Ashland County, Ohio - The whole text, 1909 (part 5 of 26)

Mohican township was surveyed in 1807 by Jonathan Cox. On the 11th of April, 1812, the commissioners of Wayne county divided the county into four townships - the western part, including what are now Jackson, Perry, Mohican and Lake, and part of Washington in Holmes county, and the west half of what are now Clinton, Plain, Chester and Congress in Wayne county, and organized this territory as one township, under the name of Mohican. Thus Mohican township once embraced an area equal in extent to one-half of that which now constitutes Ashland county. Mohican was among the first settled and the first organized of any of the townships which now compose Ashland county. The population of Mohican township in 1820 was six hundred and thirty-two; in 1830, one thousand three hundred and sixteen; in 1860, one thousand seven hundred and twelve.

Thomas Eagle arrived in the township of Mohican on the 2d day of May, 1809, having succeeded the family of Alexander Finley a few weeks. His family then consisted of his wife and daughter Amelia. He first opened a small farm on the land now owned and occupied by Henry Treace. In the early part of the war, he, together with several of his neighbors, removed their families to the fort, at Wooster, as security against attacks by Indians.

Alexander Finley was the first white settler in Mohican township. © Withm a few weeks, however, other persons, namely, William and Thomas Eagle, Benjamin Bunn, and John Shinnebarger, all having families, settled in the neighborhood. The year following, (1810) Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, William Bryan, Thomas Newman, and James Slater, with their several families, removed to the township.

The Indians in the neighborhood at:this time were an intermixture of several tribes, the Mohegans, Delawares, Wyandottes, Shawnees, Chickasaws, and one or two who claimed to be of the Cherokee tribe. They were friendly and harmless, until the war of 1812 commenced, when the main body of them disappeared, and most of them, it is supposed, became attached to the British service.

The first year or two after Mr. Finley came to the country, he obtained his supplies of flour and corn meal from Shrimplin's mill, below Mt. Vernon. This journey to the mill was performed in canoes or pirogues, down the Lake Fork and Mohican, and up Owl creek, and occupied about three days for the trip. These vessels would carry from twenty to fifty bushels of corn meal.

The forests at this period were destitute of underbrush or small timber, but were covered with sedge grass, pea vines, and weeds, which afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August. The sedge grass, when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritous and palatable food for horses and eattle during the winter. Very lhttle iron was used in those days. The wooden ''mould board'' plow and wooden and brush harrows were generally in use twelve or fifteen years after Mr. Finley came to the country; and many continued their use several vears afterward.

The clothing of the men was buckskin and flax linen. The women were clothed in a fabric made of raw cotton and flax linen. Handkerchiefs, headdresses, and aptons were made, by the thrifty housewives, of raw cotton. The price of calico (being from fifty to seventy-five cents per yard) placed it without the means of any but very few to purchase. An excellent and industrious girl, as late as 1822 or 1823, toiled faithfully six weeks for six yards of calico; which, in those primitive days, before the era of hoops, was deemed sufficient for a dress. The lady who appeared in the first calico dress, attracted, it may be supposed, considerable attention in "'the settlement.'' Window glass was not in use until some years after the war of 1812, oiled paper being employed as a substitute.

When Mr. Hootman came to the township the major part of the village of Jeromeville was covered with fallen timber and hazel bush. |The improvements on the farms then settled were small, being log cabins surrounded by a few acres of partly cleared land. The roads were new and unimproved, and many of them little more than bridle-paths. The prices of produce in 1828-29 were, as I recollect distinctly: wheat, twenty-five cents; pork, one dollar and fifty cents per hundred weight; corn, eighteen cents; salt, five dollars per barrel; coffee, fifty cents per pound; tea, fifty cents per quarter; butter, six cents; eggs, nothing; iron, twelve and one-half cents per pound. 'The usual and best market place was Portland, (now Sandusky City). Twenty to thirty bushels wheat, a big load for two and four horses, ten days of travel if the roads were good, two weeks if not good. Massillon became a market town. The opening of the Ohio canal run the price of wheat up at once to forty cents, then fifty, and then our farmers at that time were satisfied, and expressed the wish that the price would continue at that as they then could make money. Our nearest gristmill was an old concern known as Goudy's Mill, southeast of Hayesville, with one run of stone, old niggerhead or boulder stone at that. Another was Smith's Mill, below Mohicanville. In the winter, when those small streams were frozen, we went to the Clearfork to Manner's Mill. Sometimes we had to go to Owl Creek, in Knox county.

There were the remains of no less than five ancient fortifications in Mohican township; the embankments very regular and very distinctly defined, until cultivation has nearly -destroyed their original features. Three are near Jeromeville, and two near the junction of the Muddy and Jerome Forks. They embraced areas averaging about one and a half acres. A mound near the old Indian village, bearing unmistakable evidence, after excavation, of its being a work of art and upon which trees, the growth of centuries, were standing, was also in existence. |

The following chronological memoranda of events of interest that have occurred in past years, furnished by Judge Ingmand, will be found of general and local interest:

November 13, 1833. Lights were seen falling on the early morning of this day, (three or four hours before daybreak,) having the appearance of showers of stars.

June 21, 1834. A terrific storm passed over Jeromeville and a district of country west, which appeared to have its most violent force between the latter place and the vicinity of the farm upon which the County Infirmary is now situated, prostrating in its pathway forest trees and fences, unroofing buildings, removing them from their foundations, ete.

1835. Thesummer remarkably wet, bottom lands much overflown, and too wet for tillage. Hay crop badly damaged, and cattle died the following winter in consequence of eating it. A comet appeared during the fall of the same year. November 11, a severe storm, which did much damage to Buffalo and other ports on the American side, and to the shipping on the lakes.

To those familiar with the days of log cabins, the phrase so often used, ''the latch string is out,'' is clearly understood.. This latch or fastening was made of wood, and in order to enable those from without to enter the dwelling, a small string was attached to the latch, (which was always on the inside) and passed through the door to the outside, and hence, to prevent the entrance of any person, the inmates would pull in the latch string, so that when it was not seen on the outside of the door, it was evidence that no one could be admitted. One window was usually all that was considered necessary in a log cabin. This was made by cutting out one log, some two feet in length, and then closing up by putting in small sticks, in the form of sash, and pasting greased paper over them to cause it to admit the light more readily.

As stoves were almost unknown in those days, a fireplace was used instead thereof. These were made by cutting out a hole in one end of the building, in some cases large enough to pass a two-horse wagon through the cavity. On the outside of the house, and connected with this, the chimney was built of wood and mortar, sometimes lined on the inside with stone and mortar, immediately adjoining the fireplace. In front of the fireplace was a large space left in the floor, called the hearth, which was usually covered with flat stone, and hence the old phrase ''hearth-stone."'

As the wants of the people of that day were few, and easily satisfied, the log cabin usually contained but one room, which served as kitchen, dining room, bed room, sitting room and parlor.

Upon land in Mohican township was a prairie, which appeared originally to have been a crust of vegetable matter overlying a sheet of water. As it was evidently land of great fertility, if the water under it could be withdrawn, efforts were made thoroughly to drain it. Ditches were made, in some places, to the depth of six feet, and considerable quantities of cedar trees, some of them twelve and eighteen inches in diameter, were found imbedded in the earth. What length of time they had occupied the position in which they were found is, of course, unknown, but they appeared as free from any evidence of decay as they would have shown on the day they perished. What is remarkable is that no cedars were ever found by the early settlers, growing in that vicinity. The inference is that a cedar swamp once covered the ground, and a tornado may have violently uprooted them, thus breaking the crust and burying them beneath the surface. Swamp flag and wild grass, very little decayed, were also found at the depth of from five to six feet.. Skeletons of buffalo and elk were also discovered, some of them of immense size. The head and horns of one elk found partly imbedded were of such dimensions that, placing the points of the horns upon the ground, two men on each side supporting them in an upright position. William Eagle, a man whose height was nearly six feet, would pass under them erect.

In the early settlement of the country there was no law providing for com mon schools - no tax levied or other funds provided for payment of teachers. Hence all buildings for the use of common schools consisted of some old evacu-

During the war of 1812, there were three blockhouses erected in Mohican township, one on the town plat of Jeromeville, a few rods north of the present gristmill; one near the Mohican creek, about four miles south of Jeromeville, on land later owned by Henry Treace; and one about a mile farther down the creek.

To these houses all the neighborhood would run for safety whenever the alarm was given, and not unfrequently they would have to remain there for several days and nights, with but little to eat or drink. Sometimes some trivial circumstance would cause an alarm, and the whole neighborhood would gather into the blockhouse, and, after remaining there perhaps a day and night, the mistake would be found out, and all would return to their homes again.

Clear Creek township was surveyed in 1807, by Mansfield Ludlow, but the date of its organization as a township cannot be ascertained by either township or county records. However, it is known that the population of the township in 1820 was three hundred and nine. The number had increased to one thousand three hundred and twenty-seven in 1860. When the first settlers came to this township they found the land covered with a dense forest, and had hard labor in clearing and improving their farms. The first list of township officers on record were those of 1862, to-wit: trustees, A. F. Shaw, John Bryte, and KE. T. Garrett; clerk, M. C. Percival; assessor, John Gibson; treasurer, David Stem; constables, John Swineford and John Neff..

