EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IS GOOD We have the word of Ohio's board of public instruction that Coshocton County's public schools are making good progress. In the board's latest report readers are reminded that in Ohio's hilly counties, with their many unimproved roads, the work of getting away from the old one-room school buildings is necessarily slow but the board places Coshocton County among others which are going forward under difficult circumstances. According to the reports referred to there were 112 one-room schools in the county in 1914 and these were reduced to 99 in 1924. The report for the school year of 1924-5 recorded 10 consolidated schools. For the latest school year reported the county's public schools had a grand total of receipts (including balance) amounting to $587,188.96 and of expenditures amounting to $491,821.22. The county's total school enrollment had reached 4,404 ; number of men teachers, 82 ; of women, 102. The names of the Coshocton city school buildings are : Central High, Chestnut Street, Sycamore Street, Bancroft, Lincoln and South Lawn. Professor A. C. Pence is superintendent of the city schools and the city board of education consists of Edgar Marshall, Lester Page, A. P. Stewart, Charles E. Cooper and Ida M. Miller, clerk. Professor Henry B. Pigman is superintendent of the rural schools and the members of the county board of education are G. C. Speckman, T. K. Finlay, Fred Sharpless and H. C. Miller. In the Sacred Heart parochial grade and high school of Coshoc-ton city there were 180 pupils and five teachers according to the last report by the state board of public instruction. BRIEF REFERENCE TO BEGINNINGS Without entering into details regarding the earliest schools it may be said that school districts were not fully arranged for 226 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO until 1821. In the county seat there was a 20x20 brick school-house in the southwest corner of the public square in 1828. Among. the early teachers were Noah H. Swayne, who became a justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1876 ; Charles Elliott, who became a famous' Methodist Episcopal minister, and William B. Hubbard. Between 1830 and 1850 district schoolhouses multiplied but as late as 1838 geography was the highest study in some of these schools. Between 1840 and 1850 a number of private schools came into existence. A great step forward was made in 1849 when graded schools were established in the Town of Coshocton and a board of education was chosen. Scholars were taught in a little frame building and in the basements of the Methodist Episcopal and Second Presbyterian churches. TWO NEW BRICK SCHOOLHOUSES In 1855 the city built a two-story brick schoolhouse. Its di-mensions were 30x80 feet and it cost $4,500. It was located on the square at the north end of the town, the land having been given for the purpose by the owner. By 1871 the town's growth called for more educational facilities and the board of education pro-vided them by erecting a two-story brick on the Dunmead and Taylor lots in John Burt's subdivision. In 1876 an imposing three-story front was added to the house on the Burt tract, at a cost of $10,885. Roscoe's first schoolhouse was voted for March 15, 1851. In 1873 West Lafayette built a two-story brick schoolhouse and Jacobsport did the same that year. Warsaw had erected a good schoolhouse two years earlier. Keene and East Union in 1876 each had good two-story buildings and New Castle had also built a schoolhouse. PROGRESS IN ROAD BUILDING The county has done especially well in constructing traffic-bound county roads, of which it has about 300 miles. Its next best work has been done on hard surfaced state roads, of which there are 45.6 miles. The traffic-bound state roads have a total of 36.4 miles while there are but 3.6 miles of hard surfaced county roadi. