550 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION 1821, died in Jackson, September 18, 1882. He was first lieutenant of Company K of the Ninety-first Regiment and was dangerously wounded at Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864. He was elected auditor of Jackson County after his return from the war. Rev. Lysander May, of the Protestant Methodist Church, located in Jackson and died there in his old age. CRIMES AGAINST HUMAN LIFE Gilbert Bennett, who died at South Webster, in Scioto County, was a salt boiler at the Licks from 1807 to 1809, and often spoke of the "ruffianism" that then prevailed at this place.. Some of the young men were in the habit of compelling persons whom they disliked to take their own household goods out of doors and burn them. Two of these desperadoes notified a negro then residing at the Licks, that he must burn his goods by a certain time. They came on at the time named and the negro killed one of them. The Licks were then in Ross County and the negro was taken to Chillicothe for trial, where he was acquitted. He was the first Jackson County man tried for murder. Another negro who had killed a white man at the Licks some years before 1809, was lynched the same day by the salt boilers, and he was the first man executed in the county for murder. Several murders had been committed before that and no one had been punished. The majority of the names have been lost, but there is a tradition that a jack Brandon murdered a man named Fitzgerald in 1803, and a man named Squires was murdered by Pleasant Webb about the same year. Webb was a notorious character, said to have been a Tory during the Revolution. After his crime the salt boilers drove him from the Licks. There was much lawlessness at the Licks until the county government was organized in 1816, and then peace and order began to hold sway. There were occasional affrays during the next thirty years, but no tradition of am. actual murder has come down. Feeling ran high at elections and the court records conceal the stories of several riots at polling places, but differences were usually settled with fists. The riot at the Madison town house at the presidential election in 1844 was more serious, and Peter Hutchinson 'stabbed Hickman Powers, slashing him until his entrails were exposed. Dr. Gabriel McNeal arrived one his way to visit a patient in the neighborhood shortly after the cutting affray and saved Powers'. life by his cleansing and sewing of the slashed parts-. A big lawsuit followed after Powers recovered, and he secured $500 in damages March 13, 1846. After the railroad and the furnaces came murder came again 'and many homicides have occurred since. William McDonald and Levi Canter were murdered at Monroe, October 13, 1854. James Guthrie was murdered at Mabee, February 26, 1855. Frederick Aul was murdered at Oak Hill; December 31, 1855. James Carroll was murdered near Clay by Isaac Hochter in July, 1858. Then came the killing of Jackson McCoy in the fall of 1858, for which several persons were arrested. A HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 551 few weeks later an inoffensive negro named Ben Wilson was killed. by Addison Keenan near Berlin, in October, 1858. Daniel Winchell was murdered in February, 1860, and his son, nephew and son-in-law were found guilty and sentenced to the penitentiary. On September. 6, 1864, Thomas Hanselwood was murdered at Clay by a man named Zorn, one of three of the same name. They escaped and no one was punished. In 1867 James Currier, Louis Currier and Charles Currier were sentenced to seven, five and three years, respectively, in the Ohio Penitentiary, for killing one John Rawlins, of Washington Township. Several homicides occurred in .the next decade like that of Fagan killed by Partlow at Monroe, and Shockey killed in self defense by Parks in Jackson Township, and that of James Brady, shot in Jackson, December 5, 1880, by a man named Peter Becker, while intoxicated. Then came the atrocious murder of Samuel L. Hull, an old and respected citizen of Lick Township, near Jackson, on Saturday, September 30, 1882. A young man named John W. Jackson, who had worked for him several months before, assaulted him at an . ore bank where Hull had gone, for the purpose of robbery, striking him on the head. The blow caused an injury which resulted in Hull's death Monday, October 4, 1882. Jackson was arrested and convicted, and his hanging occurred May 11, 1883. Before that occurred a still more atrocious crime had been committed Saturday night, April 28, 1883. A poor farmer named Anderson Lackey, living between Camba and Clay, in Franklin Township, was murdered by Luke and William Jones, two brothers, with one Laban Stephens as their accomplice and abettor. Stephens was an ore digger working for Gilbert Lackey, brother of Anderson Lackey, and living .not far away. He learned that the sick soldier had sold his horse to get money to supply his immediate wants, and Stephens went to Coalton to tell the Jones .brothers that the money was in Lackey's house. The robbery was then planned.. Lackey jumped out of his bed when the Joneses entered his house and both shot him, and he died in a few minutes in front of his own hearth. The murderers escaped, but Stephens was arrested in Coalton and the Jones brothers in. Kentucky, and by May. 3d the three were in jail in time to be cognizant of all the preparations for Jackson's execution eight days later. The trial of Luke Jones was held first. It began July 9th and the verdict was guilty. The trial of William Jones began July 16th and the verdict was guilty. Stephens was not finally convicted until the next year, and only after a change of venue to Pike County, and then came his. execution. In the meantime, January 23, 1884, the Jones brothers broke jail and escaped a distance of about a mile, but a crowd of people pursued them with the officers, William Du Hadway shot Luke Jones, and the men surrendered and were brought back to jail, and they were hanged, Friday, February 29, 1884. These men were the last hanged in Jackson County.. Later Hon. R. H. Jones, while a member of the Ohio House, secured the enactment of a law providing that all executions in Ohio should occur at the penitentiary at Columbus. The rope used by Sheriff William B. Cherrington in 552 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION hanging Jackson and the Jones brothers was taken by him to Columbus and used at all the executions while he was warden of the penitentiary. Jackson County was comparatively free• from homicides for twenty years after the hanging of the murderers of Anderson Lackey, and then there followed a series of the kind of homicides that have occurred all over the country, but none of such atrocity as to arouse the public as in 1883. Perhaps the people have become accustomed' to murders, for in 1913, when eight or nine homicides were committed in the county, there was no excitement whatever, although in one instance a man killed two neighbor women. EARLY SCHOOLS, EDUCATORS AND LEGISLATION Public education was neglected in the early history of Jackson County. Only a few families had books, and the only children taught to read were those of parents who could teach them. The first effort at schooling other children was made by the small Methodist class organized at the Licks as the result of the camp meeting held in 1801, and this was a Sunday class with George L. Crookham, the only man that had brought books with him to the Licks, as the teacher. Reading was the only thing taught. The great majority of the salt boilers at that time were single men, and