Guernsey County, Ohio - Chapter 34, 1911

Chapter 34

Londonderry is the extreme northeastern township in Guernsey county. Jt is six miles square, containing thirty-six sections of land, good as the county affords. It is bounded on the north by Harrison county, on the east by Belmont county, on the south by Oxford township and on the west by Madison and Washington townships. It has numerous streams coursing through its territory and is well suited for grazing and stock raising. Its schools and churches are treated under the general chapters on these topics.

Old Residents

This section of the county, in 1876, had fully its share of aged men and women, as will be seen by observing the following list compiled at that date for a centennial history of the township, which gave the persons who had reached seventy-six years or over: Samuel Wilkin, Edward Carpenter, William Francy, Henry Crusoe, Jackson Gracy, R. F. Campbell, Robert Campbell, Samuel Bratton, Andrew Hyde, Robert Madden, John Logan, Mrs. A. Logan, Mrs. C. Carpenter. Mrs. S. Madden, Mrs. S. McElroy, Mrs. S. Smith, Mrs. E. Rankins, Mrs. J. Walker, M. Walker, Robert Blackwood. T. G. Brown, William Hartgrave. Mrs. J. Francy, Mrs. E. Mack, Mrs. Sarah Hunt. Mrs. S. Rosengrants, Mrs. E. Davis, Mrs. S. Wilkins, Mrs. Decker. Mrs. Romans, Mrs. H. Briggs, Mrs. J. Kirk, Mrs. Ingle. Mrs. S. B. Smith, Simon Rosengrants, Jacob Baker, William Wilson, William Morrow, James Thwaite. Samuel B. Smith, Henry Briggs and Joel Kirk.

The father of John Downer was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1790 and came to Guernsey county in 1813 and entered land in this township and cleared up a good farm from out the dense forests. He married Elizabeth Work and by her reared twelve children, the eldest of whom was John, born in 1818, and who spent his entire life in the township. He owned a quarter section of land and was a township official.

Other early settlers who aided in felling the forests and making the wilderness to blossom like the rose, were William Morrison, a native of Pennsylvania; Thomas Xeilson, a native of Ohio; Absalom Frizzell. of Belmont county, Ohio; John Mack, a native of Ireland; John Stewart, born in Ireland, coming to this country in 1835: Robert Mack, who was born in Indiana, and accompanied his parents here when young; George Smith, born in Virginia in 1795 and in 1809 went to the vicinity of Flushing, Belmont county, and in 1819 he and his father entered eighty acres of land in Londonderry township; John Greenfield was a native of Harrison county, Ohio, born in 1820, and came to this township in 1846, settling on what was subsequently styled the Kirk farm, the most of which he helped to clear up from the native forests; others whose names should not be forgotten as pioneers in Londonderry township were Amos Hibbs, Church Cox, George Smith, William Kirk. Alexander L. Crusser, Robert Wilkins and John Stewart.

Platting Of Londonderry

The only platting of a village within this township is Londonderry, platted by Robert Wilkins, August 19, 181 5, on section 20, in the northern part of the township. It never grew to a place of more importance than a country hamlet, with a postoffice and a store and small collection of houses.

Among the early settlers of Londonderry township were Cornelius Duddall, James McCoy, Henry Dillon, Anthony Arnold, Edward Carpenter, Mathew Law, and George Anderson. Edward Carpenter was born in 1761 in Pennsylvania, and died here in 1827, having settled in this township in 1802, with his wife, Catherine ( De Long) Carpenter, who died here in 1845. Their son, Edward, Jr., was born in this township in 1802, and was a justice of the peace for thirty-two years.

A society of Friends (Quakers) was organized in this township in 1819, a half mile south of Smyrna. The first building, a log one, was burned in the winter of 1856-57, and a small frame structure took its place. In 1880 this was removed and a large, commodious church erected.

In 1801 Edward Carpenter, son of John Carpenter, one of the pioneers who crossed the Ohio in 1781 and built what was known as "Carpenter' Fort," a short distance above Warrenton, took a contract for cutting out eighteen miles of the road extending from Big Stillwater to within seven miles of Cambridge, for which he received the sum of three hundred dollars. As thus opened, the road passed through where Londonderry now stands. Here Mr. Carpenter settled about 1807.

The early-day school facilities here were anything but good. About 1819 or 1820 the pioneers succeeded in employing Robert Jamison, an Irish schoolmaster, who taught the first school in this township, and to whom Mr. Carpenter paid thirty-six dollars a quarter and a Mr. Wilkins as much. Today school houses are in evidence everywhere and education and religious elements predominate equal to any part of the county.