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CHAPTER LXIX.

THE CHURCHES OF NEWARK TOWNSHIP AND CITY.

THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN-THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN-EPISCOPAL METHODIST- BAPTIST-PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CALVINISTIC METHODIST-GERMAN LUTHERAN-WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODIST-WELSH CONGREGATIONAL AFRICAN EPISCOPAL METHODIST-CATHOLICGERMAN METHODIST-GERMAN PRESBYTERIAN-CHRISTIAN UNIONSECOND ADVENT-NEw JERUSALEM (SWEDEN BORGIAN) - ENGLISH CONGREGATIONAL.

"Where dusky savage wooed his dusky mate,

And through the forest rang his battle cry,

Now stands the arched and templed halls of State,

And gilded steeples pointing to the sky."

THERE are, at present, seventeen church organizations within the limits of Newark township, fourteen of which are in the city. This fact alone speaks volumes for civilization, law, order and intelligence. Life, liberty and property cannot but be safe in such a community. The history of these churches covers the full period of time since the first settlement began in the wilderness. Ministers of the Gospel were among the first to brave the perils and hardships of the frontier, where they planted the seed that has grown, developed and borne fruit, the evidence of which appears in these beautiful churches, and in the religion and higher civilization of the people.

The First Presbyterian.-The doctrines taught by this denomination were the first introduced into this section. The first Christian minister who preached on the territory now occupied by the city of Newark, was the Rev. Mr. McDonald, a Presbyterian. He came to this place in 1802, on his way to Franklinton, now Columbus, and was probably a missionary from the neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He was a middle aged man at the time of his visit, and lodged at the house of Samuel Elliott, who lived about one and one-half miles east of Newark. He preached several times to the families that were here, which, at that early date, were few in number, either at their houses or in the open air. Thus Presbyterianism was introduced by a living preacher upon the very threshold of the existence of the city.

In the summer of 1803 Rev. John Wright visited this place. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1777. Accustomed to frontier life from his earliest recollections, being familiar with the rifle carried to the house of God by the worshippers, for use in case of attacks by Indians, he was well fitted for ministerial labors among the pioneers. In the year 1806, Rev. James Scott preached regularly for some months. As these two men were among the earliest, most active and widely known of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers of central Ohio, they deserve more than a passing notice.

Rev. John Wright graduated at Dickinson college, Pennsylvania, and was licensed to preach about 1800 by the presbytery of Redstone. He engaged in missionary labors two or three years in Virginia, North and South Carolina, returning through regions now comprising Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.

In this work he became acquainted with a little band of Presbyterians upon the Hock-Hocking and Rush creek, and settled among them in 1804. In 1806 he became pastor of Hock-Hocking (Lancaster) and Rush creek churches. Here he preached thirty-two years, his labors being scattered over a wide extent of country. Many of the churches through this part of Ohio were organized through his instrumentality. He died at Delphi, Indiana, at the residence of his son, Rev. E. W. Wright, August 31, 1854, in his seventy-eighth year.

Rev. James Scott was born in Pennsylvania, east of the mountains, in 1775. He graduated at Cannonsburgh, Pennsylvania, and located at Mt. Vernon in 1807. About 1810 he was married to the

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daughter of Archibald Wilson, of Newark. He preached at Mt Vernon, Fredericktown, and Martinsburgh, the extremes of his pastoral charge being about twenty miles apart. Indians were yet in the country, and he was compelled to endure much hardship and danger in his circuit. He frequently walked to Martinsburgh, eleven miles, to preach, and that, too, after searching vainly in the woods for his horse. He died in September, 1851, in his seventy-eighth year.

Through the efforts of these ministers, and by the removal to Newark of some families of Presbyterian education, that element in the community had,. in 1808, attained sufficient strength to warrant the formation of a church, which was accordingly accomplished in the autumn of this year. Rev. John Wright was present and officiated at this organization. David Moore and James Taylor were elected elder's, and in the following year Jacob Wilson was elected an elder.

Of these elders, David Moore was born in Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1774. He came to Newark in the spring of 1808, and died April 27, 1843, aged seventy-one years. He was a good business man, and was an elder of this church about thirty years. James Taylor was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1753. He removed to Washington county, Pennsylvania, and subsequently to the vicinity of Wheeling, Virginia. He came to Newark in 1804. He was one of the first judges in the county, having been elected in 1808. He died at the residence of his son-in-law, James Maholm, in 1844, at the advanced age of ninety-one. He was a revolutionary soldier, and was with Colonel Williamson in his campaign against the Moravian Indians, and with seventeen others cast his vote against that massacre. He was a man of high character and universally respected, and was an elder of this church for thirty-six years. The other elder, Jacob Wilson, was born in Hardy county, Virginia, September 15, 1781, and came to Licking county in 1803. He raised a crop of corn in the North Fork valley, a mile above Newark, and returned in the fall to Virginia. In March, 1804, he married Nancy Colville, of Shenandoah county, and soon after removed to this place, where he lived until his death, on the eleventh of October, 1827, when he was but forty-eight. He served in the capacity of elder eighteen years, and led. the singing in the church.

The church was not supplied with regular preaching for more than a year after its organization. In the autumn of 1809, the pastoral services of Rev. George Van Eman were secured. He was then a young man twenty-three years of age, unmarried, and had just completed his educational course.

As late as 1868 Mr. Van Eman was yet living, as will be seen from the following letter, dated Findlay, Hancock county; Ohio, September 1, 1868.

"I settled in Newark in the fall of 1809, was ordained and installed there between Christmas of that year and New Years day, 1810. Revs. John Wright, of Lancaster; Jacob Lindley, of Athens, and James Scott, of Mt. Vernon, were at the ordination. I preached in the court house, sometimes also used as a school-house, a hewed-log building which stood in the public square. I continued pastor three years and six months, when my health failed and I did not preach for some years.

"I cannot tell the number of members, nor who they were. There were two Mr. Moores, with their wives, and several by the name of Wilson. I was the first of our order who settled there. No meeting-house was built in my time. After I commenced preaching again I spent a Sabbath in Newark on my way to tire synod at Chillicothe, and preached the first sermon in their new house of worship, just finished. It was a building, perhaps forty by fifty feet, 'and stood on the public square.

"There were a goodly number of exemplary Christians, as I hope, there in my time. There were some careless, profane, and ungodly men, but no violent opposition to.religion. I had the good will so far as I know, and all classes attended the meetings,

"I was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1786, on the twenty-third of April; received my education at Cannonsburgh; united with the church while at college; graduated in the fall of 1806; studied theology under Dr. McMillen; was licensed by the presbytery of Ohio in 1808, in Upper Buffalo meeting-house, and just one year after that was ordained. I took part in the organization of Richland presbytery; was pastor of the church at Mansfield two years and a half, then went to Greene county, Pennsylvania, and spent fifteen years as pastor of the same churches in New Providence and Jefferson. I then gave up my charge and came to this place, and have been in this county thirty-two years. I was the first pastor in Newark, Mansfield, and this place. I have had no charge since resigning this church on account of age, but preach occasionally,

This venerable preacher died in Findlay March 12, 1877, in the ninety-first year of his age. In Mansfield he is spoken of as one of the first ministers in that place. He spent most of his ministerial life as a pioneer preacher, acceptably and successfully. He was cheerful, pleasant, companionable in his intercourse, and exemplary in all the relations of life. He was an honorary member of

556 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

the Pioneer society of Newark, and attended one of its meetings in October, 1868, coming all the way from his home in Hancock county expressly for that purpose. Many will remember his interesting addresses at that time, consisting, for the most part, of reminisences of early times in the county. His stay extended over the Sabbath, when he gave to the people of the congregation of his former charge an exceedingy interesting discourse, a few of his old parishioners being present , who had been attendants upon his ministry more than fifty years before. Of that number, Mrs. James M. Taylor and Mrs. Isaac Wilson are believed to be the sole survivors. He was then eighty-two years of age, but vigorous physically and mentally.

From the summer of 1812 to the summer of 1815 this church was without a pastor; but during the summer of 1815 Rev. Thomas D. Baird was called. Mr. Baird was born in the county of Down, Ireland, December 23, 1773; came to the . United States in 1802, and settled in South Carolina in 1805. He was licensed in 1811, ordained in 1813, and came to Newark about August, 1815. In the following year the first building for the Presbyterian society was erected in Newark.

On the eighth of March, 1816, an article of agreement was entered into "between Zachariah Davis and Robert Davidson of the first part, and William Wilson, Abraham C. Wilson and Bradley Buckingham of the second part, in which the said parties agreed to the building of a meeting-house for the Presbyterian congregation of the town of Newark, to be of the following dimensions and materials, viz: A brick building fifty-four by fortysix feet, the foundation of stone, the walls of which are to be two and' a half feet high and two feet thick; the brick walls of said building to be eighteen inches thick, and fifteen feet high with suitable brick cornice; to put four windows in each side; to put in two doors, which are to be seven feet high and four feet wide (to be double), with a window above each door, with eight lights each; the pillars which support the roof to be cased up to the plastering overhead, the house to be cased all around as high as the windows; to put in forty pews, which are to be three feet high, with a suitable door to each pew, well hung ; the floor to be raised eighteen inches higher at one end of the house than at the other; and to have the whole of said work completed by the first day of November next; and it. is agreed between the parties that after its completion it shall remain in possession of said parties of the first part as security, until the full amout of two thousand seven hundred dollars shall be paid to them, which sum they are to receive for the completion of the aforementioned building in the manner aforesaid:"

Until the completion of this. house the congregation had held all their religious services in a building used for purposes of court, school, and church, which stood on the north side of the public square. It was a structure of hewed logs, containing one room which had seats of rough boards, laid upon logs. This new church stood on the west side of what is note the park; the west end of the house being near the west side of the park. Mr. Van Eman, in a letter written subsequently to the one above given, referring to the opening of this church edifice in the fall of 1816, says:

"Mr. Davis. who built the house, had finished it a day or two before I was there, and to secure prompt payment, had locked it up. The people did not know what to do. On Sabbath morning Mr, William Stanbery, a lawyer, took a boy with him to the house, raised the window and lifted in the boy, who opened the doors. The congregation, at the appointed hour, entered, Mr. Davis and his family among the rest. There was no disturbance about it. Mr. Davis told me, at the close. of the meeting that he had promised not to open the house, but was glad it was done. My text that day was, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God."

The congregation having for the first time a house of worship of its own, elected William Trindle and Joseph Moore elders, secured regular pulpit ministrations and entered upon a new career of prosperity.

Mr. Baird was a Calvinist of the old school, and maintained his views persistently. During a portion of the time he resided here he engaged in teaching in connection with his ministerial work. His first class teas formed for the purpose of study; ing the Latin language. This class was composed of B. W. Brice, J. R Stanbery, Nathaniel English, J. N. Wilson, John C. Gault, and John Moore. This class subsequently grew into one of greater numbers and a wider scope of study.

The pupils cherished for him the strongest attachment. On one occasion one of his pupils, J.

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N. Wilson, having been maliciously, and without cause, threatened with a whipping by a boy belonging to another school, and having discovered that he was about to be assailed, turned upon his antagonist and gave him a severe handling. The teacher on the following morning, when the circumstances of the case were explained, instead of administering the punishment that was apprehended, gave to the school in the clearest and most forcible manner his views upon the subject of self-defence, and the laws that should govern the social relations and intercourse of boys and men, at school and through life. He enjoined upon his pupils that they should always be careful not to be in the wrong, and when they were in the right they should not submit tamely to wrong and injustice, but in a manly way, maintain their rights.

In 1820 Mr. Baird resigned his charge and removed to Pennsylvania, where he continued pastoral labor about ten years. While returning from a visit to the south he was attacked by disease, and died in North Carolina January 7, 1839. He was a man of. great vigor of intellect and energy of will. He was an old school man and very decided in his convictions."

In 1820 Rev. Solomon S. Miles preached a few times in Newark, and in April, 1821, came here to reside. He was a graduate of the Ohio university, at Athens, in the same class with Hon. Thomas Ewing, and Rev. Henry Perkins, D.D., of New Jersey.

Early in his ministry, a Sabbath-school was organized-the first in this city. This was formed in June, 1822. A weekly prayer meeting was also established.in the same. year. . About 1824-5, by the efforts of Mr. Miles, a more active missionary spirit was awakened. Considerable interest was also excited about the same time in the work of Bible and tract distribution in the town and over the county.

In the year 1825 the church building became unfit for occupancy. On the Fourth of July of that year occurred the ceremonies in connection with the opening of the Ohio canal. Many strangers were present, among whom were Hon. Thomas Ewing, Governor Morrow, ex-Governor Worthington, Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York, and others. On the day preceding the celebration (Sunday), a large audience, of which the distinguished strangers named formed a part, were assembled in the Presbyterian church. A severe storm arose during the service, and the roof being inadequate to the protection of the house against rain, the plastering began to fall from the ceiling in quantities somewhat alarming, and the congregation becoming, in a measure, panic-stricken, abandoned the church, and fled through the storm to the old court house, injuring several persons in -the rush and confusion. After this, the house was not long used. In the following year it was sold to Mr. Z. Davis, the gentleman who erected it, and removed

The, congregation now worshipped for a time in the old court house again, and in a school-house near the locks of the canal not far from the present location of the Episcopal church, and subsequently in the upper portion of the market house, a building that stood at the east end of West Main street. Religious services were held here until the present church edifice was erected.

January 24, 1827, an act was passed by the legislature entitled "an act to incorporate the First Presbyterian society of the town of Newark, in the county of Licking."

The corporators were James Taylor, Jacob Wilson, John J. Brice, James M. Taylor, Bradley Buckingham, Hugh Scott, John Blaney, E. S. Woods, A. H. Caffee, Henry Smith and N. Cherry.

Owing to ill health Mr. Miles was released from his pastoral charge here, May 18, 1831. The church was then united and harmonious, and numbered sixty members.

Rev. James Harrison, a young man, supplied the pulpit for.a short time before Mr. Miles' resigns nation.

June 30, 1832, Rev. William Wylie, of Wheeling, Virginia, visited the church, by invitation, with a view to permanent settlement. The next day, Sunday, July 1st, the new church edifice was opened for the first time for the reception of a congregation. This building was erected by Bradley Buckingham and Buckingham Sherwood, and the pews were assessed and sold at such rates as to cover the cost of its construction and the value of the ground on which it stood. It, with the lot on which it is located, was conveyed by deed to

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the church in 1834, by Bradley Buckingham and Buckingham and Albert Sherwood, for four thousand dollars.

When the house was built, the pulpit was much higher than it now is, in accordance with the prevailing style of church architecture at that time, and it occupied a place at the opposite end of the house between the doors, the gallery extending across the west end.

The bell was purchased in 1834 or 1835, and cost three hundred dollars. Mr. Wylie was called June 17, 1833, and installed the sixth of August following. The elders at this time were James Reeder, Jonas Ward, Robert Milligan, and Luman Woodruff. In 1835 the membership was one hundred and sixty-two.

A series of difficulties extending through several . years, culminated in December, 1836, in the withdrawal from this church of more than twenty members, who, with others, organized the Second Presbyterian church of this city.

Dr. Wylie continued his ministry here until 1854, through a period of more than twenty-two years. His was the longest pastorate the church had. He was, when he resigned, in his seventyeighth year. He was a graduate of Jefferson college, and died in May, 1858, aged eighty-two years. He was succeeded by Rev. William M. Robinson, who had been his nearest neighbor in the ministry for ten and a half years. Mr. Robinson, a native of Pennsylvania, was installed June 8, 1855, and his pastoral relation with the church ceased June 1, 1862. During his pastorate, an old debt was cancelled, important repairs put upon the church edifice, and one hundred and sixteen persons received into the church.

He was followed by Rev. A. S. Milholland in 1862, and Rev. H. T. Alexander in 1863. Rev Henry M. Hervey began preaching to the congregation in May, 1863, and was installed December 15, 1863, Mr. Hervey was followed by Rev. William F. Brown, who was succeeded by the present pastor, Rev. R R Moore.

The following is a list of the elders of this church from its organization to the present time; David Moore, 1808; James Taylor, 1808; Jacob Wilson, 1809; William Trindle, 1815; Joseph Moore, 1815; Noah Owen, 18x8; Lewis Godden, 1818; James Reeder, 1829; Jonas Ward, 1830 Chester Wells, 1829; Robert Milligan, 1830 Moses Moore, 1829; Luman Woodruff, 1833; George Wilson, 1836; John Wolf, 1836 ; James Belford, 1836; Nathan Barnes, 1836; E. J. Lewis, 1850; S. J. Reynolds, 1850; M. W. Swan, 1857; W. H. Winegardner, 1857; T. J. Davis, 1867; George F. Moore, 1867, and W: D. Hamilton, 1867. Among the later elders are J. C. Galbraith, Mr. Bates, Dr. Wotring, and in 1880 Mr. John Fulton, of Lockport, and Mr. William A. Jones were elected. Of all those who have held this office, Robert Milligan, yet living on Second street, has exercised its functions the longest term of years, having acted in the capacity of elder from 1830 to the present time.

A choir was formed in 1833 or 1834, of which Samuel H. Bancroft was the leader.

The first Sabbath-school organized in Newark, was in connection with this church, in June, 1822 It was called "The Newark association for affording Sabbath-school instruction." It had twelve "articles of association," which provided for the election of a superintendent and four managers, by the members annually, on the first Monday in October; for the opening of the school at eight o'clock, A. M.; for its opening and closing with prayer; for instruction in the Scriptures, and in the Westminster shorter catechism, not making, however, the study of the catechism obligatory upon all the pupils. They enjoined punctuality and diligence upon all the teachers, and prohibited corporeal punishment in the school. "Entreaty, persuasion, reproof, suitable rewards, and every means calculated to win the affections and secure the good behavior and attention of the scholars to their duties, will be resorted to; when these fail to secure the end proposed, recourse will be had to expulsion."

These articles were signed by S. S. Miles, L. Godden, H. R. Gilmore, Charles Sager, J. Mathiot, George Shaver, C. W. Adams, John Cunningham, Jonathan Taylor, Thomas Taylor, Eliza Young, his Ann Brice, Lucy C. Gilmore, Olive Taylor, and e: Sarah C. Burnham. Lewis Godden was elected superintendent the first year, and Miss Sarah Burnham, Mrs. Ann Brice, Rev. S. S. Miles, and Joshua Mathiot, were made managers.

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The school was held in the church edifice until that building became unfit for occupancy in 1825, when it was held in the old court house. While it was held here, Rev. Mr. Judson, an agent of. the American Sunday-school Union, visited this place, and, assisted by Mr. Miles, they raised funds for the purchase of a library-the first in Newark for Sabbath-school use.

The school subsequently held its meetings in the school-house near the canal locks; in the upper part of the market-house; in a brick building belonging to David Moore, in the northeast corner of the public square; in a school-room fitted up by Mr. Miles, in the rear of the present church building, before its completion. From here it went into the present church building.

There was considerable prejudice against the Sabbath-school in in its early history here. A gentleman who was teaching school in this place in 1831, and who was strongly opposed to the institution of the Sabbath-school, announced, on a certain Monday morning, that it was his intention to discipline by dismissing from his school all his scholars who had attended the Sabbath-school on the previous day; and, for the purpose of ascertaining who the offending parties were, required them to rise to their feet. Somewhat surprised to see that all the school, except his own two children, rose, and not wishing so suddenly to be thrown out of employment, he immediately said: " You can take your seats."

In 1832 the school numbered eighty-nine pupils and fourteen teachers. The school is at present a large and flourishing one. The following gentlemen have been superintendents: Lewis Godden, Robert C. Gist, Mark Howe, James Young, John Wolf, John Moore, Robert Milligan, E. J. Lewis, Henry S. Martin, L. P. Coman, T. J. Davis, Rev. W. M. Robinson, George B. Wright, W. H. Winegardner, Rev. H. M. Hervey, W. D. Hamilton, and the present pastor, Rev. R. R. Moore.

The school is provided with a library of several hundred volumes.

The Second Presbyterian Church.-The foregoing history of the First church alludes to the fact of the organization of the Second church in the simple statement that "A series of difficulties extending through several years, culminated in December, 1836, in the withdrawal from this church of more than twenty members, who, with others, organized the Second Presbyterian church of this city."

July 16, 1876, the pastor of this church, Rev. Howard Kingsbury, preached an historical sermon on the fortieth anniversary of the Second church, from which is gleaned the following history of that congregation:

Stating the causes which led to the organization of this church as briefly and accurately as possible, it may be said the first disaffection in the old church in this place sprang up immediately upon the call extended to the Rev. Mr. Wylie, who was not the choice of a considerable number of the congregation. This was publicly known, and vafious inaffectual attempts were made to reconcile the disaffected members. At length, in February, 1836, disciplinary measures were brought against six prominent members of the church-Asa Beckwith, James Nailer, Starr Baldwin, N. H- Seymour, Thomas H. Bushnell, and James Young. Of these, all but the last two effected a compromise with the session. Messrs. Bushnell and Young determined to stand trial. Their cases were finally settled in the presbytery in the spring of that year, that body not sustaining any of the charges brought against them.

At this time the question of forming a separate church, which would not have been thought of a little while before, began to be agitated, and steps were taken in that direction. A petition was presented to an adjourned meeting of the presbytery, April 21, 1836, signed by "fifty-one members and supporters of the church -and congregation of Newark, praying to be set off as a Second church in Newark. It was moved and seconded that the petition be received, and after considerable discussion the motion was put and carried. in the affirmative."- (Minutes, Presbytery of Lancaster, pp. 145, 146) Notice was given that an appeal would be taken from this decision. Against the petition a remonstrance was presented, signed by a hundred and twenty-eight members and supporters of t the church of Newark. The matter was at length referred to a committee consisting of Revs. Sam-

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uel W. Rose and Jacob Little, and Elder William Thompson, of Jersey.

At a called meeting held in Newark, December 27, 1836, against the very assembling of which protests and appeals were presented by different members, a memorial was addressed to presbytery, signed by forty-five names, members and supporters of the church of Newark, asking to be organized with all who may chose to associate with them, into a Second Presbyterian church in Newark, or the dissolution of the pastoral relation between the Rev. William Wylie and the church and congregation of Newark.-(Minutes Presbytery of Lancaster, p. 171). This was considered at length, and it was finally

Resolved, that they grant the memorialists their requests,so far as it relates to the organization of a Second Presbvterian church in Newark.-(ibid., p. 172.)

and the Revs. Roswell Tenney, William H. Beecher and Charles M. Putnam, with Elders Chester Wells and Jonas Ward were appointed a committee to organize the church. This duty they carried out faithfully on December 29, 1836.

The sermon was preached by Rey. W. H. Beecher, who alone survives of this committee, from Romans 1:16-17.

Thirty-one members of the church at Newark presented themselves, and were duly organized into the Second Presbyterian church. Their names as they appear on the journal of that day's proceedings are Henry Shurtz, James Nailer, Matilda Edwards, Ann Nailer, Ruth Stephenson, Sarah Beckwith, Mary Baldwin, Sarah Smith, Elizabeth Breakbill, Thirza Gregory, Jonas Ward, Mary Houston, Sarah Steel, Charlotte Cook, Ann Mead, Mary Ann King, Benjamin Ells, James Young, Jane Doolittle, Sabra Ells, Sarah Young, Leah Hollar, Margaret Scott, Martha Seymour, Jennet Shurtz, Sarah Woods, N. H. Seymour, C. S. Gilbert, Starr Baldwin, Asa Beckwith, and Peter Breakbill. Jonas Ward, James Young and Asa Beckwith were elected ruling elders. Mr. Ward being an elder was installed, and the others ordained.

The church was now organized and ready for work; but the matter did not rest here. An appeal was taken from the decision of the presbytery, and a protest against their action in forming the Second church; and from the decision of the synod, reversing the action of the presbytery, the session of this church took an appeal to the general assembly.

In May, 1838, however, the general assembly divided into two branches, known as old and new school. In the following fall the synod of Ohio divided at its meeting at Lancaster; and the new school presbytery of Lancaster held its first meeting, according to appointment, at Jersey, December 11th of the same year. Although it was not the case with the synod at large that all who had been considered "new measure" men went with the new school, and all extreme Calvinists with the old; it is stated as nearly, if not exactly, the fact that all who had opposed the organization of this church formed the old school presbytery, while those who had favored it formed the new school. Naturally, therefore, this church sought the continued companionship and assistance of its tried friends.

Thus, while the division of the church at large had nothing to do with the division of the Presbyterian family in this place, it nevertheless came to pass that by this greater division all ecclesiastical opposition to this minor division was ended; and the Second Presbyterian church was duly recognized by, and represented in, presbytery.

The first services of the new church were held in the school-house in the rear of the old church. Without a pastor they enjoyed the occasional services of neighboring ministers, and at other times one of their number read a sermon.

Late in April, 1837, a young man, Alexander Duncan, who had been brought up in the city of Troy, New York, under the pastorate of Dr. Bee. man, and by him prevailed upon to consecrate himself to the work of the ministry, was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Cincinnati.

He was not ordained or installed, however, until some time later, being received from the presbytery of Cincinnati, by the presbytery of Lancaster (new school) at its first meeting, December 11, 1838; and set apart to the ministry and installed pastor of this church, Thursday April 4, 1839. Rev. W. H. Beecher preached the sermon. The moderator, Rev. Jacob Little, presided and gave the charge to the people. The ordaining e prayer was made by Rev. Samuel W. Rose.

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In the spring of 1837 arrangement was made with the county commissioners for the use of a jury-room in the second story of the court house.

This was fitted up at an expense of about a hundred dollars, with an unpainted pulpit and unpainted pews, which afterwards did service in the basement of the first building erected. The second year permission was given to use the same room a while longer. From this room the church was summarily ejected; being granted time barely to remove their furniture, it having been -discovered by the county commissioners that such an occupation of it by a religious society was a perversion of its original design.

At a meeting held May 29, 1838, a committee was appointed, consisting of James Young, E. S. Woods, and Jonas Ward, "to fix a site for a church, and report plans and expense of house built of brick and wood." June 14th, it was determined to proceed at once. The west half of the east half of in-lot number twenty-five, together with a narrow strip running north, had been quietly secured by Mr. Young more than a year before, with reference to this object, and by him was delivered at cost, for the sum of five hundred and twenty-three dollars. A soliciting committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. J. Young, E. S. Woods, A. Beckwith, B. Sherwood, and A C. Edgell, who were enabled to procure, on the first subscription, the amount of two thousand four hundred and sixty-one dollars.

Of the fifty-five names, three subscribed three hundred dollars each; two, two hundred; four, one hundred. The rest are smaller, running down to even two dollars. Among the original subscriptions was one of an eight day clock, that was sold for thirty dollars. The gentleman who had charge of it when sold, took it, set it up on the mantel, wound it and set it going. That clock is said to have celebrated the occasion by striking, not twelve the first time, but a hundred and forty-four. It evidently did its best.

July 26th, the following gentlemen were appointed a building committee: Messrs. Doolittle, Young, Beckwith, Seymour, and Woods; Mr. Seymour being appointed treasurer. All questions of detail were left to them, and on August 24th, they entered into contract with Messrs. Reeder & Rodgers for a frame building, "thirty-eight feet by fifty-two feet, and twenty feet high, between sills and plates;" the basement to be completed by December 1st.

It was not ready for use until February 17, 1839, when, with glad hearts, the church, who had meantime been worshipping in a large room in the second story of Mr. Beckwith's store, on the south side of the square, took possession for the first time of a church home they could call their own.

A bass-viol that. had been presented to the choir by Mr. Buckingham Sherwood, on condition that it should be used, had, unseen, lent its aid to. music of that happy day; but on the next Sunday its presence was disclosed to the horror of one of the little original band of worshippers, who at once arose and withdrew, and never set foot again within the desecrated walls. The efforts of her pastor to remove her prejudice were unavailing, she persisting that she would never "sit and see any one pretending to worship God by scraping on the devil's backbone."

March 15, 1839, the Second Presbyterian church was duly incorporated by an act of the legislature; Samuel D. King, John Metcalf, Alfred Doolittle, Asa Beckwith, Ezekiel S. Woods and James Young being the corporators.

Divine service continued to be held in the humble room just described, for a little over a year, when the audience-room above was completed, and on April 16, 1840, solemnly dedicated to God. The sermon on that occasion was preached by Rev. Addison Kingsbury, of Putnam, on the text, Exodus 25:8.

The first addition to the membership of the church was on the last Sabbath of May, 1837, when eleven united with it. During that year twenty-three were added, five of them on profession of their faith, making a total of fifty-two. There was a steady growth until 1848, the largest accession being in 1842, during which year the church enjoyed a visit from Rev. Dr. Lindsley, then president of Marietta college. The interest which had for a long time been increasing then culminated, and forty-five members were added, thirty of them on examination.

The whole number added to the church under Mr. Duncan's ministry of nearly sixteen years was

562 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

two hundred and sixteen, making in all two hundred and forty-seven members.

January 11, 1853, Rev. Mr. Duncan resigned his pastoral charge, having been chosen superintendent of the public schools of this city. His resignation was accepted at a meeting of the church and congregation held the next day, though the pastoral relation was not formally dissolved until the spring meeting of presbytery; and he continued to supply the pulpit mainly until the spring of 1854.

In February, 1854, a proposition was made by the First church looking to the union of the two churches. The correspondence was friendly, but resulted in nothing; the main point at issue, so far as the resolutions of the respective parties indicate, being that of the ecclesiastical connection of the reunited church. Naturally the First church adhered to the old school presbstery of Zanesville; as naturally the Second church preferred the new school presbytery of Pataskala.

