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township were by Evangelical ministers in private houses. The first preacher was Bishop John Seibert. In the Methodist Church, the pioneer was Rev. T. Heistand. The United Brethren have a church five miles northeast of Rossville, near the Meisse property. The plans have been made and the money subscribed for a new brick church at Rossville. It is to be built by the United Brethren, and will cost about $1,200.

There are nine schoolhouses in the township, five are brick, four are frame, and have an average seating capacity of forty-five. Rossville, a village of recent date, was laid out by John G. Ross, in 1868, from a part of eighty acres owned by him and Robert Ross laid off a few lots adjacent to the plat, from his farm. During the year, a village store was started by Solomon Frank, and a post office established. Two years prior to this, a blacksmith named John Clapper had built a shop, and accommodated the farmers with a place where tools could be repaired and horses shod.

The products of the township are those usual to this section. Of these, corn is the staple; in 1879, 2,111 acres were planted, and 75,232 bushels produced; 1.170 acres of wheat yielded 18,390 bushels; 643 in oats produced 18,962 bushels ; 91 acres in potatoes yielded 6,086 bushels; 21,352 pounds of butter were made, 4,738 gallons of sirup. The waste lands number but 45 acres; the cultivated, 5,454; the pasture, 193, and the wood land 6,095; the number of acres owned is 11.757. Some few sheep are kept; but, as seen, the grains are heavily raised and much of the profit from farming are derived from the fattening and sale of hogs. The amount of fruit produced is small; attention has not been directed that way.

MISSISSINAWA TOWNSHIP.

Township 14, Range 1, was a part of Jackson Township previous to 1839, when it was taken from the north end and formed into a township and designated as above. It included all of Township 14, Range 1, except the north tier of sections, which were then included in Gibson Township. April 12, 1848, when Gibson was thrown into Mercer County, this tier of sections was then taken into the township. Mississinawa is five miles wide east and west, and six miles long from north to south, and is absolutely regular in outline.

It derived its name from its principal stream-the Mississinawa Creek, which rises near the center of the township, runs southeasterly just over into the edge of Allen Township, then southwesterly, crossing the pike nearly half-way from Rose Hill to Lightsville, and thence in a general course a little north of south of west to the county line, in the northern part of Section 30, one and three-fourths miles north of Jackson Township line.

The surface is generally level, except the northwest portions, which are somewhat inclined to be hilly. The soil is warm and strong, and along the creek bottom is probably as productive as any other section of the county. About one-third of the surface of this township is timber-land with a fine growth of oak, ash, elm, hickory, sugar-maple and beech. Around the pleasant village of Rose Hill there is a greater predominance of yellowish clay in the soil, and the beech is found in the greatest numbers.

The days of discomfort have passed into forgetfulness, and the farmers to-day improve and enjoy what their predecessors toiled and suffered to make habitable. The old settlers' farms are under a good state of improvement, and, as a rule, are free from incumbrances. Crops of all kinds average well. A great deal of tile has been laid, and much excellent land rendered available to tillage by thorough drainage.

The pioneer settler in this township was Philip Replogle, who located in the year 1833, on the land since owned by Jacob Replogle, half a mile east of Rose Hill. In 1835, Joseph and William Replogle settled near the village. Other of

the early settlers were John B. Anderson, Samuel C. Carter, David Brooks, John A. McKibben, Hugh McKibben, William Van Kirk, William B. Light, Francis Whitaker, E. H. Fisher and Mahlon Peters.

The first schoolhouse was built on the land of Caroline Grissom, the date of its erection not known. The first church was erected by the Methodists in 1851, on land then owned by Samuel C. Carter, and situated one and a half miles east of the southwest corner of the township, on the line between Jackson and Mississinewa Townships. Samuel Carter was the first Justice of the Peace in the township.

Rose Hill is located one mile west of the eastern line of the township and three miles north at the corners of Sections 14, 15, 22 and 23, and was laid out in 1852. The village of Lightsville was laid out by William B. Light, in 1874. It is located on Section 26, just within the eastern boundary of the township, one and a half miles from the southeastern corner. It has a population of about one hundred and fifty.