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 227 OVER 2,000 TELEPHONE STATIONS BEING SERVED The record is a good one. The first switchboard was installed December 10, 1894. The original subscribers numbered approximately 37. On August 28, 1896, the Citizens Exchange began operations. The first toll lines built by the Citizens Telephone Company were completed in 1897 and its first rural lines were completed in 1899. The Central Union Telephone Company's first rural lines were built in 1900. FOUR U. S. REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE COUNTY Four Coshocton County citizens have served the Coshocton County district in the nation's House of Representatives. David Spangler was a member of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses; John Johnson of the Thirty-second Congress; Joseph Burns of the Thirty-fifth ; John W. Cassingham of the Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth. LIST OF THE COUNTY OFFICIALS Board of Commissioners—Val. Fortune, President, R. J. Burrell, Steve H. Davis. Auditor—Chas. M. Dawson. Treasurer—C. S. Underwood. Judge of Common Pleas Court—J. C. Daugherty. Judge of Probate Court—L. N. Staats. Clerk of Courts—W. M. Hagans. Recorder—Chas. E. Royer. Surveyor—W. F. Park. Sheriff—H. M. Marquand. Prosecuting Attorney—C. O. Turner. Coroner—Dr. Samuel D. Cohen. Probation Officer—Geo. Hagans. Supt. of County Home—Geo. Conley. CHAPTER CVIII THE CITY OF COSHOCTON FROM 1802 TO 1927 EARLY GROWTH WAS SLOW WITH BUT A SCORE OF RUDE HOUSES IN 1811-SMALL SOAP FACTORY AND A BREWERY BUILT IN THE EARLY FIFTIES AND IRON WORKS IN 1871-ELECTRICITY SUCCEEDED GAS IN 1888 AND ELEVEN YEARS LATER STREET PAVING BEGAN-BEACH AND MEEK LAUNCH ADVERTISING NOVELTIES -THEIR INDUSTRIES BECAME THE GERM OF COSHOCTON'S PRESENT PROSPERITY-NOVELTY PROD-UCTS SHIPPED TO MANY FOREIGN LANDS - MERCANTILE PROGRESS FOLLOWS IN FOOTSTEPS OF INDUSTRY-CITY'S FUTURE ASSURED-CHURCHES, CLUBS AND OFFICIALS LISTED. As is stated in an earlier chapter, Ebenezer Buckingham and John Mathews, who afterwards settled permanently in Zanesville and became prominent there, bought from Elijah Backus, of Marietta in 1801, 4,000 acres of land located at the forks of the Muskingum which he had acquired from the general government. Buckingham and Mathews laid the spot out as a town (on paper) in 1802. The early growth of the little settlement was slow. One his-torian says that in 1811 but a score or so of rude houses were there. But the incoming. of settlers which began with the dawn of the nineteenth century was accelerated in 1814 when, the War of 1812 having. ceased, the pioneers felt that Indian hostilities need no longer be dreaded in the Muskingum valley. With peace came men whose handiwork and enterprise helped the Village of Coshocton to grow, to be self-sustaining.. For instance Adam Wisecarver was a hatter ; John Crowley, who came in 1815, was a carpenter; Richard Stafford was a wagon maker, who with John Dames had come from Virginia ; a blacksmith, Albert Torry, came from far-off Maine; James Renfew, Sr., opened a store in 1816; another hatter, Samuel Burns, arrived from Philadelphia. Early merchants were Benjamin Ricketts and Robert Hay. These and their contemporaries replenished their stocks with merchandise bought in the main at Pittsburgh and shipped by boat down the Ohio and up the Muskingum. - 229 - 230 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO EARLY GROWTH WAS SLUGGISH The county seat's growth continued to lag for many years, as did its industries. A small soap factory was established in 1850 and the first brewery was opened about 1852 (a second one followed in 1866). A paper mill went into operation in 1863, and a planing mill in 1869. In 1871 the Coshocton Iron and Steel Company was founded which by 1876 employed about one hundred men and boys. The Coshocton Gas Works went into operation about 1873 or 1874. H. N. Shaw & Co. were making boots and shoes in 1875. In 1888 a forward step was taken when electricity superseded gas for street lighting and in 1899 street paving and sewer build-ing began. In that year also a board of trade was formed, the country districts were connected with each other and with the county seat by telephone and rural free delivery was initiated. By 1907 ten miles of brick paving had been laid and the manufacture of advertising novelties was firmly established. PUBLISHER HAD A HAPPY THOUGHT H. D. Beach had originated this industry in a small way in 1888 as a Coshocton newspaper publisher, his original idea being to give his job-printing plant more to do. J. W. Meek, a rival publisher, followed suit and in 1896 Beach launched his big Standard plant. In 1901 Beach and Meek joined their forces and later Beach withdrew and built another plant. In 1907 the Times said of Coshocton that it had sixteen churches, five school buildings (Sycamore Street, Walnut Street, Bancroft, South Lawn and Chestnut) the best county fair in Ohio, a public library, good stores, miscellaneous industries and three large companies manufacturing advertising novelties, the Meek Company, H. D. Beach Company and the Novelty Advertising Company, and it said of this particular form of activity that the beginning of