Rev. Simon J. Humphrey, a graduate of Bowdoin college, Maine, in 1848, and of Andover seminary in 1852, preached here six Sabbaths early in the year 1854. A call was extended to him March 8th of that year, which, being accepted, he was ordained to the ministry, and installed pastor the eighth day of the following June; Professor Allen, of Lane seminary, preaching the sermon. That year the cholera prevailed here, and in the pastor's note-book is preserved this sad record; "Sunday, August 27th. This is the cholera Sabbath. Ten burials to-day."

In the spring of 1856 the church was enlarged by an addition at the rear, giving about a hundred new sittings. At the same time a pipe organ, costing between six and seven hundred dollars, took the place of the cabinet-organ formerly employed. Services were held during this time in the city hall, beginning March 23rd; the enlarged church being occupied for the first time on June 1st.

The trustees of the church in April, 1856, purchased a house and lot adjoining the church for a parsonage, at the price of seventeen hundred dollars, to be paid in three yearly instalments.

The whole number added to the church in Mr. Humphrey's pastorate of just seven years, was eighty-nine. Financially the report for this period is about as follows

Enlarging and repairing church, $1,205; organ, $677; parsonage (a small balance paid later), $1,700; current expenses, $5,800; benevolence, $2,287; total, $11,669.

In the spring of 1861, Rev. Mr. Humphrey receiving a call from the First Congregational church of Beloit, Wisconsin, resigned the pastorate of this church.

The pulpit was supplied for a year, to May 1, 1862, by Rev. William Lusk, jr., and on October 14, 1862, a call was extended to, and accepted by, Rev. Rollin A. Sawyer.

Mr. Sawyer is a graduate of Western Reserve college in 1851, and of Union Theological seminary, New York, in 1857. Prior to his settlement here, he had been pastor of the Westminster church, Yonkers, New York, from February 17, 1858. He was installed over this church January 1, 1863, and continued its pastor until January 16, 1866.

Up to the close of his pastorate here, including the previous interim, when two were added, the whole number of additions to the church was forty-four.

Total on church-roll to January, 1866 ... . . . . . . .... . . . . . . 380

Financially the report for the four years is about

as follows:

Current expenses ............................................................$5,200

Benevolence .................................................................. 1,750

Total......................................................................... $6,950

The vacant pulpit was not filled immediately. November 4, 1866, Rev. Daniel Tenney preached his first sermon here. A call was subsequently extended to him, which he accepted January 9, 1867. He was installed pastor of this church May 1, 1867; on which occasion Rev. D. E. Beach, of Granville, preached the sermon from the text, 2 Cor. 2; 15, 16. Rev. Addison Kingsbury, D. D., of Putnam, charged the pastor, and Rev. Charles Putnam, of Jersey, who was present at the organization of the church, thirty years before, charged the people.

In November of that year the very important step wag taken to determine upon a new church building. On Saturday evening, November 2d, a number of prominent gentlemen, connected with the church, called, by invitation, upon the pastor, each one somewhat surprised at the presence of

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 563

others. The matter was discussed, and Mr. Tenny offered to make-up the balance from the rest of the society, if they who were present would do about what he had in his thoughts assigned them. All ..promising not to be. offended at his making figures for them, he read the supposed subscription. But let him describe the scene for himself, as he does in a letter received from him:

"Nobly did they respond with but slight variations from the estimates I had made. About twelve thousand dollars were pledged that night. It was a solemn and precious hour, and as we kneeled and thanked God, every heart was deeply moved. I shall never forget that night. God was there. The next day, the Sabbath, November 3d, I preached from the text: 'Let us rise up and build.' On Monday I took the field to make up the balance of the subscription needed, and before night nearly twenty thousand dollars were pledged. Never, I think, were subscriptions more generously or snore promptly pledged. I would like to mention the names of some of those brothers who joyfully-made their offerings of thousands into the Lord's treasury for that object, but it would be insidious. But I must speak of one person who was knowing to my plan, one invividual who had earnestly advised me to move, and to move at once and heartily in the matter. That person was a woman. She insisted that it could be done, and that now was the time. She would say to me again and again, go forward, and you will succeed. That noble woman was Mother King. God bless her!"

A congregational meeting was held December 23, 1867, when the following gentlemen were appointed a building committee: Messrs. William Shields, William A. King, esq., John McCune William O. Bannister, Rev. Daniel Tenney, Albert Sherwood, John S. Fleek.

The parsonage was moved from the corner to the rear of the lot, and made to front on second street, and the church, instead of occupying its old position, was advantageously-placed .on-the corner, fronting Church street. Services were held in the meantime in the old building, which was removed to where it now stands, and which has since be' come the property of the African Methodist Episcopal church, and in the city hall.

June 13, 1868, on a beautiful Saturday evening, the corner stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, when Rev. H. M. Hervey, of the First church, conducted the devotional exercises, Mr. Matthew Newkirk read a historical statement of the church and Sabbath-school, Mr. Tenney delivered an address, Waldo Taylor, esq., read a statement respecting the proposed building, and Rev. J. W. White, of the Methodist church, offered prayer.

Thursday, January 28, 1869, the first services were held in the lecture room, consisting of a Sunday-school festival and dedication. The following Sabbath, January 31st, was rendered memorable by the reception of twenty new members, the celebration of the Lord's supper, a dedication sermon, and the raising of two thousand dollars.

A new bell, weighing twenty-one hundred pounds, was procured largely through the efforts of Miss Martha Scott (now Mrs. Osborn), and was raised to its place May 20, 1870. That bell was rung so joyfully for the next two years that it prematurely cracked, and another was immediately obtained for it in exchange, weighing a little over fifteen hundred pounds.

Mr. Tenney resigned his pastoral charge March 8, 1871, and removed to Troy.

The whole number added to the church under his ministry was a hundred and thirty-four.

Previously registered ................................................. 380

Total on church roll to March, 1871 . . . .. . . . .... ... . 514

Financially the report for the four years is about as follows:

Church building ...................................................... $20,500

Bell.............................................................. (nearly) 2,000

Current expenses . .................................................... 6,800

Benevolence ............................................................ 1,610

Total................................................................... $29,910

"Here I should prefer to leave the history of the church to other hands, but duty requires some reference to more recent years."

Rev. Howard Kingsbury, a graduate of Yale college in 1863, and of Union seminary in 1869, was called to this church May 8, 1871, and installed June 22d Rev. Dr. Kingsbury, of Zanesville, preached from a part of Ephesians 4, 15, "Speaking the truth in love." Rev. A. S. Dudley, of Granville, delivered the charge to the pastor, and Rev. H. M. Robertson, of Westerville, the charge to the people,.

November 27, 1872, at the suggestion of the session, who tendered their resignation, the church, after much prayer and calm deliberation, adopted the system of term eldership, the session to be constituted of six elders, the term of office to be six years, an election of two elders to be held every two years.

564 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

At a congregational meeting, March 4, 1873, it was determined to proceed to finish the church. In due time a subscription paper was circulated, and a building committee appointed, consisting of the following gentlemen: Messrs. Adam Fleek, T. L. Clark, George Sherwood, George Markley, C. H. Newkirk, T. H. Sites, J. H. McCune.

On Sunday, April 12, 1874, the long looked for day arrived, when the audienceroom should be congregated to the worship of God. The sermon was preached by Rev. W. E. Moore, D. D., of. Columbus, from Psalm 95, 6. The dedicatory prayer was offered by the pastor. Then the sacrament of the Lord's supper was celebrated, Rev. Mr. Tenney conducting the service; and the session of the First church, who had given up their own service to unite with this church on the joyful occasion, joined with this session in the distribution of the elements. Sixteen were received into the church, seven of them on profession of their faith.

In the afternoon a Sunday-school dedication service was held, conducted by Mr. Tenney, and in the evening an historical address by Rev. Mr. Duncan.

A brief description of the church building seems appropriate at this place. It is built of brick, with Ohio sandstone finishings. It is somewhat Gothic in architecture. Its extreme length is one hundred and six feet, and extreme width sixty-two feet two inches.

The basement, entirely above ground, contains a lecture-room, with a seating capacity of three hundred and fifty; a conference-room, holding a hundred; two smaller rooms, the one the pastor's study, the other a parlor, and a library room; all, with the exception of the last, connected by sliding-doors.

The audience-room has a seating capacity of five hundred and fifty, with room to spare. Its extreme length is ninety-six feet, eleven feet of which form a vestibule, and fifteen feet a recess back of the pulpit, occupied by the choir and organ; leaving the regular proportions of the room seventy feet by fifty-five.

The whole number added to the church during the present pastorate is ............... 109

Previously registered ............................................................................................ 514

Total on church roll to July, 1876 ..........................................................................623

The financial report for the present period,including pledges just secured for a debt of two thousand three hundred dollars still due on the finishing of the church, to be paid within a year, is substantially as follows:

Church building (finishing) .................................... $9,500

Church cemetery lot ................................................ 45

Current expenses ..................................................... 8,750

Benevolence ............................................................ 2,180

Total..................................................................... $20,475

It was through the influence of Mr. James Young that the first prayer-meeting ever held in Newark is due, he soliciting his pastor, Rev. Mr. Baird, although himself at the time not a professor of religion, to introduce such an agency of use fullness into the church. Mr. Baird replied to his solicitation: " Cannot you start one?" He shrank from the responsibility, and the matter for the present dropped. When Mr. Miles became pastor, Mr. Young, having then become a member of the church, addressed an anoymous letter to him upon the same subject, which had the desired effect. On the next Sabbath a prayer-meeting was announced, and I suppose not a week has passed since that long-ago time, 1822, when there has not been a prayer-meeting in this city.

The Sabbath-school has always been a prosperous institution, varying from time to time, but on the whole gaining in numbers and interest. It was organized in January, 1837, i. e. at the very beginning of the church, by the Rev. James Hildreth, a young licentiate from the city of New York. The pastors of the church have all been Sundayschool men, and the superintendents and teachers have been active, faithful and zealous. It has grown from an average attendance of about seventy-five to over two hundred. According to the annual report of the secretary, Mr. Antone Weber, presented March 26, 1876, the school consisted of six officers and thirty teachers, twenty ladies and ten gentlemen. There are three bible classes, with an enrollment of forty-two, and an average attendance of eighteen; the main school, with an enroll ment of ninety-six boys and one hundred and twenty-four girls, and an average attendance of fifty-six boys and seventy-five girls; and an infant class with an enrollment of seventy-three, and an average attendance of forty-five. Total enrollment

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 565

three hundred and seventy-one; total average attendance for the year, two hundred and fourteen: The whole amount contributed was two hundred and seventy dollars and thirty cents.

The following is a nearly, if not quite, correct list of superintendents, with the dates of the beginning of their service:

James Young ................................................1837

Asa Beckwith ................................................. 1840

N. H. Seymour ............................................... 1845

A. C. Edgell.................................................. 1848

W Newkirk .................................................... 1850

S. G. Arnold. ................................................. 1855

L. P. Coman.................................................... 1860

M. Newkirk.................................................... 1863

Dr. J. B. Hunt................................................ 1866

M. Newkirk.................................................... 1868

Hon. Charles Follett........................................ 1870

.M. Newkirk ................................................... 1875

Mr. Newkirk is the present superintendent.

In addition to the home school, the church sustained a mission in East Newark for ten years, from October, 1858, to April, 1868. The highest enrollment was in 1859 one hundred and twentysix scholars, eleven teachers; Mr. J. D. Parsons, superintendent. It grew gradually smaller until it was re-organized in June, 1866, and its more than fifty scholars were placed under the care of a single teacher, Miss Clara Knight, whose faithful service, unassisted and often unappreciated, was finally terminated by an attack of sickness, which put an end to the school.

Rev. Howard Kingsbury was succeeded in March, 1878, by Rev. George A. Beattie, who remained until the summer of 1880. The debt of the church was canceled during his pastorate.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Newark.-Unfortunately the larger part of the history of this church has not been preserved. This is more to be regretted as this has generally been the pioneer church. In the advance of civilization the Methodist preachers were generally found on the picket line, and were the first to proclaim the Gospel in the wilderness. This was not always the case, but if not the first, they were, at least, amon the first, and for this reason the history of thi church becomes a part of the history of the territory contiguous to its location.

Rev. Mr. McDonald, a Presbyterian, was the first preacher in Licking county. This was in 1802. In 1803 the Methodist Episcopal church organized the Hock-Hocking circuit, which embraced the territory, in part, of what now forms the counties of Fairfield, Licking, Muskingum, Coshocton, Knox, Franklin, Pickaway, and Ross. Rev. Asa Shinn was appointed the intinerant to take charge of it, establish preaching places, organize classes, and generally minister to it. He made the cabin of Mr. Benjamin Green, in the valley of Hog run, a regular preaching place, which he visited once in four weeks, and where he instituted, in 1804, the first regular church organization in Licking county. It is probable that Mr. Shinn also preached about that time in the Licking valley, and, perhaps, in Newark, which .had been laid out the year before (1802), but no record appears to that effect. The first man to preach in Newark was; probably, Rev. John Wright, a Presbyterian. This was in the summer of 1803. A sketch of Mr. Shinn's life will be found in the history of the Hog Run church, in Licking township.

In the autumn of 1804, Mr. Shinn was transferred to Kentucky, and Revs. James Quinn and John Meeks took his place on the Hock-Hocking circuit. There is no record that they preached any where else in the county than in the little church at Hog run, but it is presumable that they occasionally preached in Newark, but if they did they must have held the service under a tree, or in the cabin of some settler, as no building had been erected for church purposes, and was not erected for years afterwards.

Mr. Quinn was continued upon this circuit, being re-appointed in 1805, but he was sent to the Scioto circuit when about one-half of his second year had expired, making his whole service on the circuit, a period of eighteen months, running into the early part of 1806. Before he left the village Newark was attached to it, and his congregation usually numbered "from fifteen to thirty persons," says Mr. Smucker. Here then is the first evidence of the establishment of the first Methodist class in Newark. A small class existed here which Mr. Quinn left in 1806, composed of five or six persons, who met at the cabin of Abraham Wright, esq., an emigrant of 1802, from Washington county, Penn-

566 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

sylvania, who was at this period, and had been for some time, an acting justice of the peace.

Rev. James Quinn, who organized this first Methodist class in Newark, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1775, and entered the itinerant ministry in May, 1799. He was appointed to Greenfield circuit in western Pennsylvania, but was also a missionary in the Hock-Hocking valley in December, 1799, and January, 1800, going as far as Lancaster. In 1801, he served Erie circuit, the Winchester circuit in Shenandoah valley, Virginia, in 1802, and Redstone circuit, in the Monongahela valley, Pennsylvania, in 1803. The next year he erected a cabin in the woods in Fairfield county, near the present vi!lage of Pleasantville, which he made his home. It was the work of twenty-six days to ride around his circuit, and he was allowed but two days at home. Mr. Quinn was a faithful and efficient minister, and continued his ministerial duties until 1812. He died at his residence in Highland Co., Ohio, December 1, 1847, at the age of nearly seventy-three.

Rev. John Meeks, Mr. Quinn's cotemporary, came from Western Virginia, above Wheeling. He remained many years in the itinerancy, but no record of his life and services has been obtained.

In 1805, Rev. Joseph Thrap came into the county, and Rev. Joseph Williams was appointed to the Hock-Hocking circuit. A biographical sketch of Mr. Thrap is given in the history of Hanover township, where he lived and established a church. It is not unlikely that he preached many times to the class in Newark. Mr. Williams also preached here at the same time.

In 1806, quite a number of preachers of different denominations made their appearance in Newark and vicinity. Among them was Rev. John Emmett, a Methodist, who preached a number of sermons under a tree which stood on the public square. Rev. Peter Cartwright also made his appearance on the Hock-Hocking circuit, taking the place of Mr. Meeks, who, by reason of failing health, was unable to keep his appointments. At that date the following names appear as members of the Methodist society here. These were probably the organizers of this church: Jam°s Stewart, Mrs. Stewart, Jane Wilson, Mr. Couch, James Stewart, jr., Martin Lincoln, Aaron Baker, Mrs. Baker and Benjamin Wilcox, a colored youth brought to Ohio from Virginia, by Captain Archibald Wilson. Three gentlemen from New England, named Curtis, Mallery and Petty, were soon added to the above list, but not long after a schism sprang up in the little church which led to the secession of Aaron Baker and a number of others. Mr. Emmett officiated as chaplain on the Fourth of July, 1807, the first Fourth of July ever celebrated in Licking county. He spent the subsequent years of his life in the Scioto valley, and represented Pickaway county several sessions in the legislature.

Rev. James Axley was assigned to this circuit in 1806, and in 1807 Revs. Joseph Hays, James King and Levi Shinn, brother of Asa, the two former having charge of the Hock-Hocking circuit. In 1808 Revs. Ralph Lotspeitch and Isaac Quinn came as regular Methodist itinerants. The former was a minister of note, who performed much pastoral labor among the Methodists in this county during this and succeeding years.

In 1809 Revs. Benjamin Lakin and John Johnson were minis: ministers on the Hock-Hocking circuit, and, of course, supplied the Newark congregation. About that time the first court house in this county was erected-a log building-on the public square, and this was thereafter used by all denominations for many years, for religious meetings.

One of the most prominent of the early Methodist ministers was Rev. Noah Fidler, who came to this vicinity, settling a few miles south of Newark in 1811. He entered the Methodist itinerancy in 1801, serving the Frederick, Pittsburgh, Erie, Clarksburgh, Botetourt and Staunton circuits, in the order named, until 1808, when he retired from the labors of a circuit preacher, and became a local minister in the Methodist church, continuing in that relation until his death, which took place in Miami county, Ohio, to 1849, at the age of seventy-one.

In 1823 this church was included in what was called Granville circuit; in 1834 in Newark circuit, and in 1840 it was made into a station, and Rev. Cyrus Brook appointed as pastor.

Rev. Noad Bidler lived near this place after retiring from the regular ministry, and was one of the leading members of the society until 1834. The

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 567

appointments were as follows, according to tradition from 1823 to 1828: In 1823-4, William Cunningham and Charles Thorne; in 1824-5, Edward Taylor and H. S. Fernandes; in 1825-6, Samuel Hamilton, Z. H. Costen; in 1826-7, Samuel Hamilton, Curtis Goddard; in 1827-8, Jacob Hooper.

On the first page of an old record appears the following subscription form, used for soliciting money for the first Methodist "meeting house" in Newark:

"METHODIST EPISCOPAL MEETING HOUSE-A subscription addressed to the generous people of the town of Newark and its vicinity for the sole purpose of obtaining funds and materials for building said house in the town of Newark, on a lot obtained from Thomas Reed, on Fourth street, a few rods north of the old burying-ground-We, the subscribers, from motives of friendship to the cause of religion and moralitv, and willing to give our aid for the promotion of the town of Newark, do covenant and agree that we will pay the sums we hereunto subscribe to our names to the trustees of said house which said trustees shall be under bonds to make the best use of in building the house in a good, substantial manner, according to the best of their judgment.

"January 16, 1828."

The following are a few of the principal subscriptions: James Hays, fifty dollars; Martin Lincoln, fifty dollars; James Bramble, forty-five dollars; William Stanberry, fifty dollars; Hugh Allen, twenty-five dollars. The remainder were from fifteen dollars down to one dollar. Total subscription, seven hundred and seventy-one dollars:

January 12, 1830, the following minute appears on the trustees' book:

"The following is an abstract of the report of the acting committee of the Methodist Episcopal meeting-house, in the town of Newark, to the trustees of the same, relative to the cost, etc., up to the present date, a copy of .which was published in the Newark Advocate and Newark Gazette:

Amount of contractors' bills ............................... $1,025.66

Amount paid by subscription and otherwise ........ 792.29

Balance due contractors ........................................ $233.26

JOHN CUNNINGHAM, Secretary.

Immediately after this is the following minute:

"Due James Hays twenty-four dollars and forty-two rents, to be paid in country products by April 1st, at any place of deposit from St. Albans to Irville, on the Zanesville road.

"January 8, 1830.

[Signed]

JAMES BRAMBLE,

THOMAS TAYLOR,

THOMAS ATHERTON,

JOHN EVANS,

JOHN CHANNEL,

NOAH F IDLER."

The contractor for the brick work of the house was Ebenezer Chadwick, and for the carpenter work the firm of Bramble & Wilson.

The house was formally received by the trustees and settlement made May 4, 1829. The preacher in charge at this time was Rev. Jacob Hooper. The trustees who began the erection of the meeting-house were James Hays, James Bramble, John Evans, Thomas Taylor, John Channel, Thomas Atherton and Thomas Parker. The lot (the site of the present church) cost fifteen dollars, and the deed was made August 6, 1828.

The following subscription paper is interesting as showing the progress of matters:

"To the ladies of Newark and vicinity:-The liberality of the ladies, in matters of public importance and utility, we believe has never been appealed to in vain. In those things that pertain to the convenience and ornament of society, they are ever ready to contribute their proportion, and from none are donations for such purposes more appropriate. It is proposed to purchase a bell for the use of this town generally, to be hung in the cupola of the Methodist church, to be rang twice everyday. The cost of the bell will be about fifty cents per pound; consequently the more there is subscribed, the larger and more useful will be the bell purchased. From the munificence of the ladies in the vicinity, and in the town of Newark, we certainly hope to be able to effect this laudable object. Therefore, we, the subscribers, agree to pay the several sums annexed to our names."

One hundred and nine dollars were received.

In the fall of 1829, Rev. James Gilruth was appointed to Newark circuit, with Jacob Hooper as colleague. Leroy Swormsted was presiding elder. There were at that time sixty-nine members. In 1831 H. S. Fernandes was appointed to the charge, and remained two years and was followed by J. W. Gilbert. The church, up to 1833, seems to have been in an unfinished condition, and another .subscription. was taken to complete it. In 1834-5 bills were granted to the amount of four hundred and fifty-four dollars, which shows. the cost of the building to have been, including the bell, one thousand five hundred and eighty-eight dollars. On the first of August, 1835, a property was purchased of Jabez Edwards "on the northwest corner of the town, for a parsonage, for which the sum of four hundred and fifty. dollars was paid." The Sunday-school at this time numbered one-hundred and five, which is the first report in the hands of the pastor.

No important changes occur during the succeeding years, except the changes of pastors. The following are the names of these after J. W. Gilbert

568 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

and his colleague: Rev. T. A. S. Philips in 1835; in 1835-6, James Gurley and B. R. Maltby; in 1836-7, C. R. Lovell, J. Hill; in 1837-8, B. F. Myers, A. Carroll; in 1838-9, John M. Reed, Martin Wolf; in 1839-40, M. A. Milligan, G. G. West and F. A. Lowry.

In 1847 Methodism felt strong enough to sustain two churches. Rev. E. B. Chase was the minister. A frame church and lot located on the north side of Main street, between First and Second streets, was purchased of the Universalists, for which they paid eight hundred dollars, and upon which they bestowed twenty-two hundred dollars in remodeling. It was dedicated to the worship of God in the fall of 1848; the sermon was preached by Bishop Hamline. At the following session of the Ohio conference, which met in Newark in 1848, the church was divided. Rev. William F. Stewart was appointed pastor to the "eastern charge," and Rev. E. B. Chase was appointed to the "western charge."

The following is a list of appointments during the twelve years of its existence, viz.: William F. Stewart, one year; John Dillon, one year; George W. Brush, two years; H. T. Magill, one year; James Mitchell, two years; J. H. Creighton, two years; W. T. Hand, one year; E. V. Bing, one year.

These two churches remained distinct and separate until 1860, when they were consolidated. In 1864 the erection of the present edifice was projected. Rev. L. Taft was the minister. It is situated on the ground occupied by the old church. The old structure was removed, and during the four years succeeding the congregation worshipped in the house used formerly by the Eastern congregation. After four years the basement was ready for use, and was dedicated to the purpose of divine worship. Rev. L. Cunningham was minister. . The dedicatory sermon was preached by Bishop D. W. Clark.

A heavy debt was contracted in the erection of the building which greatly embarrassed the society. In 1874 the audience-room was completed and dedicated. Rev. E. I. Jones was the minister.

The debt contracted in the first building of this church still hung upon it as a great incubus, amounting at times to ten thousand dollars. It was not until 1879 that this heavy burden was removed. The threat of a foreclosure of a mortgage held by an insurance company in St. Louis, Missouri, brought the whole church suddenly to its feet. A meeting was called, and it was determined to make a final effort to discharge the debt. The thirtieth day of April was set apart as a day of prayer. From nine o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at night the voice of supplication was heard in the church. One lady said during these services: "At these altars I was dedicated to God in baptism, by my parents, when I was an infant. At the same altars I gave my hand to the minister as a member of the church, and here I took the sacred vows of marriage, and I had hoped that here my funeral rites might be performed, and must it now be forfeited. and lost to the church." Before the meeting closed it was apparent that success would follow the efforts. The community was thoroughly in sympathy with the distressed Methodist, church. The people, without respect to what church they might belong, said "No, the Methodist church cannot be sold for debt." Mr. A. B. Clark, editor of the American, when the minister, Rev. Orville J. Nave, related to him the danger to which the church was exposed said, at the same time bringing his fist down upon the table, "By George! that cannot be done," and the whole city and county said amen, by willing offerings. In ninety-two days the whole amount needed, eight thousand five hundred dollars, was in the hands of the church treasurer and the debts cancelled. Too much cannot be said in praise of the unity of sentiment which prevailed among Christian people, and the liberality of many who were members of no church, in working this society out of its crisis. Much praise has justly been accorded to the minister for the successful termination of this work.

Mr. Isaac Smucker writes as follows regarding the first Sunday-school of this church. It is almost unnecessary to add that it has been kept up since that day and is now in a flourishing condition

"In the spring of 1831, now almost fifty years ago, there was but one church edifice in Newark, and that was in an unfinished condition, with its rough brick walls unplastered, and using slab benches instead of pews. This was the Methodist church, which stood upon or near the site of the present one, corner of

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 569

Church and Fourth streets. The community generally had contributed to its construction, and it was then being occupied jointly every alternate Sabbath by the Methodist Episcopal society and by the Protestant Episcopal congregation, then recently organized, whose ministrations were conducted by Rev. C. P. Bronson. Both congregations being so small that neither could well sustain a Sunday-school alone, it was on consultation decided to concentrate the efforts and labors of both, and of such as were not of either congregation, in organizing a union Sunday-school. This was done by the election of Dr. Daniel Marble, of the Episcopal congregation,, president of the organization, and Mr. Isaac Smucker treasurer. The names of the vice-president and secretary are not remembered, though it is believed that James Parker was chosen vice-president, and Miss Mary Ann Davis secretary. Mr. Milton Moore was the superintendent. He was of the Methodist church, and was a young man of most exemplary conduct and deportment, much given to active benevolence and good works. All the officers of this early-time union Sunday-school of half a century ago, so far as they are remembered by the only two resident survivors (Mrs. Dr. Marble and the treasurer), were teachers, as were also Miss Amanda Holmes, Mrs. Robert Hazlett and Mrs. Dr. Marble. The class of the last named, after her resignation, was taught by her sister, Henrietta Trowbridge, who subsequently became the wife of Mr. Milton Moore, both yet living and enjoying a "green old age" (almost octogenarians) at Racine. Wisconsin. After a successful career of a number of years, this union school came to be the Methodist Sunday-school by the withdrawal of those of Protestant Episcopal proclivities, who organized one in connection' with that congregation, which meanwhile had built a church edifice. It may be proper to remark that there was in this school a preponderance of Episcopal sentiment and influence, and hence the adoption and use therein of the Sunday-school ritual and liturgy of that denomination. And it may also appropriately be said that this union Sunday-school, although of "ye olden time," was not the first, but the second established in Newark, the First Presbyterian church having some years before organized one, which was in operation when this one was started, and which held its meetings in the second story of our first market-house, that stood in the middle of West Main street, facing the public square, between the Newkirk and Patton comers, and which still lives, as does also the continuation of the union Sunday-school of 1831."

The Fourth Street Baptist church is now located on the corner of Granville and North Fifth streets. It was organized in 1828, at the corner of Third and Main streets, by Rev. James Beerry.

The first members or this church were Joseph Coffman, John Vance, Peter Coffman, Margaret Coffman, Mrs. Vance, Mr. Kimpton, Mrs. Kimpton, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong, H. Gregory and wife, Catharine Platto, Daniel Warren and wife, and some .others,

This society erected its first church in 1837, on Fifth street, just north of the canal, now occupied by Foos' carriage shop, This answered the purposes of the society until 1874, when the present magnificent brick structure was erected, and which cost twenty-eight thousand dollars.

The pastors besides Mr. Berry, have been Revs. H. Gear, D. E. Thomas, Granger, Benjamin Thomas, Andrews, Lamb, Clouse, Wooster, Abbott, Gates, Miller and Owens. The present membership is about two hundred and eighty.

The organization of the Sunday-school was probably coeval with that of the church, and has always maintained a. vigorous existence, -numbering at present, about two hundred pupils. Mr. George Blood is superintendent.

Protestant Episcopal: The early beginnings of this church in Newark are of sufficiently modern date to be in the memory of many now living, yet it is difficult to get at anything very tangible before the regular records in the diocesan journals.

There was, however, occasional preaching, at long intervals, from time to time, for years before there was any church building or even organization; the congregation being gathered at private residences, the court room, or the house of another denomination. Of those who thus preached were Bishop Chase, his son, Philander, and the Rev. Doctor Doddridge; and these, perhaps, only when they passed through Newark in their journeys to and from places of more note.

In 1826 this was regarded as a favorable point for the establishment of a church, and one was organized by Bishop Chase. It was represented the next year in the convention by judge Holmes.

