Ashland City (part 12 of 57)

There were very few horses in the country at that time, and comparatively little use for them, as there was no surplus produce for market, and no attainable markets, even had there been horses, wagons, and roads, suitable for transportation. Religious meetings (which, there being no church buildings, were always held at private houses) and social visits were made on foot - -men and women often traveling a distance of five or six miles (carrying children in their arms) for these purposes.

Main Street, Residential Section Looking West, Ashland Fourth Street, Ashland

of its predecessor, Helltown. Helltown was an Indian village, on the right bank of the Clearfork, a mile and a half below Newville. Small monnds are still discernable there upon a knoll where it is supposed Indians are buried. The name "Helltown" is said to have meant village of the clear stream. How long the town existed is not known, but in its day it was the home of Tom Lyon, Thomas Armstrong and other leading Indians of the Delaware tribe.

The site of Helltown was well chosen ; the ground sloped to the east, and the river laved the base of the plat upon which the town was built. From a bank a stream bubbled forth a stream of cool water, which rippled musically down the declivity of the hill to the river below.

More than a century has passed since the Indians, to whom the hunt and the chase were alluring, roamed over the hills and along the valleys of the Clearfork, and still -

In 1782, Helltown was abandoned, the Indians fleeing in alarm when they heard of the massacre of the Moravian Indians at Gnatenhutten, some going to the Upper Sandusky country and others joining a party of white renegrades of whom Tom Green was the leader, founded the town of Greentown on the Blackfork. The Indians killed at Gnadenhutten were of the Delaware tribe and kinsmen of the Helltown squad.

At the time of the advent of the white settlers here the village of Greentown contained from one hundred and fifty to two hundred families, who lived in pole cabins. In the center of the town was a council house built of logs. While the Indians there were principally Delawares, there were also Mingoes among them, and some writers have confounded Greentown with the "Mingoe cabbins" spoken of by Major Rogers, but Dr. Hill thought the "cabbins" referred to were on the Jeromefork, near the place where the Mingo village of "Mohickan Johnstown" was afterwards located.

The white settlers maintained friendly relations with the Indians for some years, but when war with Great Britain was impending it was noticed that both the Greentown and the Jerome ville Indians made frequent trips to Sandusky, and when they returned were always well supplied with blankets, tomahawks and ammunition, evidently supplied to them by British agents who were engaged in trying to ingratiate themselves with the Indians against the whites.

In June, 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain, after which the estranged relations between the settlers and the savages developed into threatened rupture and resulted in the forced evacuation of Greentown, followed with the murders of the Zeimers, Copus and Ruffner, also other crimes and atrocities. The reasons generally assigned for the killing of Copus was that he had accompanied Captain Douglas to Greentown and had advised the Indians to a peaceful removal. And it is stated that the Indians had a grudge against the white settlers up the valley, whom they charged with tying firebrands to their horses' tails.

The Indians also claimed that the settlers made them drunk on metheglin and then cheated them in trades. Metheglin was distilled from wild honey, which was plentiful in those days. It was a favorite drink, was very intoxicating and it is said that those who indulged in this delicious nectar could hear the bees buzzing for several days thereafter. The white settlers often . joined the Indians in athletic sports on the campus of their village, in which "run, hop, step and jump" and wrestling were the favorite amusements, but the Indians never took defeat graciously.

Greentown was situated on the east side of the Blackfork, three miles above Perrysville. There the Blackfork, after straightening somewhat from its tortuous course and running south for a short distance, makes a graceful curve to the east at the southwest limits of the Greentown grounds, courses along the base of the south side of the ridge, then turns again to the south and resumes its zigzag wanderings until its waters unite with those of other "forks" and form the Mohican river. Greentown was founded in 1782 and was destroyed by fire in 1812, thirty years after its founding. The cabins comprising the village stood principally upon the rolling plateau-like summit of the hill, each Indian selecting a site to suit himself, with but little regard for streets or regularity. A sycamore tree, which in the olden time cast its shade over the council house of the tribe, still stands like a monument from the past, grim and white, stretching its branches like skeleton arms in the attitude of benediction. A wild cherrytree stands several rods northeast, around which there was formerly a circular mound, evidently made by the Indians, and still discernible ; but whether it was used as a circus ring for athletic sports, or as a receptacle, is a matter of conjecture. Many think it was for the latter, as trinkets, if not valuables, have been taken from it ; but no general exhumation was ever made.

The burial ground is at the west end of the knoll upon which Greentown was situated and is somewhat triangular in shape. Heretofore, the ground has been held in superstitious, if not sacred, veneration. But it will soon be turned over to the plowshare and the agriculturist.

Caldwell's Historical Atlas of Ashland county states that the Greentown Indians were removed to Piqua, Miami county, by Captain Douglas and Captain James Cunningham, which implies that there were two companies of soldiers in the escort, but the number of troops is not given. The route of march was via Lucas to Mansfield, where they encamped near Ritter's run, west of South Main street for several days. After being joined by the Indians from Jeromeville, Colonel Samuel Kratzer conducted the command and removed the savages to Piqua, crossing Alum creek at Fort Cheshire, in Delaware county.

To appreciate places of historic note, one must enter into the feelings by reading its history and learning its traditions. Standing upon the site of old Greentown, the writer realized that the valley, whose broad and fertile acres spread out before him, was the place where the civilization of this part of the

Greentown was burned in August, 1812, by a party of soldiers who were absent from their commands. To understand the burning of the village it is necessary, at least briefly, to review the situation of the country at that time, the summer and early autumn of 1812, especially that summer in the Blackfork valley, a summer in which the earth was bringing forth a bountiful harvest; a summer luxuriant with flowers and musical with the carol of birds by d#y, while at night the moon was wont to peer atwixt the leafy branches of the forest, casting its pale glimmers of light through the languorous atmosphere ere it sailed forth into the open space of the sky to keep watch and ward over those who slept, as if to say, ' ' Peace ! he still. ' ' But those peaceful days and restful nights of nature seemed but a mockery, for they were days of toil and nights of watching for the white settlers who worked hard and dwelt in insecurity, for the Indians were liable to come upon them, like the proverbial "thief in the night," unawares.

As the times became more threatening, with indications of an Indian outbreak probable at any moment, the several families kept sentinels on guard to warn them of the approach of stealthy foes.

The Burning Of Greentown

The burning of Greentown has been criticized and censured by sentimentalists who regarded it as a breach of faith with the "noble red man" who was cruelly driven from his "happy hunting grounds" into forced exile.

But the burning of that village was not a breach of faith, for the officers did not sanction the act. It was done without warrant by five or six stragglers who had dropped out of the ranks for that purpose. They were militiamen who had suffered wrongs too grievous to be borne from the bloody hands of the Indians and it was but human nature for them to retaliate.

It seems like a maudlin sentimentality to dilate upon the wrongs which the white settlers committed against the Indians, for the few misdeeds that may have been done by the pioneers were too insignificant to be given prominence in history.

In the early history of France we read of the dark and bloody acts of the Druids and how they immolated human life in their forest temples, but it was as a religious rite, as an atoning or propitiating sacrifice and while we stand appalled at the bloody spectacle, our condemnation is somewhat mollified when we consider the motive that prompted the act.

But with the Indians it was cruelty for cruelty's sake. They were savages and through all the civilizing influences of a century, they are savages still. Even those who have been educated at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, at the expense of the general government, drift back into barbarism, as a rule, after they return to the west.

Let those who have tears to shed over the burning of Greentown read the accounts of the Wyoming massacre and its aftermath of butcheries and then consider the Indians' bloody deeds in our own state and county - -of cruelty, torture and death ; these three, and then tell us where is their claim for charity ! Settlers have returned from the hunt and chase and found their cabins burnt and their families murdered. The bloody tomahawk and gory scalping knife had done their work, and mutilation had been added to murder. Notwithstanding the beautifully drawn and charmingly colored word picture given us by novelists history teaches us that the Indian is cruel, deceitful and blood-thirsty by nature and devoid of the redeeming traits of humanity.

By William A. Duff

Ashland, Ohio, is a city of intense, vigorous individuality. Substantial, progressive and up-to-date, having doubled in population in the past decade and still enjoying a healthy, vigorous growth, it stands among the cities of the Buckeye state an example of civic push and patriotism - a city that has found itself. Its population now is eight thousand and every indication is that this will be doubled within the next few years, for its people - employer and employes, business and professional men - are demonstrating constantly what can be accomplished in building up a city where the citizens work together loyally, persistently and harmoniously for the public good, not only in encouraging home enterprises that have started up and in bringing in new manufacturing institutions, but in looking after the highest and best welfare of its people and supporting those movements which make for the betterment of humanity and a more abundant life.

The Ashland of today is a city of automobiles and wide, brick-paved streets, rapidly growing manufacturing institutions, churches and public buildings that would do credit to a much larger city, beautiful residences, hospitable homes, and public spirited citizens.

