Violet Township

Violet Township

This township makes up the north-west corner of the county. It formerly contained the village of Winchester, but an act of the Legislature a few years since, struck off a tier of sections from its western border, which was attached to Franklin County, including Winchester.

The name " VioleL" is understood to have been derived from the luxuriance with which the flower bearing that name grew on some portions of its soil. Pickerington is situated in Violet. A man by the name of George Kirk first purchased the eighty-acre tract in which the village stands. Subsequently the land fell into the hands of Mr. Pickering, who laid out the town and christened it with his own name.

Of those who settled in Violet previous to the year 1806, are mentioned; H. Donaldson, A. Donaldson, Edward Rickets, Westenburger Hustand, Dr. Tolbert, A. Pickering and Mordecai Fishbaugh. Waterloo, on the canal, is within this township.

Violet; in churches, schools, and the general spirit and enterprise of the times, is not behind any township of the county. Settlements were first begun in the vicinity of where Pickerington now stands. Residences were located through the township with reference to springs and water streams, as well as the quality of the lands. Some of the first settlers came out in advance of their families and first built their cabins; in other instances the families came together, and took their chances in the forests. Dr. Tolbert was prob- ably the first physician in the township - at least among the first. He is still living at a very advanced age, and has been for many years a citizen of Jefierson.

Wolves are said to have been very abundant in Violet when it was first settled; but subsequently the premium paid for their scalps had much to do in thinning their ranks.

I came from Baltimore County, Maryland, in the year 1812, and settled in violet township, three miles east of Pickerington, and oa the same spot where I now reside. My age is ninety years. When I arrived here I found living in the vicinity, or at least within the township, Michael Kraner, Alexander Donald, Philip Ebright, Andrew Peck, James Bight, Edward Rickets, George Fenstermaker, Henry Huntwork, John Bowser, Frederick Showers, Jacob Growley, John Chancy and Thomas Homes. Of all these, and several others who lived in the town.ship at that time, John Chaney and myself are the only ones now living. My brother, Acquilla, came out with me, and we purchased jointly half a section of land.

When we settled down here we were in the midst of wild woods in every direction. We cleared off the ground and put up little cabins, and then began the work of clearing some land for cornfields. To be able to find our way through the settlement from one point to another, we made blazes on the trees by peeling or hewing some bark from both sides ; and these blazes were followed until beaten tracks were formed. As occasion required we cut out wagon-roads. There was a wagon-road that passed half a mile east of us, over which the army of the war of 1812 passed. ' This was in 1813. It was a cold winter, and we could hear the army wagons passing day and night, and could hear the shouts of the drivers.

Upon our first settlement the wolves howled around us day and night. There were also panthers, bears, and wild cats in the woods ; wild-turkeys were in vast flocks in every section of the country, and flocks of them would come up to the rear of our cabin and look in through the little window. I have shot them through the window. We could have wild-turkey and deer-meat whenever we wanted.

Jacob Nepper had a mill at that time, two miles from my cabin, on Little Walnut, and Solomon Barts had one on Poplar Creek, a little farther up the country. A man named Donalson had a still-house three miles south of me, at the place now known as Waterloo.

Almost every little place had a peach-orehard, more or less. The natural seedling peach was all that was known at that early day. The crop seldom failed, and there were peaches in great abundance almost every year ; large quantities of them

The Methodists had a society in the settlement, but there was no meeting-house; the meetings were held in the cabins of the settlers. In 1816 I married Isabella McDonald. She was the mother of my children, and died in 1870, in the month of June.

The first taxes I paid in Fairfield County was two or three dollars a year. My land was not taxed for five years after I entered it. This was provided for in the patent. Money was hard to come at, and there was very little the farmers produced that would bring it, for we had no market and no way to get our little surplus out of the country. What little money we had was almost entirely silver, and much of it was cut money. The men soon learned to make five " quarters " out of a Spanish dollar, and five "ninepences" out of a halfdollar, or five " fipenybits " from a twenty-five-cent piece.

