Montgomery Twp. -
HENRY GAMBLE removed to the farm upon which he now resides in March, 1815 - having entered his land at the office in Canton, in 1813.  Mr. Gamble served during the last war with Great Britain; and was engaged in the service at Fort Meigs.  His neighbors, at the time of his settlement, according to his recollection, were Daniel Carter, William Montgomery, Robert Newell, and Martin Mason.
Source: A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County from The Earliest to the Present Date, by H. S. Knapp, Publ. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. - 1863 - Page 182

     Country Produce - The products of the country brought low prices at that time, from the fact that there was no market or demand for them beyond home consumption.  It was very difficult for people to raise money to pay their taxes.  Wheat might have had been for twenty-five cents a bushel, cash, but no one wanted it only for family use; consequently there were not large quantities of that article raised.  Oats traded off at twelve to fifteen cents a bushel; corn was in better demand, and brought in store goods from fifteen to twenty cents per bushel, and became almost a lawful tender, because it could be converted into that delicious beverage" called whisky, and the thirst for that article in the Northwest had created a market in Michigan, where we sent all of our whisky.  The farmers sold their corn to the merchant for goods or to the distiller for whisky, and sometimes took it west himself.  Horses, cattle, and hogs were sought for to some extent by trading men.
     I was obliged, as a means of raising funds, to purchase cattle, hogs, and sometimes horses, from the farmers; stock cattle suitable for feeding, and generally disposed of in Berks or Lancaster Counties, in Pennsylvania.  Hogs were driven to Pittsburg and sold to butchers.  My horses were sold in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and about twice out of three times were sold at a loss.  About the year 1824, I began to pack pork, at home, for the Michigan market, produced by a large emigration from the Eastern States.  And after the opening of the New York and Erie Canal, in the fall of 1826, I sent my pork to the New York market.  In the fall season, for three years, I purchased grass-fed fat cattle, from eighty three years, I purchased grass-fed fat cattle, from eighty to one hundred and forty head, drove to Sandusky City, where I had them slaughtered and packed for the New York market.  This was as a necessity for the purpose of raising money to keep my stock up, as a large amount of my means were in the hands of my customers, and could not be realized when much needed.  In the purchase of these cattle, I could generally pay a portion of the cost  out of my store, and frequently pay a part in customer's notes, who were not then prepared to make payment; and for any balance due.  I would often get a credit of from four to nine months, for which I gave my note.  In that way I made a raise.  After the opening of the New York and Erie Canal, which was in the fall of 1826, produce began to advance gradually.
     Prices of Produce from 1820 to 1827, about as follows:-  Wheat, I have said, could be bought for twenty-five cents per bushel, cash; corn would command from fifteen to twenty cents in trade; oats, from twelve and a half to fifteen cents; butter, from five to six and a quarter cents per pound; eggs, from four to five cents a dozen.  The article of maple sugar was an important item of trade in Richland County, and gave material aid to the community, not from the high prices it commanded, for it was worth but from five to six and a fourth cents per pound, according to quality; but from the large quantity made.  It was not unusual in good seasons for sugar, for many of the farmers who had large crops, or sugar orchards, to make in one season from eighteen hundred to twenty-five hundred pounds of sugar.  It will here name a few of the most noted sugar makers of those days in the vicinity of Uniontown, viz., Jonas Crouse, Andrew Proudfit, Abraham Huffman, and Elisha Chilcote, as some of the individuals who made for several years after I came to Uniontown about the quantifies of sugar above named; even the poor man who had but a small crop, if he made but three or four hundred pounds, it enabled him to get many necessaries that he could not have otherwise paid for.  During the spring and summer months, I took at my store large quantities of maple sugar; I generally put it into new flour barrels, which would contain, when filled, from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty pounds; very dry sugar being lighter than damp.  I took of that article one year forty-two barrels.  Sugar could not readily be sold for cash, but could be bartered for salt, white fish, iron, nails, widow-glass, and castings at the furnace, in Licking County, or at Vermillion, now in Erie County, Ohio.  I have already said there was no market in Uniontown for wheat, nor for some years after, beyond home consumption.  About the year 1825, John Stewart, an early settler of Richland County, and very worthy man, and for many years surveyor of Richland County, built a flouring mill on the Rocky Fork, say three miles southeast of Mansfield.  When his mill was completed, he put a notice in James Purdy's seven by nine paper, then published in Mansfield, saying his mill is now in running order, and he wished to purchase wheat and would pay thirty-one and a fourth cents, cash, for good merchantable wheat delivered at his mill.   The farmers about Uniontown were much elated with the idea of getting cash for wheat, and a number of them loaded their wagons with wheat, and carried it to Stewart's market for thirty-one and a number of them loaded their wagons with wheat, and carried it to Stewart's market for thirty-one and a fourth cents a bushel.  I well recollect one of them who sold Stewart wheat was my neighbor Henry Gamble, who is yet living and can speak for himself.
