450 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Martin Tidd, William L. Kunkle, John Miller, Augustus Buckius, George H. Buckius, Emery Miller, and others. Judging from the records, the enterprise began in a hopeful manner. The Church Council (which is the official board of the congregation) were : Rev. J. H. Brown, Pastor ; Martin Tidd, Wm. L. Kunkle, Elders ; Geo. H. Buckius, Emery Miller, Deacons ; but, for some unexplained reason, failed. The congregation owned no " house of worship," which, no doubt, was to their disadvantage, as well as a mistake. After the Rev.. Mr. Brown resigned andleft the field, the congregration had no regular pastor for over a year, when the Rev. A. Essic visited the congregation and endeavored to revive and continue the work, but it was too far gone for recovery. The members scattered : some by removal, some uniting with other churches, some losing interest in the work, whilst a few still entertained hope for a Lutheran church. The second undertaking : On the 4th of July, 1872, Rev. J. L. Smith arrived in Alliance under the auspices of the " Board of Home Missions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church," to begin the work anew. There was no Lutheran organization in the city at this time, as the previous one had disbanded. The missionary began his work at once by preaching, visiting, Lutheran families and earnestly soliciting subscriptions for the erection of a church. He met with many difficulties in the way, and the discouragements, arising from a previous failure, were hard to overcome ; but with earnest resolve and indomitable perseverance, he went forward in the work. On the 1st of September, 1872, he effected the organization of a new Lutheran congregation, styled "The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity," of Alliance, Ohio. A constitution and articles of discipline were adopted, and officers regularly elected. On the 8th of September, one week after the organization was effected, the corner-stone for a church edifice was laid according to the liturgy services of the Lutheran Church, in the presence of a very large audience. The Pastor pushed the work forward as rapidly as possible, and the edifice was completed during the winter. The church is a fine Gothic structure, with tower, and beautifully furnished within, and cost $6,000, not including the lot. It was dedicated on the 23d of March, 1873, and has no superior in the city for its beauty of situation and ele gance of finish. The enterprise met with much favor with many of the citizens. Too much credit cannot well be given to the little band of earnest men and women for the energy and self-denial by which they have made 'their work such a complete success. The whole work was done during the severest financial crisis the country -has hereto felt, and yet the Pastor and his church council have with united activity provided for $5,000, leaving a debt of $1,000 to be met and collected. A Lutheran Church is now established in the city of Alliance, and as such commences its history. The Church Council are : Rev. J. L. Smith, Pastor ; W. D. Beeler, David Weikert, Elders ; Henry Miller, Peter D. Wonders, Deacons. The seats are free in the Trinity Lutheran Church, and the con gregation is rejoicing with encouraging success. The congregation has a new church finished, and a membership of over fifty. The Sunday school, lately organized, is hopefully growing. The foregoing facts were obtained from the Rev. J. L. Smith, who was Pastor of the E. L. Church in Alliance. In the year 1857, the Disciples were yet without a house of worship in Alliance. They met in the old Baptist Church, owned by Matthias Hester, who was then connected with the organization. Mr. Hester was born in Greene County, Penn., in 1793 ; he came to Lexington Township in June, 1838, and purchased 60 acres of land, part of which he still, retains in the shape of town lots. After the town of Freedom was laid out, he erected' his dwelling, and, in August of the same year, removed his family there. He has resided there since that time, and added several additions to the place, also erected a number of buildings. At this time, there was an octagon hall in the vicinity of Mr. Hester's present residence. This building was used for public purposes, and on one occasion of a school exhibition it was densely crowded and broke down, killing one person and injuring several others. This hall was also used by the Disciples after the advent of A. B. Way to Alliance. In 1858, steps were taken for the erection of a new meeting house. Mr. Hester furnished a lot, and the building was erected now occupied by this branch of the Christian Church. Mr. J. K. Picket, a number of years Superintendent of the Alliance Union Schools, and Dr. Clover, a physician, succeeded Benjamin Patterson and Asa Silvers (deceased), in the elder- CITY OF ALLIANCE - 451 ship in the church. Mr. Elisha Teeters, a member of the church, was about this time called to the eldership. Mr. Teeters was born in Greene Township, Columbiana Co., Ohio, on the 11th of January, 1814, and removed to this township in 1835. Mr. Teeters laid out three additions to Alliance, respectively, in 1851, 1852 and 1853. The first addition was surveyed by Ellis Johnson, and the second and third by Mr. Whitaker. In these surveys, Mr. Teeters carried the chain himself, and frequently joined in the chant of the professional carrier—" stick, stuck "----over the fields and flats where now stands the city of Alliance. In 1852, lots were offered at public outcry by Mr. Teeters, in his first addition ; the lots upon which now stand the business blocks of Bleakly, Haines, Young, and the private residences for some distance west along the north side of Main street, were bid in for the proprietor at $40 a lot, that amount being considered too fabulous, in the minds of the adventurous spirits present, ever to be realized again out of their sale. Some of these lots have since changed hands at $13,500 with but little improvements thereon. Mr. J. B. Milner, a prominent citizen of Alliance, moved here from Salineville, Columbiana Co., Ohio, was chosen an Elder in the Church about this date. Mr. Milner was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1823. He is just in the prime of life, and we hope he may live long and enjoy his home. The operations of Mr. Milner in our midst are somewhat extensive. He came to Alliance on the 15th of October, 1863. The east wing of the Commercial Block was erected by him among his first efforts here. He laid out three additions to our city. The first addition contained 20 town lots ; the second, which composes the old Nixon farm, where he now resides, contained 90 ; the third, that of the Garwood farm, contained 190 ; making 300 lots in all which he has added to Alliance. He is a large contributor to the support of the Christian Church. Mr. Pinkerton, a graduate of Bethany College, was called to the pastoral charge of the church in 1866, and continued in charge for about two and a half years, and under his management the church was characterized by growth and prosperity, the membership amounting at this time to about one hundred and eighty. Dr. R. P. Johnson, Samuel Milner' Isaac Jolly, Pliny Allen and Horatius Hubbard were elected Deacons of the church in addition to Matthias Hester and others formerly mentioned. Isaac Everett, President of the Alliance College, Profs. Benton, Hinsdale and other members of the faculty of the college served the church as ministers during the years following Mr. Pinker-ton's administration. Mr. J. H. Jones followed, and during one or more years was Pastor of the church. W. S. Pettit, who connected himself with the church during boyhood, in Mount Union, was elected to the eldership about this time, also A. W. Coates. Mr. F. M. Green followed Mr. Jones in a year of pastoral labors for the Alliance church. Mr. E. L. Fraizer, from Dayton, Ohio, is at present the efficient Pastor of the church, and is in the second year of his labors. Rev. James O'Leary, of Alliance, writes as follows : " I find, for the first time, mention made of a Catholic priest's holding service at Alliance in 1848. A Rev. Father Pendergast attended Leetonia, East Liverpool, and as far west as Louisville, until 1853, when he went West. He held divine services occasionally in some of the `shanties' at Alliance, then occupied by some poor Catholic families. In 1859, Father Lindsmith, then stationed at Canton, where there was only one small church, rented Lamborn Hall, and changed its name to Catholic Hall. This old hall constitutes the upper story of Mr. McElroy's present business store. In 1861, Rev. Edward Hannen, now stationed at Toledo, bought the first church property owned by the Catholics (two lots) from L. Teeters, for $125. According to the tradition, this amount was paid for one lot, and Mr. Teeters donated the other. Rev. Hannen collected from both Protestants and Catholics, and built the old frame church in 1862. Rev. P. H. Brown, of Hudson, attended from 1862 to 1864, when Rev. L. Hoffer, of Louisville, supplied his place until 1865. Rev. Mantrier was the first resident Pastor. He came in 1865, and left in .1867. After Mantrier came Father Lindsmith, who attended Alliance and Leetonia together until 1872, when he resigned Alliance, but retained the other charge. During his pastorate, a brick house, on Market street, was purchased for a parsonage. Between four and five acres were bought, south of town, for a cemetery. Other improvements in church property, amounting in all to about $8,000. Nearly all had been paid for when Rev. Monaghan came, and remained until 1875. This 452 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Pastor contemplated building a new church, and for that purpose bought three more lots for $1,800. On one of these the foundations of a new church were laid, and the walls built almost to grade. About this, time the mill shut down, many of the congregation, which then numbered about 150 families, left, and the project was abandoned. When Father Ahone came, in 1875, there was a debt of $700. During his stay nothing was done in the way of improvements, and when he left, in 1877, the debt had been reduced to $400. In 1877, Rev. James O'Leary was appointed, and still continues in charge. During the first two years the old debts were paid, and between $2,000 and $3,000 saved. About April, 1880, the foundation laid by Rev. Monaghan was raised, and a new church commenced, which was nearly completed in about October of the same year. This church, 97x60, will cost, when fully finished, about $10,000. It is expected that when the work is complete a debt of only about $600 will rest upon the church. In 1880, the old church lots were sold, and three, situated south of the new church and joining the lots upon which it is built, were bought of Dr. L. L. Lamborn. The lots where the old church was located are to be used in future for a Catholic school. The parsonage was also sold, and the money used toward building the new church. The congregation at present (1881) numbers about one hundred families. In 1859 there were about 12, and in 1877 there were 60. CHAPTER XVIII.* LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP—ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWNSHIP—EARLY SETTLERS —CHURCHES -VILLAGES OF FULTON AND LAWRENCE, ETC. " He cometh, unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner."—Sir Philip Sidney. "Don't give up the ship."—Capt. James Lawrence, U. S. N. THIS township, one of the best in the county in point of material wealth, agricultural resources, and social advantages generally, is known as Township No. 1, Range 10. That portion of the township lying on the east side of the Tuscarawas Branch of the Muskingum River was surveyed in the year 1800 by Messrs. Buckingham and Carpenter, and being included in the treaty of Fort McIntosh, the Indian title was extinguished in 1785.. That on the west side was surveyed by the late Hon. Joseph H. Larwill, Judge William Henry, and Judge John Harris. The surveys made by Messrs. Larwill, Henry and Harris were the result of the treaty of Fort Industry, made in 1805. Twenty years elapsed between the two treaties, but at a period when little was done on either side of the river in the way of settlements. Adventurers, even at that early day, penetrated the country by means of the Cuyahoga, from Cleveland, south, reaching the portage, after- ward known as the New Portage, between the the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas, and, going down * Contributed by Robt. H. Folger. the Tuscarawas, reached the Muskingum, Ohio, Mississippi, and the Gulf of Mexico. On the organization of Stark County, in 1809, the territory above named formed a part of the county, and, as has been seen, surveys had been made on both sides of the river, lines had been run, entries had been made of lands, and the rude cabin of the settler was found here and there in the wilderness, indicating that the "Chaos of a mighty world Was rounding into form." and nowhere did that chaos assume the form and comeliness of social order with more rapidity than in this portion of the county. On the 4th day of December, 1815, the Commissioners of Stark County made the following entry on their journal : Ordered, That the First Township in the Tenth Range be and the same is hereby erected into a new township by the name of Lawrence. Ordered, That advertisements be put up at the houses of George Vaneman, John Morehead, and at Leonard Kerstetter's Mill, notifying the electors of said township to meet at the house of Robert Lytle, on the first Monday of April, next, and then and there elect township officers. The township was named after Capt. James Lawrence, of the United States Navy, in the LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP - 453 war of 1812: and who, with the ill-fated Chesapeake, fought the British frigate Shannon, on the first of June, 1813, almost in Boston harbor, and of whom it is said, that when carried below, mortally wounded, his last order was : " Don't give up the ship." Those words are the motto of the township, and in political processions, her banner, with that inscription, always soars aloft. The township records show that on the 1st day of April, 1815, the qualified electors of the township did meet at the house of Robert Lytle, and elected the following officers for the township : James F. Leonard, Township Clerk ; William Alban, John Campbell, Jacob Kirk, Trustees ; William Whitcraft, Joseph Hobson, Overseers of the Poor; Stephen Wilkin, Joseph Tritt, Fence Viewers ; Hugh S. Vaneman, Robt. Lytle, Appraisers of Property ; George Vaneman, John Meese, George Waggoner, Supervisors of Highways; Richard Hardgrove, Jacob