there were but few children in the settlement. Some years later, after a number of families had come to the Licks and children multiplied, Crookham consented to teach them in the homes during the winter months when he Was not otherwise employed. Some young women whose names have been lost taught a few children during the summer when all the men were engaged elsewhere. Such was the origin of the schools of Jackson. The first building used for a school was an abandoned shanty which was torn down when the Town of Jackson was laid out in 1817. Houses with more than one room began to be built after that date and schooling in private homes could be conducted more successfully, but in the early '20s a small house was set aside for that purpose. About the same time a school was started in the Paine neighborhood in Milton Township, and another in Bloomfield Township by a man named Stephenson, who was lame. A school had been started at Oak Hill, or rather near Samsonville, by an old man named Parks Dear in 1819. This was a Baptist school and the conflict then raging between the Baptists led by Levi McDaniel and the Methodists led by Gabriel McNeal led .the latter to organize a school in Northeastern Jefferson, which he taught himself a part of the time. A sixth school was organized a year or two later where Middleton is now. All these were volunteer schools. The houses built were small huts costing little, and outside of Jackson not one of them had any iron or glass in them. The teachers were boarded by the patrons, and paid only a few dollars. With the exception of Crookham all were men of meager attainments, either old men or lame who could not work nor hunt. Visiting preachers gave them a little coaching and brought in a few books. In 1826 Samuel T. Vinton secured the passage of 'a special act in HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 553 Congress authorizing the sale of the school lands of Ohio, where the sixteenth section in each township had been set aside for school purposes. The Ohio act providing for this sale was enacted in 1827, and a small fund. was then secured for the establishment of public schools. The early records of the townships are almost silent regarding schools, but the Jefferson Record shows that there were three districts in 1827, No. 1, known as .the Arthur District with, twenty-five families, No. 2 with eighteen families and No. 3 with thirteen families. The schoolhouse in District No. 1 was built on the land of Benjamin Arthur, and a Sunday school was organized in it soon afterward. It may be noted that the Sunday school assisted materially in teaching the children to read. The Sunday school of Vincent Southand, organized in the courthouse at Jackson, was the first of any importance in the county. Julius Bingham organized an open air Sunday school at Oak Hill in 1832. The Welsh organized a Sunday school at Moriah in 1835, where the children were taught to read Welsh. This was the first foreign language taught in the county., In 1837 there began the third period in the history of Jackson County schools, when the Legislature increased the school tax from the lower rate of the past decade to 11/2 mills. This led to the organization of new districts and the building of new houses in the old districts, where the original 'shanties were rotting down. In Jefferson Township the new church built by the Welsh at Horeb was used as a schoolhouse in the winter of 1839, with Davis Mackley as teacher. He had taught one year before that and was a type of the second generation of teachers. He taught from 1837 to 1854. The older teachers, like James McDaniel, John McKensie, Parks Shumatellis C. Milner, John Shuniate, John belly, Doctor Mussett, John Stephenson, Thomas Vaughn, Jacob Delay, had passed away or were becoming too frail. Crookham taught until the '50s, but after examiners were appointed in 1853 he taught only in private houses. Some of the teachers before 1853 had been away to college at Athens. Perhaps the ablest who had taught before that year in Jackson were Felix Ellison, Morris Gilmore, J. W. Longbon, who came here in 1847. The people of Jackson had finally determined to build a schoolhouse, and a small brick building which was regarded as pretentious for their days was built in 1847 on Bridge Street. From that year the Jackson public schools began to improve. This improvement was accelerated by the competition of teachers who conducted private schools, such as Mrs. E. E. Ford, Moses Gilmore and others. EDUCATION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1853 The fourth period in the history of education in Jackson County was inaugurated in 1853 under the new constitution. Better provision was made for the building and maintenance of schools and higher qualifications were required in teachers. J. W. Longbon, a professional teacher, was made one of the examiners in 1853 with R. P. Hoffman and Levi Dungan, and all the incompetent teachers were weeded out. Young 554 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION college students like William Henson began to teach. Also a young Welshman named John. J. Morgan secured a certificate. His example fired many. other Welshmen, who furnish so many of the teachers and clergymen in England, and many qualified themselves to teach, so that in a. few years these young foreigners .were teaching in more than one-third of the schools of the county and becoming leaders of thought. The new law regarding union schools appealed to citizens of Jackson and they built a new schoolhouse on Broadway, which was a fine structure for those days.. The competition of private schools continued, however, for several years, Morris Gilmore, W. C. Draher, S. H. Hurst and others teaching schools in the churches down to the end of the war period. PERSONNEL OF THE EDUCATORS The union school grew in importance, however under the superintendency of J. W. Longbon, the father of the school system of today in the county, and his successors, J. R. Percy, A. H. Windsor, C. S. Smart, who was afterward Ohio school commissioner, C. P. Taylor, J. M. Yarmell, Moses J. Morgan, Samuel Peden, -William D. Lash, who went from Jackson to Zanesville, where he was superintendent of schools until his death a few years ago, J. Allison and James E. Kinnison, the present incumbent, who has served the schools for almost a generation. Many young men of marked ability have served as principals of the schools, among them W. A. Longbon, son of J. W. Longbon, and Morris A. Henson, who in 1914 was chosen superintendent of the schools under the control of the county board. This board, elected in 1914, consists of five members : President, Jehiel Haley ; vice president, J. E. Camink; J. A. Bond, M. A. Harper and William E., Johnson. The board elected Henson superintendent,, and hiS four district suphisntendents are E. V. Springer; superintendent of the Coalton schools, with forty- teachers; HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 555 E. T. Davis, with twenty-eight teachers ; J*. E. Newell; with thirty-one teachers, and L. F. Chalfant, with thirty-six teachers under him. He is also superintendent of the Oak Hill schools, with Miss Minnie Smith as his principal. There are now 125 district teachers, in addition to the teachers in the two cities of Jackson and Wellston. The number of rural teachers is less than in years past, because of the rural exodus and the further reason that many districts now have their children hauled to an adjoining school. Three teachers have been dispensed with in Franklin. Centralization will doubtless wipe out many more districts in the near future. The