In harvest times the price of a day's work was fifty cents, or a bushel of wheat. Log-rollings, corn-huskings, and houseraisings were universal all over the county. One spring I rolled logs thirty days in succession, and I can't remember now how I got my own work done, but we all got along somehow.

The elections were then, and have been ever since, held at Pickerington. In the war of 1812 a great many went as soldiers. A good many of them did not live to get home.

When we came out from Maryland, we traveled in wagons by the way of Wheeling, and over Zane's trace to Lancaster. There was a tavern then on the SchsefFer corner, in Lancaster, but I cannot remember who kept it. We came from Lancaster to Michael Kraner's in one day, which was considered extraordinary .for the kind of roads we had to pass over.

I have three sons and five daughters living. Timothy Fishbaugh, of Lancaster, and at present County Recorder, is my second son. I have lived to see Violet Township become wealthy, populous and well cultured. I was thirteen years old when I landed in Violet Township, and have lived on the sam« place sixty-five years. Have never returned to Maryland since I first came away.

Recollections Of George Harmon, Of Violet

My father, Frederick Harmon, came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1800, and settled five miles east of the present city of Lancaster. There were seven families emigrated in the same company, viz. : My father, Lewis and Christ Bonsey, George Henry, John Miller, Jacob Fox, Debolt Macklin ; and all settled in the same neighborhood.

We came in a flat-boat from a point on the Manongahela to the mouth of the Scioto. There the boat was abandoned, and the little stock of household goods and farming implements placed on two or three wagons, and the journey up the Scioto, through the wilderness, began. A road had to be cut most of the route. Myself, with most of the others, walked the greatest part of the way. A number of days were required in coming as far as the Pickaway Plains, above Chillicothe. From the plains to Lancaster the journey was made in two days.

When we arrived on the Hocking, and crossed over, we found on the site where Lancaster now stands, not over one or two cabins; all besides was a forest, with ponds of water and swales passing over it. We encamped that night on the spot^ as I subsequently found, where the old Court-house was afterwards built. On the following day we ^continued our journey to the point of our destination, which was the place since known as the Harmon settlement, in Pleasant Township.

My father and two or three others had been out the previous year and selected the spot, and built two or three small cabins. During their sojourn there, in 1799, the Indians stole my father's horse, and he was compelled to walk all the distance back to Westmoreland County. The horse, by some means, got away from the Indians, and was recovered the following fall in the vicinity of Marietta, having been recognized by a brand on his shoulder.

Subsequently the Indians stole two horses from a settler. The owner found them at an Indian camp near Rushville, and demanded them. The Indians shook their heads. The man insisted, when an Indian came out and circled a butcher-knife around his head, and he was obliged to leave. The next morn- ing he returned with a posse of his neighbors, armed with rifles. The Indians still refused to let the horses go, whereupon the men pointed their guns at them and told the man to go and untie his horses, which he did, and there the matter ended.

All around us was a wilderness. There were a few families over on Ewing's Run, and on Fetter's Run, and down on Rush Creek. A man by the name of Lynch had opened a small tanyard where Baldwin's brick house stands, two miles north-east of Lancaster. Jacob Harmon had a cabin where East Lancaster is. He was not of our family. I was eight years old when we came to Fairfield County. I am eighty-five years and six months now.

In 1815 I married Sarah Cramer, whose parents lived in Violet Township, north of the present town of Winchester. Her father' owned a considerable body of land there, and I settled on that portion of it which fell to my wife, and have lived- on it ever since, or sixty-two years.

There were no roads through the settlement - that is, no established roads ; but we got up petitions and had them located and opened. At the time of my marriage there had not been a stick cut on my wife's land. I at once built a cabin and moved into it, and went to work to clear out fields.

At the time of my settlement here, my neighbors might be mentioned as, George Long, Peter Robnold, Jacob Algire, John Algire, William Stevenson, Greenberry Ashley, Jonathan Looker, Michael Cramer, Mr. McArthur and old Father Cramer.

The Methodists and United Brethren had societies in the neighborhood, and held their meetings in the cabins of the settlers. Newcomer and Troxel were Brethren preachers.

