CHAPTER XIII
WAYNE TOWNSHIP
p. 485
Wayne Township
takes its name from "Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of
Story Point and the conqueror of the Indians at "Fallen
Timbers" in 1794. It was formed in 1806, and was
one of hte six townships into which the county was at
that time reorganized. It originally included the
territory now occupied by Oliver, Scott
and Winchester Townships.
Surface.
The
surface is undulating. In the east central portion
it is broken by low hills, and deeply furrowed by the
water courses. The soil is a heavy clay, highly
impregnated with iron and for the most part produces
fine crops of corn, wheat and clover. The narrow
valleys are very fertile and grew an excellent quality
of tobacco. In the western part of the township
the soil is a compact boulder clay, and is rated as
"thin land." The valley of Cherry Fork, a
tributary of the West Fork of Ohio Brush Creek, embraces
some of the prettiest farms and most fertile lands in
Adams County.
Creeks.
Three
small branches from the northwest, west and southwest
portions of the township respectivelly, unite a little
to the west of hte village of North Liberty and form
Cherry Fork of the West Fork of Ohio Brush Creek.
It is a narrow and rapid stream and in its lower course
attains considerable size. From the great number
of large wild cherry trees that formerly grew in the
valley of this stream it derives its name. At
Harshaville it receives the waters of Grace's Run, a
pretty little stream that flows through the north part
of the township and which is augmented in its course by
Martin's Run near the Oliver Township line.
Early Settlers.
Samuel
Wright, who came from Kentucky to Cherry Fork and
erected a cabin where the brick dwelling now stands on
the Allison farm, just to the west of the
present village of North Liberty, was perhaps first
settler within the present limits of the township.
This was in March, 1799. Here he lived and died,
having reared a large family, of which a son, William,
was the father of A. M. Wright, the gunsmith of
Cherry Fork, now in his eighty-fifth year, yet working
at his trade like a man of forty. He has in his
possession a pair of doe-skin gloves made by a sister of
his father. Margaret McKittrick, as a
wedding gift and which was worn by him at his marriage.
A pair of silk stockings, wore by his father when he was
married, and kept as "wedding" stockings
Page 486 -
and worn by
each of his seven sons and four daughters at their
marriages is also carefully treasured away by Mr.
Wright.
In the year 1800, Adam
Kirkpatrick came from Bourbon County, Kentucky, and
settled on the farm now owned by Catherine Liggett
on Grace's Run. He married Rosanna Patton.
In this year, also, Joseph McNeil and his
brother James built cabins on Cherry Fork about a
mile southeast of the village of North Liberty.
The next year Francis McClellan settled near the
McNeils. Then cam James and William
McKittrick and located where John Widney now
resides on lands then owned by Samuel Wright.
In 1801, Robert Morrison settled on the farm
now owned by William Morrison near Eckmansville.
James Smith came to the Nathan Pllummer
farm in 1802, and Robert Foster located on the
Foster farm two miles southeast of North Liberty.
In this year, also, James Young settled at
Youngsville, and William Finley, James Finley, John
McIntire and James Caskey located in the
eastern portion of the township. Thomas Wasson,
in 1805, built a cabin on the farm recently owned by
Campbell Wasson. Daniel Marlatt, in 1804,
settled on the old Marlatt farm west of North
Liberty, and William and Daniel John, and
James Ross came to the township about the time of
its organization.
The Cherry Fork Cemetery.
at the village of North Liberty is the
oldest burial place in the township. General
Robert Morrison has stated that he dug the grave for
the first interment here, the little son of William
Davidson killed by lightning in the year of 1802.
The negro, Roscoe Parker, who was lynched by a
mob for the murder of old Mr. and Mrs. Rhine, was
buried in the northwest part of the old cemetery in the
"pauper's corner," by old Sam Bradley, an
ex-slave, who for many years was a familiar figure about
the village of North Liberty.
The new cemetery south of the present U. P. Church is a
prettily arranged and beautifully ornamented "city of
the dead."
Churches.
There are four
churches in the township: The U. P. (see sketch of) at
North Liberty; the M. E. at same place; the
Presbyterian, at Eckmansville, and "Peoples," at
Youngsville.
Schools.
NORTH LIBERTY ACADEMY - The village of North Liberty in
days gone by was a widely known educational center.