Coshocton's progress from a village to a city "came with the founding of the advertising novelty business." THE MANUFACTORIES OF 1909 In that year, Bahmer, the historian, said of industrial Coshoc-ton : "Today Coshocton is a city of advertising, the metal sign industry having sent the city's name over the world. The first of these metal signs came from the presses of H. D. Beach and SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 233 represents the important outgrowth of the novelty—advertising industry developed from the printing of burlap school bags and yardsticks by J. F. Meek in the days when Will Shaw showed the way to possibilities in this business. With its advertising institu-tions, its glass works, its pottery, paper mill, brick works, axle and machine shop, printing houses, corrugated paper plants, glove factory, piano works, furniture factory, foundry, packing plant, carriage shop, enameling plant, planing mills and retail establishments of the finest, Coshocton compels attention among industrial centers of Ohio. Lots were sold last year to bring the Clow Pipe Works to this city. When this plant is erected it is expected to employ more than a thousand men." PROGRESS ALL ALONG THE LINE Natural gas was piped to the city in 1902. The city-owned plant of the well system was pumping water to the top of Reservoir Hill in East Coshocton, whose basin had a capacity of 324,000 gallons. The city had a public library which cost $15,000 and was the gift of Andrew Carnegie. Churches and schools and larger and better stores were numerous and flourishing. Continuing the story of Coshocton's forward movement, we copy a list of the city's industries which the Times-Age printed August 10, 1914 : American Art Works. J. B. Clow & Sons. H. D. Beach Company. Beach Leather Company. Coshocton Brick Company. Coshocton Glass Company. Coshocton Glove Company. Coshocton Light & Heating Company. Coshocton Provision Company. Coshocton Straw Paper Company. Hanley Milling Company. Houston Hay Axle Company. Hunt-Crawford Company. Keagy & Lear Machine Company. Marshall Manufacturing Company. Novelty Advertising Company. Pope-Gosser China Company. 234 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO The Edgar McDonald Company. J. R. Stewart Carriage Company. Horn Steel Fence Company. W. H. King. Foundry. C. H. Leavengood. Coshocton Lumber Company. The Elliott Ice Company. Wehrle Machine Company. Felumlee & Milligan. Coshocton Bottling. Works. Compton-Price Piano Company. City Bakery. Elder Baking Company. Bon-Ton Bakery. J. L. Dickerson, Ice Cream. The Centennial Bottling Works. Timmons Glove Company. People's Ice Company. Carl J. Cheney, Cigar Manufacturer. Mike Abdoo, Ice Cream. The S. & M. Tire & Rubber Company. O. S. Bowen, Monuments. Buckeye Planing Mill. Marshall Manufacturing. Company. Gleason Lumber Company. Beach Enamel Company. The Coshocton Art Leather Company. ADVERTISING NOVELTY INDUSTRIES Thirteen years have passed since those forty-four Coshocton industries were listed, and here we submit a list of those in operation at the close of 1927. The new record does not indicate a great gain in number, but there has been a very great increase in the magnitude of Coshocton's splendid industries. The list begins with the following advertising novelty industries : American Art Works, first of its kind established by J. F. Meek (The Tuscora Advertising Company) and H. D. Beach (The Standard Advertising. Company) and now said to be the third largest in the world. The H. D. Beach Company (general line). SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 235 The Beach Leather Company (leather novelties). The Beach Enameling Company (enameled signs). The Novelty Advertising Company (general). The Coshocton Art Leather Company (leather and calendars). The Coshocton Specialty Company (general). The Buckeye Leather Company (leather). The L. O. White Leather Company (leather). The J. F. Meek Calendar Company (calendars). The Guy S. Meek Calendar Company (calendars). Meredith Canvas Specialties, Inc. (canvas specialties). The McCormick Company (calendars). The Begole Manufacturing Company (highway signs). The Marshall Manufacturing Company (advertising thermometers ) The Broome & Herbig Company (folding cartons). OTHER INDUSTRIES OF VARIED TYPES The Coshocton Brick Company. The Pope-Gasser China Company. The J. B. Clow & Sons Company (iron pipe). The Wehrle Machine Works. The Coshocton Straw Paper Company. The Hunt-Crawford Company (corrugated paper cartons). The Admiral Tire & Rubber Company. The Keagy & Lear Machine Company. The Coshocton Lumber Company. The Gleason Lumber Company. The Coshocton Sand & Gravel Company. Gary B. Ernest (cement blocks and tile). The Hanley Milling Company. The Lee Milling Company. Balch Bros. (millers). The Coshocton Glove Company (canvas and leather gloves The Leavengood Glove & Garment Company. E. H. Frowine & Company (glove cuff manufacturers). The Buckeye Fabric Finishing Company. Conner Ice Cream Company. Peerless Milk Company. The Peoples Ice Company. The Stradivara Company (phonograph manufacturers). 