It was placed under the missionary care of Rev. N. G. Baldwin, in connection with Zanesville and Granville; hence, having but one-third. of his time. The next preacher in charge, after a long vacancy, was the Rev. C. P. Bronson; Rev. R. T. Rogers followed him. The pastorate of these two clergymen, besides being short (only a few months each), was unfortunate, and little or nothing was done till 1833, when the Right Rev. C. P. McIlvaine, on his way to Gambier from his consecration in the east as bishop, remained in Newark two days, preaching each-evening and urging the erection of a church. The record of this visit is as follows:

"The churches of the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations were kindly offered for the. use of the Episcopalians in

570 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Newark. I preached once in each and then held a meeting at the house of Mr. Hazlett. The meeting was small but spirited, and one thousand one hundred dollars pledged for building."

The parish being without a rector, no further progress was made until the next year, 1834, when Rev. G. Denison, a professor of Kenyon college, Gambier, taking charge, immediate steps were taken for building a church. The following are the names of those who subscribed for the erection of the present building: George Baker, Elijah Cooper, Alexander Holmes, Daniel Marble, Israel Dille, Daniel Duncan, C. W. Searle, L J. Haughey, Adam Fleek, S. R. Conner, T. J. Christian, S. M. Browning, J. E. Walker, Thomas Morris, James Bramble, Woodford Owens, John N. Wilson, Albert Sherwood, James M. Taylor, Daniel Wilkins, D. S. Wilsor, W. D. Ingman, Richard Harrison, Asahel Dunham, John I. Mooney, Smith Allen, Robert Hazlett, Betsy Rowe, John Boston, Charles Hoover, A. Pier, Nathan King, Joel Arnold, E. S. Woods, John Moore, George McMullen, Henry Smith, Thomas Rowe, Horace Gregory, Henry Lemley, John Hollister, James Parker, Amos H. Caffee, James Holmes, James , Young, B. W. Brice, George Hogg, Samuel Dewees, Daniel Gardiner, Martin Lincoln, C. M. Giddings, Robert Bryden, H. S. Sprague, Robert Davidson, and W. G. Oatman.

In 1836, the neat Gothic church on Second street was consecrated. The entire charge and responsibility of its erection had been thrown upon Mr. George Baker. The estimated cost of the building to be erected was two thousand six hundred dollars; but Mr. Baker, with changes, additions and improvements ran up the bills to three times that sum. On being expostulated with, his reply was: "What difference does It make; do you doubt my ability or willingness to pay all this additional expense? All I have belongs to the church." Under such protestations the fears of the members subsided, for Mr. Baker was wealthy, without heirs, and a man of his word. But the best of intentions sometimes comes to naught through misfortune. Entering into an unsuccessful business partnership, this good friend of the church became insolvent, and the debt passed into the hands of one who held the vestry responsible-Mr. N. B. Hogg. This gentleman, however, was generous.

Instead of demanding four thousand dollars, as he might justly have done, he settled his claim for half that sum

The parish gained in numbers and influence under the rector ship of Mr. Denison.

Following is a list of the ministers who succeed Mr. Denison: W. H. Newman. 1837; John Ufford, 1840; G. Denison (second term), 1841; S. A. Bronson, 1850; John Swan, 1851; F. B. Nash, 1852; Henry Blackaller, 1855; H. B. Wray, 1858; J. W. McCarty, 1859; Rev. William. Bower, C. S. Bates, D.D., and Rev. F. M. Hall, the present minister, who took charge in December, 1878.

In the history of this church, as in that of every other Episcopal church in this part of Ohio, the name of Bishop Chase was closely identified, and his influence all powerful in its establishment. His history has been written, and will not be referred to here, but the herculean labors of this good man were simply astonishing. His greatness and power; the good he accomplished, and hi, many virtues are not as well understood and appreciated as they should be; but his name will go down in history among the greatest and best of Ohio's pioneers.

The present membership of this church is about one hundred and seventy-five.

The establishment of the Sabbath-school was probably coeval with that of the church, and has been maintained with a good degree of regularity since. Its membership is at present about one hundred and seventy-five.

Mr. John H. Franklin is one of the most influential of the Sabbath-school workers in this church.

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church of Sharon valley. In 1832, William T. Williams, an immigrant direct from Wales, and James Evans and Robert Walker; Welshmen from Oneida county, New York, settled in the "Sharon valley," a few miles from Newark, in the direction of the Welsh Hills settlement. At this time there was no regular Welsh preaching in Licking county, and hence the foregoing persons united temporarily with the English Congregational church of Granville.

In the spring of 1833, the settlers in Sharon, with other families direct from Wales, who located in the valley, united with Walter and Nicodemus

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 571

Griffiths (immigrants of 1815) in establishing a Welsh Sabbath-school at the old stone schoolhouse, two miles northeast of Granville, on the Utica road. This was the pioneer Welsh Sabbath-school in Licking county, and probably in Ohio. These settlers also sustained a regular weekly Welsh prayer meeting.

In October, 1834, Rev. Edward Jones traveled on foot from his home in Cincinnati, to preach a few sermons to his countrymen in Sharon valley and Granville. This feat of clerical pedestrianism was repeated by him in 1835. During this visit he organized, October 25th, at the before mentioned stone school-house, the pioneer Welsh church of Licking county, in which he had the assistance of Rev. William Morgan, recently from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but living, at this time, at the Mary Ann furnace,

The original members were William T. Williams, Mrs. Williams, James and Mrs. Evans, Alban Albans, Mrs. Albans, John J. and Mrs. Evans, Robert Walter, William Parry, William Lewis, Mrs. Lewis, Jenkin Hughes, Nathaniel Davis, Mrs. Davis, Miss Albans and Miss Jane Davis.

Rev. William Parry was licensed as a minister of the Gospel at this meeting. Rev. William Morgan was employed as settled pastor of the church. Rev. William Parry occasionally supplied the pulpit until after his ordination, in 1838, when he became the settled minister, and remained such until 1853, a period of fifteen years.

In 1836 the society purchased, for a nominal sum, a lot for a church, on which they erected a frame building (the first in the neighborhood), twenty-one by thirty feet, which was finished in 1837, at a cost of three hundred and twenty-one dollars and eighty-nine cents, besides gratuitous labor performed by friends of the enterprise.

This was the first Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church built in Ohio. There are now more than thirty. This church edifice was dedicated June 25, 1837, by Rev. Dr. Rowlands, of New York city, who was reputed to be one of the most eminent divines in his denomination, and whose character is known to all who are familiar with the religious literature of Wales.

In 1852, Rev. Joseph E. Davis succeeded William Parry as the settled minister. He was followed in 1856 by Rev. E. T. Evans, who sustained that relation until 1867, when William Parry again took charge.

The original elders, elected in 1835, were William T. Williams, James Evans and Alban Albans. Those subsequently elected were John J. Evans and Robert Walter in 1842, and David Hughes in 1859. The Sabbath-school has been regularly sustained from its establishment, in 1833, to the present time. The services in this church have always been conducted in the Welsh language.

This is properly the pioneer Welsh church in Licking county, because the Baptist church on the Welsh Hills, although organized in 1808, nearly thirty years before this one, is but partially Welsh, its public ministrations having generally been conducted in the English language, and only occasionally in Welsh. It is probable, however, that a majority of its members had been natives of Wales or of Welsh parentage. The original church building is still occupied by this church. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist churches of Newark and Granville were, to some extent, branches of this church.

The St. John's German Lutheran church was probably organized as early as 1835, by Heinrich Rickenbach and a few others. Their first meetings were held in a school-house which stood on the rear end of the first Presbyterian church lot. They rented this building for their purposes and held meetings here several years, and although no record appears, the probability is that Mr. Rickenbach preached for them in .these earlier years. In 1841 they were strong enough to erect a small brick church on South Fifth street, on the site of the present building.

The first officers of this church were Heinrich Rickenback, president; David Fisher, treasurer; Franz Boedel, secretary; and Jacob Grasser, Jacob Paul, Carl Frederick Boettcher and John Ehrgott, elders.

The present brick church was erected in 1870, and is surmounted by a chime of three bells. For the last three years, the church being somewhat in debt, has not felt able to employ a minister, and Mr. F. Kochendorfer has officiated in that capacity tree of charge. As their debts are about canceled

572 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

they have employed the Rev. L. Hass, who will soon take charge. There are about one hundred members connected with the church at present. A Sunday-school has been maintained since the organization of the church.

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist church of Newark.-Rev. William Parry, of Granville, preached in Newark in August, 1836, at the house of Mr. Thomas Hughes, which stood on the lot north of the American house, owned by Andrew Smucker. This, it is said, was the first Welsh ser mon preached in Newark. Few, if any other Welsh families, then resided in Newark. The text was from Luke xii. 32: "Fear not, little flock."

From this time until the autumn of 1840, there was Welsh preaching occasionally; a school-house south of the canal being used for that purpose, as well as for the purposes of a Sabbath-school, which was early established.

The Welsh citizens in town and country worshiped together, and in 1840-41, erected a church on Granville street, at a cost of five hundred and fifty-five dollars and eighty-one cents. It was finished in May, 1841, and a church was duly organized May 28, 1841, with twenty-four members. Rev. William Parry ministered to them occasionally, until September of the same year, when Rev. Hugh E. Rees, recently from Llanderfel, Wales, was called as settled pastor.

Thomas Hughes and Morgan Williams here elected deacons, and Thomas Hughes, William Parry, Morgan Williams, Timothy Winston, Richard Watkins, Thomas Dowell and Enos Owens, were elected trustees. During this year, a valuable accession to the church was Deacon Robert Owens, of Montgomeryshire, Wales, and Deacon Edward Brown and family, and a number of other families strengthened the church in 1844.

In January, 1845, a difficulty occurred in the church, and Rev. H. E. Rees and most of the congregation removed to a brick school-house on the east side of Mt. Vernon street, and there, on Sunday, January 12, 1845, established themselves as a church. The minority that remained, consisting of eight or ten members, retained possession of the church.

Those removing to the school-house soon purchased that building, paying for it three hundred and eighty dollars. This served their purpose until 1856, when a new church was built on Elm street at a cost of a little snore than two thousand three hundred dollars, nearly three hundred dollars of which were contributed by those outside the church.

Mr. Rees continued his ministrations until 1848, when he removed to Cincinnati. Rev. Hugh Roberts succeeded him, and remained until July, 1852, when Rev. Joseph E. Davies took charge, and continued his services until the spring of 1855. He was followed by Rev. E. T. Evans and Rev. Mr. Roberts.

The services in this church are conducted in the Welsh language.

A Sabbath-school has been connected with the church since its establishment, and has generally been a large, active one.

That portion of the congregation which retained the church on Granville street kept up a separate organization some time, perhaps two years, but gradually grew weaker until it ceased to exist. Many of its members joined the seceding branch, which was recognized as the legitimate church.

The Welsh Congregational church of Newark. Rev. James Davis, from the Welsh settlement on Owl creek, preached the first Welsh Congregational sermon in Newark, about 1837.

Thomas D. Jones and Nicodemus Griffiths who lived a few miles northwest of Newark, and who were very decided Congregationalists, were the first to move in the matter of organizing this church. Learning that several Welsh families of their faith had settled here and in the neighborhood, they called upon them, and the interview resulted in the appointment to meet at the house of David Jones in Lockport to consider the subject.

This meeting was held early in 1841, and was attended by Rev. Rees Powell, of Delaware county, and Rev. Seth Howell (a Presbyterian minister), who was a sojourner in the neighborhood at the time, David Jones, T. D. Jones, Thomas Rees, David Lewis and Thomas Roberts with their families; also Mr. Evan W. Evans and Titus and Joshua Davis.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 573

An adjourned meeting was held the next day, at the house of Thomas Rees in Newark, where the Welsh Congregational church was organized. Thomas D. Jones, David Lewis and Thomas Rees were elected deacons.

They soon after purchased a frame church building on Mt. Vernon street, furnished with ordinary wooden seats, and old ten-plate Mary Ann furnace stoves, for a little less than five hundred dollars. They took possession March 3, 1841, and elected David Jones, Evan W. Evans, Thomas Roberts, Thomas D. Jones, David Lewis, Watkin Watkins and Thomas Rees, trustees.

Sabbath services were conducted by Rev. John Powell, assisted by Rev. Thomas W. Evans after his arrival from Wales, in July of this year. These joint labors were continued until 1843, when Rev. Jenkin Jenkins was chosen the regular pastor; he served, however, but one year, and was followed, in 1846, by Thomas W. Evans, who remained until 1856, and was succeeded for a few months by Rev. Rees M. Evans. Rev. David R. Jenkins then became pastor, and so continued until his death, which occurred March 11, 1861. Rev. David Price was-elected pastor in October, 1862, and remained until March, 1869.

In 1867 this society erected a fine brick church, costing seven thousand dollars.

Weekly prayer meetings and a Sabbath-school have been regularly maintained since the organization of the church.

The pulpit and other services have generally been conducted in the Welsh language.

The African Methodist Episcopal church is located on Church street, between First and Second.

Its early history rests mostly on tradition, but the organization existed as early as 1840. It was probably organized here about or before that time. Prior to its organization the few colored people in Newark attended other churches, and their children .the Sunday-schools of the white people. The names of the original. members of this organization cannot be ascertained; nor those of the minister who were influential in bringing it into existence. Some of the early ministers, however, were Revs George Coleman, Ratliff, Major J. Wilkinson, William Newman, Turner Roberts and Mr. Peters. Probably one or more of these were influential in the. .organization and establishment of the church. It was more than twenty years after the organization was effected, before they had a church they could call their own; meanwhile they rented rooms or buildings in various places. About 1861or 1862 they purchased a lot for seventy-five dollars, upon which they erected the small building called the "Colored Chapel," which they occupied two or three years, and -sold. . They- then ..rented. and occupied the Baptist church two or three years, when they purchased the present building and lot This building had been used as a church by the Second Presbyterians, and had been removed by that society in order to erect upon their lot the present . beautiful structure. The lot and old building cost the colored people one thousand six hundred dollars; they repaired it, and as it stands, it has cost them about two thousand five hundred dollars. The society is well established, strong and active, both in church and Sunday-school. The church membership, proper, is about forty, but the congregation is large.

The Sunday-school was organized in 1844, by William Henry and George Roots, two colored men, in a room south of the canal, then used by the society as a place of meeting for worship. This school went down once or twice, and was resuscitated, but has been for many years established on a permanent basis. The membership is about thirty.

St. Frances de Sales church:-The first written records of the Catholic congregation of Newark date back only to 1841, at which time, under the administration of Rev. I. Lamy, now archbishop of San Francisco, the first church edifice was erected, fronting on Granville street

As early, however, as 1836, Rev. D. Young, of Washington, District of Columbia, visited Newark on horseback, on his way to Somerset and Cincinnati, dispensing the sacraments of the church, and attending the sick calls along the canal, then being built. The same gentleman is also remembered . as having about that time given lectures in the old court house on the square.

Among .the early members of the church, and

574 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

contributors to the erection of the frame building, now used as a barn, and standing on the rear of the church lot, are found the names of William Stanbery, Bradley Buckingham, E. McCarthy, Jonas Maurath, M. Morath, E. Koos, J. Buckell, Patrick Connelly, and Wilson and McMillen, some of whom are yet living in the city.

From 1844 to 1848, Revs. D. Senez, I. Lamy, A. P. Anderson, W. Schonat, and J. T. Boulger, attended the congregation in succession, until a regular pastor was appointed in the person of Rev. J. Branneman, who remained from 1848 to 1854, and who died at Rockaway, New York, in 1876.

In 1854, Rev. F. Bender was appointed by Archbishop Purcell, to the Newark parish, which comprised the Linnville, Jacksontown, Natchez, Kirkersville, Mattingly, and jersey settlements.

In time the old church on Granville street became inadequate for the accommodation of the growing congregation, and steps were taken to erect the present substantial structure. the corner stone of which was laid about 1860, by Archbishop Purcell.

Soon after the foundation of this church was laid, a heavy rain came on, and the gutters being blocked by building material, the water ran in and undermined one corner, causing it to give way, which circumstance gave rise to considerable feeling against Father Bender, then pastor, and who was superintending the work. As the building was without much architectural b. . .e congregation thought it should be, at large solid; but Father Bender intended the building should answer the purposes of a school-house and church combined, and its long service for these purposes has fully tested its strength and justified the faith of the builder. Rev. Mr. Bender's efficiency being appreciated at headquarters, he was appointed to the task of superintending the erection of St. Edward's church, in Cincinnati, and in retiring from the pastorate of this us church, generously relinquished all claims against it for money he had advanced. He was succeeded by Rev. L. Cartuyvels, December 19, 1863.

A school-house had been built by Rev. F. Bender as early as 1858. Rev. Cartuyvels remodeled it, put a large addition to it, and transformed it into a parsonage, having removed the schools to the west side of the church building. He also renovated and added to the comfort and convenieace: of the church by painting, putting pine floors n place of brick, placing furnaces in the basement and making various other changes, requiring an outlay of a considerable amount of money. A lottery scheme was started by the church, which was successful in discharging a portion of this indebtedness. Some dissatisfaction, however, existed in the congregation, and this, together with the fact that Rev. Cartuyvels, although having assistants at various times, among whom was Rev. P. T. Daly, was no longer able to attend to his duties on account of age, and infirmities, caused his removal, and Rev. N. Pilger was appointed in his place.

During these years the school had been sustained first under private teachers, then tinder the care of the sisters of charity, who, from their little earnings and charity fairs, succeeded in time in buying a lot on the corner of Granville and Pearl streets. This society, leaving Newark to make way for the sisters of St. Dominie, sold this lot to the pastor, Rev. N. Pilger.

Mr. Pilger was succeeded in 1874, by Rev. L. DeCailly; the present pastor. This gentleman first paid the debts of the church, then removed the old buildings to the rear of the lot, and put a new floor in the church edifice, making it two stories. He then erected the present beautiful brick parsonage, on the corner of Granville and Pearl streets, and both spiritually and financially lifted the church out of many of its former difficulties.

The present membership is about sixteen hundred, of whom about one thousand or eleven hundred are communicants. The school attendance in four rooms averages two hung and fifty scholars, the larger boys being under the charge of M. F. Kirnes. About three hundred children belong to the Sunday-school.

From past progress, it is expected that the strength of the church will so increase in a few years that a new church edifice will be needed, and with this view the church has secured and holds in reserve a beautiful lot, fronting Granville and Sixth streets.

The German Methodist Episcopal church is

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located on Fourth, south of the canal. Its organization dates back to about the year 1847, and Rev. Conrad Gahn was, probably, more influential than any other person in its establishment. The original members were Mr. Imhoff and wife, Mr Young and his daughter Caroline, Mrs. Kirsch John Reiff and wife, and a little later, Joshua Zartman and wife, and others. Their first meetings weie held in the school-house in that part of-town, and continued there uutil 1856, when they erected a frame church building, at a cost of one thousand four hundred and eight dollars, which is yet in use. The first pastor was Rev. Nippart, who is now in, Germany. Conrad Gahn succeeded him. The present minister is Rev. Trinker. The society is small at present.

In 1850 a Sunday-school was organized, Joshua Zartman being the first superintendent: This school is .yet continued, with a membership of twenty or more.

A parsonage was erected in 1874, at a cost of nine hundred dollars.

The Salem German church, of Newark, was . organized October 4, 1837: The cornerstone of the church building was laid October 9th, of the . same year. The church was dedicated March 28, 1858. Rev. W. C. Kiesel was the first pastor. The first elders were David Fisher, John Durkis, August Auer, and Peter Sacks. The number of members at the organization was forty-nine, all males. W. C. Kiesel continued in the pastorate of this church until 1861, and was succeeded by Rev. R. Shide, in the autumn of that year, Mr. Shide was pastor. until the spring of 1861. Rev. Phillip Roser was pastor from 1864 to 1866, and was followed by Rev. F. H. W. Bruechert, who was a. graduate of the Presbyterian German Theological seminary at Dubuque, Iowa. The present pastor is Johannes Kromer, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany.

The Sabbath-school. has been in existence since the organization of the church. This church belongs to the Zanesville presbytery, and is therefore a member of the Presbyterian church of North America.

The Christian Union church located in Cherry valley, was organized in 1864 by Rev. B. Green. There is a large settlement of people of this denomination in this valley, and the church was well attended and sustained from the start. The original members were James M. Tomkins, John Showman, Jacob Showman, Monterville Lucas, A. Lucas, James Elliott, M. N. Odel, and fifty-five others. In the same year the church was built at a cost of one thousand five hundred dollars. The present membership is about twenty-five. A Sunday-school was organized in 1866, Mr. M. N. Odel being the first superintendent. The school numbers, at present, forty scholars and six teachers. C. C. Shaw superintendent.

The Seventh Day Advent church is located on Sixth street, between West Main and church streets. It was organized May 14, 1878, at the residence of Joseph Walton, M. D., on North Fifth. street, by Elder J. H. Waggoner. The original members were Joseph Walton, Basil B. Francis, Mary Francis, Lucinda Sayre, Harriet Harrison, Samuel W. Brooke, Maria W. Brooke, Julio A. White, Charles. C. Chrisman, Hannah F. Francis, Minnie A. Lumley, Charles C. Cooper, Mary Cooper, Melissa J. Dowell, Rachel A. Fowler, Pnyla R. Hutchins, and Mary Lawrence.

The church had its origin in a two weeks' camp meeting, held in August, 1877, in the county fair grounds. The attendance at this meeting was large.

August 31st a .tent was pitched on Fifth, near Granville street, and meetings held there until September 23d, when Wilson's hall was rented for their purposes. Meetings were held during the . winter of 1877-8, in the various churches and in Dr. Walton's house. The church was erected in the fall of 1878, and dedicated December 29th, of that year; by Elders D. M. Canright and Burrell. The building is a square frame, and cost one thousand five hundred dollars. They have no settled pastors. The membership is now twenty-eight. The Sabbath-school was organized January 15, 1878, and has a membership of thirty-five.

The New Jerusalem church is located on Church street. It was organized in 1849 by Rev. Sabin Hough. Most of the original members of the or-

576 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

ganization moved away soon after, and no services were held between the years 1851 and 1857, when the society was reorganized by Rev. J. P. Stuart, with twenty members, as follows: James White, Dr. E. R. Tuller, Jane P. Tuller, Henry Jones, William M. Cunningham, William B. Arven, Mary C. Baldwin, Fannie A. Baldwin, R. E. Jones, Ellen Marvin, Jennie Rees, John Cunningham, Henrietta M. Roney, John O. Jones, Elizabeth Bryant, Julia A. Funk, Caroline Jones, William M. Baldwin; Julia C. Baldwin, and Valeria Arven.

The first lectures on the new church doctrines were delivered in the court house, by Professor Bronson, of Alt. Vernon, Ohio; the early meetings of the organized society being held in the second story of the market-house, corner of Main and Fourth streets. Dr. E. R. Tuller was the leader of worship.

The present church edifice was erected in 1861, and cost, with the lot, eleven hundred and sixtyfive dollars and ninety-three cents But two settled pastors have been employed; the first being Rev. A. J. Bartels, from 1862 to 1863, one year, and the second Rev. S. H. Spencer, one year, from 1874 to 1875. Worship has been conducted at other times by leaders selected by the society and by visiting ministers. The membership reached forty-three at one time, but by removals and death it has been much decreased.

Plymouth Congregational church, of Newark, was organized May 21, 1879, with sixty-six members, thirty-one by letter and thirty-five on profession.

The organizing council, of which Rev. Samuel Wolcott, D. D., was moderator, and Rev. Henry C. Haskell, scribe, was composed of representatives of the following churches, viz: Euclid Avenue church, of Cleveland; Plymouth church, of Cleveland; the Congregational church of North Amherst; First Congregational church, of Columbus; High Street Congregational church, of Columbus; the Congregational church of North Columbus; the Congregational church of Alexandria; the Congregational church of Lock; the Congregational church of Mansfield; the Congregational church of hit. Vernon; the Congregational church of Marietta.

The Rev. E. I. Jones had been preaching to the congregation for seven months before the organizing council was called, first in the opera house, afterward in the Murphy home, then in the city hall.

The services attending the organization were held in the city hall; the Rev. R. G. Hutchens, D. D., preaching the sermon, and Rev. D. S. Jones expressing the fellowship of the churches. Immediately after the organization of the church, the members extended an unanimous call to Rev. E. I. Jones to become their pastor.

At ten o'clock the next morning, May 22d, the council met to examine the pastor-elect on doctrine and experience, and decided to proceed with the installation, which took place in the presence of a -very large congregation on the evening of the same day: Installation sermon by the Rev. Frank Russell, installation prayer by the moderator, charge to the pastor by the Rev. T. H. Hawks, D. D., right hand of fellowship by the Rev. Henry C. Haskell, charge to the people by the Rev. R. G. Hutchens, D. D., closing prayer by the Rev. John Jones. The exercises throughout were characterized with dignity, ability and much spiritual power.

On the first Sabbath in June, the church enjoyed its first communion, when seven were added to its membership on profession of their faith in Christ.

The original members of this organization were: Mrs. Louisa Adams, Charles Adams, William H. Ayres, Mrs. Eliza A. Ayres, Mrs. Martha Ayres, Mrs. R. Biddings, Mrs. Julia Bourne, George M. E. Bourne, Miss A. A. Brooke, Irving H. Cathright, Mrs. M. J. Cathright, Charles Cessna, Mrs. Adalade Cessna, Miss C. A. Cherington, Charles Daugherty, Mrs. Margaret Daugherty, Mrs. A. C. Drumm, Mrs. Margaret Eader, Miss Ida Eader, George Edwards, Mrs. Lucy E. Edwards, Mrs. Anna Evans, Abraham Flory, Mrs. Nancy Flory, Thomas Falls, A. H. Fowler, Mrs. Minnie Fowler, Wilton Fisher, Mrs. Leila Fisher, Mrs. Sarah Hathaway, Stephen H.. Harvey, Mrs. Anna Harvey, Mrs. Cloe Harris, Daniel Harten, Mrs. Jennette Harten, Thomas Hazlett, Mrs. Susan Hazlett, Rev. E. I. Jones,. Miss O. B. Jones, David J. Jones, Nelson M. Lamb, Emily J. Lamb, Miss Esther Lucas, Maynard Maybery, Margaret Maybery, James L.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 577

Montgomery, William H. Montgomery, Mrs. E. L. Montgomery, Mrs. Catharine Merrill, Miss Susan Merrill, Miss Mary C. Moull, J. W. Myers, Mrs. Sarah Myers, Mrs. Martha Norpel, Mrs. Harriet Overturf, Miss Mary Reese, Mrs. Eliza Richardson, Luther J. Sasser, Mrs. Doredia Steimetz, Mrs. Carrie Taylor, D. S. Thurston, Mrs. Jane W. Thurston, Mrs. Augusta Thurston, Mrs. Julia A. White, Miss Emma Wheeler, Mrs. Permelia Wilkins.

The present membership of this church is one hundred and forty-six. They have no church edifice, but occupy the City hall and the churches of other denominations.

A Sabbath-school was organized in April, 1879, and the pupils now number about two hundred.

CHAPTER LXX.

NEWTON TOWNSHIP.

MOUND BUILDERS-INDIANS-STREAMS AND SPRINGS-SOIL AND TIMBER-FIRST SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS-FIRST SCHOOLS-FIRST MILL-THE PIONEER PREACHERS - THE "JERKS °-REv. JAMES B. FINLEY-THE CHURCHES--CAMP MEETINGS-FAIRFIELD-CHATHAM-ST. LOU FIRST POST OFFICE COUNTY OFFICERS FROM THE TOWNSHIP--INCIDENTS OF PIONEER TIMES-WILLIAM KINNING-ZACHARIAH ALBAUGH-GENERAL JOHN SPENCER COLONEL WILLIAM SPENCER.

THE Mound Builders once occupied the territory which now forms Newton township. They erected some works, the chief of which is a small stone mound between the North fork and the Clear fork, on the farm formerly owned by Mr. John Reed; also a large earth mound on the farm of the late Benjamin Elliott, not far from the junction of the Brushy fork and North fork; and a small stone mound on the hill west of the Coffman mill.

There is no Indian history of especial interest connected with the township. The Wyandots, Delauwres and Shawnees roamed through it extensively, using it as a hunting ground, and most likely had temporary encampments within it, but none of a permanent character, nor any village within historic times, at least.

The Clear fork, Brushy fork and North fork are the principal streams. The "Big spring," east of the North fork; forms a tributary to the latter, sometimes called "Spencer's run," and is a considerable stream.

The spring is upon the farm on which General John Spencer settled in 1805, and in early times furnished an amount of water sufficient to drive a saw-mill and a grist-mill. It was probably the largest spring in Licking county, but, doubtless, in common with other streams, flows less water now than it did at the time of the first settlement of the county, before the land was cleared, and the obstructions in the streams removed, and when the evaporation was inconsiderable. Spencer's run is not much over a mile in length.

There is considerable alluvial soil along these streams, but elsewhere in the township the land is rolling, and in some places hilly. It is; however, rather productive, especially in the North fork and Clear fork valleys; also along the Brushy fork and in other localities.

Maple, hickory, walnut, sugar and different varieties of oak were among the prevailing forest trees, with others common in this latitude.

Its early settlers were mostly from Virginia and western Pennsylvania. John Evans came from Virginia and settled in what afterward became Newton township, in 1803, and was its first settler. His brother, George Washington Evans, either came at the same time or not long afterward, and had a temporary residence with, or near, his brother, before he settled near the Indian village of Raccoon town, now Monroe township, in 1807, and became the first settler in that township.

In 1804, Evan or "Dickey" Humphrey, as he

578 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

was called, and Chiswold May, his con-in-law, both Virginians, settled on Spencer's run. The latter was a noted hunter. Mr. Humphrey was a somewhat singular, indeed an Occentric character, and had passed with honor through the Revolutionary war. He was one of General Wayne's forlorn hope at the storming of Stoney Point.

General John Spencer came from Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1805, and settled `near the Big spring. Stephen Robinson came during this or the succeeding year.

Abraham Wright, James Evans, Evan Pugh and George Harris settled in Newton in 1806.

