Franklin Township

Franklin Township

Franklin is one of the two irregular-shaped townships in Wayne county, the other being Wooster township. Franklin was named from old Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, the statesman and scientist. The township was organized for civil purposes June 7, 1820. Its population is now about one thousand two hundred and one.

The first settlement made by any one in Wayne county, outside of Wooster, was made in this township on lands later owned by Thomas Dowty. James Morgan and Thomas Butler were the two white settlers who first wandered into the territory now embraced in this township. They came in 1808 and soon after came in John Boyd, Robert Buckley, John and James Cisna, Tomiii}^ Lock, Samuel Mitchell, Jacob Nixon, William Nolan, Jacob Miller, Moses Lockhart and John Hughes.

The first justice of the peace was Samuel Mitchell. One of the early school houses was the Polecat school house on the farm of Daniel Daringer.

The pioneer distillery of the township was conducted by old Johnny Boyd, who sold it in quantities, "Yes, sir, just as little as you want, sir."

The first lime in Wayne county was burned in a log heap to test its quality, and later a kiln was made and lime successfully burned in the same by Henry Munson, Sr., in i8i6 or 1817. It was he who furnished the lime employed in the building of the old Wiler house of Mansfield, hauling it there by ox teams at aliout fifty cents a bushel. At nights he slept under his wagon, while he turned his oxen out to graze.

Among the recollections of Pioneer John Harrison, the following was, many years since, made a matter of record : "Salt was worth six cents a pound when I came here. Bought a two-horse wag'on from old Billy Poulson in 1826 and paid for it in salt; went to Cleveland for it; obtained one barrel there and one barrel ten miles out of the city. These two barrels of salt paid for the wagon - price thirty dollars. A bushel of wheat would then pay for a pound of cofifee, the former being of little cash account until the canal was opened. There were some Indians about when we came here. Old

Indians Burn The Butler Cabin

From a reminiscence dictated by John Butler, a pioneer justice of the peace of Franklin township, we take the liberty to extract the following.

Mr. Butler being absent at his father-in-law's, the Indians burned his cabin. The cause was presumed to be as follows : Butler had raised considerable corn in the bottoms and had a good many hogs. A gang of Indians passed' one day and shot one of them. Mr. Butler followed after and found them encamped in the locality of the present site of Shreve. He went to the chief and told him the ciicumstances, and that he must pay him, the chief going to the thief and telling him he must pay for the hog he killed. He asked him what he killed it for, whereupon the Indian replied, "I wanted grease." The chief made him pay for the animal, Mr. Butler receiving in pay therefor two deer skins, which the Indian indignantly kicked toward him. It was soon after this Mr. Butler's cabin was l)urned, and he claimed the gang of Indians did it. He then erected a hewed log house on the exact spot where had st6od the rude caliin that they had burned. In this Mr. Butler died March 17, 1837.

The Morgan Blockhouse

This fort stood on the Thomas IDowty farm, and but a few rods from his house, and was quite a large structure and a source of protection to the pioneers. During the summer of Hull's surrender a company of soldiers were stationed here from Tuscarawas county. A would-be lirave soldier of this company was e\er boasting of his courage and ached for an opportunity to have a fight with the Indians. The lx>ys concluded they would accommodate him. They caused to lie painted and decked in true Indian style of costume one of their number, and had him secrete himself in a swamp close by. d'he company proceeded on one of its scouts and jiassed Iw this swamp, v.'hen the mythical Indian sprang out, yelling and pointing his gun. look after Sir Valiant Soldier, who rushed at the top of his speed and concealed himself in a marsh. The company and the painted man rapidly returned to the blockliouse. Soon thereafter the would-be Indian fighter, who had lost his shoes in the swam]), returned. Some of the boys went in searcb of his shoes and lirought them into camp.