Klick, Constables ; Treasurer, John Morehead ; Richard Hardgrove, Lister of Taxables. The Township Clerk certified that " On the 9th of April, 1816, personally appeared the different officers elected, and took the oath of office, as the law directs, except Joseph Hobson. Signed, J. F. Leonard, Township Clerk." On the same page it appears, as follows, in the handwriting of ''James F. Leonard : " I hereby certify that Joseph Hobson personally appeared before me, Jacob Kirk, a Justice of the Peace, and was qualified as Overseer of the Poor for Lawrence Township, according to law. Given under my hand, April 9, 1816." It appears, therefore, that all the officers of the township above named were " qualified " on the same day, namely, the 9th of April, 1816, but it nowhere shows on the record that Justices of the Peace had been elected for Lawrence Township at the election on the 1st of April. Was Jacob Kirk a Justice of the Peace for Lawrence Township, at the time he certified for the " qualifying " of Joseph Hobson ? James F. Leonard, the Township Clerk, certifies to having administered an oath to all except Joseph Hobson, who was well known to the writer as a member of the Society of Friends, a most conscientious and upright man ; he died in 1827, and was buried at the Friends' burying ground at Kendal, in Perry Township, now in the Fourth Ward of the city of Massillon ; his widow married Charles Coffin, referred to in the history of Perry Township, and. with him is sleeping " the sleep that knows not breaking," in Friends' burying ground at Richmond, Jefferson Co. Joseph Hobson and his wife, Rebecca, were rare specimens' of those who felt that they were led by "that inward voice,. uncreated by schools, independent of refinement, and is that which opens to the unlettered kind, not less than to the polished scholar, a sure pathway into the enfranchisements of eternal truth." They believed and regulated their lives by the conviction that " a spiritual unity binds together every member of the human family, and every heart contains an incorruptible seed, capable of springing up and producing all that .man can know of God and duty and the soul." They were faithful in their belief of the truth of the teachings of William Penn, George Fox and Robert Barclay, and the few who yet remember them as members of the Society of Friends will reverence their memories. " Swear not at all," is a cardinal principle of human conduct with Quakers ; hence, Joseph Hobson was not sworn ; he affirmed that, as Overseer of the Poor for Lawrence Township, he would discharge his duties according to the best of his skill and understanding, and for any failure, he would be liable, under the pains and penalties of the law punishing perjury. On the same day, the 9th of April, the Trustees ordered that, until otherwise ordered, the township elections should be held at the house of William Whitcraft. William Whitcraft was a sturdy Irish Presbyterian, and made his faith manifest by his works ; his two sons, John and Thomas, were worthy representatives of their ancestor. On the same day, the township was laid out into three Road Districts; No. 1 was assigned to George Vaneman ; No. 2 to John Meek, and No. 3 to George Waggoner, the Supervisors elect, and it was ordered that John Morehead, Township Treasurer, draw from Jackson Township, the sum of $5.70, which is the sum due to Lawrence from Jackson. The founders and framers of the political organization known as Lawrence Township went at once into the business of organizing upon a sound basis ; they made a map of their township, showing its thirty-six sections, with the Tuscarawas River running through it from the northwest at Section 6, to the southeast, near 454 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Section 36, with the Missilla Creek entering the river on Section 9 ; Fox Run, running almost across the township, and entering the river on Section 26, near the northeast corner of the northeast quarter of the section, and New-mans Creek running entirely across the township, leaving it on the southwest corner of the southeast quarter, and running through the northwest corner of Perry into the Tuscarawas River. Newmans Creek Swamp, in Wayne County, is also well drawn on the same map, the drawing of which was done by James F. Leonard, a most accomplished surveyor and draftsman, without the name of whom no history of scarcely any part of Stark County could be correctly written. Mr. Leonard was a representative man in everything he undertook to do ; modest and unassuming, he commanded the respect of the pioneer settlers of what is now one of the grandest townships, in the grandest county of the grandest State, carved out of the Northwestern Territory, under the provisions of the Ordinance of Congress of July 13, 1787. The fact has found its way on to the record, that James F. Leonard and Sarah Barber were the first couple married in Stark County, and the date of their marriage is fixed as being on the 6th of June, 1806. At that time, there was no Stark County. Columbiana included Stark and what is now Wayne, and when it is assumed that the mar, ridge "was very likely without a license," it is an assumption that is hardly justifiable. Mr. Leonard was one of those handy men, who was always in the front rank of advancing civilization ; he is shown in these sketches to have been a Surveyor, Township Clerk, School Examiner and Justice of the Peace, all of which offices he filled to the acceptance of his neighbors. The record kept by Mr. Leonard does not show when the Trustees adjourned, nor to what time they adjourned, but it appears that, on the 10th of August, 1816, they met, and a petition. signed by James Campbell, William Whitcraft, James Patton, James F. Leonard, John Morehead, John Morehead, Jr., Daniel Boiles, Richard Hardgrove, John Meese,William Hills, John Roach, Ebenezer A. Roach, Francis Pumroy, James Barber, Abram Stevens, John McCadden, Isaac Edgington and Joseph Futton, was filed with the Clerk, praying for a road from Kerstetter's Mill, thence to the county line, at or near where Abram Stevens lives, on Section No. 7, in Township No. 7, in Range 10. On that petition " Louis Rogers, William Elliott and Henry Clapper were appointed to view said road; and Alexander Porter was appointed to survey the same." The Viewers and Surveyor were " ordered to meet at Kerstetter's Mill on the first Monday in September next." Under the above proceedings a meeting was had, the Viewers were duly qualified, and the road was laid out, in length seven miles and sixty-seven perches. Every report being signed, and an order made for opening the road, and which was the first road opened in the township, by order of the Trustees. On the 19th day of July, 3816, Matthew Rowland and John Morehead, Esqs., were commissioned Justices of the Peace for Lawrence Township. The above named citizens were the first Justices of the Peace for the township, so far as any record can be found. They held for three years, when it appears that Matthew Rowland and John Taylor were commissioned Justices of the. Peace. They are both remembered as upright, worthy men, of whom, living or dead, nothing but good can truthfully be said. Since their day, Abram Stevens, Alexander Porter, Alexander M. Russell, Dugald Campbell and William Alban, and many others who have passed away, held the office of Justice of the Peace; and their acts and example were the foundation of the great moral edifices of which the township is proud. They aided in establishing schools and the means of instruction, and they are the edifices that are enduring monuments of the greatness of the township. James F. Leonard, after a life of great usefulness in Stark County, removed to Independence, in Cuyahoga County, where he died, and left the memory of a good name. The entire population of the township at its organization was made up of men and women of singularly developed character. They were far in advance, in view of education, and that sort of social culture, of any township in the northern part of the county, and, as a rural district, their successors may be said to have kept their position. The earliest settlers in what became Lawrence Township, in the defining of the boundaries of Perry, Jackson, Tuscarawas and Lawrence, were William Crites, Henry Clapper, Jacob Clapper, the brothers Harris, John and Stephen, Massum Metcalf—incor-   LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP - 455 rectly written Matthew Metcalf, in Evart's Atlas of Stark County. He is well remembered by the writer, and was ordinarily known as " Madcap." He is referred to in the history of Tuscarawas Township, his name appearing in the third United States census, as a resident of that township, the census being taken in 1810, six years before the organization of the township of Lawrence, and at the taking of which all residents on the west side of the Tuscarawas River south of the 41st parallel of latitude, which is the base line of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and north of the south line of Stark County, as established by Act of the General Assembly of Ohio, February 13, 1 808 (Chase's Statutes, Chapter 367), were included. As all the territory west of the Tuscarawas River was, at the organization of Tuscarawas Township, included in that township, in several instances the same persons appear as the first settlers of the townships of Tuscarawas and Lawrence. The first permanent settler` of what is now Lawrence Township, and who remained on the soil after the township was organized, was William Crites. He remained many years in the township. His name, with that of Stephen Harris, Henry Clapper, Daniel Clapper, John Clapper, Adam Lower, Adam Grourds, George Baystone, Massum Metcalf, Jacob Metcalf and Jeremiah Atkinson, appear in the census, neither of whom, except Hon. Stephen Harris, ever resided in Tuscarawas Township after it was reduced to its constitutional limits. Some of the persons named resided in Lawrence until it was organized, and some went farther west, before any division of the territory west of the river was made. During the war of 1812, when it became necessary for the Government to remove troops to the west, Col. Gibson, in command of a regiment, cut a road through the south end of the township, running northwesterly from where is now the city of Massillon, and is known as the " army road," or the " territorial road." The late Gen. William Robinson, Jr., the first President of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Railroad, being then a Lieutenant in the United States Army, was with the regiment and with it encamped where now is the Second Ward of the city of Massillon, between the river and canal, the objective point of the regiment being Fort Miegs, or Defiance. Subsequently a State road was laid out on the road opened by Col. Gibson, and has ever since been used as such. The first efforts by any religious society to organize a subordinate society or obtain a place for religious worship in what is now Lawrence; then Tuscarawas, Township, were made by Rev. James Dixon, who was appointed by the Western Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held at a chapel in Shelby County, Ky., in November, 1810. The circuit was known as " Tuscarawas Circuit," and extended from Coshocton to New Portage, about ninety miles. The district was known as Muskingum District, and Rev. James Quinn was Presiding Elder, and from the best infoi mation that can be had, Mr. Dixon preached at the house of William .Crites, but whether Mr. Dixon formed a society north of what is now the south Ube of Lawrence Township, cannot be ascertained. In 1812, John Somerville was appointed to the circuit and returned 491 members, and from that day to the present it is safe to say that the township has not been without Methodist preaching, and from the best information that can be had, Mr. Somerville organized the first Methodist society in the township. He was a man of wonderful energy and perseverance, doing his Master's work with all his might. In 1831, a church was organized in Fulton, and the village was put into what was called the Dover Circuit, but what district it belonged to cannot be ascer tained. The Presiding Elder was Rev. W. B. Christy. He was a man of great power, but was cut off in middle life and before he had attained the height of his popularity. The circuit was composed of Dalton; Greenville, Brookfield and Fulton. Among the preachers of those days were Charles Elliott, Harry O. Sheldon and William Swazey, all of whom were men of strong character and untiring enei gy. Fulton is yet in a circuit of these charges, the Rev. Mr. Bell being the preacher. The absence of records has rendered it difficult to obtain anything like an authentic history. The conference to which Fulton belongs is the North Ohio, The first Roman Catholics to settle in the township came in 1812, and were John McCadden, Matthew Patton and Daniel O'Boyle. In 1813, Charles McCadden and John Gallagher settled in Baughman Township,. in Wayne County, but so -near the western line of Law rence as to be scarcely separated, and these 456 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. five families composed the nucleus of the now flourishing parish of St. Philip and St. James, in Fulton. In the year 1817, Rev. Edward Fenwick, from the diocese of Bardstown, Ky., left his home and traveled through the southern and eastern parts of Ohio in search of persons professing the Catholic faith, and came to Canton, and there found the several Shorb families, George Roofner and his family, and a few others. By way of parenthesis, it may be remarked that George Roofner _was a well-digger by profession, and dug and walled the well on the premises in Kendal (now better known as a part of the city of Massillon) on which Adam Braehm resides. Roofner was killed by falling from .the mouth to the bottom of a deep well, the fall being occasioned by the breaking of the rope used for hoisting the earth froth the bottom. He was a devoted Catholic. The few families of Catholics at Canton informed Rev. Father Fenwick of the Catholic families in Lawrence Township and west of the Tuscarawas River. He immediately came into the township, celebrated mass, and preached and in-' strutted the youth and ministered to the spiritual wants of the six families, and promised to return next year. True to his promise, the good Father returned the next year and celebrated mass in the log-cabin residence of Daniel O'Boyle, and which was the first mass celebrated in Lawrence Township. The celebration of mass the previous year was at the log-cabin residence of Matthew Patton, who had removed just over into Baughman Township, Wayne County. In the following year, 