Union County, Ohio - Chapter 23: Dover Township, 1915

Chapter 23: Dover Township

Dover is one of the latest organized townships within Union county. It is in the central portion along the eastern boundary of the county. It is bounded on the north by Leesburg township, on the east by Delaware county and Mill Creek township, on the south by Mill Creek and on the west by Paris township. Its territory originally belonged to Mill Creek township and so remained until in December, 1838, when it was made a separate civil township. The records show that on March 5, 1839. it was ordered by the county ctmimissioners that the Ijoundary line of i\Iill Creek and Dover townships be altered so as to detach from Alill Creek and attach to Do\er township survey No. 3,007. The first land surveyed, 1,087 acres, survey X^o. 3.007. in the township was executed June 3, 1797, for John Graham.

Blue's and Mill creeks are the principal water courses in the township. The former enters from Leesburg township on sun'ey No. 5,497, and courses a little south of east through the north central part of the township into Delaware county, leaving Do\'er from sur\ey Xo. 7,358. One of its chief tributaries is Grass Run. Mill creek enters the township about the center of its western boundary from survey No. 3.355. taking a southeasterly course. It finally falls into Delaware county. This is the largest stream within Union county as regards water power, and at an early day provided much water power, furnishing mill sites for many mills and factories of the smaller sort, but \ery useful to the pioneer settlement of the county.

Along these two streams. Blue's and Mill creek, the land is rolling and in ])laces quite hilly. The remainder of the township is very level, easily cultixated and the ^uil is uncommonly ])r<i(lucti\'e. The creek bottoms are made u]j of a dee]), black loam. Other [larts of the township are made up of clav subsoil, tliough not liable to be aftected bv dry weather. These lands were originally very wet, Init along in the seventies and eighties the system of tile drainage began to obtain and today the swamps have all disappeared. Wheat, corn, oats and ]jotatoes, the main ])roductions, are raised with profit. Grass grows here in luxuriance and cattle grazing has long been a leading industry. W^hen the pioneer came here he found great forests covered the most of the township. These forest trees, some hundreds of years old, had to be felled and removed and it took many years before all the stumps of these forest kings were entirely obliterated from the fields. It may be stated that the first generation had all they could do to clear away these forests and prepare sufficient land for cultivation. The next generation, bowe\Tr, commenced to reap the reward of the hard pioneer work performed by their fathers. The timber along the creek bottoms consisted chiefly of walnut, hickory, elm, sycamore and some cherry and oak. Thousands of immense walnut logs were rolled into the log-heap and burned which would bring fabulous prices today. The country has Ijeen destitute of walnut timber, practicallv speaking, for thirty-five or forty years. The sugar maple gro\es. however. ha\e been cared for on account of the sugar and s\rup they afl:ord.

E.Arly Settlement

The first exidence'of a settlement by white men in this part of Union county was when the sound of the woodman's ax broke in upon the green solitude of the immense forests on the south or west banks of ^Nlill creek, in the southwest part of this township. .\ few years earlier pioneer Ephraim Burroughs had settled in the wilderness of Alill Creek township, near the present village of Watkins. His second son, Jonathan ]M. Burroughs, born in Xew fersev in 1794, married ]\Iercv Bell, and in the winter of 181 5 located on Mill creek in what is now Do\-er township, on four hundred acres of land which he leased of Thcunas C. Grary, of \'irginia. Here he struck the first blow at clearing the f(.irests of the township. He erected a small log cabin, daubed it with mud and in mid-winter moved into it with his young wife. In one corner of this cabin was erected a frame for a bedstead, consisting of two poles extending from holes l)ored in the logs i>f his cabin and supported bv a single corner post, with poles laid across for slats, u])on which was laid a straw bed. F(ir co\ering- they used one blanket and a feather bed containing seven pounds o{ feathers. Their table consisted of a large slab with logs placed underneath. Airs. Burrouglis had one broken plate, one knife with part of the handle broken oft" and a fork with one tine gone. Air. Burroughs made himself a wooden plate and a wooden fork and used his pocket knife to eat with. Spring and the sugar-making season were soon at hand. Sugar ma]ile trees were found on every hand, and as nnich sugar was made as possible. But they had no utensils with which to manufacture the syrup and sugar. Air. Burroughs finally succeeded in renting three big kettles and with his own hands fashioned out sugar troughs and tapped about two hundred trees. Now the work and labor commenced ; day and night, week in and week out, they toiled, gathering the sugar water, boiling it down and making sugar until the season was past. Xext the sugar must be marketed and with the money some necessarj' household articles must be purchased. James Ewing's store at Plain City was the nearest one where goods could be purchased and that was only ten miles distant. He had no horse and the roads were mere bridle paths run by blaied trees. He took upon his l)ack all the sugar he could carr)- and tra\-eled the entire distance to the store on foot. In exchange for his sugar, he purchased a half dozen plates, a half dozen kni\es and forks, a half dozen cups and saucers, a tin teapot, a cpiarter pound of tea, and with these on his back he made his way homeward. His good wife unpacked and washed the dishes, while Mr. Burroughs took his trusty a.x and split out a large slab and dressed it up smooth as possible. T."pon pins driven into a log in the cabin he placed his slab as a shelf and on this was placed the new sup])ly of tableware. With hearts full of gratitude and eyes beaming with delight, on the opposite side of the room stood the young pioneer wife, gazing upon the small though beautiful outfit, the result of the first united effort toward olrtaining a home and li\-elihood. Years later Mr. Burroughs remarked that "1 tapped my wife on the shoulder and said to her 'we'll make it yet." "' He said at that moment he felt prouder than he would have felt years later if some one had presented him with ten thousand dollars. He was highly successful and made a handsome fortune, which he used for the good of his family and for the worthy objects all about him, never once forgetting the early trials and sacrifices he had undergone.