first school board of Wellston was elected April 2, 1877, and the 'members were George Rees, Michael O'Rourke, Harvey Williams, J. E. Ferree, W. B. Lewis and George White. They elected James M. Lively, who afterward became sheriff, for the first superintendent. Others have been. J. W: Delay, J. E. Kinnison, G. W. Fry, J. H. .Ray, G. M. Powell. The most 'notable has been T. S. Hogan, who afterward was elected attorney-general of Ohio. The teachers' examiners have played an important part in the history of the county's schools, and several of them were men of great influence. J. W. Longbon has been named; George W. Harbarger, who served for many years, was another, and a third was Stephen Morgan. While he was examiner he also conducted an first at Oak Hill and later at Jackson, where teachers and prospective teachers were trained during a spring term after the close of the winter schools, and .that training resulted in great good to the schools. Morgan finally retired from the school room and served' three terms in Congress. No one has appeared to take his place in conducting a county normal. The members of the board when the new school code, went into effect were J. E. Kinnison, Oscar A. Clarke and A. R Sheward. Supt. M. A. Hurson took Clarke's place ex-officio. PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM AFFECTED BY SUNDAY SCHOOL The Sunday school has played an important part in the school system of Jackson County in the past sixty years. This is due probably to the system introduced by the Welsh settlers. Wales had its Sunday schools a century or more before the days of Robert Raikes ; schools established not only for Bible study, but for its study in Welsh, the native language. Not only were the schools intended for children and infants, but the. old attended as well, as they do to this day. When the Welsh Sunday schools were established in Jackson County they were community schools, as far as. Welsh were concerned, and the entire family attended, from the stooping, trembling gray grandsire to the .infant in arms, and the school taught spelling, reading and all the sciences, insofar as they dealt with the Bible and the Jews. The school session lasted two hours, and there was much hard preparation for them during the:. week. Quarterly days were set aside for general exercises when competitive reading, speaking, penmanship exercises, essay writing and other literary exercises, not omitting part and choral singing, occupied three long sessions, morning, 556 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION afternoon and night, with the Welsh as the only language used, except in translations. The result was that all the young people grew up bilinguists, which is an education in itself. It has been observed in European countries that the population along the borderlands of countries become bilinguists, and other things being equal, they manifest more mental vigor than those not thus equipped. The example of the fifteen to twenty Welsh Sunday schools naturally influenced neighboring schools and increased their adult membership. About 1870 a Sunday school union was formed in the county which held annual celebrations at the county seat and acquainted the officials of English Sunday schools still more with the Welsh system. In later years the association was officered by Welshmen for several consecutive terms, and the schools of the county have benefited thereby. The graduates of the Welsh Sunday schools have gone out into the world as teachers and ministers, or have won positions and honor in other lines of life to a degree that foreigners have not been. able to attain in any other part of the United States. And all these men who have succeeded in the professions and in business give full credit to the Welsh Sunday school system in vogue in Jackson County. Horeb, Moriah and Oak Hill have been the leaders throughout the years. The quarterly jubilee, already described, led to the establishment of an interschool literary meeting in 1863, which was continued annually for more than a generation, in which the victors in local school contests competed for county honors after the manner of Eisteddfodic contests among the Welsh in their native land. These meetings also benefited the cause of education in the county. FIRST WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION A woman's suffrage association, the first in the county, was organized at Jackson, April 9, 1870, with thirty-two signers, viz. : Miss Lucy Ferree, T. P. Sutherland, Mark Steinberger, Hugh Montgomery, Davis Mackley, William Vaughn, John H. Mackley, William Spurrier, Charles Rhodes, Miss Sallie Matthews, Miss M. Monahan, Miss Kate Monahan, B. F. Smith, Mrs. Kate Smith, Mrs. Maggie Caldwell, Maj. R. W. Caldwell, Charles Walden, John T. Hall, Johnson Wade, Mrs. Fannie C. Matthews, V. H. Benton, S. J. Long, J. W. Longbon, Miss Emma Ford, Mrs. Eliza Ruf, Mrs. Phoebe Miller, Mrs. Mary Robbins, Mrs. Eliza Mackley, John J. C. Evans, Mrs. John J. C. Evans, Miss Ione Matthews, J. W. Ricker. Dr. A. B. Monahan was elected president ; Mrs. Davis Mackley, vice president ; Miss Lucy Ferree, recording secretary ; Volney H. Benton, corresponding secretary ; Hugh Montgomery, treasurer ; Mesdames T. S. Matthews, 0. S. Miller, Alanson Robbins, Miss Ione Matthews and Davis Mackley on executive committee. This organization was effected after an address delivered by a visitor named Miss Bates. TEMPERANCE CRUSADE Many of the women in this organization had participated in the woman's raid, January 21; 1864, which cleaned up the town temporarily, HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 557 when so much ruffianism had given it a reputation worse than some of the mining camps of the West. The Standard's account of that raid follows : ANOTHER RAID IN JACKSON "On last Thursday morning at the ringing of the school house bell at nine o'clock about forty women assembled at the Market house (in the public square) no doubt in pursuance of a previous arrangement. They were divested of their hoops and some of them were armed with axes and some with hatchets. They declared that their purpose was to dry up the liquor shops in Jackson and put a stop to billiard playing. They called upon all the liquor sellers, and they all agreed to dispose of their liquors and send off their tables within five days with the exception of two or three in the vicinity of the depot. The women did not destroy any liquor, but they declare that they will carry out their purpose, etc. A number of prosecutions for violating liquor laws followed." The Welsh settlers of the county came mostly from the rural sections of *Wales, where total abstinence societies secured many adherents in the early '30s, and the result was that .perhaps a majority of the Welsh voters in the county for many years were total abstainers. When state laws permitted they voted townships and municipalities dry. Finally, in 1908, the Rose Law was enacted permitting county option. A petition was circulated at once and the election was held October 29, 1.908. The result was a victory for the drys by a majority of 1,676, and a month later, all the saloons were closed. Bootlegging began soon afterward, and many prosecutions have occurred, The Rose Law has been nullified in part by the shipping in of liquor by the instituting of .”Keg Parties," which have been declared legal by the attorney-general, and by the sale of liquor by cripples who can neither be punished nor imprisoned for any length of time under the present laws. The wet amendment of 1914 readmitted saloons April 1, 1915. POLITICS AND POLITICIANS The naturalization