16--VOL. 2 236 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO National Art Pottery Company. The Columbus Coal & Mining Company. The Barnes Coal & Mining Company. The David Davis Coal Company. The Conesville Coal & Mining Company. The Warwick Coal Company. The City Coal Company. The Wright Company (coal). MARKETS IN MANY FOREIGN LANDS The markets of the advertising' novelty industries are world-wide. The American Art Works, The H. D. Beach Company and several of the smaller concerns not only cover the United States with traveling representatives but also have agencies and make regular shipments of wall and art calendars, leather purses and cases, yard sticks and foot rules, thermometers, etc., to Europe, South America, Central America, Mexico, South Africa and Canada. As to the products, they include practically everything made of wood, metal, paper, celluloid or enamel that can be used with the "ad" of a firm printed thereon for free distribution. However, possibly the largest single item is signs made of wood, metal or enamel for such national advertisers as Coca Cola, patent medi-cines, auto and tire manufacturers, etc. CORRESPONDING MERCANTILE ACTIVITIES With so many thriving' industries and the consequent large employment of operatives Coshocton takes pains to measure up to the situation in a mercantile way. Her stores are well-stocked and well-managed shopping. centers which render it un-necessary for the buyer to go abroad for merchandise. Admirably situated, well equipped with the needed utilities and as a pleasant place in which to live, with excellent schools and churches, with a trunk line and a second rank railroad to furnish transportation, with a population approximating' the 100 per cent desirable class Coshocton looks forward with confident satisfaction. COSHOCTON CITY'S CHURCHES These are numerous and well supported for they are in the, midst of a church-going community. The denominations are suf- SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 237 ficiently varied to secure the support of men and women of the differing denominational beliefs. A list of the city's churches and of their respective pastors follows: Grace Methodist Episcopal—Rev. Isaac B. Harper. First Presbyterian—Rev. Roy M. Kiskaddon. Sacred Heart Catholic—Rev. Father Anthony Domm. Christian Science— First Baptist—Rev. W. M. Hart. Trinity Episcopal—Rev. Herbert H. Parkinson. Emanuel Evangelical Lutheran—Rev. M. W. Wappner. Church of the Nazarene—Rev. A. H. Perry. Church of Christ—Rev. Willard A. Guy. United Brethren—Rev. C. W. Speakman. Methodist Protestant—Rev. J. E. Tripp. St. John's Evangelical—Rev. Theo. C. Honold. First Christian—Rev. Miles Fiske. St. Andrew A. M. E.—Rev. F. D. Dokes. Shiloh Baptist—Rev. W. A. McWilliams. Community—Rev. Percy O. Ortt. THE CITY'S PUBLIC OFFICIALS Mayor—Chas. T. Lightell. President of Council—Edw. Gaumer. Clerk of Council—J. C. Wright. Councilmen—Johnson Smith, R. M. Eckles, C. O. Hershman, Wesley Clark, Harry J. Richard, W. M. Thresh, and M. G. Emler. Auditor—Mrs. Ella Williams. Solicitor—Milo C. Ely. Treasurer—W. D. Sherrets. Director of Public Service--O. L. Clark. Chief of Police—Ray Duling. Chief of Fire Department—J. I. Tracewell. Superintendent of Cemeteries—Chas. Wells. Inspector of Weights and Measures—D. W. Johnson. Health Officer—Dr. D. M. Criswell. Superintendent of Streets—James McDonald. VARIOUS CITY ORGANIZATIONS Coshocton Business Men's Association—Clyde Lorenz, President ; Russell Jacobs, Secretary.  