At an early day I went to a mill north of Columbus for my grinding, and to Zanesville for salt. Our place of election was where Pickerington is. The woods everywhere abounded with wolves, wild-cats, wild-turkeys, with occasional bears and panthers, though the settlements had been forming for several years. There was a woman who went into the woods to look for her cows ; she was absent too long, and the men went in search of h^r. They found the body 'partly devoured. She had been killed by a panther, as was believed, for the men saw it in the act of running awaj' from her. One of her arms

There was a usage in our settlement, which, I believe, was common in the new country during the pioneer age - it was that of blowing horns in the night, in case of apcidents or distress of any kind where help was needed. The blast of the horn in the night never failed to bring the nearest neighbors.

During the war of 1812 I drove a wagon on the frontier. I was out several times, and received for my services a Landwarrant. Our lands were entered at the land-office in Chillicothe. It was Congress land, and the price was two dollars an acre.

Wild bees were plenty. Bee-trees could be found everywhere, and any one who found a tree had the right to cut it down, for timber was not regarded as of much value. It was rather an incumbrance.

My taxes then was two dollars and fifty cents. T have since paid one hundred dollars, which I could raise more easily than I could sometimes raise the little sum of the early times.

I have six sons and two daughters living. The descendants of the early settlers of Violet Township, with few exception, are still living in the township. Lithopolis was a village when I settled here, in 1815, but there was no other village at the time in Bloom Township.

I am the oldest son of my father, Frederick Harmon, and the only one living. My brother Frederick died about two years ago, at the old place in Pleasant Township.

Recollections Of Daniel Crumly, Of Bloom

My father, Christian Crumly, came from Pennsylvania in 1802 or 1803, and settled in Bloom Township, one mile south of Greencastle, on the head of the Hocking river. He had previously entered land, and in settling down in the first place, he supposed he was on his own land, but after living a year or two in his first cabin, he made the discovery that he was on the wrong land, when he abandoned his cabin and moved over on the other side of the stream, which was on the west side. On this place he lived until the time of his death, which was in the year 1856, if my memory is correct.

At my earliest recollection, our neighbors were the following families, as near as my memory serves me. There may have been a few that I cannot recall, probably not many : Father Courtright, who was the father of Jesse, Abrain and John Courtright; Daniel Glick, John Ritter, Mr. Bright, Horatio Clark, Mr. Alspaugh, who was the father of George, John, Henry and Jacob Alspaugh; John Solt, Mr. Roler, the grandfather of Henry and Elijah Roler, now living; Peter Lamb, father of the present Peter Lamb, of Bloom Township; John Swartz, Father Elias Swartz, still of Bloom ; Mr. Thrash, father of Eli Thrash ; Rev. Mr. Bennadum, father of Philip and Peter Bennadum ; Mr. Morehart, father of John and Christian Morehart; Martin Bogart, Mr. Crites, father of John Crites, late of Bloom Township; Simon Crites, father of Samuel Crites, still of Bloom Township ; Mr. Homrighouse, father of John, William and PhilipHomrighouse;Hugh Scott, father of James Scott, and father-in-law of F. A. Boving, of Lancaster ; Mr. Mesmore, George Crowley, James Donaldson, Mr. Gordon, Henry Leaphart, John Fellows, father of Joshua Fellows, still of Bloom Township, and father-in-law of Coonrod Crumley, of Hocking Township; Frederick Fellows, father of Coonrod Fellows, at present of Bloom.

Frederick Baugher was proprietor of Lithopolis, which he laid off in about 1815. An addition to the town was afterward made by Solomon Baugher. The place was at first named Centerville.

A Presbyterian Church was established there at a very early day, and later by the Methodists and Lutherans. The first church built in Bloom Township was the Glick Church - Lutheran and German Reform.

Abram Haines was a very early settler of the township, and is still living. Mr. Needels, father of B. J. Needels, still of the township, was also among the first settlers. Daniel Hay was the father of Isaac Hay, who still resides on the homeplace. Adam Snyder was an early settler.

was built by Loveland & Smith, and was set low down among the rocks. The grists were taken in at the gable-end and let down to the hopper with ropes, and then raised to the level by the same means.