of Welsh voters and the building of the furnaces which turned men's minds favorably toward protection swept the republicans into power in the late '50s, and the majority of the officials since have been republicans. E. Edwards, a Welshman, who had been elected commissioner in 1846, was elected again in 1858 as a republican ; J. A. Sell in 1859 ; Joseph Rule in 1860, and this made the board solidly republican. W. S. Schellenger succeeded Edwards. T. L. Hughes came after Rule ; Sell served three terms and was followed by Ephraim Plummer, Adam Lackey, Vinton Powers, a democrat, who was succeeded by Samuel Gilliand, G. W. Brown, Van B. Johnson, Abraham Johnson, a democrat, John S. McGhee, Pleasant Springer, John Williams, John E. Jones, Stephen M. Tripp, Joseph Dickson, J. H. Harshbarger, W. W. White, David D. Edwards, C. C. McKinniss, a democrat, Hiram D. West, 558 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION C. W. Haslett, J. E. Camink, a democrat C. A. Arthur, Rees D. Thomas, G. W. Poore, W. E. McCoy, Jacob Rapp, H. D. Jones, George J. Reiniger and John F. Fought have been the commissioners to date. Tje last two named are democrats and this was the first time since the '50s for their party to control the board. The board elected in 1914 are R. D. Jones, Ed. J. Jones and A. J. Dutull. The. auditors since the republicans came in have been W. N. Burke, J. Edward Jones, B. Kahn, a democrat, Samuel Baker, L. A. Atkinson, J. R. Booth, a democrat elected twice, T. W. Patterson, B. B. Evans, G. J. Reiniger, a democrat, William Schellenger, 0. P. Schellenger, W. J. Shumate and W. E. Fite, a democrat elected twice. Charles Steele is the auditor elect. The treasurers have been T., B. Dickason, A. W. Long, D. W. Cherrington, A. Kirkendall, J. R. Hunter, Milton C. Keenan, G. J. Reiniger, a democrat, Lot Davies, Charles Smith, Hiram Stephenson, A. Skinner, George Pugh, D. C. Parry and E. W. Davies; J. M. Martin is treasurer elect. The first republican Probate judge was George W. Johnson, elected in 1864. He had been a democrat before the war. His successors have been J. W. Longbon, John J. C. Evans, H. C. Miller, J. W. Laird, R. U. Wilson, C. C. McCormick, Benner Jones and Frank Delay, a descendant of Rev. Jacob Delay, the pioneer. COUNTY OFFICIALS SINCE THE WAR The first republican sheriff was William D. Trago. John M. Jones, a democrat, came next; then J. H. Wilson, JohMde, R. W. Huffman, John 1VIM. Ewing, E. T. Jones, a democrat, W. B. Cherrington, J. M. Lively, I. C. Long, Grif S. Morgan, A. F. Drake, T. W. SteeDan Dppointed, Morgan Evans, Dan.D. Evans, E. D. Kelly and W. L. Turner, .a democrat. Jesse Bales is the present incumbent, with Isaac Crabtree as deputy. The clerks of courts have been J. E. Ferrer, elected in 1860 ; C. C. James, J. D. Mitchell, W. H. Horton, Frank Crummit, T. J. Williams, G. E. Morgan, E. T. Evans, T. C. Davis, W. E. Davis. The clerk elect is Glen Roush, who had been deputy for about eleven years. The recorders have been John M. Martin in 1861, Charles Rhodes, T. J. Edwards, Asa A. Farrar, E. H. Lewis, E. B. Thompson, J. J. Burnett, Williaprosecutorsn W. Morgan, Abe prosecutors H. Darling. The prosecutors have been Davis Mackley, Isaac Roberts, James Tripp, John C. Stevenson, a democrat, W. K. Hastings, J. L. Jones, C. A. Atkinson, E. C. Powell, J. W. Higgins, A. E. Jacobs, E. E. Eubanks,. D. H. Armstrong and C. H. Jones, son of Capt. R. g. Jones. The surveyors have been B. Keenan, Parker Smiih, a democrat, John D. Brown, Evan C. Jones, H. E. Hunt, J. W. Turner, Ed Monahan and A. E. Campbell, who is serving his third term. STATE REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS The representatives of the county since it became a single district have been Isaac Roberts ; James Tripp, who had the bill passed to build HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 559 a new courthouse ; Levi Dungan, a democrat, who served one term ; Dr. William S. Williams, who died in office March 6, 1871; T. Lloyd Hughes; Bernard Kahn, a democrat, who served one term ; T. J. Harrison ; Dr. A. B. Monahan,, who died in office ; James B. Paine ; R. H. Jones ; Dr. B. F. Kitchen ; Samuel Llewelyn ; M. T. Vanpelt ; Lot Davies ; Gomer C. Evans ; Dr. J. 0. Hawkins; George Woodrow ; Frank Lambert, and Dr. W. S. Hoy. Hon. H. S. Bundy was the first senator elected in this district by the , republicans, and Jackson County has had four senators since that date, I. T. Monahan and Irvine Dungan, democrats; Elias Crandall and Dan W. Williams, republicans. Dr. I. T. Monahan was the senator from the district when his brother, Dr.. A. B. Monahan, was representative from the county, the first a democrat and the other a republican. CONGRESSMEN The county has furnished three congressmen and four presidential electors. John L. Jones was the youngest member of the electoral college of which Ben Wade was the oldest member. COMMON PLEAS JUDGES Four men from the county have been elected Common Pleas judges in the district, W. K. Hastings, Porter DuHadway, James Tripp and James M. Tripp. The last two were father and son. Thomas A. Jones served parts of three terms on the circuit bench and was elected Supreme judge in 1914. Three. Jackson County men have been wardens of the Ohio Penitentiary, W. B. Cherrington, C. C. James and Orrin B. Gould ; George B. Harrison has been chief mine inspector ; Daniel W. Williams was consul to Cardiff, Wales, from 1905 to 1907, resigning on account of his mother's fatal illness. Timothy S. Hogan was elected attorney-general in 1910 and re-elected in 1912. In 1914 he was a candidate for United States senator and was victorious at the democratic primary but lost the election. Horace L. Chapman was the democratic candidate for governor in 1907 against Asa Bushnell but was defeated. Like many of the Hill counties of Ohio, especially those in the Southern Reserve, as it is called in the big bend of the 'Ohio, the people take an unusual interest in politics, and many Jackson people have succeeded in securing important offices in other counties and other states. T. B. Dickason, who was treasurer in Jackson when the Morgan raid occurred, went to Kansas, where he won political recognition ; James Herbert has been a judge in Colorado; David Davis a Common Pleas judge in Cincinnati ; E. W. Smith is now sheriff of Scioto County ; G. W. C. Perry was three times postmaster of Chillicothe ; Josephus Horton a commissioner in Kansas ; Perry Powers in state offices in Michigan, and a list of more than a hundred could be added of men who have held various offices elsewhere, so that one may look for a Jackson County man abroad in the vicinity of some good public office. 