Tuscarawas County, Ohio - Chapter 1: New Philadelphia and Goshen Township, 1884 (part 2 of 2)

Mr. Espich built the first house in Lockport. Samuel Sedgwick was an early tavern keener. Conrad Rager owned and conducted the first store. In 1855, Clark Robinson started a mill to make oil from cannel-coal, but the inexhaustible supplies of rock oil discovered soon after in Pennsylvania made the enterprise a failure. It was the canal that brought Lockport into existence, and the village still smacks of its origin. A dozen or more old boatmen reside here, some of whom dwell during the winter in houses, while others take up winter quarters in their boats.

The most extensive coal mines in the county are located in the southeast part of Goshen Township on Pike Run. At present twro companies are operating mines here. The Tuscarawas Valley Coal Company was incorporated in 1873, after these mines had been worked about a year, the stockholders being Cleveland men. Its mines have been operated continuously since. J. E. W aters, of Bridgeport, is the General Superintendent of the mines. About 150 miners and employes are engaged, and the daily yield of the mines is about 300 tons. The Brock Hill Coal Company was incorporated in 1881. J. M. Shanks, of New Philadelphia, is its General Superintendent. The capacity of its mines and the number of its employes are equal to that of the Tuscarawas Valley Company.

The operation of these mines has produced a mining towm of considerable size and importance, called Pike Run. The only recorded lots of the place are Kent's building lots, surveyed and platted in Ma , 1881, by Oliver Young. They are located on Lot 29, of the fourth quarter of Township 8, Range 1, and number thirty-six, ranged in five tiers, which are intersected by two streets, Main and Center. Pike Run has a population of 500 or 600. It contains three stores, a church and a Knights of Pythias lodge. The name of the post office here is Barnhill.

The Pike Run United Brethren Church was organized in the spring of 1882, by Rev. George F. Deal, with a membership of sixty -three. During the same year a frame house of worship was erected on a lot donated to the church by the coal company. The building is about 36x48 in size, and cost .$2,000. It was dedicated by Dr. Z. Warner, of Parkersburg. The membership of the society has increased to 100, and Rev. Deal is still in charge.

La Belle Lodge, No. 160, L O. O. F., was instituted at Pike Run May 16, 1883, with thirty five members. It was named in honor of Andrew Baggs, of Bridgeport, Ohio, one of the proprietors of the La Belle Glass Works of that city, who donated to the lodge two building lots. The first officers of the ledge now serving, are John A. Kothe, P. C. ; C. F. Grinnell, C. C.; John W. Richards, V. C. ; John Hawkins, Prelate; W. B. Davy, K. of R. and S. ; John Smith, M. of F. ; Emanuel Hensel, M. of E.; Benjamin Browning, M. at A.; John Page, I. G. ; George W. Mcllvaine Roby, O. G. The lodge erected a neat hall in the summer and autumn of 1883.

Ontario Mills was the designation given to sixteen lots laid out by Robert Hanna in 1853 on Lots 26 and 27, about a half mile north of the site of Pike Run. The village did not prosper, and nothing now remains of it.

An imposing town plat of 3i)0 lots was surveyed a few years ago, midway between Dover and New Philadelphia. It was called Mooreville, but the dazzling attempt to rear a rival city between thase two places proved a failure.

Beaver Dam United Brethren Church has a present membership of fiftytwo, and is under the patronage of Rev. George F. Deal. The house of worship in the southern part of Section 9, a half mile from the eastern line of the township, was built about 1878. A Lutheran congregation formerly flourished in this vicinity, and was supplied by Rev. E. Greenwold. About 1846, the Lutherans built a church on the site of the present edifice. James Raridan, Daniel BaJtzly and Zachariah Garibrand were then trustees. Removals and deaths reduced the membership, and services were discontinued. In 1857, the building was leased for ten years to a United Brethren class, which had just been formed under revival meetings held by Rev. Leander Rinehart. Among the converted were the Leathermans, Wrights, Smiths and Leighties. The church property was again leased by the United Brethren Society, and its members constructed the present building.

The Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Church is located in the northeastern part of the township, on the northeast quarter of Section 8. The lot upon which it stands was donated by Mrs. Elizabeth Smith. It is a small frame building, and was erected in 1877, at a cost slightly exceeding $1,200. The present membership is scarcely above twenty, A Methodist class had been organized in this vicinity many years prior to 1850, and in that year a building, known as the Rehobeth Church, was erected near the north line of Lot 2, about a mile southwest of the present structure, the land for the church being the donation of Ransom Newton. Earlier meetings had been held in vacant cabins, and among the early members were Isaac Walters, Jacob Walters, John Everhart, Solomon Minard, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith and Frederick Rummell. This structure was used until Bethlehem Church was built, under the pastorate of Rev. J. H. Jackson. Its subsequent pastors have been Revs. Michael Williams, Amos Keeler and William M. Dickerson.