1818, the Rev. Father Fenwick and several young priests of the same order located or settled on a farm two miles from Somerset, in Perry County, Ohio, after which the Catholics of the township were attended yearly by some one of the priests of that mission, which was known as St. Joseph's, Rev. N. Young and Rev. Thomas Martin being most frequent in their attendance until 1825. After that they were visited occsionally by Rev. Fathers Hill and Henni, from 'Canton. Father Hill died in Canton, in 1828, and Father Henni is now Archbishop of Milwaukee, Wis. Father Hill was a most brilliant and eloquent priest ; is well remembered by the writer, as is Archbishop Henni. Up to 1831, it would seem that the Catholics of Lawrence and Baughman had no church edifice, as religion's services were held at the houses of Matthew Patton and others. A few Irish and German families were added to 'the congregation, and they resolved to build a church, and the farm of Phillip McCue being considered near the center of the congregation, a chapel was built on the west side of his farm; which farm is now the residence of his' widow and her son, Thomas McCue, Esq., and his family, Mrs. McCue being in the eighty-second year of her age, and to whom, with Phillip Patton, Esq., of Baughman Township, the writer desires to acknowledge his obligations for many of the most important facts herein narrated. " The chapel was built," says Mr. Patton, " 30x40 feet on the west line of the farm, and was the first Catholic chapel in the township." The families worshiping in that little churCh were from the townships of Baughman, Chippeway and Sugar Creek, in -Wayne County, as well as from Lawrence, in Stark County. By this time the village of Fulton began to improve, and German Catholics, began to settle in the village and in the eastern part of the township, among whom should be named the late Gottfried Bernower, the Hammers, Warners, Gills and others. The different religious denominations throughout the township, that had erected temporary houses for worship, in the country, began to erect permanent church edifices in the village. The Hon. Hiram Griswold, now of Leavenworth, Kan., representing large interests in real estate in the village, the Catholics purchased of him a block of lots, in 1844, on which to erect a new church edifice, and work in that direction was immediately begun. The corner-stone was laid by Bish- op, now Archbishop, Purcell, in 1845. A building was erected, 35x50 feet, at a cost of $1,500. In 1868, the chapel being found to be too small to accommodate the large congregation, they. "resolved," says. Mr. Patton, " to erect a chapel to honor the Supreme Being. They drew a plan of a building, to be 50x100 feet, tower 100 feet in height, brick, Gothic architecture, and which was erected at a cost of $30,000." As reference has been had to that excellent man, Rev. Edward Fenwick, it is deemed proper to state that in 1821 he was consecrated Bishop, his diocese being in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and the Western Territories, the diocese being known as the " Diocese of Cincinnati." In 1823, he administered the rite of confirmation to eight or ten persons in Law- LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP - 457 rence Township, among whom was the respected Mr. Patton, so frequently and necessarily named in this sketch. The year 1832 will be remembered by some yet living as the first year of that frightful scourge, the Asiatic cholera. In that year, Bishop Fenwick went on an extensive Episcopal visitation through Michigan and Wisconsin, returning through Northern Ohio, taking Canton en route to Cincinnati, and traveling by stage coach. On his arrival at Massillon accompanied by one of the Sisters of Charity, it was made known to the person having the hotel in charge at which the coach stopped that the Bishop was very ill. He was urged to stop, and was assured of every attention the house could furnish, the proprietor being absent from town. The Bishop, however, thought he could go on with safety, and did go on. That night he died in Wooster, of cholera. He was attended by Drs. Bissell and Coulter and a black boy. The hotel at which he died was kept by Samuel Coulter, one of the early residents of Canton. The rite of confirmation referred to, administered by Bishop Fenwick, was at the house of Matthew Patton, about twenty rods west of the Stark County line. At this time there are about one hundred families who compose the congregation of St. Philip and St. James, Rev. Father Zattman being the priest in charge. The first Presbyterian preaching in the township was by Rev. James Adams, whose name appears elsewhere in these sketches. He preached first at the house of John Morehead, and was a thorough believer in the doctrine that " by faith shall all men be justified." At that time the Presbyterian 'Church was strong and influential on the west side of the river. The members were of the hardy Scotch-Irish people of Western Pennsylvania, who, as has been said elsewhere in these sketches of the Quakers, " Bore with liberty and law the Bible in their train." With such antecedents; Law- -rence could not nor has ever been a second-rate township. Its present population is 6,000. It has the growing and enterprising village of Fulton, the post office of which is known as Canal Fulton, situate in the northern end of the township, and nearly in the northwestern corner. Originally, that part of the village lying west of the Tuscarawas River was known as Milan, and was laid out in 1814, by Matthew Rowland, Esq., afterward prominent as a Justice of the Peace, on the organization of the township and in the history of the county, and died in 1821. The township had a decided military taste, as it furnished no less than four Colonels of regiments, on what the late Gov. Corwin, in his celebrated speech in reply to Gen. Crary, called the " peace establishment." Their names were Isaiah Bowen, William Alban, William Elliott, and, at a later date, Jacob Harsh. Col. Bowen was a millwright by trade, and did much of the millwright work west of the Tuscarawas River, in the now County of Stark, and also did the millwright work on the first mill built in Perry Township, known as Folger's mill. John Sturgeon, also a military man and millwright, worked with Isaiah Bowen, was a son-in-law of Matthew Rowland, Esq., and is believed to have erected the first dwelling house in the village of Milan. James O'Boyle, incorrectly written " Boiles," was Captain of a rifle company, made up of many of the young men of the township, and known as the " Kendal Rifle Blues." Their place for muster, exercise and drill was on the North square, in Kendal. The company retained its organization but a few years, but during its existence was regarded as a " crack" company. To those who remember the military spirit called into existence by the war of 1812, with Great Britain, it is a little remarkable to witness the degeneracy of that spirit in later days. In those early tithes, the citizen-soldier felt that he was the right arm of the Federal Government. No West Point graduate excelled him in patriotism or bravery, and as Indian fighters, the hardy pioneers of what was then the frontier settlements yielded to nobody, whether he regulated his ideas of fighting by subtle criticisms on strategy and careful reviews of marches, sieges, battles, regular and casual, and irregular onslaughts, or whether he fought by the practical notion of " the devil take the hindmost," the pioneer. settler was always ready, and made his faith manifest by his works ; and of such were the men who peopled the Tuscarawas Valley, as soon as the right to take peaceable possession under the treaties already referred to was guaranteed to them. The first grist-mill erected in the township was built by Col. William Goudy, and was built in 1812, and was the one sold to Leonard 458 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. Kerstetter, in 1814, already referred to, and was finally destroyed by fire, while owned by the late Cyrus Young. At an early day, another mill was built, on Fox Run, by Col. Isaiah Bowen, which proved of little value. Some three years before the organization of the township, George Harsh removed into the territory then known as Tuscarawas Township. In 1812, he had sent his son John from Washington County, Pennsylvania, who purchased 100 acres of land from Col. William Goudy, who had purchased the quarter-section, the same Gondy who had erected the mill. The hundred acres purchased by John is the same land now owned by John Jacobs, of Massillon, and which has been most fruitful in its yield of mineral coal of the best quality. On the arrival of Mr. Harsh, the father, he entered the quarter adjoining the 100 acres already purchased, on the north, at the Government land office. That quarter is now owned by the only surviving son, Hon. George Harsh, of Massillon, and on which is situate the celebrated " Mountain Coal Mine." The father; George Harsh, died August 16, 1833, aged seventy-three years. His wife survived him ten years, and died at the age of seventy-six. He was married twice, having by his first marriage two sons, Henry and John. Henry lived in Virgina, now West Virginia, and John in Wayne County, Ohio. Both have been dead many years. By the second marriage he had Benjamin, Joseph, Jacob, Barbara and George, now sole survivor of the family, in his seventy-second year. Of the descendants of Leonard Kerstetter, but two grandsons remain, David and Daniel, and one granddaughter, Mrs. Daniel Kleckner. The descendants were numerous, and contributed largely to the growth and prosperity of the township. Leonard Kerstetter served in the war of the Revolution, and had two sons in the war of 1812. The first Presbyterian Church edifice in the township was built in the northwest corner, and was known as Newman's Creek Presbyterian Church. The congregation was composed of members from the townships of Chippewa, Baughman and Sugar Creek, in Wayne County, and of those living north of Newman's Creek in Stark County. The first Presbyterian minister was Rev. James Adams, who resided in Sugar Creek Township, Wayne County. He was succeeded by Rev. James Galbraith and Rev. James Snodgrass, on the west side of the river, who preached occasionally at Newman's Creek. Of the early Presbyterians the names of Porter, Lytle, McCaughey, McDowell, Fulton, Morehead, Wilkins, Alban, Whitcraft, Tate and many others, Scotch, Irish and the descendants of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, from Western Pennsylvania, will always be found prominent. In June, 1842, the church was removed to Fulton, Rev. Jonas Denton being Pastor, and James Lee, Richard Porter, William Alban, and Thomas Ritchie, Elders. During the long period that has elapsed since the organization of New-man's Creek Presbyterian Church, being more than sixty years, the Presbyterians have had the stated preaching of the Gospel in the township, and are now growing and increasing under the ministry of Rev. Mr. Carson ; D. C. McDowell, Andrew Lytle and John Porter, Elders. In 1826, under the impetus given to the improvement of the country generally, by the locating of the Ohio Canal, the village of Fulton was laid out by William Christmas and James W. Lathrop, both of whom resided at Canton, and was, on the opening of canal navigation, a most important point for the purchasing of produce of all kinds. Among its merchants, the first was Henry A. Stidger, a nephew of Gen. George Stidger, one of the first merchants of Canton, and also an A3sociate Judge ; he, however, did not remain. He went to Carrollton, in Carroll County, where he has remained, having been a prominent citizen of that county seat ever since its organization: During his long residence in that county he has been Brigadier General, and held other offices of distinction, and it is said of him that he has on hand some of the identical goods which stocked his store in Fulton, fifty-six years ago. The Ohio Canal, when opened from Cleveland to Massillon, in 1828, was the great highway and medium of transportation through the State of Ohio, as far as finished. It brought a new people into the State, especially along its line, some of whom were of the hardy adventurers who, years before, had been traders up the Cuyahoga, from Cleveland to the Cuyahoga Portage, across the Portage to the head-waters of the Tuscarawas, and down that river through the navigable streams already described, as far as interest or enterprise might offer inducements to go. Once on the Tuscarawas, as far south as Clinton, in Franklin Township, in the LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP - 459 now county of Summit, the way was open to New Orleans and the Gulf. One trader, who used to boast of his enterprise and success, was Capt. Henry Clarke, well recollected by the writer, in 1826, as an explorer along the line of the canal, and afterward as a hotel-keeper at New Portage and the now city of Akron. Capt. Clarke, in telling his experience, on one occasion while the building of the canal was progressing, said he had transported salt from Cleveland up the Cuyahoga in canoes, and packed it in sacks on horseback over the Portage, and taken it down the Tuscarawas Valley and sold it out by the half-pint to the retailers. Those who remember Capt. Henry Clarke will recognize the likeness of the man in the story just related. Prominent among the early business and successful operators in Fulton was the late John Robinson, Esq. Mr. Robinson was trained to the profession and business of a merchant, under the care of Judge William Henry, commencing his apprenticeship in the brick building on the extension of Cherry street, in the now city of Massillon, as early as 1823. On the locating of the canal and the laying out of Fulton, Judge Henry, with that shrewdness that marked his character, established Mr. Robinson in business, the firm being J. Robinson & Co. Mr. Robinson, being a man of strict business habits, and equally strict in all other respects, commanded the busineSs of the entire surrounding country, including the northern part of Wayne County. The post office, which had been originally kept by Amzi D. Meese, and while, in his hands, discon- tinued, was re-established, and me Robinson appointed Postmaster, and Fulton took a start and attained a prominence as a business point, that it has kept. Many of the best buildings for business purposes in the village, and which gave the place a start, were erected by Mr. Robinson, or through his influence. In 1836, he purchased the interest of Judge Henry, who had never advanced any capital, or if any, it was merely nominal, and continued business in his own name up to to the time of