560 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION PROMINENT FAMILIES OF THE COUNTY A feature of the social life of the county that cannot be overlooked is the fact that the population, notwithstanding their constant movement, is made up largely of a few families, or stocks, such as the Altons, Armstrongs, Aldridges, Arthurs, Browns, Canters, Cherringtons, Crab-trees, Claars, Cochrans, Davis, Dever, Edwards, Evans, Grahams, Gillilands, Gahms, Hales, Johnsons, Jones, McClures, McKinnisses, Morgans, Poores, Smiths, Stephensons, Scurlocks, and about a score of others as numerous. These comprise perhaps one-half of the entire population of the county. Of these the Cherringtons were the first to organize to hold annual reunions. This family was founded in America by a Clement Cherrington, born in England in 1702, doubtless a scion of the old stock at Charington, where Charing Cross was erected. He came to this country about 1750. The members of the family in Jackson County are largely descendants of his soh, William, born in Pennsylvania, April 19, 1755. The first Cherrington to settle in Jackson County was William. H., son of Thomas and grandson of this William I. They now number hundreds and their annual gatherings are usually too large for the average public hall, and are held in some grove. Sheriff W. B. Cherrington has been one of the leaders of the organization in the county for many years. Many of the stock bear other names on account of intermarriage, but they retain many racial characteristics, even to color of eyes and hair and facial contour. They have been a sturdy stock. The McKinniss family is another that holds annual reunions, and this tribe is nearly as large as that of the Cherringtons. Charles C. McKinniss, once a county commissioner, is a leader. A branch of this family has settled in Indiana and they have multiplied there. Edward, Lewis and Thomas Crabtree settled in this county in 1812, and descendants hold annual reunions on the farm of Engelo Crabtree in Scioto Township. It has representatives in many counties in Southern .Ohio and in many states. It has produced ministers and teachers. This fact is often ignored because one or two of the family had misfortunes in the primitive days, when an appeal to personal prowess was the conventional mode of settling disputes and difficulties. Crabtrees have always been loyal. An enumeration of the names of men of prom inence in these Jackson County clans would fill pages. Oddly enough foreign elements, like the Edwards, Davis and Gahm families, have multiplied like the original stocks of Virginians and Kentuckians until Madison is recognized as the home of the Edwards family; Scioto of the Gahms, etc. Members of the Davis family have been popular as office seekers, and a remarkable number of them and their relations by marriage have been successful before the people. Of the pioneers John James had the greatest number of notable grandsons, who were factors in the life of Jackson from 1860 to 1880, but none bearing his name now survive in JaJackson HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 561 THE SECRET ORDERS The Masonic Order is the oldest in the county. The first steps looking to a local organization were taken in 1844, when Asa R. Cassidy of. Jackson Township, James H. C. Miller of Rocky Hill, William Trago, Ripley C. Hoffman, Alexander Miller, Elias Long, Thompson Leach and W. Williams Mather met in a room in the hotel of A. French on Main Street in Jackson. Asa R. Cassidy was made chairman and Alexander Miller secretary. In due time the dispensation was received, October 24, 1844, and the Jackson Masons organized as Amity Lodge, but in October, 1853, the name was changed to Trowel. About three years later, on November 25, 1856, Trowel Chapter No. 70 was dedicated, and on November 2, ,1893, Jackson Commandery No. 53, Knights Templar, was established in Jackson. A three-story temple for the use of the Masonic bodies was erected on Pearl Street in 1891. The first step to organize a lodge of Odd Fellows in Jackson was taken December 31, 1868, when a call was published in the Jackson papers signed by Smith Townsley, Eli Aten, J. H.., Titus, C. K. Crumit, 4. Varian and L. C. Rockwell for a meeting to be held in the Herald office at 7 P. M., January 5, 1869. A lodge was instituted June 10, 1869, and named Salt Lick Lodge No. 417, I. 0. 0. F. The charter members were L. C. Rockwell, J. F. Cook, James Titus, George Stuart, C. K. Crumit, D. H. Varian, Eli Aten and Barney O'Connor: The Oak Hill Lodge No. 585 was instituted July 16, 1874 ; Ellsworth Lodge No. 661; October 27, 1876, and the 'Wellston Lodge in July, 1882. Other orders have organized with many lodges, a list of which alone would occupy much space. The Knights of Pythias are strong, the lodge elf Elks in Jackson dispenses much charity, and there are lodges of Eagles, Owls and Woodmen. Perhaps the Improved Order of Red Men claims the largest enrollment, with lodges at Jackson, Coalton, Wellston, Ray, Limerick, Oak Hill, Mabee and Eifort. 'Beaver has enrolled a number of Jackson County citizens. The Knights of Labor at one time included many miners in• the ranks, but the organization has passed out of existence, and the last hall owned by them was bought by Poplar Grove Grange of Glen Roy in March, 1915. The miners are today affili ated with the United Mine Workers of America, with locals at nearly all the mines. Shortly after the war the order of Good. Templars, a temperance organization, established branches at nearly every village and hamlet in the county, and in several rural churches, but the order passed away in a little while. It has been claimed that lodges of the Knights of the Golden Circle were organized in the county during the war to resist the draft, but almost the memory of such an organization has been forgotten. Two or three divisions of boy scouts were organized about 1910, but they have been disbanded, with one exception. The growing •order in the county now is the Grange, and in a few years it will be undoubtedly the strongest in the county, although there was a time when it was frowned upon by the political leaders. There .are now some thirteen granges in the county. Vol. 1-36 562 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT SINCE THE '80s The rapid development of the Jackson County coal field during the '80s brought flush' times which culminated about 1892. There was a healthy growth in Jackson. The Commercial Bank, the third institu tion of the kind, was established, an index of the town's prosperity. The large new church of the Methodist Episcopal' denomination was started the same year, and in that period there were many business houses erected, and many fine residences built. But the growth in the coal OHIO STREET LOOKING SOUTH, WELLSTON field from Jackson. to Wellston was on a much larger scale, until Wellston passed the county seat in the matter of population. Then came the hard times of 1893 to 1896, but Harvey Wells was untiring, and even in that, period he secured the extension of the Hocking Valley through Wellston to Jackson. Although, not so intended this resulted in the end in giving the advantage of position to Jackson, for it, was the terminus, of the extension. Thus Wells' last act helped to arrest the growth of the town which he had founded. He died not ,long after-. ward. About the same time there was a. man in Jackson, Hon. Edwin Jones, who became its Wells, and, gathering together a band of business men, wonders were accomplished for the county seat. ,A foundry. was brought from. Marietta and the foundations laid for the Crown Pipe & Foundry Co.. Smaller industries, including a woolen mill, .a glass fac-. tory, a shoe finishing branch, and, greatest of all, the shops of the D. T. & I. Railroad were located in Jackson. Before this Jones had shown his, great faith in the town's future by building the Cambrian,, a modern hotel, large enough, for a town of 15,000 people. Many new houses were built, the boundaries of the town were extended, and notwithstanding various handicaps, Jackson seemed destined to become a great inland town, and then came the panic of 1907. Before this, viz., on August 6, 1906, Moses Morgan, John F. Morgan, HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 563 David D. Davis, John J. Thomas and Henry H. Hossman had secured the incorporation of the Jackson Iron & Steel Co. for the purpose of building a new furnace. The construction began November 12, 1906, and the -plant was completed early in 1908. It went into blast October 6, 1908, and is known locally as Jisco Furnace. It was built on Givens Run, about a mile 'west of Jackson, near the mine located on the Hun-: singer Farm. The product of this furnace is 'high silicon foundry generally known as "silvery," for which Jackson has become famous in the iron world, since its furnaces began utilizing the hill top silicon. 