The town of Savannah being pleasantly situated and on a leading road it was a place of considerable business for a number of years, and during the period of the evolution of counties it was a prominent candidate for the seat of justice for a new county. Savannah was laid out December 25th, 1818, and was named Vermillion, although the place was locally known as Haneytown, for the Rev. James Haney, an early resident of the place, and who had served several terms in the legislature as a representative from Ashland county. Rev. Haney was a man of good sense as well as of fine sentiment, and in a letter to a friend, speaking of the prosperous condition of the township, the result of the labors of the pioneers, also looked forward with an interest somewhat tinged with melancholy from the past to the future and expressed the inquiry as to whether succeeding generations would be informed of the names even, of those who had cleared the forest in fields and first cultivated the same. He recalled the lines of Henry Kirk White, that -

The selection of Ashland as the county-seat of the new county of Ashland gave a back-set to Savannah and the business of the town began to decline, but its downward course was checked by the erection of the Savannah Academy in 1858. i

The first instance in which the population of the village of Savannah was taken separately from that of the township of Clear Creek was in 1860. It then contained three hundred and thirty-six inhabitants.

A Presbyterian church was organized in Savannah in 1833. This church was an offshoot from the Hopewell church of Ashland. A Free Presbyterian church was organized in Savannah in 1851, with F. M. Finney, minister. The United Presbyterian church was organized there in June, 1858, by combining members of what was before known as the Associate and the Associate Reform Presbyterian churches, with J. W. Ashenhurst as pastor. The Associate Reform Congregation of Savannah was organized in September, 1831, by the late Rev. James Johnson, of Mansfield. The first house of worship in Savannah was built in 1834. A Disciple church was organized in the township in the year 1830. The denomination which was then known as the Disciples is now called ''Christians,'' but the proper denominational name for this sect of people is ''The Church of the Disciples of Christ.''

In 1822 the only mill in the township was a horsemill, built and owned by Thomas Ford. The first sawmill in the township was erected by Joseph Davis on the Clear Creek in 1822. In 1824 John Hendricks built a frame gristmill on the Vermillion, a short distance below the mouth of the Clear Creek. In 1827 John and Thomas Haney erected a gristmill on Mulhollen's run, a short distance south of the town. Prior to the erection of gristmills in Clear Creek township, the pioneers had to take their grists to Odell's in Wayne county - a distance of from thirty to thiry-five miles.

The first election in the township was held at the house of John Freeborn. The first physician in the township was Dr. Cliff. Prior to that the nearest physician was at Ashland.

The cabin of Thomas Ford was a prominent place of holding religious meetings in pioneer times in Clear Creek township. Men and women traveled often six or eight miles on foot, through the woods, at night they hghted their pathways by torches of hickory bark, to enable them to attend the services. In 1830, a church building was put up, known as ''Ford's Meeting House.'' This meeting house was considered the best structure devoted to religious services in that part of the county. The four quarterly meetings of the cirenit of the Methodist Episcopal churech - Mansfield being included in the cireuit - were held in this church for several years. The first religious service held in Ford's Meeting House was the funeral of Thomas Ford, who died October 10, 1830, aged fifty-seven years. His was the first interment in the graveyard adjoining the church.

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In about 1820, the first schoolhouse in the southern part of the township was built on the line of the land of Abraham Huffman. The house was of hewn logs, eighteen by twenty feet, cabin roof, puncheon floor, puncheon tables and puncheon seats. It had greased paper windows, and the facilities for heating were limited to fires made in a fireplace such as were in general use in the cabins of those days, and afforded in cold weather insufficient heat to admit of practice in writing, as the ink would almost freeze in the pen in the process of transferring it from the inkstand to the paper. The first teacher was Robert Nelson, of Milton township, who continued in that capacity two or three years.

As evidence of the privations endured by many in the early settlement, Mr. Vanostrand mentions the case of a worthy family who came to the country destitute of either provisions or money, who subsisted a greater portion of one season upon pumpkins alone - commencing their use as food while the vegetable was yet unripened. The family would perhaps have suffered death by starvation, had it not been for the friendly aid afforded them by the neighbors, after learning their situation.

Every house in Clear Creek, as was the case in other townships in the early settlement, manufactured the wearing apparel for its own household. The males were dressed in buckskin and domestic linen; and the women and children were also dressed in fabrics the product of their own fields and households.

There were no woolen goods, as sheep would be devoured by the wolves; and after the wolves had so far disappeared as to invite the introduction of sheep, the climate and wild food were discovered to be unfavorable to their life and health. . Jacob Myers immigrated to Clear Creek township, April 23,1829. His native state was Pennsylvania, Green county, where he was ordained as a clergyman of the Baptist church. He purchased and entered the land which forms the tract upon which he has since resided, on sections 3 and 4, Clear Creek township.

Among the pioneer families of Clear Creek township, the following names are recalled: Elias Ford, Peter Vannostrand, William Shaw, James Haney, John Freeborn, David Burns, John Richards, Thomas Ford, Abraham Claberg and John Bryte.. Elias Ford came to Clear Creek township in 1819, and the Fords have been numerous and prominent in the township ever since. One of the number, Thomas H., became lieutenant governor of Ohio and was later a Colonel in the Union army in the war of the Rebellion.

David Bryte settled in Clear Creek township in 1821. He later located in Mansfield, where he served as deputy sheriff for two terms and in 1840 was elected sheriff of Richland county. He died in 1872.

Communications From Rev. John Haney

Under date of November 10, 1861, the Rev. John Haney wrote the following communication from Lansing, Iowa, to Editor Knapp, of Ashland. Mr. Haney

'"'In compliance with your request, I will state that the settlement of what is now Glear Creek township, Ashland county, commenced in the spring of eighteen hundred and fifteen (1815). In the winter preceding the Rev. James Haney, (my father) John and Richard Freeborn and William Shaw built a small keelboat in Cross Creek township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and hauled-it a distance of twelve miles to the Ohio river. On the evening of the 10th of March of that year, Richard Freeborn, William Shaw, Daniel Devlin, my father and myself embarked on the boat which we had freighted with our goods, provisions, etc., from Wellsburg, Virginia, to the nearest navigable point on the Muskingum waters, thence to our destination. John Freeborn went by land with our horses and cattle. On reaching the mouth of the Muskingum we met unusually high water, which retarded our progress and made the labor of propelling our keelboat very severe. Daniel Devlin and I were then only sixteen years of age each. After many adventures and perils, we arrived at a place called Finley's bridge, about five miles south of Jeromeville, on the 26th of April, where we met our horses and pack saddles. On the evening of the 29th, we encamped on the ground now known as the old grave yard, on the line between Clear Creek and Orange townships, one and a half miles southeast of Savannah. The names of the parties there encamped were John Freeborn, Richard Freeborn, his wife Elizabeth and infant daughter Mary, William Shaw, his wife and daughters Eleaner and Jane, small children, Rev. James Haney, his sons John and Thomas and daughter Mary, aged respectively sixteen, fourteen, and twelve at that time. The balance of the family came out in the fall.

''The entire range of surveyed townships from the north to the south tiie of Richland county, in which Clear Creek was situated, constituted but one organized township, at first named Vermillion. The date of the organization of Clear Creek township I do not distinctly recollect. It was either John or Richard Freeborn who personally applied for the organization and gave the name. It was the name given by the Messrs. Freeborn to the principal creek in the township when they first saw it in the summer of 1814, and they gave the township the same name. I do not recollect who were the first officers of the township, but I do remember that, for several years the officers served without pay. Robert McBeth was the first justice of the peace.

''T am unable to recall the years that my father represented Richland county in the Ohio legislature. It was, however, during the period that the state organized its canal system.

'"'My impression is that Mrs. Elliott taught the first school in the township at her own house. I think the first religious meeting was held at father's house, three-fourths of a mile east of Savannah. At any rate, Rev. James Haney preached the first sermon ever preached in the township. For sometime after the commencement of the settlement of the country, religious meetings were held at private houses. If I am not mistaken, the first religious society was formed at Mr. Thomas Ford's and the first administration of the sacrament took place there. The precise time when and where the first church building was erected, I do not recollect.

""The village of Savannah was laid out in the winter of 1818, by myself. It was first called Vermillion. The first man who settled in the town was Joseph Fast. The first schoolhouse was a small log building erected on the northeast corner of the town plat. Jacob McLain was the first brickmaker and hatter in the town. Garnett Whitelock was the first blacksmith. Joseph Davis built the first sawmill on Clear creek, one and a half miles west of Savannah.

'"'John and Richard Freeborn planted the first apple seeds, which furnished the trees for several of the oldest orchards in the township. Thomas Ford erected the first horsemill for grinding grain in the township.

""The Indians hunted for several years after the first settlers came. They were principally Delawares and Wyandots. Game was plenty for several years after the first settlements were made. The wild pasture was good at first. Horses and cattle did well, but sheep were unhealthy until the country was improved.