The first still-house in Bloom Township, that I can remember, was built by J. D. Courtright. It was at the Stump Spring, between Lancaster and Greencastle. The first school I attended was in a little log-cabin on the bank of the Hocking. It had oiled paper for window-lights.

Source changes here: from History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, by Miller, Charles Christian, published 1912; 4,236 words in this source stream.

Violet Township

Violet township is in the northwestern part of Fairfield County. It is bounded on the north by Licking County, on the east by Liberty township and on the south by Bloom township and on the west by Franklin County.

The township was set ofif and incorporated in 1808 and from the variety and abundance of wild flowers was called Violet. Its surface is undulating, sloping to the south and is drained by Black Lick, Sycamore and Walnut creeks.

From the beginning the majority of the citizens were German - that class of Germans who pride themselves on being good and reliable citizens. The first man to take up his residence here was a Revolutionary soldier by the name of George Kirke, who entered the eighty acres on which Pickerington stands. In a few years Abraham Pickering came and bought the tenth section of land including Kirke's claim and in 1815 laid ofif a few lots naming the place Pickerington. In selecting farms it was customary for several to join together, get the range and section from corner trees, pick out a section and for one of them to hurry to the land office to secure it by mak-

The northern twelve sections of this township belonged to the "Refugee Lands." Scott's History says: "The Refugee Tract, so called, passes through the northern part of the county from east to west. Its width is two miles and length eighteen miles. The origin of the reservation was as follows : There were citizens of Canada, who, during the Revolutionary war, gave their sympathies and aid to the American Colonies. Congress appropriated this strip of land, of eighteen miles east and west, and two miles north and south, for their use, hence the name 'Refugee Lands.' After it had been taken up to the extent of the claimants who presented themselves, the unclaimed portion was sectioned and sold as other Congress Lands."

Pickerington is the oldest and largest town in Violet township. The material welfare of the town has been augmented by its being located in the midst of a good agricultural and grazing country, and the prosperity of the town is matched by the solid prosperity of the many homes of an enterprising and industrious rural population.

It is situated twelve miles southeast of Columbus, Ohio, and on the line of the Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad, embracing in its population of about 300 souls some of the fine citizen product of the great Buckeye State.

More than a century ago the first settlement was made by early pioneers, so that the town marks about the same date on the calendar as that of our State capital. The town was laid out by Mr. Abraham Pickering, grandfather of Mr. James T. Pickering and C. C. Pickering of Lancaster. While it has not grown so rapidly as its more populous neighbor, it is a thriving place, including in its mercantile firms one department store, one dry goods establishment, three grocery and dry goods houses, one drug store and among other lines of business there are one meat shop, two shoe shops, one watchmaker's shop, one harness shop, two blacksmith shops, one hotel, two livery stables and one lumber yard, one flouring mill, one tile and brick plant and one creamery and one bank. Its professional life is represented by one lady and one gentleman physician and by one attorney.

"The Pickering family is of English lineage, and was founded by William Pickering in early colonial days. Abraham Pickering, who laid out Pickerington, giving a site for a church, one for a schoolhouse, and another for a cemetery, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, July 8, 1776. His wife, Ann Looker, was born Sept. 10, 1776. They emigrated to Ohio in 1806 and settled in Fairfield County. They brought with them their little daughter Elizabeth and son James, the latter being but six years old. Elizabeth grew to womanhood and married Thomas Morton. She lived to the advanced age of ninety-five years.

James Pickering was married March 23, 1826 to Catherine Williams from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their family consisted of four sons and one daughter. Jacob Pickering, the oldest son, was born March

And Representative Citizens

3, 1827. He joined the Methodist church at an early age, served as steward, trustee, class leader, Sunday-school superintendent and Sunday-school teacher. He died in 1886 at his beautiful home in Pickerington. His wife was Samantha Ford - she was a zealous Christian, a member of the Methodist church of Pickerington for 65 years. James Pickering and his wife had four children, all of whom were given a college education at the Ohio Wesleyan University. Jennie died June 6, 1888 - the remaining are living in Lancaster; C. C. Pickering and J. T. Pickering are successful attorneys ; J. T. Pickering was postmaster from 1898 to 1910, a period of 12 years. Miss Etta, the only living daughter, resides in Lancaster. The mother died at Lancaster, October 8, 1902, aged 76 years."

