Ashland City (part 11 of 57)

"Sullivan township was surveyed in 1816, by Esquire Baldwin, of Newburg, Cuyahoga county, assisted by myself and others. The survey was commenced in the month of October- and the surveying party camped in the woods two weeks, there being no settlement nearer than Harrisville east, and Elyria north ; no road but a line of marked trees. A road was laid out in the time of the war of 1812, nearly parallel with the present, but had never been marked. Game was very plenty. Business of importance recalled Mr. Baldwin to Newburg; being absent longer than was expected, the county not having very comfortable quarters, I started after him, there being no mode of communication but by messengers. I traveled on foot the whole distance by the aid of marked trees and trail not very well defined after I had left Harrisville.

' ' On the 8th of November, a very heavy fall of snow obstructed my walking very much ; it was about a foot deep in the woods, but I went through. After all this fatigue and delay, I was obliged to return without him. On my return night overtook me, and I was unable to follow the trail ; but, nothing disheartened

I sat down on a log and waited for the moon to rise. It was still very difficult to follow the trail, and I could only do so by feeling the marked trees. As good fortune would have it, I was not very far from Mr. Strong's, of Strongsville; and arriving there, I tarried till morning. In a few days Mr. Baldwin came, and we again prosecuted the survey; he brought another surveyor with him, which expedited our business much, and we accomplished the survey in about a week. During this time, considerable rain fell, and from Wednesday till Friday had to wade in water in some places up to our armpits. On Saturday - morning finished the survey ; it was a very rainy day, the water had been so high we could not get to Harrisville for provisions, and were obliged to divide our rations having only one-fourth of a pound of bread a piece for three days, and some beef. We finally succeeded in getting to Harrisville on Saturday night. We went to James Rogers, and, notwithstanding they had a wedding, we were received from the woods with the greatest kindness, and treated with marked attention ; and surely wedding supper was never more acceptable to any one or devoured with keener relish - meats, pudding, pies, cakes, and a variety of sauce of wild fruits, cranberries, crab apples, -plums, etc., for dessert. Soon after this I returned to Vermont, having finished surveying and selecting three thousand acres of land for myself and friends.

"On the 6th day of June the following year, (1817) seven families, all living in one neighborhood, namely, John Parmely, Sr., his wife Dorothy and his two youngest children, two married sons, namely, Sylvanus Parmely and Lois Parmely, and four children; Asahel and Fanny Parmely and two children; Jesse Chamberlain and his wife Betsey Chamberlain ; Abijah and wife ; Thomas and Lucinda Rice, with nine children; and James Palmer and his wife and five children, started for Ohio.

"Soon after our arrival in Sullivan, Mr. James Palmer went out to gather nuts, of which there was a great abundance. It was on the afternoon of one very pleasant day in September ; but venturing out of sight of clearing, he got lost. He wandered about till dark, without finding anything frbm which he could judge of his direction or distance from home. Night overtook him, and in this dilemma he was obliged to give up and laid himself down by a log to rest till morning. He passed a restless, if not a sleepless night. At one time a huge bear came very near him, but fortunately was not hungry enough to attack him. His friends became quite alarmed at his prolonged absence, and at dark rallied out to find him; but their search was fruitless. Preparations were then made for search next day ; two men were dispatched to Harrisville to raise men to assist them. They were fitted out with hickory torches and went this whole distance and returned before daylight - making a journey of twenty miles by torchlight. Mr. Palmer, however, by the aid of the stakes set up by the surveyors was enabled to find his way home about nine o'clock in the morning. A messenger was instantly sent to Harrisville with the glad tidings that the lost was found.

"Our cattle grazed in the woods, and we took turns watching them; one of our number following them through the day and bringing them up at night, fortunately we did not lose any. Each family selected one hundred and sixty acres of land as near the center as possible, and then decided to draw lots, as being the best way of settling the matter satisfactorily, for all had their preferences. This being amicably disposed of, all immediately built rude huts or shanties upon their land, without chimneys, and with but part of a floor ; and around these rude fireplaces clustered their hearts' fondest affection, and the endearments of home in this forest wild rendered them contented and happy; and to this day they will cite you back to those times with delight and affection.

"Thus located in the midst of a dense forest, far from any settlement, and entirely dependent upon their own resources and good luck, they saw no dark side to the picture, but hopefully gazed on the bright sunlight that streamed in upon them as the forest trees fell before the athletic arm of the pioneer, and saw, or thought they saw, in the future many blessings in store for them and their children.

"Our nearest neighbors on the east were at Harrisville, ten miles distant; south, about eight miles; north, Elyria, twenty-five miles; west, New London, fifteen miles; sundry necessary articles of consumption and clothing could not be obtained this side of Cleveland. Salt was nine dollars per barrel, and cotton cloth fifty cents per yard. The nearest store was at Wooster, Wayne county. I walked through the woods to the latter place without any road, to obtain fifteen lights of glass for a window to my log house.

' ' I recollect at one time I went six miles south, to get my horse shod, through the woods, with only a footpath, which was nearly obscured by the falling leaves. On my return it became so dark that my horse could not follow the path, and I was obliged to dismount and lead him. The only way I could keep the path was by the breaking of sticks under my feet when I got out of it. Twice in my efforts to find the old path, I turned round and went back a quarter of a mile to a certain place I knew I had passed, and you may imagine how difficult it was to get along, when I tell you it took me all night to get home over the distance of two miles. About this time a large body of Indians came from Sandusky into town on a hunting expedition ; making rather too free use of firewater, they were quite quarrelsome, and had frequent disturbances among themselves. At one time they got into a quarrel, and in their affray killed one of their number. This affair shortened their stay, and they left, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who dreaded their presence ; indeed, they were rough neighbors, and sent terror to the hearts of every family.

' ' A child of Mr. Durfee went out just at dusk with his uncle ; he sent him back while he went into the woods to hunt some hogs. On his return he found the little boy did not go home. They immediately searched for him, and continued it for several days, but found no trace of the missing child. The next spring his bones were found by the side of a log, where doubtless he had perished the first night.

' ' On the' evening of the day the boy was lost two girls, daughters of a neighbor in Sullivan township, on their return home from Thomas Greer's, heard, on their way, what appeared to be the hoarse moans of a child ; but fearing that it might proceed from a wild animal, they continued on their way. Mr. Durfee's house lay in their path, and calling there, they were for the first time informed of the loss of the child. Their conclusion at once was that the voice they heard proceeded from the lost boy ; and the father immediately started for the spot indicated - heard distinctly the sound, but his agitation and bewilderment finally traced it to the tree tops, and the voice becoming undistinguishable from the noise of the rain falling upon the dry leaves, he abandoned his search in despair, and returned home.'*

Milton township was surveyed in 1807 and was organized in 1816. Originally, the two western tiers or sections, including the town of Olivesburg, were given to Richland county when Ashland was erected.

Among the pioneers of this township were the Andrews, the Dotys, the Lockharts, the Reeds, the Woodburns, and in addition to the above were Peter Brubaker, Joseph Bechtel, Henry Keever, John Neal, Michael Smeltzer, Jacob Foulks, Robert Nelson, Benjamin Montgomery, James Andrews, Peter Brubaker, John Clay, Frederick Sultzer, John Hazlett, Joseph Charles, Andrew Stevenson, David Markley, James Crawford, David Crabbs, Elijah Charles, David McKinney, John Ferrell, Abel Montgomery, William Houston, George Burget, and possibly a few others.

The residents of Milton township have always been such a well behaved and orderly people, satisfied with the good things of earth which they have so plentifully about them, that there is nothing very eventful to be said about the township.

Prior to 1816, Milton had been under the jurisdiction of Mifflin. The first justice of the peace was Robert McBeth, from what is now Clear Creek, then under the jurisdiction of Milton.

The surveyors not only noted carefully the kind and quality of timber, but also the direction and size of the streams, the Indian trails, villages, and other objects of curiosity. The south boundary of Milton is noted as uneven and hilly land second rate, and timber composed of oak, beech, and hickory. The east boundary is noted as generally level, soil good ; timber the same as on the south line, with sugar maple, dogwood, and an occasional wild cherry. The land of the township is described as of gentle ascents and descents, some places level; soil good for farming, and, generally, more or less clayey. It has an abundance of water, flowing from clear, pure, and never-ceasing springs. In the neighborhood of the Short farm is to be found one of the strongest springs in the county.

Milton, like other townships in the county, was densely timbered with oak, hickory, beech and other hard wood in the early settlement. No streams of any consequence are found in this township, but there are many fine springs and one of the finest in the county is found here. This is essentially a farming community, no town existing within its limits. Its early reminiscences are similar to those of other townships whose history has already been written, and need not be repeated. The same may be said of the struggles and triumph of its early settlers who came to a wilderness and have, after years of hardships, toil and dangers, brought it to a state of cultivation. These pioneers are now gone but their good works remain.

Among the early settlers were James Andrews, who came in 1806, and was a justice of the peace for twenty-seven years. He. also served as a captain in the war of 1812. Abraham Doty also came in 1816; William Lockhart, in 1808; John Woodburn, in 1825. Other early settlers were: Peter Brubaker, Joseph Bechtel, Joseph Charles, John Clay, John Hazlett, Henry Keever, John Neal and Michael Smeltzer.

