Sugar Creek Township

Sugar Creek Township

On the east line of Wayne county and the second from the south line is found the civil township of Sugarcreek. It ivas organized April ii, 1812, and contains thirty-six sections of land, being six miles square. Its population increased from two thousand six in 1870 to two thousand two hundred and seventy-four in 1900.

John Kinney and John Goudy were the first settlers in Sugar Creek township, and John and James Goudy were the next, and after them came Peter Cox and Samuel Cook, William Homan, and Rev. James Adams, who was the first preacher in the locality. William Homan was the first justice of the peace, elected al:out 1826. At an early day an election was held where Sugarcreek, East Union, Baughman and Greene corner, and every man who attended it went home with two offices. The first school house in the township was built on the farm owned later by Jacob Cox, and Samuel Cook was the first to teach in the township. It was a subscription school and the rates were fifty cents a pupil for each month's schooling, and in the absence of money almost anything else was received for pav. The first school hou.se erected in Dalton was where later the cemeteiw was laid out; the first teacher was Peter Vorrhes. Tlie first church (Presliytcrian) was built near the southwest corner of the quarter later owned liy S.

William Goudy built the first grist-mill, three miles southwest of Dalton. It was constructed of logs, had one run of buhrs made of "niggerheads,'' the neighbors helping to dig the race. This mill was built in 1823-24.

James Goudy came to what is now Sugarcreek township as early as 1809, settling near Dalton. His brother John had effected a settlement in the neighborhood even prior to his settlement. The father. John Goudy, was in St. Clair's defeat, November 4, 1791, where he was wounded in the right groin, which, but for the thickness of his clothing, would have caused death. After being shot he traveled eighteen miles, when he paused by the wayside and ate the flesh of a dead horse, which later he declared was the best meat he had ever eaten. He carried the bullet in his flesh many years and finally died from its effects.

Towns And Villages

Of the town of Dalton it may be recorded that Rev. James Adams had the town of Dover surveyed October 16, 1817, by A. Porter, and it embraced forty-six lots. Sharon was surveyed March 29, 1828, by C. W. Christmas, and that consisted of thirty lots. The entirety of these towns, together with that of Middletown, laid out by Jacob Switzer, in 1828, ceasing to exist as plats, the village of Dalton sprung up on the same ground. In 1821 Dalton contained but one house, and a man named Freeman kept the first tavern, where afterwards the Eagle House stood. The first physician of the place was Doctor Watson, and the first store was kept by Mr. Johnson. The first church of the village was the Presbyterian.

Dalton of today consists of a place having a population of six hundred and sixty-six, and has several good business houses, carrying the goods usually kept in towns of its size, and the farmers find here an accommodating class of dealers and ready sale for the products of their farms and gardens. For church and other interests see special chapters elsewhere in this volume.

1 he banking business of this place is well cared for by the First National Bank, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. Its present officers are W. H. H. Wertz, president ; T. C. Hunsicker, cashier. Their deposits are (September, 1909) $162,000.

"Sonneberg Settlement" was so named for a settlement in Switzerland, its population being chiefly from the canton Berne, in Switzerland. The following was Written of this peculiar people in 1878.

"They enumerate ninety-eight families and have two hundred and fiftyeight members. The sect was founded by Menno, surnamed Simmons, in 1536, who commenced life as a Roman Catholic. The modern Mennonite as a rule does not pretend to know just what the history of his sect is, or just what he now believes. They know they are opposed to war and going to law. They follow farm life as a rule, and are very industrious. In this township they introduced the painting of dog-houses and the manufacture of apple-jack. The first of this stock, all from Berne, to come into Wayne county were Isaac Somer, Uhlrick and Peter Lehman and David Killhover, the latter bringing the regular John Rogers family. Their first place of rendezvous was in a school house four miles east of Wooster, when they moved to 'Switzerland No. 2,' and in 1820 organized a church."

This township was formed September 5, 1814, and was named by Simon Chaffin, Sr., who was a native of Union, Maine. It is the second township from the east and south line of the county and is six miles square.

Frary, who was buried on the John Ramsey farm with thirty or forty others. Mr. Chaffin cut musket balls out of trees, shot there b}^ members of Beall's army. On Amos Walter's farm was erected one of the first churches, called the Ebenezer church. The Methodists soon after organized in the township. The presiding elder was Rev. Henry O. Sheldon, who was a strongman and could carry a barrel of salt or cider with ease. Two drunken men on one occasion disturbed a camp meeting when he was present, and he choked them into silence. The Indians had a sugar camp on land later owned by John Lang, also there were two huts there. The first school house was upon land then owned l)y Anson Sillson, Iniilt in 1814. The teacher was a Mr. Pratt and he spelled door 'dore.' The first justice of the peace was Andrew Lucky, who kept a tavern.''

The first pemianent settler in this township was Simon Chaffin. Sr., a native of Lincoln county, Maine, who was born in 1/1)3 and removed to

Ohio in the fall of i8ii, coming in a four-horse wagon, traveling a distance of more than a thousand miles, occupying fifty-seven days, never unloading the wagon until he arrived at Poland, Trumbull county, Ohio. He moved to East Union township, Wayne county, in the early spring of 1813. His wife and six children accompanied him ; his brother-in-law, Obediah Luce, came at the same time. He entered lands, but his regular occupation was that of a scythemaker and hoemaker.