This village has a fine schoolhouse that will seat eighty pupils. It is a new building, recently erected at a cost of about $1,200. A saw-mill was put up in the southwestern part of the town by A. R. Crumrine. The mill burned down in 1868. Another and the present one was built in the summer of 1873. by William S. Light.

JACKSON TOWNSHIP.

The township of Jackson cannot claim great antiquity, as compared with its older sisters, consequently its history deals more particularly with events more nearly modern, and whose active influence are still being felt.

The northern part is comparatively level, with a gentle slope toward the Mississinewa River. The soil is mainly a dark loam, very productive. Though the lands lie low in places, extensive drainage and tiling are rapidly making them available, and in a few years these tracts will have become the garden spots of the township.

The timber in this section is oak, ask, hickory, elm, etc., with originally a fine growth of walnut, of which little now remains. In the central part of the township, the surface is more uneven, but may be characterized as undulating, rather than hilly, with a tendency to clay soil in the more elevated portions. This is the upland section of the township. Beech is the predominating timber in this part of Jackson, followed, in order of abundance, by the sugar maple and shell-bark hickory. Southward, the surface is still more rolling, the soil lighter, warmer and very fertile in the depressions. Originally there was much poplar here, but the demand for this timber for lumber has exhausted the supply, and very few trees now remain.

James Marquis was the first settler in the township. He came in 1830, accompanied by his family, from the Alleghany Ridge, Virginia. He was a stal wart among pioneers, being of powerful frame and of full 300 pounds weight. Uniting robust health with this strong frame, he was the ideal of the pioneer, ranging the wood for game or felling the giant monarchs of the forest with swift and heavy strokes.

In 1831, his brother, William K. Marquis, removing from the old home, joined him in the woods of Jackson, and for two years, or until 1833, these were the only two families in the township, though there were four or five cabins about two miles distant, in the Creviston neighborhood. Washington Township. Kidd Marquis was born in 1794, served during the war of 1812, removed to Jackson, as said, where he died in 1858. His wife, in her eighty-sixth year. is healthy and active, makes journeys of several miles on foot, and possesses her faculties unimpaired. She is a worthy type of the settler's wife, having raised a family of nine children, now grown to maturity and filling honorable positions in life-a marked contrast

this to the feeble health of many modern matrons with their one or two children. In 1831, a man named Burns moved in, upon the Reeves Hand place, between Union City and Hillgrove, on the bank of Dismal Creek. In 1833, Frederick Roe came from Fayette County and located upon land adjoining the Marquis clearing on the west, a portion of which is now included in the Union City incorporation.

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Pioneer" Jesse Grey settled one and one-fourth miles east of Union City, on the Greenville pike of to-day, at an early day, and by some it has been claimed that himself and family were the first in the township, but his original location was just across the line, in Washington Township. Grey was naturally kind of heart, but cherished a deep antipathy toward the Indians, and it was claimed by others and admitted by himself, that he shot them on sight, whenever possible, in revenge for terrible wrongs inflicted on his ancestors years before.

It is related by Dr. W. J. Stewart, who, while on a journey to Adams County, Ind., in 1859, called at the log cabin of Mr. Grey, who had removed thither and settled near Buena Vista, that he found the old gentleman, now over eighty years of age, living with his third wife, and the father of a bright little lad of some eight years. Conversation turning upon marksmanship with the rifle, the old man spoke of having shot a deer the day before from his cabin door. He then took a target about an inch square, and sent it out by his little boy to a tree just one hundred and ten yards distant. Standing at the cabin door he discharged several balls into the very center of the mark without a rest, a feat for which he might well feel pride.

On one occasion, he came upon an Indian, between whom and himself there existed a special enmity. Neither had the advantage, and they agreed to stand side by side, discharge their rifles and walk to some settlement. On the way to a clearing the Indian spoke of thirst, and both kneeled down to drink. Grey left his companion at the creek, and although he never confessed the murder, it was left to be inferred that he did kill the Indian at the creek.