In the courthouse park stands a beautiful monument to the soldiers and sailors of Ashland county, the gift of a noblehearted woman, Mrs. Mary F. Freer, now deceased, in behalf of her husband, the late Jonas Freer, wealthy stock-buyer and banker. In the tower of the Methodist church opposite the courthouse is the town clock, presented by her during her lifetime, and south of the city is the Ashland County Children's Home, a farm of ninety-one acres, another of her benefactions.

The public spirit of Ashland people is evidenced in the building of the new Young Men's Christian Association home for which forty thousand dollars was raised, in a brief campaign, a few months ago. Its Men's Federation which at its last annual banquet had some twelve hundred men in attendance has been a power in the moral uplift of the city and for higher ideals of citizenship.

Ashland's postal receipts are the largest of any city of its size in the United States and its wide awake Commercial Club of which former Mayor A. S. Miller is the secretary, is constantly on the lookout for new industries which will be a benefit to the city. Within the past year several new and growing industries were added. The new Myers building, a fine large five-story brick block at the corner of Main and Center streets is the latest addition to the business part of Ashland.

Although Ashland is nearly a century old - William Montgomery laid it out back in 1815 and named it Uniontown - it has every characteristic of vigorous youth. Its early settlers were sturdy industrious people of indomitable will and strength of personality; men and women of conviction, lovers of home and all that makes home the brightest spot on earth, and these traits of character stand out clearly in their descendants who have helped to make Ashland what it is today. Some of these early settlers came from New York and Connecticut and many others were Pennsylvania Germans. When the postoffice was established in 1822 and the name of the village was changed to Ashland it was a settlement of some twenty log huts. In 1846 when Ashland county was formed Ashland had become a village of thirteen hundred population. Despite its increased importance as the county seat the growth of Ashland was slow even after the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad, now the Erie, was completed through the town about the close of the civil war. In 1880 the population had increased to three thousand. In 1838 the old Ashland Academy was founded and for ten years or more exerted a wonderful educational influence in this part of the country. Inseparably connected with the academy in the memory of the older residents of Ashland is Lorin Andrews afterward president of Kenyon College and the first volunteer in Ohio in the war of the rebellion.

He was born in a log hut, the fourth white child to be born in the new settlement of Uniontown. I have often heard my grandmother tell of his helpfulness to the young people, his geniality and warmheartedness and his power as an orator. For some years he was at the head of the academy and he left the impress of his character and teachings for good on the lives of hundreds.

In 1850 the academy became a part of the union schools of Ashland and the high educational standard of the old academy has always characterized the public schools, the high school numbering among its alumni alumnae scores of men and women who have attained high places in the world's activities.

The central building erected nearly thirty years ago at a cost of thirty-two thousand dollars is on the old academy grounds. The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Stubbs, now at the head of the University of Nevada, was superintendent of the Ashland schools for a number of years. The present superintendent is Professor J. A. McDowell, who has just been reelected for three years.

There are six public school buildings in Ashland. The new Walnut street school building, large and splendidly equipped, was opened at the fall term, 1908, succeeding the little old brick building that was one of the landmarks of South Ashland. Ashland is the seat of Ashland College, an institution founded by the Dunkard church about thirty years ago. The college stands on an eminence in the south part of the city and is one of the first buildings to meet the eye of the incoming visitor. The college passed through a long period of advers- ity but a few years ago was established on a broad and permanent basis, with a splendid endowment, an excellent and devoted faculty and now has over two hundred students, from many states. The Rev. Dr. J. Allen Miller, the dean of the institution, has given some of the best years of his life to the building up of the college, which is a credit to the Brethren denomination to which it belongs. From its theological seminary have gone out many splendid men who are doing valiant service for the church.

For many years Ashland was a typical -county seat. It grew a little from year to year. Wealthy farmers feeling the weight of years turned over their farms to their sons and came into town to live a retired life. County officers who moved in from other parts of the county when they assumed their duties at the courthouse usually made the town their home after their terms of office expired. New residences were built to replace old ones and gradually the frame structures on Main street gave way to substantial brick business blocks. For years the only paved street Ashland possessed was cobblestone paved Main, a trip over which was fraught with jolts and jars. Some years ago this relic of other days was taken up and a brick street laid. Now Ashland has twelve miles of brick paved streets and several other residence streets are being paved this year.

It seems only a short time since the lamplighters made their rounds at eventide in Ashland and again at ten o 'clock or thereabouts to turn off the lights but in reality it is something like twenty years since the electric light plant was put in and arc lights adopted for street lighting.

In due time a water works system was installed, water being secured from deep drilled wells northeast of town and pumped to a stand pipe on a height southwest of Ashland thus giving ample pressure. Ashland's water supply is of the purest. A complete sewer system with sewage disposal plant is another of the improvements of later years.

There are three banks in Ashland, the First National, of which J. 0. Jennings, now ninety years old, is the president, and Joseph Patterson, cashier; the Farmers' Bank, of which J. L. Clark is president, George R. Freer, cashier; and the Ashland Bank and Savings Company, of which I. H. Good is president, and Dr. Levering cashier.

Ashland has free mail delivery and rural delivery over four routes. The Central Union Telephone company has an office here for toll line service but the local exchange is owned by a home company, the Star Telephone company, which also has a number of exchanges in this and adjoining counties. Ashland's newspapers are the daily and weekly Times Gazette and the Press, a weekly both highly creditable publications.

A new era dawned for Ashland when the Ashland & Wooster Railroad was constructed a dozen years ago. It was the one thing needed to put into rapid motion the forward movement which has made Ashland one of the most prosperous inland cities in the state. This line less than thirty miles long connects Ashland with the Pennsylvania at Custaloga. Its builder was H. B. Camp, a capitalist from Akron, now deceased. Mr. Camp took a great interest in Ashland and assisted in securing new industries for the town, one of them being the

Francis Graham

F. E. and P. A. Myers, owners of Ashland's largest industry, the pump and hay tool works of F. E. Myers & Brothers, which employs some eight hundred men, have been actively identified for years with the forward movement of Ashland. Their influence was potent in securing for Ashland the A. & W. Railroad and various new industries and the extension of the Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus interurban line through Ashland, putting the town in direct trolley connection with Cleveland, Mansfield and Columbus, was brought about in a large measure by the untiring efforts of F. E. Myers, who is now the president of the company. This line is opening up a splendid territory for Ashland business men. Heretofore the smaller towns to the east have had poor facilities for getting to Ashland and back home, now the two hour schedule enables them to do their shopping in Ashland and get home without losing much time. The Ramsey line which has been built from Lorain to Wellington is to be extended to Ashland, probably within the next year and then built south into the coal fields and connect with H. H. Rogers' Tidewater line to the Atlantic coast. The A. & W. is to be a part of the line, having been purchased by the Ramsey people over a year ago.

Ashland has a number of patent medicine and stock-food industries, the Dr. Hess & Clark stock-food plant being the largest concern of the sort in the world. J. L. Clark, one of the proprietors is president of the Farmers' Bank and identified with the Y. M. C. A. of which he is president.

Ashland has a great variety of growing industries which are its pride. It is a prosperous city and a city of splendid morals, an advantageous environment for the raising of children. The town has had no saloons for the past four years.

Ashland has many fine churches with large congregations. The denominations represented are, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Congregational, Christian, United Brethren, Brethren, German Lutheran, Evangelican, Catholic and the Salvation Army. The latter owns a barracks.

Ashland people are enthusiastic over the outlook for the future growth of the city. The town is located in the midst of a remarkably fertile agricultural region. The farmers are prosperous and even from the early days Ashland has been a great trading point.

To Ashland people foreign investments appeal less than in most places. Its moneyed men are convinced that money invested at home yields doubly not only in dividends as the business is developed but in enhancing the value of their other holdings and in bringing into the city more people and new manufactories. It is a far sighted policy and one that is showing substantial results. During the financial stringency of the latter part of 1906 and 1907 Ashland scarcely knew there was any tightening of the purse strings over the nation. Its manufacturing concerns did not shut down ; its people were employed steadily and in the midst of the panic some thirty or forty new houses were built.

Rowsburg is in Perry township and was laid out by Michael D. Row, in April, 1835. At the time the plat was recorded there was not an inhabitant within the limits of what now forms the town. The first public sale of lots occurred in May, 1835, and thirty-five dollars was the highest price paid for a lot at that sale. The population of Rowsburg in 1860 was two hundred and it has not increased much in population since. It is situated on the road from Ashland to Wooster.

The country about the village contains many valuable farms, and the patronage of the farmers contribute largely to the growth and prosperity of the town. There is also considerable travel.

Lafayette

Lafayette is in the north part of the township of Perry, was laid out in the spring of 1835, just prior to the platting of Rowsburg. The original proprietors were William Hamilton and John Zimmerman. The location of the village at that time, gave promise of a fair business and considerable growth, being situated on a much traveled road. The country around the village is very productive, and is filled by industrious, frugal, and prosperous farmers.

Perrysburgh, in Jackson township, was laid out October 13, 1830, by Josiah Lee and David Buchanan. It is a small village. The postoffice is named Albion. The village has had a gradual growth.

