460 - Dover Township. CHAPTER XIII. Dover Township. THE township of Dover originally formed a part of Ames, and as such was settled as early as 1799. It was not, however, Separately organized as a township till 1811. On the 4th of April, 1811, the county commissioners ordered: "That so much of the township of Ames as lies west of the thirteenth range, be erected into a separate township by the name of Dover. " Ordered, further, That the clerk of the board notify the inhabitants of the township of Dover to meet at the house of Othniel Tuttle in said township, on Saturday, the loth of April. instant, for the purpose of electing township officers." Thus Dover, as originally organized (including all that part of Ames lying west of the thirteenth range), comprised the present townships of Ward, Green, and Starr, in Hocking county, and Trimble, York, and Dover, in Athens. The main settlements were on Sunday creek and near the waters of the Hockhocking, History of Athens County, Ohio - 461 and it was many years before the forests of the remote parts of the township were invaded by any but the solitary hunter and trapper, or the hardy frontiersman who could not brook near neighborhood. Among the early settlers of Dover were Daniel Weethee, Josiah. True, Abraham Pugsley, Azel Johnson, Henry O'Neill, Samuel Tannehill, Barney J. Robinson, Cornelius Shoemaker, Nehemiah Davis, James Pickett, Jeremiah Cass, Jonathan Watkins, the Nye family, Reuben J. Davis, the Fullers, Luther Danielson, George Wilson, Benjamin Davis, Uriah Nash, Eliphalet Wheeler, Reuben Hurlbut, Samuel Stacey, Thomas A. Smith, Uriah Tippee, Abner Connett, and others mentioned elsewhere. The township is thoroughly well watered by the Hockhocking river, Sunday creek, and their tributaries. A portion of its surface is rather rough, but the hills are of moderate elevation, and admirably adapted to the growth of wheat and fruits, and to sheep raising; while in other parts of the township are broad and fertile plains. The mineral resources of the township are extensive and valuable. In the Southern portion are the salt regions, near the junction of Sunday creek with the Hockhocking, about Chauncey and Salina. There are two extensive deposits of coal—a vein four feet thick mined from the Surface, and another six feet thick reached by shafting about a hun- 462 - Dover Township. dred feet. There are also excellent limestone and building Stone in the township. There are three villages in Dover, viz: Millfield, on Sunday creek, in the northern part of the township, with a population of about two hundred; Salina, a thriving village on the Hockhocking, where the salt works of M. M. Greene & Co. are situated, and Chauncey, on the opposite side of the river from Salina.. Chauncey was laid out in 1839. About 1831 Resolved Fuller bored a salt well on the upper portion of his fine farm (including the present site of Chauncey), obtained good Salt water, and prepared to manufacture Salt on a Small Scale. In 1833, however, he sold his works and about four hundred acres of land to Calvary Morris and Norman Root, of Athens, who built an enlarged furnace and So extended the business, that in 1837 they sold it to Messrs. Ewing and Vinton for six thousand five hundred dollars. In 1838 Messrs. Ewing and Vinton, together with Elihu Chauncey and Nicholas Biddle, capitalists of Philadelphia, bought Resolved Fuller's farm, on which Chauncey is located, for twelve thousand five hundred dollars, and the next year laid off the town. They invested largely in surrounding lands, bored other salt wells, built a brick hotel and several houses, and expected to establish a thriving town. But the place has never prospered greatly, and has at present a population of only one hundred and fifty. History of Athens County, Ohio - 463 The total population of Dover in 1820 was 607; in 1830 it was 550 (its territory having been curtailed); in 1840 it was 1290; in 1850 it was 1232; in 1860 it was 1423. "Weethee college," at Mt. Auburn in the northern part of the township, is one of the best educational establishments in the county. It was founded in 1861 entirely through the efforts of the Rev. J. P. Weethee, who continues to be its controller and liberal patron. Youth of both sexes are taught here, and the institution has begun a career of assured success and usefulness. The early settlers of Dover were sterling men and not behind any others in the country in their desire for knowledge and progress. Part of the credit of forming the old " Coon-skin library " justly belongs to them. Many shares were taken by persons living in those parts which afterward became Dover, and by the men who were in later years the fathers of the township. In January, 1816, at a meeting of the shareholders of the library it was " Resolved, That one of the directors of the association be hereafter chosen from among the shareholders belonging to the township of Dover, and the said director shall have the care of as many books belonging to the library as the shareholders in Dover are entitled to draw, and shall deliver