There are two churches in Pickerington - the United Brethren and Methodist. The United Brethren church was erected in 1882 and is called Dovel Memorial church. The present building was built as a result of the labors of Rev. Munk of Basil. The membership is small. The present pastor is Rev. J. F. Turbin, located at Pataskala.

The first Methodist church was built in 1833. The trustees were Adam Ebright, Isaac Rainer, Philip Ford, John Milnor, John Tyler, Sr., William Thompson, Thomas McArthur, James Pickering and Andrew Dougherty, Sr. This was a brick building 48 x 36 ft. "The men occupied the east side of the church and the women the west and woe betide the luckless one who went in at the wrong door, for he fell under the ban of a custom so closely followed by all who prided themselves on maintaining the rule of the day, that no man should sit on the woman's side or woman on the men's side." In 1867 the building was remodeled. This building was used till 1883 when the present structure was erected. The following were the board of trustees when this building was erected: Henry Taylor, William Milnor, M. A. Ebright, William H. Kraner, Simeon Handshey, Jacob Pickering and Garrett Miller. In 1905 the trustees were Irvin Fishbaugh, William Milnor, Pearl Kranor, Homer Pierce, Henry Taylor, Lafayette Harmon, Russell Handshey. The present pastor (1912) of the Pickerington M. E. church is Rev. Albert Davis.

Dr. Darlington J. Snyder, a prominent physician of Columbus, was at New Salem. He was for many years one of the most successful teachers in Fairfield and Franklin counties and was also an instructor in Fairfield Union Academy at Pleasantville.

William M. Wikoff, for many years a leading teacher in Fairfield and other counties, and who was business manager of the Lancaster Camp Meeting, was born at New Salem, and still has large agricultural interests there. Mr. Wikoff resides in Columbus and is actively engaged in teaching (see sketch ) .

There are several small villages in Violet township - Waterloo, in the southwest corner of the township, is close to the Franklin County line. It is on the Ohio Canal and the Hocking Valley Railway.

Lockville And Harley

Lockville is a small village partly in Violet and part in Bloom township. It is on the Ohio Canal and is named from the locks that are in the canal near this place. Lockville Station is about two miles north of

The schools of Violet township were no different from other schools in Fairfield County until the school year 1907-8. In 1895 the people of Violet township began to agitate a change in their school system. At this time there was no high school in the township, and if the girls and boys wished to attend a high school they had to go either to Reynoldsburg, Carroll, or Canal Winchester. The Board of Education in the spring of 1895, set a time for the consideration of building a township high school. The citizens of Violet township came together in public meetings for the purpose of discussing the feasibility of building a township high school. At all of the meetings the sentiment seemed to be in favor of it. When the time came for the board to act on the proposition, one of the members who was thought to be deeply interested in the building of a high school, did not come to the meeting, so the matter was dropped for that time. The member of the board who took the lead in the work for a high school not being returned to the board the next year, the proposition was dropped and seemed to lie dormant for the next ten years. All of these ten years there were those who kept the tender plant watered, and in the fall of 1904, after the new school law came into existence, it began to take on new life.

By this time the people were becoming dissatisfied with the little old red schoolhouse. Quite a number were clamoring for centralization. The plan for a building large enough for a township high school, and the plan to centralize at least a part of the township schools had many friends. They put on their ticket, to be voted on at the coming election, A. M. Whims, Mike King. John Peters, Gus M. Alexander and A. D. Courtright, for members of Violet township Board of Education. There were twelve other names put on the ticket. At the election all of the candidates favorable to the plan for a change in the Violet township schools were elected by large majorities.