Troy Center

Troy Center, in the center of Troy township, became a village in 1851, upon the addition of Norris division. The corners were resurveyed and consolidated in 1868, and platted. The village is now called "Nova." The roads from Sullivan and from Ashland cross at right angles, and form the principal streets. It has a fair neighborhood trade.

Nankin

Nankin is in Orange township, was laid out by Amos Norris and John Chilcote, April 22, 1828. It is located on section 28, on a branch of Mohican creek, in the midst of splendid farming lands. It was for many years a flourishing village ; but its nearness to the county seat has somewhat checked its growth. The New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railway passes near the village and has a small station and telegraph office.

Remains of one of the most interesting mounds of an ancient race adjoins the town. The track of the old state road leading from Orange to Ashland cut through a margin of the work. The size at the top was about thirty feet in diameter; at the base fifty or sixty feet, and its height from five to six feet above the natural surface. The mound was built upon a natural elevation. In cutting down its side for the purpose of affording a proper roadway, relics of human skeletons, earthen vessels, and war implements were found.

Sullivan is situated in the center of Sullivan township and was laid out in 1836 by Sylvanus Parmely, Ira Parmely, Joseph Palmer and Joseph Carlton, whose lands formed the corners of the center. It has a good school, and is eligibly situated. Its population is mostly from New England. The postoffice bears the name of the village. Its principal support is derived from the neighborhood trade.

Mifflin was formerly called Petersburg, in Mifflin township, was laid out by William B. James, Peter Deardorff, and Samuel Lewis, June 16, 1816. It was located on the old state road leading from Wooster to Mansfield. For many years it was very thrifty, and, under the old stage era, and during the early settlement of Richland county, was well patronized by the traveling public. George Thomas erected the first tavern, which he conducted until about 1820. The removal of the old stage lines, and the construction of railroads, diverted travel to other lines, and for many years the village has been sustained almost exclusively by the patronage of the farmers of Mifflin.

Mohicanville was laid out July 2, 1833, by Simeon Beall and Henry Sherradden. It is situated in the southwest corner of Mohican township. Population

The water power of the village is the main source of its prosperity. The three principal springs emerge from the summit of the hill on the west side of the town and from their head to the bed of the creek, a distance of about three hundred yards, the fall exceeds one hundred feet, turning three wheels of a combined diameter of sixty-two feet.

An Interesting Trio

Near Nankin, north of Ashland, lives an interesting family of three, maiden sisters, aged respectively ninety-seven, ninety-five and eighty-nine years, making a joint age of two hundred and eighty-one years. Their family name is Coutts, and the ladies are named respectively Katie, J anie and Mary.

There were seven of them - father, mother, two boys and three girls - when they left Alford parish, in the north of Scotland, in 1834, and took ship at Glasgow for America, which they reached after eight weeks at sea.

In time they came to Ashland county, where John Coutts wrestled with the primeval forest to such good purpose that, before he died, he had one hundred and eighty acres under cultivation.

The sons married, the father and mother died, and the Coutts maids became the Three Old Maids. Then their brothers died, but one of them was survived by a son, George Coutts, who latterly has come to run the farm for them. He and his wife and Jimmie live on another part of the farm.

Up to the time of the coming of George Coutts, Aunt Katie ran the farm, plowing, harvesting, milking the cows. Even now she takes a hand at the milking.

If there have ever been any love passages in the lives of the Three Old Maids they came to naught. The neighbors say the suitors were sent about their business with such emphasis that they never came back.

So the Three Old Maids have lived alone, each contributing her share to an almost perfect life, and no man has ever had the right to say, ' ' It shall be done thus-and-so in this house."

They are Scotch - so very Scotch that, though three-quarters of a century have passed since they saw the land of heather, they still have the burr in their tongues, they still eat porridge, they still cling to the Covenanter's faith and call the church the "kirk."

A short time ago the Cleveland Herald sent a special correspondent to Ashland county to interview this interesting trio, and the Sunday following the paper devoted a full page, with colored illustrations, to the remarkable record of the Coutts sisters, whose long and useful lives have won for them the esteem of everybody who admires the sturdy virtues of the Scotch race.

United Brethren Church, Ashland Congregational Church, Ashland

Perrysville is the only town in Green township, and was laid out June 15, 1815, and was named Freeport. It was the second town founded in what is now Ashland county. The Coulters being very prominent people there, the town was locally known as Coultersville. Some years after its founding, the name of the town was changed from Freeport to Perrysville, in honor of Commodore Perry's victory over the British on Lake Erie. In 1830, the town contained nine inhabitants, but in 1860 the number had increased to one hundred and thirty-five. A pottery plant was established there a few years since, which has added materially to the business and population of the town. The village is pleasantly situated in the fertile valley of the Blackfork, on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad. The town supported an academy for a number of years, an account of which is given elsewhere in this work.

In the communication to the Perrysville Enterprise newspaper, Mrs. Nancy L. Eddy, daughter of the late Hon. John Coulter, states that the quarter section of land now owned by Thomas Beavers, the quarter section on which Perrysville is built, and the quarter owned by Alonzo Shambaugh were all entered by her father in the fall of 1810. Mr. Coulter soon found that one quarter section of unbroken forest was all he could manage, and sold the Beaver quarter to his father, Judge Thomas Coulter, and the one on which Perrysville stands to his uncle, George Crawford. Pie kept the Shambaugh place and occupied it as a family home for thirty-five years. The first house built in what is now the town of Perrysville, was the cabin on the Crawford place which stood across the road from where the Sam Trease house now stands.

The old store room occupied many years by H. L. Stearns, and the old hotel building lately torn down, were among the first buildings and were probably erected as early as 1814 or 1815.

The first wedding was that of Harvey Hill and Abigal Coulter, which occurred in 1812, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Mr. Scott, of Mt. Vernon. Mr. and Mrs. Hill were the parents of the late Mrs. Angelina Phillips, who was born in 1817.

The first school was taught by Mrs. John Coulter, in her cabin house on the Shambaugh place ; her pupils were mostly young men who felt the need of more learning. Mrs. Coulter's maiden name was Elizabeth Rice, sister of Alexander Rice, and she had in early girlhood the advantages of a boarding school education in Montpelier, Vermont.

The ground for the Perrysville cemetery was donated for cemetery purposes by Thomas Coulter, and was deeded "for cemetery purposes forever," so that the land can never be legally used for any other purpose. Additions have been purchased and added to the original plat*

The first interment in the Perrysville cemetery was that of Solomon Hill and was made in the summer of 1812. The grave is plainly marked by a headstone, and is near the front entrance to the cemetery.

When Solomon Hill died, the settlers were at a loss to know what to do for a coffin. There were no ready-made caskets then, and there was no lumber from which one could be made. It was hot June weather, no way for embalming the dead, and it would take several days to make a trip to Mt. Vernon and that was the nearest place where boards could be obtained to make a coffin. But the emergency was met by one of the grand old pioneers giving his wagon-bed from which a coffin was made. Giving up a wagon-bed at that time was a great sacrifice. Every man at that first funeral carried a musket, fearing an attack from the Indians. The funeral procession had to cross the Blackfork in canoes to the place of interment.

Professor J. C. Sample

Garfield is said to have remarked facetiously that a college is a log with a pupil on one end and Mark Hopkins on the other. In little Perrysville, Ashland county, Ohio, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, one could have seen an ordinary frame building in a yard adorned with a few evergreens, called "Green Town Academy." The teacher with high massive forehead and coat of many colors, could have been seen there almost any hour of the day with an enthusiasm that made him blink his eyes, snap his fingers, and slap his ankles together, impressing on a few students in each of his many classes, the duty of Mastery, and his own unique personality. He was filled with that kind of fire that would drive worthless students out of the town and draw the worthy one to his most remarkable college. Although Professor J. C. Sample went to public schools but two years in his life, I consider him and Professor M. Soy D. D., of Capitol University, Columbus, Ohio, to be the two greatest teachers I have ever met ; - considering his opportunities, I consider Professor Sample the greatest. A little sketch of his life should be preserved for the pleasure and information of his many students. Professor J. C. Sample was born in Harmony, Butler county, Pennsylvania, July 9, 1837. He attended the district common schools but two years, spending the greatest part of the first seventeen years of his life in the woolen factory of his father, Robert Sample ; he was a born student and thinker. In the fall of 1855 he entered the Presbyterian Academy at North Sewickly, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1856 he began teaching school and continued until 1860, when he was elected principal of North Sewuckly Academy. He remained there until the fall of 1862, when he entered the army, from which in July, 1863, he was honorably discharged. He was called immediately to the principalship of the Sewickly Academy, but did

Because of his known character, he was chosen superintendent of Poland schools where he taught until the fall of 1864, when he resigned and entered Vermillion Institute at Hayesville, Ashland county, Ohio. In the fall of 1865, he was called to take charge of a select school at Perrysville, Ohio, which school he opened the 17th day of September, where he remained until 1869, when he resigned to go with Dr. Dieffendorf to Nebraska City, Nebraska, He there studied and taught with Dr. Dieffendorf for one year in Otto University. He was again recalled to Perrysville, Ashland county, Ohio, where Green Town Academy, in the winter of 1870-71, was born from the select school. The fall of 1873 the presidency of Willamette Valley College, Oregon, was offered to him, but he refused to accept it. On New Year's day of 1878, he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth E. Groff, the daughter of Elias Groff, of near Perrysville, and the same year he refused the chair of Classic Instruction in Buchtel College. He continued his work in Green Town Academy until the fall of 1893, when he resigned in favor of Rev. E. Schultz. Rev. Schultz continued the school for a year and then abandoned it. The Academy building served as a Lutheran Mission until in November of 1895, when it was utterly destroyed by fire. The Professor's home, however, remained a college. Up to the fall of 1908 he has occupied his usual seat on one end of the "John Hopkins' Log," and his children the other.