Hanover township has been called the goodly land, with a health-giving climate and a wealth-giving soil; a country of beautiful landscapes, a land of rugged hills and charming valleys ; a land where the esthetic and ideal harmonize and blend with the practical and real, forming an earthly elysium.

Hanover is the most southern township in Ashland county; a part of its territory is quite hilly, in fact some of its hills have altitudes almost like mountains, but the greater part of the township is adapted to cultivation and is not excelled for fertility by any other township in the county.

The Clearfork of the Mohican enters Hanover from near the northwest corner of the township, and after flowing an average southeasterly course about five miles, unites with the Blackfork and forms the Mohican. There is not the distance of a mile along the Clearfork that does not afford sufficient fall and volume of water sufficient to turn a mill the year round. Its channel is narrow and rapid, and confined within high banks, and the scenery along the stream is magnificently grand.

The Blackfork enters Hanover township at Loudonville, and pursues a southwesterly course about three miles, when it unites with the Clearfork. In the years agone a little town sprang up at the juncture of the forks, and a carding machine was built and operated there for a number of years, as also was a sawmill.

Hanover township was surveyed in the year 1807, by General J ames Hedges, deputy surveyor under General Jarad Mansfield, who was then the surveyorgeneral of the United States. The township was organized in November, 1818. The population two years later was one hundred and eighteen.

The first election was held on the 7th of November, 1818, fifteen votes being cast. The following are the names of the electors: Thomas Taylor, Robert

Loudonville, the only town in Hanover township, was laid out August 16, 1814, by Stephen Butler and James Loudon Priest. The following sketch of Loudonville was written by Miss Mary E. Stewart, in about 1863 :

"The town of Loudonville was laid out in 1814, by James Loudon Priest and Stephen Butler. The beauty of the surrounding country, the mildness of the climate and the fertility of the soil, attracted the attention of the pioneer, and, in many cases, induced him to rear his humble dwelling upon some of our beautiful land and make it his future home.

When the town was laid out there was but a single dwelling in the place. It was a log cabin, owned by Stephen Butler, and although it had but one room, it was a hotel as well as the dwelling place of two families.

"Owing to the many hardships which emigrants to the far west (it was then called the far west) had to endure, and the difficulties they were obliged to encounter, the town improved but little during the first few years of its existence. In the year 1813, Mr. Caleb Chappel immigrated, with his family, to the then far west, and settled, for a short time, in Knox county, a few miles south of Loudonville. He assisted in surveying the grounds where the town now lies, and, in the spring of 1814, he entered land adjoining the town. The remainder of the year was spent in clearing the timber off the farm, erecting a log house, and preparing the grounds for use by the next spring. In the spring of 1815 he removed his family to his farm, which joins the northwestern corner of the town. Everything was new; and the many inconveniences with which they had to contend, and the dangers to which they were exposed, can only be known to those who have left comfortable homes, and taken up their abode in the wilds of a new country.

"Wild animals roamed at large through the surrounding forests, and the Indians built their fires and held their councils in the neighboring woods. Mr. Chappel *s nearest neighbor was Mr. Butler; he was the squire, the tavern keeper, and, in fact, the only man in town. Mr. James Loudon Priest lived some five miles east, and Mr. Oliver three miles to the west. The nearest places for trading were Wooster and Mansfield, then small towns, containing a limited number of buildings and inhabitants. The dress mostly worn by the male portion of the community consisted of a loose hunting shirt, made of homemade linsey, being sometimes red, and sometimes blue. Those made of blue linsey were trimmed with a red fringe, and those made of red were trimmed with blue fringe. A pair of pantaloons made of the same material; a pair of stout moccasins; a cap made frequently of rabbit skin; a broad, black belt, worn around the waist, to which was attached a large knife, and frequently a tomahawk and gun, completed the dress of the early settler..

Pantaloons made of deerskin were generally worn by hunters. The female dress was made of either flannel, linen, linsey, or calico - the calico being the most expensive, as the others were manufactured at home. Such was the dress worn by the early settlers of our country, contrasting greatly with the dashing style of the fast young man and modern belle of the present age ; and no doubt many a young American would consider it far beneath his dignity to acknowledge such was the simple dress worn by his forefathers.

Citizens Savings Bank

"One of the greatest disadvantages with which the early settlers had to contend was, that of educating their children. There was no school for some time after the town was incorporated; and the great cause of education was greatly neglected. At length, the people of the village and the neighboring country, seeing the necessity of establishing a school in their midst, convened together for the purpose of taking the matter into consideration. They soon came to the conclusion to build a schoolhouse and to procure a teacher who was worthy and capable of imparting instruction to the rising generation. A subscription was raised for the purpose of building it, and it was not long before it was entirely completed. It was made of planks, stood upright, and weatherboarded on the outside ; it had a shingle roof, then a great rarity. - It occupied a very conspicuous place on the public square and was about eighteen feet long and fourteen feet wide, with a door in front, and three windows on each side of the room. A large fireplace occupied one end of the room and benches were placed along the sides. Taking all things into consideration, it was quite a respectable looking building, and served for many years as a public building for almost every purpose - for holding meetings, both religious and political. The system of public schools not being then established, the schools were all raised by subscription, and was seldom in session more than three months in a year.

"In October, 1834, a printing office was established in Loudonville. The paper was called 'Mohican Advocate and Hanover Journal.' The proprietor was a Mr. Rogers. For want of patronage, the publication was suspended after having reached six numbers.

' ' The mail in those days was carried on horseback, and when the first stage coach made its appearance, it was an object of wonder to the people in general. The day of the arrival of the stage was always looked forward to with much expectation, and people would gather around the Country Inn to await its arrival and to scrutinize the passengers.

' ' The first sale of lots was made on the 14th day of September, 1814. The proceeds of the sale were small. The first justice of the peace who was elected, living within the town of Loudonville, was Stephen Butler.

"From 1817 untl about 1830, a direct trade, by means of flatboats, was conducted with Louisville and New Orleans - the boats passing down the Black Fork into the Mohican, then into the White Woman, (or Walhonding, as it is now named) thence into the Muskingum, and thence into the Ohio. These boats were generally freighted with flour and whisky, and would carry about fortyfive tons. The completion of the Muskingum improvement and Walhonding canal cut off this trade. During the period of this commercial intercourse with New Orleans, flour at Loudonville would command from two dollars and a half to three dollars per barrel, and would sell at the former place for five and six dollars.

"In the legislation connected with the internal improvement system undertaken by the state of Ohio, the town of Loudonville and the Black Fork of the Mohican occupied no inferior space. At a very early day the Black Fork was declared by legislative enactment to be within the purview of the fourth Article of the Ordinance of 1787, which proclaimed the navigable waters leading into the

Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, as 'common highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. '

"The Walhonding canal was commenced with the intention and expectation of extending it up the branches of the river of that name, to Loudonville, on the Black Fork, and to Mt. Vernon, on the 'Vernon river,' or, as it was and is more generally known, the 'Owl creek,' also called the 'Kokosing. '

"A few days previous to the time designated for advertising the letting of the work, a communication was made to the board of public works by the commissioners of the canal fund, then in New York, notifying the board that money could not then be borrowed at the rate authorized by law, and urging that the work for a time be suspended.

"The suspension proved to be indefinite; and thus, after a few spasmodic but ineffectual revivals, ended a project wdiich, had it been successful, would, in all probability, have made Loudonville at this day the seat of justice of one of the most flourishing counties in northern Ohio. It was only the protracted period of financial embarrassment that immediately succeeded the year above mentioned, an embarrassment involving all the productive interests of the country as well as corporations and states, that defeated the construction of the improvement of the Black Fork."

One of the most prominent men in Hanover township was Judge George H. Stewart, who was born in Alexandria, Huntington county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1809. When a boy in his teens he went to Amagh, Pennsylvania, and clerked in a store for two years. It was at the time of the making of the Pennsylvania railroad and the Portage canal over the Allegheny mountains. Judge Stewart came to Loudonville in the summer of 1833, and was one of the early merchants of the town.

He commenced the mercantile business at a time when the people were talking about building a canal up the White Woman and Mohican. Stewart, having had experience in canaling, took an active part in procuring a law for a state canal to Loudonville, and the law was passed while General William McLaughlin, of Mansfield, was our state senator, and it was through his untiring labor in the legislature that the bill was passed and the canal was located to Loudonville, and advertised for letting, but before it was commenced the legislature abolished all state works not commenced, and they failed to get a canal. In 1835-36, when the question of organizing Ashland county was agitated, he took an active part in bringing it about, and was sent to Columbus several times to lobby for the undertaking, spending his time and paying his own expenses.

In 1845-6 his efforts were rewarded, and in 1845 he was appointed associate judge for Ashland couhty, which office he held seven years. From 1846 to 1850 he took an active part in the construction of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, for which he secured the right of way through Holmes, Ashland and a part of Wayne and Richland counties, and in 1851 purchased a tract of land of David Foltz in Wayne county, and laid out what is now called Shreve, a station on the railroad above mentioned. He was employed by the railroad company as station agent for ten years.