238 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Kiwanis Club—Dr. F. M. Marshall, President; Clyde Wells, Sec-retary; C. O. McGinnis, Treasurer. Rotary Club. Coshocton Country Club—C. R. Frederickson, President; Geo. C. Mitchell, Vice President; D. G. Gayle, Secretary-Treasurer. Coshocton Auto Club—Frank Pfous, President; A. C. Hale, Secretary; W. R. Lynde, Treasurer. PERRY COUNTY CHAPTER CIX ABORIGINES FOND OF PERRY COUNTY THEIR ACTIVITIES DESCRIBED BY A LEADING OHIO HISTORIAN-GLEN-FORD FORT A MOST IMPRESSIVE PREHISTORIC EARTHWORK - ITS STONE WALL OVER A MILE LONG-OVER 100 MOUNDS AND OTHER ANCIENT OBJECTS IN PERRY LAND- WILSON AND ROBERTS MOUNDS WERE FAMOUS WORKS-MANY WHITE CAPTIVES TAKEN OVER PERRY'S MUCH USED INDIAN TRAIL-ZANE'S TRACE THE WHITE MAN'S WORK. Prehistoric man was active on a large scale in what is now Perry County. To introduce this strikingly interesting subject we quote the following statement from the "Archeological Atlas of Ohio," whose author is W. C. Mills, curator of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society. Says Doctor Mills of the Perry County earthworks : "The large stone enclosure near Glenford, known as Glenford Fort, is one of the most impressive of the so called hill top enclosures in Ohio. This great work is located on the top of a hill, which stands about 300 feet above the level of the stream at its base and is practically isolated from any other elevated area in the vicinity. The only connection with the higher ground is to the southeast, where a narrow ridge connects the fortified hill with the main land. The top of this eminence contains about 26 acres and is practically level, with the sides dropping off in a vertical ledge. ENCLOSURE MORE THAN A MILE LONG "The stone wall follows generally close to the ledge, its entire length being 6,610 feet and its height at the present from one foot to six feet. A larger stone mound was located within the enclosure. The Glenford Fort, from its strategic position and rugged location, its great size and impressive character, is one of the interesting prehistoric works of the state. Northern Perry - 239 - 240 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO County is rich in mounds and enclosures, with a considerable number of prehistoric sites throughout the county. OVER ONE HUNDRED OBJECTS "The total number of sites is 103, consisting of 7 enclosures, 86 mounds, 4 village sites, 1 group of flint quarries and 5 burials." The location of these by townships is as follows: Thorn Township, mounds 22, enclosures 2, village sites 1; Hopewell, mounds 19, enclosures 4 ; Madison, mounds 2, village sites 1: Reading, mounds 16, village sites 1; Clayton, mounds 7; Harrison, mounds 5 ; Jackson, mounds 5; Pike, mounds 4, flint quarries 1; Bearfield, mounds 1, burials 2 ; Pleasant, burials 1; Monday Creek, mounds 3, village sites 1; Monroe, mounds 1, burials 2 ; Coal, mounds 1, enclosures 1. Totals, mounds 86, enclosures 7, village sites 4, burials 5, flint quarries 1. WONDERFUL OLD STONE FORT The stone fort attracted Caleb Atwater's attention in 1840, and after looking it over he wrote a "glowing description" of its remarkable features. Many archeologists from different sections have examined it. Time long ago laid his heavy hand upon the remains and man has followed suit. Perry County's historian, the late Clement L. Martzolff, wrote about it as follows in 1902: "It is made entirely of stone and the pieces are of various sizes. None are larger than what can be easily carried and many are much smaller. The present condition of the walls shows only a winrow of stones. Many have been hauled away. When orig-inally built the wall must have averaged from seven to ten feet in height. The entire length of the rampart is 6,610 feet. Within the enclosure is a stone mound 100 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. No stones are found within the enclosure. They were evi-dently utilized in building the work." CLIMBED THE STEEP SIDES The Mound Builders climbed steep sides to reach the summit. A narrow ridge leads to the higher level beyond, on which rests . the Wilson Mound, eighteen feet high and spreading over an acre of ground. From it the aborigines could see the earth enclosures to the north and the famous Roberts Mound, east of Glenford. The builders constructed a moat and a wall to protect the SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 241 approach to the fort by the Wilson Mound. It has been said that if the fort was built for defense there should be signs of a cemetery. WILSON AND ROBERTS MOUNDS By sinking. shafts into the Wilson Mound it was found to be half stone, many parts of which appeared to have been touched by fire; and old clay, ashes, bits of mica and scraps of bone were excavated. The Roberts Mound, east of Glenford, is a large one —120 feet in diameter and 27 feet high. Partly cremated skele-tons have been found within it. The fortifications north of Glenford, on an elevation about 100 feet high, and the circle south of it, which has a circumference of 652 feet, a width of 