I said Profesor Sample went to school only two years; I should have said seventy-two. He has been a very careful, industrious student all his life. As a linguist he could teach, and has taught, English; Anglo-Saxon; German; Dutch; Spanish; French; Greek and Latin. As a historian I have never met his equal. He is passionately fond of German and English literature and widely acquainted in the original, with English, German, French and Spanish authors. He was as much attached to the study of geology. If you, who happen to be reading these lines, were a student of "Old Green Town," you will remember the shelves on shelves of fossile collecting, that were on view in the library room. The pieces ran into the hundreds, a specially rich and carefully labeled exhibit of the upper Devonian and Sub-Carbonniferous strata of Ashland and adjoining counties. It was destroyed by the fire along with our library. I can well remember the morning of 1878, when I set on the log with its great teacher, and how with half closed eyes, he described the wonderful gold fields of Alaska and the far north, a quarter of a century before they were discovered. The airships were as real to him then as they are to us now. When I stop to think of those days, it is with a grateful heart, I thank God that he gave me Professor Sample for my preparatory college instructor. God placed him just where he belonged. Such a man could not work in any high school, nor with any college faculty. He does not believe in any "hop, skip and jump" system of education. "Instruction" and "Education" are very different terms with him. He used to say ' ' If you wish instruction, sit down, I will talk to you ; if you wish education, here are the books-; you must get that yourself. I am here only to help you; I can't give you that." It may seem like a slavish method to most teachers to require a student so thoroughly to master his English grammar, that he could recite it like a declamation and get a grade, on review, of ninety-nine and three fourth per cent., but Professor Sample's students could do that, before he was through with them, and they could talk English as correctly as the best students of other schools could write it.

"Old Greenleaf!" Do you remember Friday reviews? - Up to proportion, a half hour of definition ; then the other half, through ? Solutions ? Severer still ! Strange, is it not, that we not only approved, but loved this exceeding severity of class discipline? Professor Sample would surely have lost one-half of his pupils, had it been abandoned. It was our school distinction. May this not account for another unique fact? During the thirty years of Green Town history, not a single disgraceful incident occurred to mar her memory of the past, and but one case of public discipline.

But with these old memories, thought and pen would wander far a-field, I know not where ! Result of it. Out of perhaps three hundred and fifty young men, whose names appear on the class rolls of Professor Sample 's ' £ Boys, ' ' nearly, or perhaps altogether one hundred, are now in the professions; more than "the baker's dozen" are, in county offices and in all the professions here in Mansfield now. Between three and four thousand pupils have been taught by this woolen factory boy, who went to the public schools only two years. A descendant of the Scotch Presbyterians, he remained in that church until his marriage with Miss Groff, after which he united with the Lutheran church. He always, in politics, has been a democrat.

Down by the ' ' Clearf ork ' ' he lives in his large library of well selected books, digging deeper and deeper into the wonderful mysteries of God.

Hayesville is situated near the center of Vermillion township. The original proprietors of the town of Hayesville were Rev. John Cox and Linus Hayes. As the Loudonville and Ashland and Wooster and Mansfield roads crossed at this point, Mr. Cox concluded that it might be the site of a future town.

The town of Hayesville was laid out in the fall of 1830, and the town plat recorded in Mansfield, October 26, 1830. The first public sale of lots occurred on the 18th of November of the same year.

The postoffice at Hays X-Roads was established January 18, 1827, and Mr. Cox appointed postmaster. This office he held until July 1, 1841, when, for political reasons alone, which then existed, but do not now, he was removed, and Mr. D. K. Hull appointed in his place. When the postoffice was established, it was supplied several years by a weekly mail carried on horseback by John Willson.

Hayesville is situated on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 15, township 21, of reserve 15, formerly known by the name of Hayes X-Roads, being the lands of Messrs. J. Cox and L. Hayes. The principal or main street is laid out on the road leading from Wooster to Mansfield, with one row of nineteen lots on each side - each lot sixty feet front by one hundred and twenty feet back. The road leading f rom Loudonville to Ashland crosses the above named road at right angles, with twenty lots to the east and eighteen lots to the west.

Dr. Harrison Armstrong located in Hayesville in 1832, and was the first regular physician of the place.. He soon won confidence and for a period of twenty years had a large practice. Dr. David Armstrong, also of Hayesville, possessed many characteristics of his ancestry, both in sense, wit and humor. As a physician and business man he stood deservedly high among his fellowmen, and his death was much mourned.

At an early day educational interests were manifested by the citizens of Vermillion township, schools were established and the youth were taught the rudiments of education.. Later select schools were formed for the benefit of those thought to be beyond the tuition of the common school teacher. In 1844- 45, an academy was founded and a charter for the same was obtained from the Ohio legislature, and the name "Vermillion Institute" was bestowed upon the institution.

The old Vermillion Institute at Hayesville is now conducted as a high school under the common school laws of Ohio, and is in charge of Professor D. K. Andrews, a former Richland county boy.

Vermillion Institute was the outcome of a feeling for higher education of the people of the township. The funds to erect suitable buildings were raised by a joint stock company - The site - two acres of land, was donated by W. W. Scott. The corner stone laid in 1845, on Fourth of July - The Rev. Lewis Granger delivered an oration and the school was christened Vermillion Institute. After five years the management passed into the hands of the Wooster Presbyterian.

The people of Hayesville like those of many other small towns live in the glory of the past - we are still proud of the reputation of Vermillion Institute. In its most prosperous years when such institutions were few and far between, its catalogues show that it was unusually well known and that its reputation was more than state-wide. This was particularly the case when that noted educator and distinguished scholar, Rev. Sanders Diefendorf L. L. D. was at its head, under whose skillful management and well earned reputation as a teacher it had from two hundred to three hundred and fifty students enrolled. Many of these ambitious students could be cited by name who have since won high places in the missionary fields, in the pulpit, at the bar, in the medical profession and have become useful and influential citizens in every walk of life, and it is proved by the many letters received by the present citizens of our village and the visits from "the old students" that Vermillion Institute and Dr. Diefendorf are still cherished in the memories of those who are now far. away - and all give credit and regard to the days spent here, for good influences, for scholarship and the brotherly love kindled among the students.

Savannah

Savannah, Ashland county, was founded by the Rev. John Haney and was laid out in December, 1818. Being at the crossing of two important public roads, the town soon took root and grew into quite an active business place, and when the evolution-fever for the dismemberment of old counties and the formation of new ones raged in Ohio in the '40s, Savannah was a candidate to become a county seat town. But the lines being run from north to south, instead of from the east to the west, the town of Ashland carried off the honors. And Savannah's commercial hopes were not realized, and for a few years affairs seemed as though the little village might mot be able to keep its place upon the map.

But in 1849, the Rev. Alexander Scott opened a school in Savannah, which in time became an academy and which has ever since been greatly the life of the town and the pride of the beautiful country surrounding it. Of the six institutions of that kind founded in Ashland county during the academy founding era of fifty years ago, the Savannah academy is the only one in existence today - a verification of the fittest.

In the spring of 1854, the Rev. Alexander Scott was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Savannah, and soon after his settlement there, it occurred to him that the interests of both the church and the community would be greatly promoted by the founding of an academy there. There were a large number of young people within the bounds of the congregation that seemed desirous of securing a better education than could be obtained at a common school. Some of these were going to neighboring institutions. Others desired to go but could not afford the expense. With a view of meeting this want, on the 17th of September, 1856, the Rev. Mr. Scott opened a classical school under the name of the ' ' Savannah Male and Female Academy. ' ' Sixteen pupils were enrolled the first day, which number was increased to twenty-five before the close of the term, and to about one hundred before the end of the year. The second year, having secured more commodious accommodations, the school became still more prosperous. On Thanksgiving day, 1858, preliminary steps were taken to form an academy association with a board of trustees, which was successfully accomplished within a few weeks, and the institution has been successfully conducted ever since.

The Rev. Mr. Scott the founder of the academy is now eighty-eight years of age resides in the village and looks back with satisfaction to the work he founded and that the institution is prosperous today.