'ore. This furnace also produces Bessemer Ferro-Silicon, and its two grades of iron are shipped .throughout the United States,' Canada and Mexico. The furnace equipment has been improved by the installation of steel bins and a skip hoist in the filling system in 1914. The furnace is now in the fourth blast, having been blown in January 27, 1915. The present officers are Simon Labold, of Portsmouth, president ; David D. Davis, of Oak Hill, vice president, and John F. Morgan, secretary and treasurer. The furnace and mines give employment to about 125 men. This, the twenty-third experiment in furnace building in this county, is now an assured success. Of the furnaces built in the county, Jackson, Keystone, Buckeye, Cornelia, Latrobe, Cambria, Limestone, Madison, Young America, Diamond, Orange, Globe, Huron, Tropic, Ophir, Monroe and Eliza failed or were dismantled for some cause or other, and there remain only Jefferson, Star, Fulton (now called Globe), Milton, Wellston and Jisco. One in Jefferson Township using the red ore, three in Jackson using the hill top silicon ore, and two in Wellston dependent chiefly on imported ore. Jefferson uses charcoal for fuel. It has passed out of the hands of the original company, but its successors are relatives of some of the original stockholders. The sons of Samuel Brown, L. V. Brown and C. 0. Brown, are still the leaders in Star, and the grandsons of Thomas T. Jones are leaders in the Globe Iron Company, operating Fulton Furnace. The history of the iron industry in this county is like that of gold mining in the West. The greater part of the money invested in the business was lost, and many partnerships and individuals were involved in the bankruptcies of some of the earliest furnaces, including the banking institutions of those days in Jackson. The industry is now on a firm foundation and is Jackson's mainstay after more than sixty years of fluctuations. The. town now has a fourth banking institution. The Citizens Savings & Trust Co. was established July 5, 1905, and when better times dawn Jackson has capital enough of its own to take advantage of the turn of the tide. Conditions in Wellston are not as favorable, but better days may come for it. It has a strong banking institution, The First National Bank, and many loyal business men. Oak Hill is an industrial center whose future is assured, for its clay deposits are almost inexhaustible. Already the Cambria Clay Product Co., which preserves the name of Cambria Furnace, but which has its plant in Lawrence County, began making tile in January, 1915, and other lines of manufacturing 564 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION will doubtless be entered. Coalton, the other village in the county. having been almost altogether dependent on the coal industry, is losing ground. The Village of Berlin, which had been incorporated for several years, voted to surrender the privileges after the county voted dry in 1902. The population of Jackson, which was only 136 in 1830, is now 5,468 ; Wellston leads it with 6,875 according to the census of 1910 ; Oak Hill comes third with 1,148, and Coalton fourth with 1,111. The population of the county in 1910 was 30,719, a loss of several thousand compared with 1900, due chiefly to the departure of many coal miners. The present depression in the county has arrested in a measure the rural exodus, and the population is not decreasing in 1915. PART V VINTON COUNTY CHAPTER I PIONEER EVENTS AND PEOPLE PIONEER INDUSTRIAL LIFE-LEVI KELSEY AND "A MR. MUSSELMAN NATURE'S INVITATIONS-THOSE WHO RESPONDED- ELK TOWNSHIP FORMED FROM ALEXANDER-MRS. BOTH WELL'S REMINISCENCES- BEFORE THE EARLY '20s-WILKESVILLE FOUNDED-HENRY DUC AND OTHERS-METHODIST PIONEERS-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF WILKESVILLE-WILKESVILLE SCHOOL SOLD. MILLS-CLINTON TOWNSHIP SETTLED-MCARTHUR FOUNDED-OLDEST CHURCH IN THE COUNTY--FIRST SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS-MCARTHUR POSTOFFICE-GEORGE W. S HOCKEY ON EARLY TIMES-EARLY COMERS TO VINTON TOWNSHIP-SWAN TOWNSHIP-JACKSON TOWNSHIP-EAGLE TOWNSHIP—RICHLAND TOWNSHIP-ALLENSVILLE- BROWN, MADISON AND KNOX -ZALESKI AND NEW PLYMOUTH-THE FOSTER AND BOLEN MILLLS For more than forty-five years before Vinton County was created politically, and while its present territory was still parceled out among Athens, Gallia, Jackson, Hocking and Ross counties, its pioneers were making their homes in what are now Elk, Clinton and Wilkesville townships, in its southeastern section. McArthur, Hamden, Wilkesville and the other centers of population,- which are now .most in evidence, were the first communities to assume leadership. PIONEER INDUSTRIAL LIFE The early settlers appear to have adopted a number of occupations to support themselves and their families. Most of them made burr stones for flour mills, there being several quite valuable deposits of that mineral in the vicinity of what is now McArthur. The soil was good and readily responded to cultivation which was even only moderately skillful, so that the forefathers and mothers of the county managed to raise the needful grain and vegetables; little mills for the grinding of household supplies and feed for, the livestock were soon busy, as well as another type of industry not. so desirable. But drinking of liquor, especially by the heads of households, was quite the rule in those days, and several distilleries appeared in' Southeastern Vinton County only a few years after its settlement. Still later the coal and iron deposits of the Valley of Raccoon Creek attracted a considerable immigration to an area even further north, and the half a dozen furnaces which were founded. - 567 - 568 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION in Vinton County increased her industrial prosperity and her population for many years. There is therefore a clear dividing line in the history of Vinton County, which has determined the scope of this chapter—that is the period covered by the early settlements of the territory which was organized into a county in 1850. In that year came the county organization and the fixing of McArthur as its seat of justice, and soon afterward CHARLES B. TAYLOR the founding of the iron industries which were active. for many years. Consequently, any happenings previous to 1850 may appropriately be termed. pioneer. LEVI KELSEY AND " A MR. MUSSELMAN " Little is known of the first settler in Elk Township and the county—Levi Kelsey, who located his homestead in 1802 ; but, although more is known of the second adventurer into 'its territory, only his family name has come down to us. The early settlers always speak of him as "a Mr. Musselman," but give him credit for discovering the first burr-stone quarry in the county. He located in 1805 ; was a miller by trade and somewhat of 'a geologist ; which accounts for his discovery. Mr. Mussel-man started the first quarry in 1806, and not a' few of the pioneers in other townships along Raccoon Creek followed his example. HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 569 NATURE'S INVITATIONS With the exception of Swan Township, which it fully equals, Elk is probably the best agricultural district in the county. The valleys are fertile, being rich in an alluvial soil. It is abundantly watered by Little Raccoon Creek, Elk