''The streams had more water in then than now. The general health was pretty good, considering that the climate was damper than at present. The principal diseases were intermittent fevers and rheumatism. The social condition of the first settlers was good. Their common wants brought them in contact favorable to the cultivation of the social virtues. Few of the settlers did more toward improving the country than Abraham Huffman. He was a man of great industry and energy, always ready to administer to the wants of the needy. His uncompromising hostility to what he considered wrong, sometimes caused him trouble that many others could have avoided.

Mr. S. Parmele, one of the party which surveyed Sullivan township gave the following account of the survey and early settlement of the township:

'¢Sullivan township was surveyed in 1816, by Esquire Baldwin, of Newburg, Cuyahoga county, assisted by myself and others. The survey was commenced in the month of October; and the surveying party camped in the woods two weeks, there being no settlement nearer than Harrisville east, and Elyria north; no road but a line of marked trees. A road was laid out in the time of the war of 1812, nearly parallel with the present, but had never been marked. Game was very plenty. Business of importance recalled Mr. Baldwin to Newburg; being absent longer than was expected, the county not having very comfortable quarters, I started after him, there being no mode of communication but by messengers. I traveled on foot the whole distance by the aid of marked trees and trail not very well defined after I had left Harrisville.

'On the 8th of November, a very heavy fall of snow obstructed my walking very much; it was about a foot deep in the woods, but i went through. After all'this fatigue and delay, I was obliged to return without him. On my return night overtook me, and T was unable to follow the trail; but, nothing disheartened

I sat down on a log and waited for the moon to rise. It was still very difficult to follow the trail, and I could only do so by feeling the marked trees. As good fortune would have it, I was not very far from Mr. 'Strong's, of Strongsville ; and arriving there, I tarried till morning. In a few days Mr. Baldwin came, and we again prosecuted the survey; he brought another surveyor with him, which expedited our business much, and we accomplished the survey in about a week. During this time, considerable rain fell, and from Wednesday till Friday had to wade in water in some places up to our armpits. On Saturday

~morning finished the survey ; it was a very rainy day, the water had been so high we could not get to Harrisville for provisions, and were obliged to divide our rations having only one-fourth of a pound of bread a piece for three days, and some beef. We finally succeeded in getting to Harrisville on Saturday night. We went to James Rogers, and, notwithstanding they. had a wedding, we were received from the woods with the greatest kindness, and treated with marked attention; and surely wedding supper was never more acceptable to any one or devoured with keener relish - meats, pudding, pies, cakes, and a variety of sauce of wild fruits, cranberries, crab apples, plums, etc., for dessert. Soon after this I returned to Vermont, having finished surveying and selecting three thousand acres of land for myself and friends.

''On the 6th day of June the following year, (1817) seven families, all living in one neighborhood, namely, John Parmely, Sr., his wife Dorothy and his two youngest children, two married sons, namely, Sylvanus Parmely and Lois Parmely, and four children; Asahel and Fanny Parmely and two children; Jesse Chamberlain and his wife Betsey Chamberlain; Abijah and wife; Thomas and Lucinda Rice, with nine children; and James Palmer and his wife and five children, started for Ohio.

''Soon after our arrival in Sullivan, Mr. James Palmer went out to gather nuts, of which there was a great:abundance. It was on the afternoon of one very pleasant day in September; but venturing out of sight of clearing, he got lost. He wandered about till dark, without finding anything from which he could judge of his direction or distance from home. Night overtook him, and in this dilemma he was obliged to give up and laid himself down by a log to rest till morning. He passed a restless, if not a sleepless night. At one time a huge bear,came very near him, but fortunately was not hungry enough to attack him. His friends became quite alarmed at his prolonged absence, and at dark rallied out to find him; but their search was fruitless. Preparations were then made for search next day; two men were dispatched to Harrisville to raise men to assist them. They were fitted out with hickory torches and went this whole distance and returned before daylight - making a journey of twenty miles by torchlight. Mr. Palmer, however, by the aid of the stakes set up by the surveyors was enabled to find his way home about nine o'clock in the morning. <A messenger was instantly sent to Harrisville with the glad tidings that the lost was found.

"'Our cattle grazed in the woods, and we took turns watching them; one of our number following them through the day and bringing them up at night, fortunately we did not lose any. Each family selected one hundred and sixty acres of land as near the center as possible, and then decided to draw lots, as being the best way of settling the matter satisfactorily, for all had their preferences. This being amicably disposed of, all immediately built rude huts or shanties upon their land, without chimneys, and with but part of a floor; and around these rude fireplaces clustered their hearts' fondest affection, and the endearments of home in this forest wild rendered them contented and happy; and to this day they will cite you back to those times with delight and affection.

"Thus located in the midst of a dense forest, far from any settlement, and entirely dependent upon their own resources and good luck, they saw no dark side to the picture, but hopefully gazed on the bright sunlight that streamed in upon them as the forest trees fell before the athletic arm of the pioneer, and saw, or thought they saw, in the future many blessings in store for them and their children.

"'Our nearest neighbors on the east were at Harrisville, ten miles distant ; south, about eight miles; north, Elyria, twenty-five miles; west, New London, fifteen miles; sundry necessary articles of consumption and clothing could not be obtained this side of Cleveland. Salt was nine dollars per barrel, and cotton cloth fifty cents per yard. The nearest store was at Wooster, Wayne county. I walked through the woods to the latter place without any road, to obtain fifteen lights of glass for a window to my log house.

'*T recollect at one time I went six miles south, to get my horse shod, through the woods, with only a footpath, which was nearly obscured by the falling leaves. On my return it became so dark that my horse could not follow the path, and I was obliged to dismount and lead him. The only way I could keep the path was by the breaking of sticks under my feet when I got out of it. Twice in my efforts to find the old path, I turned round and went back a quarter of a mile to a certain place I knew I had passed, and you may imagine how difficult it was to get along, when I tell you it took me all night to get home over the distance of two miles. About this time a large body of Indians came from Sandusky into town on a hunting expedition ; making rather too free use of firewater, they were quite quarrelsome, and had frequent disturbances among themselves. At one time they got into a quarrel, and in their affray killed one of their number. This affair shortened their stay, and they left, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who dreaded their presence; indeed, they were rough neighbors, and sent terror to the hearts of every family.

'*A child of Mr. Durfee went out just at dusk with his uncle; he sent him back while he went into the woods to hunt some hogs. On his return he found the little boy did not go home. They immediately searched for him, and continued it for several days, but found no trace of the missing child. The next spring his bones were found by the side of a log, where doubtless he had perished the first night.

'On the' evening of the day the boy was lost two girls, daughters of a neighbor in Sullivan township, on their return home from Thomas Greer's, heard, on their way, what appeared to be the hoarse moans of a child; but fearing that it might proceed from a wild animal, they continued on their way. Mr. Durfee's house lay in their path, and calling there, they were for the first time informed of the loss of the child. Their conclusion at once was that the voice they heard proceeded from the lost boy ; and the father immediately started for the spot indicated - heard distinctly the sound, but his agitation and bewilderment finally traced it to the tree tops, and the voice becoming undistinguishable from the noise of the rain falling upon the dry leaves, he abandoned his search in despair, and returned home.''

Milton township was surveyed in 1807 and was organized in 1816. Originally, the two western tiers or sections, including the town of Olivesburg, were given to Richland county when Ashland was erected.

Among the pioneers of this township were the Andrews, the Dotys, the Lockharts, the Reeds, the Woodburns, and in addition to the above were Peter Brubaker, Joseph Bechtel, Henry Keever, John Néal, Michael Smeltzer, Jacob Foulks, Robert Nelson, Benjamin Montgomery, James Andrews, Peter Brubaker, John Clay, Frederick Sultzer, John Hazlett, Joseph Charles, Andrew Stevenson, David Markley, James Crawford, David Crabbs, Elijah Charles, David McKinney, John Ferrell, Abel Montgomery, William Houston, George Burget, and possibly a few others.

The residents of Milton township have always been such a well behaved and orderly people, satisfied with the good things of earth which they have so plentifully about them, that there is nothing very eventful to be said about the township.

'Prior to 1816, Milton had been under the jurisdiction of Mifflin. The first justice of the peace was Robert McBeth, from what 'is now Clear Creek, then under the jurisdiction of Milton.

The surveyors not only noted carefully the kind and quality of timber, but also the direction and size of the streams, the Indian trails, villages, and other objects of curiosity. The south boundary of Milton is noted as uneven and hilly land second rate, and timber. composed of oak, beech; and hickory. The east boundary is noted as generally level, soil good; timber the same as on the south line, with sugar maple, dogwood, and an occasional wild cherry. The land of the township is described as of gentle ascents and descents, some places level; soil good for farming, and, generally, more or less clayey. It has an abundance of water, flowing from clear, pure, and never-ceasing springs. . In the neighborhood of the Short farm is to be found one of the strongest springs in the county.

Milton, like other townships in the county, was densely timbered with oak, hickory, beech and other hard wood in the early settlement. No streams of any consequence are found in this township, but there are many fine springs and one of the finest in the county is found here. This is essentially a farming community, no town existing within its limits. Its early reminiscences are similar to those of other townships whose history has already been written, and need not be repeated. The same may be said of the struggles and triumph of its early settlers who came to a wilderness and have, after years of hardships, toil and dangers, brought it to a state of cultivation. These pioneers are now gone but their good works remain.