Savannah is built upon a lovely elevation, the base of which to the south and west is washed by the clear waters of the Vermillion river, or rather the headwaters thereof, just after being loosened from the Vermillion lakes, whose clear waters glisten in the sunshine south and east of the village, and where the moonbeams glimmer in sheens of beauty. These lakes are situated just north of the dividing ridge which traverses Ohio from the northeast to the southwest and forms the water shed of the state.

These Vermillion lakes are locally known as the McWilliams and the McLain lakes. The McWilliams lake is the larger of the two and is much deeper. There is a grove near each lake, and they are quite popular resorts for campers during the hot season.

The town is situated upon a beautiful plateau, and the houses of the village are of modern architecture, are kept well painted and the streets are clean and shady, evincing civic pride and betterment that is commendable everywhere. The lakes and lovely landscapes make a charming background to the village picture.

The first instance in wdiich the population of Savannah was taken separate from that of Clear Creek township was in 1860, when it was three hundred and sixty, but it has increased some since. The first settler in the town was Joseph Fast. The first schoolhouse in the place was a small log building, erected on the northeast corner of the town plat. There are three churches in the village - Methodist, Presbyterian and United Presbyterian. While the most of the buildings in the place are modern and up-to-date, there is one old building yet standing as a relic of the past. It is a rambling old structure, two stories in height and perhaps sixty feet front, and stands on the west side of Main street south of the academy building. It was built for a hotel and was called the "Tallchill."

The Savannah academy has been, since its founding, Christian, but not denominational. The ground, upon which the academy buildings stand, was donated for that purpose by the Rev. John Haney, the founder of the village. Daniel D. Templeton was the first president of the board of trustees.

Calling at the academy at a recitation hour, upon being ushered in, we were kindly greeted and confronted a sea of up-turned handsome and intellectual faces of a score of lady pupils, and later had the pleasure of meeting the principal of the school, the Rev. W. J. Machwart, who, with the Rev. H. F. Kerr, his able assistant, keep the institution up to its former high standard.

Jeromeville is in Mohican township, situated where the Mansfield- Wooster old-time stage road crosses the Jeromefork of the Mohican river. The town was laid out February 14, 1815, by Christian Deardorf and William Vaughn, who had purchased the land from John Baptiste Jerome a short time before, and the town was named Jeromeville in honor of Jerome. It is surrounded by fine farming lands, and no better soil for fertility can be found in the state than those along the branches of the Mohican. The climate is a healthful one, the scenery of the hills and valleys enhancing and romantic and many legends are

Jeromeville has a population of over four hundred, and being eligibly located in the northwest part of the township, it is a good business town for its size. It was the third town platted within the present limits of Ashland county

A branch of the Ramsey railway system runs from Custaloga, on the Pennsylvania road, northwest to Ashland, a distance of twenty-five miles, passes through Jeromeville and has added much to the business of both Jeromeville and Ashland. The road is called the Ashland & Western, and it is expected that the line will be extended to Lorain on the lake. There is also talk of extending the line south to the Ohio river.

Jeromeville at present contains three churches - the Christian, the Methodist and the Lutheran. A Presbyterian church was organized there in 1817, and was the first church in the place. They erected a church edifice in 1820, and the denomination prospered there for many years, but the organization finally ceased to exist and the church building has been remodeled and is now used as a store room.

The oldest building yet standing in Jeromeville was built for a hotel and was occupied as such for three-fourths of a century, but is now used for a furniture store and a dwelling. The building is in fair condition and seems good for another century. It is two stories in height, over fifty feet in length by about forty in width, and was considered a massive structure at the time it was erected. Additions were added in the rear for dining room and kitchen. This hotel structure was built of brick and sided with heavy, hard wood lumber, perfectly, matched and accurately fitted. A two-story porch with massive pillars and with railings nearly surrounds the building. There are great, old-fashioned fire places in both the first and second stories, of sufficient capacity to thoroughly heat the building and to admit of wood without much cutting. The first floor contains four large rooms with a wide hall running crosswise of the building in the center. The second story was formerly one large room, which was used as a bed room and upon festive occasions as a ball room. A large attic furnished further accommodations when needed.

All the material that composed the building inside and out was of hardwood, such as black and white walnut, cherry, oak, ash, maple, etc., all worked out by hand, floors, doors, siding, and all. The pillars are of black walnut and were cut from the stump here and all hauled by teams of oxen to Wooster, Ohio, and were turned out by William Spear ; the range work, pillar bases etc., were cut out by Samuel Jackson, a stonecutter of great skill.

In the old stage-coach days this town was a relay station, and is about midway between Wooster and Mansfield, and this stage route was the most prominent and important between the Alleghenies and the northwest. Hence the Hargrave tavern was none too large for the accommodations needed. There are three other buildings yet standing in the town which were built for hotels back in the stage days, but are less pretentious. In one of these, the one in which the postoffice is now located, the first session of court in the county was held, before a county seat had been located.

Another house is yet standing, supposed to be quite or nearly a century ol«. In the early settlement of the place it was the home of a Mr. McKahan, a wheej. wright, who had a little shop adjoining, where he manufactured spinning wheels, which were used by the pioneer women to spin wool and flax. Spinning wheels are known to the people of today only as relics and curiosities.

A road from Wooster through Jeromeville to the west was cut through the forest in the fall of 1812 by General Beall's army. This road became a great thoroughfare, and is still used and called " Beall's Trail." A blockhouse was built in the autumn of 1812 at Jeromeville by the troops for the protection of the settlers and was placed under the charge of Captain Murray, who remained there for some time. This blockhouse stood upon a slight knoll at the north part of the village, back of the railroad station, near the flouring mills.

After remaining in the vicinity of the blockhouse one or two days, General Beall crossed the Jeromefork, and his pioneers opened a path along the old Wyandot trail, in a northwesterly direction, to the banks of a small stream, where they formed a camp. This location was subsequently known as the Griffin farm. The camp received the name of "Mercer," in honor of Major Musser, who commanded one of the regiments. The distance of this camp from the present site of Jeromeville, was about three miles. Here the army remained about two weeks. It was during their stay in this camp that the battle of the "Cow Pens" occurred.

About the year 1762, Mohican John, a noted chief of the Mohegans, came to the vicinity of Jeromeville with a band of his tribe numbering about two hundred, and established a village upon the west side of the Jeromefork, upon a knoll or eminence, about a half mile west of the present town of Jeromeville. The village was called Mohican Johnstown, in honor of their noted leader.

The names of some of the heads of the families were Aweepsah, Opetete, Catotawa, Nesohawa, Buckandohee, Shias, Ground Squirrel Buckwheat, Philip Canonicut, Billy Montour, and Thomas Jelloway.

The Delaware Indians had a settlement near Jeromeville, which they left at the beginning of the war of 1812. Their chief was old Captain Pipe. When young he was a great warrior, and the implacable foe of the whites. He was in St. Clair's defeat, where, according to his own account, he distinguished himself, and slaughtered white men until his arm was weary with the work.

The village contained a council house and about sixty or eighty pole lodges or wigwams, and was located near the old Wyandot trail. The village was a common resort of hostile Indians on their warlike excursions to western Pennsylvania and Virginia, in the days of the border wars. Many white captives had been led up the old trail, by the village, from 1780 to 1795. The Indians had cleared some fifteen or twenty acres of bottom land, which the squaws cultivated in corn, after the Indian manner. About one mile northeast of the Indian village, a Frenchman by the name of John Baptiste Jerome, resided in a comfortable cabin, having an Indian wife and a daughter, the latter aged about fifteen years. He also had horses, cattle and swine, and had cleared about thirty or forty acres of bottom land along the stream at the west side of what is now Jeromeville, on which he raised corn, and supplied many of the early pioneers with seed corn.

When the old Portage road was surveyed in 1810, Jerome lived in a cabin near the foot of Main street in Jeromeville. When Captain Douglas removed the Indians, the wife and daughter of Jerome accompanied them. It has been stated that Jerome gave them the choice of going with their people or remaining with him, and they chose to go with the Indians. The following concerning Jerome is from Hill's history of Ashland county:

"John Baptiste Jerome was born near Montreal, Canada, of French parents, in the year 1776 or 1777. When seventeen or eighteen years of age he crossed the lake with some French emigrants, and settled among the Indians at the mouth of the Huron river. He married an Indian girl, supposed to have been the sister of a noted Indian known as George Hamilton. After remaining on the Huron a few years, he removed to Upper Sandusky, and resided among the Indians until the campaign of General Anthony Wayne. In company with Captain Pipe, of the Delawares, he was engaged in a number of battles against the American forces, and was at the famous battle of 'Fallen Timbers.' At the time of his residence in this county, he often related anecdotes concerning that battle, describing the amazement of the Indians at the rapidity and violence of the movements of Wayne's army - the Indians comparing him to a huge 'black snake, ' and ascribing almost supernatural powers to him. He asserted, that for a long time, the very name of 'Mad Anthony' sent a chill of horror through the body of an Indian. They had, prior to the appearance of General Wayne, baffled the armies of the American generals, and committed many barbarities upon the wounded and dead soldiers left upon the battle field ; but, when he came, like a huge anaconda, he enclosed and crushed the warriors in such a frightful manner that they had abandoned all hope of resisting his victorious mardi, and were glad to stop his ravages by making peace. ' '

After the treaty at Greenville in 1795, John Baptiste Jerome, Captain Pipe, and a number of the Delawares left the northwest and settled in what was formerly Mohican Johnstown, on the south side of the stream, about a half mile from the present site of Jeromeville. The stream was thenceforth known as the Jeromefork, which name it doubtless received from Jerome. The precise period of this migration cannot be accurately fixed, but was doubtless as early as 1796 or 1797. Jerome crossed the stream and built a cabin a little southeast of the present site of the mill, where Joseph H. Larwill found him, his wife and daughter, while -surveying, in 1806-7. Captain Pipe built a wigwam and located about one mile from Jerome, near what is now the Hayesville road. When the first settlers came into Mohican township, Jerome resided in the aforesaid cabin.