We are told that about 1833, there were three settlements formed within the present limits of the township, viz.: One about three miles from a road running from Greenville to the trading-posts of one Courier, now known as the Greenville pike, consisting of the families of William Parent, Tobias and Abraham Miller, John Armstrong and George Elston, a single man; a second was in the southwest portion of the township, and composed of the families of John Woods, Marquis and Roe; and the third in the northeastern part of Jackson, comprising the families of Richard, John and Jacob Strait, Gilbert Vail and John Wright. These settlements having rapidly increased, the people realized the necessity of some kind of organization by means of which they would be enabled to rule themselves. Therefore, in 1833, a petition was presented to the proper authorities, praying for a township formation. Thereupon the court appointed John Armstrong Justice of the Peace, and William Parent, Constable, to serve until the regular township election, which took place in the following spring, resulting in the election of Armstrong to the office of Justice of the Peace, and, Parent refusing to be a candidate, Samuel Dennison was chosen Constable.

It seems that on organization Jackson Township contained Townships 13, 14 and 15 of Range 1, which were then embraced within the limits of Washington Township. In June, 1836, Township 15 and the north tier of sections of Township 14 were detached from Jackson and named Gibson Township. Three years later, in March, the remainder of Township 14 was formed into Mississinawa Township. Following formation, the settlement of Jackson continued by the entry of lands, and the increase of clearings. In 1834, Hezekiah Fowler arrived with his family from Maryland. He hastily put up a log shed, on the prevailing plan of a "sugar camp," that is, with an open front, and in this rude covering passed the winter. In 1835, Matthias Sawyer entered land where the Archard place now is, north of town. James Marquis, above referred to as the pioneer of Jackson, had three sons, Henry, William and Lewis. The former inhabits the old homestead

on Grey's branch. Lewis lives a short distance south of Union City, Ind. William moved to Iowa, in 1858, and died there. The elder Marquis was a Methodist local preacher, and a well-educated man for one who had gained his knowledge by self-application. He gave his attention to medicine, and became in time a very good doctor. Although a Virginian, he was a notable Abolitionist, and spoke upon the subject in both Ohio and Indiana, being at times subjected to vituperation and personal abuse, which he was not backward in resenting.

William Dennison was born in Washington Township, and came into Jackson in 1833; settled four miles northeast of Union City, where he entered eighty acres of the southwest quarter of Section 14. He worked at $7 per month, and split rails at 25 cents a hundred, to secure money to pay for his farm. He had seven children, and died April 19, 1853.

Isaiah Pickett and wife moved from South Carolina to Washington Township, in 1836, and "squatted" on land near Flory's, on Greenville Creek; later he moved to Hillgrove, and built a small house just east of the Methodist Church, where he remained a few years, and later, moved to land between Hillgrove and Union City. He died in March, 1856.

When the township was first settled, the country was a dense forest. Wolves began their dismal howling about dark and kept it up for hours. Wild turkeys would come within the clearings to pick up food, and it was a common practice to leave the door of the corncrib open, and sometimes two or three birds would be caught at once in this way.

There was no outlet from the clearings but by blazed paths through the interminable woods. For the accommodation of the settlements, a petition was presented to the County Commissioners, asking for the establishment of a road running from a point on the Greenville and Mississinewa pike in the southwestern part of the township, in a northeasterly direction, intersecting the Greenville and Fort Recovery road, where it crosses the Stillwater, and this road, duly established, was the first highway located and cleared by the people of Jackson Township.

The first church in the township was erected by the Methodists, on the land of John Woods, now owned by Jacob Darlinger, and is still standing. The United Brethren erected a chapel near the center of the township on the Teegarden pike. It is a frame building in which Rev. Keester holds alternating services, the other point being Union City. The Christian denomination hold meetings in the schoolhouse, two miles north of the Huntsbarger corners. Revs. Alonzo Laten and Smith preach here alternately. The First Christian Church of Union City, Ohio, was organized with about thirty-five members, by Elders Henry Gittinger. Harrison Vinson and C. M. Sharp, in the year 1861. Elder H. Gittinger was the first Pastor of the church. The following named ministers served successively as Pastors of the church, viz., H. Vinson, C. M. Sharp, A. W. Brodric, J. Jacobs, J. Weeks, T. S. Wells and T. A. Brandon. A building was constructed in the eastern part of the city, on two lots on the corner of Oak and Plum streets, at a cost of $1,300. The builder was Jacob Deardorff, and the dedication was by Rev. Joseph Weeks. In 1876, the United Brethren purchased the house and still own it.

