Guernsey County, Ohio - Chapter 30: M \1>is(>\ Township, 1911

Second from the north and second from the eastern line of Guernsey county is situated Madison township, which sub-division of this county i- five miles square, having twenty-five sections of excellent land within it- borders. This township was organized and its first township election held July is, 1X10. It contains the usual amount <>t" good, as well as much rough, untillable land. Mxrnt one-third of a century ago the residents here. who had reached or passed their seventy-sixth mile-post were as follows: Benjamin Berry, lame- Copeland, Mrs. F. Parker, Samuel Tannehill, lames Weyer, Mrs. C. Lanfesty, Elias Burdett, Mrs. S. Anderson, Mrs. E. Cramer. Mr-. Mary Johnson, Mrs. Stanley Shaw. Mrs. E. Teitrick. Mrs. E. Shoeman. Mrs. Anne barrell. Mrs. E. I'ritchard. Mrs. R. Harris. F. L. Hafford. Samuel Lindsey, Mrs. M. Lindsey, William Scut. John Smith. Mrs. Mary Smith. William M. Jenkins, John Sheridan. John June-. Wesley Gill, Mrs. S. Nichols, Henry Nichols, Isaac Ricker, Mrs. Amy Kicker. Mrs. Weirick, Andrew F. Linn. Mrs. Grizelle, George McCormick, J. W. Mills. Mrs. M. Stockdale, John Stockdale. James Stockdale. John Saviers. Bennett (larding, Elias Burdett, and lame- Weyer.

narrated in this connection that George W. Yeo, a native of Maryland, was born in [813, and when of age he came to this township, having first resided near Barnesville until about 1^45.

Daniel Tcttrick was born in Xew Jersey in 1783 and came to Guernsey county when seventeen years of age. In [810 he married Jenny Scaddon, by Whom he had seven children. His second wife was Mary Pas-more, by whom -even more children were born to him. He became one of the Stanch men of hi- township and lived to a ripe old age.

Samuel Cunningham, a native of Ireland, was bom in 1750 and in 1832 the family moved to Guernsey county. Ohio, having first remained in Washington county nine year-. Their son James was bom in Ireland and survived all other member- of the family. He married Elizabeth Cunningham in 1838

Edward Bratton was without doubt the first white man to locate in this township. He was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, in 1784, and in 1799 removed with his father to the new territory northwest of the Ohio river, then just opening up for settlement. It was late in the month of December when they reached Wheeling-, then comprising but a few illy-built huts and houses built around the public square. Crossing the Ohio river, the Brattons made their way westward to the forks of McMahon's creek, three miles below where the town of Belmont now stands. From this place, in 1802, they moved up to the Zane Trace, near what later became known as the Milner property. In the spring of 1803, or 1804, Joseph Wright, father of Nehemiah Wright, emigrated from Ireland and located near the Brattons. He employed Edward Bratton, then a stout, young man, nineteen years of age, to make him some rails with which to fence or pen up his stock, in order to protect them from the wolves and bears, which were then very troublesome. His work suited so well that he was hired to make more rails to fence in a patch of ground. These young Bratton made at the rate of fifty cents a hundred and boarded himself. In 1805 he married, and taking the trail used by General Broadhead in 1780, when that officer marched from Wheeling on the Coshocton campaign against the Indians, he followed it as far as the present town of Antrim, then diverged and went to the present site of Winchester, where he pitched his tent. The nearest settlement was where Cambridge stands today, but there were five Indian families, including two brothers named Jim and Bill (for short) and whose last name was Lyons; Joseph Sky, at the mouth of Brushy Fork; one Douty, who had a hut between Mrs. Culbertson's and Newman's Lake, and who had two squaws ; and one Indian named Hunter, who was squawless.

The first grist mill in the county was built on Salt fork, then in Madison, now in Jefferson township. The first store was kept by George Wines at Winchester, and there was also the Methodist church building.