Among the early settlers were James Andrews, who came in 1806, and was a justice of the peace for twenty-seven years. He. also served as a captain in the war of 1812. Abraham Doty also came in 1816; William Lockhart, in 1808 ; John Woodburn, in 1825. Other early settlers were: Peter Brubaker, Joseph Bechtel, Joseph Charles, John Clay, John Hazlett, Henry Keever, John 'Neal and Michael Smeltzer.

Hanover township has been called the goodly land, with a health-giving climate and a wealth-giving soil; a country of beautiful landscapes, a land of rugged hills and charming valleys; a land where the esthetic and ideal harmonize and blend with the practical and real, forming an earthly elysium.

Hanover is the most southern township in Ashland county; a part of its territory is quite hilly, in fact some of its hills have altitudes almost like mountains, but the greater part of the township is adapted to cultivation and is not excelled for fertility by any other township in the county.

The Clearfork of the Mohican enters Hanover from near the northwest corner of the township, and after flowing an average southeasterly course about five miles, unites with the Blackfork and forms the Mohican. There is not the distance of a mile along the Clearfork that does not afford sufficient fall and volume of water sufficient to turn a mill the year round. Its channel is narrow and rapid, and confined within high banks, and the scenery along the stream is magnificently grand.

The Blackfork enters Hanover township at Loudonville, and pursues a southwesterly course about three miles, when it unites with the Clearfork. In the years agone a little town sprang up at the juncture of the forks, and a carding machine was built and operated there for a number of years, as also was a sawmill.

Hanover township was surveyed in the year 1807, by General James Hedges, deputy surveyor under General Jarad Mansfield, who was then the surveyorgeneral of the United States. The township was organized in November, 1818. The population two years later was one hundred and eighteen.

The first election was held on the 7th of November, 1818, fifteen votes being cast. The following are the names of the electors: Thomas Taylor, Robert Dawson, George Davidson, George Snider, Anthony Zeers, William Burwell, George Davidson, Jr., Amos Harbaugh, William Webb, Ransom Clark, Abner Winters, Stephen Butler, John Lisar, Abel Strong, and John Burwell. The following are part of the officers elected: Clerk, Abel Strong; trustees, John Hilderbrand, Abner Winters, and George Davidson ; treasurer, Amos Harbaugh.

Loudonville, the only town in Hanover township, was laid out August 16, 1814, by Stephen Butler and James Loudon Priest. The following sketch of Loudonville was written by Miss Mary E. Stewart, in about 1863:

'<The town of Loudonville was laid out in 1814, by James Loudon Priest and Stephen Butler. The beauty of the surrounding country, the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil, attracted the attention of the pioneer, and, in many cases, induced him to rear his humble dwelling upon some of our beautiful land and make it his future home.

When the town was laid out there was but a single dwelling in the place. It was a log cabin, owned by Stephen Butler, and although it had but one room, it was a hotel as well as the dwelling place of two families.

''Owing to the many hardships which emigrants to the far west (it was then called the far west) had to endure, and the difficulties they were obliged to encounter, the town improved but little during the first few years of its existence. In the year 1813, Mr. Caleb Chappel immigrated, with his family, to the then far west, and settled, for a short time, in Knox county, a few miles south of Loudonville. He assisted in surveying the grounds where the town now lies, and, in the spring of 1814, he entered land adjoining the town. The remainder of the year was spent in clearing the timber off the farm, erecting a log house, and preparing the grounds for use by the next spring. In the spring of 1815 he removed his family to his farm, which joins the northwestern corner of the town. Everything was new; and the many inconveniences with which they had to contend, and the dangers to which they were exposed, can only be known to those who have left comfortable homes, and taken up their abode in the wilds of a new country.

''Wild animals roamed at iarge through the surrounding forests, and the Indians built their fires and held their councils in the neighboring woods. Mr. Chappel's nearest neighbor was Mr. Butler; he was the squire, the tavern keeper, and, in fact, the only man in town. Mr. James Loudon Priest lived some five miles east, and Mr. Oliver three miles to the west. The nearest places for trading were Wooster and Mansfield, then small towns, containing a limited number of buildings and inhabitants. The dress mostly worn by the male portion of the community consisted of a loose hunting shirt, made of homemade linsey, being sometimes red, and sometimes blue. Those made of blue linsey were trimmed with a red fringe, and those made of red were trimmed with blue fringe. A pair of pantaloons made of the same material; a pair of stont moccasins; a cap made frequently of rabbit skin; a broad, black belt, worn around the waist, to which was attached a large knife, and frequently a tomahawk and gun, completed the dress of the early settler..

Pantaloons made of deerskin were generally worn by hunters. The female dress was made of either flannel, linen, linsey, or calico - the calico being the most expensive, as the others were manufactured at home. Such was the dress worn by the early settlers of our country, contrasting greatly with the dashing style of the fast young man and modern belle of the present age; and no doubt many a young American would consider it far beneath his dignity to acknowledge such was the simple dress worn by his forefathers.

Citizens Savings Bank

"One of the greatest disadvantages with which the early settlers had to contend was, that of educating their children. There was no school for some time after the town was incorporated; and the great cause of education was greatly neglected. At length, the people of the village and the neighboring country, seeing the necessity of establishing a school in their midst, convened together for the purpose of taking the matter into consideration. They soon came to the conclusion to build a schoolhouse and to procure a teacher who was worthy and capable of imparting instruction to the rising generation. <A subscription was raised for the purpose of building it, and it was not long before it was entirely completed. It was made of planks, stood upright, and weatherboarded on the outside; it had a shingle roof, then a great rarity. It occupied a very conspicuous place on the public square and was about eighteen feet long and fourteen feet wide, with a door in front, and three windows on each side of the room. A large fireplace occupied one end of the room and benches were placed along the sides. Taking all things into consideration, it was quite a respectable looking building, and served for many years as a public building for almost every purpose - for holding meetings, both religious and _ political. The system of public schools not being then established, the schools were all raised by subscription, and was seldom in session more than three months in a year.

''In October, 1834, a printing office was established in Loudonville. The paper was called 'Mohican Advocate and Hanover Journal.' The proprietor was a Mr. Rogers. For want of patronage, the publication was suspended after having reached six numbers.

'The mail in those days was carried on horseback, and when the first stage coach made its appearance, it was an object of wonder to the people in general. The day of the arrival of the stage was always looked forward to with much expectation, and people would gather around the Country Inn to await its arrival and to scrutinize the passengers.

''The first sale of lots was made on the 14th day of September, 1814. The proceeds of the sale were small. The first justice of the peace who was elected, living within the town of Loudonville, was Stephen Butler.

'""Brom 1817 untl about 1830, a direct trade, by means of flatboats, was conducted with Louisville and New Orleans - the boats passing down the Black Fork into the Mohican, then into the White Woman, (or Walhonding, as it is now named) thence into the Muskingum, and thence into the Ohio. These boats were generally freighted with flour and whisky, and would carry about fortyfive tons. The completion of the Muskingum improvement and Walhonding canal cut off this trade. During the period of this commercial intercourse with New Orleans, flour at Loudonville would command from two dollars and a half to three dollars per barrel, and would sell at the former place for five and six dollars.

''In the legislation connected with the internal improvement system undertaken by the state of Ohio, the town of Loudonville and the Black Fork of the Mohican occupied no inferior space. At a very early day the Black Fork was declared by legislative enactment to be within the purview of the fourth Article of the Ordinance of 1787, which proclaimed the navigable waters leading into the

Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, as 'common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor.'

'"The Walhonding canal was commenced with the intention and expectation of extending it up the branches of the river of that name, to Loudonville, on the Black Fork, and to Mt. Vernon, on the 'Vernon river,' or, as it was and is more generally known, the 'Owl creek,' also called the 'Kokosing.'

'(A few days previous to the time designated for advertising the letting of the work, a communication was made to the board of public works by the commissioners of the canal fund, then in New York, notifying the board that money could not then be borrowed at the rate authorized by law, and urging that the work for a time be suspended.

""The suspension proved to be indefinite; and thus, after a few spasmodic but ineffectual revivals, ended a project which, had it been successful, would, in all probability, have made Loudonville at this day the seat of justice of one of the most flourishing counties in northern Ohio. It was only the protracted period of financial embarrassment that immediately succeeded the year above mentioned, an embarrassment involving all the productive interests of the country as well as corporations and states, that defeated the construction of the improvement of the Black Fork."'

One of the most prominent men in Hanover township was Judge George H. Stewart, who was born in Alexandria, Huntington county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1809. When a boy in his teens he went to Amagh, Pennsylvania, and clerked in a store for two years. It was at the time of the making of the Pennsylvania railroad and the Portage canal over the Allegheny mountains. 'Judge Stewart came to Loudonville in the summer of 1833, and was one of the early merchants of the town.

He commenced the mercantile business at a time when the people were talking about building a canal up the White Woman and Mohican. Stewart, having had experience in canaling, took an active part in procuring a law for a state canal to Loudonville, and the law was passed while General William McLaughlin, of Mansfield, was our state senator, and it was through his untiring labor in the legislature that the bill was passed and the canal. was located to Loudonville, and advertised for letting, but before it was commenced the legislature abolished all state works not commenced, and they failed to get a canal. In 1835-36, when the question of organizing Ashland county was agitated, he took an active part in bringing it about, and was sent to Columbus several times to lobby for the undertaking, spending his time and paying his own expenses.