Death Of Old Chief Lyon

Alexander Bell, of Holinesville, once informed 'Sciuire Butler that when he was a boy he went to old Lyon's camp, near the month of Butler Spring run, and found him in a sick condition in his rude hut. Lyon asked Bell to take his camp kettle and bring him some fresh water, which he did, when Lyon asked him to look at his tongue. Bell told him how it looked, when the old chief said, "Me dead Indian." Bell said, "I will go and tell Jess Morgan if you wish me to," to which Lyon consented. Jess came, accompanied by Bell, and they found the old chief very sick, whereupon he repaired to Sandusky and communicated the facts to his Indian friends, when several of them came along back with Jess. They took the old Indian upon one of their ponies, but in a few days word came back that his spirit had gone to the happy hunting ground.

Throughout the county there used to be many reports concerning this old chief. The early settlers all knew him, as he visited their cabins and frequently was a source of terror to women and children.

Moreland is the only village ever platted within Franklin township. It was laid out by Jonathan Butler and George Morr January 17, 1829. The first building in the place was erected by a blacksmith for a shop : his name was Loux.

Salt Creek township is on the south line of Wayne county and the second township from the eastern line of the county, with Holmes county on the south. Paint township on the east, Franklin on the west and East Union township on the north. It contains twenty-four sections, is four miles from north to south and six from east to west. It was formed March 5, 1816.

Of the first settler in this township and his family, the following may be narrated: William Searight was born October 17, 1779, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. His father was a native of Ireland, who came to America about 1760, settling at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He served seven years in the Revolutionary war. William, the son, who came to Wayne county, Ohio, selected lands here in 1810 and built a small log cabin on the banks of Salt Creek, facing the Pine Hill." He was then the only man and his family the only family within Salt Creek township, as now bounded - indeed he was "monarch of all he surveyed." He entered four hundred and sixty acres. His nearest neighbors lived in Prairie township, Holmes county. The next to effect a settlement in Salt Creek township was Henry Barnes, just after the close of the war of 1812-14. After the news of Hull's surrender, Mr. Searight and family tied for safety to the blockhouse, four and a half miles distant, built in Prairie township. Holmes county. The Indians there were friendly. About this time old Cbief Lyon visited Searights and told Mrs. Searight that he had cut the tongues from out of ninetynine women and wanted hers to make an even hundred. Mr. Searight died July 16, 1846, and his good wife followed him in February, 1848. They had ten children.

William Searight built the first saw mill erected on Salt creek, the date being 1813. Judge Frederick built the next mill in 1816. The Searight mill burned and John Cheyney and Samuel Miller rebuilt another in 1820 for saw mill purposes only. Frederick's second mill was built in 1836, and had a capacity of two hundred barrels a day - a very large flouring-mill for then or even later years in the history of milling. This mill was burned in 1876. James Russell, a blacksmith, built the first house in the town. Samuel Miller built and conducted the first hotel. Jacob Frederick had the first distillery in the township and it is related that in the days when the old Ohio canal was being constructed that there were no less than eight distilleries within two miles of Fredericksburg village. The first doctor was James Clarkson, who came in 1827 and died in 1846. John Taylor w^as the first lawyer. Samuel Goodwin said that buffalo, deer and elk would haunt the salt licks.

Fredericksburg Village

F'redericksburg was platted by Jacob Frederick November 27. i8.>4. and named in honor of its founder. He served as one of the associate judges of Wayne county as early as 1826. The Fredericksburg Cemetery /Nssociation was organized in 1872.

The population of this village in 1900 was five hundred and eleven. Its business interests consisted of : The Bank, liy F. Z. .Aylsworth ; undertakers, J. H. Hunter and B. S. Bontrager; general stores, S. M. Warner.

Charles Sterling and J. B. McCormick; hardware, Stucker & Leeper ; baker, C. W. Smith ; butcher, J. B. Shultz ; Fredericksburg Pottery Company, planing mills, flouring mills and Ohio Terra Cotta Company. The present postmaster is C. R. Kilgore. Churches, Presbyterian, Congregational, United Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal and Christian.

The town and country is well cared for in the way of a first-class banking house, known as the Citizens Bank, with a capital of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars individual responsibility. Its officers are: H.