his death, which occurred in the city of Philadelphia, April 14, 1860. The merchant longest in business in Fulton at this time is John Mobley, who has resided there forty-six years, and has succeeded amid all the changes of almost half a century, and may be said to be one of the ancient landmarks by which the existence of Fulton may be established. In 1853, a general law was passed by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, authorizing the forming of municipal incorporations, and the citizens of Fulton availed themselves of its provisions and became an incorporated village, including the old town of Milan, under the name of the Incorporated Village of Fulton, since which its growth has been steady and permanent. The first lawyer in Fulton was the late William M. Cunningham, Esq., who opened an office in 1842 ; was a Justice of the Peace, and acquired property ; removed to Akron, where he died. The first teacher of a school in the township was Alexander Porter, who opened a school in a log house, built on the farm of William Alban in 1816. It seems he taught but one year, when George Waggoner took charge of the school, and wielded the birch and ferule, as the backs of the boys bore witness. Next to him was Stephen Cassel, who was First Lieutenant of the Kendal Rifle Blues, and was a man of taste and culture ; he removed to Holmes County, and remained until his life's work ended. An important item in the history of Fulton is the Stark County Orphans' Institute, a correct history of which has never been written, and probably never will be. The following, however, is believed to be as nearly correct as will ever appear : In 1837 or 1838, there came to the then -village of Massillon a merchant by the name of Osee Welch, and a certain Dr. John Cook Bennett ; there came also a produce dealer from Buffalo, N. Y., by the name of Henry Roop, who had a brother residing in Paris, Stark County, Ohio, and who had resided there many years. There was also in existence, at that time, an institution known as the Granville Alexandrian Society, having a charter as a literary society, which was granted early in 1807, and during the mania for banking, at the close of the war of 1812, it was claimed that the Library Company of Granville had banking powers, and it at once commenced to exercise those powers by opening an office of discount and deposit. In the crash which followed the chartering of the Bank of the United States, in 1816, the Granville Alexandrian Society, and the bank established under the provisions of its. charter, went down with a crash. By some 460 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. means, Henry Roop got possession of the charter, and under it re-organized the Bank of Granville, and it appeared to be a success. Dr. Bennett and Osee Welch, seeing the probable success of Roop's effort, got a charter through the Ohio Legislature for " The Universal School of Massillon." Bennett got into extremely bad odor and left for parts unknown, and was not heard of for many years, when he turned up as Maj. Gen. John Cook Bennett, Commander-in-Chief of the Nauvoo Legion. He had joined the Mormons at Nauvoo ; he made an unsavory record there, renounced Mormonism and wrote a book disclosing. the iniquities of the Latter-Day Saints. The appearance of the book was the last that is known of Maj. Gen. John Cook Bennett, M. D., and Commander-in-Chief of the Nauvoo Legion. The charter of the " 'Universal School of Massillon," not being sufficiently liberal to allow all that Osee Welch desired as a banking institution, a new charter was obtained for the Stark County Orphans' Institute. The object as expressed in the charter was to found an institution for the benefit of orphans, somewhat upon the plan of the Charity School of Kendal. The first, almost, that the public knew of its existence was the issuing of paper of the likeness and similitude of bank notes dated at Fulton, by which the "Stark County Orphans' Institute" promised to pay the amount therein named to the bearer. It being an unauthorized banking institution, the paper would not circulate ; Welch was unable to give it credit, having none of that article on hand for himself. Another difficulty was a defect in the engraving ; the notes were dated at Fulton, but the name of the State was left off, and the affair seemed to be still-born. It was not long, however, until new notes were engraved, dated at Fulton, Ohio, in which the " Orphan Institute's Bank " promised to pay, etc. Welch, who was the first President, seemed to have stepped down and out. Marvin Oviatt, of Medina County, was President and John Black, Cashier. Almost every farmer in the neighborhood and many in the neighboring townships of Baughman, Greene and Chippewa, in Wayne County, were induced to take stock in the bank, and in order that all should go right, new men were to have the management. A man by the name of Richard Hubbell, represented to be a capitalist of almost fabulous wealth, was to be the manager, but the plan would not nor did not succeed. Many of the honest and unsuspecting farmers who went into it were ruined. In 1842, suits were commenced against them, under the provisions of an old law then in force, prohibiting unauthorized banking, and finally the Stark County Orphans' Institute, and the Orphan Institute's Bank, with all its assets, real and personal, were sold out by the Sheriff. More than forty years have elapsed since the events connected with the institution transpired. Most of those who were connected with the unfortunate affair are dead. Their last days were embittered by relentless claimants, who brought suit in all the counties of the State wherein service of process could be had upon them. Many were reduced from a competence to poverty. Welch took the benefit of the Bankrupt Act of 1841, and finally removed to Galena, Ill., and has been dead many years. It took a long time for Fulton and the surrounding neighborhood to recover from the paralysis occasioned by the effort to establish a bank without authority of law and without pecuniary responsibility. It has, however, long since recovered, and is the peer of any village of its population—now about twelve hundred—in Ohio. Its railway connections and mineral and agricultural surroundings assure its continued prosperity. The township contains several hamlets erected by miners, principal among which are Youngstown Hill, Maple Grove, and Williamsburg, which includes Aberdeen Coal Mines. The village of Lawrence, laid out in 1852, by the late Hon. Arnold Lynch and Philip McCue, Esq., on the southwest and southeast quarters of Section 20, is a village of growing importance. It is situate on both sides of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, and is known in the list of post offices as North Lawrence. Among the men of decided prominence in this township, of a later period, Cyrus Young will occupy an important position on the historic stage. He was, perhaps, as well known to the writer as to any person in the county, out of his own family or immediate connections. Mr. Young was descended from one of the oldest families in Jackson Township. His grandfather, Frederick Young, was born in Bedford County, Penn., in 1777, and moved from there to Jackson Township, Stark Co., Ohio, and settled near Mud Brook, where he lived until his death. Adam LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP -461 Young, father of Cyrus Young, was born in Bedford County, Penn., December 23, 1799, and came to Ohio, where he resided with his father until twenty-six years of age, when he was married to Christina Sprankel, whose maiden name was Kirk, a sister of Jacob Kirk, one of the first two Justices of the Peace elected in Jackson Township. Mrs. Young's first husband is supposed to have been Christian Sprankel, who was killed by the falling of a tree. By her marriage with Adam Young she had two children—Cyrus Young and Julia A. Young, now Julia A. Myers. On removing into Lawrence Township, Adam Young lived for a short time near the mill erected by Col. William Goudy, on Newman's Creek, since owned by Leonard Kerstetter, Alexander Culbertson, John Sprankel and others. After leaving that place, he removed to the farm known as the Stauffer farm, in 1 827 resided there two years, when he purchased the " Old Young Farm," now owned by John Myers, Esq., where he resided until his death. Cyrus Young was born in Jackson Township October 23, 1824. and lived with his parents in a log cabin until eighteen years of age, taught school from seventeen until nineteen years of age, went to Indiana and taught one winter, ''then returned and followed farming until twenty-four years of age. In 1848, he was married to Margaret Sheaffer, and followed farming and threshing with a machine until 1853, when he moved to the farm on which he died, and which was known as the old Kerstetter farm, and one of the first cleared up after the organization of the township. The following notice of Mr. Young's death appeared in the Massillon American of April 27, 1881, and is deemed worthy of a place in the history of the township. DIED. YOUNG.—Wednesday, April 20, 1881, in Lawrence Township, Stark County, Ohio, Cyrus Young, Esq., in the 57th year of his age. The death of Mr. Young occurred under circumstances so peculiarly distressing as to almost render description impossible. In the morning of the day of his death he was seen on the streets of this city, attending to his ordinary business and in usual health, and went from here to Lawrence to attend to some business in connection with the running of a portable saw-mill near that place, and while, as is supposed, endeavoring to adjust some of the machinery connected with the steam engine, his clothing was caught, and he was drawn in and crushed to death in less time than can be imagined. Leaving his house and home in the morning, in perfect health, he was taken back before noon—a corpse! Although there were three persons, at least, about the mill, not one saw the terrible accident, and how it occurred is left to theories that may, or may not, be correct. Such was the rapidity with which the machinery was running that he was stripped of all his clothing, except his neck-handkerchief and a small portion of his underclothing. Mr. Young was a native of Jackson Township; born October 23, 1824. By means of large coal interests, he had acquired an ample fortune, consisting of farms in Stark, Wayne and Medina Counties, and heavy coal interests in Stark County and in Hocking Valley, the entire value of which is variously estimated. He was a man of positive character and more than ordinary native ability. Starting out in life without any means, or but little, and marrying early, he met his responsibilities by hard labor, in which he was aided by a most faithful and excellent wife, who, with nine children, survives him, and who, in their sorrow-stricken condition, have The sympathy of hosts of friends. Few gentlemen, anywhere, have any more of life's comforts around them than had Mr. Young, and no one provided for his large family with more princely generosity. Taken away in the prime of his life, he leaves, in his circle of relatives and friends, a void that can never be filled. On Sabbath day his remains were laid away in the cemetery in this city, in the presence of an immense concourse of people from city and country, and where "The holy calm that breathes around Bids every fierce, tempestuous passion cease; In still, small accents, whispering from the ground, A grateful earnest of eternal peace. " No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode; There they alike in trembling hope repose, The bosom of his Father and his God " On moving on to the Kerstetter farm, which which was the southeast quarter of Section 36, Mr. Young soon ascertained that he had a fortune in the far-famed Massillon coal. Mines were opened on the tract which yielded sufficiently to lay the foundation of the fortune which Mr. Young had at the time of his death, which was very large, there being few in the county equal to it. Another family prominent in the settlement and organization of the township was that of Richard Hardgrove, who settled on the west side of the Tuscarawas River in 1812. He was one of the first two Constables elected in the township, and held other important positions, until his death, which occurred in 1843. He left a large family of sons and daughters, many of whom still reside in the township. The brothers William and John Sheaffer were among the earliest settlers in the township, after its, organization. John was one of 462 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. the earliest Abolitionists in the township. On the subject of human slavery he was outspoken, and aided in organizing the old Free Soil and Liberty Party in the county, of whom so few are left. These brothers were farmers, and did as much to give character to the township as any whose names are found on its records. Fulton, like every other place where the ubiquitious newspaper has a " local habitation and a name," has been called on to witness the changes that follow in the wake of that great factor in advancing civilization. In these latter days, no one thinks of being without his newspaper, daily or weekly, as circumstances may justify. In 1872, a Mr. Roberts, from somewhere in Richland empty, commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper at Fulton, called the Time; but being without means, did not get beyond the third' number, and it is said that the three numbers he did issue were printed at other offices, and that ended the initial enter prise. In July, 1873, a stock company was formed, known as "The Herald Publishing Company;". A. J. Baughman, of Mansfield, Ohio, was secured as editor and general business manager. He published the Fulton Herald for two years, but giving little attention to the business, the Herald went the way of the Times, and ceased to exist. Its circaulation was always light. In August, 1875, J. B. Yockey, Esq., took the material of the old office, added to it a complete outfit for a job office and other new material, and commenced publication of the Fulton Signal, and has continued it and made it a success. By close attention to his paper, he has got a steadily increased subscription list, does good job work, and is doing a paying. business. The Sig, has become an important factor in the business relations of Fulton, and will retain its position while under the management of its present energetic editor and proprietor. CHAPTER XIX. * NIMISHILLEN TOWNSHIP — ITS EARLY SETTLEMENT --NAMES OF THE PIONEERS—INCIDENTS-RELIGION AND EDUCATION—EARLY FRENCH SETTERS—TOWNS, ETC., ETC. " I love everything that's old—old friends, Old times, old