     Post-Office. - I have said there was no post-office in Uniontown, when I came to it in 1821.  In 1822, I got up a petition to the Postmaster-General for a post-office at Uniontown, Richland County, Ohio, by the name of Uniontown, praying that Francis Graham be made postmaster, and forwarded it to the Hon. John Sloan, then our Representative in Congress from the Richland and Wayne County District, asking him to do me the favor to present the petition to the Post-master-General, and use his influence for the establishment of the office and my appointment as post-master.  Mr. Sloan in due time responded to my call, saying he had presented my petition, that the Post-master-General declined granting us a post-office at Uniontown, by that name, as there were already to Uniontown post-offices in the State, and there should be but one.  Mr. Sloan then made choice of the name of Ashland, there being no post-office in Ohio by that name.  The papers came on in due time, and Francis Graham was postmaster.  There was then a contract let for carrying the mail, once a week, from Wooster, in the County, to New Haven, in Huron County, and a Mr. Bell, near Fredericksburg, in Wayne County, took the contract.  The mail was carried on horse, I think for about one year, when the Post-office Department discovered it would not pay expenses, and withdrew the contract.  I then wrote to the late Hon. John McLean, who was then Post-master-General, who, subsequently for a long period of his life, discharged the important duties of Justice of the United States Supreme Court with signal ability and credit to himself and honor to his country, asking him if some plan could be devised by which Uniontown could have a mail; that I felt, as did also many of our citizens, the loss of the mail very much.  The Hon. gentleman then proposed to give me the net proceeds of the office for a given period, if I would hire the mail carried to some connecting point on a mail route that would best accommodate our place and vicinity with a mail.  I then hired the mail carried weekly, to Mansfield, for about three years, and sustained quite a loss in the operation.
     Prices of some Articles of Merchandise -   In the early days of Uniontown, many articles of merchandise were high compared with present prices.  Bar iron was worth from eight to ten cents per pound, according to size and quality; nails, from twelve to fifteen cents a pound; copper, thirty-five to thirty-seven cents a pound; cotton shirting, fifty cents a yard, such as now sells for nine or ten cents per yard; calico that you buy now for ten cents, sold then for twenty-five cents; and cotton yarn sold for seventy-five to eighty cents a pound; teas and sugar were not extravagantly high, neither were woolen goods very high.  Money continued scarce until after the opening of the New York and Erie Canal.  The union of the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Hudson, Added to the beneficial influences of the United State Bank, gave an impetus to all branches of trade and business throughout the country.  Produce of all kinds gradually ad anced in price, and the currency of the country was greatly improved.  The insolvent banks of the country, or Wild Cat banks, as they were familiarly called, were obliged to close their doors.  When the condition of the solvent banks of the country was greatly improved and strengthened by the operations of the United States Bank, exchange on New York and other Atlantic cities was reduced in a short time after that bank went into operation from ten or fifteen per cent to about one per cent.  Confidence among business men became general and strong, and a man who drew bank bills from a bank for speculative purposes could, with safety, retain the money at pleasure.  Prior to this state of things, man was not safe in keeping a large amount of bank paper over night for fear the bank would be closed the next day.  No one will deny that there were bad men in the country at that day.  But crime of every description, in my opinion, has increased more than tenfold since.  Swindling, theft, or robbery was rare forty years ago in Northern Ohio.
