth range and so much of the second township of the seventh range as lies west of the Muskingum river is erected into a new township called Muskingum township, and West Zanesville annuled. All that part which was formerly West Zanesville and not included in Muskingum township is attached to Falls township." The present boundaries are. north by Cass and a small fraction of Jackson townships east by the Muskingum river ; south by Falls township and the Licking river, and west by Licking township. The first election for officers for the new township was held during the latter part of the month of September, but the only name now known of those then chosen is Henry Butler, justice of the peace. The first white men who located were David Devore and James Beach, in 1797 ; James Black came in. the same year. but was a trapper, and did not settle. Devore first located and erected a log cabin near the Muskingum, but later moved near a stream which bears his name, and 1810 opened his house for the entertainment of travelers, and in 1812 built a crude grist mill, the bolting being done by hand. In 1798 John Bland, Elijah Stradley and Ebenezer Ryan were located, and there were others whose names have not been preserved as there are records of the burial of Timothy Prior, 1799, and Jesse Dowell and James Devore in 1800. Among the early settlers were Elias Hughes and John Ratliff, from the mouth of Licking, who were crowded out of West Zanesville when people began to locate there. Indians were still in the neighborhood. and at times were troublesome, but usually limited their depredations to running off stock and committing other misdemeanors which exasperated the settlers. Occasionally murder was added to their other crimes, and a young woman who was affianced to Hughes met a violent death at their hands ; he and Ratliff had been engaged in many affairs together and they joined in an oath of vengeance. In April, 1800, both suffered the loss of horses and enlisted John Bland in their alliance for Indian blood ; a light fall of snow enabled them to trail the thieves and they were followed thirty miles into Knox county, where it was discovered there were only two Indians, and the sense of honor of having a fair fight asserted itself and lots were cast to determine who should be the avengers, and choice fell on Hughes 220 - PAST AND PRESENT OF MUSKINGUM COUNTY. and Bland. Ratliff accompanied the party as spectator, and creeping stealthily upon their enemies Hughes killed one, but Bland's flint lock missed fire and the Indian plead for his life, confessed he was a had Indian, but would be so no more ; Ratliff instantly made it possible for him to never violate his vow by shooting him on the spot, and—the horses were recovered. In 1803, William Bland; in 1808, Levi Cooper, Samuel McCann and Joseph Spencer, and in 18 to Rev. Joseph Thrapp, John Dorsey and Samuel Guest became settlers. In 1812 Rev. Thrapp erected a saw mill and Dalton Lane, a tannery on the Dresden road, and in 1820 the latter conducted a tavern with a special room for guests. The first blacksmith was John M. Lane, prior to 1815, and the first distillery was built by Col. George Jackson in 1818, and in 1820 he was engaged in the manufacture of salt near the river ; in 1825 Erman Spencer built the first brick house in the township, near Shannon, and in 1845 Robert Welsh opened the first store in the same neighborhood. SCHOOLS. The first school was opened in 1815 by one Shutliff in the Pierson school house ; there are now eight school districts, each with a one-room building, valued ill the aggregate at $3,000.00 and employing four male and four female teachers, the enrollment being ninety-three boys and seventy- eight girls. CHURCHES. Methodist Episcopal. A class of four families was organized at the home of Rev. Joseph Thrapp, in 1810, and services have been since conducted and are now held in the Sherrard chapel. Archibald McCann, a school teacher, was an earnest worker among the young people, and formed a Sunday school which he held all day for the study of the Bible ; during the night of March 29, 1839, he was crossing a bridge at Zanesville, and walked into the canal through the draw. which had been carelessly left open, and was drowned. Baxter Baptist church was organized with nine members in 1813, and a church was soon after built upon a three acre lot donated for church and cemetery purposes. The Pierson Presbyterian church was organized in 1814 by a few families ; David Pierson and George Welsh donated an acre of ground upon which a church was erected, and a Sunday school was organized in 1849. St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was opened at the residence of William Mattingly and mass celebrated in 1834: services were held with great regularity at Mr. Mattingly's until the construction, in 1856, of the brick church, thirty-five by seventy feet, on an acre of ground donated by Mr. Mattingly, who died April 7, 1857, and was the first person to be interred in the cemetery he had provided. Services are regularly held by a priest from Zanesville. NEWTON TOWNSHIP is an older corporation than the county, having been formed in the spring of 1802, while the territory was attached to Washington county ; the first trustees were John Beckwith, Andrew Crooks and Benjamin Redman. The townsh