E. B. Fuller, father of the late Dr. Amos B. Fuller and grandfather of the present Dr. Fuller, was born in New York in 1799, and married Sarah Culver, in Tioga county, Pennsylvania. In 1831 he first settled in Loudonville, and began the practice of medicine ; was a doctor of the old school ; was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he was a democrat, one of the liberal kind, bitterly opposed to the fugitive slave law. In 1856 two fugitives came to his house early in the morning. He fed them and sent them to Robert Wilson, where they were cared for and taken beyond the reach of United States marshals, bloodhounds, etc.

Andrew J. Scott was born in Ashland county in 1827 ; attended school at the Ashland academy while Loren Andrews was proprietor, and also at Vermillion institute at Hayesville. For two years he taught in the Loudonville academy, and studied medicine with E. B. Fuller and was also a graduate of Buffalo university. He was a doctor of the old school. He was the father of the present Dr. C. B. Scott.

On June 19, 1899, there was a severe storm and rainfall in the Clearfork valley near Loudonville. The river rose so suddenly that a Mr. Hunter who lived not far from the stream, had no time to escape and nine days after his partly decomposed body was found at a point six miles below where he had lived. The illustrations show some of the work of the flood.

E. F. Shelley, although born in Wayne county, is now one of Loudonville 's most prominent citizens, and is president of the Loudonville Savings Bank. Mr. Shelley is also a member of the advisory board of this work.

Green township was surveyed in 1807, by General Hedges, deputy surveyor of the United States. There is no date on record when the first settlement was made. Knapp 's History of Ashland County contains the following statement : "The family of Abraham Baughman was the only one residing in Green township when the Messrs. Tannehill commenced their improvements in 1810.' ' Another writer says: "Just what date Abraham Baughman and John Davis came to the neighborhood of Green town, Green township, Ashland county, has not been ascertained, but it was at a very early date, it might have been before 1807. They were the first settlers in Green township. They were there before Judge Peter Kinney, who arrived in 1810, but how long they were there before that date is not now known. Baughman was a man of family and lived near Greentown." In an historical paper written in 1858 by the late Hon. John Coulter is the following statement: "I came to Green township in 1810 in company with my father, Thomas Coulter, Jonathan Palmer, Joseph Gladden, Otho Simmons, Mejzer Tannehill, Sr., and George Crawford. We reached the hospitable home of Abraham Baughman, August 25, 1810. Mr. Baughman was the only white man living on the Blackfork from one end to the other. Mr.

Baughman and myself felled the first tree on my quarter section, for bees, a short time after I had entered the land. We were all from Pennsylvania." Inasmuch as Abraham Baughman had an improved place when the Coulter party came there in 1810, he had evidently been located there for some time, perhaps as Mr. Graham stated in his history of Richland county, "as early as 1807."

Therefore in all probability, Abraham Baughman and John Davis were the very first settlers in Green township, and their cabins were not only the first ones in the township, but the first in the valley of the Blackfork.

John Davis was a widower and kept widower's hall on what was later known as the William Irvin farm. Davis had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and died a few years after he came to Ohio, while on a trip to Chillicothe to draw his pension. Davis' death left Abraham Baughman and family the only white settlers of the Greentown country for several years. Abraham Baughman's family at that time consisted of himself, wife and two sons - Jacob and George - who were then boys in their teens. Mr. Baughman is described as a large, powerful, fearless man, who lived in peace even with the savages, who were at first his only neighbors. Jacob and George as young men indulged in athletic sports with the Indians; Jacob's favorite sport was to "run, hop, step and jump," in which he excelled; George's was wrestling, and never found an Indian who could put him on his back. As the Indians did not take defeat very good naturedly, Jacob would sometimes permit them to win; but George with less diplomacy declined to accede to Jacob's advice for him to sometimes let the Indians throw him. Abraham Baughman, his wife and three of their five sons are buried in the Perrysville cemetery.

By 3812, a number of families had been added to the Blackfork settlement, prominent among them being Rev. James Copus, Frederick Zeimer, Captain Ebenezer Rice, Judge Peter Kinney and Captain James Cunningham. Abraham Baughman and Captain Cunningham lived on adjoining farms, and Mr. Baughman's son, Jacob, married Captain Cunningham's daughter Elizabeth, and they were the parents of A. J. Baughman, the author of this work.

The Blackfork of the Mlohican river enters the township from its western border and flows in a southeasterly course until it reaches Loudonville, in Hanover township, a distance of about ten miles. The low banks and sluggish current of this stream renders its water-privileges, of but little value. There are however two dams in Green township. One of these runs the two pairs of buhrs and one saw and was formerly owned by Mr. Beachley, and the other, formerly known as the Stringer mill, but later owned by A. A. Taylor and ran three pairs of buhrs. The valley of this stream is generally broad, and its fertility is not excelled elsewhere in Ohio.

Upon the Clearfork of the Mohican, which runs only about a mile through the corner of Green township, there is a dam that furnishes power for running a gristmill with three pairs of buhrs and one saw. These mills were formerly the property of Thomas W. Calhoun.

Honeycreek has its source in the Quaker springs in Vermillion township and pursues a southwesterly course through Green, a distance of about five miles, and empties into the Blackfork at the farm once owned by the late

Claremont Avenue, Ashland

The first case of ague in Green township is given by a writer, as follows : William Hunter, who came from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, to Green township, in 1818, with his wife and eight children and settled on the north half of section 36, was an Irishman and had been an officer in the Federal service in the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. Mr. Hunter returning from a trip to the mills at Newville became ill, and laid himself down before the wide fireplace so close to the embers on the hearth that his feet were partly imbedded in the warm ashes. His trembling limbs created a great dust, which added to his chattering teeth, despite their warm sympathy for their father's affliction, provoked mirth from the younger children, which so annoyed the father that he raised himself up and demanded to know if they had no better manners than to laugh at the miseries of a dying man, and made an effort to give the children a "brush." His illness proved to be a hard ague chill - the first of which he or his family had had any experience, and which in about three months resulted in his death.

The country in those early days was more beautiful than any pen can describe. The valley of the Blackfork was very densely covered with a low, matted growth of small timber, while, close to the creek, the ground was rankly covered with long grass, and the interlacing vines of the wild morning-glory, plumy willows, and the dark, thick growth of Alder. The hills were crowned with giant oaks, and the fragrant winds were healthful as the breezes of the ocean. Wild game abounded, even great ferocious wild hogs, with their foamy, white tushes gleaming out and looking frightful.

On page 358 in Knapp's History of Ashland county, gotten out in 1863, is the following paragraph relative to the first family in Green township.

' ' The family of Abraham Baughman was the only one residing in the township when Messrs. Tannehill commenced their improvement. This place became afterward known as 'the Guthrie farm,' and is now occupied by John Castor. There was also an unmarried man named John Davis, keeping 'bachelor's hall' upon the farm now owned by William Irvin, being the southwest quarter of section 30. In the fall of 1811, Melzer Tannehill, Sr., (father of Charles and Bazel,) removed his family to Green township."

Upon Hull's surrender at Detroit the settlers considered that the peace and public welfare demanded immediate additions to the military force for the purpose of resisting anticipated Indian invasions in Ohio, and volunteers were enlisted for that service and placed under the command of Major Kratzer, of Mt. Vernon. Soon thereafter a body of troops on a scouting expedition discovered a vacated camp in the vicinity of New Haven, Huron county. The camp had the appearance of having been a few hours previously occupied by the Indians. It was afterwards ascertained that the night previous the militia and the Indian encampments were not over a mile apart. But this fact was not known until the following day, which gave the Indians a day's start of our troops. On the day Copus was killed, five militiamen were sent to the relief of the settlers on the Blackfork, as it was supposed the Indians contemplated an attack upon that settlement. They were led to this conclusion from the fact that Zeimer and Ruffner had been killed a few days previously.

Arriving near the Ruffner place, they met the remaining troops, (seven in number,) who had been engaged in the battle at Copus's having in charge the surviving members of the Copus family. These troops had also, since the battle, been joined by about one hundred others belonging to the same command, (that of Major Krebs, of Tuscarawas county.) The united force on that night encamped in the vicinity of the Copus cabin, and, on the next morning, Mr. Tannehill and party took leave of the Tuscarawas militia, and pursued their way to the deserted village of Greentown. Near that place, at the cabin of Abraham Baughman, (which was also found deserted,) Mr. Tannehill separated from his companions and continued his way homeward. Near Perrysville, he overtook John Coulter and Harvey Hill, who were urging forward some cattle at "double quick," and from whom he had learned that the settlement had heard the tidings of the last battle, and that they formed the rear guard of the settlers who were fleeing to Samuel Lewis's blockhouse, on the Clearfork.

On the day following, the men returned and erected a blockhouse on the place of Thomas Coulter, which afforded security for a greater portion of the Blackfork settlement of Green township during the remainder of the war.

