Sprigg Township (part 2 of 2)

George Edgington, father-in-law of William Leedom, entertained travelers at his residence just south of Bentonville on Zane*s Trace, as early as 1797. Further down the Trace below Bradjrvrille, William Robmson opened a tavern about 1800. Joseph Beam kept a tavern near the Brown County line on the Tomlin farm ; The Little tavern, in later years, was near Bradyville; Ballard's tavern was on the Thomas farm near Liberty Township line, and the Brittingham tavern was on the C. E. Hook farm.

The first church in what is now Sprigg Township was old Hopewell which stood near the present site of Hopewell Cemetery and Schoolhouse. It was a log structure and was erected about the year 1810. Rev. Abbott Godard, Rev. Robert Dobbins, and Rev. John Meek were the pioneer preachers at Hopewell. Rev. John Meek, in fine. weather, would leave the church building, and take his position in the "bull pen," as some irreverent wag termed it, a natural ampitheater in the g^ove near the church, where he would preach to the multitude assembled about him. This remarkable natural amphitheater is pointed out to the passerby to this day, as the scene of the greatest religious revivals of pioneer days. The old leg church was burned about the >'ear 1840. A new building was erected but afterwards moved to the cross-roads about a mile north from its former site. Dissensions arose in the church, and the building was sold and removed for use as a barn. The cemetery at old Hopewell is well kept, and is the resting place of many of the pioneers of Adams County.

Union Church, near Bentonville, was organized in the year 1830 by Rev. Alexander McClain, a celebrated "New light" preacher for many years in southern Ohio. There were but eight or ten members in the first organization, but the membership increased rapidly under Elder Mc- Clain*s ministry, and the next year a brick church was erected. At the dedication of this church Elijah Leedom and William Leedom were appointed deacons, and James Lang, clerk, which position he retained until his decease, when Barton S. Lang was appointed to fill the vacancy. Henry Hutson was appointed deacon to succeed William Leedom, removed, which position he held for over forty years. In 1854 the old brick building was replaced by the present frame structure, the lot occupied by the church and cemetery being at that time deeded to the organization by Asa and Mary Leedom, the consideration being "love and affection for the church."

The pastors since the days of Elder McClainhave been : Elder Mathew Gardner, Elder Garroutte, Melissa Timmons, C. W. Wait, William Pangbum, J. P. Daugherty, B. F. Rapp, Naaman Dawson, G. W. Brittingham,

This is the oldest organization of the Christian Church in Adams County, and a year older than Fellowship Church, on Hickory Ridge, just over the Brown County line.

Elder McClain's influence is yet felt in this community. The older residents love to relate how, on a Sunday morning, he would enter the pulpit, lay aside his hat, then take off his coat and roll up his shirt sleeves, and preach one of those remarkable sermons that left an impression for life. He removed to the State of Illinois and died some years ago.

The officers of the church at present are Dr. John Gaskins, C. H. Thompson, and Thomas Shipley, deacons; William Roush, James Froman, and William Naylor, trustees; Mrs. H. A. Gaskins, treasurer; Isaiah Shipley, clerk, and Rev. James Melvm, pastor.

McCoLM^s Chapkl is situated on Cabin Creek road, three miles west of Manchester, and was named for Mathew McColm, an old and esteemed citizen who deeded to the organization the lot on which the chapel stands. The organization is Methodist Protestant, and was formed in 1871.

Ravencrai^t's Chapel startds in the southwest portion of the township on the Manchester and Aberdeen road. Methodist Protestant, formerly Furgeson's Chapel, Methodist Episcopal. Present house erected in 1873.

The Brittingham Camp Ground - Rev. T. S. Arthur, of the Cincinnati M. E. Conference, and his wife were the organizers of the Brittingham Camp Meeting near Bentonville. The meeting was held one year (1869) ^" the Wykoff grove west of Bentonville; and for thirteen years following at the Brittingham Camp Ground on the Maysville pike two miles south of Bentonville.

The first meeting had been long advertised, but when the time for it drew near, the weather was so drv and water so scarce that the directors thought it best to postpone or abandon the meeting; but Rev. Arthur called a meeting at the old M. E. Church in Bentonville the Sunday before the opening day of the camp meeting and announced that he was going to pray for rain ; and while all indications were unfavorable for rain, before the people could get home there came one of the greatest downpours seen for years. This gave Rev. Arthur and the camp meeting great popularity which lasted for years, hundreds of people coming from a distance to see the man who was looked upon as a worker of miracles.