manners, old books, old wine." —Goldsmith. NIMISHILLEN was named after the creek which takes its. rise mainly in the township. There is a tradition that the stream was named from the black alder which grew very abundantly along the bank, the Indian, name of which is said to be Missilla. Prefix to this word ni, which probably meant stream, or water, and you have Nimissilla, since changed into Nimishillen. Col. Bouquet, a British officer stationed at Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburgh), in his published narrative of an expeditionn through this section in 1764, gives the orthography of the stream as Nemencheluss. Whatever may have been the original meaning of this word, it was evidently the one from which the present name has been derived.. The first settler in the township was John Bowers, from Maryland. He entered the south * Contributed by Dr. Lew. Slusser. half of Section 32 in 1805, and in the following spring, moved out with his family, and commenced an improvement on the east quarter. In the winter of 1806-7, his son John, then a stout boy, was taken sick with a fever. There was no physician within reach, and, as the boy grew worse, and the family had exhausted their efforts to relieve him without success, they sent for thefeww distant neighbors, who were prompt to respond to the call. Their added experience and domestic remedies proved alike unavailing, and the poor boy died. It was a terrible shock to the family. The mother blamed it all upon the new country, and regretted having left their Eastern home. In this their hour of affliction, the neighbors were doubly kind, and did what they could to console them. A rough* coffin was made out of an old wagon box, and the boy buried in the woods, some distance from the cabin. It was a solemn occasion. long remembered by the few in attendance. A tree was cut so as to fall NIMISHILLEN TOWNSHIP - 463 across the grave, in order to protect the body from the wolves. Bowers sold thiS quarter to Bollinger, and made a settlement upon the adjoining quarter west. While here, he was elected County Commissioner, and afterward Tax Collector, when the office was distinct from that of Treasurer. He is yet remembered passing over the country from house to house with a cylindrical tin box strapped on his back, collecting the taxes. Some years later, he sold the balance of his land, and purchased a small improved tract in Canton Township, where he died. He Was buried in Osnaburg. John Gans, of Fayette County, Penn., entered the southeast quarter of Section 3, in 1806, and settled thereon same year with his family, consisting of a wife and four children. His son Benjamin, now a resident of Lake, was born in Nimishillen in 1807. Mr. Gans belonged to the religious sect known as Tunkers (from the German tunken, to dip), more properly, German Baptists. He was a preacher among them, and a man of consideraable influence. Quite a number of the same denomination followed him from Pennsylvania, and settled in central and eastern portions of the county. The Tunkers are a peculiar people ; don't vote or have anything to do with politics ; avoid lawsuits, and in giving testimony, do not swear, but always affirm. They are opposed to war, and evade a draft. Usually wear the hair and beard long from a sense of religious duty, and the dress of both sexes is always plain, and never changed to conform to a popular fashion. As a class, they have not had a very high appreciation of education, especially an educated ministry, believing the Lord would inspire. It was their custom to hold preaching in barns. Latterly, they have taken to church buildings of plain construction, and favor a more liberal education. The Mathias brothers, Daniel and Jacob, and their father, then a widower, came the same year and from the same county in Pennsylvania as did Gans ; they settled on Section 14. Unloading their cooking and farming utensils, the families bivouacked under a tree, until the men erected a cabin. In October, 1806, a child was born to Mrs. Daniel Mathias, the first white child born in the township. Henry Sanor made an opening on the same section. He and Jacob Mathias often told the story of hearing the sound of a horn in the north, when the wind was from that direction, and how they were puzzled to know whence it came, or what it meant. At length they determined to find out. So one Sunday morning, they started in the direction they had heard the sound, and with an ax blazed their course on both sides of trees they passed, that they might be able to find their way back. In this way, they proceeded between three and four miles as they supposed, when they heard a dog bark. Following this sound, they came to the clearing and habitation of Jesse Wileman, and his son Mahlon, which place is now in Marl- borough Township. They had been there some weeks, and thinking there must be other emigrants settling in the vicinity, they bethought themselves of occasionally blowing the horn, in order to communicate to others their whereabouts. At this period, Indians were roaming over the country, and during the season of hunting and fishing, it was their custom to camp along the creek. They were inoffensive, but persist- ent beggars. They were particularly fond of whisky, and when once indulged with a taste, there was no cessation to their importunities for more " whisk," as they called it. Daniel Mathias brought a keg of several gallons from Pennsylvania. On the occasion of a call from several of the tribe, he treated them each to a drink. This soon spread among the rest, and it was not long until he was besieged by such numbers that his supply of the stimulant was soon exhausted ; nor would they accept his statement that he had no more, until he exhibited the empty keg, when they made fruitless efforts to eke out a few more drops. There was an Indian trail running east and west, that passed through the township. John Thomas, a resident of Columbiana County, with the help granted by the Commissioners, had this trail widened so as to make it passable for teams. It was afterward known as the “Thomas Road," and was the first highway through the county. Much of the road still remains in use, from Lexington, via Freeburg and Louisville, to Canton. Penticost & Scott, reputed lawyers, but more properly land speculators, laid out a town on this road, on the southeast quarter of Section 28, and called it " Nimishillentown." Daniel L. McClure, the surveyor, made a beautiful plat of the town, which was exhibited to everybody from the 464 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. east as the county seat of the new county of Stark. It was laid off in rectangular form, with wide streets, a large square in the center intended for the court house and jail, and other lots appropriated for church and school purposes. They erected a large story and a. half log house, which did not have a single piece of sawed timber ; all was split and hewn. The enterprise proved a failure, mainly because it was considered too. far away from the center of the county. The ground was level, had been cleaned of all underbrush, and for years, during the summer months, was a place of resort on 'Sundays for the young men and boys living miles around, to play all and pitch quoits. Henry Loutzenheiser and John Rupert, brothers-in-law, from Westmoreland County, Penn., came out in the summer of 1807, and, with the help of a hireling, made a clearing on the southwest quarter of Section 11, and erected a cabin about twelve feet square. Rupert made a clearing on the adjoining quarter, and built a cabin the same year. Loutzenheiser sold his land a few years after to Martin Houser, who had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and bought the quarter section with all of Nimishillentown. Michael Rupert, uncle of Henry Loutzenheiser, married or lived with an Indian squaw ; she had by him several children. His brother, Martin Rupert, and cousin, Martin Houser, were both taken prisoners during the Revolutionary war by the Indians, while driving cattle to the army. In 1825, Henry Loutzenheiser built the two-story brick house yet standing in. Louisville, the first building of brick in the township. For many years he kept tavern here, sign of the spread eagle ; the house was well known, and was a popular stopping-place for travelers. At that day, most of the traveling was on horseback, and the usual charges for man and beast over night—supper, breakfast and lodging, and two horse feeds—was 50 cents. The locality was known as " Loutzenheiser's," and was one of the places where " general muster.", was held at stated periods. John Augustine was the General ; David Bair, of Paris Township, the Colonel, and Henry Loutzenheiser, Major. Those were gala days, both for old and young. The parade usually closed with a few fights, and in the evening there would be a dance. Henry Loutzenheiser was the father of twenty-five children, all living at one time ; the product of three wives. Notwithstanding latter-day achievements, this feat stands unrivaled in the history of Stark County. His first wife was Elizabeth Rupert ; second, Polly. Hoover third, Polly Spangler. Daniel Brown, living on Section 25, same township, was the father of eighteen children. During the summer of 1814, two of them, a boy and girl, the former eight, and the latter ten, were lost in the woods. They were sent to bring. up the cows. Taking a path which led in the direction where the cattle were in the habit of grazing,,, they came to where it forked. Here they disputed which was the right path, and as they would not agree, separated. It appears both were mistaken, as neither led in the direction of the cattle. As,a consequence, both of the children wandered on until lost,' neither being able to find the way home. The cattle returned without them. The parents, becoming alarmed at their long absence, started to find them. Night overtaking them, they aroused the neighbors, and everybody that was able and could be spared turned out. Through the long and dreary night they kept up a din of noises, by shouting and blowing horns, in the hope of attracting the children, but no response came. It was feared they had fallen a prey to some wild beast, as at that time there were bears, panthers and wolves roaming the forest. Daylight came, and yet no tidings. More persons were procured, and the search continued. About noon, the boy was found at a cabin, in the eastern part of Washington Township, which place he had reached but a short time before. The girl was not found until the second day, and when first seen was in a thicket gathering berries, apparently as unconcerned as though she had just left home. When questioned abduct how she had spent the nights, her reply was, that she had slept on a bed of leaves. It appeared that she anticipated being looked for, and was apparently very little disconcerted. Nimishillen Township was organized in 1809. The early records are lost, so that it is impos sible to give a list of the first officers elected. There are those still living who remember Daniel Mathias as one of the first Trustees, and Jacob Tombaugh as first Constable. John Hoover was an early Justice of the Peace. The northeastern part of the township attracted the most settlers, mainly because of the beautiful timber. No larger chestnut and poplar trees could be    NIMISHILLEN TOWNSHIP - 465 found in the county. The locality also abounded in ginseng, large quantities of which were collected and sold to the stores, from whence it was shipped East. It was quite a source of revenue, and, at that time, there was a popular belief that in China it was worth its weight in gold. The first grist and saw mill in the township was built by John Eby in 1811, on Nimishillen Creek, in Section 31. As the country cleared up, and the supply of water began to fall oft, the power became insufficient, and both the mills were finally abandoned. Among the early settlers not already mentioned were Mathias Bowers, brother of John ; George Wertenberger, Ulrich Shively, John Thomas (the first blacksmith), Henry Breyfogle, Henry Warner, John Eby, Michael Trump (the first cabinet-maker and undertaker), John Weller, Harman and Jacob Koontz, Dewalt Bucher (the first tailor), Daniel, David and John Brown (brothers), John Haney, John Hildebrand, Jacob Baughman, William Hoover, Jacob Tombaugh. Michael Ringer, Christian, Sollenberger, the Obenours, Hiveleys and Warners. About the first marriage was Abraham Metz to Sally Shively. They were the parents of Dr. Metz, of Massillon, who was born in this township. The great eclipse of 1811, created quite a consternation among the settlers. As they had no previous knowledge of its approach, they were at a loss to account for the sudden darkness. Some thought it indicative of an earthquake ; others, that it was the end of the world. Mrs. Mathews was away from home on that day, and, on her return, it began suddenly to change from sunshine to darkness. It soon became so dark, that she was unable to see the path, and had to stop until the darkness passed away. She was terribly frightened. The falling stars of 1832, was another phenomenon that seriously disturbed those who had the opportunity of witnessing it. It occurred between midnight and daylight, and some, who were out engaged in business not legitimate, regarded it as a manifestation of divine displeasure. Edward Carl, direct from " Ould Ireland," settled in the township in 1811. He was a shoemaker and tanner, and started the first tan-yard. The Moffit brothers, James, Patrick, Richard and Thomas, early settlers, were clever men, and influential. They were the first Catholics, and frequently held worship in private houses. In the spring of 1826, five: French families of Alsace, by occupation agriculturists, gathered together their household utensils and farming implements, took ship at Havre de Grace, and, after a six weeks' voyage, landed in New York. Before the colony were ready to leave New York, one family had only a single five-franc left, nor were any of the rest in a condition financially to help them, so the destitute family was compelled to remain in the city, and engage in work until they could earn sufficient to pay their way farther West. The balance left via Hudson River, New York & Erie Canal to Buffalo, and thence by schooner to Cleveland, " a small town on a hill," as described by one of the company. Here the families remained a month, quartered in a barn, while the men were traversing the country, looking up a place to settle. It was in the heat of summer, that Theobald Frantz, the leader of the colony, and one other approached Canton from the north, when, at the first view of the town, he saw the cross on St. John's Catholic Church, and exclaimed, " Je n'irai