Two of the members elected - Mr. A. M. Whims and Gus M. Alexander - were not residents of Violet township School District, Mr. Whims living in Liberty township School District, and Gus M. Alexander in Pickerington village School District. The Violet townshipi board met on the first Monday in January, 1905, at the township house in Pickerington, Ohio, at 2 P. M., to organize. Mike King, John Peters and A. D. Courtright were present. A. D. Courtright was chosen president ; John Peters, secretary. The village board met on the same afternoon and by a previous arrangement abandoned this district in accord with Section 3894 R. S.

After the abandonment of the village School District, and their acceptance by the Violet township board, Gus M. Alexander was appointed on the Violet township board to serve for four years and W. W. Milnor was appointed for two years, after which John Peters resigned as clerk and Gus M. Alexander was appointed clerk for two years. The board began to lay plans for the erection of a building large enough for a township high school and to centralize a part of the township at least. There was a two-room building in Pickerington. In the spring of 1905 the board asked the State School Commissioner for a charter for a third-grade high school, which he granted and the school year of 1905-6 they had the first high school ever held in Violet township.

One of the first things a Board of Education needs before it can erect a building is money. After carefully going over the finances, the board found it not only had no money with which to erect a building but that they were in debt $1,500 for one erected the year before. Not only were they in debt but the old board had forgotten to make a levy to meet this debt. How to raise the money to put up a building of the size to meet all the requirements was a very perplexing problem. It was first thought that it could be raised by issuing bonds, as provided in Section 3,994. Upon careful investigation it was found all that could be raised on this plan for any one school year would be $2,600, so this plan had to be abandoned.

To ask the people to grant a bond issue under Section 3,991 it was thought would be sure to meet with failure. After considering all of the schemes for raising funds, the board finally hit upon the plan of creating a building fund and in accord with this idea there was levied about $6,000 for the first year. This plan met with general satisfaction and the next year another levy was made of about the same amount.

The funds being provided, it was thought time to begin the new building. The site chosen was a beautiful hill in the northeast corner of the village of Pickerington, about thirty feet above the main part of the town - a more beautiful site could not be found in Ohio for a school building. The next step was to have an architect make plans and Merriott and Allen of Columbus was the firm selected to perform this task. In a short time the plans were ready. Advertising for bids was the next thing. When the bids were opened it was found they were all too high. The board rejected all of the bids and as it was getting late in the season it was thought best not to attempt to build that year.

In February, 1907, the contract was let to Mr. C. W. Ricket of Bremen, Ohio. The specifications called for a six-room building, with basement under the entire building to be heated by hot air. With some changes made by the board, the building cost when completed $15,000.

The building started in May and was to be completed by the first of September, but the season being very wet, it was not completed until the last of October. It was dedicated by State School Commissioner Edmund A. Jones, and turned over to Violet township by the president of the School Board. A young girl, Catherine Kraner, represented Violet township. The ceremony was a very pretty, as well as impressive. And now after two years of unceasing work by the board they were ready to begin school in the new building. They had changed from a third to a second-grade high school with Prof. W. H. C. Ackers," superintendent; J. S. Talbott, grammar; Ethel L. Becher, intermediate; and Alice Hizey, primary, as teacher. Two wagons built for the purpose of conveying children to school, were purchased by the board; these two wagons brought in three subdistricts.

had a six-room building, with four teachers ; the query was where to get the scholars to at least make a fair showing. It was figured that there would not be more than eighty scholars - twenty to each teacher; it was not expected there would be more than ten at most in the high school. At last the opening day arrived. How the friends of the school stood around waiting with bated breath. Soon the scholars began to come in by ones and twos, driving, walking, and in school wagons. How the countenances of the friends of the school changed from one of anxiety to one of joy. Everywhere you could hear women and men shouting, "See them come ! It's a success - It's a success!" When the scholars had all got in and taken their places it was found on that first morning, October 27, 1907 - that morning when Violet township opened her first township high school and was thus the first township in Fairfield County to centralize or partially centralize - to the great astonishment of the friends of the school there were one hundred and thirty-seven scholars.

