Brock, Ohio

By the last census, the population was 797, of whom thirt3'-six were foreign born ; the inhabitants now number fully 1.000. The southern portion of York is level, and is somewhat clayey, presenting to the eye the appearance of prairie, except that probably one-fifth of the surface is covered with thrifty timber, mostly second growth of the original unbroken forest. The timber is hardwood - oak, hickory, maple, beech and some walnut, though the latter has been pretty generally cut down. Near the center of the township there is more of the burroak, and the soil is a sandy loam, very productive, especially along Indian Creek, which rises in the northern part of Brown Township and flows southeast, diagonally across York. In the vicinity of Brock, which is located upon the St. Mary's Pike, and about one and a half miles north of Indian Creek, the surface of the country, undulating, is almost hilly, and the soil is lighter or clayey, with a linger proportion of beech in the wooded portions. About one-fifth of the land is uncleared. There are 4.(567 acres cultivated, 812 in pasture, 3.593 in woodland, and 289 denominated waste lands. The total of land owned in 1878 was 9,361 acres.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

There are six turnpikes in the township, and only one road that is not piked - the one extending a short distance west from Brock. Generally speaking, the farmhouses are of the better class, decidedly, and, with the barns, outbuildings, windmills, labor-saving machinery, good fences and cultivated acreage, give unmistakable evidence of prosperity1 as the reward of industry. Nearly all the older settlers are out of debt and comfortably situated. Some of them are wealthy, among the foremost of whom may be named David Eury, Samuel Wilson, N. S. York, W. Bayman, David Duncan, Samuel Sherry, Lewis Sherry, David Lyons, William Miller and Mahlon Martin.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

The oldest settler now living is " Mother Sonday," who is now in her ninetysecond year. As her faculties are failing, and she can speak but little English, little information could be gained from her. She has a son named August Sonday, who is nearly seventy years of age. He has never married, and has always lived with his mother. How unusual this - seventy years of a mother's care and of filial solicitude, while several generations have hastened away from their old homes to embank giddily, recklessly and yet often, with fortune for themselves. How few those who deny themselves homes to attend parents ! Samuel Sherry came from Montgomery County to York Township, in October, 1842, and lived with the Sondays until we could get a house put up. George Sheny, his father, had died in 1836. Samuel Sheny married a daughter of the Lanock family, who entered seventy-one acres southeast of Brock, about half a mile ; 120 acres northwest, and then bought two eighties ; one right above Brock, the other to the east of it. November 7, 1837, a patent was issued to Samuel Lanick, for the southeast quarter of Section 4, Township 11, Range 3 east, in the district of lands, subject to sale at Cincinnati, Ohio - a tract said to contain 142T|-g acres. Mrs. Sarah Sonday gives the following : " We came to this county in 1834, from Montgomeiy County, to which place we had come from Pennsylvania, and moved on to what is now known as the " Grisorn Place." Among the first settlers of this township was Newberry York, at whose house we stayed until we could get a house built, William A. Sonday moved in a year later - in 1835. William Miller, Mahlon Martin, Samuel Winbigler and Samuel Hughes were among the early settlers. Zachariah Miller and family, from Pennsylvania, settled first in Franklin County, Ohio, and in the fall of 1834, settled near Versailles. In 1840, he died ; a year later, his wife died. A son, William, came to York Township, March 1, 1858, and from that time has lived upon the farm composed of an eighty from each of Sections 8 and 9, Range 3, Township 11. Jacob Martin came from Pennsylvania to Warren County, Ohio, in 1797. He moved to Miami County in 1831. A son, Mahlon, was then ten years of age. In 1851, he moved to Darke, having bought forty acres adjoining his present farm, on Swamp Creek, for $110. and just prior to moving, he bought a second forty of improved land for $480. Three years later, he sold the eighty for $1,300, and bought of Solomon Christian the quarter-section, now his farm. Mr. Martin runs a large tile factory, whose product has been in good demand with great advantage to the lands. Tn 1844. Samuel Winbigler settled in York, on the Irving York place : later he purchased the Ezra Marks farm, where he died in 1S7I). He officiated as Postmaster and Justice of the Peace, and had a family of nine children. Such details as we have given in the foregoing are applicable to many residents of York and other townships. Their lives abound, not in tales of savage combat, perilous journeys, or treacherous schemes. Their years pass away in seedtime and harvest ; death comes, and the child grown to manhood tills the old fields his father cleared, and growing affluent, he tears down the old house in which were passed the happy days of childhood, and upbuilds the more modern, better furnished, but no more comfortable mansion. The first roads were crooked, running zigzag from house to house. Prior to these were the bridle paths for horseback riding or pedestrians. The '- blazed" routes and Indian traces, superseded by ''cut out" roads, were discontinued, and then came the surveyed muddy roads, and later, the permanent pike. No railroads touch the township. There are no grist-mills within its bounds. About 1868, there was a saw-mill on what is now the farm of William Miller. A few years, and it was moved to Brock, and from there to Patterson, and it is in operation at Versailles.

Passage source: The History of Darke County, Ohio, Containing a History of the County; Its Cities, Towns, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men;, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on York Township - it names this place 4 more 4 times.