"The Old Academy on the hill," with its broad, green
lawn ornamented with shrubs, vines and evergreens, is
held in the memory of hundreds of fathers and mothers as
a beautiful oasis in the schooldays of their youth.
The beginning of the North Liberty Academy was a Select
School taught by Rev. Jacob Fisher at his own
home in the winter of 1848-9. In 1851 the old
Associate Reformed Church building, one-half mile east
of North Liberty, was moved to the village and fitted up
for an academy building, where Rev. Fisher taught
several terms. In the summer of 1852, Rev.
James Arbuthnot taught several terms. In the
summer of 1852, Rev. Jams Arbuthnot taught a
select school in the old brick church south of the
village. In 1852-3, Rev. Arbuthnot and
Rev. W. H. Anderson conducted a class in the old
Associate building. In 1854, Rev.
Page 487 -
Arbuthnot, James Wright and D. H. Harsha
conducted the school. Then came Rev. Gilbert
Small and Rev. N. R. Kirkpatrick. About
this date a joint stock company was organized, and the
present building was erected. It is a massive
frame of the old academic style of architecture, with
great dome rising from the center, and is after the
lapse of nearly a half century, in good condition.
The following advertisement from an old newspaper
points clearly to the beginning of the North Liberty
Academy: "Efficient means having been taken
permanently to establish an Academy at North Liberty, a
suitable room has been provided for temporary occupancy,
and arrangements have been made for opening a School on
Wednesday, Apr. 1, 1857, to be taught by the Rev. N.
R. Kirkpatrick assisted by Rev. Gilbert Small.
Tuition for languages, Algebra, etc., $5.50; English
lower branches, $3.25; Boarding, $2.00."
The Academy was conducted by teachers of more or less
ability and with varying success financially, until
1868, when the ability and with varying success
financially, until 1868, when the academy was sold to
Rev. Joseph Smith, a Baptist minister. He and
his wife, a most excellent lady and teacher of marked
ability, built up the school, improved grounds, and did
much to make the school prosperous. But Prof.
Smith, a robust and strong-minded gentleman, with
very pronounced views on the questions of temperance,
politics and social affairs, was a thorn in the side of
a little coterie of individuals such as may be found in
all isolated communities, who assume to be social,
religious and political autocrats. The community
in and about North Liberty was mainly Abolitionist and
radically Republican in politics, and Associated Reform
(United Presbyterians) and Covenanters in religion, the
very impersonation of "holier than thou." Prof.
Smith was a Democrat, a Baptist, and an advocate of
temperance who declared the secret indulgence in
alcoholic drink, a greater evil than the moderate open
use of the same. These differences of opinion
between Prof. Smith and the would-be autocrats
soon led to bitter personalities, with the result that
his school was tabooed and he ostracized in the
community. In 1882, Prof. E. B. Stivers, of
the Higginsport, Ohio, public schools, leased the
Academy from Prof. Smith and opened a Normal and
Training School for teachers. From the first the
new school was a success. In the Spring and Summer
terms of 1883 there were nearly 100 students enrolled
and four teachers were employed. In September of
this year, Prof. Stivers took charge of the West
Union public schools, and the Academy having been
purchased by the U. P. Church was again put under
sectarian control. After two years of
disappointment, the management leased the buildings to
Prof. Jones, now Superintendent of the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, Columbus, O., and Prof. Dodge, an
eminent instructor, who again built the school up to its
former standard. Profs. Jones and Dodge
were succeeded by adventurers in academic and normal
school work, with the result that the building and
grounds were sold to the Board of Education of Wayne
Township and converted into a public school building in
1893.
If many of the energetic and liberal minded men who at
various period attempted to found a permanent
institution for the instruction and training of young
men and women at the old academy had been unselfishly
supported by the community, there would be there today a
school with hundreds of students and an institution, a
credit to the community.
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Sub-District
Schools.
The first schoolhouse in the township was a log
structure on the Baldridge farm, in which
William Patton was the first teacher.
There are eight sub-districts in the township, and in
each there is a plain, chap frame schoolhouse by the
dusty roadside with neither shade nor lawn excepting the
town school in the old academy building.