One of the first things to be done was to change the teaching force, get another teacher for the grades, and put Mr. J. S. Talbott in the high school. This was done by closing and centralizing another sub-district, making four sub-districts outside of the one in which the new building was located. In the early part of

1908 another wagon was purchased by the board. The wagons are lettered "Violet township schools," and are numbered, beginning with No. I. In the school year

1909 another sub-district was centralized and the fourth wagon purchased and in 1910 another and a fifth wagon was purchased. Violet township now had seven of the thirteen sub-districts entirely centralized and four of the other six partially centralized. More than two-thirds of all the scholars in Violet township are coming to the centralized school. In connection with the high school there is a splendidly equipped laboratory - indeed so well equipped is it that when State School Commissioner Edmund A. Jones came down in the beginning of the school year of 1908 with a charter for a first grade high school, he said in his talk in the hall that day that it was "the best equipped school building of its kind in Ohio."

There are now three high school teachers, and four teachers in the grades and something like 200 scholars. Prof. E. L. Tussing has been teaching music in the school in the centralized building since the beginning of the present system. The present corps of teachers are : Prof. J. A. Erf, superintendent; Miss Elsie Tway, principal; Miss Dorcas Truckmiller, assistant principal; Miss Blanch Lehman, seven and eighth grades; Mr. Gussie Steman, fifth and sixth grades; Mr. Samuel Raver, third and fourth grades; Miss Alice Hizey, first and second grades. The school building is so arranged that by rolling partitions two school-rooms can be made into a hall that will seat three hundred people. There is a very good stage, lit by both gas and electricity, the electricity is generated in the laboratory by a gas engine and dynamo.

After the school had started and was well under way it was found that some kind of a library was needed for the school's best progress. At first it was thought this could best be done by providing a school library. After careful investigation by the president of the board this plan was abandoned. The president formulated a plan under Section 3,998, which was presented to the board and accepted and a resolution was passed creating a Violet township library. Because of the very great responsibility in starting a library and selecting the right kind of books, the board thought it best to select a committee, and in accord with this idea the following committee was selected: Dr. W. B. Taylor, Dr. Georgia Finley, Rev. Dr. G. L. Cites, Prof. W. H. C. Ackers, Prof, J. S. Talbott, Atty, J. T. Pickering, Mrs. J. D. Rickets, and Dr. Chas. Kraner. The president of the school board,

A. D. Courtright, was president of the committee but had no vote. The clerk of the school board was secretary of the committee with a vote in case of a tie. This committee selected all of the books, recommended their purchase by the board and in every single instance the board passed favorably on their recommendation.

After this plan had been in force for more than a year, and the library had gotten well under way, the Board of Education began looking for a plan to turn over the entire management of the library. After a careful study it was found that Section 3,998 just fitted the case and was just what the board was looking for. In accord with this idea there was a canvas made by the president of the board to find the kind of people that would make a good strong Library Board of Trustees. After making a careful canvas, and personal talk with each one, there was selected and presented to the board the following names: Dr. W.

and elected the above named persons, as recommended by the president, thus creating a Library Board of Trustees. This plan has been working very satisfactory for more than three years. There are now in the library more than two thousand volumes. They have seventy-five or a hundred Macey book cases, and employ a librarian all of the year. A short time ago the trustees took up with Mr. Carnegie the plan of building a township library building. A few days ago, they received a letter from Mr. Carnegie with the statement that he would furnish $10,000 for the purpose of erecting a library building with an auditorium in the basement, the Library Trustees to furnish a building site. Inside of another year the trustees expect to have a beautiful library building of their own. They expect to build it on the public square in the village of Pickerington, Ohio.

From 1 836- 1 839 there were two doctors who spent one year each in the community - namely Dr. Hoor and Dr. Hood. Dr. William Talbert practiced for thirty years, principally at Jefferson. He had two sons who became physicians. Dr. Martin Valentine was in Violet township from 1852 to 1862, when he enlisted as surveyor in the loth Ohio Cavalry.