out, receive in and mark the damages on said books agreeably to the rules and regulations of the society ; and once in six months he shall deliver over to the society all the books in his care, and meet the other 464 - Dover Township. directors for the purpose of transacting the necessary business of the society." Eventually a division of the library was made, and by an act of the legislature passed December 21, 1830, the " Dover library association " was incorporated, with Daniel Weethee, Alanson Hibbard, Azariah Pratt, Josiah True, John B. Johnson, William Hyde, and John Pugsley as the original incorporators, and Daniel Weethee, Alanson Hibbard, and Azariah Pratt as directors for the first year. We have not been able to procure the records of the township previous to 1825 ; they have been lost or destroyed. The following are the township trustees since that time. Township Trustees since 1825. 1825 - Resolved Fuller, - Daniel Weethee, - Samuel B. Johnson. 1826 - Jonathan Allen, - Simon H. Mansfield. - William Bagley. 1827 - Jeremiah Morris, - “ - Josiah True. 1828 - Resolved Fuller, - “ - “  1829 - Jeremiah Morris, - “ - Horace Carter. 1830 - Daniel Weethee, “ - Josiah True. 1831 - Samuel Stevens, Jeremiah Morris, - “ 1832 - “ - Robert Conn, - “ 1833 - “ - “ - “ 1834 - John Armstrong, - “ - “ 1835 - Jeremiah Morris, - Jonathan Connett - “ 1836-37 - John Armstrong, - S. R. Fox, - “ 1838 - Record lost. 1839 - John Armstrong, - Matthew McCune, - David Tarrnerd. 1840 - Mason B. Brown, - Harry Clark, - Josiah True. 1841 - Jeremiah Morris, - Matthew McCune, - “ 1842 - John Armstrong, - “ - “ 1843-44 - Albert Harper, - “ - “ 1845 - William Hyde, - “ - “ 1846 - Azariah Pratt, - “ - “ 1847 - Henry Brown, - “ - “ 1848 - Azariah Pratt, - “ - “ 1849 - William Edwards. - Austen Fuller. - “ History of Athens County, Ohio - 465 TRUSTEES—Continued.  1850-51 - Matthew McCune, - Austen Fuller, - W. S. Hyde. 1852 - “ - “ - James Culver. 1853 - Seth Fuller, “ - John Spencer.  1854 - “ - W. S. Hyde, - “       . 1855 - Samuel Augustin, - “ - Woodruff Connett  1856-57 - John Cradlebaugh,  - “ - Austen Fuller. 1858 - “ - “ - E. D. Harper. 1859-60 - “ -  Austen Fuller. O. G. Berge. 1861 - Alex. Stephenson, - “ - “ 1862 - Ebenezer Pratt, - Joseph Tippy, - W. S. Hyde. 1863 - O. G. Birge, - “ - “ 1864 - “ - J. W. P. Cook, - “ 1865-66 - “ - “ - “ 1867 - “ - R. N. Fuller, - “ 1868 - George Connett, - Samuel Augustin, - Ebenezer Pratt. Justices of the Peace since 1825. 1826 — D . Herrold. 1827-31—Josiah True. 1832-33—Simon H. Mansfield. 1834-37—Josiah True. 1839-Frederick Cradlebaugh. 1841—John Armstrong. 1843-Josiah True. 1845—Charles R. Smith. 1846—Hiram Fuller. 1851—Charles R. Smith. 1852—J. W. P. Cook. 1853—Hiram Fuller. 1854—William Edwards. 1855—E. D. Varner. 1856—Hiram Fuller and Charles R. Smith. 1858—Josephus Calvert. 1859—Hiram Fuller and John Smith. 1862—J. W. P. Cook, Hiram Fuller, and John Smith. 1865—Job S. King. 1868—Hiram Fuller, Charles R. Smith, and John Smith. 466 - Dover Township. Personal and Biographical. Daniel Weethee was born in New Hampshire in 1779. He was a cooper by trade, and Saved money enough, during his youth, to buy a tract of land in what is now Dover township. At the age of nineteen he set out for the northwestern territory, made the tedious journey on foot and alone, and reached Marietta about the middle of December, 1798. The next spring he and another young man, Josiah True, came out to Dover, traveling through the woods by the aid of a compass. Arrived here they built a log cabin for their joint occupancy (they were both unmarried), and lived together about three years. Mr. True managed, by hard work and by selling skins, furs, etc., to Secure means enough to purchase a piece of land, and bought part of the farm now owned by his Son, Austin True, where he lived during the rest of his life. Thus they lived for about three years in this truly pioneer fashion, with no companions but the forest trees, and no neighbors but the wild game of all sorts which abounded near their cabin. In 1802 Mr. Weethee married Lucy Wilkins, daughter of John Wilkins, one of the early settlers of Athens township, and the next year Mr. True married Almira, a daughter of Solomon Tuttle, then living on the creek a few miles above, in what is now Trimble township. History of Athens County, Ohio - 467 In 1804 Abraham Pugsley came in with his family, and settled on the section south of Mr. Weethee and Mr. True. Mr. Pugsley, who was a good citizen and excellent man, reared a large and respectable family here. He was drowned during the winter of the "cold plague" in 1814, while crossing the creek on the ice to visit a Sick family. His oldest Son, John, died several years Since. The youngest Son, James, is living, though very old. One of the daughters of Abraham Pugsley had a singular adventure in early life. She was married, when only thirteen years of age, to a man named Neal. Her husband enlisted in the army in 1812, and, after he had left home with his company, on a keel boat, from the mouth of the Hockhocking (where they then lived), for Newport, Kentucky, the rendezvous, his wife determined to follow him and Share his fortunes, whatever they might be. She started down the river alone in a canoe, and passed the first night in the little craft on the water; but the next day overtook her husband, and proceeded with him to St. Louis. Thence his company was ordered to Some point further west. While going up the river the boat was landed for some purpose, when Indians fired from an ambush and killed her husband and the infant in her arms, wounding her at the same time. The company, with Mrs. Neal, returned to St. Louis, from whence she rode on a pony all the way back to her father's in Dover township. 