Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 3: Notes on the Settlkmknt of the County* and Growth of Population, 1876

The military expeditions mentioned in preceding chapter, besides accom[tlisliing the immediate object for which they were undertaken, drew attention to the excellencies of the country. Wonderful stories about " the forks of the Muskingum " were told by the returning soldiers. The father of Geo. Beaver, of Keene township, was in Boquet's expedition. John Williams (brother of Charles) afterward settled in Mill Creek township, was in the Coshocton campaign ; and among the earlier settlers were several whose relatives had been in Broadhead's forces. The first white man known to have come into the territory now embraced ill Coshocton county, with the purpose of abiding in it, was Charles Williams. In the spring of the year 1800, having come up the Muskingum in a canoe, he passed on up the Walhonding to what is now known as the Denman land, long called "the Paraire" (four miles above Coshocton), and there raised that season a patch of corn, besides fishing, hunting, and prospecting. The next 3'ear he fixed upon the site of Coshocton as his home, and was there joined by his brothers-in-law, the Carpenters, and William and Samuel Morrison, who, after staying with him for the season, went on up into what is now Holmes county, in the Kill buck valley. The same year, 1801, a settlement was made in Oxford township by Isaac Evans and others, who arc reputed as having raised some corn and picked their land the preceding year. The Robinson and Miller settlement in Franklin township was made about the same time. The Ilardestys are reputed as having been in Washington township the same year. A little later the Millers and Thomas Wiggins were located in Lafayette township. Nicholas Miller, James Oglesby, Geo.

McCullough, Andrew Craig, Isaac Hoagland, Benjamin Fiy, and Barney Carr are repored as on the Lower Walhonding in 1805. In 1806, Philip Waggoner, Geo. Loose, John AVolf, and Geo. Leighninger settled in Oxford township, and the McLains were in Lafayette. In the same year the Darlings, the Butlers, John Bantham, and John Elder went to the tapper Walhonding valley. In 1807, Francis McGuire, who had been living above Xew Comerstown, moved down to the locality known as the McGuire settlement, above Canal Lewisville. Then came Moore, Workman, JSTeff, Lybarger, Thompson, the Bakers, Cantwell, and Whitten to Coshocton ; and Meskimens, Johnston, and Harger to the Wills Creek region ; and Mitchell, Markley, and Williams to the north of Coshocton ; and Pigman, Chalfant, I^orris, Slaughter, Woolford, Wright, Staftbrd, Meredith, John, and Severns into the western part of the country. No regular census of the country was taken until 1820. In 1810, Muskingum county, embracing the present Muskingum, Morgan, Coshocton, and part of Holmes, had only ten thousand population. A Scotch traveler, who spent the night at Coshocton in 1806, wrote of it as having a population of one hundred and forty ; but it was doubtless not understated to him. Dr. S. Lee, who came to the place in 1811, found it a hamlet with a score or so of rude structures. Fifteen hundred would jorobably be a large statement as to population at the time the count)''y was organized in April, 181 1. Immediately after the organization, the immigration was large. The war of 1812, while temporarily checking the growth of the country, and especially the iuHow of population, was yet an advantage, particularly in making the region known to the people to the East and South. Just at the close of the war there ,were in the county one hundred and thirty-eight resident '^ndholders, owning tracts of land varving in size from Mrty-five acres to four thousand and five acres. The list and the townships as now named in which they resiin(j^ is as follows : siderable families, and upon some of the largo tracts were several tenants. A list of those who were croppers and hired men, and of those occupying town-lots, and of those who were on their lands under contract for purchase, is not accessible. It is, however, known that besides those whose names appear in this list, and their children, the following persons were residents of the county at that time, several of them having been so for a number of years preceding : Eichard Fowler, Wm. Lockard, James Willis, Joseph Harris, C. P. Van Kirk, Peter Casey, Geo. Carpenter, Joseph ISTeff, Wm. and Sam'l Morrison, Jas.Jeflries, Dr. Sam'l Lee, Wright Warner, A. M. Church, Thos. L. Rue, Wm. Whitten, Thomas Means, Thomas Foster, Barney Carr, James Oglesby, Geo. Bible, John Bantham, Wm. Bird, Jas. Calder, Wm. Mitchell, Lewis Vail, Asher Hart, John Williams, Adam Johnston, John Dillon, Abel Cain, Joseph Vail, Rezin Baker, Israel Baker, John Baker, James Buckalew, Benjamin Burrell, Joseph Burrell, James Cantwell, Barney Cantwell, J. G. Pigman, J. W. Pigman, John Elder, Archibald Ellson, Samuel Clark, Ezekiel Parker, Andrew Lybarger, John Hershman, Peter Moore, the Mc- Lains, Wm. Biggs, Geo. and Levi Magness, Richard Hawk, Isaac Shambaugh, and Elijah Newcum.