Teachers are paid from $25 to $35 per month, and the
schools are in session from six months to eight months
in the year. The following is the enrollment in
each district in the year 1899:
No. |
Males. |
Females |
-- |
No. |
Males. |
Females. |
1 |
16 |
29 |
|
5 |
28 |
45 |
2 |
15 |
19 |
|
6 |
8 |
16 |
3 |
33 |
20 |
|
7 |
16 |
13 |
4 |
26 |
14 |
|
8 |
29 |
17 |
Mills.
Samuel Wright, the first settler at Cherry Fork,
built the first mill, a tub-wheel, about the year 1802,
on the creek near where Hunter's steam mill now
stands. Afterwards, Robert Thomas erected a
horse mill at this point which was in later years
supplanted by a water mill and this in turn by a steam
mill. At the present steam mill in 1879, the
proprietor, Stewart McCormick, was mangled and
killed by his clothing becoming entangled in the belting
of the machinery. David Potts, his
brother-in-law, succeeded Mr. McCormick, and
conducted the business for some years. the present
proprietor's name is Hunter.
Villages.
NORTH LIBERTY
(or Cherry Fork) POSTOFFICE was laid out in 1848 by
Col. William McVey. He was a radical
Abolitionist and name the village North Liberty, as the
new village plat lay north of Cherry Fork, and his
residence and store to the south of that stream,
opposite the old water mill. The village now
contains two general stores, one drug store, hardware
store, furniture store, and merchant tailor shop, A.
D. Kirk, proprietor, and one hotel. There are
two resident physicians, two churches, and one Lodge, I.
O. O. F. Population about 300. It is nine
miles from West Union and five miles from Winchester and
fourteen miles from West Union and five miles from
Winchester and fourteen miles from Manchester on the
Ohio River.
YOUNGSVILLE is situated two miles to the southward from
the town of Seaman on the C. P. & V. Ry. It was
founded by David Young who opened a small store
there in 1840. C. E. Silcott & Company did
a flourishing business there for many years. J.
F. Young and others also, were merchants in the
village. It has one church - The Peoples in
which any denomination may hold service.
Population about 75.
ECKMANSVILLE - This is a little cluster of buildings
two miles southwest of North Liberty, among which there
is one store, one blacksmith shop and two churches - one
M. E. and one Presbyterian. The village was laid out by
Henry Eckman, a blacksmith, who first settled
here in 1824. In the period from 1870 to 1885,
John Morrison and son, and later A. B. Morrison
& Company did a flourishing mercantile and banking
business of this village.
Page 489 -
The United Presbyterian Church.
About the year 1797-8 several families, members of the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, came from
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky to the East Fork of
Eagle Creek, Adams County, in the vicinity of the
present town of West Union. These families
petitioned the Presbytery of Kentucky, and Rev. Adam
Rankin was the first supply sent by that body
He preached at the house of James January who
then kept a tavern at the foot of the hill west of West
Union on the old Cincinnati road, in the autumn of 1799.
In the autumn of 1802 four ruling elders, Joseph
McNeil, Stephen Bayless, John Leach and Paul Kerr,
were elected, and ordained by Rev. A. Craig.
This was the first organization of the A. R.
Presbyterian Church in Adams County. The first
Lord's supper was administered in the congregation by
Revs. Rankin, Craig and Steele in the autumn
of 1803. About this time Rev. David Risk,
both recently from Scotland, came within the bounds of
the congregation. Rev. Bishop continued as
a stated supply until the summer of 1804. At this
time Rev. Bishop refused a call as pastor of the
congregation at a salary of $400, one-half his time to
be devoted to preaching to members on Cherry Fork (at
North Liberty) of Brush Creek. The Rev. Risk
was then called. He accepted and was duly
installed as pastor of the congregation. In the
spring of 1805 the members living at Cherry Fork were
organized into a separate congregation, and John
Wright, Samuel Wright, and John McIntire were
ordained ruling elders who, with Joseph McNeil,
ordained at Eagle Creek, constituted the first session
of the Cherry Fork congregation. The church house
was built of logs, the cracks chinked with blocks and
daubed with clay. There was neither fire-place nor
stove, and no floor. The congregation sat on slabs
of timber supported on pegs. Rev. Risk
continued in charge of the congregation about two years,
dividing his time equally between it and the Eagle Creek
congregation nine miles away. Rev. Risk
demitted his charge in August, 1806, and until the
autumn of 1809 these congregations were without a
pastor. In the meantime the members residing on
West Fork of Brush Creek and George's Creek
(Tranquility) organized at the West Fork congregation
and erected Hopewell Meeting House. In the summer
of 1808 Rev. William Baldridge, of Big Springs,
Virginia, preached to these congregations. On the
twentieth of November he took charge of the congregation
here, having removed with his family from Virginia.