Fork and Puncheon Fork, the last named just touching the Village of McArthur. Thus Nature invited man to that locality through many promises of the comforts and pleasures of life ; and her invitation was accepted. THOSE WHO RESPONDED Isaac Phillips, came in 1806 and John Phillips in 1807. A Mr. Cassill located about the same time on section 26, and the death of his child, Sarah, was the first in the township. Levi Johnson became a settler in 1811; built the first horse-mill and the first still-house and, as the pioneer justice of the peace, performed the first marriage. In the same year the list of Elk Township settlers was increased by the addition of the names of the brothers, Jacob and Paul Shry, who located claims on section 28: ELK TOWNSHIP FORMED FROM ALEXANDER Until March 7, 1811, there was no Elk Township even by name, but on that date the commissioners of Athens County made the following order: "Ordered, that all that part of Alexander' township lying west of the 15th range, being townships 10 and 11, range 17, and townships And 10, range 16, be erected into a new township by the name of Elk." For nearly forty years Elk Township retained her original size, which was more than one-third the present county, but when Vinton County was created in 1850 it became Congressional Township No. 11, range No. 17, bounded on the north by Swan, east by Madison, south by Clinton and west by Richland and part of Jackson townships. MRS. BOTHWELL'S REMINISCENCES In 1814 the Bothwell family settled near the present site of McArthur, and in 1874, when Mrs. Charlotte E. Bothwell, the mother of the family, was eighty-six years of age, she wrote about her experiences of those early times in the following interesting vein :\ "McArthur, Ohio, July 5, 1874.—It is just sixty years this day since my husband and myself, with two children, started to move to Ohio. We had been married four years, and living at Silveysport, Md., where we had moved from Fayette County, Pa., where I was born, Jan. 22, 1788. I was twenty-six years of age ; my husband was twenty-nine. We hired a man with a wagon to move us to Geneva, a town on the Monongahela River, about thirty miles, where we intended to go on a flatboat. This was before the discovery of steam-power. When we got 570 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION there the river was so low the boats could not run. We waited ten days, but the water was still getting lower, and my husband bought a large pirogue and put our movables in it, and hired a man for a pilot at $2 per day. My husband's brother came with us. We started on Thursday. We were not two hours on the water till both the children were very sick with vomiting. We stayed the first night in Brownsville ; Saturday we got to Pittsburg, about an hour before sun-down. As the children were very sick we intended to stop with a family of old friends by the name of Brison. My husband and the other men went up into town, and left me alone with the children. "We remained in Pittsburg till Wednesday, when, the children being much better, we started again. As soon as we were on the water the children got worse. We arrived at Marietta on Saturday. The young- OLD COVERED BRIDGE est child was very sick. My husband had a sister with her family that lived there. This sister was the grandmother of President Scott, of the Ohio University, at Athens. We stayed there till Wednesday, when we started again. On Monday morning we arrived at Gallipolis. There came up a very great storm, and I took my children and hurried up in town. The first house I came to was a bakery. I went in, sat down with my children, called for a pint of beer and six cakes. I did not want them, but I wanted an excuse to stay. In the afternoon it cleared off, and my sister's husband, Isaac Pierson, came with his wagon to move us to our journey's end. They put our movables in the wagon, and, we stayed' that night at the tavern. Tuesday morning we started ; Thursday morning we took breakfast where the town of Jackson now. stands. It was then a salt-works, .a number of rough, scattering cabins and long rows of kettles of boiling salt water. It was nine miles to Mr. Paine's ; that was the first house after we left the salt-works. About the middle of the day it commenced raining very hard and rained all that day ; everything was soaked with water. My youngest child lay in my arms HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 571 wet and cold, and looked more like it was dead than alive. Several times we stopped the wagon to examine the child to see if it was dead. But we had to go on ; there was no house to stop at till .we got to Mr. Paine's. It was more than an hour after dark when we got there, wet, cold, and still raining. We found Mrs. Paine one of the best and kindest of women. If we had got to mother's or sister's we could not have been more kindly treated. After breakfast, on the next morning, we started and got to, my brother-in-law's the evening of the 5th of August, where, .four days afterwards, our child died. "We were just thirty-two days on the way. The weather was pleasant enough until we got to Gallipolis. From there here the weather and the roads were very bad—the bad roads of to-day bearing no comparison to them. In point of fact, there were no roads, but mere paths, and the men compelled to cut out roads with axes, and drive along side-hills, where it was all the men could do to keep the wagon from upsetting. "My husband had been here the spring previous, entered 160 acres of land—being the farm now owned by David Bay—and reared the walls of a cabin upon, it. When we got here it had neither floor, door, window, chimney nor roof. My husband hired two men to make clapboards to cover it and puncheons for a floor, we remaining with my brother-in-law until this was done. We then moved into our new house, to finish it up at our leisure. Isaac Pierson then `scutched' down the logs, my husband chincked it, and I daubed up the cracks with clay. There was no plank to be had, the nearest saw-mill being Dixon's, on Salt Creek, twenty miles away, and I hung up a table-cloth to close the hole left for the window, and a bed-quilt for a door. The back wall of *a fireplace occupied nearly one whole side of the house, but the chimney was not built on it, and when the wind blew, the smoke in the house would almost drive me out. We lived in this way five months. I was not used to backwood's life, and the howling of the wolves, with nothing but a suspended bed-quilt for a door, coupled with the other discomforts of border life, made me wish many a time that I was back at my good old home. "On, the 14th day of January, 1815, the chimney was built ; my husband had got, some plank and a sash, and made the door and the window. The hinges and latches were of wood. Our cabin was the only one in the whole country around that had a glass window. On the. same day, while the men were working at the house, I finished a suit of wedding clothes for David Johnson, father of George and Benjamin Johnson, who still live here. I had the suit all done but a black satin vest when he came. I didn't know it was a wedding suit, and tried to put him off, but he would not be put off.' The next day my third child, Catharine, who is the widow of Joseph Foster; and lives near Sharonville, Ohio, was born. "My husband was a cabinet-maker and a painter, but bedsteads and chairs and painting were not in use here at that day, and his business was confined to making spinning-wheels and reels. He did not get his 572 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION shop up until the first day of