Morrow County, Ohio - Chapter 5 (2 of 2 so headed), 1880 (part 2 of 2)

tion, or Levering (our readers can choose which name they like best), is the most extensive business (and has ever been) carried on in the town. Messrs. Young and Harrison built the first grain warehouse, soon after the completion of the railroad. J. D. Rigour and Mr. Mozier built the other, or north warehouse. Mr. Mozier sold out his interest, and Rigour finally failed. * The Railroad Company then took the warehouse, which was bought by J. S. Trimble about 1860-61, who did a large grain business here until his failure in 1878. He also traded largely in wool, and also did a banking business, as elsewhere noted.

The most extensive grain-dealers in the county, perhaps, are the Mozier Brothers & Cover, who have a warehouse both at Mount Grilead and at Levering Station. D. C. Mozier was the first of the Mozier boys to go into the grain business, and commenced operations about 1861. J. J. Gurley was interested with him for one year, after which he conducted it alone until 1866, when his brother, W. H. Mozier, went in with him, and continued about a year. He was again alone from that time until 1872, when another brother, George W. Mozier, entered into partnership with him. These two worked together until the admission of Mr. Cover in June, 1880, when the firm became Mozier Brothers & Cover. Several other parties have handled grain at Grilead Station at dilFerent times, l)ut of them we have been unable to learn particulars. Mr. Cover had been dealing in gi-ain for some time previous to his partnership with the Moziers.

It is the railroad facilities that have been the making of Gilead Station ; indeed it is indebted to the railroad for any existence at all, and the town was formed, as we have said, as a shippingpoint for the surrounding country. The completion of the Short Line has made it a sort of railroad center, by giving it a connection east with Mount Gilead. All that is now wanted to make a city, is for some enterprising individual to lay out the space between Mount Gilead and West Gilead into lots and streets ; it would soon build up.

An incident which occurred in the vicinity of Gilead Station about forty-five years ago will serve as an interesting finale to this chapter. A couple of neighbors, named Noah Webster ( not the Dictionary man) and Ben. Leonard, who were on the most intimate terms with each other, growing weary of the monotony of their family relations, agreed upon an exchange of helpmeets, on the principle, perhaps, that a fair exchange is no robbery. All the preliminaries being arranged, the females, entering into the spirit of the scheme, readily consented to transfer their allegiance to a new lord. The prime cause for this change is said to have been owing to the fact that Webster kept a distillery three miles north of Gilead Station, to which his wife was very much opposed, while Mrs. Leonard made no opposition to such a business. How well they were satisfied with the new order of things we do not know, but their contentment was evinced by their living under the new dispensation without further change, so long as they remained in the neighborhood. All parties to this novel proceeding are long since dead.