In 1807, Thomas Cannon, of Delaware, came to the township from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he had had a short residence.

Abraham Wright, above mentioned as an immigrant of 1806, may not have arrived until this year.

William Morrison came from Pennsylvania and settled in this township, on or near the borders of the Welsh hills, during this or the previous year.

The immigrants of 1808 were James Stewart, Samuel Stewart, Thomas and William Gray and Nathan and Samuel Preston, though the Preston brothers may have arrived a year later. They all came from Pennsylvania, as did also Captain James Coulter, who settled in 1809 or 1810. Captain Elias Hughes, George Woods and Joseph Laird, became settlers in 1809 or 1810.

Henry Benner, John Bevard, and perhaps others came to Newton in 1810; and these were followed in succession by Major John Huston, William Spencer (brother of General John), Colonel John Waggoner, Peter Pence, David Marple and others, who were principally Virginians and Pennsylvanians. Zachariah Albaugh, the veteran centenarian revolutionary hero; John Keim, Christian Stout, Bazaleel Moreland, Edward Thomas and others were settlers of a later date. These were also Virginians and Pennsylvanians.

James Maxwell taught the first school in the township. This was in a small log cabin schoolhouse which stood on the land now owned by Mr. Bullock, near St. Louisville. William Morrison father of a late fellow citizen, William P. Morrison, was also a pioneer school teacher in Newton

He taught in 1808, in a log structure erected for a stable, on the farm long owned and recently occupied by the late venerable Maurice Jones. Mr. Morrison was a man of considerable ability and learning: He received his education in Massachusetts, his native State, where he attended an academy, having John Quincy Adams, once President of the United States, as a fellow student.

Alexander Blackburn taught school in a log school-house that stood on the land now owned by James Stewart, one of our county commissioners, then near General Spencer's residence, about the year 1810, and for several years afterward. About the same time the aforesaid Maxwell taught in a log school-house which stood on the farm of Isaac Harris, near the Clear fork.

The house was built by George Harris, Stephen Robinson, and a few others in that neighborhood.

About the year 1815, Archibald Wilson commenced teaching in Spencer's school-house. He followed teaching several years; having a collegiate education and considerable ability. He served during the War of 1812, on the staff of General Games, on the northern frontier, in which service his health was greatly impaired.

Newton township is, at present, divided into eight districts for school purposes.

About the year 1806, Mr. John Henthorn built a grist-mill on Spencer's run. It was a mere corncracker, about twelve feet square, with buhrs or millstones about the size of a large grindstone. Mr. Stephen Robinson erected a saw-mill on the North fork in 1808, and not long after a grist-mill also, on the same stream.

Judge Elliott built a saw-mill on Spencer's run in 1814. William Spencer came to Newton in 1816, and during the next year erected a grist-mill near the Elliott saw-trill on the same stream. During the War of 18I2 George Harris built a saw-mill on the Clear fork; and soon thereafter David Harris erected a grist-mill on the same stream. John Keim built a saw-mill near the mouth of Clear fork about forty years ago.

The pioneer preachers of this township were John Emmett, Michael Ellis, William Knox, James Smith, Abraham Fry, John Green, and Messrs. Cloud, Daniels, Gruver, and McClelland. these held religious meetings here before 1810. Rev. James B. Finley regularly traveled a circuit

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 579

which embraced Newton township, in the years 1810 and 1811. He preached regularly at the house of Mr. Stephen Robinson while on this circuit, and, probably, at the house of Mr. Nathan Preston, who was an acquaintance and friend of his, they having previously lived near each other in the southern part of the State. Mr. Finley was a prominent preacher in Ohio nearly half a century. His father had given him a good education, which, added to more than the usual amount of intellectual power, made him a preacher of considerable force. His father had charge of the Presbyterian church at Cane Ridge, Bourbon county, Kentucky, where was held the celebrated camp-meeting in August, 1801. At this most remarkable camp-meeting originated the religious exercises known as the "jerks." Mr. Finley was, in his youth, much given to the vices prevalent in frontier communities, but he attended the Cane Ridge camp meeting, and was induced by the teachings there imparted to him, and by the inspirations he then received, to commence a Christian career which gave to the people of the west the ministerial services of an efficient pioneer preacher for more than fifty years. He was a plain, blunt, bluff, outspoken man, and wielded considerable influence in his denomination. . He spent some years as a missionary among the Wyandots, and for a long time served as chaplain in the Ohio penitentiary. He was widely known as a bold advocate of temperance. He indulged much in a pugnacious spirit; . in fact, his temperament was of the combative sort, and he devoted much of his time to fighting schismatics, errorists, distillers, Calvinsts, slave-holders, whiskey-sellers, and sinners generally, of all classes.

Mr. Finley was born in North Carolina in 1781, but his childhood and youth were spent in the canebrakes and frontier settlements of Kentucky. He grew into manhood in the midst of rough backwoodsmen and untutored, pugilistic associates. After spending many years among the half-civilized Wyandots and State prison convicts, it is not surprising that he never attained to those superior degrees of polish in manners, speech, and deportment, that belong to the higher plane of civilization; but continued somewhat pugnacious in temper, rustic in manner, and -harsh, blunt, rough-spoken in address.

Rev. E. Bowman was Mr. Finley's successor on the circuit. He was a man of considerable ability and power in the pulpit. During his term of service (1811 and 1812) he adopted the Arian sentiments and propagated then' with some success. A number of the local preachers, and many of the members on his circuit, abjured Methodism and adopted Arianism or Socianism, which culminated in a number of Christian, often called New Light, churches on this old Methodist circuit.

A society of Christians was organized in the Clear Fork valley, who subsequently erected a house of worship. at the junction of the Utica and Johnstown roads, now Chatham. This church was occupied many years, but was finally superceded by the erection of one west of it, in McKean township, and by another in St. Louisville, to which the members of the former transferred their membership.

The controversy started by Rev. Mr. Bowman raged a dozen or twenty year. Much acrimony of feeling, through this and other portions of central Ohio, was manifested by both parties to the controversy. Armenianism was the party in occupancy and possession, and Socianism contested with zeal, energy, and ability, for the supremacy. Religious disputations were the order of the day, which naturally engendered much partisanship, and, sometimes, harsh and uncharitable feeling. Some law-suits and rending of churches followed, accompanied by a harsh spirit of proselytism indulged in, probably, to an equal extent by both sides.

"Halcyon" preachers, so called because they propagated a gospel of peace, came along occasionally in early times. The earliest of these ministrations was held in 18io, at the house of a Mr. Henthorn, who lived on the North fork above the Robinson mills. Mrs. Donavan was present at this meeting, and has furnished an account of it. She says that a pet pig belonging to the family, which harbored among the bushes or green boughs that adorned the chimney hearth on this occasion (it being summer time) caused some interruption to the flow of halcyon eloquence, during the progress of the sermon, by sometimes coming out of his nest, making raids into the audience, and exciting their risibilities by his antic gambols, to the great disgust of the preacher.

580 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Rev. Abner Goff was an early-time Methodist preacher of Newton township, whose home was on the North fork, near St. Louisville, many years, but he belonged to a more recent period, by a few years, than the foregoing.

Rev. Peter Schmucker, a Lutheran minister, and father of the Hon. Isaac Smucker, yet living in Newark, was among the later pioneer preachers of Newton township. He often held religious services, preaching generally in English, but sometimes in the German language, at the school-house near the residence of General John Spencer, who with Mr. John Keim and their families, with others in the neighborhood, gave those labors their countenance and encouragement. He also, in co-operation with the afore named gentlemen, organized a Sabbath-school in 1826, probably the first established in the township, or in that section of the county. Funds were raised with which a Sabbath-school library was purchased, and a good degree of success attended the school a number of years. These were the incipient steps in the work of the permanent establishment of Lutheranism in Newton township.

At present there are five churches in the township. Two of these are Methodist, two Lutheran, and one Christian or New Light. One of the Methodist churches was organized at the house of Stephen Robinson in 1810, by Rev. James B. Finley. Stephen Robinson and wife, Joseph Lair and wife, Jesse Harris and wife, Samuel Paine and wife, John Paine and Catharine Lair were the original members. This society has a membership of nearly one hundred, and has its church in Chatham. Connected with this society is a Sabbath-school of one hundred pupils.

A Baptist church was organized in the township in an early day, and Rev. John Fry was one of its early-time preachers. The society was never very large. They erected their first church edifice in St. Louisville in the earliest years of that village, and in 1849 sold it to the Christian or New Light society. Soon after, they erected a small log church on Lost run, about three miles east of St. Louisville, just over the line in Washington township, which is now occupied. Rev. John Pritchard has been nearly thirty years pastor of this church.

The Christian church was the second one organized in the township. It was first established on the Clear fork, and its original building erected there; but the society was afterward transferred to Sylvania, St. Louisville, and Mt. Hermon in McKean township. Rev. John Lee for many years occupied the pulpit of this church. The society in St. Louisville is not numerous.

The oldest of the two Lutheran organizations has a good church building in St. Louisville, with a membership of over one hundred. It was organized about the year 1839. Revs. Andrew Henkle and. Peter Schmucker were the pioneer preachers within the bounds of this congregation. The Messrs. John, William and Simon Haas and John Koontz were among the original members of this efficient organization. Its ministers were Rev. Solomon Ritz, who organized it, followed by Revs. Bishop, Joseph Wolf, Moyer, Barnes, Shaffer, William Gilbreath, J. L. Gilbreath, J. J. Miller, P. N. O'Banon, George Sinsebaugh, W. G,. Kile, T. S. Smedley and others.

Their church edifice is the best in the township, A flourishing Sabbath-school is connected with this church, which averages about one hundred pupils.

The Second Methodist church, or Newton chapel, was organized in Mary Ann township, at the house of Mr. Seth Carver, in 1834, by Rev. George Hannewalt. Services were subsequently held in Chilcoat's school-house in this township, and then in Lock's school-house. The chapel was erected during the summer of 1856, and dedicated in the spring of 1867, the land on which it stands being donated to the society by James Thrapp, who, with J. E. Thrapp and Jeremiah Stout, constituted the building committee.

The original members of this church were Seth Carver and wife, James Thrapp and wife, Isaac Harris and wife, David Moats and wife, Edward Thomas and wife, Mrs. Trippier, Joseph Evans, and perhaps a few others. The pastors have been Revs. Cunningham, Mark, Harvey, Ryland, Taylor, Lonnes, Fink, Gardner, Fleming, Ferris, Reed and others. The society is self supporting, having a membership of fifty or more. The Sunday-school was organized about 1840, the present membership being about fifty.

The second Lutheran society has a good church in Vanattaburgh. Though comparatively modern

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 581

it was, in the earlier period of its existence flourishing, efficient and influential for good in the community.

The first camp meeting held in Newton township was in 1810, or possibly a year later. It was held . on the land .of. Stephen Robinson, now owned by Rev. John Lee. The place was long called Camp Hollow. The second camp meeting was held in 1815, on the Clear fork, on or near the site of the village of Chatham, and was conducted by Rev. John McMahon.

Newton township was organized in 1809. Judge Elliott, father of the late Benjamin Elliott, laid out its first village in 1805, calling it Fairfield. It was situated on the south bank of Brushy fork, about three miles north of Newark, on the Mt. Vernon road. It ultimately came to be called Cannonsburgh, in honor of Thomas Cannon, the tavern keeper of the village. It never grew, and its lots were, after a time, vacated. Judge Elliott is more fully noticed in the. chapter on the "First White Men."

Chatham, called at first Harrisburgh, was laid out by Colonel John Waggoner in 1829. It has been a post town nearly fifty years. Its inhabitants in 1850 numbered two hundred and eight. At the census of 1870 they had declined to one hundred and fifty-two, and in 1880 to one hundred and thirty-three. Should this decrease continue it is only a question of time with the existence of the place. It did not long retain the name of Harrisburgh.

St. Louisville was laid out in 1839 by John Bell and Stephen Ritter. Subsequently additions were laid out by John Evans and Wesley Coffman. It early became a post town, superceding the post office at Newton Mills, half a mile below. Some of its postmasters were: Elijah Goff, David Carver, Daniel Albaugh, Jackson Belt and Perry A. Harris. The population of the village in 1850 was one hundred and nine; in 1870, one hundred and sixty-six; in 1880, two hundred and fifteen.

Vanattaburgh is a manufacturig point which has been gradually growing into a village of artisans, who, with their families, number a hundred or more. It has a foundry and some factories; also a grocery store, post office and church. It has had its principal growth since the completion of the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark railroad. The first post office established in the township was at Newton Mills, seven miles north of Newark, at the crossing of the North fork by the Mount Vernon road. Colonel John Waggonor was the first postmaster, and was succeeded by Major John Huston. Ultimately the office was removed to St. Louisville, and Nathan Hadley appointed postmaster. The Chatham office was the second one established in the township. This was about 1831. Messrs. Gosnell and Myers . were the early postmasters. The Vanattaburgh office was the third and last one established. Messrs. Vanatta (from whom the town received its name), Boggs and S. R. Wilson have been postmasters.

Mr. Samuel Stewart, county commissioner in1814-15, was Newton township's first county officer. General John Spencer was representative in the legislature of the State from 1814 to 1817, and State senator from 1818 to 1822, inclusive. Colonel William Spencer was elected county assessor in 1827 for two years, and to the office of sheriff in 1830, and again in 1832. John Bell was elected to the legislature in 1852. Captain James Coulter held the office of coroner a number of years. John Stewart was elected county treasurer in 1839 for two years. James Stewart was county commissioner several years.

The population of the township in 1840 was one thousand two hundred and forty-seven; in 1850, one thousand three hundred and sixty-four; in 1860, one thousand three hundred and ten, in 1870, one thousand three hundred and three, and in 1880, one thousand three hundred and thirty-two.

A few of the incidents of pioneer times in Newton are worth preservation.

Rev. James B. Finley remarks, in his "autobiography:"

"That one evening. on one of his tours down the North fork of Licking, in the winter of 1810-11, he heard not far off the report of a gun, followed by screams, apparently from some person who had been shot. It was about twilight, and he proceeded to the house, near by, of Mr. Stephen Robinson, where soon a messenger arrived, who announced that a man had been shot at the creek.

"Mr. Finley. with others, at once went to the relief of the victim, whose tracks they were able to follow by the blood, which had spurted from the gun-shot wound, at every jump, as from a stricken deer.

582 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

"They soon found him in a cabin with a family, where, probably he had his home, he being a single man. Mr. Finley assisted in binding up the wound, and the party then returned to Mr. Robinson's."

The foregoing paragraph-from' Mr. Finley's notebook refers to an attempt made about seventy years ago, to kill a Mr. William Kinning, who had recently become a settler in this township, and was boarding with a family whose residence was on the west of the North fork, near to or on the farm of Stephen Robinson.

Kinning received the shot while crossing the creek on a log. Tracks in the snow and other circumstances pointed to a man as the assassin who lived on the east side of the North fork.

The suspected culprit fled, but was pursued, captured and put into what was a very poor apology for a jail, in Newark. This attempt at murder intensely excited the entire community. Hon. William Stanbery was engaged as counsel to defend him, but before the day of trial came he escaped from jail, and has not since been heard from.

Kinning finally recovered. He was an eccentric Scotchman who generally kept a good horse, and traveled extensively, absenting himself sometimes for months, his whereabouts being, at such times, unknown here. His wound in the hip left him somewhat lame, and he was charged with itinerating as a mendicant, in the assumed character of a crippled soldier of the War of 1812. Be that as it may he somehow became possessed of a considerable sum of money, principally in bills issued by the Granville Alexandrian society. One day, when on one of his mysterious tours, he heard of the failure of this library and banking; company, and at once started for the office of the association fur the purpose of securing his money. The doors were closed, and after several calls, failing to obtain admittance, and becoming, in the meantime, pretty well filled with whiskey, a beverage few 'Scotchmen reject, he secured a maul, and attempted the enforced resumption of specie pay. ments by battering down the door. A crowd soon gathered, compelling him to desist, and fearing arrest, he mounted his horse, and rode rapidly to Newark.

He called at Colonel Gault's for another drink, then started on double quick time, and had just passed out the east of the square as the Granville officer and his posse entered at the northwest corner.

This was Kinning's last visit to this section of the country. It was about 1817, and he was never heard of afterward.

In 1805 Richard Humphrey and his son-in-law, Chisholm May, lived on Spencer run, near where the Henthorn mill was erected. General Spencer lived near the head of the run not far from the spring.

One day, during the summer, while the general was at work in his corn-field, and Mrs. Spencer was away from their cabin, a huge bear came along and seized a pig of good size near where a little fouryear-old, their son, and a sister older, were playing.

The squealing of the pig arrested their attention, and they had barely time to get inside of the cabin before the bear came along with the pig, passing near the cabin door. The sister, being older and stronger, helped the boy up into the cabin loft. Bruin ran down near the cabin of Mr. May. The latter seeing him, and being a hunter, took his gun and dogs, pursued, overtook and killed him.

It is owing mainly to the fact that this bear selected the pig in the yard, and not the boy, that Newton township was, until 1874, indebted for the continued presence of Col. William Spencer, whose residence there dates further back than that of any man who was living in the township at the date of his death.

General John Spencer, Elias Hughes, and the centenarian hero of Revolutionary fame, Zachariah Albaugh, may appropriately be named as among the most noteworthy and patriotic of the settlers of the township. The latter was born in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia, and was removed by his father in early life to Maryland, where he resided at the beginning of the Revolutionary war, being then eighteen years of age. At this age he entered the army as a private, but subsequently became an officer, and served during the entire war. He participated in the sanguinary battle of Germantown, October 31, 1777.

At the close of the war he removed to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he lived, near the residence of General St. Clair, until 1817, when he emigrated to Licking county. Here he lived (with the exception of a short time spent in

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 583

Knox county) in comparative retirement during the last forty years of his life; finally closing his eventful career on the ninth day of November, 1857, at the advanced age of one hundred years or more. His death occurred at the residence of his son in Newton township, where he was buried with the honors of war.

He was long a pensioner of the Government whose freedom he assisted in establishing. He had outlived his age and generation, and consequently, during many of the latter years of his life, his intercourse with mankind was limited; but he retained until within a short period before his death, his mental faculties to a remarkable degree. .

Mr. Albaugh was of German descent, and his education had been mainly in the German language, though not exclusively. During a considerable portion of his life he was engaged in teaching, both in German and English. His reading had been more extensive than was usual with his cotemporaries, and he was consequently more intelligent, and possessed of a wider range of information than was common during the last century among men in the humble walks of life.

In religion he was a Lutheran; and attributed his long life mainly to his almost total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, his general conformity to the laws of health; and it was probably owing, in a great measure also, to his cheerful disposition, hilarious temperament, and his disposition to look on the "sunny side of things." Wise, indeed, is he who can live such a life, but rarely is such a life to be found.

Captain Hughes was the first settler in the county and an early settler in this township. The leading incidents of his eventful life are presented at length in another chapter of this work.

General John Spencer was born .in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in 178o, came to Newton township in 1805, and reached the termination of his active, patriotic, and useful life, April 1, 1827, aged forty-seven years. He was a first-class pioneer, a man of generous impulses, of kindness of heart, of undoubted courage, of unquestioned patriotism, of great integrity of character, of many excellent qualities which he exhibited in the varied relations of husband, father, citizen, neighbor, friend, soldier, commander, magistrate, and legislator. It may be stated in evidence of the high estimation in which he was held by his fellow citizens, that he occupied civil or military positions nearly the entire period of his residence in Licking county.

His soldierly qualities developed in the War of 1812. He entered the service during the first year of the war, was surrendered at Detroit, and thus became a paroled prisoner of war. With some this would have been a sufficient reason to remain at home until exchanged, but in 1813, when the northern frontier was menaced, he recruited a company and went again to the front as captain.

During General Harrison's visit to Newark, in 1836, he had a conversation with Amos H. Caffee, esq., in relation to the events of the War of 1812. During this interview the services of General Spencer, as a military officer, came under review. General Harrison observed that soon after Spencer joined him, he detailed the troops to pursue General Proctor, it being just before the battle of the Thames and omitted Captain Spencer's company. Knowing the captain to be a paroled prisoner, he did not wish to put him in jeopardy, but intended to assign to him duty in the rear, where he would not be exposed to capture. Of this Captain Spencer complained to the general, telling him that he did not know what he had done that he was not of the detail. General Harrison replied that he knew him (Spencer) to be a brave man, but that as he was a paroled prisoner, if he was captured, nothing . that he could do would save his life. "And is that all?' replied ..Captain Spencer. "General," he continued, "it is for you to say whether I shall go at the head of my company or as a volunteer in the ranks, for I am going with you." Captain Spencer and his company were included in the detail. General Harrison observed, however, that if the tide of battle had turned against him, he would have made special effort to protect Captain Spencer's company and its brave commander from capture. He had several narrow escapes during the war, his clothes being penetrated by the enemy's balls a number of times. His scabbard was struck by a bullet, in the battle of Brownstown, which broke the blade into a number of pieces, the flattened ball lodging in the bottom of the scabbard.

584 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

When the swollen, turbid waters of the North fork closed over General Spencer, the career of a liberal-minded, independent man was arrested; the impulses of a generous nature were extinguished and a heroic life went out.

Under the inspirations of the teachings of General Spencer, Captain Hughes and others, the early settlers were very patriotic. The township furnished the two captains, above mentioned for the War of 1812, and kept up a company of volunteers as long as any other portion of the county, after the war was ended. It was commanded respectively by John Spencer, David Harris, William Spencer, Hite, Hannah, Belt, Farmer, and others.

The "Newton Blues" had a long and honorable career, going out among the last of the independent volunteer companies that originated during the War of 1812.

Colonel William Spencer, a son of General John Spencer, was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania in 1802, and was brought with the family of his father to "Big spring" when three years of age. He entered public life soon after becoming eligible, and held many stations of trust, honor and emolument in military and civil life. His. first position was that of magistrate. In 1827 he was elected county assessor, and served as such two years, when he became sheriff of the county, serving from 1830 to 1834; in the latter year he was elected county auditor, and served, by re-election, until 1841. For a number of years he served as a member of the board of public works of the State, and when, in 1851, the office of clerk of the court became elective under the constitution, he was elected to this office, serving three years, and retiring in 1855. He was subsequently city clerk, president of the city council, and held other offices. Except a few years spent in the west, he was a life-long citizen of this county, and one of the best known of its public men. He was the cotemporary of Colonel Gault, Colonel Stadden, Major John Stewart, Colonel J. B. W Haynes, Hon. William Stanbery, Major Anthony Pitzer, General Augustine Munson, Amos H. Caffee, William P. Morrison, Lucius Case, Rees Darlington, Bryant Thornhill, Joshua Mathiot, Judge Searle, Judge Haughey, Colonel James Parker. General Jonathan Taylor, Hon. Daniel Duncan, George H. Flood, Benjamin Briggs, and many other prominent men, and outlived them all. He took an active part in the organization of the Pioneer society and was one of its officers until he could serve no longer. by reason of his continued stay at Columbus, where he was clerk of the lessees of the Ohio canals. He died April 27, 1874, aged seventy-two years.

CHAPTER LXXI.

PERRY TOWNSHIP.

LOCATION AND NAME-TOPOGRAPHY-FIRST SETTLERS-TOWNSHIP OFFICERS- ELIZABETHTOWN-DENMAN~S CROSS ROADS -RELIGIOUS MATTERS EARLY METHODISM-METHODIST EPISCOPAL. CHURCH-DISCIPLE CHURCH-BAPTIST CHURCH -PROTESTANT METHODIST-EDUCATION-SAMUEL MONTGOMERY- ADVENTURE OF JOHN LIVINGSTON-A BEAR STORY.

PERRY township is situated on the eastern border of the county, and was part of Hanover township until the date of its organization 1818. In that year the number of inhabitants had increased sufficiently to justify a separate organization. It was -named in honor of Commodore Perry.

To the sagacious and calculating pioneer, this township did not present as great inducements for settlement as most other parts of the county, and was therefore among the last to which immigrants turned their attention. The surface is. generally rough and hilly, and in some parts very

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 585

broken. The southern portion embraces mainly a barren, rocky range known as Bald Hills, and contains very few tracts of land suitable for farming purposes. The middle and northern parts are also hilly, though these are less precipitous and possess a fair share of fertility.

The only bottom land in the township is in the immediate vicinity of Elizabethtown, and a few narrow strips along the Wakatomika and its tributary, Brushy fork. The latter is the main stream in the township, and, with its tributaries, drains every part of it. This stream rises in the northwestern corner of the township, flowing generally south or a little east of south, until near the southern part, where it makes a bend, and taking a generally northeast course, leaves the township near its northeastern corner, passing into Muskingum county, where it soon joins the Wakatomika. Small tributaries enter the stream from either side during its entire course. These are mostly, or entirely, made up of the numerous springs among the hills.

The Rocky fork crosses the southwestern corner of the township, and a tributary of this stream crosses the northwestern corner; while the main Wakatomika creek passes across a small portion of the northwestern corner. The Bald Hills are seemingly devoid of water-courses.

The first settler within the limits of Perry was Samuel Hickerson. In 1810 he erected a cabin and began a clearing near what afterward became the residence of Milton Montgomery, on a small tributary of the Brushy fork. For more than ten months he remained the solitary inhabitant of this wilderness, and pushed his improvements forward with considerable success.

In the following year James Thrap and Allen Hall came into this territory, and soon after they were followed by John Frost, Stephen Cooper and others who settled on the Brushy fork. After that settlers came in rapidly.

It is impossible to obtain from the township records the names of its first officers or their successors; for until as late as 1866, the records weir kept on loose sheets and slips of paper, which weir destroyed or lost after immediate use.

The first trustees were Allen Hall, Samuel Hickerson and James Somerville; clerk, Jordan Hall.

Two villages have an existence in this township, the most important of which is Elizabethtown. It was laid out in 1831, by Mrs. Elizabeth Lemert, from whom it received its name. The first settlers in the village were Samuel Hickerson and Daniel Helenus. It contains at present something more than one hundred inhabitants, and the business consists of two stores, kept by Anson P. Wintermute and J. S. Seward; a wagon shop by Thomas Holman; two blacksmith shops; a saw-mill, carding-mill and planing-mill, the-three last owned by Messrs. Thomas and Lugenbeel. A post office was established there at an early day called "Perryton," and probably Mr. Green was the first postmaster. He was succeeded by Mr. Hugh Flemming, who has retained the office ever since.

Denman's cross-roads was surveyed into lots and regularly laid out, but has not prospered, and contains half a dozen families, more or less. The business is comprised in a store, kept by Mr. L. V. Hoyt, a blacksmith shop and a shoe shop.

In this township, as in perhaps a great portion of the Northwest territory, that preeminently missionary society, the Methodist, was the first to carry the consolations of religion to the destitute pioneers.

The first sermon preached within the limits of this territory was by the well known pioneer preacher, Rev. Joseph Thrap, in 1811. From that time to the present this denomination has been the leading one in the township.

The first travelling minister to preach in Perry was Rev. Michael Ellis, who formed a class at the house of James Thrap in 1813. The society has grown and prospered. since that time and is now large and powerful. This society has a fine church edifice at Elizabethtown.

The above account of early Methodism in Perry township is taken from the historical sketch of this township by C. B. Woodward; it differs somewhat from the following, froth the pen of S. M. Wells, of Delaware, Ohio. He says:

"In the year 1813, Phillip Denman built a hewed-log house, the first in that part of Perry township in which he lived. The building was eighteen by twenty-eight, and, at the time, the largest dwelling .in the township.

" John Livingston a near neighbor and a land-bolder suggested that a preaching place in their neighborhood would be an inducement for respectable people to come in and settle.

586 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

and would enhance the value of their land, and said: 'Denman, you must throw open your new house for that purpose.'

"Denman consented if Livingston would find the preacher, and a few days after the latter met, as he was going to Newark, what was unmistakably a Methodist preacher, known in those days by their peculiar dress, and stopping him related that they had decided to have religious services in their neighborhood, and had a house suitable for that purpose, and asked him to make an appointment. This the minister agreed to do on his return from a visit to his parents in Virginia, whither lie was then going, and told him to give out an appointment four weeks from the following Sunday.

"Livingston neglected to ascertain his name, but on his return home spread far and wide the word that there would be preaching in Phillip Denman's new house on such a date by the 'third angel.' The oddity of such an announcement brought together a crowd, many through curiosity to see who would represent the 'third angel.'

"The preacher, who teas John Cobler, the first minister sent by a Methodist conference west of the Ohio ricer, was on hand promptly, and satisfied his congregation, and on his return to conference reported Denman's as a preaching place. and it continued to be a week day appointment every two weeks until 1828. This teas the beginning of 'Methodism in Perry township."

The writer of the above extract is probably mistaken about this being the "beginning of Methodism in Perry," as Rev. Joseph Trap moved into the adjoining township, Hanover, as early as 1805, and as he preached frequently in different parts of the county, it is reasonable to assert that he did so within the limits of Perry before 1813.

At present there is but one Methodist church in the township, this being the Episcopal Methodist at Elizabethtown. Regular services are held and an active Sunday-school maintained.

The Disciples were late in introducing their peculiar form of faith, yet they have a strong hold in Perry. The first preaching was in 1829 or 1830, by James Porter and John Secrest, in the house of 'Mrs. Elizabeth Lemert, and through the zeal and indomitable energy of this excellent woman the first church edifice was erected on her premises in Elizabethtown, about 1831. It was constructed of hewed logs; and in this a society was organized about 1833. John Dodson was appointed elder and sustained that relation to this church for sixteen years, until he removed to Brushy fork. Since that time Abner Lemert, Beverly Lemert, Hezekiah Shacklet, William Brown and William Phillips have been elders.

