Congress Township

Chapter Xxxiii

This township was organized October 5, 18 18. By the census of 1870 its population was 2,581. The following is the list of officers of the township, as appears upon the township records :

1868. Trustees - P. R. Henney, W. W. Reid, A. G. Rittenhouse ; Assessor - Thomas Ferguson ; Treasurer - John Moyers ; Clerk - G. A. Whitmore.

1869. Trustees - W. W. Reid, A. G. Rittenhouse, Daniel Gable ; Assessor - Thomas Ferguson ; Treasurer - John Myers ; Clerk - G. A. Whitmore.

Reminiscences of Congress Township by Hon. Michael Totien and James Carlin. - In 1815 the first families moved into what is now Congress township. Some time during the first week in February Michael and Henry Totten accompanied George and Isaac Poe, and cut a trail from Wooster to where the village of Congress stands, which at that time was all forest, the lands having not been entered. We encamped with George Poe, about one-half mile from the village, until we could erect a cabin, which we built on section 27, on the lands owned by John Garver. When we got our cabin completed, some time during the month of February, 1815, Henry and myself went to Wooster and moved our mother and our sister Catharine the first two white women in the township) and all the household furniture on a sled from Wooster to our cabin.

On the first of» April following George and Isaac Poe and other families came into the township and settled upon the same section. The same spring Peter Warner, with his family, moved into the south-west corner of the township. In 1816 Matthew Brewer and James Carlin, with their families, moved to the same farms upon which they lived till their deaths.

The next to come were George Aukerman and John Nead, with their families. After this period emigrants came in so fast and settled in such widely different parts of the township that it would be impossible to trace them, or where they located. The first white person who died was Mrs. Amasa Warner, and the second my mother. The first school ever taught was by John Totten in the first cabin built. George Poe was the first Justice of the township. The first school-house was built in 1819, on the south-west quarter of section 37. The first year after moving into the township my brother Henry and I cleared five acres and planted it in corn, which we cut off in the fall and put down in wheat, and which was the first corn and wheat raised in the township. Game was very plenty, and for some time after our arrival it was our chief article of food. We could not raise hogs or sheep after our settlement, as they would be devoured by wolves. One winter we had twelve sheep enclosed in the same lot in which the house stood, thinking they were safe, and that the dogs would guard them, but a herd of wolves, during the night, assailed them and destroyed eleven ; the remaining and last one escaped, and running into the house, awoke the family, but the hungry scavengers of the woods had fled. The next day, there being snow on the ground, I pursued them as far as the Harrisville Swamp, in Medina county, but got no opportunity of shooting at them. Near this swamp were encamped about 30 or 40 Indians. Among other early settlers of the township were John Jeffrey, Walter Elgin, David Gardner, Jacob Holmes, Jacob Shellebarger, Peter and Samuel Chasey, G. W. Howey, David Nelson, the father of James Grimes, James Boyd, Hector Burns, Samuel Sheets, N. N. Perrine, A. Yocum, John Vanasdoll, Rev. John Hazard and family, Isaac Matthews, and others.

James Carlin says : The first couple married in Congress township was Jesse Matteson and Eleanor Carlin, the ceremony by Judge James Robison, and that the first sermon preached was by a Presbyterian minister, Matthews, who spoke with a sword girded to his body. The first grist-mill was built by Naftzger, where a man named Buchanan was killed, waiting for a grist. George Howey was the first blacksmith, and Michael Funk the first merchant. The first physician was a Mr. Mills, and the first carpenter and joiner was Jacob Matthews.

Daniel Chasey was a native of Saratoga county, N. Y. , and with his wife immigrated to Wayne county as early as 1814-15, settling a mile north-west of Lattasburg, on old Appletree Moyer's place. He died at his son Samuel's, west of Congress village, about 1867. He married Miss Elizabeth Allen. Samuel Chasey was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., October 21, 1802, and immigrated to Ohio with his father. He was married to Selona Warner July 26, 1826, and had twelve children, as follows: Abner G., Andrew, Ithamer, Daniel, Martha Ann, Mary E., Cyrus, Amanda, Samuel H., Jeremiah, Obadiah and Margaret. His wife died May 2., 1873, he surviving her until July 15, 1876.