Prior to his being separated from his wife, Jerome was noted for his hospitality, his wife being an excellent cook and housekeeper, considering her opportunities, Jerome being her only instructor as to domestic duties. During the

About the year 1817 Jerome and his German wife removed to his old residence at the mouth of Huron river, where he died a few years afterwards, in indigent circumstances. After Jerome's Indian wife left him, he married a German woman from the Clearfork settlement.

In the fall or early part of the winter of 1812 the family of William Bryan, residing on the Jeromefork, about a mile and a half below Jeromeville, were one afternoon surprised by the appearance of a couple of Indians. As the Indians of the neighborhood had all been removed, their presence occasioned suspicion. They asked for food, and while it was being prepared a girl was dispatched to the fort to give the alarm. Thomas Carr and the Frenchman, Jerome, immediately armed themselves and started in pursuit, but before they reached Mr. Bryan's house the Indians had taken their leave and pursuit was abandoned.

The days following our visit to Jeromeville, the old dam, which for nearly a century had spanned the river there and furnished power for the grist mill, was blown out by dynamite, by order of the court, on account of the dam backing the water and overflowing the land. The court awarded Mr. Plank, the proprietor of the mill, ten thousand dollars damages for being deprived of this water power, and the money was paid to Mr. Plank a short time previous to the dam being destroyed.

Mr. C. T. Alleman, aged sixty-three, a life-long resident of Jeromeville, takes a commendable interest in the history of his town. The author of this work is indebted to him for favors.

Loudon ville is in Hanover township, situated on the line of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, midway between Mansfield and Wooster. The towm is twenty miles from Ashland, twenty from Mansfield, twenty from Wooster, twenty from Millersburg and twenty from Mt. Vernon - an equal distance from five county seat towns.

Loudonville was laid out August 6, 1814, by Stephen Butler and James Loudon Priest, and was named for the latter. The first sale of lots was made September 14, 1814. There was one cabin on the site of Loudonville before the town was platted and was the home of Stephen Butler. It had but one room, but was used as a tavern, and was therefore the first hotel in the place, and the town was laid out around it. Chappel, who settled near the town site in 1814, was Mr. Butler's nearest neighbor. The early reminiscences of the place are similar to those already given of other communities, and the struggles and triumphs of its early settlers who came to the wilderness and who after years of toil and dangers brought it to a state of civilization, was much the same as of other pioneers.

Loudonville at one time, like a number of other new towns in the county, aspired to become the county seat. The Blackfork of the Mohican enters the township at Loudonville and furnishes excellent water power. It pursues a southwesterly course until it unites with Clearfork a few miles below.

During the trouble with the Indians, Mr. Priest erected a fort upon his premises for the safety of his family and the members, and it was called "The Priest Stockade."

Mr. Haskell early laid out an addition to Loudonville. He erected a brick building at his own expense known as the "Haskell Academy," employed teachers and kept the school going for several years. He started the first bank in Loudonville in 1868, which was continued after his death by his nephew, George C. Haskell. One of the earliest mills in the vicinity was erected by Thomas McMacken in 1834. The A. A. Taylor mill on the Blackfork just above "the town is one of the largest country mills in the state.

Thomas H. Stewart, of Loudonville, was one of the first associate judges of Richland county, Loudonville being then in Richland county. The residence of Dr. Scott is the largest and most imposing in the town, although there are many other handsome residences there.

Of the newspapers published in Loudonville past and present, the writer recalls the Independent, published by the Rev. Lockhart, but the editor's views were too strenuous to be popular, and in 1873 it suspended publication and the Advocate took its place, with the veteran, J. H. Ruth, as editor and publisher. In 1877, the Advocate passed into the hands of Stauffer and Miller. After a year or two Mr. Miller retired and Peter High Stauffer became the sole proprietor and conducted the paper successfully until his death a few years since. The Advocate is now published by H. E. Zimmerman. The Loudonville Democrat was founded by John Herzog in 1879, and is now owned and successfully published by John C. Bowman.

From a write-up of Loudonville, entitled "Looking Back Sixteen Years," which appeared in the Advocate in October, 1908, we take the following:

Looking back over a period of sixteen years, Loudonville has made a wonderful change to a former citizen who had not been here in that length of time, as there are but few of the old landmarks left by which he could recognize the place.

In the year of 1892, the T. W. V. & 0. railroad was constructed by General A. Warner, which has proven to be one of the greatest coal-carrying roads in the state of Ohio.

During the same year the old West Main street bridge was replaced with a modern structure, of which any town and the county commissioners who erected it, can justly feel proud. The new bridge came none too soon, however, as the old one had become dangerous and entirely inadequate for the traffic. Thanks are due to Jacob Kettering, who was then a member of the board of county commissioners and through whose untiring efforts this commodious structure was finally secured.

During the same year the municipal light plant was installed and no town can boast of being better or more brilliantly lighted than Loudonville.

And, while you are looking for and sizing up the improvements of the town, just allow your eyes to take a "snapshot" of the beautiful and costly dwellings which have sprung up on Mt. Vernon avenue, Maple Heights, Campbell, Union, Adams, East Main, South Water, Spring, Wood streets and Cherry avenue. Have you thought of the improvements made on these streets or must they be pointed out to make you fully realize the change that has been going on in the last few years? In the interval don't overlook the improvement the P. F. company has made on its grounds - a good, substantial depot, train sheds and a park well kept which adds to the beauty of our village.

What was at first thought to be a disastrous blow to the town, was the fire of May, 1901, but which afterwards proved to be the beginning of a new era in the upbuilding and betterment of the town.

The erection of new business structures by A. B. Leopold, S. H. Evans, F. P. Young, A. Tenschert and F. M. Petot were the first Main street improvements to follow the fire. These rooms are as complete and up-to-date as one could find in many days' travel. Following these improvements came the erection of the Hotel Ullman by the Ullman family, a commodious hostelry, second to none in all its appointments and one which would be a credit to any town many times the size of Loudonville.

The year following the fire came the water works system. This was one of the best investments the town ever made. The water supply has never diminished and the quality is the best to be found in the land. Following the water works came the sewerage system, which every citizen knows is a great benefit to public health.

Street paving was agitated by the property holders along Main street in 1906, but did not come to a focus until the year following. What street paving has added to the town in appearance and convenience is not necessary to mention as every loyal citizen feels proud even when he gazes upon it.

Going back to 1902, C. B. Scott and E. F. Shelley became associate^ in real estate, and, desiring to see the town kept on the move, they purchased the old American House corner. These grounds were then sold to individuals desiring locations to build; and, we might add, that they refused to sell to any one only prospective builders. As a result of their efforts in this direction, the first structure to become conspicuous, was the Beard & Harvey livery barn, a spacious tile building, erected by Orra Beard for a livery and feed barn. This was followed by the erection of three elegant business rooms on the American House site by M. Derrenberger, Earl Wolf and W. P. Ullman. The vacant lots on North Water street have also been occupied within the last few years, which practically covers that portion of the town left in ruins and ashes by the big fire.

While Loudonville has not grown as rapidly as some other towns in the state, yet it has always been recognized as a place of wealth and a hustling little business center. Located as it is, in the great Mohican valley, surrounded by picturesque hills and landscape scenery of bewildering beauty which impress visitors with a memory that will never be effaced, it forms an attractive center for trading.

No town in the state has a more intelligent, self-helping, self-respecting population than this little berg on the Blackfork. Honesty, fidelity and economy have been characteristic traits of its citizens from generation to generation. No other town of its size enjoys a more liberal patronage from the surrounding community, and also can it be said that few towns this size, and even larger, can boast of as good stores in all lines of business, as well managed and all carrying splendid lines to select from.

The banking interests of the town are in capital condition and each of the three banks are in competent hands, such as would he creditable to any locality. Realizing that the wealth and business interests of the town were sufficient to support a third bank, the Citizens Savings Bank company was instituted in 1905, with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars and representing an actual wealth of one million five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. This bank first began doing business in the Derrenberger room, but was later located in a new building erected expressly for its use.