Frederick Brown, a native of Pennsylvania, moved to Wayne county, Ohio, in the spring of 1814, but had been in the county with his son, John J., in 1812 and improved a piece of land on a twelve-hundred-acre tract he had secured from the government. He was the first of the name Brown to locate in Wayne county. The subjoined reminiscence will tell the story of early-day Indian scares and narrate many other interesting points connected with the settlement of this township and Wayne county, in general :

"This will narrate an incident that occurred in what was called Smith's settlement, near the present site of the county infirmary. One afternoon two of the Smith women heard what they supposed to be guns firing in the direction of Wooster, 'at the rate of five hundred a minute.' The neighborhood, numbering about forty persons, soon assembled, men, women and children. There were but eight guns in the party. One of these belonged to John J. Brown, then a boy and small for his age. After consultation it was decided that James Mclntire should approach Wooster cautiously to ascertain the exact state of affairs there, and that the balance of the company should set out for Steubenville, by way of the old Indian trail, the women and children on horseback and the men on foot with their guns. Young Brown's gun was transferred to an older man, and two children committed to his care. Waits Smith, a small boy whom he carried behind him, on a very spirited horse, and Jonathan, a younger boy, who was placed in his arms.

"The party traveled in silence during the entire night, not a child giving the least sign of fretfulness. In the morning they were overtaken by Mclntire, who brought the welcome news that Wooster was resting in quietude and that the noise heard by the two women was one made by men cutting straw with axes in a trough for feed. At this news the main company of fugitives returned, hungry and weary, to their cabin homes in the forest. A few, however, continued on in their flight to the old settlements in Pennsylvania,

"Nevertheless, this stampede of the pioneers was not without thrilling incident. When the party in its flight was crossing the Big Sugar creek they discovered a campfire close to the trail. The Indian dogs barked and immediately the Indians raised a whoop. At this the company took shelter in the brushwood as best they could. All became quiet in a short time, when those with guns began to scout around to learn the character of the Indians in the camp. They proved to be Chief Johnycake and his tribe. The story the whites told alarmed them and they said they would also flee the country, as they were friendly Indians and equally in danger of being hurt by the hostile tribes, but that they must first have their supper, then roasting on the campfire. Afterwards Mclntire passed their encampment. He was blowing a large tin horn and riding at full gallop to overtake the flying settlers and apprise them of their groundless apprehension. Johnycake and his braves became greatly alarmed and fled supperless, as on the returning day the settlers who wended their way home found the camp entirely deserted. The deer was suspended over the smouldering embers, burned to a crisp. Johnycake and his people were never seen again in that settlement by the whites. They had before that time been very familiar and friendly."

The first election was held in section i6, at Smith Orr's house. Andrew Lucky was elected first justice of the peace. The first school house was built on section 21, although a log house built before that for the Presbyterian church to hold services in was used for school purposes. The earliest teachers were George Hackett and George McConnell. The first burial was on the John Ramsey farm, and two were buried on the Smith Orr place, a Mr. Miller and a child that was scalded to death. Old Aaron Rambo had the first grist-mill in this township, near the residence of David Carr, and the bolt was turned by hand. After Rambo, Garret Albertson erected another mill. South of Cross Keys at a spring a Mr. Pratt had the first distillery. At the head of Apple creek there was an Indian camp. i\Ir. Brown had a grindstone which was bought at Canton, Ohio, as the family came to the country, and it is said that it was used by many neighbors from long distances away.

Herr Driesbach, the famous lion tamer, lived and died in Wayne countv. He was born in Sharon, Schoharie county. New York, November 2, 1807, his grandparents coming from Germany. His father died when eleven years of age and the boy soon drifted to New York city, where he worked in the Zoological Gardens, and soon, youth as he was, made a reputation for control of wild animals, he being the first person to make a performing animal of the leopard. In 1830 he connected himself with the traveling menagerie of Raymond & Co., and soon went to Europe with Raymond, meeting with much success as a tamer of wild beasts. He traveled through England, Scotland and Ireland, then in France, Germany, Holland and Russia, exhibiting before all the crowned heads of Europe. About 1840 he returned to the United States, having established a world-wide reputation, and was of the states of the Un.'on until 1854, when he was united in marriage to the foremost man in his profession in the world. He made his annual tours Sarah Walter, daughter of John Walter, of Wooster township, and settled down to the peaceful life of a farmer. In 1875 he opened a hotel at Applecreek Station. Here, after but two days' illness, on December 5, 1877, he died, leaving a widow and one son. His was a very interesting life, full of events which after his death were compiled in book form and sold extensively.

The Cheyney family was one of striking prominence in Wayne county, and descended from the Revolutionary stock of the same name, of which Thomas, the father of John, who settled in Wayne county, was famous by reason of his first discovering, for General Washington, that the British forces were on the same side of the stream as the American army at Chad's Ford, near Brandywine, Chester county, Pennsylvania, and through this intelligence the American army was saved a defeat, as is recorded in the history of our country.

Old Squire Cheyney was a most useful and powerful man in the settlement of Wayne county. He built the first mill in East Union township, and within the space of thirteen years built six grist-mills and nine sawmills in Wayne county, Ohio. His early neighbors were John Knight, Jacob Tracey, George Basil and others. He occasionally received visits from old Johnny Appleseed, whom Richard Cheyney frequently saw. His remains were buried in the Edinburg cemetery.

Edinburg was laid out by William Thomas and John L. Cheyney, August 16, 1832. Ira Pratt started the first store and .was the postmaster in Edinliurg. Prior to the appointment of Cornelius Smith the postoffice was kept at the old town, and after that at Applecreek Station.

Applecreek Station, which is of more recent origin, was caused by the building of the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon & Columbus railway. Andrew Woodruff, a blacksmith, erected the first house in Applecreek Station. John Hindman owned the land on which this village was platted. David Clark, later of Wooster, started the first hotel. A new school building was built in 1874. iMessrs. Eberly, Holcomb and Caldwell were the first three teachers.

In 1909 the village of East Union was but a mere hamlet with one firm - Carver & Eshleman - handling drygoods, groceries, notions, hardware, boots and shoes, cigars and tobacco. They also operate a grain elevator and warehouse.