Thomas McKee was born in Northampton county. Pa., June 22, 1796, but came from Westmoreland when he removed to Wayne county, Ohio, in 1818. He at once commenced milling for Joseph Stibbs,with whom he remained ten years, during which time, in 1824, he married Anna Brown, daughter of Frederick Brown. In 1830 he removed to Congress township, on a farm he had purchased there eight years previously, and where he now resides, but which in later years was largely added to by other lands. His wife died January 25, 1 8 5 1 , aged 46 years. They had ten children , as follows : Joseph, Mary, Thomas, Margaret, Ephraim, William, John, George B., A. E. and Sindalena. By industry and good management he has succeeded in surrounding himself with the wealth and comforts of life, and now, in his old age, enjoys the proceeds of a remarkably well-spent life. He is the firmest of Democrats, and popular with his fellow citizens, having been elected Trustee and to other township offices, and was honored with being made one of the first County Infirmary Directors under the new constitution.

Jacob Leatherman came to Congress township March 26, 1842, settling on a farm two miles southwest of the village of Congress, land which his father, Peter Leatherman, in early days had entered from the Government, Jacob afterwards purchasing the same from him. He was married January 16, 1841, to Miss Urith Sherrod. In 1857 he quit farming and removed to Congress village, there engaging in the dry goods business, and in April, 1864, went to West Salem, where he continued in the mercantile trade until 1869, and where he at present resides, at the same time owning and managing his farm near Congress village. His life has been an earnest one, and his business career characterized by the strictest probity. For years he has been one of the most enterprising and leading business men of the township, closely identified with all its projects for improvement, and by dint of unflagging industry and perseverance, aided by good common sense and clear judgment, has secured a competency. He is courteous in manner and of kindly disposition - will go all lengths to befriend a friend, but, on the other hand, will exert himself just as much to punish a person who has done him an injury. He is an uncompromising Democrat, taking a prominent part in local and state politics ; and as a man, to a great extent, commands the respect and esteem of the community at large.

John Dulin was born near Wellsburg, West Virginia, and with his wife came to Wayne county in 1834, settling upon the farm now partly owned by Abraham Billhammer, where he died May 21, 1845, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. Mr. Dulin served one year in the Revolutionary war and drew a pension until the time of his death. He was married to Miss Sarah Sharp, of

Virginia. His son, John Dulin, came to Wayne county about a year prior to his father and settled on a farm about three miles south-west of Congress, in Congress township. He was married to Miss Mary Cope, of the city of Dublin, Ireland, and had eleven children. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died February 2, 1 86 1. His wife died September 26, 1864. To his daughter, Margaret J., who married C. H. Weltmer, we are indebted for these facts.

John Keeler was born within four miles of Philadelphia, Pa., August 20, 1819. His father came to Wayne county at an early date, bringing his family, and worked for a period on the Samuel Funk farm in Chester township. He then removed to Gallon, Ohio. John, however, remained in Wayne county, and was married to Hannah Matthews, of Wooster, whose mother was Catherine Poe, sister of Mrs. Kuffel, and daughter of old Adam Poe, the Indian fighter. After marriage they removed to Congress village, and lived there until Mr. Keeler's death, February 14, 1875. They had four children, two of whom are dead, one dying when a child. William, a son, was a soldier in Company F, I02d Regiment, and was killed by the explosion of the steamer Sultana, on the Mississippi river, April 28, 1875. Sarah C. is the wife of Joseph McVicker. Thomas B. , married to Ida J. Weltmer, is a lawyer in practice in West Salem.

Congress. - This village, originally called Waynesburg, was laid out March 6, 1827, by Philip Gates and David Newcomer, and surveyed by Peter Emery; plat and certificate recorded March 27, 1827, and can be found in vol. 6, page 24, County Records.

Robert Lowry, a gallant soldier of the Mexican war and the last conflict between the North and South, informs us that Michael Funk and Elmer Yocum built the first house in the village of Congress, and that it was situated upon the site of the present Methodist church ; that Jacob Hare was the first postmaster, the office being kept on lot No. 5, in the village ; that Dr. Mills was the first permanent physician ; that George Wicks kept the first hotel, and that David W. Poe established the first tannery in the village. An Indian died in the house now occupied by the Beard family, and was buried in the old Congress graveyard. The old Indian and his wife were on a tramp, and stopped at Griffith's Tavern, where they got tight and abusive, and the landlord's wife threw a pot of boiling water on him^ and he died.