His time was divided one-half being devoted to Cherry
Fork. For this latter service he was to receive
$165, one-half of this in articles of merchandise at the
following prices as fixed by a committee from the
congregation of which Judge Robert Morrison was
chairman:
Beef and Pork, per cwt
................................. |
$2.50 |
Wheat, per bushel
.........................................
|
.58 |
Rye, per bushel
............................................
|
.42 |
Corn, per bushel
...........................................
|
.25 |
Oats, per bushel
............................................ |
.25 |
Whiskey, per gal.
.......................................... |
.50 |
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Seven hundred linen, per yard
....................... |
.50 |
Clean swingled flax, per yard
......................... |
.12½ |
Maple sugar, per pound
................................. |
.12½ |
At the beginning of Rev. Baldridge's pastorate
the old log church at Cherry Fork was enlarged by taking
down one side and adding a room by making off-sets where
the extension began. One of these off-sets was
arranged for a pulpit which placed it at the middle of
one side of the building enlarged to 35x55 feet.
Stoves were not provided until ten or twelve years
later.
Rev. Baldridge was not installed as pastor,
reguularly, until the year 1820. The reason of
this delay was that Rev. Baldridge was supposed
to sympathize with Dr. Mason in his deviating
course. In 1829 West Union, Cherry Fork, West Fork
and Russellville (North Fork of Eagle Creek) united in
calling Samuel C. Baldridge to be colleague to
his father in a joint pastorate over these four
congregations. Rev. William Baldridge died
in 1830. The congregation was vacant for two
years. In the spring of 1832, the Lord's Supper
was administered by Rev. D. McDill.
On the first of November,
1832, Rev. Robert Stewart toook charge of the
congregation at Cherry Fork and West Fork. He wes
ordained and installed in the following December.
He received as one-half his salary from the Cherry Fork
congregation $219.35. In 1833 a new brick church
house 50x50 feet was erected containing fifty-eight
pews.
In 1837 the question of Negro slavery and the
temperance movement, divided the Cherry Fork
congregation, and Col. William McVey with others
formed the "Associate Congregation of North Liberty."
In 1846 the Unity congregation was formed. Rev.
Stewart died in the year 1851, having been born near
Wheeling, Virginia, in 1796. In September, 1853,
Rev. D. McDill was ordained and installed as
pastor of the congregation. In 1855 the present
commodious brick church was erected. It is 50x70
feet with a 22-foot ceiling. After Rev. McDill's
resignation, John S. Martin was called and
accepted, and was installed in October, 1877, which
place he filled with marked ability until the date of
his death, Apr. 6, 1889. Rev. Martin
received a salary of $1,000.
On Sept. 30, 1890, the
present pastor, J. A. C. McQuiston, was installed
over the congregation , at a salary of $1,000.
Rev. McQuiston is a native of Illinois.
The church is in a
fairly prosperous condition - the membership being
composed generally of prosperous farmers and merchants.
The "clanish" spirit yet manifests itself among those of
limited education and of little experience in the world,
but the younger element is inclined to be liberal and
broad-minded.
In fine weather the Sabbath service is largely
attended, each member turning out in his best carriage
drawn by his most spirited team - and it is a sight
never to be forgotten, this line of carriages - a line
not exceded in length or numbers at any place of worship
in the State.
REMINISCENCES.
The last black
bear ever seen in this portion of Adams County was
caught in a trap by Samuel Wright's boys about
the year 1835, near the mouth of Grace's Run on Cherry
Fork. It weighed nearly two hundred pounds after
being skinned and dressed. At that time deer were
plentiful in this region.
A Remarkable Centenarian.
In 1883
there was living near Youngsville in this township, a
pioneer of the western country, by name of Joseph
Smittle. In August of that year, the writer
attended a basket dinner given at the residence of the
old pioneer celebrating his 104th birthday. He was
then in full possession of his faculties, excepting his
sight which was somewhat impaired. His hair was
but slightly streaked with gray, and he had the general
appearance of a well-preserved man of not more than
seventy-five years of age. He lived to be 106
years old.
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