The same year in which the Citizens Bank was founded, Dr. Scott and Mr. -Shelley came in possession of the Larwell corner, including the site formerly occupied by the old Taylor warehouse, located in the rear of the Strauss & Arnholt clothing store, which was destroyed by fire in 1885. A little later the Merklinger building and ground was purchased of Mrs. Hattie Ullman. A handsome structure, which is a consummation of art and convenience in its interior arrangement and with its white terra cotta front in imitation of white marble, with fluted pillars, in colonial style of architecture, has replaced the wooden building as well as the little shack formerly used as a fish-stand. This modern structure, which is not only an ide&l banking building, but an ornament to the town, was the out-growth of the Citizens Savings Bank. Its construction was under the supervision of E. F. Shelley, who is president of the institution.

E. F. Shelley became interested in the bank shortly after its organization and has been one of the principal promoters of the many improvements which have taken place in the last few years. He is a man of exceptionally fine executive ability and always stands ready to push any enterprise, which in his judgment, will benefit the town.

A. J. Solomon, of Mt. Vernon, was also instrumental in bringing about the present activity in the improvement that has taken place on the Larwell corner. Sentiment was one of the incentives of Mr. Solomon for assisting in founding this bank in Loudonville. In forming his system of banks throughout the state, he remembered where his boyhood days were spent, and was one of the prime movers in organizing and promoting this institution.

Dr. C. B. Scott, who is one of the directors of the bank, has been closely associated with Mr. Shelley in all his business relations. As a mover and promoter of public enterprise, Mr. Scott possesses many of the characteristic traits of his father, the late Andrew J. Scott to whom thanks are due for the active part he performed in securing the passage of the necessary bill by the legislature at Columbus, for our electric light plant. Dr. Scott has been a resident of Loudonville all his life and enjoys a professional reputation of which any practitioner might well be proud.

More than a year ago the Loudonville Realty and Improvement Company was formed with the following roster of members: E. F. Shelley, Dr. C. B. Scott, M. J. Wolf, H. R. Priest and A. J. Solomon. The purpose of this company was to promote public improvement and continue in the same progressive attitude as long as opportunity afforded. A contract was soon closed with the postoffice department with plans and specifications for a new postoffice building. A modern two story brick building now occupies a portion of the Larwell "melon patch." The building was designed and erected especially for postoffice purposes and is complete in every detail. The interior arrangement with its costly and up-to-date furnishings makes it a prominent feature of interest to strangers. S. B. Rathbone, assistant to the first postmaster general, with whom the company made the contract and who was sent here to inspect the building after its completion, said that the building as well as the postoffice fixtures were far in excess of what the department expected to see. He also paid a glowing tribute to Messrs. Scott and Shelley for the manner in which they fulfilled their part of the contract and for the elegant furnishings with which the office was equipped.

Messrs. Scott and Shelley have informed the Advocate that they are not only ready and willing to erect more business blocks such as they have already built, but would be very glad to do so for any one who is looking for a business room in which to locate.

If the property owners on the opposite side of the street, from Oswalt's corner east, would follow the example set by these two enterprising citizens, what a beautiful little business thoroughfare Loudonville would have.

If Loudon Priest, who laid out the town plat in 1814 and after whom Loudonville was named, could return what a wonderful change it would represent to him, and we wonder how many of the old land marks here at that time he could point out.

Some Points Of Interest Around Loudonville

The following is from the pen of the late Peter High Stauffer and appeared in a supplement to his " Loudonville Advocate" newspaper in June, 1903 :

No drive out of Loudonville abounds in as much beautiful scenery as the one south of Mt. Yernon avenue over the old State road. You pass the site of the once flourishing tannery of the Schauweker Brothers, who amassed a fortune here in their business. The grounds in part are now owned by the Queen Manufacturing Company, one of Loudonville 's flourishing manufacturing concerns. As you ascend Brewery or " Ghost" Hill a panoramic view of Loudonville is presented that is simply charming. To the right of the winding roadway rises the City Waterworks Park until it reaches an altitude several hundred feet above the valley below. On its lofty summit lies sleeping like a monstrous leviathan the City Reservoir, whose throbbing arteries ramify every street of the town, even to the remotest ends of it, slaking the thirst of all animate beings of the city, cleansing it of all manner of microbes that might endanger life or health, or laying combat to the fire demon that would at the midnight hour seek to destroy the homes or other treasures of its peaceful citizens. If the plans of the city fathers are carried out in years to come Waterworks Park will be a beautyspot and the pride of the town. From its lofty heights an enchanting landscape unfolds before the vision. The smoke from the hundreds of peaceful homes and the few busy factories settles over the valley below like a cloud of incense and the many lofty church spires pointing heavenward give evidence of a devout and God-fearing people. Beyond the confines of the town stretches out a landscape of vernal green that serves as a background to a charming birds-eye picture of our lovely city. Across it, all like threads of steel, passes the roadway of one of the century 's greatest wonders in the realms of commericial exchange - a modern railway, with its giant engines and monstrous trains like phantoms flitting to and fro.

What a contrast between the present and the conditions that existed a generation ago! We say a generation ago - we can almost draw the limit a little closer. As we are ascending the roadway over the hill we imagine we can hear the rumblings of the old-fashioned stage coach approaching us, the same drawn by four foaming steeds and our old and good friend Sylvester Danner handling the ribbons and cracking the whip over the heads of the dashing horses, as he was wont to do for eight years before the advent of railroads in this country.

In those pioneer days one of the great thoroughfares of this country was the road we are now traveling and the stage coach was the most commodious and expeditious mode of travel. Although we are removed only a generation from this primitive state of our country's history we can hardly realize that the steam engine, electric car, telegraph and telephone service are creations of the past decade or two.

As we are passing down the road we greet our good friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Bell and the dear ones at home, who are enjoying life's comforts on the old Barron farm, now owned by our townsman, W. S. Fisher.

As we journey on we cast our eyes over the broad and fertile acres of our good friend Frederick Feichter, than whom no thriftier and more successful yeoman lives in Hanover township. He has made farming a life study and his success is due to applying his knowledge to all his farming operations.

As we pass along we are charmed by the beauties of nature as displayed in the fertile valley that stretches out before us. On either side are silhouetted against the horizon the everlasting hills which seem like giant sentinels guarding the valley below, which is glistening under the effulgence of the morning sun. Through the erosions by the elements during ages and centuries the hills have receded, thus broadening the valley and adding many fertile acres to the farm land. Upon the hillsides are lazily roaming herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, reminding us of the " cattle upon a thousand hills" mentioned in the Sacred Word. The edges of the roadside are fringed with blossoming elders and a great profusion of wild flowers of all descriptions. The wheat fields are waving in the gentle breeze, reminding us that harvest-time will soon be here. The pasture fields are carpeted over with a deep green and all nature never looked lovlier than it does now.

The slow and sluggish Blackfork draws its serpentine length through the beautiful valley and on either side is hemmed in by strips of a luxuriant growth of willows and underbrush. Close beside this stream the Walhonding Valley railroad seeks to parallel it, but on account of many crooks and turns has to leap from one side to the other.

While we are drinking in the beauties of the valley and its environments we notice over the farthest hill tops, where the valley swings to the east, the smoke curling up and then, a shrill whistle of an approaching train. Where a few* generations ago was curling the smoke from the red man's wigwam and where was heard his dread war whoop are now the quiet homes of a peaceful and prosperous people, who enjoy all the luxuries that are the inheritance of civilization and Christianization.

But we have reached the "Old Stone House," about which cluster many happy and also sad memories. In years past this ancient landmark was owned in succession by two of Loudon ville 's eminent physicians, Drs. J. C. Pell and A. B. Fuller. Both have passed from life's busy stage of action, but we never pass along the road but that memory reverts to them and our heart saddens at the thought that their lives were not spared for many more years of usefulness and affectionate association with those near and dear to them. The present tenants of the old house are Mr. and Mrs. Frank Whisler. We have a tender spot in our hearts for the good housewife that presides over the destinies of the household in the old mansion. Several years ago while returning with a friend from a fishing expedition, we halted at the stone spring in front of the house for a drink, but the kind lady, who was boiling applebutter, offered us big draughts of sweet cider, which was most delicious. We shall never forget the kindness.

We now reach the Garrett bottoms, lands that are fertile as any in the country. When William Garrett and his young wife came to this section from their New J ersey home they settled on this tract of land and spent the remainder of their days upon it. They here amassed a fortune through frugality, industry and honorable dealings with their neighbors. Although living on the farm Mr. Garrett served for years as vice president of the Loudonville Banking Company. The farm of about four hundred acres is now owned and occupied, by their daughter, Mrs. John Nyhart. Mr. and Mrs. Nyhart live in a palatial farm house just across the Clearfork. As one views the contentment of these tillers of the soil and the bounty with which they are provided you are reminded of the condition of the farmers of the storied Arcadian land before the invasion of the enemy.