31 feet, and a height of 4 feet, are worthy the archeologist's notice. Within this circle the aborigines constructed the effigy of a bird 48 feet long. from head to tip of tail and 20 feet wide, with outstretched wings, one of these measuring 122 feet and the other 111 feet. No copper objects have been found in Perry County mounds. Readers who desire to learn more details concerning the activities of the Mound Builders in Central and Southeastern Ohio will find some of these in the histories of Licking., Coshocton, Muskingum and Washington counties that are included in this work and a great mass of additional particulars in the Mills Atlas, from which we have here quoted, and in the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society's publications, of which there are thirty-three volumes. Doctor Mills' account of explorations carried on at Flint Ridge have especial interest for Perry Countians, because of the Ridge's nearness. THE INDIAN IN PERRY COUNTY Having indicated the riches which Perry County's prehistoric earthworks offer to the inquiring reader, we turn very briefly to the inhabitants of this region who succeeded the Mound Builders, the American Indians—very briefly because Perry County does not appear to have been for extended periods the home of the red man. It is known, however, to have been one of their favorite hunting. grounds and to have been marked by well-trodden Indian trails. Of the latter, Doctor Mills says in his Atlas of Ohio that the trail which he designates as No. 13 242 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO and as starting from the Scioto at what is now Chillicothe was a well traveled one connecting the Scioto Indian towns with Southwestern Pennsylvania. It passed through Perry County and crossed the Ohio from the Washington County shore of the river. Martzolff calls this the Monongahela Trail, and adds that many white captives were taken along it from Pennsylvania settlements to the Scioto Indian towns. He states that the old Marietta-Lancaster road was located in part on this trail. He men-tions other minor Indian pathways—the Shawnee Run, the Flint Ridge, the Scioto-Beaver and the Moxahala trails. The red-skins often hunted in the Sunday and Monday Creek valleys and the "Great Swamp," now Buckeye Lake, was a favorite fishing spot for them. ZANE'S TRACE HELPED PERRY This rude pathway through the wilderness began at Wheeling and ended at what is now Maysville, Ky. Work was started on it under the control of Ebenezer Zane in 1796. It traversed Bel-mont, Guernsey and Muskingum counties and entered Perry. Its exact route through the last-named county is disputed. Clement L. Martzolff, who became very familiar with the subject, says of the route : "There is considerable conjecture as to where it (Zane's Trace) really did pass through the county. The writer has been for three years gathering data on this 'first highway' and he has found in Perry County more uncertainty about the actual route than in any other same distance between Wheeling and Maysville. By many it is supposed to be the same as the Mays-ville Pike. Others confuse it with the Old State Road surveyed in 1809." And others still think that the Old Drove Road was the original Zane Trace. From such a diversity of opinion it is dif-ficult to ascertain the exact truth." CHAPTER CX PERRY COUNTY WAS ORGANIZED IN 1817 FIRST COURT HELD IN JOHN FINK'S SOMERSET HOME, WHEN FIRST COUNTY SEAT WAS ESTABLISHED - COURTHOUSE COST $3,450 - NEW LEXINGTON LAUNCHED CAMPAIGN FOR THE SEAT OF JUSTICE AND SOMERSET STRUGGLED TO RETAIN IT-LEGISLATURE, COURTS AND PEOPLE APPEALED TO-NEW LEXINGTON WON AT THE POLLS-TOWN-SHIPS AND VILLAGES, WHEN ESTABLISHED. The act organizing the county was passed in December, 1817, and on April 26, 1818, the county's first court of common pleas assembled at the house of John Fink, in Somerset, its members being William Wilson, president ; C. C. Hood, David Beckwith and John McMullen, associate judges, all of whom had been chosen by the Legislature. The judges appointed John Beckwith clerk, and Thomas Slaughter, of Lancaster, became prosecuting attorney. On the first Monday in April, 1818, Leonard Ream was elected sheriff by the county's voters. The commissioners who had been charged with the duty of locating the county seat reported as follows : "We the commissioners appointed, etc., having. been duly sworn and having satisfactorily explored and examined said county, have selected the eastern public square in the town of Somerset as the most eligible place for the permanent