During the excitement that pervaded the community at the blockhouse, on the evening after the attack upon the Copus family, the male inmates of the fortress, including boys and men, assembled, in the dusk of the evening, in the vicinity of the fort, and near the apprehended point of attack, for military drill. There were no regular soldiers, and it was a parade of the militia. Such as had bona fide rifles and muskets shouldered them, and those who had not, substituted wooden or Quaker guns. The roll was called and the men would respond for themselves, and the boys, and a multitudinous number of mythical persons - thus leaving the impression upon the minds of the concealed foe, if such were in sight and hearing, that an immense force was defending the blockhouse.

From the date of the first settlement of the township until about 1816, the wants of new immigrants created a good demand and good prices for all the surplus produce the farmer could raise; but in the year above mentioned, a surplus beyond the wants of the settlement was produced, and prices fell to a very low figure. This made it peculiarly hard upon the first settlers who had leased Virginia Military District School lands, as the interest on their purchases fell due about this time. Corn, which had in the previous years since the first settlement, found ready sale at seventy-five cents per bushel, could not be sold at any price; and wheat, which had formerly sold for one dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel and even higher, was now reduced to thirty-seven and a half cents and even twenty-five cents per bushel.. Five bushels of wheat were exchanged by Mr. Tannehill for one bushel of salt. The first market was at Portland, or Sandusky City. The first trip which Mr. Tannehill made, in 1819, occupied ten days..

At an early day, John Coulter and Captain Rice took the job of cutting a road from Ashland to Mansfield. They contracted to cut ten miles for ninety dollars, and the place of beginning was specified then as the Trickle farm. The

Trickle family had left their poor little home on account of the Indians, and gone to Wooster for safety. The father of the family died the day the men commenced their job of cutting.

After the roads were cut, or laid out through the woods ready to work on, Philip Seymour was made one of the first supervisors. His district extended from Perrysville up the Mansfield road, almost to Lucas. One time when they were laboring on the road and felling trees on the Mohawk Hill, one fell aslant and broke one of Richard Conine's legs. The men made a comfortable restingplace for him against a tree, and then started John Oliver off to borrow Peter Kinney's old gray mare to carry Dicky home. John had five miles to walk through the woods; it was growing late when he returned, and Dicky suffered extremely. His father rode and took him on behind, and there he was all that weary ride of rough miles, his leg dangling and the broken bones grating together and paining him intensely. Solomon Hill and Judge Coulter attended to the binding up and splintering and fixing his poor limb that night, as the family were in poor circumstances, and no doctor nearer than Mt.. Yernon. It was many weeks before Richard could get around, and as soon as he could walk, he limped out on crutches to look at the young pigs in the pen, and before he got back to the house he slipped and fell and broke it over again; and then the two men were sent for, and the dreadful performance unskillfully gone through with another time. Then, before he wholly recovered, the settlers had to flee to the blockhouse for safety from the Indians ; and there, within its dreary, lonesome walls, Dicky's young mother died, with no physician near to save or help ; none but hardy and sympathizing men and weeping and pitying women.

Dr. Hill, in his history of Ashland county, says it was possibly as early as 1807. In a paper written by the late Hon. John Coulter in 1858 and published some years since in the Loudonville Advocate, Mr. Coulter said: "I came to

Green township in 1810, in company with my father, Thomas Coulter, and Jonathan Palmer, Joseph Gladden, Otho Simmons, Melzer Tannehill and George Crawford. We landed at Abraham Baughman's about the 25th of August. He was the only white man on the Black Fork, 'from one end to the other.' We were all from Pennsylvania. Mr. Baughman and myself felled the first tree on my quarter section, for bees in August, 1810." Therefore, according to this statement, Abraham Baughman was the only white man living on the Black Fork "from one end to the other" when the Coulter party arrived in 1810. The settlement was in Green township, Ashland county, then a part of Richland.

Graham, in his history of Richland county says, that inasmuch as Abraham Baughman had an improved farm when the Coulter party came in 1810, that he might have been there prior to 1807.

Abraham Baughman married Mary Katherine Deeds, and removed from Cumberland to Washington county, Pennsylvania, and then to Richland county, this state. His brother, George, also came to Ohio and located at what is now Gahanna, in Franklin county. Abraham Baughman and wife were the parents of eight children, five sons and three daughters. When they came to the Black Fork their two younger children, Jacob and George, were single and lived with their parents.

Jacob Baughman was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1792. While the family resided in western Pennsylvania, Jacob, then in his early 'teens, had worked with an apple-mill maker. After the Baughman family had lived two or three years on the Blackfork and had their farm well cleared and improved, Jacob received an offer to return to Pennsylvania and finish his trade. Their postoffice was then at Wooster, fifteen miles east of which Jacob's brother John had settled and for whom a township was named.

Money was then very scarce, and while they could grow what they needed for their sustenance prices were so low that but little cash could be realized on the sale of farm products, and in fact there was but little, if any, market for them. A family council was held and it was decided that Jacob should "buy his time, ''- - the two years he lacked of his majority, - accept the offer and remit quarterly installments to his father, which would furnish him money with which to pay his taxes, and so forth.

With his clothing tied up in a bandana handkercheif, Jacob set off alone on foot on his long journey. His pathetic parting with his mother he often feelingly described. The war coming on, he returned to Ohio before his two years were completed. Mrs. Baughman died in August, 1820, and her husband the January following. On their gravestones in the Perrysville cemetery is the inscription, "Pioneers of 1810." as the exact date or year is not known.

Mr. Coulter, in the paper referred to, also speaks of the cordial reception they received "at the hospitable home of Mr. Baughman." Hospitality was a prominent characteristic of the pioneers. The latchstring was always out in a literal as well as in a figurative sense. To fasten a door would have been considered an insult to society - -a reflection on the honesty of the neighbors.

John Davis, an unmarried man, kept "bachelor's hall" on a farm adjoining the Baughman place. Davis had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and died soon after he came to Ohio, while upon a trip to Chillicothe to draw his pension. His death left Abraham Baughman and family the only white residents of the Greentown country for several years, with the Indians as their only neighbors. Mr. Baughman has been described as a large, fearless, powerful man, who lived in peace with the savages.

By 1812, a number of families had been added to the Baughman settlement, prominent among which were James Copus, Frederick Zeimer, Captain Ebenezer Rice, Judge Peter Kinney and Captain James Cunningham. Abraham Baughman and Captain Cunningham lived on adjoining farms. Mr. Baughman's son, Jacob, married Captain Cunningham's daughter, Elizabeth, and they were the parents of A. J, Baughman and the author of this volume.

Pioneer Incidents

Abraham Baughman, grandfather of the writer of this work, the earliest settler in Green township, Ashland county, bought a calf of an Indian, paying him the price he' asked. A year later the Indian demanded an additional sum of money because the calf had grown and was bigger than when he sold it. Baughman paid the amount demanded to avoid trouble, and the next year an additional sum of money was demanded, and paid under protest. To prevent the animal from getting bigger still with an additional supplemental price being paid every year, the animal was slaughtered for beef..

One evening when Baughman and wife were at a neighbor's, two Indians called at the Baughman cabin and finding the two boys, Jacob and George, then in their teens, in bed ordered them to get up and give them something to eat. After luncheon the Indians ordered Jacob to go to the stillhouse, as distilleries were then called, and get them whiskey. They held George, the younger boy, as a hostage, threatening to scalp him if Jacob delayed or gave the alarm. For want of a more suitable vessel, Jacob took his mother's tea canister in which to carry the whiskey. He made the trip as expeditiously as possible, and upon his return the Indians smelled cautionsly at the whiskey, and detected a peculiar odor, which they mistook for poison, they became enraged and flourished their tomahawks furiously. They then made the boys drink of the whiskey and awaited to see the result upon them, but as no bad effects developed, the Indians accepted the boys' explanation and proceeded to drink the contents of the tea canister and were howling drunk when the parents returned.

Vermillion township was surveyed in 1807 and was organized in 1816, by the commissioners of Richland county. The first settlement in the county was made in 1811, by George Eckley. He built a cabin in the locality later known as Goudy's mills. There were no towns at that time nearer than Wooster and Mansfield. Ashland had not made its appearance, and the village of Hayesville did not exist even in the mind of the most hopeful pioneer of the locality. There were two Indian villages, Jerometown and Greentown - nearer Mr. Eckley 's than were Wooster and Mansfield. Jerometown was the residence of the notorious Captain Pipe.

In 1815, the first public road was laid out through what is now Vermillion township. It ran from Wooster to Mansfield, and was quite a help to the settlement, as it was a direct route from the eastern portion of the state to the western. The lands along the road were bought and settled in a short time. Emigrants traveling west had to camp out at night, as there was no hotel then, and that condition continued until 1817, at which time a public house was established by Linus Hayes, at Hayes' cross roads, who provided food for man and beasts. At that time there was neither schools nor churches in the township.. In 1816, a small church building was erected by Mr. Eckley, which was the first building for that purpose and at the same place and about the same time a graveyard was laid out, and Constance Lake was the first person buried in it. The church

In the year 1829, a town was projected by Robert Williams, two miles west of the present village of Hayesville and the name of Williamsburg was given it. But it did not thrive and no building marks the place formerly occupied by its plat.