The first organization of this church consisted of the following members: Mrs. Elizabeth Lemert, Joseph Leatherman and wife, Minerva and Abner Lemert, Leroy Lemert and wife, William Adams, wife and two daughters, Archibald and David Mercer, Rachel Reed, Moses and Jacob Priest, and Daniel Lauthlin and wife.

In 1846 or 1847, a frame church edifice was erected, much better than the hewed log, but not in an eligible situation, nor in such a manner as to be conducive to health or comfort. It, however, answered the purpose until 1869, when a very creditable building was erected in a suitable place. It was dedicated the third Sabbath in June of that year, the sermon being delivered by J. H. Jones. The church is strong and active at present, the membership being about eighty. It also maintains a fine Sabbath-school.

This Baptist church was constituted in 1847 by that zealous and efficient missionary preacher, John Fry, who was the first to introduce the doctrines of this church into this territory. He was assisted by John Crabtree and Joseph Sperry, and the first organization consisted of seven persons--three males and four females.

The first deacon was James Holmes, and the first clerk. Ezra Sperry. In 1864, John Bilby and William Clagett were installed deacons, and James Holmes clerk. John Fry remained pastor until 1853, and was followed by Stephen C. Smith, John Pritchard, Johnson VanHorn, William Butler, and John Pritchard, the present pastor. Their church building at Pleasant Hill is a respectable one, and the society is in a flourishing condition, the present membership being about fifty.

The Protestant Methodists early formed a society in Perry, and for many years prospered, but the building in which they worshipped at Elizabethtown being weakly built, soon fell into ruins, and they have not been able to erect another consequently the society is not at present in existence.

Education received early attention, though the sparseness of the population prevented the establishment of schools as early as was desirable.

In 1822 a school-house was built on the farm now owned by Daniel Wagstaff. It was a rude log structure, and in it :Miss Elmira Lewis gathered a few scholars, and began a "subscription" school. She was quite popular, and the pioneers were

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 587

much pleased with the success of their first effort. Unable to secure the services of Miss Lewis for a second term, a Miss Nelson was installed as teacher. In 1827 a second school was started in a house similar to the first, built on the Furnace land. Isaac Schneider and Daniel Beardley were the teachers at that time. Subscription schools were continued until the present system took their place.

Perhaps the most noteworthy person in the pioneer history of Perry was Samuel Montgomery, a local Methodist preacher. He came early into the township from Virginia, and during his long stay no man was more respected or influential than he. A blameless life, an earnest zeal for religion and the preservation of public morals, commended him more to the good opinion of the people than any display of oratory. His preaching was always listened to by many and appreciative hearers. On funeral occasions "Uncle Sammy', generally officiated, and at marriages he was seldom absent.

John Livingston was among the first pioneers, and was a noted hunter. The greater part of his time was spent in the pursuit of wild game. His success exceeded that of all others in the community; and many tales are yet told of his wonderful exploits. Once, while returning from a hunting excursion, fatigued by excessive exertion, and walking slowly through the woods, a panther that had probably been crouching upon the limb of a tree waiting for a victim, suddenly sprang upon his back, tearing off two hunting shirts, and raking his back with its terrible claws, on its w-av to the ground. The hunter turned instantly and fired without aim; but the attack had been so sudden and unexpected that he was greatly excited and missed. He now realized that he stood face to face with one of the most formidable and ferocious beasts of the forests, with an empty gun in his hand and no other weapon of defence. The panther was crouching for a spring, and remembering that wild beasts are sometimes held at bay when their eyes are caught by that of a human being, Livingston looked steadily at the beast and began reloading his gun. Keeping his eye fixed upon that of the panther; he emptied the contents of his powder-horn into the gun, without thinking of what he was doing, and dropped in a bullet, without the usual patching and ramming. It was quickly done, and placing the muzzle within a foot of the panther's head, he fired. The result was a bursted gun, a lacerated hand and a panther's head blown to atoms. He now felt the effects of the scratches on his back, the loss of blood and the relaxation from terrible excitement, and it was with difficulty that he dragged himself to a neighboring cabin, where he was cared for. It was a long time before he recovered from the effects of this encounter. Mr. Livingston had many encounters with wild beasts of this vicinity, during his long life as a hunter, but this was probably the most terrible, and the one in which he came the nearest to losing his life.

The Demnans,, as before stated, were among the earliest pioneers, and were also largely engaged in hunting. Several descendants are yet living in the vicinity of Denman's cross roads. A bear story in connection with this family is worth preserving.

One morning the wife of Hathaway Denman, while attending to her household duties, Mr. Denman being absent at work in the woods, was startled by the cries of her two-year old son, who had been playing near the cabin under the watchful care of the large house dog. Simultaneously with the screaming of the child came the fierce barking of the dog; it was that peculiar savage bark that dogs always give when close upon the enemy. Mrs. Denman rushed out of the cabin, and was horrified to find her little boy running toward. her, while a. -black bear, which had been closely pursued by the dog, was just mounting upon the "bench" of the chimney, four or five feet from the ground. Here the bear was held at bay by the dog, while Mrs. Denman, seizing the child, ran toward the spot where her husband was at work. The faithful dog kept bruin perched upon the chimney until Mr. Denman came and shot him.

The pioneers of this township were mostly from Virginia, though many came from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They are industrious, temperate and economical. They are moral, religious, and take a deep interest in educational matters.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY - 588

CHAPTER LXXII.

ST. ALBANS TOWNSHIP.

ORGANIZATION-ANCIENT WORKS-TOPOGRAPHY-THE PIONEERS-FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS-MILLS, DISTILLERIES, SHOPS, ETC. - ALEXANDRIA - CHURCHES - CLOCK FACTORY.

"The hills were brown, the havens were blue,

A woodpecker pounded a pine-top shell,

While a partridge whistled the whole day through

For a rabbit to dance in the chaparral, And a gray grouse drumm'd 'All's well, all's well. "'

PRIOR to the organization of this township, which occurred in 1813, it was a part of Granville . township, and at the date of its organization embraced also Jersey township.

So far as recorded, there are but four mounds in this township. One is on what is known as the "tailor farm," now owned by Thomas Jones, near the Kirkersville road, and south of the Gaffeld meeting-house; another on the hill upon which stands the residence of J. Davis, one-half mile east of Alexandria, and north of the road leading to Newark; and a third further west, upon the farm of John Reed known as the "Thrall farm," but the largest is probably the one on the land of E. R. Cornell, about twenty rods south of the Delaware road. It is said to have been eighteen feet in height within the memory of the older citizens, but from various causes it is now considerably lower. About 1830 Dr. Fassett, Archibald Cornell and Israel Peck excavated to its center, on a level with the original earth, and found human bones of more than one skeleton and some polished stones.

In addition to these works of the Mound Builders, there are two inclosures; one the shape of an egg, inclosing about six acres on the farm of Abner Lyman, known as the Phillips or Follett farm. The Delaware road passes through it, leaving the larger part on the south side, but from years of cultivation it is hardly discernible.

The second one is on the Thrall farm, lying between the wall mentioned, and the Cornell mound.

A third earthwork is located on the farm of D.W. Lewis, in the southern part of the township, about three miles south of Alexandria, and a mile west of the Wesleyan Methodist church.

The township lies wholly within the United States military lands, and is well watered by Raccoon fork of Licking river and its tributaries. Raccoon passes through in a southeasterly direction, the following streams emptying into it from the south: Cornell run, the two Pettee runs, and Mootz run. Those coming in from the north are the Drake or Carpenter, and Lobdell runs.

Some of these runs furnish sufficient water for milling purposes. There are numerous springs throughout the township.

The names of the tributaries of the Raccoon were derived from the early settlers along their banks, with one exception, Mootz run, which is supposed to have taken its name from the name of "J. Mootz," cut at an early day on a beech tree which stood near the Gilbert mills, and east of the stream. The name was found there by the earliest settlers in that locality, and is supposed to have been cut by some one belonging to a surveying party, as the name had the appearance of being cut with irons used by surveyors to mark the trees along the lines run.

The soil of the township is among the best for farming purposes. The wide, rich bottom lands along the Raccoon were originally covered with very large trees of every variety of hard wood known to this climate. These have long since disappeared, and in their place are well cultivated farms. The second bottom land is excellent for wheat, and the upland has, perhaps, no superior for grasses.

The first settler upon this territory was John Cooke Herron, who was born in Pennsylvania, and

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 589

came with his father to Newark. They were among the first families to settle in that place. He married Miss Catharine Ward, whose father lived on the farm now known as a dairy farm, in Harrison township.

They were married in 1807, and the same year erected their cabin on the farm afterward owned by Noah Morrow, in the southern part of the township. He made the first clearing in the spring of 1808, being assisted in his log-rolling by Deacon Butler of Harrison township. His son, Samuel, born in December of the same year, was the first white child born in the township; and a daughter, Catharine, born in September 1811, was probably the first female born in the township.

After remaining a short time on his farm Herron removed to Newark, but soon returned to his farm, where he remained until his death, which occurred in January, 1815.

The next family to become identified with the history of the township was Cornell. In the winter of 1807-8, Gideon, Sylvanus and Archibald Cornell, with their sisters, moved temporarily into the township to work at clearing land for a Mr. Waters, who then owned the lands afterward occupied as farms by J. L. Tyler, N. W. Clafflin, Swain Williams and - David Charles; the Cornells to have a certain amount of land for clearing a certain number of acres-thought to be one hundred for clearing fifty. This Mr. Waters was a pioneer, but being unmarried, in poor health, unable to do manual labor, dying at an early day, and never having made this township his permanent home, his name, in all probability, would never have found its way into this history, but for this contract with the Cornells. The clearing made by the Cornells was known as the Waters clearing. Mr. Waters died in the village of Granville November 5, 1809. Gideon Cornell died in October, 1857, aged seventythree; Sylvanus died in October, 1865, aged seventy-six; and Archiald died in August, 1856, aged sixty-three.

The next settler was Joshua Lobdell, from McConnellstown, n, Pennsylvania. He may be said to have been the second settler who came for a permanent settlement. He arrived in the spring of 1808, his father, David Lobdell, accompanying and making his home with him. He settled on the farm afterward known as the Atwood or Fitch farm, subsequently the residence of William Green. The settlement of Mr. Lobdell upon this particular piece of land was accidental. It is stated that "a weary, footsore traveler, who had been to the west, came along, stopping. at their residence in Pennsylvania, and offered to sell his farm west of the Ohio for a horse, saddle and bridle." The family had been thinking of moving west, and this offer was accepted by Mrs. Lobdell, who, it appears; did the trading; and thus the farm came into their possession. It would appear from the above statement that this "weary, foot-sore traveler " had been in this township, probably, prior to its first settlement.

Joshua Lobdell set out the first orchard in the township in 1809; the trees being brought from Muskingum county. He and his father were among the number that organized the Baptist church on the Welsh hills in September, 1808, Joshua was the first elder of the church. The death of David Lobdell, which occurred in 1809, when he was seventy, was the first in the township. He was buried on the Drake farm, nearly one mile west of Alexandria, on the bluff overlooking Raccoon, between the Delaware and Columbus roads. Joshua was the first carpenter in the township, and did not long survive his father, dying in 1812, aged forty-six. His only son, Samuel, lost his life in the war of 1812.

In the spring of 1809 came Thomas Owens, a widower, from the Welsh hills, with a family of nearly grown-up children. He lived on the Waters farm, but only remained a short time ; having married a daughter of Thomas Phillips, who lived on the Welsh hills, to which place Mr. Owens moved his family in the winter or early spring of 1811.

Samuel Carpenter, sr., from Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, also settled with his family in this township in the spring of 1809. He came in 1805 to Rush creek, Fairfield county, where he remained until he settled here.

The first church was organized and the first sermon preached in the cabin of Mr. Carpenter, by Mr. Bacon, a minister traveling through the country on foot, carrying his saddle-bags on his arm, in 1810 or 1811. He remained over night with the

590 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Carpenters, and preached this sermon to a small gathering of settlers. Rev. J. B. Finley, however, says, in his history of Methodism, that he preached the first sermon in that township, at the cabin of S. Carpenter, sr., late in 1810 or early in the following year. If he did so, he failed to make the same impression on the younger members of his congregation as was made by Mr. Bacon.

Mr. Carpenter erected the first brick house in the township, in 1821; and died in March, 1834, aged eighty-one. His son, Rev. Samuel Carpenter, settled on the farm adjoining his father's, and erected a brick residence in 1827, the oldest brick building now standing in the township. He was married to Mercy Cornell, December 21, 1809, by Rev. T. Harris, of Granville; and had they been married in the township, would have been the first; but, though both had been living in the township, and shortly after the marriage made this their home, they were married at the house of the bride's mother in Granville; hence the marriage of Gideon Cornell to Miss Julia Lobdell, July 17, 1810, was the first marriage ceremony performed in the township. Rev. S. Carpenter died in August, 1851, aged seventy-eight years.

The settlers in 1810 were William Pettee, his ;on True, and a carpenter by the name of Noble Landon. They came together from Vermont, and settled on the farm afterward owned by George Shaw. Upon the organization of the township in 1813, Landon was elected its first justice of the peace. Pettee was a cooper, and the first in the township, he was also a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church.

In the spring of 1811 Samuel Clark, one of the Granville company, settled on the Worthington road, near the eastern line of the township, where he worked at his trade, being the first blacksmith, and a good mechanic. He remained here until his death, in 1824. During this year David Drake came. He was a brother-in-law of Joshua Lobdell, and from the same neighborhood in Pennsylvania. He was the first wagon-maker in the township, and died in 1867, aged ninety-four years. A Mr. Murdock also erected a cabin on what is known as the Barnes' farm, but he was not long a resident of the township.

Mr. West came from Maine and settled in the southeast corner of the township, on the Morehouse King farm. He employed L. Butler, of Harrison township, to build his cabin, which he did for the sum of thirty dollars. This family, also, moved away in a short time. The Witherell family were the last to arrive during this year (1811). They came from Connecticut and settled on the farm afterward owned by L. B. Stark. There were three boys, all young men, Luther, Comfort and Daniel, the mother and three other children. They came from their old home in a wagon entirely of their own make, even to the tire, which was of wood. When the tire wore off they were compelled to stop and re-tire. In this wagon they carried all their household goods, and other earthly possessions, besides the younger members of the family when tired of walking; and this wagon was drawn by hand from Connecticut to the wilds of Ohio. Probably the wagon tire was less trouble than the family tire, and was not so often retired. 'they soon returned to Connecticut, but carne back again to St. Albans, where the mother died, and was the second person buried in the Gaffield burying ground--Lucy A. McCreary. who died June 8, 1821, being the first interment.

The settlers in this township in 1812 were Peter Stephens and his son Justice, with their families: Isaiah Beaumont, sr., and family, and Elijah Fox and brother. The three first arrived in January, from Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. Stephens and son had visited the township the previous summer and put in crop. they settled on the farm since owned by Joseph Bowman, but I moved in a few- years to Monroe township, where some of the family yet live. Beaumont settled ', on the farm that yet bears his name, and remained there until his death, in 1837, at the age of eightyone. He was a great hunter, and looked upon as the Nimrod 0f the township. The Foxes were bachelors and settled upon land since owned by 'Thomas Jones, on the Jersey road. They were frontiersmen, and only remained about two years, when they sold out to John Lockwood.

The settlers of 1813 were Thomas Spellman and Amos Carpenter, with their families, from Granville, who settled on the Worthington road; and Elijah Adams, Asa Plummer, and William Drills, on the Delaware road. Mr. Spellman settled on the farm

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 591

since owned by S. Smith, and died in his seventysixth year; Mr. Carpenter settled on the farm since owned by L. B. Stark, and died in his seventy-first year; Mr. Adams settled on the Cornell farm; Mr. Plummer made the first improvement on Blood Hill, and opened the first house of entertainment in 1813 or 1814, but sold out, shortly, to Willliam Mills, who still continued to keep the house of entertainment until Frederick Blood purchased the farm, and opened the first hotel in 1816 or 1817.

The first election was held in the fall of this year (1813) at the house of S. Carpenter, sr.; the first trustees elected were Isaiah Beaumont, Peter S. Stephens and David Drake; the first clerk was Noble Landon, who named the township after his native place, St. Albans, Franklin county, Vermont. This privilege was accorded him in consideration of furnishing four gallons of whiskey to the seventeen electors present

During the year 1814. Helon Rose, Chauncey Phelps, William Clemons, John Lockwood, Joel Philbrook, Sewel Wilson, Hiel Williams, and Sanford Converse settled in the township; and in 1815 came Jonathan . Atwood, Knowles Linnel, William Hastings, Isaac Longwell, Aaron Park, J Josiah Eastman, David Wright, J: R. Curtis, Stephen Emerson, John McCreary, Thomas Munsell, Daniel Vail, Japhet Sherman, and Abram Mayfield. The first military company was organized this year with the following officers: Captain, Sanford Converse; Lieutenant, Archibald Cornell; Ensign, Amos Carpenter.

In 1816, the arriving settlers were Alpheus Baker,. William. Gailor, Harry Clemons, William Munsell, Peter Hird, Thomas Munsell, jr., Daniel Gailor, Jonathan Derby, Benjamin Linnel, and James Scott. Settlers increased rapidly after this year, and space cannot be allowed for following them further.

Miss. Jerusha. Baker. taught the first school in the township, in the summer of 1812, in an old cabin belonging to the Cornells. Levi Phelps was the first male teacher, and taught his first school in the winter of 1813-14, in a cabin belonging to Benjamin Carpenter which had been somewhat remodelled for this purpose. The first school-house erected in the township was of log, built in November, 1816, and stood north of where the Kirkersville road intersects the Worthington, on land then owned by Thomas Spellman. It was also used for elections and township meetings.

The first school in it was in the winter of 1816-17, and was kept by Martin Mazervy. The first Sabbath-school was organized in this building, probably, in 1818, in which the people of the community united, without regard to denominational views, and, Deacon Oren Barnes was the first superintendent.

The first building for church purposes was the old brick school-house on the Worthington road, a mile south of. Alexandria. It was erected in 1824, and was sufficiently large for church purposes. It was a log building with a large fire-place in each end, and was for years a place of meeting whether for political or religious purposes. After Alexandria was laid out, it was no longer used as it formerly had been; the old building was torn down, and one erected expressly. for school purposes. In it lived the first physician in the township, his family occupying half the building, a temporary partition having been been erected. He was both physician and teacher, his name being Kirkham, said to have been the brother of the author of Kirkham's grammar. He remained but a short time.

Dr. Henry V. Owen, was the first permanent physician. He came in 1834, intending to remain only over night, but, at the urgent solicitation of the citizens, made this his permanent home. He was from Cayuga county, New York, graduated in Pittsfield,. Massachusetts, and died in March, 1864.

The first. grist-mill was Mower's, near the old mill property known as Gilbert's mill. It was started in 1818.

The first saw-mill was the Clemon's mill, now owned by L. M. Spellman. It was started the same year.

The first distillery was that of Helon Rose,. situated south of the present residence of Lyman Carter. It was started about 1818, but Mr. Carter did not run it long before he sold out to Dr. Enos Nichols.

The first frame house was Jonathan Atwood's, built in 1820 or 1821, and is still standing, being part of the dwelling of William Green.

592 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

The first cabinet shop was built by B. F. Hillier, in 1822, near where stands the residence of William Beaumont. It was almost exclusively of buckeye logs, roofed with boards, and the joints covered with slabs.

The first interment in the old graveyard adjoining the new cemetery was June 20, 1838. The village of Alexandria having been laid ont, the proprietor, Alexander Devilblis, in the spring of 1838, gave the lot for burial purposes. David Patterson, originally from Pennsylvania, coming to the township from Guernsey county in the spring of 1818, died in April, 1830, and was buried on the Biggs' lot, just west of Alexandria Mrs. Patterson died in June, 1838, and as the ground was secured and accepted for burial purposes, she requested, before her death, that they remove her husband's remains and bury both in the then new cemetery; and, on the twentieth of June, 1838, they were interred, side by side, in the same grave. The child of Asahel Craw had been buried before this, as they supposed on the ground given for burial purposes, but when run out it was beyond the boundary, and, upon the death of another child soon after, it was removed, and both buried in one grave.

Probably the warmest and most exciting election ever held in the township was the one for a justice in the year 1816, when S. Carpenter, sr., was elected. The strife seems to have been between the Bray section and the Worthington road, and the contest was not only warm but bitter and determined, resulting in three elections and as many contests; and it is safe to say the defeated party is still dissatisfied.

The person who has lived longest on the same farm or in the same location is Walter B. McCreary, having made his home where he now lives, in 1816.

In the spring of 1830, Alexander Devilblis laid out the village of Alexandria, and the same year a frame dwelling was put up by Riley Parker on the lot now occupied by L. S. Chadwick for a grocery. The following year Stiles Parker built the first building erected expressly for a store, on the lot upon which stands the store-house of D. S. Owen, the lot being a present from Devilblis to Parker, if he would erect such a building.

About 1833, a post office was established in the village, and the first captain in the township (Sanford Converse) was also the first postmaster.

The village contained in 1870, three hundred and three inhabitants, and the township one thousand one hundred and ten. In 1800 the township had one thousand one hundred and forty-eight inhabitants.

There are five houses of worship in the township, three located in Alexandria-the Methodist Episcopal, the Congregationalist and the Baptist. On the road from Granville to Columbus, and two miles southeast of Alexandria, is located the house belonging to the Methodist Episcopal church, known as the Gaffield meeting-house, and three miles south of Alexandria, and on the township line road, is located the Wesleyan Methodist chapel. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized first, probably in 1811 or 1812; the Congregationalist next in order, in 1820 or 1821; the Baptist in 1826, and the Wesleyan Methodist church in 1844.

The Methodists erected the first building exclusively for church purposes in 1830, which has been spoken of as the Gaffield meeting-house. They erected the old church in Alexandria in 1838, and the present building in 1863-4.

The Baptists built the first church in Alexandria, probably in 1834. It was moved on the land now owned by David Buxton when the present edifice was erected, and is now used for a barn. The present house eras built in 1839.

The pastor is Rev. A. Y. Yale, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. In addition to his pastoral labors he is now conducting a very neat periodical called the Church arid Home. The first number made its appearance in October, 1880. It is published by A. W. Yale, pastor of the Baptist church in the village, and is a very neat and excellently prepared serial. It will be monthly in its issues and will be a valuable volume, when bound, for the library shelves. The editor, Rev. Yale, has had considerable experience as an editor and publisher, and is a practical printer. He at tended college about three years preparing himself for his labors as a religious teacher. Among his newspapers have been the Wichita (Kansas) Tribune, of which he was the originator. He started this paper when Wichita was a town of only one

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 593

thousand persons; now it is a city, and the paper has a large circulation. Rev. Yale also conducted the McPherson Messenger and other similar papers. The Church and Home is printed at the Times office in Granville, and makes its appearance about the fifteenth of each month.

The Congregationalists still worship in the house they first erected in the year 1839.

St. Albans Congregational Church.- Monday, August 23, 1880, at half past ten A. M., an ecclesiastical council convened at the Christian Union church, three miles north of Alexandria, to consider the expediency of organizing a Congregational church at that place.

The council was composed of Rev. Samuel Wolcutt, D. D., of Cleveland, Rev. E. I. Jones and Abraham Flory, of Plymouth Congregational church of Newark, Rev. D. S. Jones and Newton Parker, of the Congregational church of Alexandria, and Rev. John McKean and Deacon James Follett, of the Congregational church of Hartford.

Doctor Wolcutt read the letter missive calling the council, after which he was chosen moderator and Rev. John McKean, scribe.

Reasons for the proposed organization were given by D. C. Brooks and Rev. R. W. Graham, in view of which the council voted unanimously in favor of the organization.

The following programme was then observed:

Invocation and reading the scriptures by Rev. John McKean, of Hartford.

Sermon by Rev. E. I. Jones, of Newark.

Reading the confession of faith, and covenant for the assent of the church, and prayer of consecration; by the moderator.

Address expressing the fellowship of the churches, by Rev. D. S. Jones, of Alexandria.

Prayer by Rev. Mr. Yale, pastor of the regular Baptist church of Alexandria.

Benediction by Rev. Mr. Vaughn, pastor of the Free Will Baptist church of Concord.

The new organization contains fifty-three members, of which forty-two were members of the Christian Union church, ten of the Free Will Baptist church, and one of the Methodist Episcopal church.

They have entered into the organization heartily and it promises well for the future.

Rev. R. W. Graham, who has been their pastor for years, and who is now a member of the new organization, will doubtless be chosen their pastor. The Wesleyan Methodist Connection organized a class at the brick school-house in 1844, and in the winter of 1847-8 organized at the present location and built a house of worship on the township line road, but in Harrison township, in the year 1848. They built their present house on the opposite side of the road, or in St. Albans in 1866.

In 1819 a Mr. Smith, agent for some persons in Granville, supposed to be Sawyer, Mower & Co., came into the township and erected a small plank house near the Clemons (now Spelman's) mill, and opened a small store, keeping a few things, and was engaged in boring for salt during the fall and winter of 1819, and winter and spring of 1820.

A well was sunk in the bed of Mootz run, near Spelman's mill, to the depth of five hundred and fifty feet, and another near Gilbert's mills about four hundred and fifty feet deep, when from some cause the efforts for salt were discontinued.

In boring the well near Mr. Palmerton's they passed through a vein of coal from ten to fifteen feet in thickness, between the third and fourth hundred feet in depth. Both wells afford a constant supply of water, but at what depth they became artesian wells has not been ascertained.

In 1825 Knowles, Linnell, esq., of Granville, then a resident of St. Albans, built a clock factory on his farm and near the brick school-house. The building now stands east of Lyman Carter's residence, and is used by him for a hay and sheep barn. One Charles Lewis was to do the work when the factory was built, but he proving. a failure was soon dismissed,. and in the spring of 1826 William Munsell, esq., went for Charles French, a clock maker then residing in Delaware county, and secured his services for Linnell. He removed the same spring and worked in the factory during the spring and summer. In the fall William H. Brace, a brother-in-law of French, came from the east and worked the remainder of that year and also during the year 1827. In the spring of 1828 French and Brace moved to Granville to follow their trade. They were sons-in-law of Elder Wildman, who organized the Baptist church of St. Albans in 1826.

594 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

There were made in the factory about eleven hundred clocks, which were sold in this and the adjoining counties.

William Munsell, esq., was salesman or clock peddler, as they were usually called, for the manufacturers.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

UNION TOWNSHIP.

MOUNDS AND MOUND BUILDERS - TOPOGRAPHY - PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS - MANUFACTORIES - THE FIRST CANAL-BOAT DISTILLERIES-CHURCHES-SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL. TEACHERS-THE PIONEERS-BIOGRAPHICAL. SKETCH OF THE PIONEERS-WOLF AND SQUIRREL HUNTS-MR. PARK'S GRANDMOTHER.

"Go cross their wilds as I have done,'

From snowy crest to sleeping vales,

And you will find on every one

Enough to swell a thousand tales."

-Joaquin Miller.

IN a very interesting article on "American Antiquities" Samuel Park, esq., of Marshall, Illinois, a former resident of Union township in this county, writes regarding mounds in this township:

"Having been quite familiar, in early life, with the location of several fine mounds in the northeast part of Union, as well as a few in Granville township, and knowing that some of them afforded .a fine prospect of Licking valley, I determined to ascend to the top of one on my old farm (now the Licking County Infirmary farm), and look for something to write about.

"When I reached the summit of the mound, I was astonished at the change that had taken place since I last visited that elevation, some twenty years ago. Much of the timber had been removed from the surrounding country, especially to the west, which had- greatly extended the view from this point. While sitting on this elevated tumulus and contemplating the beauty of the scenery, I began to call to mind the several mounds with which I had been familiar in other years, within a radius of two or three miles, and being well acquainted with the topography of the surrounding country, I was astonished to see that they occupied so nearly a common level on the hill-tops, and that, with a little more timber removed, all were in plain view from the position I then occupied; and further, that of some ten or more that I could then call to mind on a territory of some twenty-five or thirty square miles, nearly if not quite all of them could be seen from each and all the others; and further, that while there was an extensive common view to all of them, yet each mound overlooked a valley or plain, more or less of which could not be seen from any other one.

"To make this more clear, let me specify a few cases, to-wit: From the position we now occupied we had a delightful prospect of the country for many miles around us, extending west into Harrison township, north into Granville, and to the east and southeast the whole Licking valley was spread out before us. Looking over the numerous hill-tops of Hog run and Upper Clay lick, the sight was lost in the hill-tops beautifully delineated on the horizon, extending in a semi-circle from the hills of the Rocky fork to the coal hills of Perry county, while the special view from this mound, and not to be seen from any other, lies to the northwest. Three or four mounds on a ridge along the line between Union and Granville townships command the view, respectively, of deep valleys lying on the north and south sides of this ridge, while one on Stephen Gill's farm, and others on the farms of Aaron Hillbrant, Mts. Owens, Mr. Jones and John Haynes. south of Auter creek, and others on the lands of F. Dunlevy, Wesley Belt, Henry Lytle and others north of the railroad, each and all have their special views, not to be seen from any other mound, and still are all in plain view from the mound above Union station, on the infirmary farm. Those mounds are all situated on high hills, but we have found since that there are many other mounds on the same territory, generally situated on slight elevations at the head of ravines, on the banks of streams, etc.

