CHAPTER XVII
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP
This township is bounded on the north by Walnut township, on the east by Fairfield County, on the south by Pickaway township and on the west by Circleville township. It is rectangular in form, being six miles long by four miles wide and contains 24 square miles. As originally erected, the township extended west to the Scioto River, including the present township of Circleville, which was not set off as a separate township until the spring of 1833.
The surface of the northern and eastern portions of the township is somewhat rolling, while the southern portion is comparatively level. The principal stream is Hargus Creek, which rises .in the northeastern part of the township, flows southwest and empties into the Scioto River west of Circleville. The main tributary of this stream is Hominy Creek, which empties into it in the eastern environs of the city of Circleville. Scippo Creek flows through a small portion of the southwestern part of the township. The native varieties of timber found in this township upon its settlement were chiefly oak, ash, beech, hard and soft maple, walnut, hickory, butternut and elm. The soil is principally a mixture of gravel and sand. There is a smaller proportion of good bottom lands suitable for raising corn than are found in most of the other townships. The farms are as a rule smaller than is the case elsewhere in the county, but these farms while small are very well improved.
The first road opened in the township was the old Lancaster road or Westfall road, as it was originally called. Most of the early settlers located along this road thoroughfare, which crosses the northwest corner of the township. The southwest corner is cut by the turn-pike from Circleville to Adelphi. The population of the township in 1900 was 1,050. The township officers for 1906 are as follows : Trustees--Reuben Gentzel, Milton I. Brown and Daniel Klingensmith; clerk, A. E. Stout; treasurer, Charles E. Myers; assessor, William A. Grove ; justice of the peace, Abraham Weaver.
EARLY SETTLERS.
John Anderson, who came here from Pennsylvania, in 1797, accompanied by his wife and t0 children, is conceded to have been the first permanent settler in Washington township. They located on Hargus Creek in section to, where Mr. Anderson's son John, who had come out before the rest of the family, had selected a location. When the land was made subject to entry in 1801, they took up about 640 acres, in sections 10 and 3. A step-son of John Anderson, David Culberson by name, came out with the Anderson family and settled in this township. He was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, and some of the earliest religious meetings were held at his cabin.
In 1799, a man by the name of Zeimmer (Seymour, as it is sometimes anglicized), who was a native of Germany, came with his wife and family of seven children from Maryland to this township, and settled in section 27,
188 - HISTORY OF PICKAWAY COUNTY
where he later entered a half section of land. In 1812 the parents, one daughter and the youngest son, Philip, removed to Richland County, Ohio, where a short time afterward, the father, mother and daughter were massacred by the Indians.
About the year 1800 John Rager and Jacob Greenough, who had been located on the Pick-away Plains as squatters, came to Washington township. Nicholas Miller, a son-in-law of Rager, came here about the same time. A year or so subsequent to his arrival, John Rager entered, in connection with Nicholas Miller, his son-in-law, and a man by the name of Valentine, three-fourths of section 33. Rager was a great hunter and was almost constantly in the forest with his gun. It was his custom to keep from 200 to 300 hogs, which fed largely upon the mast which the forest so abundantly furnished. He never raised any grain for them and one severe winter about half of them died ; he wintered the remainder through on venison. When 80 years old, he removed to Vinton County, where game was more plentiful. At his death he was nearly too years old. Jacob Greenough upon coming to this township, entered the southeast quarter of section 23, where he lived until his death. Nicholas Miller was probably the first blacksmith to establish his shop in the township. His estate was the first one administered upon in Pickaway County.
At an early date, possibly as early as 1800, Conrad Pontious came to Washington township, making the journey on foot from Center County, Pennsylvania. He lived here two years, boarding with the family of John Anderson, and then returned to Pennsylvania. In 1806 he and his brother George, with their wives, came out with a four-horse .team and wagon. David Culberson gave George Pontious the use of a cabin until he could build one, which he did shortly afterward on the location later occupied by Daniel Haas. Afterwards he built on the same site a brick house, which was the first in the township.
In the spring of 1808 George Pontious, Sr., the father of Conrad and George Pontious, came here from Pennsylvania, being accompanied by his wife and five of his seven children, together with his son-in-law, Peter Row, and his family. They came by wagon and were four weeks on the road, during which period it rained every day except three. Mr. Pontious located on the northwest corner of section 22. Peter Row located on the northeast corner of section 22. He kept a cabin for the accommodation of immigrants, many of whom found in it a place of temporary shelter. He was a potter by trade arid followed it the greater part of his life.
George Hitler, Sr., after residing in Pickaway township on the plains for some five or six years, located in Washington township about 1804 or 1805, making a permanent settlement in section 33.
David Leist located in Washington township as early as 1805 and entered the southwest quarter of section 23. Afterwards, upon the arrival of his brother Andrew, he sold the land to the latter and located a mile further west. Christopher Earnest, George Hoffman and John Harmon all located in this township in 1806, settling, respectively, on the southwest quarter of section 14, the southeast quarter of section 14 and section 25. Jacob Spangler came here in 1810.