Educational interests have not been neglected, as is evidenced by ten school districts, with schools in a flourishing condition. One of the first schoolhouses remembered, stood at the cross roads, one mile east of the Strait settlement," and one of the early teachers was Richard Butler, from German Township, some time in 1842-43. Another early school building was erected on Section 35, on land owned by John Armstrong. In 1835, the first subscription school was taught by Amos Barrier, in the Marquis neighborhood. Barrier moved here with his family and opened the school the same year. Alem Fowler was also among the earlier teachers. In 1835, a log schoolhouse was put up on the Crumrine land, now owned by George Haas. Michael Spayd taught the first public school in 1836.

The buildings of the present indicate attention to the comfort of the children. Eight brick and two frame houses, nearly uniform in style and size, accommodate

the youth of the township. The brick cost $1,200 each, and a tax has been levied to replace the remaining frame with brick structures. Their average seating capacity is sixty; teachers' wages, $1.50 per day, and two-thirds of the teachers are gentlemen.

It is remembered that in various sections of this country the gravel hills have been used by an extinct race as the depositories of the remains of their dead, and, in excavating gravel for the State line pike, a great quantity of human bones were discovered which may have belonged to those unknown people. One of the earliest deaths known to Jackson was that of Edward Payne, an old soldier of 1812, who had also participated in the battles of the Revolution; he was buried in the woods under a beech-tree, there being at this time no graveyard. Within a few years, Mr. Galloway took up the remains and buried them in the new cemetery. The original grave here spoken of was the first one made in Union City. Ohio. There is as yet no cemetery in the Ohio portion of the city, but there are graveyards—one on the Marquis farm and one at Hill Grove.

It remains to speak of the mills by whose aid the timber was made a source of wealth and comfort. The Buckthorn mill, on the Teegarden pike, has been running about sixteen years. It was built by John Parent, and still does a large business, turning out a great deal of heavy timber for railroad and pike purposes. At first, a sash saw was used, afterward a muley, and more recently a circular. This is a steam mill. Two miles north of this mill there is another, owned by J. Hayes, and by him built in 1875. This is also a steam mill, with circular saw. Formerly, what was known as the Rifle Mill stood three miles north of Hunts barger Cross Roads. It was run by steam, and done away with several years ago. At Dogtown, three miles east of Union City, on the Panhandle road, Samuel Dennison & Co. put up a steam saw-mill about 1855, which did an extensive business. Much of the lumber used in Union City was obtained from this mill. It changed hands many times, and was last owned by Robison, Harlers & McKee.

Politically, for the last ten years the township has been Democratic; previously it had been Republican and Whig. About one-sixth of the population is German, one-sixth Irish, and the remainder are American. Industry is the common trait. and the township is a satisfactory home for its people.

UNION CITY.

This enterprising, dual-State city, situated upon that intangible reality the State line," contains two village corporations with corresponding sets of officials. The western portion is known as the Indiana Side" and the eastern as the "Ohio Side," and this designation is convenient in reference to these localities. The former is accredited with a population of 5,000, the latter nearly 2,000, making an estimate of 7,000.

The original plat of Union City, Ind., includes a quarter-section of land purchased by Jerry Smith of Augustus Loveland early in 1852, for $1,200, he having inherited it a few years previously from his father-in-law, Mr. Crumrine. Prior to 1852, no railroads had been completed to this place. The Dayton & Union terminated at Greenville, and there was a sixty-mile gap east and west of Union City on what is now known as the Bee Line road. On December 25, 1852, the former road was completed to Union City, and during the year following the second was finished, and the extraordinary growth of the city is evidenced by the fact of its incorporation. In 1854, the Monroe & Mississinawa Railroad was begun and partially graded, but the enterprise lay dormant until 1866, when, through the energy of Dr. J. N. Converse and others, it was pushed forward, and completed in 1867, under the title of the Union & Logansport Railroad. It was subsequently leased to the owners of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad. Among the first houses erected was a boarding-house by Jacob Livergood for the accommodation of the hands on the Bellefontaine and Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati

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