May. He had first started out here the previous May, and not worked any for a year, and consequently\ our little accumulated earnings were all spent. However, we were now comfortably fixed. I had got some pipe clay and white-washed the inside of the cabin, and some of our neighbors regarded us as very rich and very aristocratic—thought we put on too much style for this country ! I had learned the tailoring business, and found plenty of work at it. There was not much money in the settlement, and I was more frequently paid in work than cash ; but we wanted our farm cleared up, and therefore needed work. It cost us about $10 an acre to clear the land, besides the fencing. Lands all belonged to the Government and could be entered in quarter sections, or 160 acres, at $2 per acre, to be paid in four annual payments of $80. "When we first came here there were perhaps fifty families in and around this settlement, most of them quarrying and making millstones. There was no person making a business of farming. All had their patches of garden, but making millstones was the principal business. Isaac Pierson, the father of Sarah Pierson, of Chillicothe, had the most extensive quarry." FIRST THINGS AND EVENTS The first marriage in Elk Township was that of Abraham Cassill to a young lady living with Mr. Jacob Shry, who came from Virginia.’Squire Levi Johnson was the officiating person. This was in 1813. The first horse-mill in Elk Township was erected by Levi Johnson. The first death was a child, Sarah Cassill. The first preaching in the township was by Rev. Jacob Hooper. The first white settler in Vinton County was Levi Kelsy, who came in 1801. The first cemetery was called Calvin's Graveyard. The first church was one built of logs and was used as such. for about twenty-five years. SCHOOLS The first schoolhouse was on section 16, in the year 1820. It was a subscription schoolhouse, being built by Levi Kelsy and others. William Clark, a son-in-law of Mr. Kelsy, taught the first school. The following year another log schoolhouse was erected on section 12, in which Mr. Clark again taught during the winter of 1821-22. A United Brethren Church was organized in 1843 with the following constituent members : George Speed and wife, Nathan Robinett and wife, David Markwood and wife, Isaac Wescoat and wife, Charles Dowd and wife, Mr. Sherril and wife, John Bullard and wife, William Swaim and wife, Lewis Blackman and wife,. William Matthews, Joseph Cayler, Sabina Fry and Tena Fry. HANGING ROCK IRON REGION - 573 OLDEST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH The Wilkesville Church was organized with seven members, two men and five women : John Strong, Henry Le Duc, Lucy Le Duc, Mary Le Duc, Betsey Davis, Sadai Strong, and Mabel Strong. Mr. Le Due and Mr. Strong were ordained elders. Some facts concerning these original members ought to be preserved. Henry Le Due was the founder of the Town of Wilkesville. Coming here as the agent of Mr. Wilkes he laid out the town on the 10th day of June, 1810. He built the brick house afterward occupied by James Lyons about the year 1816 and in that house Mr. Gould preached the first Presbyterian sermon and there the church was organized. He Americanized his own name, signing it, "Henry Duc," but his children resumed the French prefix. In the old graveyard on the hill his epitaph may still be read on the crumbling stone : To the Memory of HENRY DUC Who departed this life June 27, 1827, aged 64 years. He was born in France, came to America an officer in the French fleet, was the founder of this town and endeared to all his acquaintances. He is now "where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The church was irregularly supplied by Mr. Gould; Rev. Augustus Pomeroy and others, until 1832. The first church building, the old one on the hill, was erected in 1828, and the first child baptized in it was Quincy Adams Davis. In 1832 Rev. Hiram R. Howe began his labors at Wilkesville, and in 1836, while still in charge, organized the church at Jackson. He retired from the pastorate in 1837 and was succeeded by Rev. Ellery Bascom in 1839. In 1850 Mr. Howe returned to the field and remained two years. Rev. Thomas Welch held the pastorate from 1855 to 1863 and Rev. Warren Taylor from 1865 to 1876. Largely through his influence and labors Wilkesville Academy was built in 1866. In 1874 a more commodious church was built by the Presbyterians, but both church and parsonage were destroyed by fire in 1888. In the meantime Rev. John Noble, Rev. J. P. A. Dickey, Rev. T. F. Boyd and others had succeeded Mr. Taylor as pastors, and in 1895 Rev. Charles B. Taylor, Ph. D., one of the three sons of Rev. Warren Taylor who had gone forth from the Wilkesville Church and entered the ministry, assumed the charge which' his father had so long and faithfully held. Rev. Warren Taylor died in 1890. Both father and son were soldiers in the Union army. 574 - HANGING ROCK IRON REGION Doctor Taylor continued to preach to societies both at Wilkesville and McArthur for about ten years. At present, on account of advancing age, he confines his labors to the county seat. In 1866 he married Bettie R. Davis, whose family comprised some of the founders of the Wilkesville Church, and of their nine children five are either engaged in or preparing for missionary, ministerial or teaching work. Rev. Charles Le Due, a son of the 'founder of Wilkesville, was the first child baptized after the organization of the church at Wilkesville. He graduated at Lane Seminary in 1852, preached and founded a seminary at Hastings, Minnesota, where he died in 1860. This somewhat extended notice of the Wilkesville Presbyterian Church is given because it was one of the first religious bodies founded in Vinton County, and few in Southern Ohio, in the days of its best strength, exerted a broader or more lasting influence. WILKESVILLE SCHOOLS The first school in Wilkesville was taught by Mrs. Crooker, in 1818. A schoolhouse was built where the present one stands about 1833. Miss Isham, sister of Doctor Isham, first taught in it. Besides the public schools there were occasional select schools. Maj. J. C. H. Cobb taught an excellent school for some two years, and Mrs. E. D. Shaw also taught for a time. Just after the close of the war Rev. Warren Taylor taught a select school in the Presbyterian Church. A. number of returned soldiers attended. In the spring of 1866, at a .meeting of a few leading citizens, called by Rev. W. Taylor, the building of Wilkesville Academy was determined upon. The money was nearly all raised in the vicinity. This school was of great benefit to Wilkesville, attracting students from abroad and furnished the surrounding country with some excellent corn-. mon-school teachers. The academy is now merged with the. Wilkesville High School, which has recently received its charter as a first class high school, Prof. W. H. Durkee being the principal. Wilkesville was incorporated in August, 1881, but for the past twenty-five or thirty years has declined in population from about three hundred to two hundred. OLD MILLS In the northern part of Wilkesville Township, near Hawk's Station of the present, was built one of the first mills of the county—Hartley 's. It was built on Raccoon Creek, probably as early as 1825, by one Houdasheldt, who, after operating it for twenty years, sold it to Benjamin Hawk. The Quinn Mill, near what is now Minerton, is nearly as old as Hartley's. Among the early settlers in the vicinity of Hartley's Mill were Peter Starr, a relative of Houdasheldt, who accompanied him to the locality ; Isaac Hawk and his son, Benjamin Hawk,