William Bradley was probably the next man to locate in Dover township. He settled on Mill creek just below Mr. Burroughs in 1818. He was a native of Maryland. He was an honest, worthy and upright pioneer. During the same year there were se\eral who found their way into the township as settlers. These included John Hannaman, the third settler, who came from Chillicothe and settled on Mill creek, south of Marysville and Delaware pike. He bought two hundred acres and upon this he located in 18 18. After a few years he sold and moxed on west.

Stephen Dysert came in from Ross county about 181 8 and remained until his death. He and his estimable wife were buried on the farm where they had spent most of their li\es.

Lancelot Maze, a native i)f Ireland, became a settler here in 1818, and died in 1823. it has been claimed that he was the first jnstice of the peace elected in Dover township.

^\'illiam Richey, Sr., of Pennsyhania, but whose father came from the north of Ireland, came to Darby Plains in 1813, and in 1819 located in Dover township on Mill creek in sur\e\' No. q,0-j8, and died there in August, 1847. His son, William, Jr., was a W big and represented his county in the Legislature in 1845-46, and also w'as justice of the peace for twenty years. He resided here more than fifty \ears and cleared uj) and improved a large and valuable tract of laud. Ab(.)ut 1873 he removed to Franklin count}-, Kansas, where he died on March 16, 1882, aged eighty-eight years.

Another early settler was John Dinwiddle, a \'irginian. who came to L'nion county in 1823, settled on Mill creek and resided until death oxertook him. His remains were buried on his ow n fami.

Daniel Williams, a native of Marylantl, with bis father's family, emigrated to Ohio in 1808 and settled near ChillicDthe, where the father tiled. In 1828 the son moved to Dover township and died in tlie townsbij) in 1866.

Jonathan Bowen, a Virginian by birth, emigrated with his family to Ross count}-, Ohio, and in about 1825 moved to Doxer township. James B. Clark, another Virginian, settled in 1825 on Dun's run, D(_)ver township, and there died in 1829, aged forty-five years. He reared a large family, members of which still reside in the township. He taught many terms of school in Dover township.

Still other settlers of the twenties were Daxid W. Worlev. a \'irgiuian. who came in 1824: Coats Thornton and Ceorge H. Houser. Then came Amos Spurgeon, of Virginia, who settled on Blue's creek in survev Xo. ^,499. In 1865 he moved to Illinois.

Rev. John Carney, nf \'irginia, emigrated to Ohio and located in Do\-er township in 1828 and resided there until his death. He was a ver\- zealous Baptist and an early preacher in this denomination. He w-as uneducated, but the type of a man who in those early times took well with the masses. He was a power for good in the community in which he settled. In 1828-29 Abner Liggett came in and settled on the south bank of Blue's creek, where he resided until 1882, when be removed to Green Bend, Ohio.

Rev. Ebenezer Mathers w^as a Methodist preacher. The first class of the Afount Herman church was organized at his house about 1838. He worked faithfully until his death, in 185 J, when he had reached his sixty-third year. Joseph Russell and Elijah Brown settled in 1831-32; Levi and Daniel Longbrake the same year; }ilathew Columber and Alexander Ross in 1833.

But few mills have ever been (^)perated in this township. Most of the lumber and hour used by the citizens here have been manufactured outside of the township. About 1850 Adam Richey and Beal Selman erected a steam saw-mill three-quarters of a mile from the village of Dover. Later J. H. Felkner and J. D. Burkabill owned the property and did an extensive business. About 1 871 L. B. Dennis erected a saw-mill and spoke factory in the \-illage of DoNcr. Fifteen men were employed along about 1874, when the plant was sold to D. F. D\al. who in 1878 mo\ed the machinery to Arkansas. There have been numerous portable steam saw-mills within the township from time to time.

The village of Dover was ])latted in Alay, 1854, on lands owned by William Richey, Adam Richey, Thomas Alpin and B. F. Benton. William B. Irwin was the surveyor of L'nion county at the time and executed the platting. In the fall of 1854 the first house on the plat was built by Adam Richey. The first industry started in the embryo \-illage was the harness shop of J. ^'. Servin, who erected the third house on the plat. Calvin Richey opened a store in a building erected for the purpose in the fifties. M. W. Peck was the first phvsician to practice medicine at this point. It was the construction of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis railroad through the township in 1852-53 that encouraged the laying out of this \illage, which in 1882 had a population of only one hundred and fifty pe(j]ile. There ha\e been numerous small manufacturing plants in Dover, comiuencing in the seventies and eighties. These included the tile factory, erected in 1874 and a factory for the manufacture of heading, clothes racks, chair rounds, etc., built in 1870 by D. & W. A. Shuler. For a small place Dover has always possessed more enterprise and industry than any town in the county. It now has a population of about two hundred and seventy-five with the usual amount of small town stores and shops. The schools and churches of Dover township, including the village, will be treated in special chapters in this work.