In 1845-6 his efforts were rewarded, and in 1845 he was appointed associate judge for Ashland county, which office he held seven years. From 1846 to 1850 he took an active part in the construction of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, for which he secured the right of way through Holmes, Ashland and a part of Wayne and Richland counties, and in 1851 purchased a tract of land of David Foltz in Wayne county, and laid out what is now called Shreve, a station on the railroad above mentioned. He was employed by the railroad company as station agent for ten years.

E. B. Fuller, father of the late Dr. Amos B. Fuller and grandfather of the present Dr. Fuller, was born in New York in 1799, and married Sarah Culver, in Tioga county, Pennsylvania. In 1831 he first settled in Loudonville, and began the practice of medicine; was a doctor of the old school; was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he was a democrat, one of the liberal kind, bitterly opposed to the fugitive slave law. In 1856 two fugitives came to his house early in the morning. He fed them and sent them to Robert 'Wilson, where they were cared for and taken beyond the reach of United States marshals, bloodhounds, ete.

Andrew J. Scott was born in Ashland county in 1827; attended school at the Ashland academy while Loren Andrews was proprietor, and also at Vermillion institute at Hayesville. For two years he taught in the Loudonville academy, and studied medicine with E. B. Fuller and was also a graduate of Buffalo university. He was a doctor of the old school. He was the father of the . present Dr. C. B. Scott.

On June 19, 1899, there was a severe storm and rainfall in the Clearfork valley near Loudonville. The river rose so suddenly that a Mr. Hunter who lived not far from the stream, had no time to escape and nine days after his partly decomposed body was found at a point six miles below where he had lived. The illustrations show some of the work of the flood.

E. F. Shelley, although born in Wayne county, is now one of Loudonville's most prominent citizens, and is president of the Loudonville Savings Bank. Mr. Shelley is also a member of the advisory board of this work.

Green township was surveyed in 1807, by General Hedges, deputy surveyor of the United States. There is no date on record when the first settlement was made. Knapp's History of Ashland County contains the following statement : ''The family of Abraham Baughman was the only one residing in Green township when the Messrs. Tannehill commenced their improvements in 1810." Another writer says: ''Just what date Abraham Baughman and John Davis came to the neighborhood of Greentown, Green township, Ashland county, has not been ascertained, but it was at a very early date, it might have been before 1807. They were the first settlers in Green township. They were there before Judge Peter Kinney, who arrived in 1810, but how long they were there before that date is not.now known. Baughman was a man of family and lived near Greentown.'' In an historical paper written in 1858 by the late Hon. John Coulter is the following statement: ''I came to Green township in 1810 in company with my father, Thomas Coulter, Jonathan Palmer, Joseph Gladden, Otho Simmons, Melzer Tannehill, Sr., and George Crawford. We reached the hospitable home of Abraham Baughman, August 25,1810. Mr. Baughman was the 'only white man living on the Blackfork from one end to the other. Mr.

Baughman and myself felled the first tree on my quarter section, for bees, a short time after I had entered the land. We were all from Pennsylvania."' Inasmuch as Abraham Baughman had an improved place when the Coulter party came there in 1810, he had evidently been located there for some time, perhaps as Mr. Graham stated in his history of Richland county. 'fas early as 1807." |

Therefore in all probability, Abraham Baughman and John Davis were the very first settlers in Green township, and their cabins were not only the first ones in the township, but the first in the valley of the Blackfork.

John Davis was a widower and kept widower's hall on what was later known as the William Irvin farm. Davis had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and died a few years after he came to Ohio, while on a trip to Chillicothe to draw his pension. Davis' death left Abraham Baughman and family the only white settlers of the Greentown country for several years. Abraham Baughman's family at that time consisted of himself, wife and two sons - Jacob and George - who were then boys in their teens. Mr. Baughman is described as a large, powerful, fearless man, who lived in peace even with the savages, who were at first his only neighbors. Jacob and George as young men indulged in athletic sports with the Indians; Jacob's favorite sport was to ''run, hop, step and jump,'' in which he excelled; George's was wrestling, and never found an Indian who could put him on his back. As the Indians did not take defeat very good naturedly, Jacob would sometimes permit them to win; but George with less diplomacy declined to accede to Jacob's advice for him to sometimes let the Indians throw him. Abraham Baughman, his wife and three of their five sons are buried in the Perrysville cemetery.

By 1812, a number of families had been added to the Blackfork settlement, prominent among them being Rev. James Copus, Frederick Zeimer, Captain Ebenezer Rice, Judge Peter Kinney and Captain James Cunningham. Abraham Baughman and Captain Cunningham lived on adjoining farms, and Mr. Baughman's son, Jacob, married Captain Cunningham's daughter Elizabeth, and they were the parents of A. J. Baughman, the author of this work.

The Blackfork of the Mohican river enters the township from its western border and flows in a southeasterly course until it reaches Loudonville, in Hanover township, a distance of about ten miles. The low banks and sluggish ~ current of this stream renders its water-privileges, of but little value. There are however two dams in Green township. One of these runs the two pairs of buhrs and one saw and was formerly owned by Mr. Beachley, and the other, formerly known as the Stringer mill, but later owned by A. A. Taylor and ran three pairs of buhrs. The valley of this stream is generally broad, and its fertility is not excelled elsewhere in Ohio.

Upon the Clearfork of the Mohican, which runs only about a mile through the corner of Green township, there is a dam that furnishes power for running a gristmill with three pairs of buhrs and one saw. These mills were formerly the property of Thomas W. Calhoun.

Honeycreek has its source in the Quaker springs in Vermillion township and pursues a southwesterly course through Green, a distance of about five miles, and empties into the Blackfork at the farm once owned by the late

Center Street, Ashland

The first case of ague in Green township is given by a writer, as follows: William Hunter, who came from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, to Green township, in 1818, with his wife and eight children and settled on the north half of section 36, was an Irishman and had been an officer in the Federal service in the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. Mr. Hunter returning from a trip to the mills at Newville became ill, and laid himself down before the wide fireplace so close to the embers on the hearth that his feet were partly imbedded in the warm ashes. His trembling limbs created a great dust, which added to his chattering teeth, despite their warm sympathy for their father's affliction, provoked mirth from the younger children, which so annoyed the father that he raised himself up and demanded to know if they had no better manners than to laugh at the miseries of a dying man, and made an effort to give the children a ''brush.'' Hig illness proved to be a hard ague chill - the first of which he or his family had had any experience, and which in about three months resulted in his death.

The country in those early days was more beautiful than any pen can describe. The valley of the Blackfork was very densely covered with a low, matted growth of small timber, while, close to the creek, the ground was rankly covered with long grass, and the interlacing vines of the wild morning-glory, plumy willows, and the dark, thick growth of Alder. The hills were crowned with giant oaks, and the fragrant winds were healthful as the breezes of the ocean. Wild game abounded, even great ferocious wild hogs, with their foamy, white tushes gleaming out and looking frightful.

On page 358 in Knapp's History of Ashland county, gotten out in 1863, is the following paragraph relative to the first family in Green township.

''The family of Abraham Baughman was the only one residing in the township when Messrs. Tannehill commenced their improvement. This place became afterward known as 'the Guthrie farm,' and is now occupied by John Castor. There was also an unmarried man named John Davis, keeping 'bachelor's hall' upon the farm now owned by William Irvin, being the southwest quarter of section 30. In the fall of 1811, Melzer Tannehill, Sr., (father of Charles and Bazel,) removed his family to Green township.''

Upon Hull's surrender at Detroit the settlers considered that the peace and publie welfare demanded immediate additions to the military force for the purpose of resisting anticipated Indian invasions in Ohio, and volunteers were enlisted for that service and placed under the command of Major Kratzer, of Mt. Vernon. Soon thereafter a body of troops on a scouting expedition discovered a vaceted camp in the vicinity of New Haven, Huron county. The camp had the appearance of having been a few hours previously occupied by the Indians. It was afterwards ascertained that the night previous the militia and the Indian encampments were not over a mile apart. But this fact was not known until the following day, which gave the Indians a day's start of our On the day Copus was killed, five militiamen were sent to the relief of the settlers on the Blackfork, as it was supposed the Indians contemplated an attack upon that settlement. They were led to this conclusion from the fact that Zeimer and Ruffner had been killed a few days previously.

Arriving near the Ruffner place, they met the remaining troops, (seven in number,) who had been engaged in the battle at Copus's having in charge the surviving members of the Copus family. These troops had also, since the battle, been joined by about one hundred others belonging to the same command, (that of Major Krebs, of Tuscarawas county.) The united force on that night encamped in the vicinity of the Copus cabin, and, on the next morning, Mr. Tannehill and party took leave of the Tuscarawas militia, and pursued their way to the deserted village of Greentown. Near that place, at the cabin of Abraham Baughman, (which was also found deserted,) Mr. Tannehill separated from his companions and continued his way homeward. Near Perrysville, he overtook John Coulter and Harvey Hill, who were urging forward some cattle at ''double quick,'' and from whom he had learned that the settlement had heard the tidings of the last battle, and that they formed the rear guard of the settlers who were fleeing to Samuel Lewis's blockhouse, on the Clearfork.