pas plus loin; c'est id que j'ai trouve la premiere croix depuis que nous aeons quitte New York, et c'est ici, pres de cette croix, que je m’etablirai." They straightway returned to Cleveland, and began making preparations to move their families and goods into Stark County. This was before the construction of the. Ohio Canal, and, as their route was overland, and as they had brought along wagons and harness from France, the first business in order was the purchase of horses. In these, they were shamefully swindled, as, of the five purchased, not a single one could be relied upon as a true puller. They would all balk, and several were vicious kickers. In the first efforts to break them to work, Joseph Badeau was kicked in the bowels, from the effects of which he died in a few hours. Notwithstanding these misfortunes and all their mishaps, they kept up courage and persevered. In their trip to Canton, the horses in going up a hill, would frequently balk and refuse to pull, exhausting every effort to persuade them to pull, and failing, there was no alternative but to unload, and then all hands would assist, and by dint of' pushing and pulling succeed in attaining the top of the hill, after which the wagon had to be reloaded. They finally reached Canton, and obtained possession of a vacant house on East Tuscarawas street for the families to 466 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. occupy until the men could purchase permanent homes. After reconnoitering the country on foot and on horseback, Theobald Frantz, Louis Garrot, Jean P. Moinet and the widow of Joseph Badeau all settled in Nimishillen Township, purchasing in Sections 10 and 15. One of the five, named Jonare, purchased and settled in Jackson Township. These were the first Catholic French who settled in the county. There were a few Omish (Mennonite) French in the county a year or two before. The reports they wrote back to their friends in France of their impressions of this country induced others to follow, and among the early French settlers of Nimishillen may be mentioued Francois Bellot, Zeidor, Faufaunt, Pierre Cunira, Perrot, Chenot, Gerandeau, Favier, Barlet, Abadie, Garandot, Duprea, Favier, Cuniea, Adie and Mongary. It should be mentioned that by the time the families who came over first were settled, their money was exhausted, and some were compelled to engage in labor from home, in order to obtain means for support. Frantz had eight children ; two of the girls worked out, and two of the boys helped to dig the Ohio Canal; at $14 a month. The father tramped out wheat for the neighbors, for the tenth. Mrs. Badeau was enciente at the time her husband was killed. She invested her means in the purchase of 'forty acres of land, and was working in the clearing when taken in labor. In the woods, without shelter and alone, she had her child, now Frank Badeau, over fifty years of age. He is probably the first Frenchman born in the county. There must be, at this time, several hundred French families residing in Nimishillen Township, forming an observable feature of the population. As a class, they are industrious, social, inclined to hilarity, law-abiding, honest, pay their debts, and make good neighbors. They readily assimilate with our native-born, and about the third generation their distinctive peculiarities are obliterated. Harrisburg was the first town in the township. It was laid out in 1827, by Jacob Harsh. A lame man by the name of Patterson brought the first store. Following him, Jacob Wolfe and Jonas Hoover started a store and tavern together. Wolfe took special charge of the tavern, and it is said to have been kept not unlike the one run at a later day, by his namesake in the West, of which it is presumed our readers have heard. David W. Rowan had a store in Harrisburg, in 1832, and after him, H. H. Myers, both from Canton. The early physicians of the town were Dr. Aberham Stanley and Dr. Soloman Shrive. Henry and Jacob Stambaugh, both farmers, supplied the preaching in the neighborhood. They belonged to the United Brethren Church, and held worship in schoolhouses and barns. Harrisburg was a more important place and was more widely known fifty years ago than it is now. The railroad towns have drawn away the trade. A post office was established under the name of Barryville, May 18, 1830, and Jacob Wolfe appointed Postmaster. It was called Barryville because there was already a post office in the State named Harrisburg, and there cannot, under the rules of the Post Office Department, be two offices of the same name in the same State. Louisville was located in 1834, by Henry Loutzenheiser and Frederick Faint, joint proprietors, as land belonging to each constituted a part of the plat. It was originally named Lewisville, after a son of Loutzenheiser, but on application for a post office, it was ascertained there was already an office of that name in the State, and at the suggestion of the Post Office Department, the orthography of the names was changed to Louisville. The post office was established March 11, 1837, and Solomon A. Gorgas made Postmaster. The first organized church in the township was Catholic. It should be mentioned chat before this, a building designed for a church and schoolhouse was erected near Harrisburg, through the united efforts of members belonging to the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. Services were held in this building at irregular intervals, by both these denominations, but there never was a legal organization of either. There was a Methodist Church erected in Harrisburg at an early period. About 1836, a building was erected in Louisville, upon land donated by James Moffit, under the supervision of the Dominican Father at that time in Canton. The first priest stationed in Louisville was Rev. Mathias Wurtz, from Lorraine; next came Rev. L. de Goesbriand. During his pastorate, the congregation consisted of about forty French families, twenty German and twelve Irish—in all about 400 communicants. During his stay the church building was enlarged, a tower built and a bell pur- NIMISHILLEN TOWNSHIP - 467 chased. In 1846, Rev. P. Pendeprat officiated. He remained four years, and was succeeded by Rev. Marechal, who remained but one year. Then came .Rev. L. F. D'Arcy, who was an enterprising, liberal and zealous man, as he built a schoolhouse; repaired the church and improved the grounds around, spending his private funds for the benefit of the congregation. Rev. L. Hoffer, the present incumbent, succeeded D'Arcy in 1861. Since his advent. an academy and college has been erected, and the congregation materially increased. There were living in the township as early as 1836. professors of religion who take the name of " Brethren in Christ." Jacob Sollenberger, and a neighbor by the name of Roth-rock, were among the first. They did not have a building of their own until a late period. What is known as a Reformed Church was organized in Louisville in 1863. The first members were Jonathan Slusser and wife, Adam Fogle, wife and daughters, Elenora and Emma, John and Andrew Sell. The first pastor was Abram Miller, who served five years. He was succeeded by Joshua H. Derr, who remained. two and a half years. Following him came J. J. Leberman, who has continued since, now over eight years. Number of communicants, 190. The United Brethren have a church in. Louisville, but the statistics of their organization failed to reach us in time for publication Nimishillen Township has, up to the present time, enjoyed but little of the county official patronage, and that little was more in the way of honor than profit. John Bowers was Couuty Commissioner from 1819 to 1826, when the pay was from $20 to $25 a year, and no perquisites. John Hoover served as Associate Judge one term, and two terms as a member of the Legislature, in 1822 and 1823. At that time, the Legislature met on the first Monday in December. With a few changes of underclothing, packed in a pair of saddle-bags, the member-elect would start from home on horseback a week .before the opening of the session. It would take him. four or five days to make the journey. Then he wanted several days to look around for a boarding house, and find a place to winter his horse. Once settled, he never thought of leaving his post of duty until the close of the session. Such was the custom of our legislators in those primitive days. Contrast them with the present. Among the leading attractions of Louisville is the woolen factory of Taylor & Stewart. It was during the spring of 1872 that a joint stock company was organized for the purpose of establishing a woolen mill at that place. The stockholders were C. L. Juilliard, H. T. Finney, John Werner, Elias Essig, J. W. Wertenberger, Dr. J. P. Schilling, L. T. Myers and Edward Schilling. The mill was erected at a cost of about $17,000, including a 35-horse power steam engine. The mill was sold to William Taylor in 1877, and he has remained the. owner to the present. Mr. Taylor took as a partner. in the business, William Flinn, and two years afterward their connection was dissolved. . Owing to a desire on the part of Mr. Taylor to retire from business, the factory was leased to his son, John II., and John. Stewart, who have actively carried on the business ever since. Under the management of Messrs. Taylor & Stewart, the partnership has been quite successful, producing a superior quality of flannels and yarns. They are making the manufacture of flannels a specialty, adhering to the plan of producing pure woolen goods, and this, no doubt, is one of the causes of their success. Their fabrics are found in all the leading dry goods houses of Stark and adjoining counties. Although young men, the proprietors of this establishment have, by their undivided attention, made it one of the best mills in the county, and one of the chief attractions of the place in which it is situated. In 1868, D. M. Slusser and J. W. Wertenberger commenced the manufacture of Ellis' patent baskets in what is now the plaining-mill of Essig & Shengle. After a partnership of about eighteen months, Elias Essig was admitted into the firm. Shortly after this, Mr. Slusser withdrew, and Wertenberger & Essig carried on the business until they were succeeded by Essig & Sluss. It is now in operation under Essig & Hang in the same building in which it first originated. Elias Essig and Jacob Shengle formed a partnership, in 1875, for the purpose of establishing a planing-mill where Essig & Hang have their basket factory. They occupy a two-story frame building, 30x50,. with an engine-house and boiler-room 18x30, also a warehouse about 20x40 feet. They have all the requisite machinery for carrying on their business in its various branches, which is operated by a 20-    468 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY horse power steam engine. They do a general limber business, supply building material, lath, shingles, sash, doors, blinds, etc. The firm handle annually an average stock of 600,000 feet of rough and dressed lumber, 1,200,000 shingles, 1,300,000 lath, and they transact an annual business of not less than $15;000. The wagon and carriage shop of C. Bonnot & Son was first started as a Champion Plow manufacturing establishment by J: H. Penney, M. Gibbs and Monroe Siberling, in 1871 ; but after a short period, the business was discontinued. In 1874, this building was leased to Keim, Finney & Newhouse, who placed in. the proper machinery and commenced the manufacture of linseed oil. In 1876, Juilliard & Co., purchased the business; and this firm in turn was succeeded by Keim & Sons in 1877. Owing to a disadvantage in shipping, together with considerable breakage of machinery, this firm discontinued the business in 1878, and oil manufacturing in Louisville has not since been revived. The flouring mill of S. Flickinger was established in 1851 by Daniel, Chapuis, who conducted the business a number of years, and was succeeded by Louis Faber, who in turn was succeeded by Xavier Paumier. After him, the mill passed into the hands of the present owners, S. Flickenger and C. A. Newhouse. This partnership continued, about ten years, when Mr. Newhouse withdrew from the firm, and Mr. Flickinger has since been sole owner and proprietor. He is a first-class miller, and with the help of his son, carries on a large trade of custom grinding. Geib & Pontius have a large merchant mill now under construction. This building will be a two-story frame with stone basement, 40x60, and a one-story engine room attached, 20x40 feet. There will be a run of five stone in this mill ; three for wheat, one for chop-feed, and one for middlings, all to be operated by a 70-horse power steam engine. The resources of the surrounding country will prove this to be one of the leading mills of its kind in the county. P. B. Moinet erected a brewery in 1865. He was succeeded by George Dilger, in 1876, who admitted Simon Menegay in 1878. This firm turns out about about 2,000 barrels of beer per annum. Brick manufacturing is carried on quite extensively by A. V. Pontius, and Murley, Dupont & Co. These two yards keep employed a force of about twenty five men, and turn out a superior quality of brick. The supply is unequal to the demand. Rogers & Warstler, druggists of the place, manufacture the Peerless Condition Powders, a drug that is considered, among leading stock-men, the best of its kind in the market. It has a wide sale, and is steadily growing in public favor. Besides the .above, cigar making is carried on to a considerable. extent by Peter C. Newhouse, J. C. Hartman, William Weber and Jacob S. Oberdorff. Rinehart & Sons and C. Bonnot & Sons manufacture and repair wagons, buggies, etc. G. F. Baumann & Sons, tin and copper smiths, dealers in stoves, etc., have a large run in roofing houses with slate and tin. S. Paquelet deals in and manufactures furniture, and J. G. Prenot is the Louisville harness maker. There are. two hotels in the town—the Commercial and the Washington House. The former, is kept by J. D. Baker, and the latter by Geo. Nunamaker. Both are doing well. The place supports two first-class livery stables ; one owned by Lycurgus Wilson, the other by Mathias. Walker. They both keep first-class turnouts, and are reasonable in their charges. The merchants of the place are Keim & Sons and Pierson & Metzger, hardware ; Julius Thurin, Julius Schwob, M. Sluss and L. F. Davis, dry goods and groceries ; D. M. Slusser and J. M. D'Ostroph, groceries and provisions ; Schilling & Son and Rogers & Warstler, druggists ; Hannah Conrocd and O. Clark, restaurants. Mrs. A. Friday and Sluss- er & McCoy supply the neighbohoord with millinery. Louisville Deposit Bank was es tablished the spring of 1881; by Keim. & Sons. They do a general banking business For the past ten years the Keims have done more to build up the town than any other firm. They are enterprising and intelligent citizens, and a credit to the town in which they reside. Taking in consideration the wealth of the- surrounding country, and the enterprise of the citizens of the town, Louisville can truly be said to be one of the leading towns of its. size in the. State. Its present officers are—Mayor, J. H. Penney, Clerk, R. Rothrock ; Treasurer, Joseph Moinet ; Marshal, C. Gaume ; Street Commissioner, M. S. Stambaugh ; Councilmen, C. L. Juilliard, Elias Essig, Lewis Newbauer, A. Poupney, L. P. Menegay and N. Bonvolot. SANDY TOWNSHIP - 469 CHAPTER XX.