Sterling G. Bushnell, Sr

Was borne in Hartford county, Connecticut, in 1770, and emigrated to Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1806. He left Connecticut in December, 1805, and journeyed on sleds with his wife and five children. On the route he was joined by a number of other families. The most of the route was through the forest of eastern and northern New York. He passed directly to Albany, and thence to near Buffalo, on the lake. He and his traveling companions generally camped by the wayside at night, scraping the snow aside and erecting a sort of tent or screen of bedquilts to protect their families against the storms and cold. The forests were infested by large numbers of ferocious wolves. To protect himself against these animals, he generally encamped near a dead tree, which he set on fire. When they reached the Hudson the ice was somewhat weakened by a thaw. Fearing to cross it with his teams, he took the sled and children and hauled it by hand to the western side, leaving his wife and horse to follow.

After he had landed she mounted and followed, and when about midway of the stream, the ice broke with a tremendous roar. He stood appalled at the sight, expecting to see his wife and horse disappear beneath the floating ice. Fortunately, she floated on a large piece of ice which drifted to the western shore, some distance below him. Watching its approach to land, when it touched the bank, she applied her whip vigorously to the sides of the horse on which she was seated, and aided by this stimulus, it gave a great leap, fastened upon and ascended the bank in safety. Great was his joy over the providential escape. From near the city of Buffalo the whole party kept up the lake shore. By examination they found that the ice was sufficiently strong to bear their teams, and hence, followed it until they reached the northwest corner of Pennsylvania, when they learned from an old Indian chief of the Senecas where they were, and the proper route from there to Trumbull county, Ohio. When he arrived at the residence of his brother, William Bushnell, who had preceded him one year, his wife gave birth to a child about two hours after his arrival - Jonathan Bushnell. Air. Bushnell resided in Trumbull county about fifteen years.

In May, 1821, he emigrated to near the present site of the town of Hayesville in Vermillion township. When he arrived he was fifty-one years old. The township was sparsely settled, and he entered upon pioneer life in earnest, purchasing eighty acres of land, upon which his son, Thomas Bushnell, now resides, of Joseph Lake, of Wooster, for forty dollars. It proved to be a fine bargain.

Mr. Bushnell died at his homestead in Vermillion township, August 16, 1846, aged seventy-four years. He was the father of the late Dr. William Bushnell and the grandfather of the Hon. M. B. Bushnell of Mansfield, who is vice president of the Richland County Historical Society and a life member, of The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

When Mr. Workman came to the country the territory of Vermillion and Montgomery were united in one township, under the name of the former; and Robert Newell and James Wallace were the two justices of the peace. Mr. Workman was elected in 1817, and was the successor of Mr. Wallace.

His nearest neighbors were Johnnycake and his squaw. He was a quiet friendly neighbor, and Mr. Workman took his first lessons in hunting wild game of this Indian.

John Scott immigrated to Vermillion township March 22, 1819, having purchased two hundred and twenty acres on the west line of the township.

As evidence of the integrity of his customers at that time, Mr. Scott says that, during the first four years of his business life in Hayesville, he has no recollection of having lost a dollar by bad debts. With reference to girls who supported themselves by weekly wages, he generally gave credit when it was asked, and the money was always promptly paid, according to promise.

Not until several years after Mr. Palmer came (in 1811) to the country, was there any church building in the township. The first clergymen were Presbyterian missionaries, who, in traveling to and from their missions among the Senecas and Wyandots, made it a practice for many years to preach at the house of Mr. Palmer and others. The first church building erected in the township stood upon land now owned by Joseph Boyd, and occupied the place near where Mr. Boyd's mill now stands. It was a very large building for the time, belonged to the Methodist denomination, was made of unhewn logs, and erected in about 1818. To aid in raising the building, persons came from Mansfield and other places equally distant. When quarterly meetings were held in this building, they were generally attended by people from a great distance. So utterly unable were residents of the neighborhood to entertain their friends from abroad, that the latter would often bring with them their supplies of food, cooking utensils, bed clothing, etc., and during the intervals when the church was not used for divine service, the capacious wooden fireplace would be used by the women, cooking food for themselves and families, in fact, converting the building into one for eating and lodging, as well as for religious purposes. This necessity was the result, not of any want of hospitality, but of the absence of food and house room existing in the vicinity.

would be as great a curiosity as a wild Indian among the present generation. Their coarse, wholesome food, and active lives, secured the health of the inhabitants, and obviated the necessity for physicians.

William Karnahan emigrated from Jefferson county, Ohio, April 16, 1815, with his family. The country at this date was very sparsely settled, his nearest neighbor being Mr. Emerine, located one and a half miles distant. About this distance from where he erected his cabin, on the farm later owned by Mr. Stoufer, a den of rattlesnakes was discovered, near the entrance to which as many as twenty-five were killed in a single day. Another den, on or near the farm later owned by Robert Cowan, as many as seventy-five of these reptiles were killed in a single day. On one occasion the family were assailed by a panther, who approached the house on an evening within a few rods, and only disappeared after the family had secured the doors and windows of their cabin, and kindled a brilliant fire.

John Farver immigrated to Vermillion township, with his wife and two children, on the 29th of April, 1817, and commenced improvements on his farm, being the west half of the northeast quarter of section 2.

The nearest mill at this time was Shrimplin 's, on Owl creek. The trip occupied from four to six days, and was made with four horses and a wagon, which would carry from forty to fifty bushels.

There was no wheat raised or for sale in the county at this time. Corn would bring eighty and one hundred cents. The animal food was principally venison and other wild game. About 1819 and 1820 the county began to raise a surplus of agricultural products, and from this time forward until the completion of the Ohio canal, produce would hardly bear transportation to market, (which was then Sandusky City). Mr. Harper on one occasion took a load of flour to market and exchanged his flour for salt, giving two barrels of flour and half a dollar in cash for each barrel of salt. The first substantial encouragement given the farming and industrial interests was the market afforded by the completion of the Ohio canal to Massillon.

At a meeting of the Ashland Pioneer Society held in 1876, Thomas Bushnell being called upon, responded by giving a short history of his life and stated that he was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1815. His father removed to Hayesville in 1821 and settled on the same place which he (Thomas) then owned.

The first wheat, within the recollection of Mr. Bushnell, offered for cash, was about 1822 or 1823, at the mill built by Lake and Bentley, and at the time referred to owned by Lake and Larwill, and which mill was better known in recent times as Goudy's mill, in the southeast part of Vermillion township. One hundred bushels were offered on this occasion for twenty-five dollars.

Perry township was surveyed in 1807 by Jonathan Cox. The township was organized September 14, 1814, and had jurisdiction over the territory of Jackson until 1819. The population of the township in 1820 was five hundred and fiftyeight; in 1860, one thousand nine hundred and eleven. At the first election, in April, 1825, Daniel Williams and Daniel Smith were elected trustees, and William Spencer, clerk. Rowsburg is the only town in the township and was laid out April 15, 1835, by Michael D. Row. At the time the plat was recorded, there was not an inhabitant within the limits of what now forms the town. A public sale of lots was held in May, 1835, and the first lot was sold to Jacob Carr for thirty-four dollars. The population of Rowsburg in 1860 was two hundred, but the village has increased materially in size since that time.

The first church in the township was a Presbyterian organization and was under the care of the Presbytery of Richland for several years. It was known as the Muddyfork church, so called from the branch of the Mohican by that name, near to which the house of worship stood. In 1831, by request of the congregation, the name of the church was changed to Mount Hope. In 1822, a Methodist church organization was formed at the house of John Heilman, since then the Lutherans, the Albrights and the United Brethren have organized congregations there.

For a number of years there was no demand for farm produce, except by newly arrived immigrants. To them wheat sold at fifty cents ; oats about twelve and a half cents; corn twenty-five cents; salt twelve dollars and fifteen dollars per barrel. A small gristmill on Killbuck creek, constructed of beech poles, covered with split boards called clapboards, was built previous to 1820 by John Naftsinger. The bolting was done chiefly by hand.

There was an abundance of ginseng root in the forests. There were many who made it a business to gather it in the spring of the year. It was worth twenty-five cents per pound, and as it was one of the few productions of the country that commanded cash, large quantities were annually gathered. Michael Row, Sr., under the impression that the current rates paid by merchants in the country were much below its intrinsic value, transported a load to Philadelphia, in a one-horse wagon, and found it a paying trip.

Deer, raccoon, and wild turkey were plenty. Domestic linen and woolen goods composed the principal material for male and female dresses. The men were often dressed in buckskin pantaloons. In such attire the early settlers and their families enjoyed as much true happiness and independence as " Cesar with a senate at his heels. ' '

Indian wigwams were numerous, built with small poles, front partly open, and covered with black ash or white elm bark, peeled from three to five feet long. Small troughs were made of the ash or elm bark to save or catch sugar water, as numbers were to be seen about large sugar trees that had been notched a number of years previous, the notches being covered with a new formation of wood amounting in thickness to two or three inches. Many trinkets or jewelry were found on cultivating the land. In the fall of 1822 there were nine Indian men and three squaws came in and encamped near the same ground for the purpose of hunting and trapping.

fifty cents or a bushel of wheat for reaping; little cradling done in harvest. Grain was threshed mostly with horses, though some was done with the flail. Flax was raised for the lint. Every housewife and maiden could spin flax or wool, and nearly one-half of them could weave. The price of spinning was a shilling a dozen, or by the week seventy-five cents, and twelve and a half cents for weaving linen, such as was worn for shirts ; weaving of coarser fabrics, less. Muslin shirts were not worn. Female apparel consisted chiefly of home-made linen, linsey, or flannel, each endeavoring to excel in quality as well as variety. When muslin was first used among laboring men it cost twenty-five cents to thirty-eight cents per yard."