On the day following, the men returned and erected a blockhouse on the place of Thomas Coulter, which afforded security for a greater portion of the Blackfork settlement of Green township during the remainder of the war.

During the excitement that pervaded the community at the blockhouse, on the evening after the attack upon the Copus family, the male inmates of the fortress, including boys and men, assembled, in the dusk of the evening, in the vicinity of the fort, and near the apprehended point of attack, for military drill. There were no regular soldiers, and it was a parade of the militia. Such as had bona fide rifles and muskets shouldered them, and those who had not, substituted wooden or Quaker guns. The roll was called and the men would respond for themselves, and the boys, and a multitudinous number of mythical persons - thus leaving the impression upon the minds of the concealed foe, if such were in sight and hearing, that an immense force was defending the blockhouse.

From the date of the first settlement of the township until about 1816, the wants of new immigrants created a good demand and good prices for all the surplus produce the farmer eould raise; but in the year above mentioned, a surplus beyond the wants of the settlement was produced, and prices fell to a very low figure. This made it peculiarly hard upon the first settlers who had leased Virginia Military District School lands, as the interest on their purchases fell due about this time. Corn, which had in the previdus years since the first settlement, found ready sale at seventy-five cents per bushel, could not be sold at any price; and wheat, which had formerly sold for one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel and even higher, was now reduced to thirty-seven and a half cents and even twenty-five cents per bushel.. Five bushels of wheat were exchanged by Mr. Tannehill for one bushel of salt. The first market was at Portland, or Sandusky City. The first trip which Mr. Tannehill made, in 1819, occupied ten days..

At an early day, John Coulter and Captain Rice took the job of cutting a road from Ashland to Mansfield. They contracted to cut ten miles for ninety dollars, and the place of beginning was specified then ag the Trickle farm. The

Trickle family had left their poor little home on account of the Indians, and gone to Wooster for safety. The father of the family died the day the men commenced their job of cutting.

After the roads were cut, or laid out through the woods ready to work on, Philip Seymour was made one of the first supervisors. His district extended from Perrysville up the Mansfield road, almost to Lucas. One time when they were laboring on the road and felling trees on the Mohawk Hill, one fell aslant and broke one of Richard Conine's legs. |The men made a comfortable restingplace for him against a tree, and then started John Oliver off to borrow Peter Kinney's old gray mare to carry Dicky home. John had five miles to walk through the woods; it was growing late when he returned, and Dicky suffered extremely. His father rode and took him on behind, and there he was all that weary ride of rough miles, his leg dangling and the broken bones grating together and paining him intensely. Solomon Hill and Judge Coulter attended to the binding up and splintering and fixing his poor limb that night, as the family were in poor circumstances, and no doctor nearer than Mt.. Vernon. It was many weeks before Richard could get around, and as soon as he could walk, he limped out on crutches to look at the young pigs in the pen, and before he got back to the house he slipped and fell and broke it over again; and then the two men were sent for, and the dreadful performance unskillfully gone through with another time. Then, before he wholly recovered, the settlers had to flee to the blockhouse for safety from the Indians; and there, within its dreary, lonesome walls, Dicky's young mother died, with no physician near to save or help; none but hardy and sympathizing men and weeping and pitying women.

Dr. Hill, in his history of Ashland county, says it was possibly as early as 1807. In a paper written by the late Hon. John Coulter in 1858 and published some years since in the Loudonville Advocate, Mr. Coulter said: ''I came to Green township in 1810, in company with my father, Thomas Coulter, and Jonathan Palmer, Joseph Gladden, Otho Simmons, Melzer Tannehill and George Crawford. We landed at Abraham Baughman's about the 25th of August. He was the only white man on the Black Fork, 'from one end to the other.' We were all from Pennsylvania. Mr. Baughman and myself felled the first tree on my quarter section, for bees in August, 1810.'' Therefore, according to this statement, Abraham Baughman was the only white man living on the Black Fork ''from one end to the other'' when the Coulter party arrived in 1810. The settlement. was in Green township, Ashland county, then a part of Richland.

Graham, in his history of Richland county says, that inasmuch as Abraham Baughman had an improved farm when the Coulter party came in 1810, that

In Knapp's history of Ashland county is the following statement: "*The family of Abraham Baughman was the only one residing in Green township when the Messrs. Tannehill commenced their improvements in 1810."'

Abraham Baughman married Mary Katherine Deeds, and removed from Cumberland to Washington county, Pennsylvania, and then to Richland county, this state. His brother, George, also came to Ohio and located at what is now Gahanna, in Franklin county. Abraham Baughman and wife were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters. When they came to the Black Fork their two younger children, Jacob and George, were single and lived with their parents.

Jacob Baughman was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1792. While the family resided in western Pennsylvania, Jacob, then in his early 'teens, had worked with an apple-mill maker. After the Baughman family had lived two or three years on the Blackfork and had their farm well cleared and improved, Jacob received an offer to return to Pennsylvania and finish his trade. Their postoffice was then at Wooster, fifteen miles east of which Jacob's brother John had settled and for whom a township was named.

Money was then very searee, and while they could grow what they needed for their sustenance prices were so low that but little cash could be realized on the sale of farm products, and in fact there was but little, if any, market for them. A family council was held and it was decided that Jacob should ''buy his time,'' - the two years he lacked of his majority, - accept the offer and remit quarterly installments to his father, which would furnish him money with whieh to pay his taxes, and so forth.

With his clothing tied up in a bandana handkercheif, Jacob set off alone on foot on his long journey. His pathetic parting with his mother he often feelingly deseribed. The war coming on, he returned te Ohio before his two years were completed. Mrs. Baughman died in August, 1820, and her husband the January following. On their gravestones in the Perrysville cemetery is the inscription, '*' Pioneers of 1810.'' as the exact date or year is not known.

Mr. Coulter, in the paper referred to, also speaks of the cordial reception they received ''at the hospitable home of Mr. Baughman.'' Hospitality was & prominent characteristic of the pioneers. The latchstring was always out in a literal as well as Im a figurative sense. To fasten a door would have been considered an insult to society - a reflection on the honesty of the neighbors.

John Davis, an unmarried man, kept ''bachelor's hall'? on a farm adjoining the Baughman place. Davis had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution and died soon after he came to Ohio. while upon a trip to Chillicothe to many his pension. His death left Abraham Baughman and family the only white residents of the Greentown country for several years, with the Indians as their only neighbors. Mr. Baughman has been described as a large, fearless, power: ful man, who lived in peace with the savages.

By 1812, a number of families had been added to the Baughman settlement, prominent among which were James Copus. Frederick Zeimer. Captain Ebenezer Rice, Judge Peter Kinney and Captain James Cunningham. Abraham Baughman and Captain Cunningham lived on adjoining farms. Mr. Baughman's son, Jacob, married Captain Cunningham's daughter, Elizabeth. and they were the parents of A. J. Baughman and the author of this volume.

Pioneer Incidents

Abraham Baughman, grandfather of the writer of this work, the earliest settler in Green township, Ashland county, bought a calf of an Indian, paying him the price he asked. A year later the Indian demanded an additional sum of money because the calf had grown and was bigger than when he sold it. Baughman paid the amount demanded to avoid trouble, and the next year an additional sum of money was demanded, and paid under protest. To prevent the animal from getting bigger still with an additional supplemental price being paid every year, the animal was slaughtered for beef..

One evening when Baughman and wife were at a neighbor's, two Indians called at the Baughman cabin and finding the two boys, Jacob and George, then in their teens, in bed ordered them to get up and give them something to eat. After luncheon the Indians ordered Jacob to go to the stillhouse, as distilleries were then called, and get them whiskey. They held George, the younger boy, as a hostage, threatening to scalp him if Jacob delayed or gave the alarm. For want of a more suitable vessel, Jacob took his mother's tea canister in which to carry the whiskey. He made the trip as expeditiously as possible, and upon his return the Indians smelled cautionsly at the whiskey, and detected a peculiar odor, which they mistook for poison, they became enraged and flourished their tomahawks furiously. They then made the boys drink of the whiskey and awaited to see the result upon them, but as no bad effects developed, the Indians accepted the boys' explanation and proceeded to drink the contents of the tea canister and were howling drunk when the parents returned.

Vermillion township was surveyed in 1807 and was organized in 1816, by the commissioners of Richland county. The first settlement in the county was made in 1811, by George Eckley. He built a cabin in the locality later known as Goudy's mills. There were no towns at that time nearer than Wooster and Mansfield. Ashland had not made its appearance, and the village of Hayesville did not exist even in the mind of the most hopeful pioneer of the locality. There were two Indian villages, Jerometown and Greentown - nearer Mr. Eckley's than were Wooster and Mansfield. Jerometown was the residence of the notorious Captain Pipe.