On the north bank of the Clearfork, opposite the wooden bridge, stands one of the oldest landmarks of Hanover township. The house is occupied by Alfred Maxwell and family, who do the farming for Mr. Nyhart. The house was erected over ninety years ago and during stage coach days was a country tavern. Ed. Hibbard was then the landlord and, as a tavern in those days always included a bar where all kinds of intoxicating liquors were dispensed, the old citizens of that country relate many exciting doings when the "warring elements of the backwoods localities met and while under the influence of liquor settled their difficulties. Our old friend, Joshua Mapes, who lives near -the old hotel site, is now in his eightieth year, is the first male child born on Pine Run and never was farther away from his old home than Mt. Vernon. He remembers many of the fights at the old tavern and when a boy saw Indians, wolves, bears, deer, wild cats and even panthers and elks roaming the bottoms.

At the Nyhart home an old wooden bridge spans the Clearfork, one of those relics of stage coach days, which are now fast passing away. In a few more years this may have to give way to a modern stone and iron structure in order to accommodate the interurban electric line from Loudonville to Mt. Vernon.

South of the bridge, with a beautiful hillside for a background, stands the old stone election house which was built about forty years ago, replacing a structure which Mart Ernst afterwards used as a barn until the great flood of June, 1899, carried it down the stream.

We wish to digress a little here to relate an incident that an old newspaper man told us at the hotel in Mansfield, several years ago. He was born and raised in the state of New York and learned the art preservative. He got the western fever and started for Cincinnati to seek employment. He passed through Loudonville on a stage coach. After working in Cincinnati for a few months he became homesick and started for home again over the same tedious stage coach line. He said he remembered Loudonville from the fact that one night he stayed in a country tavern in a little village between Loudonville and Mt. Yernon. He dreamed of home and the dear ones there and then a beautiful picture came up before his vision. He thought he was standing on a high elevation and before him lay a valley that was resplendent in beauty. In the meadows of the low lands herds of cattle were grazing, a stream of crystal water was winding its serpentine length through the valley and a country road was passing through it. To the left of the valley was a high bluff surmounted by a heavy primeval forest and down along the hillside near the road was projecting the snag of a dead tree and underneath it was gushing forth from the caverns of the hillside a stream of clear water. Every outline seemed as real as life in his dream and it made an impression on him that he never forgot. In the morning the tedious journey was again resumed and the dream of the night was haunting the homesick young man all along the route. As the stage coach reached a point, as he described it, about four miles south of Loudonville, as they were descending a steep hill, he beheld the exact landscape as pictured in the vision the night before. There was not a single detail omitted. In relating this incident he said he could not account for it, but he would give five dollars now if he could be once more at the same spot and view the same landscape.

To the west from the covered bridge the Clearfork is paralleled on both sides by a country road. We take what is called the "Narrows'' road. At times this is a dangerous thoroughfare, as the hillsides give way and go thundering down into the river below. When the foliage is all out a vista to extreme beauty presents itself. The music of the birds from the deep, umbrageous recesses of the wooded hillside is charming and the air is redolent with the perfume of many flowers. At this time of the year and possibly a little earlier the hillsides are festooned with large patches of wild flowers of the brightest hues, which gleam through the dark foliage and present a charming scene. To the right the roadside is lined by bushes which are growing at the edge of the beautiful Clearfork and through them as you pass along you get glimpses of the clear and placid stream. Many are the woodland voices calling us and the admirer of the beautiful in nature can go adrift in these woodpaths and will be charmed by the exquisite chorus of bird music. The full chorus of bird song is really almost over b}r the middle of June, but there is enough song and activity left to enchant you. Even upon the crest of the hillside the sable crows are holding an animated convention on the contiguous tree tops and discussing the prospects of the farmer's corn crop in yonder field.

As you emerge from the charming vista along the "Narrows" your memory will revert to a sad scene enacted on the night of June 19, 1899, when Isaac Hunter lost his life in the great flood. The writer with a friend passed along this road on the morning of that memorable day. The sun shone brightly and when we reached the Hunter cabin a beautiful view presented itself. We both remarked: "What a beautiful scene for a picture!" The modest little cabin was in the center of the scene, around it were strewn promiscuously farming utensils, threshing and sawing machinery and the general indications were that there was no woman connected with the household. The background consisted of hills covered with the most beautiful foliage. It was just such a setting to a picture that an artist would admire. On our return home that evening we engaged a photographer to drive down the following morning to take the picture for ' ' Loudonville Illustrated. ' ' Scarcely an hour afterwards the most destructive storm for years commenced to rage. Our townsman, E. F. Shelley, passed the Hunter cabin after the storm had commenced and by the flashes of lightning recognized the old man as he was standing in the cabin door with a pan in his hand. No one saw him alive afterwards. The floodgates of heaven seemed to have been turned wide open and the reverberations of thunder from hillside to hillside and flashes of vivid lightning struck terror to the stoutest hearts. Horsetail Run, a little rivulet, soon became a roaring river, extending its borders to both hillsides and carrying death and destruction before it. The county bridge and the Hunter cabin were mere toys in the embrace of this infuriated water demon. The horror felt and experienced by the only occupant of the little cabin can only be imagined. His fate was not known until the next morning when the ruins plainly indicated it. His remains were found ten days later along the banks of the stream near Greersville.

Our good friend Mart. Ernst and his wife, who live only a few rods up the run from the site of the Hunter cabin, were saved as by a miracle. Their home was surrounded by water and all out-buildings were carried away by the flood. Mr. Ernst, by the way, is a veritable walking encyclopedia on matters pertaining to hunting and fishing and is conversant with the entire legendary lore of the Clearfork country. His friends call him as a special distinction "The Old Coon Hunter of the Clearfork."

Beyond his home where the road makes another turn Horsetail run reveals hundreds and thousands of round stones of all sizes. This has been the Mecca of relic hunters for many years. Many a pleasant hour was spent in years past in the bed of this almost dried-up run by our departed friends, H. B. Case and John Freshwater and the Dominie that presides over the spiritual destinies of Zion Lutheran church, the Rev. M. R. Walter, hammers in hand and cracking open the "dornicks" to find some rare geological specimens. The following are some of the fossils with which this special locality abpunds : spirifers, crinoids, conularias, micronemas, newberris, lingulars, trilobite Lodienzis, etc. It may be of interest to some of our readers that according to the geological reports of Ohio that the only sections in the world where the Trilobite Lodienzi is found is in this special locality and at Lodi, in Medina county. It takes its specific name from the town of Lodi.

Military

It is a matter little known to the world in general that Ashland county was the scene of a conflict between the British and Americans during the war of 1812. Such, however, is the case and the following account thereof has been written under the title of

Two Battles Of Cowpens

There are two battles of Cowpens recorded in history - one fought in South Carolina during the war of the revolution, the other in old Richland county - in our own Buckeye state - in the war of 1812. The former was a terrible reality ; the latter a bloodless incident.

At Cowpens, a village in Spartanburg county, South Carolina, on January 17, 1781, the American army under General Morgan defeated the British under General Tarleton. The American loss in this battle was but seventy-two while that of the British was over eight hundred, making the result a signal victory for the patriots.

The Richland incident occurred in what is now Vermillion township, Ashland county, then a part of Richland ere the legislature cut up its original boundaries to create new counties.

When General Beall made his memorable march in the fall of 1812 to protect the settlements in this part of the state from attacks of the savages and incursions of the British he cut a road called "Beall's trail" through the wilderness from Wooster to the state road at Planktown.

While enroute the army camped for two weeks in the vicinity of Hay's Cross Roads, now called Hayesville. The camp was called Camp Musser, after Major Musser, an officer in General Beall's army.

It was on a dark rainy night that the soldiers were awakened from their slumbers by the firing of pickets at one of the outposts and the command to "fall in." soon formed the men into line to meet the foe, as it was supposed the Indians were coming to attack the camp in

The pickets reported that the enemy was advancing upon the camp in solid phalanx and the ground trembled with the tread of forming battallions and of approaching ' ' foes. ' '

It was the army's first experience in war's alarms and the soldiers acted as calmly as veterans of old and with steady hands opened fire upon the advancing foe (-?)*, lighting up with lurid glare and quickening flash the inky blackness of the night. The cracking of musketry, the charging of cavalry over logs and stumps, combined to make night grand and awful with the pomp and reality of

Soon however, the tramp and bellowing of stamping cattle explained the " attack" - that the stock had broken out of the corral and advancing towards the picket post had been mistaken by the guards for hostile Indians. The incident, however, showed the vigilance of the troops, as well as their coolness and bravery in the face of danger.

Napoleon won at least three of his most striking victories - Marenzo, Austerlitz and Dresden - by passing at the right moment suddenly from an apparently passing attitude of defence to a vigorous offensive. Wellington, after the world had come to regard him as great only on the defensive, used strictly the opposite tactics with victorious results at Victoria^ Orthez and Toulouse, the last of these three actions being one of such apparent temerity as can hardly be paralleled in modern history.