seat of justice and we do accordingly report that the seat of justice shall be fixed at that place." PLAN FOR JAIL "DIGESTED" The first session of the county commissioners was held in John Wilson's house, but the second and some later sessions were held at the home of John Fink. The courts also assembled at Fink's for a year. The Fink house was also a Somerset tavern. Before adjourning June 3, 1818, the county commissioners stated they - 243 - 244 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO had "digested a plan for a jail" and had called in an installment of the subscriptions taken to erect county buildings. On the same day the commissioners announced they had "sold the building of the jail to John Bugh, John Murray and George Jackson for $2,335." On August 20, 1819, the commissioners "received the jail and gave it into the care and keeping of the sheriff." The first story of this building. was of stone and the second of brick. In the second story court was held during about ten years, and in that story also the county offices were placed for a while. The building also was provided with jury rooms. At length, August 8, 1826, the commissioners accepted courthouse plans drawn by James Hampson, and on August 29 they "sold the building of the courthouse of Perry County to William P. Darst and George Jackson for the sum of $3,450." The next session of court was held in the new structure before it was com-pleted. The commissioners accepted the building May 15, 1829. The Perry County historian, Ephraim S. Colburn, says of it, in part : FLAMES TOOK THE OLD JAIL "The courthouse of 1829 was a square, two-story brick building. The first floor was for the court room and the second was for jury rooms and public offices. The old jail in South Columbus Street continued to be used as a prison and the sheriff sometimes had his residence and office in the upper story. Some of the public offices were situated in the second story of the new courthouse, as stated, and others were located in rooms built for the purpose in the neighborhood of the public square. The old jail became very insecure and was finally burned down and a new jail became imperative." A new jail was erected in 1846-7, north of the courthouse, on Columbus Street, at a cost of $6,195.92—a large stone structure with a considerable open space within the outer walls and cells in the building's center. The auditor's, treasurer's, recorder's and sheriff's offices were on the second floor and were reached by an outside stairway. The old jail on South Columbus Street was torn down. A group of men bought the courthouse of 1829 and the new jail on North Columbus Street, combined the two buildings, and turned their upper stories into a town hall. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 247 THE COUNTY SEAT STRUGGLE Daniel Conyers, James Wilson and David Shelby were the commissioners appointed to decide upon a seat of justice for Perry County and as soon as was practicable after December, 1817, when the county was created, these gentlemen took up their task. They found the following villages were candidates for the honor: Overmyertown, Somerset, Rehoboth, New Lexington and Bristol. Somerset, the largest of these, contained several hundred inhabitants; the others were small settlements, New Lexington having been very recently laid out. The commissioners visited these places afoot. Southern Perry was almost an unbroken forest and full of wild animals. In the end the commissioners located the county seat at Somerset, as stated. NEW LEXINGTON MOVES AGAINST SOMERSET The adherents of Rehoboth and New Lexington were particularly dissatisfied. In the winter of 1843-4 a large meeting in behalf of the county seat's removal was held in the Presbyterian Church at New Lexington, which was addressed by John Manley Palmer of Somerset, George Redmond of Reading, Dr. F. L. Flowers of Rehoboth, and by a number of residents of New Lexington. A resolution was adopted declaring that the county seat should be removed nearer the county's center. When Robert McClung, of Pike, was elected member of the Lower House of the Legislature it was expected that he would accomplish something. in behalf of removal. He failed in that, but did succeed in fathering an act to establish a graded road between Lancaster and McConnelsville, to pass through New Lexington. There was such bitterness of rivalry between the latter place and Rehoboth that no unity of action was possible. At length, in the '40s, many Rehoboth residents removed to New Lexington and became partisans