In 1815, the first public road was laid out through what is now Vermillion township. It ran from Wooster to Mansfield, and was quite a help to the settlement, as it was a direct route from the eastern portion of the state to the western. The lands along the road were bought and settled in a short time. Emigrants traveling west had to camp out at night, as there was no hotel then, and that condition continued until 1817, at which time a public house was established by Linus Hayes, at Hayes' cross roads, who provided food for man and beasts. At that time there was neither schools nor churches in the township.. In 1816, a small church building was erected by Mr. Eckley, which was the first building for that purpose and at the same place and about the same time a graveyard was laid out, and Constance Lake was the first person buried in it. The church

In the year 1829, a town was projected by Robert Williams, two miles west of the present village of Hayesville and the name of Williamsburg was given it. But it did not thrive and no building marks the place formerly occupied by its plat.

Sterling G. Bushnell, Sr

Was borne in Hartford county, Connecticut, in 1770, and emigrated to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1806. He left Connecticut in December, 1805, and journeyed on sleds with his wife and five children. On the route he was joined by a number of other families. The most of the route was through the forest of eastern and northern New York. He passed directly to Albany, and thence to near Buffalo, on the lake. He and his traveling companions generally camped by the wayside at night, scraping the snow aside and erecting a sort of tent or screen of bedquilts to protect their families against the storms and eold. The forests were infested by large numbers of ferocious wolves. To protect himself against these animals, he generally encamped near a dead tree, which he set on fire. When they reached the HIudson the ice was somewhat weakened by a thaw. Fearing to cross it with his teams, he took the sled and children and hauled it by hand to the western side, leaving his wife and horse to follow.

After he had landed she mounted and followed, and when about midway of the stream, the ice broke with a tremendous roar. He stood appalled at the sight, expecting to see his wife and horse disappear beneath the floating ice. Fortunately, she floated on a large piece of ice which drifted to the western shore, some distance below him. Watching its approach to land, when it touched the bank, she applied her whip vigorously to the sides of the horse on which she was seated, and aided by this stimulus, it gave a great leap, fastened upon and ascended the bank in safety. Great was his joy over the providential escape. From near the city of Buffalo the whole party kept up the lake shore. By examination they found that the ice was sufficiently strong to bear their teams, and hence, followed it until they reached the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, when they learned from an old Indian chief of the Senecas where they were, and the proper route from there to Trumbull county, Ohio. | When he arrived at the residence of his brother, William Bushnell, who had preceded him one year, his wife gave birth to a child about two hours after his arrival - Jonathan Bushnell. Mr. Bushnell resided in Trumbull county about fifteen years.

In May, 1821, he emigrated to near the present site of the town of Hayesville in Vermillion township. | When he arrived he was fifty-one years old. The township was sparsely settled, and he entered upon pioneer life in earnest, purchasing eighty acres of-land, upon which his son, Thomas Bushnell, now resides, of Joseph Lake, of Wooster, for forty dollars. It proved to be a fine bargain.

Mr. Bushnell died at his homestead in Vermillion township, August 16, 1846, aged seventy-four years. He was the father of the late Dr. William Bushnell and the grandfather of the Hon. M. B. Bushnell of Mansfield, who is vice president of the Richland County Historical Society and a life member. of The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

When Mr. Workman came to the country the territory of Vermillion and Montgomery were united in one township, under the name of the former; and Robert Newell and James Wallace were the two justices of the peace. Mr. Workman was elected in 1817, and was the successor of Mr. Wallace.

His nearest neighbors were Johnnycake and his squaw. He was a quiet friendly neighbor, and Mr. Workman took his first lessons in hunting wild game of this Indian.

John Scott immigrated to Vermillion township March 22, 1819, having purchased two hundred and twenty acres on the west line of the township.

As evidence of the integrity of his customers at that time, Mr. Scott says that, during the first four years of his business life in Hayesville, he has no recollection of having lost a dollar by bad debts. With reference to girls who supported themselves by weekly wages, he generally gave credit when it was asked, and the money was always promptly paid, according to promise.

Not until several years after Mr. Palmer came (in 1811) to the country, was there any church building in the township. The first clergymen were Presbyterian missionaries, who, in traveling to and from their missions among the Senecas and Wyandots, made it a practice for many years to preach at the house of Mr. Palmer and others. The first church building erected in the township stood upon land now owned by Joseph Boyd, and occupied the place near where Mr. Boyd's mill now stands. It was a very large building for the time, belonged to the Methodist denomination, was made of unhewn logs, and erected in about 1818. To aid in raising the building, persons came from Mansfield and other places equally distant. When quarterly meetings were held in this building, they were generally attended by people from a great distance. So utterly unable were residents of the neighborhood to entertain their friends from abroad, that the latter would often bring with them their supplies of food, cooking utensils, bed clothing, etc., and during the intervals when the church was not used for divine service, the capacious wooden fireplace would be used by the women, cooking food for themselves and families, in fact, converting the building into one for eating and lodging, as well as for religious purposes. This necessity was the result, not of any want of hospitality, but of the absence of food and house room existing in the vicinity.

would be as great a curiosity as a wild Indian among the present generation. Their coarse, wholesome food, and active lives, secured the health of the inhabitants, and obviated the necessity for physicians.

William Karnahan emigrated from Jefferson county, Ohio, April 16, 1815, with his family. The country at this date was very sparsely settled, his nearest neighbor being Mr. Emerine, located one and a half miles distant. About this distance from where he erected his cabin, on the farm later owned by Mr. Stoufer, a den of rattlesnakes was discovered, near the entrance to which as many as twenty-five were killed in a single day. Another den, on or near the farm later owned by Robert Cowan, as many as seventy-five of these reptiles were killed in a single day. On one occasion the family were assailed by a panther, who approached the house on an evening within a few rods, and only disappeared after the family had secured the doors and windows of their cabin, and kindled a brilliant fire.

John Farver immigrated to Vermillion township, with his wife and two children, on the 29th of April, 1817, and commenced improvements on his farm, being the west half of the northeast quarter of section 2.

The nearest mill at this time was Shrimplin's, on Owl creek. The trip occupied from four to six days, and was made with four horses and a wagon, which would carry from forty to fifty bushels.

There was no wheat raised or for sale in the county at this time. Corn would bring eighty and one hundred cents. The animal food was principally venison and other wild game. About 1819 and 1820 the county began to raise a surplus of agricultural products, and from this time forward until the completion of the Ohio canal, produce would hardly bear transportation to market, (which was then Sandusky City). Mr. Harper on one occasion took a load of flour to market and exchanged his flour for salt, giving two barrels of flour and half a dollar in cash for each barrel of salt. The first substantial encouragement given the farming and industrial interests was the market afforded by the completion of the Ohio canal to Massillon.

At a meeting of the Ashland Pioneer Society held in 1876, Thomas Bushnell being called upon, responded by giving a short history of his life and stated that he was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1815. His father removed to Hayesville in 1821 and settled on the same place which he (Thomas) then owned.

The first wheat, within the recollection of Mr. Bushnell, offered for cash, was about 1822 or 1823, at the mill built by Lake and Bentley, and at the time referred to owned by Lake and Larwill, and which mill was better known in recent times as Goudy's mill, in the southeast part of Vermillion township. One hundred bushels were offered on this occasion for twenty-five dollars.

Perry township was surveyed in 1807 by Jonathan Cox. The township was organized September 14, 1814, and had jurisdiction over the territory of Jackson until 1819. The population of the township in 1820 was five hundred and fiftyeight; in 1860, one thousand nine hundred and eleven. At the first election, in April, 1825, Daniel Williams and Daniel Smith were elected trustees, and William Spencer, clerk. Rowsburg is the only town in the township and was laid out April 15, 1835, by Michael D. Row. At the time the plat was recorded, there was not an inhabitant within the limits of what now forms the town. A public sale of lots was held in May, 1835, and the first lot was sold to Jacob Carr for thirty-four dollars. The population of Rowsburg in 1860 was two hundred, but the village has increased materially in size since that time.

The first church in the township was a Presbyterian organization and was under the care of the Presbytery of Richland for several years. It was known as the Muddyfork church, so called from the branch of the Mohican by that name, near to which the house of worship stood. In 1831, by request of the congregation, the name of the church was changed to Mount Hope. In 1822, a Methodist church organization was formed at the house of John Hellman, since then the Lutherans, the Albrights and the United Brethren have organized congregations there.

For a number of years there was no demand for farm produce, except by newly arrived immigrants. To them wheat sold at fifty cents; oats about twelve and a half cents; corn twenty-five cents; salt twelve dollars and fifteen dollars per barrel. A small gristmill on Killbuck creek, constructed of beech poles, covered with split boards called clapboards, was built previous to 1820 by John Naftsinger. The bolting was done chiefly by hand.

There was an abundance of ginseng root in the forests. There were many who made it a business to gather it in the spring of the year. It was worth twenty-five cents per pound, and as it was one of the few productions of the country that commanded cash, large quantities were annually gathered. Michael Row, Sr., under the impression that the current rates paid by merchants in the country were much below its intrinsic value, transported a load to Philadelphia, in a one-horse wagon, and found it a paying trip.

Deer, raccoon, and wild turkey were plenty. Domestic linen and woolen goods composed the principal material for male and female dresses. The men were often dressed in buckskin pantaloons. In such attire the early settlers and their families enjoyed as much true happiness and independence as ''Cesar with a senate at his heels."'