"The discovery of these peculiarities began to open a new train of thoughts on the mound question, and begat a desire for further investigation. We next visited some of the hills north of the Raccoon valley, among which was Fort hill, so called. This is one of the highest elevations belonging to this range of hills, and overlooks a considerable district to the north east, as well as an extensive portion of the Raccoon valley. Or the top of this hill we found a fort enclosing some fourteen o sixteen acres of land, and in the middle of it another, with deep moat inside of the wall, less than one hundred feet in di ameter. The inside of this is considerably elevated, but appears to have been dug down by some person seeking for treasure or curiosities. We have often been surprized at the vain hopes of some persons that they might find a fortune in "son of these mounds. Can any sane person for a moment indulg the thought that there ever was a people or nation so ignoran as to erect such conspicuous piles to secrete treasure, with an hope of its safety? Nor since silver and gold have been use by man as the representative of wealth, have we any account any nation or tribe that buried with their dead any considerab amount of the precious metals, or anything else of lastin value. It is ail lost labor to seek in such places for treasure valuable jewels, for they are not there. These works we; raised for no such purpose. There may be found a few trinkets

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 595

placed there with their dead, a thousand years since the erection of the mounds, by some of the wandering tribes' of our native Indians; but, beyond this, you might as well seek for the treasures of Babylon in its ruins, or for the gold of Solomon's temple, that so dazzled the eyes and astonished the rich Queen of Sheba, or that excited the covetousness of the Assyrian hosts, by a search among the rubbish of that ruined pile, as to seek among these monuments for the treasures of these ancient .Americans. We must find some other use for these works more in harmony with the human mind, or of its conception of the nature and relation of things, than that of treasure tombs or military works, or acknowledge that we knew nothing about them. We shall assume that they are the monuments of a civil government, with but little of the military or mortuary character about them, and will try our theory by the works themselves, and leave to others to judge of its plausibility.

"We next visited "alligator Hill." Here we found quite a curiosity. It is a pretty fair artificial representation of the alligator, or great American crocodile. We did not measure this singular tumulus, but would suppose it to be about two hundred feet long, and the length of its legs from forty-five to fifty feet each. Its tail is curled to one side, and its length from the juncture of the legs is some one hundred feet. It is situated on a high hill' and affords a fine prospect of the surrounding country. This animal shaped tumulus has probably been eight or ten feet high, and may have been a represention of the tribal ensign or coat of arms. Some have thought that it was an object of worship, but there is nothing in the surroundings that will justify such a theory. There may have been, and probably was, a small temple of worship on Fort Hill, but not here.

"I think several of the mounds in Union might be seen from this position if the timber were removed from the hills south of the Raccoon valley. From this point we selected several other distant elevations, on which, we thought, there ought to be some kind of artificial works to justify the theory we were about to adopt, Some of these we have since visited and found mounds of greater or less magnitude at each point.

"We next visited an elevation about a mile south of Union Station, on the old farm of Henry Hillbrant. Here is a double walled fort, about seventy-five rods in diameter, with two mounds inside of it. The walls, with the ditch between them, have occupied a base of some fifty-feet. There are some forty rods of the circumvallation that is in the timber and has not been ploughed, but the balance of it has been in. cultivation about forty years, and is in many places nearly effaced so that it is at present difficult to determine how many or where the openings were, but from appearances f think there have been gates, or openings, to the north, the east and the southeast, toward three fine springs that are some thirty or forty rods distant, at the base of the hill. From the present appearance one, if not all of these springs, may have at some former period broken out of the hill-side near to it, if not within the line of the works, but at present they are all at the base of the hill. The prospect from this elevation is very fine, and embraces nearly the same territorv as that from the mound on the Infirmary farm, with a fine additional view to the south, and a view of a portion of Cherry valley, that is intercepted by hills from those mounds north of the railroad. The fine mound near the site of the old Twining mill, on the Raccoon branch of Licking river, the mounds in the upper partof Cherry valley, and those in the Auter creek valley, near the old English mill, as well the works at the fair grounds, and others on the Cherry valley, all would come under the view from this elevation, though from five to seven miles distant. From this point the hills south of Newark appear to be in a valley, while those farther east appear to loom up above them. From this elevation I selected some seven or eight objective points of elevation, lying to the south and southwest, and ranging from one to six miles distant from this point of observation, on which I thought there should be mounds or watch-towers to effect a complete view of the whole face of the country, especially to overlook the great valley of the Pataskala river above Hebron, but on none of which did know of the existence of any artificial works. "I was sufficiently well acquainted with the country to know in what particular neighborhood each of these elevations was situated, and to satisfy myself on this point, I obtained a horse and started to examine the several locations. On the first I found a fort (so-called), about two hundred feet in diameter, and a mound in the middle of it. This is on the farm of Aaron Hillbrant, and has been in cultivation for many years, but still is well defined. The second point was a ridge on the old John Ruffner farm, about one and a half miles northeast from Licking church. On the west end of the ridge I found a fine mound some ten to fifteen feet high, and about forty rods east of it is an oblong, oval fort one hundred and fifty by two hundred feet in diameter, and on the east end of the ridge, and about a half mile from the former, is another fine mound, and the remains of an artificial pool near to it. This pool has been about one hundred feet in diameter, and the bank thrown up to form the pool well defined, but has at one point been swept away, so as to nearly drain the pool. The top of the ridge where this is situated is so narrow that the water falls off to the north and south from the banks of the pool. With the broken part restored, this pool would still be some six feet deep. These works are all in the timber, and have not been disturbcd by the plow. My fourth point was a high hill, a half mile west of Licking church, on James Black's land. Here, too, is a fine mound that has recently been opened in search of treasure. My fifth point was on Thomas Stone's farm. Here, too, is a mound that can be seen in some directions for several miles. My sixth was a ridge lying between the residence of William Moore and that of Joseph Rhodes. On the east end of this ridge have been two small mounds, that have been nearly blown away by the winds, and near the west end there is another small mound. The seventh was on the lands of Mr. H. Kagy, near to the former residence of the late Colonel W, W. Gault. Here, too, is a mound; but the last three or four mounds have the appearance of never having been finished. My next point was on the high lands, in the vicinity of Nelson Buckland's. This point I did not visit, but was informed by Christopher Winters, esq., that there is one on his farm, which joins that of Mr. Buckland. I put up over night with my old friend and associate of my youth, James Wells, esq., who with his excellent wife were pioneer children, and enter fully into the spirit of these pioneer resurrections. My next point was on the west line of the township, and south of the Central Ohio railroad, in the vicinity of where Asa Brown lives. This is usually called a low, wet, beech country, but is in reality an elevated plain or ridge, that marks itself clearly on the horizon, when viewed from other distant elevations. I started for Mr. Brown's and traveled up the Pataskala or south branch of Licking river, to the town line. Near the banks of the river I found several small mounds, but I found my principal observatory, or signal mound, on the farm of Mr. Clark, a half mile south of Mr. Brown's. I again

596 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

called on Mr. Brown, to whom I was already indebted for many items in my Pioneer paper, but I did not find Mr. Brown so well posted on the mound question, and perhaps disposed to he a little skeptical as to my theory. But after spending an hour very pleasantly, and partaking of an excellent dinner with a wedding party, I again started north on the town line till I crossed the railroad. Here we found mounds on both side of the township line. From here we traveled west and north till we reached the old Columbus road from Granville, near to the residence of Colonel John C. Alward.

"On this trip I found several mounds, some in the vicinity of Ezekiel Cunningham. esq., but the largest is on the farm of Zephaniah Alward. The summit of this would command the view of a large scope of country if the timber were removed, and signals could be easily exchanged between this and those on the hills near Hebron, or with those about Union Station, and perhaps with not more than one repeating, to Columbus. I put up with Mr. John Deeds, on York street, and spent one day in this vicinity, and found several mounds. From here I traveled south and crossed the South fork into -Etna township, and down the county line, south of the Bloody Run swamp to the Baltimore road, thence to Hebron, and along the east line of the township, back to Union Station. In this trip I sometimes laid down fences and rode through farms, and sometimes would leave my horse and walk a mile to examine some objective point, and I have found these mounds everywhere on this territory, both on the hills and plains, in sufficient number to over look the whole surface of the land, and I do not believe that within the bounds of my research there can be found a single fifty acre lot that can not be viewed from some one or more of these artificial mounds. I have examined the location of more than one hundred, and have not found a single exception to the rule that each one is so situated as to command a view, more or less of which cannot be.seen from any other, except in a few instances where they were double or in pairs. This rule, however, would not hold good where they are found on a level plain in clusters, which is sometimes the case. On this trip I met with Mr. Jesse Thompson, of Hebron, but formerly of Fairfield county, Ohio, who informed me that when he first settled on Walnut creek, in Fairfield county, about the beginning of the present century, there was a graded road. easily traced in the timber; that it was some thirty or forty feet wide between the ditches, and appeared to be as old as the forts and mounds and he always thought it to be a road leading from the works near Newark to those at Circleville, as it was on a line between those points. But I have met with nothing of the kind, nor do I suppose that, in the present improved state of the country it could be found.

"There are some of these mounds that appear to be in an unfinished state, and some that must have been intended to answer some other purpose than that usually assigned them, or of signal points. There are several mounds on the lands of Mr. Dunlevy, and some of peculiar character. There is one west of the public road that is, by way of eminence, called 'the mound,' because of its being larger than any other in that vicinity, that I will try to describe. It is situated a half mile north of the creek and nearly a half mile west of the public road, on a gently undulating plain. This mound is about twenty rods in diameter at the base, and, although it has bee in cultivation many years, and every effort made to reduce i heighth by plowing around it (for it is too steep in its ascent for a team to pass over it), it is still some thirty feet high. On the south side of this mound there appears to have been a land slide that has considerably reduced the grade of the ascent on that side, throwing it a little out of a regular circle, and giving it rather a semi-oblate form.. On the north side, there has been a narrow, graded road for ascending the mound. This has been nearly destroyed by cultivation, but still can be seen. But the great curiosity in connection with this mound, and a peculiarity that I have not found in any other, is the remains of a massive vault in the southwest part of the mound, that has nearly or quite extended to its center. From the present appearance, this vault must have been not less than sixty by one hundred feet, and possibly much more than that. By its falling in, it has left the top of the mound in the form of a crescent or semi-circle, and doubtless has greatly reduced its altitude. I think that the bottom of the vault has been nearly on a level with the surrounding plain. There also appears to have been a narrow subterranean passage through the mound, from the north side of the mound to the vault. This is indicated by a narrow sink in the walls of the mound, that extends from the vault to the northern extremity of the mound. This transverse sink in the wall is yet clearly manifest, though the plow has passed over it several times. The length of this subterranean passage to the main cave or vault, must have been nearly two hundred feet. How the roof of this great artificial cavern may have been sustained, whether by an arch of sun dried brick, or otherwise, is left to conjecture; but if all other mysteries were solved that now surround some of these works, we could soon find means to sustain the roof of the caverns.

"Some thirty or thirty-five rods south of the mound is an excavation of considerable extent, from which a portion of the material to erect this pile was doubtless obtained. The soil of this mound is very fertile, while a portion of the surrounding plain is comparatively sterile. There are other tumuli around this at various distances that are in plain view from this. Among them are some in an unfinished state, others are complete; but none other possessed the threefold character of watchtower, signal point and magazine for stores. Prom a half mile to a mile and a quarter to the northeast from this singular mound, is a set ies of knobs, or tumuli, of not less than fifty on an area of some three hundred acres of land. Most of these have always been considered by the citizens natural elevations, though there are among them several well defined artificial mounds, and some things in others that give them the appearance of a series of artificial works, or perhaps rather, natural elevations with artificial termini. While looking among these hillocks, which range from eight to fifty feet in height, and of various forms, I noticed that from the side of one of them a tree had fallen, that had turned up a root of some six feet in depth, which would reach to the level of the surrounding plain. This I examined, and found that it had brought up from the bottom a stratum of rich black soil, apparently of drift formation, while above it was a mixture of clay loam and gravel. This mound was not less than a hundred feet above the alluvium or bottoms of Auter creek, and nearly a mile distant from its channel. This straitification of earth in this tree root showed not only that this was an. artificial tumulus, but that it had been erected on the original surface soil. Not more than two hundred feet from this is found the largest mound that I have seen in the county, or that I have ever seen, except Everman's mound, in jasper county in the State of Illinois. But there are in this State some larger mounds. This is nearly round, between three and four hundred feet in diameter at the base, and, It

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 597

should think, fifty feet high. There are two or more other well defined artificial mounds on my father's farm, now owned by Wesley Belt, but the greater portion of these elevations are on lands that were owned, when I left this State, by Reuben Linnel, Justin Hillyer and James Cunningham, all of which I believe is now owned by Mr. F. Dunlevy.

"There are among these knobs some ponds of water which I think are artificial pools. Though the land there is generally quite porous, and the water passes away quickly, still, from some cause some of these pools are very retentive, and hold water nearly or quite the year round. As we go west from this singular cluster of elevations, along the line of Union and Granville townships, we find quite a number of mounds, some of which are clearly in an unfinished state, while others are neatly and scientifically completed.

It will be seen from the above that this township is rich in antiquarian relics. This gentleman, in the same article, gives his theory regarding these mounds and their builders, which differs somewhat from the generally received theories, and will be found in, another part of this work. In another article he says regarding the subject of antiquities:

"There were, at the first settlement of the township, many relics of antiquity found, such as axes. hatchets, pipes and hammers of stone, broken pottery, etc. If these had been preserved, a respectable cabinet of curiosities might have been gathered in this county alone. But no one then thought of the value they might have been to science, and they have been lost or destroyed. There was on my old farm, when first improved, a very remarkable pile of "flint chips," and broken, and unfinished, 'arrow points,' amounting to several bushels. These were at a place where neither flint nor stone were found beside them. Their presence there was a mystery to all who saw them; it was called by the early settlers the 'Indian arrow shop,' and the hunters used to resort thereto get their gun-flints. The nearest place from whence they could be brought must have been the Flint ridge, some ten or twelve miles distant."

The following general history of this township was also written by Mr. Park:

"This is the largest township in Licking county. It embraces about one and a half square miles, in town one, range twelve, and the whole of town one, range thirteen, United States military lands. Also -sections one to eighteen inclusive, in town seventeen, range eighteen, of the Refugee lands on the south, embracing an area of more than forty square miles. The south part of the township is watered by the south branch of Licking, or the Pataskala river, which also constitutes a part of the east line of the township. The middle is watered by the Beaver run and its branches, and the north by Auter creek and itstributaries. These all pass through its territory nearly from west to east, making it a uniformly well watered township. The face of the country is generally level, or gently undulating. The soil is a clay loam, rich with vegetable mould, sufficiently retentive to hold stimulating manure without leaching, yet the subsoil is generally so porous as to need but little draining. It is as well, if not better, adapted to a variety agriculture, than any township in the county.

"There are no broken or waste lands in the township, except a small district in the southeast corner, covered by the Licking Summit reservoir, and another small district in the southwest, by the Pigeon-roost or Bloody Run swamp. The latter has been greatly improved, within a few years past, by draining, and may yet be fully redeemed and become fine meadow land, or afford a valuable bed of rich fertilizing matter to enrich other lands with. Nearly the whole of the eighteen sections taken from the Refugee lands, and lying in the south part of the township, is an alluvion, and is rarely equaled as corn and meadow land; while the middle and northern portions of the township are more rolling and better adapted to the production of small grain and fruit trees.

The public improvements are the Ohio canal, the Cumberland road, and the Central Ohio railroad. The first was completed through this township and county in the summer of 1828, the second in 1834, and the third in 1853. These, each in their turn, gave a great impetus to local improvements. These all run entirely through the township, and the canal and National road cross nearly at right angles within its territory, and afford ample facilities for getting its products to market. Hebron, its principal town, and situated at the crossing of the canal and National road, was once a fine business point, and, in the. days of its glory, the largest and best grain and pork market in the county, if not in the Licking valley. But since the men that made it such have passed away, and railroad facilities have attracted the commerce to other points, Hebron has lost its prestige as a commercial point, and, with it, much of its moral and religious enterprise. The towns of Moscow and Luray have nearly passed away. There is a small business done at Union station, on the roilroad. These are the only villages in the township, from which it will be seen that Union is emphatically-an agricultural township. Although its. villages are on the decline, both as to their population and business, its agricultural interests are improving. The lands are generally owned and occupied by an enterprising class of farmers that are rapidly developing the resources of its rich soil.

"It was very heavily timbered, and required as much hard labor to bring it into cultivation as any township in the county, The better kinds of timber consisted of black walnut, butternut, wild cherry, several varieties of oak, white, black and blue ash, hickory, mulberry and sugar maple. The less valuable were the beech, elm, basswood or linden, black gum, cottonwood, sycamore, buckeye, etc., with underbrush of dogwood, red-bud, paw-paw, wild .plum, spice. brush, and, in many, places, abundance of wild grapes and black haws. The apparent superabundance of timber induced such a reckless prodigality in its use and destruction, that good timber is becoming very scarce, and many farmers begin to feel much anxiety about a future supply of fencing and fuel.

"The principal productions of the south part of the township, for many years, were corn and hay, which were generally fed to hogs, horses and cattle; while in the middle and northern portions more attention was given to the growth of all the cereals, as well as the cultivation of potatoes, turnips, flax, hemp, etc.

Wheat was grown with good success for many years, but after awbile failures became more frequent from rust and the wheat midge, and for the last twenty-five years the farmers have given their attention to the growth of live stock, principally sheep, rather than to the production of grain. While this township gives attention to the growth of all kinds of live stock common to this part of the country, it stands first in the

598 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUN'T'Y.

county for the number of its sheep, and is one of the most famous wool-growing districts in the State. "In the early settlement of this part of the county, the citizens manufactured a large amount of maple sugar, not only a supply for their home consumption, but considerable quantities for market. But the low price at which the cane-sugar could be had, for some time previous to the late war, caused the destruction of the sugar groves to such an extent that there is now but little sugar made in the township. Many have tried the several varieties of sorghum, with some success, as a substitute for the maple and the southern sugar and molasses, but to those accustomed to the use of the maple sugar and molasses, its use is not very palatable.

"There has been but little attention given to manufactures of any kind in this part of the county, except sawing lumber. The first settlers, however, manufactured all their own clothing and other textile goods for domestic use. The carding, spinning, and weaving was generally all done in the family. The first ; mill in Union township was built by Phineas Ford in 1803, on Auter creek, some forty rods below where his first cabin was erected, it was a small temporary log building; the mill-right work, as well as the mill-iron, and the mill-stones (which were made from boulders, or nigger-heads, found on the surface of the ground), was all done by Mfr. Ford himself. This mill was in a few years swept away by a flood. The mill-stones remain ; on the farm of '%It. Ford, a relic of antiquity this mill was succeeded by another on the same stream built by James McCauley, in 1802 or 1803, but within the bounds of Newark township. The second mill in Union was built by John Good, on South fork, near the mouth of Bloody run. in 1807, this was kept up for some twenty years, but also passed away. Daniel Green erected another on the same stream, near Moscow, about the year 1830, There was another below this, erected some years before by Matthew Black, but it stood on the east side of the river, within the present bounds of Licking township. The last two are still kept running, but are in a state of dilapidation.

"In the year 1820 Joseph Mantonya erected water works on Auter creek, a little above the site of the old Ford mill, for the purpose of manufacturing sickles and augers, to which he attached a mill for grinding. This establishment was of great value to this county at that time. Mr. Mantonya was a good workman, and the demand for his sickles was large, as the small grain in those days was all cut with the sickle. This manufactory was successfully carried on several years, until Mr. Mantonya left his shop to become a contractor in building the Ohio canal. It then remained comparatively idle until the spring of 1830, when it was repaired and again put into successful operation by Mr. Mantonya and Samuel Park. In a few years, perhaps in the year 1835, it was sold to Phinehas Ford and his son Benjamin, who converted it into a saw-mill. In the year 1831 John Park erected a saw-mill where Union Station now is, and in 1832 Samuel Vance erected another, a mile below; and in 1833 Messrs. S. H. Joseph and J. Downer erected another a half mile above, all on the same stream, making four saw-mills within a distance of one and a half miles. These were all kept up nearly twenty years, and some of them more. Almost every rod of the channel of Auter creek, from its mouth to the Joseph & Downer mill above the fork, has at some time been occupied for mill purposes, and at the early settling of the country it was a good mill stream; but since the country has been cleared up it does not afford water enough to be worth occupying for that purpose. It may have been noticed that this stream is called Auter creek, when it is generally known by the name of Ramp creek. The latter is a misnomer, and originated as follows: - the first settling of this country, and up to about the year 1820, the wide and fertile bottoms along this stream were covered to early spring with a wonderful growth of leeks, which the Virginians and Pennsylvanians called Ramps; these were eaten freely by the cattle in the spring, before other vegetation came on to supply their wants. This gave a very unpleasant smell to the breath of the cattle, and a disgusting flavor to the milk and butter. This, however, was partially neutralized and rendered endurable by a person eating freely of raw onions or garlick before partaking of the milk and butter, but it did not remove the bitterness ref. feeling. entertained by the citizens against those early plants, and about the year 1807 or 1808, the first settlers along this valley applied the name of these plants to the stream on whose rich bottom lands they grew so abundantly, and it has never been so far redeemed from its "ramp- reproach," n:; to lee called by its proper name. The name Auter creek is French, and signifies another creek. This name may have originated in the very singular circumstance of so many streams of so nearly the same size forming a junction so nearly at the same point, as do the several branches of Licking rive. The only wool carding machines ever run in Union township were, one erected by N. Buckland & Brother in 1829, and another by a gentleman in Hebron, some three or four years later; but these have both long since ceased to operate.

"There is a tile factory in Hebron, and a carriage factory in the town of Luray, which are all the manufacturing establishments of any importance now in the township.

" The first canal-boat built in the count', or that floated on the waters of the Ohio canal within its borders, was built by a joint-stock company at Hebron, in 1827-8, and was called the "Licking Summit." It was built under the supervision of Joshua Smith, and made its first trip through the "Deep cut" on the Fourth of July, 1828, but it was built too large to pass the locks, and was so poorly constructed and drew so much water that it was not thought worth reconstructing, consequently, it never left the summit level. It was laid up in he basin at Hebron, for a while used as a drinking saloon-then as a resort for the lewd, or a kind of house of ill-fame, until it was destroyed as a nuisance, or rotted down. This statement is in part confirmed by Captain John Murphy, formerly of this county, and now of Knox county, Ohio, who also furnished the information that he run the first boat through from Cleveland to Portland. It is also corroborated by Mr. H. H. Denis, of Newark, and Messrs. James Sawyer and Dr. James Fwing, and John Edwards, esq., of Hebron.

"The distilleries were another class of manufactories that were of too much importance in those days to be passed without notice, for their product was used by nearly everybody, and was considered an article of necessity in even household. liven among the clergy there were some that thought the exhiler ating effects of the spirit of the 'still' was quite essential to an effective elucidation of the 'Spirit of the Sacred Writings.The importance of the stills may be conceived from the prompt: mess with which they sprang into existence, after the erection of the cabin in the wilderness, for the protection of the family from the inclemency of the season, and the production of a little surplus grain for them to operate on. The first distillery in Union township, so far as we can learn, wag erected by Abram Mouser in 1809, a little east of Thomas Stone's farm,

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 599

this was soon followed by one erected by James Taylor, another by Samuel Hand, and others, as the population and demand increased. The distilleries of those days supplied their customers, as did the mills, by giving every man his turn. When the bag with grain was taken to the mill, it was marked and left there to be ground, when all others were ground that had preceeded it. Just so at the 'still house,' every man left his jug or bottle to be filled, when all the jugs and bottles were filled that had preceeded it. It was quite common among the better class of citizens, when they sent for their meal, to send another bag of grain to take its turn, lest the family wants should get ahead of the turns at the mill, which was quite common, in dry weather. Just so with those that patronized the still-house, when the full jug was taken away an empty one must be left for its turn, otherwise an involuntary total abstinence 'might have to be endured for awhile, unless relieved by some kind neighbor. Happy indeed was the man thought to be, whose means were such that he could afford to get a whole barrel stowed away in some safe place, where he could resort to it at his pleasure for the comfort of himself and friends.

"In those pioneer days it was considered a specific for nearly all the woes that the flesh of man was heir to, and by some for both soul and body. It warmed them when cold; it protected them in the harvest field from the evil effects of a scorching sun; it soothed their sorrows; it calmed their fears; it gave them courage in a fight; or it allayed the excited feelings of anger and made friends of those who had been at enmity. It braced up the system under fatigue, and protected it from the evil effects of a storm, of either rain or snow. It sharpened their appetite for their food, and sustained them under long fasting. It cured rheumatism, cholic, and headache, and was an excellent remedy for a cold. It was a protection against the malaria of a new country, and one of the finest emollients for bruised flesh, or a sprained limb in the world. Indeed, it was a universal specific for all their sufferings in this life, whether physical, mental, or moral. No patent medicine of modern days could compare with it; and that, too, without any newspaper puffing-for it was well understood to be adapted to every age and sex. It was the first thing given to the baby, and the last thing applied to the cold clay of the mortal body to hold it to a natural freshness until laid in the tomb.

"Was it any wonder that an article of such universal adaptation should be promptly provided for? Then its importance as an article of commerce, in. those days should not be overlooked; many of the farmers paid for their land with it. When there was no market fur their grain, their fruit, or their live stock, they had but to trade or convert it into whiskey or brandy, when it at once became substantially a legal tender, for no man ever heard in those days of a person refusing to take it for a debt. It was the rich man's glory and the poor man's consolation.

"So far as can be ascertained at this late day, Asa Shinn was the first man that. ever preached within the present bounds of Union township, and the place was at the cabin of George Wells, in the year x803 or x804. A society was soon after organized here, and John Price was appointed class-leader. About this time there was a local preacher, by the name of Smith, settled near the south line of the township, but there are no particulars in regard to his religious labors, farther than that he was a very active and energetic Christian. In the year 1812 they erected a good hewed log meeting-house on the land of George Wells, and called it 'Wells' meeting-house.' This was superceded in the year 1833 by a large brick, called 'George's chapel. This society became so weakened by deaths and removals, that many years ago it was disbanded, and its members attached to other points, and the meeting-house torn down. In 1805 Benjamin Green, a Baptist preacher, commenced preaching at David Beaver's and a few years after this, a society was formed at this place from members that had been attached to the churches of Hog run and Pleasant run, and held their meetings at the house of David Beaver. About the year 1815 or 1816 they erected a hewedlog church, with gallery on the sides and one end; this was for some time called 'Beaver's meeting-house,' but was subsequently named 'Licking church.' This society, with some modifications, continues in a prosperous condition, and now have a good frame church and a well improved cemetery. The people on Auter creek, for many years, attended meeting at Mr. Nash's, within the bounds of Granville township, but soon after the War of 1812, a society was formed at the house of John Park, and John Black was appointed class-leader. This continued to be a regular preaching place, until the erection of Park chapel in 1840-1. There are several other pretty good churches in the township, but of modern date. Although the people of Union did not, like those of Granville, bring their religious instructor with them, they have always given respectful attention to religious instruction. They came here in small parties and from various points, representing almost every faith that was taught in the older states, including the Puritans, Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Quakers, Moravians, Dunkards, Universalists and Unitarians.

"The first school is said to have been taught in the neighborhood of David Beaver's in the year 1805, by a Mr. Livingston. The next, of which there is any account, was taught in the Benjamin settlement, by Sallie Gavit, in 1809 or 1810. She taught two terms, and was followed by Miss Sarah Baldwin, Mr. Lockwood, Miss Harriet Munsel (now Mrs. H. Gaffield of St. Albans), and Miss M. Twigg. In 1815 this part of Union and the southeast part of Granville, united and built a schoolhouse, on what is now the McMillen farm, and that winter the school was taught by Oliver Thrall, and in 1816 and 1817 by Daniel Howe; in 1818, by Miss Barsha Howe, now Mrs. Hillyer, of Kansas. The territory was again divided, and the Union portion erected a school-house on. Auter creek, Miss Hannah Ford (now Mrs. Benjamin, of Iowa), taught one or two terms; then Mr. Driggs, followed by James Corbin. In 1813 and 1814 a sister of Sallie Gavit, Mrs. A. I:. Bragg, of Granville, taught school in the Stone and Pumphrey settlement.

By diligent inquiry and the aid of family records, the names of nearly all the early settlers have been ascertained, and are placed in the following order:

In 1800 John VanBuskirk and Benjamin Murphy, the last week in March, and J. Wayman the same season.

In 1801-2 Jonathan Benjamin, John Homed, William Homed, George Wells, John Edwards, Alexander Holmes, Richard Wells, Joseph Wells, Bazeleel Wells, James Hendricks. William Wells, William Richardson, John Wagy, James Green, Henry Owens, and Phineas Ford.

In 1803 Thomas Stone, George Stone, Philip Smith, Joshua Browning, William Holmes, John Price, Joshua Price, James Taylor, William Johnson, Mordecai Price, Charles Howard, Benjamin Price, Nicholas Porter, Martin Lincoln, Abram Mouser, J. Pumphrey.

600 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

In 1804-5 James Holmes, jr., Daniel Smith, James Stone, David Beaver, John Good, John Farmer, John Coulter, Elias Farmer, John V. Farmer, Abram Beaver, Francis Twigg, Cornelius Elliott, John and Jacob Myers, Jeremiah Page, and John Hilton.

In 1806-7 Samuel Hand, Henry Horn, Henry Hillbrant, John Black, Abraham Stepp, John Hughs, William Hughs, Peter Clem, Thomas Hughs, John Cunningham, Amos Park, John Thompson, David Benjamin.

In 1808 to 1810 the increase of population was quite rapid, among whom we may name John Rhodes, John Ruffner, Abram Rhodes, .John Park, Henry Myers, Samuel Stone, George Callahan, Aaron Park, J. K. Myers, Philip Peters, James Cunningham.

"Several of these brought with them children, that were men and women at the time of their parents arrival, among whom were Jemima Black and Jane Ingraham, daughters of Jonathan Benjamin, in 1801; Catharine Horned in 1803; Amos and Lewis Farmer in 1805, and in the same year, Samuel and Ephraim Coulter.

"For some things that could not be obtained from the living, the cities of the dead have been visited, the tombs consulted, and from their records the following list taken, which will give a pretty fair representation of the astonishing degree of longevity to which many of those hardy pioneers attained, notwithstanding their privations.