* SANDY TOWNSHIP—GENERAL DESCRIPTION-SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION— INDIAN INCIDENTS—PIONEER INDUSTRIES—OFFICERS —WAYNESBURGH LAID OUT—INCORPORATED —CHURCH HISTORY, ETC. SANDY TOWNSHIP, the most easterly of the southern tier of the townships of Stark County, is situated in longitute 40̊ 15' west from Washington, and latitude 40̊ 42' north. It is watered by a system of small streams finding their source in Osnaburg and Canton Townships and flowing south into Big Sandy Creek. a tributary of the Tuscarawas River. The names of these minor streams are as follows, viz.: Little Sandy Creek, which is the most considerable in size, takes its name from the general character of the land through which it flows. It occupies the eastern portion of the township, and its waters were made to do good service in early times, to drive several saw and grist mills, and at Waynesburgh a woolen factory was operated by it until within the last decade. Indian Run, which derives its name from the fact that its banks were a favorite camping-place for the untamed sons of the forest, who made this neighborhood either home or hunting-ground, flows through the center of the township. Its waters were utilized as power for a small saw-mill, on the land now owned by Jefferson J. Welker.. A few decaying timbers is all that remains of this pioneer enterprise. Hypocrite Run is said to have taken is name by general consent from the personal characteristics of a man whose name it formerly bore. There was once a saw-mill on its banks, but all these smaller mills -have given place to more improved establishments at Magnolia and Waynesburgh, where the Big Sandy, having gathered to herself the waters of the two former streams, forces them, with her own current, through the wheels of a more modern structure, accomplishing with improved saws, buhrs and processes, a much greater and better work than before the universal Yankee, with his " 'tarnel improvements," came this way. The land of Sandy Township is remarkably fertile, the hills being generally a rich clay loam, and * Contributed by Charles H. Jones. the plains and valleys alluvial loam, producing abundantly all the crops common to this latitude, of quality generally much above the average of perfection. The early settlers in "Sandy " found noble forests of oaks, ash, elm, walnut, chestnut, hickory, sycamore, linn and other valuable woods occupying the higher lands of the towhship, while " the plains " were covered with young oaks, growing up amongst rank prairie grass. These latter lands, now our best and most valuable farms, were not sought after by many of the earliest settlers, being deemed the repositories of agues and fevers unlimited, besides the hills were found abounding in springs of pure water, near and toward which all things seemed to attract. The official organization of Sandy Township took place at Canton on the 16th of March, 1809, and, as then constructed, it contained five sections north and south, and six sections east and west—in all thirty sections—and it remained of this size until January 1, 1833, when the Legislature having passed an act erecting the county. of Carroll, two rows of sections were taken from the east side of the township, with Rose, Brown and Harrison Townships (then a part of Stark), to help form the new county. This circumstance does not seem to have been a matter of such importance as to gain a record in the books of the Township Trustees of that date, to which the writer has access. An interesting item in this old book is a record of the financial situation on March 5, 1832, the last settlement before Sandy gave her ten sections to Carroll County. It is as follows : Balance in treasury, March, 1831 - 29.00 Received of William Fogle, township tax - $17 75.07 Total receipts - $18 04.07 Total paid on orders - 17 65.07 Balance in Treasury - 39.00 470 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. From the books of the Township Clerk for 1880, we take the following synopsis, for the purpose of comparison : TOWNSHIP FUND. Balance in treasury on settlement - $ 39 44 Received from all sources.- 726 84 Total received - $766 28 Total expended - 717 54 SCHOOL FUND. Balance in treasury - $1,321 46 Received from all sources - 1,034 41 Total received - $2,355 87 Total expended - 889 69 Balance - $1,466 18 Total balance - $1,514 92 Of the early officers of Sandy Township, the writer has not been able to find complete records. The first election was held at the house of Isaac Van Meter, near where Joseph Flickinger's residence now stands, but what officers were elected does not appear in the old records of the township now extant. The oldest book in existence, so far as known, being a Township Clerk's book, bearing date June 16, 1818. James Hewitt was the first Justice of the Peace, and elections were often held at his house, which stood in what is now Brown Township, Carroll Co., on land owned by William Denny Robertson, south of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railway. For the following story of the first coming of permanent settlers, we are indebted to the graphic pen of Hon. John G. Croxton, of Canal Dover, Ohio, who was for many years a resident of this township, and was well acquainted with many of its sturdy pioneers. Mr. Croxton's wonderful memory of names and dates is so well known in this community as to make him an acknowledged authority. Like all good story-tellers, he begins at the beginning, and his story shall not be spoiled by abridgement. He says : Jefferson County was the fifth county in the then " Northwest Territory." It was created by Gov. St. Clair, July 29, 1779, its original limits including the country west of Pennsylvania and theOhntoo River, and east and north of a line from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, southwardly to the Muskingum River. The town of Steubenville was laid out in 1798, as the county seat, by Bezaleel Wells and the Hon. James Ross, of Pittsburgh, and here the first land office, for the sale of Government lands in the Northwest Territory, was established. Canton was laid out in 1806, by this same Bezaleel Wells, who had previously entered the land on which the town was located and the fractions of land around the lake; west of the town, now known as Myer's Lake. Wells opened the first road or trail from the Ohio River to Canton, which trail or road, as it soon became, passed through the whole length of Sandy Township, and this was the first " white man's trail" from the Ohio River that crossed the old Indian or Tuscarawas trail, which, at this point, ran in a westerly course along the valley of the Sandy. As the means were not at hand for making roads along the sides of hills, they went straight over them, and as the hill at the place where Waynesburgh now stands was too steep for safe descent, the party returned to what is known as the old Fox farm, now the property of Mr. Gustavus Deringer, and turned west, through the old Beatty, Boory and Elsass farms, and passed through the plains, on the east line of Capt. James Downing's farm, and then passed on to the old Mottice farm, now owned by Creighton Rodgers, Esq., on the present road from Waynesburgh to Canton. Capt. Downing then lived across the Ohio River, in Virginia, opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek. Having had some difficulty as to the title of his property, he concluded to leave it and settle in the beautiful valley of Big Sandy, whose fertile plains and grand forests had pleased him mightily when he was serving the Government as a 'ranger,' in 1793. He accordingly came and entered a quarter section of land on the before-named road, and built him a fine log cabin house, and moved into it. He set about the improvement of Ms land,entertainedd travelers and tradedwntthh the Indians, who were, at that time, quite numerous. This was in 1805. The following year, Mr. James Laughlin, a brother-in-law toDownntng,, and his twosons-ntn-law,, Isaac Miller and Benjamin Cuppy, came also from Virginia. Laughlin entered land on the same road, the farm being now known as the Boory farm. Miller chose the west side of the creek, close to where the village of Magnolia now stands, and opened a house of entertainment,. and kept a ferry boat to take emigrants across Sandy Creek. He built a toll-bridge, also, which was the first bridge ever built across the Sandy. This bridge was built in 1814. A man named Joseph Handlon, who entered the land now owned by James Boyd, laid out a town in the plains, near where Mr. James Boyd's house now stands. He called the town Hamburg, but he seems to have been mistaken as to the needs of the. times, for the town is no more. In 1814, Handlon had the "Bethlehem road," as this first road was called, straightened, from the old Fox farm through to Peter Mottice's land. The jurisdiction of the Justice of the Peace of the township of Sandy then extended over 'what is now Rose andHarrntsonn Townships, of Carroll County. Early after Capt. Downing and his friends came Peter Mottice, Beatty, Hibbits, Reeves, William Knotts, Van Meters, andlonn, Brown, Creigh; tons, etc. In August, 1812, when Gen. Hull had surrendered all our armies in the West and North to I 'the British, and there was no organized force to SANDY TOWNSHIP - 471 keep the Indians in check, there came to the "Sandy" settlers a report that the Garver settlement, southwest of Canton, was all killed, and that 400 Indians w ere in the North Bend of Sandy Creek. The consternation among the pioneers was terrible; war in its most civilized form was terrible to think of, but war and possible capture, by so relentless and barbarous an enemy, struck. terror to the souls of even the sturdy woodsmen of the valley. All looked to Capt. Downing as a leader, and lie was not found wanting. He gave orders for a gathering of the clans, with all the arms and munitions of war available, and directed the women to hide with the children in the corn-fields. Downing, with his three sons and two sons-in-law and sixty stalwart pioneers, armed in all sorts of ways, marched in single file to meet the enemy, passing on their way through where Sparta is now situated, to the summit between that place and the Bethlehem settlement, now called Nevarre. Here they heard shooting, and Capt. Downing called his men together and ordered, " Now boys, double quick, and strike them with a dash!" and they charged valiantly across the ridge, only to find another party of whites who, like them- selves, were hunting for the 400 warlike red-skins, and not finding them, were shooting at a mark. One of Downing's party, William Knotts, used to tell that he had had many a fight, " fisty-cuff," as he called it, and thought it nothing but fun, but this Indian fighting with guns was a different matter ; that when the old Captain gave the orders to " strike'em with a dash," and all felt sure the Indians were just over the hilltop, he thought of Hannah and the children, and moved forward with the rest, but " had never felt such a 'wolloping' of his heart in all his life." During that same fall, James Downing, Jr., organized a company of troops, and was elected its Captain, and marched to the front. The regiment to which the company was assigned encamped at Wooster on Christmas Day, and named the bivouac " Camp Christmas," thence they marched to Fort Meigs, at which place and Fort Stevens, they wintered. Returning home with his men at the end of the war, he entered the land adjoining his father, now owned by Jacob Painter, Esq. He married Miss Nancy Hewitt, of Virginia, and cleared up a fine farm, on which he inclosed the family burying ground in a fine stone wall, where the remains of himself and wife, his father and mother and other relatives are interred. The first white army that ever passed through Sandy Township traveled by the way of the Tuscarawas trail and was the command of Gen. Bouquet, who marched from old Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, Penn., and came 15y way of the Little Beaver River, and carried his boats across the summit at Hanoverton, brought them down the Sandy Creek into the Tuscarawas, up which they traveled to the Akron summit, and thence across into the Cuyahoga and thence by the lake to Sandusky. This was as early as 1762. In 1778, Gen. McIntosh came by the same route, without boats, to Port Laurens, where Bolivar now stands, left a small force and returned to Fort McIntosh, at Beaver. The force at Fort Laurens was left under command of Maj. Gibson. So ends Mr. Croxton's story of the early settlement. William Hewitt and John Hewitt, now living in Waynesburgh, are sons of James Hewitt, who came into the territory, afterward Sandy Township, but now part of Brown Township, Carroll County, and entered land in 1807. Hewitt's first cabin was built near the line of the C. & P. R. R., as before stated, and in this rough, but as we shall see, hospitable home, on the 31st of January, 1809, William Hewitt was born, and still lives to claim the honor of being the first white child born in the township. Here also John Hewitt was born. An incident of pioneer life, which occurred at Hewitt's, is so fully illustrative of the social life of the advance guard of our present civilization, that we record it as we gathered it from Mr. William Hewitt, whose well-told tales of those elder days are the delight of all who are so, fortunate as to hear him. In March, 1821, the neighbors were invited to attend what was then called a " grubbing frolic," and, of course, they attended en masse. The mode of invitation to all frolics, and they were many, was simply to give out the fact that such a gathering was to take place, and it was understood that all who were not on absolutely unfriendly terms with the family were invited, and all were expected to attend, and failure to do so required explanation and a good' excuse. Among those who were present were Capt. James Downing, Robert Thompson, John Reed, J. Harvey Ross, John Ross, James Brothers, Levy Brothers, Isaac Brothers, Simon Shook, Solomon Shook, Jonas Baum, Conrad Stull, Adam