In 1870 the Camp Ground was leased for ten years and afterward bought by a company from Joseph Brittingham. The directors of the company were Joseph Shrivers, John P. Bloomhuff, Henry Gaffin, Samuel

Many other eminent divines took part in the meetings and families from Manchester, Aberdeen, Ripley, Windiestcr, West Umon and other places came and camped for ten days or two wedcs in temporary build* ings erected by the directors for that purpose.

The expenses of conducting the meetii^ were paid diiefiy by diarg* ing an admittance fee at the gate. When CoL Moody was in charge, he ordered the directors not to collect money at the gate on Sunday, that being the decision of Conference. As the company had been to so mtxii expense they moved the treasurer's office down the road a htmdred yards from the entrance and collected there within hearing of Moody^s powerful voice and everything was thus made satisfactory. The last meeting was held in 1883 when the grounds were sold to A. V. Hutson.

The "Old Dutch Road" led from Ellis' ferry, up Big Three Mile to Nauvoo, thence over the hill to the Cropper farm, then out the ridge to Jeptha Shclton's and Alfred Pence's, and to Hopefell Church.

''Cabin Creek Road" wound up Little Three Mile past Grimes' mill, up the hill to Ginger Ridge, following the ridge for four miles past Mc- Colm's Chapel, crossing Manchester and Bradyville pike at Lafe Lang's; thence out past Brookover's, crossing the pike at Roush's schoolhouse, thence to old Union Church.

"Zane's Trace" entered Sprigg Township at the Tomlin farm, following the ridge to Little's; thence over the hill to Three Mile Creek at Nathan Ellis'; thence up Three Mile to Bentonville.

In the autumn of 1867, Sanford Phillips, a notorious and dissolute character, about forty-five years of age, was murdered in broad daylight, within a few rods of the old schoolhouse in the north part of Bentonville, while school was in session, and persons were passing up and down the street; and yet the crime was not discovered until hours after it had been committed.

Phillips had gained control over Lydia Purdin, a young girl of seventeen years, daughter of a widow named Susan Purdin, and paid visits to her home when Mrs. Purdin and her son, a boy in his teens, were absent. But Lydia Purdin at heart despised Phillips, and on occasions bestowed her smiles upon a young man named Burbage, living in the vicinity. This so enraged Phillips, who was insanely jealous, that he at on« tmic gave young Burbage a severe beating, and threatened vengeance on the entire Burbage family.

One December morning, Phillips rode into the village, hitched his horse at the Purdin rcisidence, and entered the house. It is said that Mrs. IHirdin and her son were not at home at the time and that Lydia left the house about noon for an hour or more to call on a neighbor. In the middle of the afternoon she came running from toward her home screaming

"Thiere is a man in the house with his head nearly cut off." People soon gathered about the house and found Phillips lying in a pool of blood murdered. He had been struck two fatal blows with an ax, one with the blade across the forehead, and the other on his neck, half severing the head frcrni the body. He had seemingly been sitting in a chair when assaulted, and when discovered had been dead several hours.

Lydia Purdin was arrested for the crime, and although circumstantial evidence was against her, yet popular feeling in the community was so bitter against Phillips, that she was not convicted.

In the days of flatboating on the Ohio, the locality known as Clayton had an unsavory reputation. It was the headquarters of many river diaracters, and drinking, card playing, and cockfighting was their pastime while awaiting a trip to "Orleans."

A pack-peddler, who made regular trips to this community, very mysteriously disappeared. As he had no fixed place of domicile known to the people, the matter of his sudden disappearance from the ni^hborhood was discussed and then almost forgotten when a rough character named Goddard Pence displayed some laces and other articles such as carried by the peddler, and offered them in exchange for whiskey and tobacco at the little grocery store and saloon at Clayton. Suspicion at once pointed to him as having something to do with the disappearance of the peddler. He was watched and was seen to go to a hollow tree and take from it other articles such as the peddler had carried. Pence was not arrested but search was made for the body of the peddler, but it was never found. Another character nanned "Bill" Cook was suspected of having something to do with the affair, and he afterwards said that he "played drunk" and watched Pence burn the body of a man in an old cabin on the Pence farm. After some investigation by the authorities, tbef matter was forever dropped, and Goddard Pence, whether guilty or innocent, lived to be a very old man, dying a few years ago in the Brown County Infirmary. The writer knew him in his last days. He was gray and stooped, suffering with rheumatism and the infirmities of old age. He had been a most powerful man, over six feet tall, raw boned and muscular, and with a "fist like a maul." Few men were his match in a fight. It is a tradition that he and old Aaron Bowman cradled, bounJ, and shocked ten acres of wheat in one day, and drank two gallons of whiskey while doing it.