NAMES AGE NAMES AGE

Jonathan Benjamin ......103 Nicholas Porter .....67

Margaret Benjamin ...... 95 Lovel Morris . .......79

David Benjamin ........... 67 Mary Morris ......... 84

Elizabeth Benjamin .......67 Thomas Holmes ... 78

Phineas Ford ................ 65 Mrs. Holmes ........ 69

Mary Ford ................. 87 Joshun Browning ..64

Henry Hillbrant ............ 94 Polly Farmer .........66

Nancy A. Park ............... 75 John V. Farmer ... 95

John Park .................... 76 Amos Park ............70

Margaret Park ................ 66 George Wells ...... 86

Martin Beaver ............... 74 Elizabeth Wells .... 75

Mrs. Beaver .................... 89 Theron Hamilton .. 78

Abram Rhodes ................ 69 William Cain .........82

Barbara Rhodes . ........... . 69 Elizabeth Cain . . . .76

John Rhodes ............... .....65 John Myers ........... 79

John Cunningham .. ........ 70 Polly Myers .......... 90

Deborah Cunningham ...... 84 Benedict Belt ........ 78

Thomas Stone ................. 79 Rachel Belt ............75

Barbary Stone .................. 78 James Holmes, sr .. 79

Samuel Hand .................... 74 Ann Holmes ......... 69

Elizabeth Hand ................. 81 George Hancock .... 85

Philip Peters ...................... 86 Nancy Hancock ..... 65

Ann Peters........................ 79 Philip Smith ........... 82

Hugh Whiteford ................ 97 John Farmer ........... 92

Charlotte Whiteford .......... 68 Mary Watson ...........77

Nancy Lane ....................... 65 James Stone ............ 64

Henry Myers ..................... 82 Susan Stone ............ 65

Rebecca Myers ....... ......... 74 Christian Nulton ..... 94

John Edwards ...... ............ 77 Dorothy Coffman ....76

Ruth Edwards . . .............. 77 Elias Farmer ........... 68

Edmund Taylor . . . . . . . . 76 Rebecca Stone. . . . .79

Thomas Dewese ............... 79 Elizabeth Moore ..... 83

Catharine Dewese ............. 78

"The aggregate age attained by these (sixty-five) persons is five thousand and five years, or an average of seventy-seven years. A few of the above did not move into the township till a later date, but were properly western pioneers, and came to the Licking valley at an early day. There are others who died out of he township whose record has not been obtained, among whom, are James Taylor and wife, James and George Stone and wives, Alex. Wells and wife, and Susan Park, some of whom attained an age of nearly one hundred years.

"It may be worth noting that nearly all of these early settlers, both male and female, were expert in the use of the rifle, and some of the men were "professional hunters," who devoted much of their time to the chase, especially in the fall and winter, when the flesh and skins of wild animals were most valuable. Among these may be named Thomas Stone, Joshua Browning, John Edwards, John Price, John and Elias Farmer, and John Coulter, as among the most expert of their day. Thomas Stone was distinguished as a bear hunter, sometimes killing as many as eight to twelve in a season. These men were seldom seen at any time, even at. church, without their rifle. Some of them did not feel themselves fully dressed until their "hunters belt" was buckled around them, and the shot-powder horn hung over their shoulders. They not only gloried in the chase, but with some of them it was the chief source of their living, until old age and scarcity of game compelled them to give it up. John Edwards and Thomas Stone were good farmers and fair business men, and accumulated some property, but most of these hunters died poor.

"Joshua Browning was a man without any education, but a person of good judgment. At the time of the great meteoric shower of 1833, the alarm among many of the people was great. Almost every kind of business was suspended, and the people of the country gathered at the towns to talk about it, and to hear what others had to say. Mr. Browning said that he was out hunting and camped ;n the woods. In the night he saw an unusual number of "shooting stars," and their number continued to increase. To get a better view of them, he left his camp and went about a quarter of a mile to open ground. Here his description of the scene was truly ludicrous, but very interesting. He watched them until his neck pained him from looking up; he then lay on his back and watched them for three hours. Having heard of a time coming when the stars of Heaven should fall, he fixed his eyes on certain stars to see them fall, but not one of them moved. These sparkling gems that filled the atmosphere above him seemed to take their existence somewhere in the open space between him and the stars that he fixed his eyes upon, hence he concluded that this was not the "star flng" spoken of in the Bible. It now, to his mind, assumed a delightful aspect; and his description, in his untutored dialect, of the dividing and multiplying character of the meteors as they descended to the earth, though laughable, was very entertaining; and while many reading persons were frantic with fear, the scrutinizing mind of this son of nature converted it into a scene of pleasurable delight. Joshua Browning was a man of mild temper and of good morals. He died at the age of sixty-four. His brother-in-law, Philip Smith, was a frontiersman in taste and.habits, and died at the age of eighty-two years.

"Lovel Morris was born in New Jersey, and came to this country in the spring of 1804, living one year on Richard Pitzer's land. He then moved to the neighborhood of Cooper's mill, on Jonathan's creek, and remained there five years, when he returned to the Hog Run valley, where he remained till 1828, when he bought land on Auter creek, in Union township. In

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY - 601

1834 he sold his land to R. A. Holmes, and bought more. about one mile further south, in the same township, where he remained until his death in August, 1843. His wife was a sister of old Philip Sigler, another pioneer, and died in October, 1848. Lovel Morris was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church fifty-six years, and his wife sixty-five years.

"Thomas and George Stone came to this township from Jefferson county, Virginia, in 1803. They were both men of.good morals and useful members of the church. George was a member of the first Methodist, and Thomas of the first Baptist societies in the township.

"John and Jacob Myers were settlers of 1805, and came from Baltimore, Maryland. John married in Brooke county, Virginia.

" He and his wife lived to a ripe old age, dying at the ages o f seventy-nine and ninety, respectively. Jacob was justice of the peace many years, and earned for himself a good reputation for integrity and judgment.

"James Holmes jr., a brother of judge Alexander Holmes. came from Washington county, Pennsylvania. He was an energetic, industrious man, the county surveyor many years and became wealthy. He was an eccentric character, find made a provision in his will that his body, after death, should be embalmed and placed in a vault above ground, which was done.

"John Van Buskirk was the first person to settle in Union township, on land owned by himself. A biographical sketch of this pioneer will be found in another chapter.

"Phineas Ford was born November 1, 1772, and was the son of Thomas and Hannah Ford, of Farmington, Connecticut. He was married to Mary Benjamin April 5, 1796.

"They, with the families of John Jones, Frederick Ford and Benoni Benjamin, placed all their effects on a flat-boat, and left the mouth of the Muskingum in September, 1799. They floated down the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto, thence up the Scioto to a settlement about where Circleville now stands. Here they stopped and wintered with some friends who had preceded them, and raised a crop. In the spring of 1801, as soon as the ice had left the river, Phinehas Ford and John J ones, with their families, and Frederick Ford, a brother-in-law as assistant, but without his family, again started with their boat up the river for Franklinton, then the first white settlement on the Scioto above Circleville.

"They reached Franklinton the last of March, and landed, where Columbus now stands, in an unbroken forest. Their team and other things were taken from the .boat, and rigged on land. By the aid of a pocket compass and a map of this part of the Ohio Company's lands, they started for the Auter creek branch of the Licking river. The first day they broke a wheel of their wagon. Mr. Ford made some felloes for the wheel from a crooked dogwood, screwed on the tire; and started again. The next day Frederick Ford thrust his gun into a wheel to save the wagon from turning over, and broke the stock off. When coming down a steep bank on Moot's run, a grape vine caught under the yoke of the oxen, and the weight of the wagon drove them forward with such an impetus that it swung the cattle from the ground until relieved by cutting the grape vine. After passing through various dangerous as well as laughable incidents, they reached their destination April 7, 1801, and Phinehas Ford, with.. his wife and. two. daughters, set his .stakes on the bank of Auter creek, about one hundred and twenty rods above where Union station on the Central Ohio railroad now stands. Here, by the aid of his wife and brotherin-law, Frederick Ford, he erected a small cabin, and covered it with bark. He made the door for his cabin by interlacing small poles together with hickory bark.

"By this time their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted, and Phineas Ford, with his brother-in-law, Frederick Ford, left . Mrs. Ford with her two little girls at this lonely spot in the wilderness, and returned to the settlement on the Scioto, to obtain bread for their families. He was detained by high water and was absent eleven days. During this time Mrs. Ford did not see the face of a single human being besides her little children. Wild beasts were numerous and threatening. One large wolf, a little more bold than his fellows, showed a disposition to closely inspect the frail cabin and its inmates, with an expression of countenance that indicated an overt act, with malice aforethought. Mrs. Ford, dreading an attack, took her rifle to shoot the intruder; but her powder had become so wet by recent rains that her gun would not yo off. She then armed herself, as best she could, to await an attack; but the wolf, after an hour's deliberate survey of her quartcrs, left her unharmed. On the eleventh day her provisions had become exhausted, and, with a degree of bravery, that bordered on desperation, she started through a trackless wilderness to find the cabin of her sister, Mrs. Lilly Jones, some four miles distant, on Raccoon creek. The forest., were alive with wild beasts, and but little less will Indians, some of whom were not friendly to the white settlers. After wandering all day with her little children, just at night, wearied and forlorn, and near to the cabin of her sister, she met her husband, safely returning with supplies for their immediate wants. During these eleven days of her husbands absence, Mrs. Ford had not seen an Indian; but on the next day after his return, several came to their cabin to beg, or to exchange wild meat for bread. These were quite friendly; and said they had come near the cabin several times while Mr. Ford was absent, but did not show themselves, for fear the 'white squaw would be frightened.' These wild sons of the forest continued to visit and maintain friendly relations with this family so long as they continued to linger around the graves of their ancestors.

" Phineas Ford and his brother-in-law had come to the Licking valley on a proposition from the agent of some eastern land holders to donate fifty acres of land to each family, on condition of their occupying and improving it for a term of years, and encouraging a settlement; and when these land-holders afterward sold their land in large quantities; these donated lots were reserved -and deeded to -those who in- good faith opened the way or a settlement in the wilderness. Phinies Ford .at once went to work to improve the land that continued to be his home till his death, April 7, 1839, thirty-nine years to a day from the time he built his first camp-fire on that fifty acre lot. Mrs. Ford continued to occupy it nearly sixty-four years. Mr. Ford's New England education and taste induced him to at once provide for an orchard of fruit trees by planting seeds that he had brought with him; and some of the first apple trees planted in Granville were taken from Phineas Ford's nursery. On this place Mr Ford claims to have sowed the first bushel of wheat that was sown in Licking county. He carried the seed on his own back from the vicinity of Lancaster. From this bushel of seed he raised thirty-six bushels of wheat, only five bushels of which were used for bread. The balance was sold to the settlers for seed.

"Here Thomas, the third child of Phineas and Mary Ford was born, August 1, 1802, and was probably the third white child born within the present limits of Licking county. There

602 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY

are six other children of these hardy frontier parents, namely Florilla, Cyntha Ann, Benjamin, Jane, Mary and Drusilla. These were born respectively in the years 1804, 1806, 1809, 1811, and 1814.

"Phineas Ford was a man somewhat eccentric in some respects, but brave, self relying and persevering; a good neighbor, a pleasant, social companion, a little reserved, but very affable and courteous in his manners towards others. In short, he was a good type of the New England gentleman, without his inquisitiveness, but was apt in his jokes and full of fun. He was a pretty good farmer and an ingenious mechanic, who could make anything he would undertake, or wanted for his own use, from a horse-shoe nail to a flouring mill with all its internal organism. He was full of resources to overcome difficulties, and, being a stranger to despondency, he possessed all the characteristics of a first class pioneer. Mrs. Ford was a very skilful woman among the sick, and hating taken lessons from Mrs. McCauley (the most skilful woman in the prctice of medicine, probably, in the country), she was a useful woman among the sick, and saved her neighbors many doctor's bills. Her knee was dislocated by a fall from a horse, and by the unskilful management of a quack surgeon, she recovered with a stiff knee, which left her a cripple the last fifty years of her life. She died in the fall of 1863, in the eighty-seventh year of her age and the sixty-third year of her residence in Union township.

"Jonathan Benjamin, the father of Mfrs. Ford, Mrs. Jones and Bennoni Benjamin, moved to Auter creek with his family in the spring of 1802, and settled on a fifty acre donation lot joining that of his son-in-late, Ford. This lot was first occupied by John Horned. There were several families of the Benjamins who moved from the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania in 1795, and settled at, or near. Marietta, but Jonathan was not one of them. He came there with his son-in-law, Ford. in 1798. Jonathan Benjamin was in some respects an extraordinary man. He was a person of rather coarse features, but of strong muscular powers, with a still stronger trill. lie was very determined in all of his undertakings, and of rather an unforgiving temperament. Having passed through the French and Indian wars, and through the war of the Revolution, and having suffered much and long by Indian depredations, both in the loss of friends and property, the finer feelings of his nature had be come blunted to such an extent that lie seemed to have lost most of his sympathy for his fellow man. Still he was a man of religious habits, and of good morals, but was generally considered to be a man that was naturally morose and unsociable, and was not known through life to leave expressed his forgiveness of the Indian race. He was not a reading man, hence what time he gave to social intercourse with his neighbors, was given to the relation of personal experience. or to business matters. He was a soldier, or frontiersman, most his life. It was not until lie was about eighty years old that lie consented to settle himself for the balance of his life. He bought in the woods and cleared up his last farm after he teas seventyeight years old. Notwithstanding this life of hardships, the iron constitution of himself and his excellent wife sustained them to a great age. Mrs. Benjamin possessed social qualities that in a great measure compensated for the lack of them in her husband. They lived together as man and wife nearly eighty years, and raised a family of seven daughters and one son, all of whom lived to raise families of their own, and most of them large families. It is difficult to trace his family through all their meanderings, but Jonathan Benjamin was born in the year 1738, probably, in the State of New York. There is a family tradition that he was born, raised and married in New York, then moved to Pennsylvania, and settled on the Susquehanna river, and from thence into Maryland, and from Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia, thence to Marietta, in 1798, and to Licking in 1802. Their appearance and dialect was of the Knickerbocker class of New York in former years, and they moved from either New York or New Jersey to Pennsylvania, soon after their marriage. There is no doubt among his friends that he entered the military service at the age of fourteen years, and served through the war, but they cannot tell what war. It must have been some Indian campaign, as the French war did not commence for some two years later. He also served in the war of the Revolution, for which he drew a pension until his death; and some or his grandchildren still have some continental money, which they claim was paid him for wages while in the army. He and his brother David with other men and their families, were in a fort on the Susquehanna in 1775, where he escaped from the Indians by being on the other side of the river with his family when the fort was taken. His brother and family were carried into captivity, and saved only their lives and the clothes on their backs. In the year 1802 he settled on a fifty acre lot of land that corners within a fete rods of where C: neon Station now is. Here lie remained until 1816, when he sold his land to James Holmes, jr., and bought again one mile further west, where he continued to reside till his death, at the age of one hundred and three years. In a conversation a short time before his death, he recapitulated his Indian history and sufferings. They were driven from their homes and their property burned three time, but the places where they suffered are forgotten.

"John Edwards was born in Baltimore county, Maryland, November 8, 1770. In the spring of 1798 he, with a small boy, with the necessary tools, knapsack and gun, crossed the Ohio river, into Jefferson county, in the Northwest territory, and established a squatters right on Yellow creek, by erecting and fitting up a cabin for the reception of his little family, lie and the lad living on wild game while building the house. When completed, lie brought his family over from Virginia, to their new home in the wilderness, wliere theyremained until the summer of 1801. A portion of the time while here lie assisted the military as a spy, as the Indians were quite troublesome on some portions of the frontier at this time. In the fall of 1801, he moved into Union township, on the land of John Van Buskirk, with whom he had previously been acquainted. He was moved by George Wells, with a four horse team; Mr. Edwards went ahead of the team, selected and marked the way with his tomahawk, and killed a supply of game for their food. In the month of September, they drove up to the cabin of Phineas Ford, and stopped for dinner. baked before the fire on a board, and a cup of sage tea. Mr. Ford was delighted with their call, and the whole party enjoyed the dinner, and the association as one of the happiest of their lives. John Edwards was a good neighbor, but there was a kind of decisive emphasis in his manner of speaking that grated harshly upon the sensitive nerves -of some persons, and made them think him crabbed and unsocial. But this was a great mistake, for he teas a great talker and enjoyed the social circle very much, and scarcely ever tired of telling and hearing hunting and other pioneer incidents. He died at the age of seventy seven.

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 603

"David Benjamin was the son of David and Elizabeth Benjamin, and a nephew of Jonathan Benjamin. He was born on the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, in 1767; but, as was the case with Jonathan, the family records have all been burned by the Indians, and the exact date of his birth cannot be given. At this time the Indians were- quite restless, and sought every opportunity to commit depredations upon frontiersmen. At the commencement of the Revolution, they had become so troublesome in that part of the country that several of the Benjamin families and a few others, for mutual protection, had erected a blockhouse and a small fort, where they had kept their families for some time, they knowing that a band of Indians was lurking around them; but while thus combined and protected the Indians did not dare to attack them, and the whites supposed they had given the matter up and left. In this vain confidence, one pleasant Sunday morning in the month of May, 1775, they salliedrout to their respective cabins, to look at their gardens, etc. While thus divided, the Indians, who had been lying in ambush waiting for such an opportunity, rushed upon them and made prisoners of David Benjamin and his family, including his wife and six children, with some others. In this melee Jonathan Benjamin and his family escaped with their lives by being on the opposite side of the river. David Benjamin, feeling provoked at the thought of being taken prisoner before lie was disarmed, raised his rifle and shot an Indian.who fell off the fence and was supposed to be killed. For this, a few minutes after, he was killed by an Indian with h is tomahawk, at a moment when he was not suspecting danger. For this the chief expressed sorrow when he found his brother was not killed, but only had his arm broken. Our hero-David Benjamin, jr. was the second eldest of this family of children taken prisoners, and who, with their mother, were hurried away into hopeless captivity, as soon its their houses were pillaged and burned. They were probably taken into western New York, as ()acid's children say their grandmother often told them that they were close to the Canada line, but not in Canada. This family remained prisoners seven years, until the close of the war. One or two of the children having become so accustomed to Indian life, and nearly lost their knowledge of the English language, refused to return to civilized life; among whom was David's only sister, who, after she had married among the Indians and had two children, was recaptured by the whites near the Niagara falls. but was so much dissatisfied with civilized life that she returned to the Indians, and was never again heard of by her friends. Among those who did return were David and two brothers, and their mother, who lived to a great age, and died in Hocking county, Ohio. After their return, they remained on the Susquehanna until David married, in the year 1795, when he, with his mother and one or more brothers, moved to the Northwest Territory, near the mouth of the Muskingum river. Here they remained about four years, when they moved about twenty miles from Marietta, probably in the northeast corner of Athens county. There they remained until May, 1805 or 1806, when they settled on the farm where Union station now stands, and where David died, on the seventeenth of July, x83;, aged sixty-seven years, and where his wife died in 1835, supposed to be sixty-eight years old. David Benjamin was a frontiersman all his life, and so much of his youth having been spent among savages, he grew up without education or much knowledge of the refinements of fashionable society, but he was a peaceable and kind-hearted citizen. He was cheerful, quite sociable, and very industrious. Although he often said he never could forgive the Indian race for the wrongs that he had suffered, still, when a friendly Indian called at his door for bread, he never would turn him away till he supplied his wants. But when this was done, he would at once request him to leave. He seemed to fear that the remembrance of his wrongs would overcome his feelings of humanity, hence he would not suffer them to remain where they would be likely to tempt him, or excite his feelings of revenge. For some cause he entirely laid aside the use of a gun, and for many years he kept none of his own. He raised a family of three sons and four daughters.

"Rev. Benedict Belt was born in Baltimore county, in the State of Maryland, January 30, 1785. His father died when he was a small child. When he was seventeen years old, he, with his mother, two brothers, two sisters and his brother-in-law, James Petticord, moved to the Licking valley in the spring of 1802, and Benedict, with his mother and Petticord, stopped on the hanks of the North fork of Licking, where Newark now is. Benedict, having been raised in a mill,. he and his brotherin-law erected a hand-mill on which they ground corn for toll. 'This proving rather a hard way to make a living they, by the aid of his mother's money, in the fall of 1802, erected a small log mill about one hundred feet from where the Van Buskirk or Montgomery mill now stands. This and a similar mill erected by Phinehas Ford on Auter creek in the summer of 1803. were doubtless the first two mills run by water within the bounds of Licking county; and probably the Belt mill preceded the Font mill some six months. Soon after Benedict left his mill, perNaps in the spring of x80.4, it was swept away by a flood, and the site was bought by John Van Buskirk, who built a better mill, and there has been a mill on that site ever since. The Ford mill, in a few ears, shared the fate of the Belt mill, and was never rebuilt.' Benedict Belt subsequently, with the family of his youngest son, moved into Union township, where he died, in July, 1863, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was a mail of energy and activity, but was a little given to impatience and despondency when troubles assailed him. The evil consequences of this, however, were greatly overcome by the stability and sound judgment of his noble wife. He was a member of the Methodist. Episcopal church about fifty-five years, and held a license as exhorter or preacher for more than fifty years. He was not a man of much preaching talent, but possessed a great amount of religious fire and zeal. He was a fluent talker, and in some places quite popular and successful in calling sinners to repentance, and in building up the cause of Christianity in the wilderness. He was raised in the faith of the Friend Quakers; consequently he spoke as the spirit moved him, and was most eloquent when most excited. Few men have lived and died more respected for their uniform piety and Christian integrity than Rev. Benedict Belt. He gave up his business matters to his son, but was active in his religious duties to the end of life.

There were other preachers of those early days of the history of Union township that justly merit a respectful notice.

"Rev Benjamin Green was probably the first Baptist preacher that ever preached in the township. His labors doubtless laid the foundation for the "Licking church," which has now been in successful labor as a Christian organization more than sixty years.

Amos Park came here as a traveling preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church from Hampshire county, Virginia, and was a man of respectable preaching talents, and in his manners and

604 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

dress an old fashioned Methodist preacher, and as easily distinguished as such as a Quaker is from a Puritan. He continued to preach until worn out with old age.

"Rev. George Callahan was another resident Methodist preacher of respectable talents who continued to preach for the people until age and afflictions compelled him to desist. He was born in the State of Maryland in the year 1766, and moved with his parents to Fayette county in the State of Pennsylvania, thence to Washington county,.in the same State, where he married and continued to live till the year 1809, when he settled in Union township. He filled the office of justice of the peace fur several years. He worked hard on the farm through the week, preached for the people on Sunday, married the youth and buried the dead. He lost his wife in 1813, and married again in 1818. He moved to Jersey township, where he died in the seventy-third year of his age. He suffered much from inalarial diseases while on the South fork of licking, and his system had become so much prostrated by it that he suffered with the third day ague through the last seven years of his life, without intermission. and died in the winter of 1839, respected by all that knew him, as an industrious and good man. He claimed. to have been the first Methodist preacher that ever preached within the present bounds of the State of Ohio, and the time was 1785. While on the Ohio circuit he crossed the Ohio river and preached a few times at Carpenter's fort, where lie had acquaintances. He had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and was a distinguished marksman with the rifle and an expert hunter of wild game.

"Rev. Elijah Scofield was a Dunkard preacher, who moved from the State of Maryland in 1810, and settled on Jonathan's creek, but traveled all oyer the western country, preaching wherever he could get a congregation. He preached and organized a society in Union township, soon after he came to the State. He was somewhat like Lorenzo Dow in being so much of a cosmopolite, but more like him in that he wore a long beard, which made him a conspicuous person in those days, when men were too proud to wear this distinguishing mark of their sex.

"Mr. D. J. Davis and his lady, who is the youngest daughter of the late judge Henry Smith, have in their possession what is supposed to be the first frame table ever used in Licking county, also a case of drawers. both said to have been made in Zanesville, and brought by judge Smith when he moved to this county in 1803, or soon after.

There was plenty of game all over this country when first settled, and thrilling hunting incidents will be handed down in history for ages to come. But there was something peculiar in the origin and the character of the 'big hunts' which occurred in this township. About the beginning of the present century a large landholder by the name of Backus had some fifteen hundred acres of land deadened preparatory to having it cleared. It was located in the northeast quarter of Harrison and the northwest quarter of Union township. The land was not cleared when the timber died, as was intended, but suffered to grow up with briars, thorns, grape vines, and a second growth of timber, until it became almost an impenetrable wilderness, and a great harbor for wild beasts of every variety common to this patt of the country. The Bloody Run swamp a few miles to the south, and another to the west, called the Fallen Timber, where the forest had been prostrated by a tornado, also afforded pretty safe retreats for the game to evade the skill of the hunters. The wolves and bears were sometimes so numerous and threatening that the hunters were compelled at night to surround their camps with a circle of fire, or to erect a superstructure with poles in the forks of trees beyond the reach of the wolves, to secure their safety while they rested and slept. This deadening was situated nearer to the settlements than were those other retreats, and sometimes these wild beasts accumulated in such great numbers at this point that the professional hunters could not afford a sufficient protection to the live stock of the farmers. At such times it became necessary for a general rally of all the pioneers to destroy or drive from the settlements these invading beasts. But for the purpose of killing as many as possible, and to secure the safety of the hunters at these general rallyings, or 'big hunts,'. a district of the country was surveyed and the lines well marked. The first was twelve miles in circumference, embracing the great deadening. The second, or inner line, was four miles in circumference, and a third but half a mile in diameter. This centered in an open valley on what was known as Grass Lick run. To this open valley the game was all driven that had not been killed or made its escape before reaching the third line. The hunters were formed in line on the first or outer line, from which they moved at a given signal, and on reaching the second line they all halted until ail hacl reached the line, and a second signal was given, when they again moved till they reached the third and last line; the people being thus prepared for a safe and systematic warfare upon these enemies to their prosperity. When the raids upon the pigs, caves and sheep of the fanners became frequent and destructive, then the 'big hunt' would be gotten up. This was done by calling a public meeting of the people of the several townships that suffered by their depredations, at which meeting they would elect their officers and appoint the day fur the hunt. The command was usually Liven to some experienced military officer, with a suitable number of subordinates. The hunters were all placed in a circle around the haunted district, on the first line, and were not allowed to move from the place assigned them until the concerted signal was given by the discharge of artillery at a given point, when they at once began to move from every point towards the center. Everybody that could carry a gun, or make a noise to help drive the game in, and would obey orders. was expected to be there. The movements were regulated by the officers, who rode along the lines to keep the men to their places. The number of men that attended these hunts was sometimes so great that by the time the circle was reduced to half a mile in diameter, it constituted a solid column all round. And when every part of the column moved with care and strictly obeyed orders, not even a wildcat or anything else could make its escape, except the tiirkeys and the deer. The former would fly over, and the latter, when they found themselves entirely surrounded, would pass through or over the lines, sometimes in large numbers; while carniverous animals would hide in the brush, hollow trees, etc. At a suitable point the line halted, and select hunters sent in to look up the game. When every hiding place had been carefully examined, the game was all. brought in together, and the meat and peltries were divided among the different companies, when all would return home with feelings relieved from fear of any further depredations from that source for the next year, at least; for the destruction of wild beasts at these hunts was sometimes very great. The last hunt was in 1821 or 1822.

"The squirrel hunt was not so formidable in its character, ' but was sometimes quite interesting. There are but few persons

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY: - 605

now living in this country that have any fair conception of the number of squirrels that once infested this part of the country. When the wild fruits were scarce and they turned to the farm crops, they became a great burden to the farmers, and the squirrel hunt was gotten up as a self-defense. It was usually done by organizing rival companies, sometimes of, difterent townships, and the prize was awarded to the company that. killed the greatest number within the time agreed upon for hunting-usually one or two days. But few of the squirrels were saved for food by the hunters on these occasions, but the scalps were counted by the number of tails. The number killed at some of these hunts would seem incredible at the present day, but they frequently amounted to several thousands. William T. Martin, in his history of Franklin county, gives the number killed at one hunt in that county in 1822, at nineteen thousand six hundred and sixty, that were brought in, and that many-of the hunters did not report at all. At the last hunt of the kind that took place between rival companies of Granville and Union townships, the number reported was a little over nineteen hundred on a side. The hunt lasted one day and a half, and was reported on the afternoon of the second day. Nothing but the rifle was allowed to be used.