of the latter's cause. PROBLEM PUT UP TO THE PEOPLE Early in the legislative session of 1850-51, Napoleon B. Col-burn, representative in the Lower House for the Perry-Fairfield-Hocking district, introduced a bill authorizing the taking of a popular vote on the question of removal which the Committee on New Counties recommended the passage of and which the House 248 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO unanimously enacted. The Senate made a shuttle-cock of the measure, Somerset meanwhile doing its utmost to block removal, but losing out in the end. Presently came a fierce contest through-out the county. Meetings were held, speakers harangued, bands played, drums rattled, glee clubs sang, newspapers thundered. When voting day came the removalists were 292 ahead. But Somerset was no quitter. Her people attacked the vote on legal grounds and the case was tried at Somerset in the District Court, in the fall of 1852. Hon. Allen G. Thurman, then a judge of the State Supreme Court and a member of the District Court, delivered the opinion, which sustained the removal vote. Somerset then sought from the Legislature what county and court had refused. SOLONS FAVORED SOMERSET William E. Finck, of Somerset, was in the State Senate, and John O'Neill of Zanesville was in the House, when Somerset partisans presented petitions praying for the removal of the seat of justice from New Lexington to the former county seat, and a bill to that effect was passed—early in 1853—in spite of New Lexington's continual efforts and protests. The county seat campaign of 1853 was even more bitter than that of 1851. The whigs of the county went into a state of suspended animation, while the democrats nominated two tickets on sectional lines. Somerset won by a small majority on the face of the returns and remained in possession of the seat of govern-ment, for this had not yet been removed to New Lexington. Now it was the latter's turn to seek victory in the courts and a suit was instituted which found its way to the State Supreme Court. Decision was delayed until December, 1856, when the court announced that the law of 1853 was unconstitutional, whereupon the county commissioners examined the new county buildings which had been erected at New Lexington and accepted them. There were delays, but in January, 1857, the transfer was made, wagons being used to convey county records and other county property from Somerset to the new county seat. THIRD AND LAST CAMPAIGN But Somerset still fought on, urgently demanding another popular vote, and the State Senate enacted a law granting it SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 249 which the House refused to pass. At length, however, another enabling. act passed the Legislature, and in 1859 the third county seat campaign was fought out. gecuring a majority of 300, New Lexington's victory was decisive and thus ended Perry's third and last spectacular county seat war. Perry County's Townships and Towns BEARFIELD TOWNSHIP This civil subdivision was organized in 1818, when it was of full size, containing thirty-six sections, but in 1850 nine sections of its southwest corner were taken to form a part of Pleasant Township. A vein of four-foot coal underlies Bearfield and potter's clay abounds. James Black is said to have been the first settler, locating where Porterville now stands, in 1812 or earlier. Most of the land was entered directly at a cost of $1.25 an acre. It is said that James Moore, of Bearfield Township, invented and operated the first portable steam sawmill ever used. The Town of Porterville was laid out by John Porter in 1848. CLAYTON TOWNSHIP A part of Muskingum County before the creation of Perry County, Clayton was organized about 1810. When Perry County was created, or a little later, four of Clayton's sections were transferred to Harrison. It has been a good wool-growing and fruit-raising section. Potter's clay abounds and two seams of good coal were stored away by nature under about three-fourths of the township's surface. Coal has been mined in Clayton for almost a century. Rehoboth was laid out in 1815 by John and Eli Gardner. Rehoboth became in the '30s and '40s a busy village, with a large tobacco warehouse as a center of activity. Soon after 1842 the tobacco trade fell off and the town's prosperity followed suit. COAL TOWNSHIP DATA Coal, originally a part of Saltlick, was created in 1872. The building of the Straitsville branch of the Hocking Valley Railroad and the establishment of New Straitsville led to the town-hip's establishment.