Keefer, John McCall. The work in the grub patch being completed and supper about ready, and everybody merry and mellow with good humor and good whisky, an event took place which was destined to have a strong influence on the future of the neighborhood. It was no less an affair than the arrival of Denny Robertson, James Robertson, John Robertson and families, whose numerous descendants are to-day among our most respected citizens. Denny Robertson and family, and perhaps James also, accepted an invitation to stay all night at Hewitt's, while John Robertson passed on to his cabin in Rose Township. The wagons which were to stay were soon surrounded, and the weary travelers made welcome. The amusements of jumping and shoot- 472 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. ing at a mark was abandoned. Levy Brothers, mounted on Hewitt's old mare " Tibb," was dispatched up the creek after Tom Tidball, the fiddler. The boys struck out in every direction after the fair daughters of Sandy, and the frolic and the new arrival were jointly celebrated by a roping dance, until the breaking day gave warning that the more serious concerns of life demanded attention. Then breakfast dispatched, the new-comers were escorted to their new home on the farm now owned by David Robertson ; nor did these stalwart volunteers quit the place until by aid of ax and arm a cabin grew up in the wilderness, and the emigrant of yesterday was as much a settler as any of his sturdy newfound friends. Among the girls found, to honor this occasion were the Misses Sallie and 011ie Kellogg, Rachel Keefer, Susan, Kate and Bar. bary Shook, Katie, Eva,. Betsey and Julie Schultze. The dance, among these lusty revelers, could hardly be described as the " poetry of motion," although it was by far too energetic and boisterous to be called prosey. Dressed in suits of home-spun tow linen, shod in cow-hide boots, the honest but unpolished swain led forth a partner blooming in stout brogans and frock of linsey-woolsey, all innocent of frills and plaits, but whose. radiant, ruddy smile, born of good humor and good health, made ample amends for the lack of what, too often in these later days, is little less than sickening affectation, both as to dress and manners. The music (?) of " Monnaie Musk," " Chase the Squirrel," " Peel the Willow " and other lively tunes, inspired an energy of action and a business-like execution that would command attention, if not admiration, in a fashionable ball-room of 1881. Along with James Hewitt came John Reed, Sr., and his son, James Reed, and John Creighton, a nephew of Hewitt. John Reed,s posterity are yet residents of Malvern. The nearest neighbor was Isaac Van Meter whose cabin stood just at the top of the hill where Market street, of Waynesburg, descends toward the C. & P. Railroad. Moses Porter lived at what is new Malvern. Hewitt and his company cleared out a field, planted and harvested corn, seeded the ground in wheat, and returned to McKeysport, Penn., to winter, and while there Hewitt married Elizabeth Thompson, and, in March, 1808, with his brother, John Hewitt, and William Thompson, returned to stay. The Wyandot Indians, who were encamped beside a small stream just west of where James A. Hewitt's brick house now stands in Brown Township, left in the fall of 1811, warning the people to leave before they returned, for they would then be on the war-path. Mr. William Hewitt remembers the coming of two squaws to his father's housejust before they left, to sell baskets made of split ash-wood, and that each alternate strip of wood was colored red. The price asked for the baskets was that the basket chosen be filled with corn meal. Upon another occasion, two Indians came into the front yard at Hewitt's house and gave the people a bad scare ; they were named Capt. Beaver Hat and Capt. Pipe, the former drew his tomahawk and flourished it over young William's head, then laughing at his fright, took the boy up in his arms and said, " Beaver Hat, good Injun ; me no hurt white man's papoose." Beaver Hat claimed to have been at Braddock's defeat, and that he had fired six times at Washington, who rode a white horse, and, though he was a good shot, could not hit him ; then said, " Man on white horse, mighty big medicine-man." In 1812, Fredrick Baum and his son, Jonas Baum, the father of William Baum, a well-known citizen of Sandy Township, came and entered, land ; Solomon and Simon Shook and Adam Keifer, also Phillip Schultze, Conrad Boyer, Conrad Stull, Samuel Kimmell and Henry Bonbrak. The father of the present numerous Sicafoose family was also a very early settler on the land now owned by Benjamin Sicafoose. Henry Elson, Sr., father of the good-natured shoemaker of the same name, whom two generations of children of the village' of Waynesburg have known as a universal friend, came to Stark County in 1812, and settled first at Bethlehem, and a little later moved to what is now known as the Kintig farm. Henry Elson tells the writer that he remembers coming to Pool's store, in the then village of Hamburg, after tobacco for his father as early as 1815. His father paid $1.25 per bushel for corn in 1812 ; the corn had been brought in a keel-boat from Marrietta by Edward Nelson, of Kendal, near what is now Massillon. Mr. Robert Nelson, so well known as a contractor and generally successful business man, was a son of Edward Nelson, and son-in-law Of Henry Elson. Sandy Township was, in the early days of its history, infested with snakes to an extent that made it very dangerous to go about at certain SANDY TOWNSHIP - 473 seasons of the year ; there were numerous dens of rattlesnakes, and instances are related of hundreds of these reptiles having been killed from a single den in a season ; one of the most notable of these was situated near Capt. Downing's Spring. One of the most thrilling incidents in the early history of Stark Co., which occurred near the present village of Minerva, deserves a record here ; because at least three of the participants, several years later, became residents of Sandy Township, and two lie buried beneath its green sward. We have the story from Hon. John G. Croxton, who, gleaned its particulars from Isaac Miller, one of the chief actors in the affair. It was in the latter part of March or early in April, 1793, that Gen. Anthony Wayne's army broke camp at Legion Fields (now Economy), Penn., and proceeded down the Ohio River. As a precautionary measure, spies or scouts were employed to range at will through the territory north and west of the river, whose. duty it was to traverse the country and report promptly any unfavorable condition of affairs at certain stated rendezvous. One of these parties was composed of five trusty men, named Capt. James Downing, Isaac Miller, John Cuppy, George Foulke and John Dillow. Their station was opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek, on. Tumbleson,s Run, at the farm of Jacob Neesly. They were men peculiarly adapted to the task in hand, by reason of known skill in woodcraft, and the fact. that the two last named had been captured in boyhood by the Wyandot Indians, and grew to manhood among them. They escaped to their white friends but a short while before the time we write of, and had taken service under old " Mad Anthony. " Upon a certain morning, these scouts were preparing a breakfast of wild turkey which had been shot the day before, as had been also a deer, the skin of which Capt. Downing proceeded to dress while the fowl was' cooking, improvising a " graining knife" by driving the point of his hunting-knife into a stick, and thus securing a double-handled affair which, in the absence of a better tool, did good service. Miller and Foulke were acting as cooks, Dillow was gathering dry wood, and Cuppy was, as he afterward told it, " sitting at the root of, a tree standing guard." The smoke of :their camp-fire had betrayed their whereabouts to a party of about twenty Wyandot Indians, who proceeded, after careful recognizance, to attack their unsuspecting foes. To make sure work, the Indians divided their force into two parties—one squad going south of Clear Fork to a concealed position on what is now the farm of Dr. J. C. Hostetter, while the other party went further south into. the timber toward Still Fork. Downing had just made a remark expressing surprise that during the last day they had discovered no "signs" of Indians, when Cuppy sprang to his feet, declaring, with an oath, that there were Indians. He had discovered them dodging about in the Hostetter plains. Miller and Foulke picked up their guns and made for the enemy, Miller in the advance, when the Indians fell back toward the timber. Foulke understood their tactics, and called to Miller to retreat at once, for as soon as the Indians would reach timber they would each take to a tree and shoot down their foes at leisure. Returning to the camp they found it deserted, the second party of redskins having at. tacked the other three scouts in their absence. When attacked, Downing favored sticking together, but Dillow sang out every man for himself, and ran off down the bluff toward the forks of the creek. Downing' and Cuppy followed, keeping the Indians at bay by loading and firing as they ran. Downing soon discovered that whenever they stopped the leader of the Indians would jump and howl and throw his arms about and make a great display of himself to attract attention, while the others would drop into the tall grass and run forward on their hands and knees to gain on them. Finally Downing, by a lucky shot, sent this leader or chief to howl and dance in " ferrin parts," as the old Captain was wont to express it years afterward. Cuppy kept near Downing until they came up with Dillow, who had gotten into an awkward scrape by pulling the knot of a handkerchief, which he had about his neck, in the wrong direction, and, being unable to loose it, was almost suffocated. Downing .tore away the handkerchief, and the three ran on to a large thorn-tree, where Downing, who, being a very large man and almost exhausted by the race, stopped, and declared that he would go no further, but stay there and kilt as many as he 474 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY. could before they got his scalp. At this juncture, Miller and Foulke got back to the deserted camp as related above, and heard the firing of their friends down the bluff. Miller had the most unbounded confidence in his own ability to outrun the whole party of red men, and determined to save the party by his fleetness if he could ; so he gave a series of bantering yells which met quick answer, and his powers were at once put to the test, for the. whole gang, as if by preconcerted signal, turned and followed him. Coming to the creek, he gave a desperate leap, clearing the stream, he said he believed, at one bound. He gave a glance back, and, seeing an Indian coming down the one bank as he went up the other; he exclaimed : " Now legs fer it," and bounded off. He ran perhaps two miles without venturing to look back, when he discovered that he was alone, and no pursuer in sight. He at once struck out for the river rendezvous. The Indians, in relating the story of this chase afterward, said : 'White man run like hell. " On his way to the river, Miller slept all night in the woods under a fallen chestnut tree, the site of which was known. for many years, but is now too much in dispute to be located. Foulke hid himself in the woods near where Pekin now stands, and saw the Indians bury their dead the next day. He said there were at least two killed, one being buried near the present site of Mr. Thomas .Jackson's residence in Minerva. The scouts all met the second day after the fight at headquarters; and lived for years to tell the tale of their narrow escape. In October, 1793, this same five scouts, Dillon, Miller, Downing, Cuppy and Faulk, made an excursion, passing through this township to a point within about six miles of the villages of the Huron Indians, on the Huron River, in the present county of Huron, this State ; they here attacked an Indian camp ; the. time chosen was at daybreak as soon as they could see the sights on their rifles. One of the Indians, becoming uneasy from some cause, took up his gun and came out and stood between the Rangers and the camp fire. Faulk said he would shoot him, and did so, when they rushed upon the . camp and killed two more Indians. The Indian whom Faulk had first shot was not yet dead, but that gentleman declared that " he had begun and he'd finish him," so he drew his tomahawk, buried it the Indian's brain, scalped him, and the scouts returned to their rendezvous on the Ohio River. Thus it was, that savage Indians were pursued to the death by scarcely less savage white men, in order to plant the present civilization, which is shaken to its center by a deed of blood. that, in those days of yore, would have hardly been deemed worthy of a passing notice. Among our most respected and best known pioneer citizens now living is Mr. Jacob Glessner.: Mr. Glessner was born about 1794 or 1795, and his twin brother, Jonathan Glessner, is yet living in Indiana. Mr. Glessner's mind is quite clear, and he relates many interesting incidents of early times. He came to Ohio in 1818, and worked at his trade, that of a cabinet-maker, near New Lisbon ; here he took a job of laying a large floor, and was to receive in payment a lot of produce, which, when counted up at the prices prevailing at the time, came to $9. This, considering that by dint of lively work he did the job all in one day, was deemed a remarkable day's wages. He, however, had to hire a man to take it to town, and when he got there and paid his team- ster, he had not money enough left to buy a hat, which he much needed, and had to go into debt for the balance. All this was bad enough, but when the hatter. became alarmed about his pay and sued for the amount due him, Mr. Glessner began to conclude that he had better work for-less wages and take better pay. About the year 1838, there lived near what. was known as the Baker or McIntosh Mill, on Little Sandy, a cooper by the name of Jesse Evans. He was, in the main, a peaceful man, and remarkable for qualities of intelligence above his neighbors. He had a son William, who, at a law-suit between his father and one of the Creighton family, was compelled to give evidence unfavorable to his father. This led to a fierce quarrel, and the next morning William was missing. Suspicion was aroused, and search was at once instituted, but the young man had disappeared utterly. Parties were organized and the mill-dam dragged, the woods scoured in every direction. A place was said to have been found where a struggle had evidently taken place ; hair and blood were found