In 1815 or 1816, (about twenty years before Rowsburg was laid out) an effort was made by John Raver to establish a town on the Wooster road between the present site of Rowsburg and the Muddyfork.

Beyond the naming of the village, which was called Elizabethtown, and the offering of some lots at a public sale, no progress was made in building up the proposed town, and the scheme was abandoned.

There were two churches in the township in 1824 : one Presbyterian, called Mount Hope, near the northeast corner of the township ; the other a Lutheran, on the south side of the township. The size of each was about thirty by thirtyfive feet, and both were built of hewn logs.

The first grist and sawmill in Perry township was erected by John Raver, in 1818, on the present site of the mill owned by Arthur Campbell, about onefourth of a mile north of Rowsburg, on what is known as Raver's Run. This mill, when built, was not only the first in the township, but also the first within what is now the limits of Ashland county. Prior to this, corn and corn meal were obtained on Owl creek, at Odell's, and at Stibb's, near Wooster.

It is supposed from the large number that were discovered and killed in the vicinity, that a rattlesnake den existed in a ledge of rocks near the northwest corner of land later owned by Mr. Cory.

Mifflin township was surveyed in 1807, and settlements were made there in 1809. Before the creation of Ashland county, Mifflin was in Richland and was a full township, but it was divided when Ashland was erected, less than one-half of the territory and population falling within the boundaries of the new county. For the most part the western limit is the center of the Blackfork.

The surface is generally broken and hilly, btit the soil yields bountifully to cultivation. The township is well watered by the Blackfork and smaller streams.

Long before Mifflin was settled by white men, it was a favorite hunting ground for the Indians, as all kinds of game abounded in the primeval forests. The settlement and history of Mifflin township have been similar to that of the other townships of the county. In the beginning there were dangers from savages and from the climatic diseases of a new country. But in time Mifflin grew, improved and prospered, keeping step with her sister townships and is hopeful that trolley cars will in a few years traverse her territory.

count the mountains ; and Mifflin is a small place unless you count its environing hills and its chain of beautiful lakes, the latter lying placidly between the village and the Blackfork of the Mohican.

Among the oldtime residents of Mifflin township mention should be made of J. F. Benninghof, who was born in Germany and came with his parents to America when he was seven }rears of age and settled in Mifflin township a feW years later, where he became quite prominent and served for a number of years as justice of the peace. As a printer, he held a "case" in a number of offices, both German and English, but is now living in retirement in Mansfield.

Prominent among the first settlers were the Bradens, the Croningers, the Cullers, the Harlands, the Hersheys, the Selbys, the Stamans, the Zeimers, the Copuses, and others.

The Petersburg Lakes

Those who have never visited the lakes may want to know more about them, for the contemplated improvements will make the place more noted. The number and location of the lakes, the size and depth of each, and other matters pertaining to the locality are objects of inquiry now, and it is the purpose of this article to give information along these lines.

The Petersburg lakes are situated in Ashland county, eight miles east of Mansfield, and are three in number, forming a chain. The upper lake is the smallest, having an area of only about ten acres, and is called Mud lake. The middle, called the Bell lake, has an area of about thirty acres, and the lower or Big lake (sometimes called Culler's) has an area of fifty to sixty acres, and is a half-mile or more in length. There is a surface connection between the lakes, and it is supposed there is also a subterrean one. There is an outlet from the lower lake into the Blackfork, a short distance to the west. The lower lake has a depth of from fifty to one hundred feet. The lakes are fed by subterranean springs from the Mifflin hills on the east, and the waters are clear and cold. These lakes are noted for their abundance of fish and the locality for its myriads of mosquitoes.

Interlaken, Switzerland, is not a large town, it is said, unless you count the mountains; and Mifflin is a small village, unless you count the Petersburg (or Mifflin) lakes that lie between the town and the Blackfork. These lakes are evidently counted - figuratively - and have aided in making Mifflin one of the most noted villages in this part of Ohio, and its prominence will be still further enhanced when a trolley line connects it with the city of Mansfield.

fork and are surrounded by native forests, the greater part of their direct environs being marshy ground, too wet for cultivation. However, the elevation on which the summer hotel stands is high and dry and commands a good view of the lake. The Big lake is a clear, beautiful sheet of water, but the forest surroundings impart a feeling of loneliness, and causes one to exclaim :

When General Hedges made a survey of that locality in 1807, he was embarrassed over the variations of his compass. In order to test the accuracy of the survey, the lines were resurveyed, still the variations existed. He thought the chaining might be imperfect, and had the lines surveyed the third time, with the same results. Jonathan Cox, in 1808, had a similar experience. The consensus of opinion was that magnetic ores in the earth influenced the needle.

But the only ore yet discovered in that village is "bog ore" at the lakes. Bog iron-ore is a mineral of variable composition and is found in alluvial soils, in bogs and lakes. There may, however, be other ore in that locality, which, if unearthed, would add another page to that storied valley and material wealth to its people.

"Uncle" Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, Richland county, but being within a mile of the Ashland county line and its history being a very interesting one, an account of its creation is here given :

"Uncle" Jonas' lake is in Mifflin township, seven miles east of Mansfield. It covers an area of eight acres and its depth is about seventy feet. This little body of water has been called by different names, such as Sites', Swearingen's and others, but in the past was simply "Uncle Jonas' lake," after Jonas Ballyet, the first owner. It is now more generally known as the lake where the wagon load of hay sunk, meadow and all, according to tradition.

In 1821, Jonas Ballyet entered the northwest quarter of section 15, Mifflin township, and near its center he found a lake covering about an acre. Its immediate surrounding was level land to the extent of eight acres, all enclosed with a rim of hills of gentle slope, except a place at the east side where the ground was lower as though inviting an outlet for the pent-up waters of the lake. Through this depression, "Uncle Jonas" cut a ditch with the view of making the low land about the lake tillable.

The lake lies a mile west of the Blackfork of the Mohican, and between them is a tract of marshy land called the Black Swamp, into this a ditch was cut from the lake.

"Uncle Jonas' " theory seemed quite plausible, but he was later confronted with a condition he had not anticipated. The ditch was opened on the 25th day of July, 1846, and was of sufficient depth to lower the surface of the lake eight feet. On the day following the greater part of the level land surrounding the lake, comprising about six acres, was engulfed - sank out of sight - leaving only the tops of the higher trees, with which the land had been covered, visible. And in time the tree tops also disappeared. The opinion was that the lake was of greater size beneath than was apparent upon its surface and that lowering the water caused the ground to break off from the rim of hills, and being thus loosened, sank to the bottom.

This sinking caused the earth to quake and tremble for miles around, and alarmed the people of that vicinity, some thinking the "end of the world" had come, began to pray as they had never prayed before.

As this incident occurred during the Millerism period, people were more prone to attribute the trembling and jar to heavenly than to earthly causes, for although there may not have been a Millerite in that neighborhood, yet the doctrine and teachings of the Rev. William Miller had been so universally disseminated and propagated that they influenced many unconsciously.

The time set by Miller for the "second coming of Christ" was the year 1843, as he interpreted the prophecies, but as the expected event did not occur other dates were given later, and the people were admonished to say not in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth His coming."

Digging this ditch outlet to the lake was a losing enterprise to "Uncle Jonas," for instead of reclaiming land, he lost six acres thereof, timber and all.

A few years later there was another sinking of grounds into the water, increasing the lake to its present size of between eight and nine acres, but as the low land has all been engulfed, no apprehension is felt that any similar occurrence will take place in the future, as it is not believed that the lake extends beneath the hills.

Prior to this land sinking episode, catfish, sunfish and some other varieties abounded in the lake in great quantities but are not so abundant there now.

The water of the lake when viewed as a body is an ocean-green in tint of coloring, yet when dipped up seems pure and clear. The lake is circular in form and in its hill-frame setting is one of the most beautiful of the many attractive places in old Richland. The slope at the southeast is covered by a shady grove, from whose retreat one might imagine some highland maid might appear and -

The lake is not only beautiful in sunshine but is interesting in storms, when the thunder's deep reverberations roll like billows over its waters. And when the gleaming rainbow sheds it lustre upon the placid surface, no artist can sketch its beauty, while in the background of the picture may be read by faith the eternal promise that the earth shall not again be destroyed by water.

Orange township was surveyed in 1807 and settled in 1814. It is one of the best agricultural townships in the county, and is well supplied with water. The township was surveyed by Maxfield Ludlow and was organized by the commissioners of Richland county in 1818. The J eromef ork and several tributaries, while they afford very little water power, are living streams and waters a majority of the farms in the township, rendering the land particularly valuable for stock growing.