The following personal history of one of the pioneers of this township can be best told in Mr. Park's own words:

"In the month of July, 1779, a .party of Wyandot Indians, from the Sandusky river, made their appearance in Greenbriar county, Virginia, and killed or took prisoners many of the white citizens, burning or destroying such property as they could not carry away with them. Among the sufferers was a family by the name of McKeever. The husband and father was shot down in his own door-yard, and the mother and three small children, the youngest but an infant of six months, were taken prisoners. Their house was pillaged and burned, and the prisoners hurried away toward the Indian headquarters on the Sandusky tiver. The woman could in after years give but little idea of their line of travel, further than this: that the Indians, fearing pursuit, took the most direct route to Upper Sandusky. But in the year 1815, while moving to this State, when she reached the mouth of Licking river, she recognized that as the point where they crossed the Muskingum river, and whence they probably took the Indian trail up the valley north of Newark. Soon after reaching Upper Sandusky the youngest. child died, and the other two, both girls, were taken from her to some place to her unknown. . Here she remained a prisoner and a slave three years and nine months. Though the war had then closed, her friends did not seek for her as they supposed her dead, and the Indians, her masters, refused to give her up and let her return to her friends. In the spring of 1783. by the aid of an Indian trader by the name of Isaac Zane, she made her escape and got back to her friends. then in Hampshire county, Virginia. To successfully make her escape, she traveled for three successive nights on foot and alone, secreting herself in the wilderness in the day time. She had previously received instructions from Mr. Zane as to her line of travel, and where she 'should stop and await his arrival. To avoid any suspicion resting upon him as an accomplice in effecting her escape, the trader remained in the town the next day, until many of her pursuers had returned. He then started, but again stopped over night before reaching her hiding-place through the day. The Indians, not being fully satisfied as to his innocence, secretly pursued him and watched him all night. He again started late in the morning, and traveled a less distance than it was agreed that she should travel the preceding night. One or two Indians again made their appearance, but now abandoned the pursuit, being satisfied of his innocence. The third day he reached the point that had been agreed upon as the place of. their meeting. She had reached the place in safety the night before, but for fear the Indians might be still secretly pursuing them, she did not join the wagon of the trader until he was ready to start the next day. Mr. Zane, being on his way to the sea coast with a load of furs, aided her to the circle of her friends. During the whole time she remained a prisoner, she had received as kind treatment as could have been expected from such an uncultivated race of people. Her mistress was very fond of "fire water," and when drunk was a bloodthirsty tyrant; but her eldest son was a large and noble young chief, strictly temperate, religiously inclined, a warm and constant friend of the prisoner, whom he called his white mother, and from whom he often seemed pleased to receive religious instruction. This noble young chief would sometimes aid her to secrete herself, and supply her with food for two or three days at a time, during a drunken frolic of the Indians. Of this chief she would often speak in her old age, and would sometimes express a wish to see or know what became of her big Indian son, as she would sometimes call him. There was another lady, a fellow prisoner with her, who had been a slave in Virginia, but was very nearly white, who married an Indian chief by the name of Walker, soon after they were taken to Sandusky, and who became the mother of the learned, wealthy and celebrated Walker family among the Wyandots, at the time they left their reserve on the Sandusky, for their new home west of the Mississippi. Mrs. Walker lived to be nearly one hundred years old, and to enjoy the blessings of a Christian civilization, under the missionary instructions of James B. Finley and James Gillruth. Mrs. Walker was a warm friend and intimate associate of Mrs. McKeever as long as she remained a prisoner, and from her the history of the two lost daughters was obtained.after the death of their mother. But the mother had passed through life without a knowledge of what had become of them, and had mourned for them as being numbered with the dead."

"About two years after her return to the association of her friends, she married Samuel Park, the widowed husband of her deceased sister, with whom she lived until the eighteenth of February, 1815, when she was again left a widow. She had raised a family, by this last marriage, of six children of her own, besides six orphan children and one grandchild of her deceased Sister. At the death of her husband, her eldest son, who had moved to the Licking valley in the year 1810, and settled on Auter creek, in Union township, returned to Virginia and brought her to his home in this county, where she continued to live fourteen years, and until her death, on the fourteenth day of September, 1829. aged seventy-five years; dying within less than one hundred miles of the Indian tribe and the place where she had been a prisoner and a slave fifty years before. and within about two hundred miles of the residence of her two lost daughters, then the wives of two civilized Indian chiefs, but both of whom died near Detroit about the time their mother died in Union township.

"This woman of suffering and sorrow was my grandmother, and her son, who provided for her wants the last fourteen years of her life, was my father. She often spent her time in relating

606 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

her experience among the Indians, and in teaching me the Wyandot dialect. She and David Benjamin would often, though prisoners with different tribes, relate to each other their sufferings while among the Indians.

"Nancy A. Park was a woman of mild temper, and a patient sufferer, but communicative and pleasant. She was an ancient Briton by descent, but American born. Her maiden name was Edwards. Her husband-my grandfather-was an Englishman by descent, whose ancestors were among the colonists of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607-8. My maternal grandparents were from the county Antrim, in Ireland, and emigrated to this country at the close of the war of the Revolution. From this you will see that 1, in my humble person, represent the blood of different nations, but it will not be supposed that my European predilections are very strong, as I have an American lineage of more than two hundred and fiftv years. I was born in Union township, November 21, 1810, and at four weeks old, in midwinter, was taken into a green beech cabin, without floor, door, or chimney, which, however, was soon made comfortable by the industry of my, then, young parents. Nor did I enjoy the luxury of a nice baby-crib set on rockers. I was cradled in a sugar-trough, and often lulled to sleep by the notes of the owl and the howl of the wolf. But, even then, the sweeter songsters of the forest, such asthe mocking bird, the nightingale and the whip-poor-will, sang just as sweetly from our wild forest surroundings, as they do now from the fancy groves of our finest villas. The attempt to resurrect and place upon record the history of our pioneer fathers and mothers, has caused me to live much of my life over again. The scenes and associations of my youth have many of them been brought vividly before my mind, as in other years. The old fashioned log cabin with puncheon floor, clapboard door, wooden chimney, warmed by a massive log fire at one end, and lighted by oiled paper windows; the chimney corners hung full of jerk ;the rich, juicy, fresh venison, broiled on the end of a sharp stick; the noble wild turkey, roasted for Thanksgiving and Christmas; the occasional feast upon a fat coon or opossum ; the johnnycake, baked on a board; the rich and healthy coffee and tea, the product of the garden, the field and the forest, and made doubly palatable by rich cream and maple sugar. The pleasant social gathering of our fathers and mothers around the cheerful log fire, relating the incidents and anecdotes of their lives; the hilarity sometimes produced by the exhilerating effects of egg-nog or warm toddy; the happy associations of the young folks; the trippings to the charming notes of the violin; the cabin-raisings, the log-rollings, the corn-huskings, the wood-choppings, flax-pullings, the sentimental songs, the jumping, hopping, wrestling and foot-racing exercises of the young men ; the quilting parties of the ladies; the buzz of the spinning-wheel in the cabin ; the whack, whack of the flaxbreak at the barn ; the guns, the dogs and the chase, all, all of these have been brought freshly to our mind, and we are in a great degree permitted to live over again the happy days of our innocence and youth ; and that, too, with the most happy reminiscences of those youthful associations. But amidst these pleasant reflections there are some sad thoughts. These revered fathers and mothers have all passed away; more than half of our youthful associates are numbered among the dead, and those that are left have lost the vigor and elasticity of youth and are blossoming for the grave. The school children of to-day greet us as grandparents, and we, too, must soon be numbered with the dead."

It is pleasant to record the fact that Mr. Park is yet living in Marshall, Illinois.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.

ANCIENT WORKS-INDIANS-THE "SQUAWTOWN" TRAGEDY-TOPOGRAPHY-EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS-MR. CONARD--THE ROBINSONS-ISAAC VANOUSDALL - JACOB SPERRY-MRS. RACHEL PENN-FIRST WEDDING - FIRST SCHOOL: HOUSE AND SCHOOL-MASTER-A WOLF AND A BEAR STORY-MILLS- UTICA - ORGANIZATION OF TILE TOWNSHIP. ANTI FIRST OFFICERS-PIONEER MATTERSCHARAC1ER OF THE SETTLERS-CHURCHES.

THE Mound Builders left unmistakable evidence of their claim to be considered the pioneers of this township. There is a stone mound on an elevated point near the residence of Eli Smears, two miles south of Utica. It is seventy-five feet in circumference at the base and fourteen feet high. The base, to the height of six feet, is composed of earth, upon which is a layer of flat stone from two to twenty pounds in weight, which appear to have been gathered from the surface of the ground around the mound. This layer of stone is about eight feet thick, and over it is a thin layer of decayed vegetable matter. Upon the side of this mound stands a maple tree two feet in diameter.

Some years ago some person dug a hole from apex to base without making any other discovery than evidences of fire at various points; but a sub-

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 607

sequent party, beginning in this pit, about five feet below the surface, took out a few stones and exhumed portions of two skeletons, including portions of the skulls and teeth. These fragments were placed in possession of Dr. Rogers, of Utica

Southeast of this point, on the same ridge, is a small mound of similar construction; and a quarter of a mile further in the same direction, near the lake, is a common earth mound, originally twelve feet high, but now much reduced by cultivation.

On a direct line with the above works, in the edge of Burlington, stands the circular earthwork mentioned in the history of that township. It appears to belong to a chain of lookout posts, extending from the stone mound, which overlooks the broad valley of the Licking, to the great mound at Homer.

The Indians had generally moved further north and west when this township was first settled, and the pioneers made the acquaintance of but few of them. The general feeling between the whites and Indians at that time was one of peace, with an occasional exception among the pioneers of some who had suffered in the earlier Indian wars from their peculiar mode of warfare. There were a few whose deadly hatred could only leave them with their breath. To this cause may be attributed the tragedy of "Squawtown," two miles east of Utica, in which McLean, Hughes (not Elias), and others played a game of cards to decide who should shoot a certain squaw.*

The testimony in the court of justice pointed to McLean as the man who won the distinction. He was found guilty.and sentenced .to, two years in the State prison. The best authority claims that he was pardoned a short time before the expiration of his sentence and died soon after, others claiming that he died in prison. One more familiar with the family than any other living witness says he was pardoned, and before leaving prison an official said to him: "McLean, you claim to be innocent, tell .us who the guitly party is?" . His answer was: "I am innocent, but I have suffered; one is enough to suffer, and I decline to tell."

Topographically considered, the general surface is undulating; the southern boundary, except where

* Reference is made to this in the chapteron the early pioneers.

it is pierced by the broad valley of the Licking, may be considered abrupt, but there is very little of it too steep for cultivation. It is well watered by the North and Lake forks of the Licking, and the numerous rivulets that go to make up those streams.. There is a beautiful lake of clear water two miles south of Utica, near the bank of Lake fork, without an outlet; when full it covers nearly one hundred acres. A more particular reference to this lake will be found in the topographical chapter of this work.

On the highlands oak abounds, but the township has been favored with a great variety of timber. The broad, rich bottoms, as well as the adjoining table-lands, abound in walnut, sugar, beech, sycamore,- buckeye and other varieties of hard wood.

The soil, for all purposes, is hardly excelled in the county.

Exact and reliable data regarding the very first settlers of this township have been very difficult of access.

In September, 1805, Joseph Conard emigrated from Loudoun county, Virginia; and in the fall, of 1806 settled in the southern part of Knox county, Ohio, near the line of Washington township, Licking county. He returned to Virginia, married Jane Butcher, and returned -to his cabin home. In 1808 he purchased a farm in this township of Dr. Jonas Stanbery, upon which he resided until his death, which occurred February 12, 1873, at the age of nearly eighty-nine. If not the first settler he was among the first in the township. No claim appears that any one settled in the township before 1808. In 1809 Mr. Conard sunk some tan-vats near his house; and was connected with that business at that spot up to the date of his death. He was a member of the Methodist church sixty-seven years. The Indians, he said, were his friends. He obtained his most trusty rifle of an Indian named Tusco. He christened it Tusco, and it became his constant companion; furnishing not only his own family with meat, but often his less fortunate neighbors.

In one instance, knowing his minister's family to be out of meat, and meeting a favorable opportunity, he brought down a fine buck. This was on the Sabbath, and the next day half the carcass was sent to the minister, who, although he knew when

608 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

it was killed, the wants of a hungry family prompted him to call to mind the fact that the disciples plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath, and he waived a critical scrutiny of the means through which the blessing came. He saw the ribs of the supposed mastadon taken from Major Robinson's mill-race in 1811. They were three in number ,and six feet long. Mr. Conard, before his death, to the best of his memory, placed the early settlers of this township about as follows: John Lee came in 1808, and during the years 1808-9-10, John Moore, William Blackburn, Patrick Moore, Nathaniel Kirkpatrick, William Robertson, Abel Wilson, Phillip Smoots, John Haas, John McKnaughton and wife, and perhaps others, came. William Robertson and his brother James came to the present site of Utica in 1810. In 1808 William came to Zanesville, purchased three lots and erected the first shingle-roofed house in that town. In 1810 the two brothers purchased the ground upon which Utica now stands, erected a cabin and log mill upon the site of the present mill, the millwright work being done by that well known and somewhat eccentric Irish pioneer, James King. In January, 1813, William returned to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where he married in February, and he and his bride started on a bridal tour westward on horseback. They encountered swollen streams frequently, some of which they were compelled to cross in "dug-outs," swimming their horses behind the craft. They arrived at judge Wilson's, now East Newark, March 2d, and the ladies being acquainted, they remained over night and part of the following day, spending the following night with Moses Moore. On the morning of the fourth they set out for their home in the wilderness, swimming their horses across the streams that intervene. When they arrived in sight of their cabin the Licking was yet to be crossed, and in attempting this the lady's horse became entangled, either in flood-wood or floating ice, and in hi efforts to disengage himself, threw his fair rider off. Fortunately she landed in an eddy at the foot of the tail race, and seizing a root, held on until he husband landed and fished her out with a lon pole. What strength these pioneers must have had to endure a journey on horseback of three

* Canoe trade out of a log.

hundred miles through such a wilderness as then existed.

Isaac Vanousdall was among the earliest settlers in this section, but settled just over the line in Knox county; his history, however, is interwoven with that of the early pioneers of this township. He died February 28, 1873, in his eighty-sixth year.

Jacob Sperry first visited Utica (then Wilmington), in 1811. In 1813 he returned to Virginia and married, returning and settling here permanently in 1815. He and his wife both died in the same week, in July, 1873, at the age of eighty-four and eighty-two respectively.

Mrs. Rachel Penn, who died in September, 1874, came to this township in November, 1811. In the notice of the death of this lady the Pioneer Record says:

"She was, at the time of her death, the oldest member of the Methodist church, in Utica. She was born in Maryland, March 16, 1788, and had, therefore, reached the age of eighty-six years and six months. ;Mrs. Penn was the last survivor of twenty-five adult persons, who came to Ohio together from Maryland, sixty-three years ago."

Her brothers Erasmus and Lemuel Jones came in 1813. The house in which Airs. Penn lived until her death was erected in that year.

The first wedding in the township was, probably, that of Alban Warthen, and Elizabeth Vance, in

February, 1811; the second was, probably the double wedding of Joshua Berry and Mary Penn, and Elijah Ryan and Margaret Penn in 1812. John Conard was, probably, the first child born in the township.

The first cabin school-house was erected about 1814, on Major Robertson's land near the Kirkpatrick line. Matthew Jamison taught the first school, followed by James Kirkland, William Cunningham, William Derbin, and a Mr. Jewett.

Mr. C. B. Giffin, in his paper on this township, thus describes a log school-house and school of his acquaintance. He says:

"I can describe a school of the date of 1820 to 1830 so accurately that my friends, Robertson, Penn, Moore, and others. will imagine themselves boys again, sitting in the shape of a figure four upon a backless bench, made by inserting round dog-wood poles in the rough sides of sawed or split slabs. The writing desks were of the same material, supported by the inevitable dog-wood pegs in the wall; and above these desks a log was cut out and the leaves of last year's copy book, well greased with lard, placed over the aperture for the admission of

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 609

light and exclusion of cold; an old seven-plate stove, cast at the Mary Ann furnace, with its elaborate ornamentation in bass-relief on the side; and over all, as the presiding genius of this institution of learning, seated upon a rickety, spavined old split-bottom chair, leaning against the wall for support, place Matthew Jamison or James Kirkland, with spectacles elevated on the forehead and a hickory gad leaning against the right shoulder. He awakens from his after-dinner nap to find the school slightly turbulent, and exclaims, Boys, mind your books,' then relapses again into the land of dreams, and woe betide the unlucky wight who disturbed him before he has satisfied exhausted nature. If this picture does not fit your locality, you need not travel ten miles to find the original of the picture. It is only by occasional comparison of the past with the present that the present generation can appreciate their admirable opportunities. Look on the above picture and then visit your admirable union school, and you will bless the old fathers whose wisdom early devised and sustained a system of common schools .that has grown with our growth, until the humblest in the land can now get an education, where formerly it could be had only by the favored few, who had means to send their children abroad."

Some of the old settlers of this township have a memory well stocked with reminiscences of old times, and especially do they take pleasure in- relating hunting and trapping stories, in which pastime nearly all the pioneers largely indulged. The following specimens regarding a wolf hunt and a bear hunt may be interesting in this connection. they are thus related by a participant:

"Joseph Nichols came to Stephen Miles one morning before breakfast with the information that a number of sheep had been killed by wolves, and asked Mr. Miles and another neighbor John Nichols, to accompany him on a wolf hunt. They readily consented, and the trio set off with their guns and dogs to the rocky cliffs of Wakatomika, where the wolves were supposed to be hidding. After a search of some hours they discovered five young ones on a cliff, but could find no trace of the old one. They concluded to lay in wait for the sheep eaters, and accordingly arranged the following plan; Mr. John Nichols was to take one of the young wolves up on the cliff and pinch it so that its cries might attract the older ones around the. base of the cliff, and Messrs. Miles and Joseph Nichols were stationed on another cliff where they could get good range with their rifles. Their plan was working nicely, and the young wolf was making the forest ring with its silvery tones when Mr. Nichols made the unpleasant discovery that two large open mouthed wolves were bearing down upon him from the upper part of the cliff where they had been instead of in the valley below, as the hunters had supposed. Mr. Nichols quickly dropped his pet, and grasping his gun, unloaded it upon the foremost of his assailants, wounding it, but not fatally. They were gone in a moment, and could not be induced to return, although their howls during the night told the hunters that they were still in the neighborhood.

"Four of the young wolves were killed, and their scalps sold for five dollars each while the fifth was retained by Mr. John Nichols, and grew to be quite art interesting pet."

The following adventure with a bear comes from he same source

" While Stephen Miles and Adam Dush were strolling through he woods one day, their attention was called to a tree which hey thought, was a bee-tree, as it had been scratched by bean n the attempts of that animal, as they supposed, to get at the honey.

"This opportunity to supply their tables with honey could not be overlooked; an axe was procured, and while Mr. Dush began chopping at the roots of the tree, Mr. Miles was watching the supposed bee-hole the tree being very large and high. It proved to be a bear-tree instead of a bee-tree, and bruin seems always to thoroughly understand the nature of chopping atthe base of a tree in which he is located, and never waits to be violently thrown to the ground. Mr. Miles discovered a black bear rapidly descending the tree, and called to his companion to "look out." As it came down, Mr. Dash struck it with big axe, but it sprang away, and ran in the direction of Mr. Miles cabin, followed rapidly by the two hunters and the dog. As they ran past the cabin, a gun was procured, and the chase continued until, being worried by the dog, bruin climbed a tree. where he was shot by Mr. Dush just as he had reached the forks of the tree into which he settled, and from which he was dislodged by the use of a long pole.

"Mr. Dush was so overcome by his great exertions that he fainted, but was soon revived by his companion."

Many similar stories are related by the pioneers, with a sigh that those good, old days are gone forever.

The first saw-mill was erected by William and James Robertson, in the spring of 1811, near the present site of "saw-mill"; and in the fall of the same year a log grist-mill was erected, and during the winter James King, a pioneer millwright, put in the works. These mills, notwithstanding the unusual misfortune of the washing away of the dams, met the wants of the community until 1815, when the present large frame mill was erected, which was considered a triumph of mechanical skill. It was framed by a Mr. Keller, from Owl creek, and when ready for raising was really a great undertaking, as indeed was the case with every building erected in an early day. This is but a fair specimen of all the frame buildings erected in those times, for dwellings, barns, mills, etc, Without any ropes or tackle, or any of the modern appliances of- mechanics, these ponderous beams must be put in place by main strength It required the combined power of one hundred and twenty-five men to raise this mill; and the head mechanic, wisely concluding that extreme care was necessary to avoid accident, solemnly decreed that no whisky should be furnished, and with this

610 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

admirable precaution the work went smoothly forward to completion.

It was something of an undertaking, too, to feed these hundred and twenty-five hungry pioneers. An ox had been slain the day previous, and this was served in the shape of pot-pie, after being cooked in several large eighteen gallon kettles belonging to the lady of the house and her neighbors. Poultry was also abundant. By removing the cabin and mill doors, and making use of every available flat surface, a table supported on stakes driven into the ground, was provided, and upon this the feast was spread, and there was enough for all. That frame still stands. When the mill was ready for work, it furnished the first flour shipped by the Ohio canal.

Ten years later McNaughton's mill was erected, I and these two, with a saw-mill on Lake fork, were all the mills erected in the township.

Utica, the only village in the township, was laid out by Major Robertson in 18iS, and first called Wilmington. When they applied for a post office, about 1820, it became necessary to change the name, and Utica was adopted. Richard Lamson was the first postmaster. He was succeeded by General C. K. Warner, Jesse D. Arven, Edward Connelly, Clifford Elder, Michael Morris, George Smoots, William Cleermon and James Turner. The latter was appointed by President Filmore in 1852, and amid all the changes of parties, and the malignant feelings engendered by civil war, continued to discharge his duties to the satisfaction of all parties.

Richard Lamson, or "Esquire" Lamson as he was familiarly known, was an influential man in the new town. He opened the first hotel, and it was in his bar room that Mr. Messenger opened the first stock of dry goods ever brought to Utica.

This village has but one principal street, on either side of which nearly all the business of the place is transacted. There are two hotels, a dozen or more stores and shops, a bank, and the various trades and professions are well represented. The only railroad touching the town or township is the Baltimore & Ohio. The fire dcpartment of Utica was organized in August, 1880.

This township was organized in 1812. Richard Lamson was the first justice of the peace; William Robertson succeeded him in 1815. The township has furnished the following public officers: Robert B. Truman, representative; William Bell, jr., sheriff three terms; William Robertson, commissioner from 1817 to 1820, and Richard Lamson, from 1820 to 1827; William Bell, jr., auditor three terms.

Major Robertson was somewhat prominent among the pioneers. In addition to his civil offices, in which, as justice, he solemnized their marriages, and settled their disputes often without litigation, he, as a miller, furnished the staff of life, and when they died he made their coffins. Being naturally of a military turn he, at an early day, became major of a regiment that trained at Granville. On one occasion, after unavailing attempts to cross a swollen stream, being washed ashore on the same bank from which he started, he was court-martialed and fined fifty dollars. Being a man of spirit he resented it, and immediately organized a regiment at Utica.

Patrick Moore was among the first to bring dry goods to this market, and Mrs. Robertson immediately patronized him by buying a calico dress at ninety cents per yard.

Elias Hughes, the first settler of this county was, for some years before his death, a resident of Utica, living with his son Jonathan. He died in Utica in 1844, at the age of ninety years, as nearly as could be ascertained. Jonathan is yet living at the age of eighty-four, and is emphatically the pioneer of the county. He is remembered as the salt-sack boy of 1798, an account of which is given in another chapter.

Most of those who settled around Utica during the earlier years of its history, had either emigrated from the north of Ireland, or were the descendants of those who had emigrated from that country.

They were of Scotch-Irish descent. The term Scotch-Irish is applied to those whose forefathers resided in Scotland, but adopted Ireland as a place of residence, or emigrated to Ireland during some period of their history. The term designates a people who loved liberty and hated tyranny; who had been trained by trials, and made resolute by oppression, who feared God, and were governed by His word; who were staid, stable, and of a somewhat stern cast of Christian character. To this people

HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 611

and to people of this character is America largely indebted for civil liberty, and the present character of its free institutions. High historical authority (Bancroft) says: "The first public voice in America for dissolving all connection with Great Britain, came not from the Puritans of New England, the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians."

The Methodists were probably the first to organize a church in this township, but its earlier history is involved in obscurity, as will be observed. The occasional preaching of Father Emmet, who was the first, or among the first to hold religious services in the township, resulted in the organization of a society in 1810, under authority of the conference, by Rev. J. B. Finley, also a pioneer preacher, and one of considerable note.

The society was composed of Rev. Caleb Pumphery, John Green and James Smith, local preachers, Jacob Hanger and Abram Kearns, class leaders, and thirty members. In the following year Rev. Elisha Bowman was sent from Kentucky to preach for them, and under his pastoral charge the society became divided on what was considered by. the church authorities a new departure on the doctrine of the Trinity, and schism and discord followed, interfering with the prospects of the infant society.

In 1812, Rev. Mr. Ellis became pastor and attempted to amicably arrange the differences between the two factions, but found it such a difficult matter that he concluded to take a new start. He therefore destroyed the class-books, records and papers, and called upon all who wished to be Methodists to come forward and join the church. Success, at-. tended his labors. He was succeeded by Revs. Samuel Knox, Jacob Hooper, Samuel Hamilton, Joseph Carper, Thomas Carr, Mr. Laen and Elnathan Raymond, in about the order named.

This congregation yet mantains a flourishing church and Sabbath-school in Utica.

The Presbyterian church, of Utica, was organized October 5, 1818, and Rev. James Cunningham was its first pastor. The original members were the following: Mrs. McCreary, James Chambers and wife, John Dixon, Rebecca Dixon, William and Mary Forsyth, Samuel and Isabell Shields, James Coulter, Cornelius Larue, Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Cunningham, William Curningham, Thomas and Joseph Scott and their wives, John and Mrs. Ross; Joseph, John, David, Patrick, and two Mrs. Moores, Jeremiah and Mrs. Belt; Mrs. Woodrow, and John and Mrs. Connar.

The five elders chosen at the organization were Patrick Moore, John Moore, Joseph and Thomas Scott and John Ross.

Mr. Cunningham continued to supply the church about ten years, in connection with the church at Mary Ann. He was succeeded by Rev. Henry Hervey, D. D., who preached first in Utica on the fourth Sabbath of June, 1829. He was a graduate of Jefferson college, and supplied the church at Utica five years, or until 1834, after which time his pastoral labors were confined to Martinsburg. During the time of his ministry in Utica, the church building, a frame structure that had stood several years not plastered, and otherwise unfinished, was furnished with seats and a pulpit. During the same period, a Sabbath-school was organized through the instrumentality of Mr. L. W. Knowlton.

Rev. John Pitkin supplied the church about one year and a half after Dr. Hervey discontinued his regular ministrations here. He was succeeded for one year by Rev. Joseph Wiley. Rev. William Woods was the next supply. His term of ministerial service was brief, as he died after residing in the community about eight months. From 1839 to 1850, Rev. Isaac N. Shepherd was the pastor. Under his ministry the church increased considerably in numbers. A new church building was erected in 1847-8 the one now occupied. Rev. J. M. Dinsmore was pastor. from 1851 to 1854; Rev. Lemuel P. Bates from 1855 to 1858; Rev: 14. Armstrong for six months from October, 1858; he was followed in 1861 by Rev. C. B.. Downs and others.

The following persons have been elders in this church: Patrick and John Moore, Joseph and Thomas Scott, John Ross, Allen Robinson, James Moore, David Gates, Robert Henderson, L. B. Stevens, Jacob Knisely, L. W. Knowlton, Dr. Joseph Rogers and J. C. Hemler. A Sabbath-school has been in existence nearly fifty years.

The Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter was one of the earliest societies formed in the township. About 1809 James Dunlap and family,

612 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.

Robert Kirkpatrick and his two sons, Nathaniel and Peter; Joseph Fulton, John McNaughton, Lemuel Kirkland, Joseph Campbell, John Campbell, Samuel Duffield, and Joseph Jamison, the last seven with their families, settled here and formed themselves into a society for social worship. Rev. John Kell occasionally preached, and perhaps one or two others. In 1813 the church was regularly organized by the election and ordination of James Dunlap and Nathaniel Kirkpatrick ruling elders, who held the first meeting at the house of Robert Kirkpatrick, April 5, 1814.

Rev. Robert Wallace, a licentiate, was called, ordained and settled over the congregation, numbering thirty-five or forty members, in the fall of 1814. Mr. Wallace remained seven years and nine months, receiving considerable accessions to the church. In 1822 William Mitchell, afterwards representative in the legislature, was elected and ordained an elder. From 1822 to 1837 the church was without a regular pastor, relying upon supplies. As yet they had no house of worship, and held their meetings in a tent on a hill east of town, near the residence of J. M. Kirkpatrick. In 183o a church edifice was erected, the house and lot costing seven hundred and fifty dollars. During the period of fifteen years, when the society was without a regular pastor, forty were added to the church, and Messrs. John McDaniel and Peter Kirkpatrick were added to the eldership.

In 1837 Rev. A. McFarland became pastor and remained until 1853. During this period one hundred were added to the church, and John Day, Hugh Harvey, William Adams, and James Harvey were among the elders. For three years the church was without a pastor, Rev. J. C. Boyd being installed in 1856. On the third Sabbath in October, 1864, the congregation worshiped for the first time in their new church, which cost three thousand six hundred dollars.

A flourishing Sabbath-school is connected with this church.

The society has always been anti-slavery; has witnessed the fruition of its hopes, and rejoices in prayers answered.

A Baptist church stands on Lost run in this township, near the line of Newton. It was first organized in Newton township, at an early period, and a church edifice was erected in St. Louisville. This, in 1849, was sold to the Christian church. Rev. John Fry was one of its early-time preachers. The church is built of logs, and the society was never large.

The Christian Church, although not strictly a pioneer organization, dates its incipient beginnings back to the days of the schism in the Methodist church.

In 1835 an Episcopal organization was effected in Utica, by Rev. M. T. C. Wing, one of the professors of Kenyon college. Its history is a short one and soon told. It did not live more than three or four years. During this period it enjoyed the ministrations, with more or less prosperity, of Revs. M. T. C. Wing, S. A. Bronson (now of Mansfield), H. Dyer, N. Badger, James Bonnar, and M. K. Cushman; all of whom resided in Gambier, a distance of twelve miles, being connected with the college there. During the year 1837, when the parish was at its greatest prosperity, with a communion of twenty-one members, a commodious and convenient frame church was erected and finished. Under a combination of depressing circumstances, however, it was not long used as a place of worship. Influential members of the small parish moving away, and the remainder being discouraged from further effort, and unable to lift the heavy mortgage on the building, it was sold, and is now used as a store or dwelling. The parish was never resuscitated.