Indian wigwams were numerous, built with small poles, front partly open, and covered with black ash or white elm bark, peeled from three to five feet long. Small troughs were made of the ash or elm bark to save or catch sugar water, as numbers were to be seen about large sugar trees that had been notched a number of years previous, the notches being covered with a new formation of wood amounting in thickness to two or three inches. Many trinkets or jewelry were found on cultivating the land. In the fall of 1822 there were nine Indian men and three squaws came in and encamped near the same ground for the purpose of hunting and trapping.

A pioneer said: 'Day wages were about fifty cents in trade in harvest ; fifty cents or a bushel of wheat for reaping; little cradling done in harvest. Crain was threshed mostly with horses, though some was done with the flail. Flax was raised for the lint. Every housewife and maiden could spin flax or wool, and nearly one-half of them could weave. The price of spinning was a shilling a dozen, or by the week seventy-five cents, and twelve and a half cents for weaving linen, such as was worn for shirts; weaving of coarser fabrics, less. Muslin shirts were not worn. Female apparel consisted chiefly of home-made linen, linsey, or flannel, each endeavoring to excel in quality as well as variety. When muslin was first used among laboring men it cost twenty-five cents to thirty-eight cents per yard.''

In 1815 or 1816, (about twenty years before Rowsburg was laid out) an effort was made by John Raver to establish a town on the Wooster road between the present site of Rowsburg and the Muddyfork.

Beyond the naming of the village, which was called Elizabethtown, and the offering of some lots at a public sale, no progress was made in building up the proposed town, and the scheme was abandoned.

There were two churches in the township in 1824: one Presbyterian, called Mount Hope, near the northeast corner of the township; the other a Lutheran, on the south side of the township. The size of each was about thirty by thirty- - five feet, and both were built of hewn logs.

The first grist and sawmill in Perry township was erected by John Raver, in 1818, on the present site of the mill owned by Arthur Campbell, about onefourth of a mile north of Rowsburg, on what is known as Raver's Run. This mill, when built, was not only the first in the township, but also the first within what is now the limits of Ashland county. Prior to this, corn and corn meal were obtained on Owl creek, at Odell's, and at Stibb's, near Wooster.

It is supposed from the large number that were discovered and killed in the vicinity, that a rattlesnake den existed in a ledge of rocks near the northwest corner of land later owned by Mr. Cory.

Mifflm township was surveyed in 1807, and settlements were made there in 1809. Before the creation of Ashland county, Mifflin was in Richland and was a full township, but it was divided when Ashland was erected, less than one-half of the territory and population falling within the boundaries of the new county. For the most part the western limit is the center of the Blackfork.

The surface is generally broken and hilly, but the soil yields bountifully to cultivation. The township is well watered by the Blackfork and smaller streams.

Long before Mifflin was settled by white men, it was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians, as all kinds of game abounded in the primeval forests. The settlement and history of Mifflin township have been similar to that of the other townships of the county. In the beginning there were dangers from savages and from the climatic diseases of a new country. But in time Mifflin grew, improved and prospered, keeping step with her sister townships and is hopeful that trolley cars will in a few years traverse her territory.

count the mountains; and Mifflin is a small place unless you count its environing hills and its chain of beautiful lakes, the latter lying placidly between the village and the Blackfork of the Mohican.

Among the oldtime residents of Mifflin township mention should be made of J. F. Benninghof, who was born in Germany and came with his parents to America when he was seven years of age and settled in Mifflin township a few years later, where he became quite prominent and served for a number of years as Justice of the peace. As a printer, he held a ''case'' in a number of offices, both German and English, but is now living in retirement in Mansfield.

Prominent among the first settlers were the Bradens, the Croningers, the Cullers, the Harlands, the Hersheys, the Selbys, the Stamans, the Zeimers, the Copuses, and others.

The Petersburg Lakes

Those who have never visited the lakes may want to know more about them, for the contemplated improvements will make the place more noted. The number and location of the lakes, the size and depth of each, and other matters pertaining to the locality are objects of inquiry now, and it is the purpose of this article to give information along these lines.

The Petersburg lakes are situated in Ashland county, eight miles east of Mansfield, and are three in number, forming a chain. The upper lake is the smallest, having an area of only about ten acres, and is called Mud lake. The middle, called the Bell lake, has an area of about thirty acres, and the lower or Big lake (sometimes called Culler's) has an area of fifty to sixty acres, and is a half-mile or more in length. There is a surface connection between the lakes, and it is supposed there is also a subterrean one. There is an outlet from the lower lake into the Blackfork, a short distance to the west. The lower lake has a depth of from fifty to one hundred feet. The lakes are fed by subterranean springs from the Mifflin hills on the east, and the waters are clear and cold. These lakes are noted for their abundance of fish and the locality for its myriads of mosquitoes.

Interlaken, Switzerland, is not a large town, it is said, unless you count the mountains; and Mifflin is a small village, unless you count the Petersburg (or Mifflin) lakes that le between the town and the Blackfork. These lakes are evidently counted - figuratively - and have aided in making Mifflin one of the most noted villages in this part of Ohio, and its prominence will be still further enhanced when a trolley line connects it with the city of Mansfield.

fork and are surrounded by native forests, the greater part of their direct environs being marshy ground, too wet for cultivation. However, the elevation on which the summer hotel stands is high and dry and commands a good view of the lake. The Big lake is a clear, beautiful sheet of water, but the forest surroundings impart a feeling of loneliness, and causes one to exclaim: '*O, Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?''

When General Hedges made a survey of that locality in 1807, he was embarrassed over the variations of his compass. In order to test the accuracy of the survey, the lines were resurveyed, still the variations existed. He thought the chaining might be imperfect, and had the lines surveyed the third time, with the same results. Jonathan Cox, in 1808, had a similar experience. The consensus of opinion was that magnetic ores in the earth influenced the needle.

But the only ore yet discovered in that village is ""bog ore'' at the lakes. Bog iron-ore is a mineral of variable composition and is found in alluvial soils, in bogs and lakes. There may, however, be other ore in that locality, which, if unearthed, would add another page to that storied valley and material wealth to its people.

"'Unele'' Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, Richland county, but being within a mile of the Ashland county line and its history being a very interesting one, an account of its creation is here given:

'"Unele'' Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, seven miles east of Mansfield. It covers an area of eight acres and its depth is about seventy feet. This little body of water has been called by different names, such as Sites', Swearingen's and others, but in the past was simply '' Uncle Jonas' lake,'' after Jonas Ballyet, the first owner. It is now more generally known as the lake where the wagon load of hay sunk, meadow and all, according to tradition.

In 1821, Jonas Ballyet entered the northwest quarter of section 15, Mifflin township, and near its center he found a lake covering about an acre. Its immediate surrounding was level land to the extent of eight acres, all enclosed with a rim of hills of gentle slope, except a place at the east side where the ground was lower as though inviting an outlet for the pent-up waters of the lake. Through this depression, ''Uncle Jonas'' cut a ditch with the view of making the low land about the lake tillable.

The lake lies a mile west of the Blackfork of the Mohican. and between them is a tract of marshy land called the Black Swamp, into this a ditch was eut from the lake.

''Uncle Jonas' '' theory seemed quite plausible, but he was later confronted with a condition he had not anticipated. The ditch was opened on the 25th day of July, 1846, and was of sufficient depth to lower the surface of the lake eight feet. On the day following the greater part of the level land surrounding the lake, comprising about six acres, was engulfed - sank out of sight - leaving only the tops of the higher trees, with which the land had been covered, visible. And in time the tree tops also disappeared. The opinion was that the lake was of greater size beneath than was apparent upon its surface and that lowering the water caused the ground to break off from the rim of hills, and being thus loosened, sank to the bottom.

This sinking caused the earth to quake and tremble for miles around, and alarmed the people of that vicinity, some thinking the ''end of the world'' had come, began to pray as they had never prayed before.

As this incident occurred during the Millerism period, people were more prone to attribute the trembling and jar to heavenly than to earthly causes, for although there may not have been a Millerite in that neighborhood, yet the doctrine and teachings of the Rev. William Miller had been so universally disseminated and propagated that they influenced many unconsciously.

The time set by Miller for the ''second coming of Christ'' was the year 1843, as he interpreted the prophecies, but as the expected event did not occur other dates were given later, and the people were admonished to say not in their hearts, ''My Lord delayeth His coming.''

Digging this ditch outlet to the lake was a losing enterprise to ''Uncle Jonas,'' for instead of reclaiming land, he lost six acres thereof, timber and all.

A few years later there was another sinking of grounds into the water, increasing the lake to its present size of between eight and nine acres, but as the low land has all been engulfed, no apprehension is felt that any similar occurrence will take place in the future, as it is not believed that the lake extends beneath the hills.

Prior to.this land sinking episode, catfish, sunfish and some other varieties abounded in the lake in great quantities but are not so abundant there now.

The water of the lake when viewed as a body is an ocean-green in tint of coloring, yet when dipped up seems pure and clear. The lake is circular in form and in its hill-frame setting is one of the most beautiful of the many attractive places in old Richland. The slope at the southeast is covered by a shady grove, from whose retreat one might imagine some highland maid might