Wesley Richards was born in Loudon county, West Yirginia, August 9, 1793, came to Orange township in an early day and died September 12, 1882, aged eighty-nine years, one month and three days. Mrs. Mary Rickett, bom in West Bethlehem township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, December 21, 1796, came to Orange township in 1822 and died in the winter of 1883, aged eighty-five years, eleven months and eleven days. She was the mother of fifteen children, had forty-five grandchildren and sixty-one great-grandchildren. Valentine Vance, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, December 18, 1797, and in 1814 came with his father to Canton, Ohio, thence to Richland county near Mansfield, thence to Orange township where he died November 20, 1882, aged eighty-four years, eleven months and eleven days. Mrs. Margaret Heiffner, wife of John Heiffner and daughter of Ludwic Cline was born in Montgomery township, March 23. 1818, was married to John Heiffner, July 7, 1835, and died in Orange township December 15, 1882, aged sixtv-six years, eight months and twenty-two days. John Richey was born in Virginia in 1801, in 1804 came with his parents to Columbiana county, Ohio, and in 1833 came to Orange township where he died February 23, 1883, aged eighty-two years. Mrs. Eliza Thomas, wife of Josiali Thomas, whose maiden name was Zimmerman, was born in Union county, Pennsylvania. December 25, 1809, came to Montgomery township in the spring of 1829, and died in Orange township, March 25, 1883, aged seventy-three years and three months. Mrs. Mary Donley, born in America, her parents came from Ireland in 1776. She lived to be about one hundred and four years old and died in Ashland on Sunday, October 1, 1882, and was buried at Orange.

Vaehel Metcalf and Amos Norris were the first settlers in Orange. They removed into it from Bunn's Settlement, in Mohican township, in the spring of 1814. Jacob Young and Jacob Crouse emigrated from Columbiana county, during the same spring, without their families. Young built a eamphouse within a few rods of where the bridge crosses the Jeromefork of the Mohican, on the road now leading from Ashland to Orange.

The total number of white families in Orange township, during the winter commencing December, 1814, amounted to five. In addition tt) these, however, Solomon Urie and his two sons. Samuel and Thomas, were in the township.

In the spring of 1815. Thomas Oreen, Mordeeai Chiicote, Martin Hester, Patrick Murray, Christian and Nicholas Fast, and Henry Hampson removed to the township with their families. During the same year, John Bishop, an unmarried man, came into the township.

site of the one now owned by Samuel Leidigh, two miles west of the present village of Orange. The stones were "hard-heads" and would grind sixty bushels per day. The mill commenced operations in March, 1816. That the settlers in Orange and adjacent townships appreciated the advantages of this mill, may be understood when it is stated that, prior to its erection, the nearest mill was that of Stibbs, one mile east of Wooster. While the millwrights were engaged in the erection of the watermill, they would employ their evenings in aiding Mr. Mason's family to work the handmill in producing the necessary supplies for the following day.

William Patterson made his first visit to Orange township in the spring of 1815, and entered at the federal land office the northeast quarter of section 7, Orange township. During the same year, he returned to his native place, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and in 1818 revisited the country with a view of making the land he had entered the place of his future residence. In that year he ' ' tomahawked, ' ' to use a current phrase of the country at that time, ten acres of his land. By this term "tomahawked," the unsophisticated of this time will understand to mean, that he cut down, with his axe, from that number of acres, the timber of eighteen inches in circumference and under, and arranged the brush around the base of the trees that were above that size.

During this winter, the families of Martin and Jacob Mason, having exhausted their supplies of breadstuffs, availed themselves of a deep snow that had fallen, and left home on sleds for Stibb's mill. The only road to Wooster led by way of the old Indian village called Jerometown, near where Jeromeville now stands. On arriving at the mill they were grievously disappointed to find its operations suspended by the ice. This winter, it may be here observed, was one of remarkable rigor, the snow, during a period of forty days, remaining upon the ground to the depth of at least a foot. Realizing the necessity of immediately supplying their families with something in the form of breadstuffs, they procured a few bushels of shelled corn and started on their way home. The families were without meat, butter, milk, or potatoes. Their only cow, a noble animal, and which had been the main reliance of the family of Martin Mason for food, had died a short time previously from "browsing" upon Buckeye buds. The sole dependence of the families, therefore, was upon their corn. Of this they made hominy, and with the single exception of salt, and the meat of a raccoon, the two families subsisted upon this food a period of two weeks. They were indebted for the 'coon mentioned, to an Indian named James Lyons, who had tracked and treed the animal, and offered the meat to his white friends if they would secure it and give him the skin. His offer was gladly accepted - the tree (an immense one) cut down - the animal killed and dressed, and its meat divided between the two families. A few days after this, two other Indians, Jim Jerk and Billy Mature, came into the house of Martin Mason with a bear, for the meat of which he paid them eight silver dollars. This meat Mr. Mason divided with his brother's family, and the hominy being cooked in bear's oil, made sumptuous fare, and in a few days the weather relaxed so that they were enabled to procure cornmeal from Stibb's, and venison and other wild meats

The first meal making implements of which nearly every family had one, were hominy blocks, a hole burned in a stump, with a sweep so fixed that two men could pound corn into meal ; the sieve was a deerskin stretched over a hoop, with small holes made therein by the point of a hot iron.

Philip Fluke came to Orange township in 1816. Although Mr. Fluke had previously resided in an old settled country, he referred to his experience in the wilderness of Orange township as embracing the happiest period of his life. The health of himself and family, with the exception of ague attacks during the first year, was good. He realized from his first year's tillage sufficient wheat and corn to subsist his family and stock, and to supply, to a limited extent, new neighbors that came in. Prosperity attended all his efforts, and the accumulations of this world's goods, and the exchange of his old cabin home for the fine brick dwelling in which he for many years resided, did not, according to his own testimony, add to his stock of happiness.

Jacob Hiffner, Jr., emigrated with his family, consisting of his wife and three daughters, from Franklin county, Pennsylvania, to Orange township, in November, 1817. Four families from Pennsylvania traveled in company, and settled in Orange township at the same time, namely, those of his father, Jacob Hiffner, Sr., of his brother, Frederick Hiffner, and of his brother-in-law, Ridenour.

Mr. Hiffner erected a temporary cabin upon the land of his father, which afforded shelter for his family during the winter of 1817-18. In the meantime he had constructed a rude cabin upon his own place, and in April, 1818, removed his family and scanty stock of household effects into it, and engaged in the improvement of his land. When he commenced housekeeping, his cabin was without a door, chimney or floor - the fire being made upon the ground in the center of the cabin, and the smoke finding its way out chiefly through an open place in one end of the roof designed for the future chimney of the cabin. Mr. Hiffner averred that the best pone he ever ate was made of soft and rotten corn, purchased at Stibb's mill, and eaten with an appetite sharpened by a long fast and severe bodily toil. Being skilled in the use of the rifle, his family never suffered for want of venison or other wild meat. Good breadstuff's, however, were not in the country, and the most miserable quality, which the swine of this day would reject, could only be obtained at a great distance, and at one dollar per bushel. His severest trials passed away with the first year.

In the early settlement of the township the milling was done at Beam's, on the Blackfork, and down on the White Woman. The trip to the last named mills was made in canoes. It generally required thirteen days to make it, and, in the first years of immigration, very little corn being raised, it was purchased at the mills at one dollar per bushel. In later years purchases of salt, leather, iron, etc., were made at Sandusky City, or Portland, as it was then called. Coffee sold for fifty cents, in specie, per pound.

Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Fast came to Ohio from Pennsylvania when their son Wilson Fast was a small boy. During the Civil war Wilson was a Union soldier in the One Hundred and Second Ohio Infantry, and was on board the ill-fated Sultana on his way home when that awful disaster occurred, but he successfully battled with the waves, and at last reached his home, where he was warmly welcomed by his relatives and friends.

The first Methodist Episcopal church, at Orange, was a frame structure, built in 1829, by Robert Williamson and John P. Anderson. The church was erected under the preaching of Rev. Haney and Hazzard, local preachers.

The first Presbyterian church was the old Hopewell, west of Ashland one and one-half miles. Rev. Matthews and a few members built the church. There was also occasional preaching near Philip Flukes', in Martin Hester's house, in 1828.

The first coopers were Thomas and Solomon Urie and John Y. Burge who also made wooden moldboards for plows, as well as plows themselves, from 1820 to 1830.

The first tailor in Orange was Brown, in 1829, who made buckskin breeches, moccasins, etc., and Mrs. John Murray, who also made gloves and moccasins of deer skins.

Ruggles township was organized in 1826, and until the erection of Ashland county in 1846, belonged to Huron county. It derived its name from Almon

In 1820 its territory was included in Bethel township, which had a population that year of one hundred and sixty-four. The population of Ruggles in 1830 was two hundred and seventy-one and in 1840 it was one thousand two hundred and forty-four.