Dr. John Bailey (1856-57), Dr. Val Miller, an herb doctor (1855-58), Dr. Robert Forgrave, a graduate of Jefferson Medical College (1862-65), and Dr. M. R. Ewing, (Miami Med. Col. of Cincinnati) (1852-88), all practiced at Pickerington. Dr. Ewing was in

Dr. Beam was a partner of Dr. Ewing one year. Dr. Isaac Johnson practiced from 1866- 68 and moved to Missouri. Dr. Stephen Carroll practiced from 1870 to 1872; Dr. William I. Bright, from 1872 to 1875; Dr. F. G. Taylor, from 1876 to 1877; Dr. Val Valentine, from 1877 to 1879; Dr. George Wigam, from 1878 to 1881 ; Dr. Grey Stewart, from 1879 to 1904; Dr. Hoyt Simpson, from 1881 to 1886; Dr. Clark Edwards, from 1881 to 1883 (now in Columbus) ; Dr. S. L. Kistler, from 1882 to 1884; Dr. F. R. Morath. from 1885 to 1900 (now in Columbus) ; Dr. William Beery, from 1888 to 1889 (now in Columbus) ; Dr. Georgia Finley, from 1902 to 19 12 (now at Gloucester, Mass.); Dr. Charles Kraner, from i9ioto 191 2. Dr. W. B. Taylor, son of Dr. F. G. Taylor, was graduated at Ohio Medical University, at Columbus and also received his B. S. degree at Ohio Normal University, at Ada, Ohio. He located at Pickerington in 1902.

There have been several secret societies started in Pickerington by the good people of both country and town. Somtimes in the early seventies there was organized a society called Patrons of Husbandry, better known as "Grangers." This society flourished like a green bay tree for a time, then its star set never to rise again ; at least it has never been seen in this part of the country since.

In the spring of 1882 a number of the citizens of Pickerington and Violet township conceived the idea of having a real live lodge in their midst. Hence they settled on the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with this idea in view the following citizens applied to the Grand Lodge for a charter : Samuel Fishbaugh, E. D. Kraner, W. G. Merser, Phillip Pickering, J. M. Sharp, John Ault, G. W. Waggey, J. H. Dickinson, D. I. Petty, D. C. Ebright, G. S. Stewart, George W. Eversole, J. L. Vanasdalen, J. H. Shoemaker, and James Sain. The charter was granted and the above petitioners became charter members. On November 22, 1882, Violet Lodge, No. 709, I. O. O. F., was instituted in Pickerington, Ohio, by Grand Master W. R. Hazlet. This lodge was very prosperous for a few years, then they did a thing that has been the downfall of so many lodges all over the country - they put up a building and went heavily in debt for it. Soon after the building was put up some trouble arose in the lodge, and it began to go down and kept going until 1901.

D. D. G. M., came to Pickerington to take up the charter. After spending the day going over the situation with the brothers they decided not to take the charter up at this time. They thought there was a revival just ahead for the lodge if members would go to work. This they did and in ten days they had eleven candidates and in less than six months the membership had grown from twelve to over forty. In the report of 1910 there was reported to the Grand Lodge seventy-three members.

There have been other societies started in Pickerington and Violet township. In 1891 there was organized a society called the Farmers Alliance ; this society only lasted a short time.

A few years ago the Maccabees instituted a lodge in Pickerington. This society was never very strong and soon went out for lack of patronage. After the Odd Fellows in Violet lodge had such a wonderful boom the good women - wives, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts, of Odd Fellows in Violet lodge - Applied for a charter to institute a Rebecca lodge. The following women of Violet Township and Pickerington were charter members : Miss Beatrice Belt, Miss Ida Hoy, Mrs. Ella Good; Mrs. Hattie Fenstermaker, Mrs. Edith Eswine, Mrs. Mollie Bish, Mrs. Adaline Hager, Mrs. Lulu Stoner, Mrs. Blanch Taylor and Mrs. Ella Arthur. The charter was granted by Grand Master Pavy and June 24, 1903, there was instituted by Grand Master C. C. Pavy and Grand Secretary C. H. Liman in Pickerington, Ohio, Melrose lodge No. 571. The present officers are Mrs. Cathern Miller, N. G. ; Miss Cora Fenstermaker, V. G. ; Miss Maud Kraner, Financial Secretary; Mrs. Ella Good, Recording Secretary, and Mrs. Hattie Fenstermaker, treasurer.