468 - Dover Township. In 1817 She was again married to Mr. John Fulton, and died in May, 1866. In 1800 the Sweat family came to Dover, and settled near the present site of Millfield. In 1802 John Sweat built a rude mill there for grinding corn, which was greatly prized by the Settlement. Even persons from Athens made use of this mill till the Gregory mill was built, about four years later. In 1802 Azel Johnson, with his family, settled in Dover, on the creek and joining the Weethee farm. Many of his descendants are still living in the township. Azel and Benjamin Johnson are sons of his. The Nye family, consisting of Ebenezer, the father (a native of Tolland, Connecticut, who came to the territory in 1790), and four sons, viz: George, Neal, Nathan, and Theodorus, came out from Marietta in 1814, and settled in Dover about a mile north of Chauncey. The eldest son died in 1825, leaving a widow, Mrs. Lydia Nye, now living at an advanced age with her son, George Nye, on the place first occupied by his father. The other brothers removed to Meigs county, where their descendants are numerous and respectable. In 1820 the Nyes and Some others formed a company to bore a salt well, on the place where Jeremiah Morris now lives, but, after boring to a considerable depth, abandoned the undertaking. Ten or twelve years later it was resumed by John Pugsley, who, after History of Athens County, Ohio - 469 boring a little deeper, Struck a vein of good salt water. This was the first successful Salt well bored in the Hockhocking valley. About this time (1820) came the Cass, the Chadwell, the Nesmith, and the Pratt families, who have lived in Dover nearly fifty years, and are all excellent people. Three Sons of Daniel Weethee, the pioneer, are now living. Daniel W. Weethee lives on a fine farm in Trimble township; Lorentius Weethee owns and occupies the old homestead in Dover; and Jonathan P. Weethee, who graduated at the Ohio university in 1832, and has been actively engaged during his life in the ministry and in teaching in this and other States, is now the president of Weethee college at Mt. Auburn, in Dover. Josiah True, the companion and friend of Daniel Weethee, was born in New Hampshire, October 25, 1776, came to Marietta in 1793, and to Dover township in 1 800. He held the office of justice of the peace in Dover, from 1815 till 1851, and was respected and popular. He died September 16, 1855. Mr. True was one of the founders of the "Coonskin library," of Ames, and always a leader in pioneer improvements. One of the first spinning wheels introduced into Dover was bought by him in 1803. Having accumulated a few bear and deer skins he carried them on his back to Zanesville, forty miles distant, 470 - Dover Township. purchased the wheel with the proceeds of the skins, brought it home on his back (walking all the way), and made the round trip of eighty miles in two days. Most of the early settlers engaged more or less in hunting, depending mainly on the forests for fresh meat. On one occasion Josiah True and Cyrus Tuttle, his brother-in-law, drove a bear into a cave on the farm now owned by Mr. Austin True, in Dover. They Succeeded in Shooting the animal in a narrow passage of the cave, and, having fastened a hickory withe to his nose, were about to drag it to the open air. Mr. True entered the cave, and got behind the dead bear to assist Tuttle in shoving it out, when another bear, hitherto unobserved, came rushing from the rear end of the cave, directly on and over True's back, crushing him down on his face with great violence, and so made its escape out of the cave. Mr. True, at a very early day, bought Some choice apples at Marietta, and sowed the seed from them, from which he established the first nursery attempted in the county. Most of the old orchards on Sunday and Monday creeks were planted from this nursery, and some of the trees are still bearing. Nehemiah Davis, "Elder Davis," a native of Maine, came to Marietta in November, 1797, lived in Washington county several years, and removed to Dover township in 1808. While living in Washington county History of Athens County, Ohio. — 471 - Elder Davis organized a Baptist church, believed to be the first Baptist church in Ohio. He died August 23, 1823. Some of his descendants are living in the county, and a granddaughter married Colonel James H. Goodman, present State auditor of Ohio.