Ruggles township, as well as the whole of the original territory of Huron county, was within the "Fire Land" district. These fire lands embraced a tract of country containing seven hundred and eighty-one square miles, or nearly five hundred thousand acres, in the western part of the Western Reserve. The name originated from the circumstance that the state of Connecticut had made a grant of these lands in 1792, as a donation to certain sufferers by fire, occasioned by the invading English during the Revolutionary war, particularly at New London, Fairfield, and Norwalk. This tract was surveyed into townships of about five miles square each; and these townships are then subdivided into four equal quarters, No. 1 being the southeast, No. 2 the northeast, No. 3 the northwest, and No. 4 the southwest. And for individual convenience, these are again subdivided, by private surveys, into lots of from fifty to five hundred acres each, to suit individual purchasers. The surveys were made in 1808.

Daniel Beach immigrated to Ruggles township on the 2d of August, 1823. He died in 1862. His was the first family that settled in the township. He was born in Connecticut.

Aldrich Carver and family, consisting of three persons, settled in Ruggles, in 1825. His was the fourth family then in the township. He had emigrated from Cayuga county, New York.

Bradford Sturtevant and family emigrated from New York in 1816, and settled in Ruggles township, Ashland county, in 1823, being the second pioneer in the township. The lands of the township at that time, Mr. Sturtevant said, were monopolized by non-residents - speculators. A daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

Salmon Weston came to Ruggles township in June, 1825, and was the first white settler in the eastern portion of the township. He removed from Connecticut, and occupied one month in traveling from his old home to his new. The journey was made from Warren, Connecticut, to Albany, New York, in wagons; from Albany to Buffalo, on the Erie canal, from the latter place to Sandusky City, on the schooner Superior, and from Sandusky to Ruggles in wagons.

At a meeting of the Firelands Historical Society held at Norwalk, December 12, 1906, Russell Godfrey said he would be a resident of Huron county yet, if Ruggles township had not been sliced off and given to Ashland. He further said :

"I want to make a few remarks. When Ethan Fray's name was mentioned, it brought to my mind k little incident that transpired many years ago that gave a coloring at least to my life. In the winter of 1840 and 1841, Ethan with prayer. I was a small boy and full of mischief. One morning while he was engaged in that service, I had a piece of chalk in my pocket. I took it out. His back was turned, and I marked down the back of his old blue swallow tail with that piece of chalk, little thinking that he felt it. When he got through, he pulled off his coat, went and got his whip and I think he gave me as good a dressing as a boy ever got. But that whipping was the best lesson I ever learned in school. It taught me never to interfere with public worship of God in any form from that day to this, and I feel thankful today for that lesson. About ten years ago, I met Mr. Pray here on the square and was introduced to him. I told him of this incident. 'Well/ he said, 'if it did you any good, I am glad of it.' "

The law to erect the county of Ashland passed the General Assembly of Ohio on the 24th of February, 1846. Its present territory originally formed the townships of Vermillion, Montgomery, Orange, Green and Hanover, with parts of Clear Creek, Milton, Mifflin, and Monroe, # in Richland county; also, the townships of Sullivan and Troy, in Lorain county; all except the eastern tier of sections of the townships of Jackson, Perry, Mohican, and the fractioned townships of Lake, in Wayne county, and the whole of Ruggles, in Huron county. The counties from which Ashland was made contained originally an aggregate of two thousand nine hundred and forty square miles and ninetythree townships. The several dates of their organization and number of civil townships were as follows:

For many years after its organization Richland county possesed the largest of any county in Ohio. This fact gave rise to a multitude of new county schemes. There was scarcely "a laid-out" town outside a limit of twelve miles from Mansfield that had not annually beleagured the legislature with applications for new counties for the benefit of town lot owners. Within what is now Ashland county, there were numerous schemes which proposed to effect the territories of some ofThe counties from which Ashland was finally made - prom- inent among which were the proposed new counties of Ellsworth, with the seat of justice at Sullivan; the county of Mohican, with the seat of justice at Loudonville; the county of Vermillion, with the seat of justice at Hayesville; also, applications from Jerome, Orange and Savannah for new counties, with the seats of justice at their several towns ; and at a later date, a new county for the benefit of real estate owners at Ashland. The success of the last-named project, by the passage of the act of the 24th of February, 1846, and by the vote of the electors of the new county on the first Monday of April of the same year, was regarded as a final settlement of all rival schemes; but the erection, at the legislative session of 1847-48, of the County of Morrow, a long pending and rival "claim," was a yet further invasion of the territory of " Old Richland." The checks imposed upon the general assembly by the constitution of 1851, with respect to the erection of new counties and the removals of county seats, are among the wisest provisions of that instrument, and destroyed the occupation of a horde of mercenary lobbies, whose corruptions had attained such magnitude as generally to control the legislation of the state. The constitution of 1802 simply prescribed the minimum area to four hundred square miles, without any guarantees for private rights involved in the changes of county lines and county seats. The legislative power over these subjects was supreme. One legislature could "permanently establish," and their successors could, and often did, as permanently unsettle and unmake "as a breath hath made." Rights which might be truly termed "vested," acquired under the most solemn legislative sanctions of former years, were wantonly invaded; and in an hour of fancied security men would find the accumulations of years virtually confiscated by "solemn" legislative enactment - an enactment secured by the corps of "lobbies" who held control of every avenue leading to the law-making halls - and not only that, but had invaded the sanctity of the premises within the legislative bar and dictated the votes of the worse than "wooden men" who were often sent as "representatives of the people." Unless other abuses have recently reappeared at Columbus; and the lobbies found other prey, the corruptionists have had a long fast at Ohio's capital.

For many years the settlement of Troy was retarded to a greater degree than the adjacent townships on the north, east and west, in consequence of the ownership of the land by Eastern speculators. For some years prior to 1845, the system of legislation prevailed in Ohio, the effect and probably the design of which was to confiscate lands of non-resident owners, or cause them to sell the same. For some years the lands of non-residents were valued for taxation the same as improved farms. The roads were made and improved by a tax of a certain amount per acre, the wilderness lands of the speculators being taxed the same per acre as were the best and most improved farms of the settlers. The same rule applied in the erection of schoolhouses and in the support of the schools. This legislative policy soon brought the lands of non-residents into the market, and the lands were taken up by actual settlers and improved, adding much to the wealth and increasing the population of the township. The only town in the years agone in Troy township was Troy village, the name of which has been changed to Nova.

f Jackson township was surveyed in 1807, by Mr. Ludlow and was organized February 12, 1819, out of the territory of Perry township. The population of the township in 1820 was two hundred and thirty-six.. The whole number of voters at the first election was sixty-seven. The following is the list:

Charles Hoy removed with his family to Jackson township in May, 1817. At the date of the arrival of Mr. Hoy in the township the following named persons were the heads of families that constituted its population, viz: Isaac Lyons, John Jackson, Daniel and John Davoult, and Noah Long. The family of either Isaac Lyons or Noah Long were the first inhabitants. Of the heads of families above named, not one is now a resident of the township.

Josiah Lee immigrated to Jackson township from Ontario county, New York, in July, 1819. Mr. Lee often traveled from his home to Wooster and back, a distance of forty miles, within a single day. In two instances, himself, Mr. Lafler, and Mr. Mason, were required to attend "militia musters" on the Big (Blachleyville) Prairie, a distance of twenty miles. They were ordered to be at the place of rendezvous at ten o'clock a. m. and would be dismissed at 4 o'clock p. m. This travel of forty miles, and at least five hours drill, were accomplished on foot within the same day and night. Prior to 1830 there were no markets at the lake for grain or other farm produce. During this year, however, a demand was created, by a large immigration to Michigan, for produce, and wheat at the lake ports this year sold at fifty-six cents per bushel ; oats twenty-two cents. Charleston at the mouth of Black river, was regarded as the most favorable point for reaching the lake, for the reason that the streams were less difficult to cross than those which intervened between here and Cleveland. The farmers were greatly elated in consequence of the prices of this year, and as the demand was expected to continue another season, an unusually large breadth of ground was sown in wheat during the fall of 1830; but the expectations of farmers were not realized, as in 1831 wheat fell to forty cents per bushel, and for oats there was no demand.

A Fatiguing March

Charles Hoy removed his family from Stark county to Jackson township, Ashland county, in May, 1817. At the time of their arrival there were but five families in the township. In March, 1819, Mr. Hoy, after his purchase of the quarter in section 27, which was then in a wilderness condition, at the close of the day he had raised his cabin, (hands to obtain which were procured from neighborhoods as far distant as where Rowsburg now stands,) he undertook to return to his family, a distance of five miles. He had only blazed trees to guide him. When he had accomplished about half the distance, a violent snowstorm and darkness suddenly arrested his progress. He undertook to find the blazed trees by feeling with his hands ; but soon found this impracticable, and came to the conclusion that he would be either compelled to spend the inclement night in the forest or search out the bed of Wolf run, and follow its course to the Muddy Pork, and then up the latter stream to his home, whi^h stood upon its banks. By the devious course of these streams, the distance was nine or ten miles, over fallen timber and brush, and encountering the whole route a violent storm ; and, when he finally reached home, it was between twelve and one o'clock in the morning. He found Mrs. Hoy sitting up, unable to sleep, and terrified with the fear that her husband might fall a victim to the inclement weather or savage beasts. Mr. Hoy had seen service in the war of 1812 and had endured some other hardships; but he says that never, before or since has he performed a more exhausting march.