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Tuscarawas County, Ohio
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History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Source: Combination atlas map of Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Strasburg, Ohio: Gordon Print.,
1875
359 pgs. L H Everts
 

AUBURN TOWNSHIP
pgs. 2 - 3

     The organization of Auburn occurred in 1831.  Its northern part was taken from Goshen, its southern territory from Salem, Townships.  It is essentially an agricultural section, and contains the village of Ragersville, laid out by Conrad Rager in 1830.  The place is situated in the south central part of the township, west of Sugar Creek.  Additions have been successively made by Daniel Zimmerman in 1848, Conway, Snyder and Allender, same date, and Levi Sergent in 1851.  Lands near the village which a few years since sold at three to ten dollars an acre, now command sixty to one hundred.
     Among the pioneers were Ellis Hughes, Hugh Hughes, Lewis Lawbaugh, Willis Butler, and Mrs. Young.  John Garver and John Allender were two who came very early.  Michael Swagler built and ran the first water-mill in the neighborhood.  It was a great convenience, and, till consumed by fire, was the means of drawing a great deal of trade to the place.  A steam-mill was erected by Frederick Norning, in 1851, for Messrs. Neff, Snyder & Carnes, who have kept it constantly at work, with slight intermissions for repairs, to the present time.  The flour manufactured there was taken in large quantities to Dover, by wagons, and from there shipped by canal to Cleveland.
     The first storekeeper in Ragersville was the town's proprietor, Conrad Rager, whose daughter is known to be the first child born in the town.  Her mother, at the advanced age of eighty-two, is hearty and active.  Industry and economy find here an illustration.  Those who settled in this section have exchanged their poverty for comfort, and the numerous pianos found in the people's homes attest the love of music and a plane of refined taste.  It is recorded as a fact that game became most abundant at the time the white settlement began.  It is thus accounted for:  The whites drove the game across the Ohio, but, for fear of angering the Indians, did not follow it.  The Indians chastised by Wayne dared not approach the river, and the game resorted hither in great numbers.  Deer, bear, wolves, turkeys, and wild geese abounded.  In the river here at Tuscarawas were shoals of the finest fish, - pike, salmon, perch, and sturgeon.  In the woods, bee-hunters found a plentiful supply of honey; while vipers, copperheads, black rattlesnakes, numerous and poisonous, kept the mothers anxious for fear of children being bitten.  Hunting was both an amusement and a source of subsistence.  The Mizers, Neffs, and Millers are spoken of as notables of this class of settlers.  Some of these assert that they had killed over a hundred deer in a single season.  Grapes are raised, and excellent wine made.  There are six cheese-factories in the township, whose annual production of Swiss cheese is forty-two tons.  Good wheat is raised upon the farm lands, alternated with clover, of which seed a large amount is sold.
 

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