In 1839 there was living in Sprigg Township a man named Lemuel Glascock who belonged to the class of rowdies that infested the vicinity of Clayton. He married a daughter of Samuel Swearengen with whom he lived a stormy life. Nathan Bowman, a well-to-do farmer living just over the Brown County line in the Early neighborhood, was a brother-in-law to Glascock, they having married sisters. At a log-rolling some time previous to the killing of Bowman, he and Glascock had fought over some trivial affair as was the custom in those days, and Bowman in the contest put out or "gouged out" one of Glascock's eyes, although Bowman claimed it was accidental, that Glascock had fallen on his, Bow- 30a man's, thumb in the struggle, and Glascock bit away a portion of Bowman's lip. Ever after this affair Glascock when drinking would threaten to take Bowman's life, yet at other times they were apparently on good terms.

In June, 1839, Bowman went to Glascock's to get him to repair a grain cradle for him as wheat harvest was near at hand. While there he and Glascock procured a jug of whiskey from one of the Croppers who kept it for sale, and while under its influence renewed their cdd gnidge. Bowman, instead of returning home, stayed at Glascock's for the night. He was g^ven a bed on the floor, and in the night was attacked by Glascock with a large bowie knife and stabbed in the bowels, his entrails protruding through the wounds.

Bowman's cries aroused Perry Connolly, a little timid shoemaker living near, who feared Glascock would kill him if he interfered. Finally assistance came and Dr. Hubbard after examination pronounced Bowman's wounds fatal. Joseph Darlinton and Thomas McCauslin, of West Union, were sent for to take the dying statement of Bowman before Squire Connor, of Sprigg Township. He lived until the next day.

Glascock fled the country. A reward of $300 was offered by Bowman's widow and relatives for his apprehension and return. Glascock was found and agreed to return for trial without further delay if one hundred dollars of the rezuard were given to him. This was agreed to. and he took that amount and employed Hon. Thomas Hamer, of Georgetown, to defend him. He was sentenced to the Ohio penitentiary for life, but after the lapse of a few years was pardoned out. He went West and died some years ago.

Elsewhere in this volume there is an account of a duel fought in Sprijifg Township in i8i2,between Thomas Marshalland Charles Mitchell. The same story was given the writer by Zilpha Reynolds, wife of Oliver Reynolds, of Brown County, and who was a daughter of Jacob Middleswart, a Revolutionary soldier who settled at Logan's Gap then w^ithin the bounds of Adams County, in the year 1808. His daughter, Zilpha, was born on Yankee Run in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and was twelve years of age when the duel between Marshall and Mitchell w^as fought. Her father was living on lands at Logan's Gap owned by Ignatius Mitchell, father of Charles Mitchell, at the time, and her statement to the writer fixed the place of the duel on Charleston Bar near Logan's C^.ap. The writer remembers Mrs. Reynolds* statement that a son of Ignatius Mitchell used to say that "Brother Dick killed a man in '( )rleans, and brother Charles hipped Tom Marshall on the bar, but for himself he would do his fighting fisticuffs.''

Kills Palmer, a pioneer of Adams County, came from Pennsylvania to Limestone. Kentucky, about 1790. He and John Gunsaulus, or as he was called, and tlie name so written in many of the old land and road surveys of Adanis County, "King Sawley," were noted hunters. They spent most of their time hunting in the region including what is now Adams and Brown Counties, Ohio, before any permanent settlements were made there. Both were active, strong men, and loved the chase as well as any Indian. They never owned any lands but "squatted" on choice spots near the haunts of the bear and deer. Palmer when a lad had seen an elder brother of his cruelly scalped by the savages, and when he grew large enough to handle a rifle, he pushed to the frontier to seek revenge and many a red man has passed to the "happy hunting grounds" through the unerring aim of his rifle. It is related that after peace had been declared, and the whites were beginning to rear their cabins on the north bank of the Ohio, an Indian came to the vicinity of Ellis' Lick, named for Palmer, and he learning of the presence of the Indian, lay in wait for him and killed him witi^ his rifle. Descendants of Palmer and Gunsaulus are scattered throughout Adams and Brown Counties.

Bentonville - Laid out by Joseph Leedom in 1839, and named for Senator Thomas Benton, of Missouri, is the largest village in the township, with a population of about 250.

BradysvillE - ^This is a small village of perhaps 75 inhabitants and was named for its founder, Van S. Brady, who laid out a few lots there in 1839.

Benton Special District was established in 1871. There is a two story frame building, in poor condition, standing on a bare, neglected lot at the south of the village. There are four rooms, and at one time this school was the pride of the village.. The first superintendent was Judge Isaac N. Tolle. The present enrollment is 36 males and 41 females.