William Bowman came to Pickaway County in 1815 and purchased. in Washington township the farm then owned and occupied by Conrad Pontious. His death took place eight. years later. Henry Dreisbach settled on a farm in section 24, Washington township, soon after his marriage, which occurred August 30, 1817. Leonard Warner settled on the northeast quarter of section 14, in 1812. Other early settlers of the county were the following: John Metzger, George Wertman, Thomas Wells, John Stout, Francis Dedo, John Clark. Henry Sackreider, George Wise, John Gray, George Heise and a man by the name of Apple.
CHURCHES.
Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church.--The first church organized in the township was a German Reformed and Lutheran society called Zion's Church, being formed in 1808 or 1809 by a preacher named Foster. Previous to this
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date religious meetings had been held in the township for several years. At a later date this church became a Lutheran society. Mr. Foster continued to preach for some time and was followed by Rev. Jacob Leist, who officiated as minister of this church for about 50 years, being followed by Revs. Gast, Martin, Hering and Schuman. Since 1882 the church has had the following pastors : Revs. J. E. Wesner, W: H. Fishburn, G. W. Hudson, James F. Beattes, W. L. Hunton and J.. M. Wenrich, who is also pastor of St. Jacob's Evangelical Lutheran Church at Tarlton and of a church at Stoutsville, besides supplying the pulpit at the Ashville Evangelical Lutheran Church. The church has a membership of 42. The first meeting-house, a two-story log structure, was built soon after the church was organized; it was afterwards torn down and re-built as a one-story building. The church property is valued at $800.
St. Paul's Church of the Evangelical Association was organized about 183o. Meetings were held in private dwellings until the erection of the church building, in 1849 or 1850. It was a frame structure and stood a little south of the present church, which was erected in 1870 at a cost of $3,100. Revs. Charles Hammer and Joseph Long were among the earliest pas-tors of the church. Edward Dreisbach is superintendent of the Sunday-school.
The Pontious U. B. Church was organized about the year 1830 at the house of Daniel .Pontious, where the meetings were held for a number of years. The church building was erected in 1848, on land donated by Mr. Pontious. The first class leader was Peter Johnson. This is a class of the Pickaway Circuit, and is in charge of Rev. O. M. Martin, who succeeded Rev. D. W. Lambert in September, 1906. The membership of the church is 99. W. A. Beougher is. superintendent of the Sunday-school, which has a membership of about 50.
The Morris U. B. Church, which is located in the southern part of Washington township near Thatcher, was organized about 1842 with 75 members. This organization was the result of an extensive revival held in the church just before its completion, during the labors of Rev. William Fisher, who was then on the circuit. Soon after this a class of about a dozen members, called the Arnhart class, which met' in another portion of the township, united with it. The church now has a membership of 85. The Sunday-school superintendent has been W. F. Rudisill for a number of years past and the membership of the Sunday-school is 89. The Morris class is a class of the Pickaway Circuit, of which Rev. O. M. Martin is now in charge, having succeeded Rev. D. W. Lambert in September, 1906.
Bethany U. B. Church was first formed in 1838 or 1839 at the house of John May, Rev. William McCabe officiating in its organization. The meetings of the church were first held at Mr. May's residence and subsequently at the Evangelical Church on the southern line of Walnut township until the Bethany Church building was erected in the winter of 1874, at a cost of $1,400. The church was dedicated by Bishop Weaver. The class belongs to the Bethany Circuit, of which Rev. E. Gwartney is pastor.
CEMETERIES.
The first burying-ground in the township was the Zion's Church grave-yard, laid out as early as 1809, in which the first burial was that of a child of Andrew Leist. There were cemeteries also established in connection with St. Paul's Church and the three United Brethren churches.Grace United Evangelical Church was organized in 1893 and a frame church structure erected the same year at the junction of the East Ringgold turnpike and the Lithopolis road, at a cost of $1,800. The church has had the following pastors : Revs. I. E.. Rife, G. W. Smith, J. H. Schweisberger, H. V. Summers, H. B. Seese, A. Swarts, W. E. Seesholtz and W. Davis, the present incumbent. The church has a membership of 20. The Sunday-school, of which William Davis is superintendent, has an enrollment of 35.
SCHOOLS.
The first school in Washington township was kept in an old cabin of George Hoffman. It was afterwards moved about a mile and a
190 - HISTORY OF PICKAWAY COUNTY.
half west and fitted up for a schoolhouse. At a later date a school was kept in a. log house on the farm then owned by Jacob Greenough. In 1835 or 1836 the township was divided into six districts, as at present. The Board of Education, elected in the fall of 1904, is constituted as follows : Milton I. Brown, A. C. Delong, and John Bolender, who will serve four years, and Samuel T. Rife and Alexander J. Mouser, two years.