At the October election, in 1814, there were one hundred and three electors in Tuscarawas township, which, however, embraced at that time not only the township proper on both sides of the river, but also all the territory north of the Tuscarawas, and east of the Walhonding rivers.

After the war the accession to the population was large, running through several years. In those years 1815-1820 came the progenitors of the since well-known Burns, Crowley, Ricketts, Sells, Mossman, Heslip, Renfrew, Boyd, Gault, Thompson, Roderick,' Squires, James, Tipton, Powelson, Luke, Borden, i^eldon, Ravenscraft, Norris, Winklepleck, McNabb, Slaughter, Mulford, Stafford, Cresap, and Lemert families. In 1818 there were 285 resident landholders.

of stories of laborious efforts and wearying hardships in clearing and planting and building. The large inflow of population involved a great deal of exposure. The conveniences of life, even with those best supplied, were scarce. Sickness, incident to all new countries, abounded, especially was a form of congestive chills known as "the cold plague" very prevalent, carrying oft" many of the settlers and discouraging immigration. Milling facilities were still poor and remote. Corn nieal and bacon afforded, in many cases, almost the whole support. Even whisky, the panacea of those days, was not yet plenty. Yet, despite all drawbacks, children were born and settlers came in, and in 1820 the census-taker found 7,086 inhabitants in Coshocton county.

From 1820 to 1830 there was apparently an increase of only a few over four thousand, making the population in the latter year 11,162. It must, however, be borne in mind that in that period, by the formation of Holmes county, a number of people, hitherto counted as of Coshocton county, were set over, and the limits of the county decreased. Still the immigration was not heavy, especially in the earlier part of the period. Reports of the sickliness of the river region and of the rough ways of the settlers had gone abroad. It may be stated in this connection that the advancement of the county in both population and wealth has been regarded by many as having been hindered in all its earlier stages by the fact of there having been a large number (thirty-three) of four-thousand-acre tracts taken up by military land warrants, and held mainly by non-residents, cultivated only by a few cabin tenants, if at all.

From 1830 to 1840 the population of the county was nearly doubled, there being in the latter year 21,590 inhabitants. This large increase was largely owing to the opening of the Ohio canal.

The immigration of that period was of a much more miscellaneous sort, and having almost nothing of the old Virginian and Marylander element, so prominent in the first settlement of the county. New York, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Germany, and Ireland were most largely represented.

The same condition of things has been noted in many other counties in Ohio, especially such as have hitherto been most largely agricultural. It is observed in this connection that the cities and larger towns of the State show the chief gains attributed to it. Thus, while Coshocton county lost during that time above noted, the town of Coshocton more than doubled its population, which in 1840 was 845, and in 1870, 1,757 - being in 1875 about 2,800. The disposition to forsake the farm for the shop and store and office, the " go-west " fever, the readiness of forehanded farmers to purchase at good prices the small tracts adjoining their larger ones, the enlargement of the stock interest, the development of manufacturing interests, and even the casualties of war, have all had to do with this generally diminished population, especially in the rural districts, and the filling up of the cities and towns.

Appended will be found the population, as enumerated by the Federal census-takers, of the several townships for 1850, when the maximum population was attained, and also for 1870 :