In the southeast part of the township a Methodist class was oiganized in 1853, in consequence of a series of revival services conducted by Rev. Alexander Scott The following year, during the ministry of Rev. Simon P. Wolf, a frame church, 28x38 feet, was built on Lot 2, near Pike Run, at an expense of $600. Occasional services had previously been held iQ a neighboring schoolhouse. The leading early members were Henry Mosher and wife, John McClelland and wife, Henry Bess and wife, C. C. Carroll and wife, Mrs. Agnes Ellis, Mrs. Sarah Coleman, James Watkins and wife, Samuel Browning and wife, and John Scott and wife. In 1882, a new church was built on the site of the old, and dedicated in February, 1883, by Rev. W. B. Watkins, of the Pittsburgh Conference. It is a frame structure, splendidly finished, with arched ceiling and stained window-panes, and surmounted by bell and belfry. I ts cost was §3,500. The new church is called the Plains Church; the old was known as Sansom's Chapel. At present the membership is about eighty. Plains Church circuit includes, besides this charge, Bethlehem Church in this township, Holmes in Warren, and Rockford in Union.

In the southern part of the township, west of the river, on Lot 34, stands the Goshen Methodist Church, which was built about 1854, and is still occupied by a small congregation. Anthony Alderson and John Moore were early members.

In 1800, when the oil excitement was at fever heat, and fortunes were rapidly made in Pennsylvania, the Goshen Oil & Coal Company was organized and incorporated at New Philadelphia, with a capital stock of $20,000, for the purpose of searching the depths of the Tuscarawas Valley for this illuminator. Its officers were Jesse D. Elliott, President ; James Moffit, Secretary ; O. P. Taylor, Treasurer ; Daniel Korns, W. C. Williamson, S. O'Donnell and C. B. Harvey, Directors. In Goshen Township, three miles above New Philadelphia, a well was drilled 500 feet without success, and some of the parties interested wished to withdraw. The well, however, was sunk 400 feet deeper, and a stream gushed forth, which was found on examination to be not oleaginous, but strongly impregnated with salt. Works were at once erected under the management of Jesse D. Elliott, Judge James Moffit, Daniel Korns, W. C. Williamson and O. P. Taylor, the principal stockholders, and the evaporation of salt commenced. The name was changed to the Goshen Coal Oil & Salt Company, which, in 1871, disposed of the property to Custer, Scott & Kennedy. The present owners are John Custer, B. P. Scott <fc John Scott. The yield of the works is about seventy barrels of salt per day. The discovery of salt in this well resulted in the drilling and operation of two other wells in Dover Township a year or two later. The product of the three wells, outside of the slight local demand, is sold through the Tuscarawas Valley Salt Company, of which J. M. Custer is Agent, and B. P. Scott, Secretary and Treasurer. The company handles about 60, 000 barrels of salt per annum.

Not far remote from the present River Mills, near New Philadelphia, was in early times the Baker Grist Mill. It was built about 1820, did custom work only, and survived but a few years.

The citizens of Goshen Township who have been elected to the office of Justice of the Peace have been the following, with perhaps a few others : Abraham Knisely, 1808; Christian Espich, 1810, resigned 1811; Abraham Shane, 1811; Abraham Knisely, 1811; Jacob Blickensderfer, 1818; Samuel Lamberson, 1819; Wright Warner, 1819; J. Blickensderfer, 1821; Alexander McConnell, 1822; Abraham Knisely, 1822; Jacob Blickensderfer, 1824, removed from the township during term; James Stough, 1825; Nathan McGrew, 1825; Andrew Seaton, 1827; Samuel Stough, 1828; Abraham Knisely, 1828; Andrew Seaton, 1830; John W. Taylor, 1831; Abraham Knisely, 1831; Jacob Kitch, 1833; John Butt, 1834; Andrew Seaton, 1834; Samuel Sedgwick, 1835; John Butt, 1837; Andrew Seaton, 1837; John Judy, Jr., 1838; John Butt, 1840; Charles Korns, 1840; John Judy, 1841: Robert Copeland, 1843; John Judy, 1844; Samuel Sedgwick, 1846; John B. Reed, 1846, resigned 1849; Samuel Sedgwick, 1849; George W. Mcllvaine, 1849; Joshua Pepper, 1847 ; John Grimm, 1850, resigned 1852; Joseph Walton, 1852, removed from township during term; Samuel Sedgwick, 1852; George W. Mcllvaine, 1852; Jacob C. Helmick, 1853; William McPherrin, 1855, resigned 1855; Joseph Welty, 1855, resigned 1858; Alexander L. Neely, 1855; John Butt, 1856; William L. Robb, 1858; Alexander L. Neely, 1858; John Butt, 1859; John W. Morrow, 1861; John Grimm, 1861; John Butt, 1862; Solomon Hoover, 1862; Daniel Christy, 1863; Bowers Seaton, 1864, resigned