     As money became more plenty, business men, with small means, found less difficulty in raising funds; as produce advanced in price, people became better prepared to pay for what they purchased.  The transportation of my produce to Huron or Sandusky City was a heavy, laborious operation, the country being new, roads bad, and many of the streams not bridged.  It generally took teams from six to seven days to make a trip.  I well recollect an instance where David Markley, Esq., who, at that time, owned the farm now owned by the heirs of the late Alanson Andrews; said Markley took a load of whisky to Sandusky City for me, and loaded back with salt and white fish, had a first-rate set of team, and was eight days in performing the trip; said he was obliged to call for help a number of times to pull him out of bad places.  I have already related how we obtained a post office at Uniontown.  Well, the post-office was Ashland, and the village Uniontown, and continued so far two or three years after the post-office was established, when the citizens petitioned the legislature, praying that the name of Uniontown be changed to that of Ashland, and Uniontown, Richland County, became extinct.
     I have said in the fore part of this epistle there was no church in Uniontown.  When I came to it, in 1821, the good people of Uniontown and vicinity who possessed morality enough to appreciate the preaching of the gospel, had built a log meeting-house in the country, one mile west of the village, on the road to New Haven.  Here, I must say, the location of said meeting-house did not comport with my views of church matters; but directly vice versa - for I say build your church where there are people.  It is more natural and more convenient for the country people to go to town than it is for the citizens of the town to go to the country to meeting.  But the wise heads who had the responsible duty to discharge of locating said meeting-house, had said that was the place for it, and the citizens of the village could go out there to meeting.  The Rev. William Matthews, a Presbyterian divine, and a very worthy man, preached in said house, every third Sabbath, and some of the citizens did go to hear him; but not near as many as should have gone.
     Mr. Matthews preached in said house for a few years after my arrival at Uniontown, and was then succeeded by the Rev. Robert Lee from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, who purchased and lived on the farm for many years, now owned by Peter Vantilburg, on the Olivesburg road.  Mr. Lee preached in said meeting-house for a number of years, and then removed to Leesville, in Crawford County.  Mr. Lee was succeeded by the Rev. William Robinson, an elderly gentleman, who resided for a time in Ashland, and removed from there to Orange, then in Richland County.  I think I am not mistaken in saying the old man was killed in Wayne or Stark County, while riding in his carriage, by the fall of a tree.  In the year 1834, the Presbyterians purchased a lot of John Smith, who owned a farm and lived there Christopher Mykrants's brick house now stands, on Cottage Street, and erected thereon the Hopewell Church.  From that time the country meeting-house was vacated as a place of public worship, and the trustees sold the building to the widow Haggerty for a dwelling-house a few years after.  About the year 1824 or 1825, the Methodist Episcopalians of Uniontown and vicinity organized a society, and for some time held their meetings in a log building, occupied as a school-house, which stood on Main Street, about where A. C. Swineford's dwelling-house now stands, but generally met at the residence of some of the members of their society, as best suited their convenience.  And in the year 1828, the trustees purchased a lot on Second Street, where the Court House now stands, and erected thereon a stone church, where the congregation continued to worship until after the erection of Ashland County.  In 1847, the trustees sold the lot and building to the Commissioners of Ashland County, for a Court House, and within a few years after, the said trustees erected the commodious and well-arranged church on a lot near the Union school buildings, where the congregation now worship.
     There was no good flouring mill at or near Uniontown when I came to it, or for some year after.  There were a number of small inferior mills in the vicinity of Uniontown.  I say inferior, before their construction was such that it was impossible for any of them to make good flour.  The structure was of logs, and generally about fifteen to twenty feet square, with one run of buckeye burrs, dug out of some of the Richland hills, and manufactured by some man who, if not thoroughly skilled in the art, claimed at least to have seen a millstone in his day.  These mills made pretty coarse flour; had no screen for cleansing wheat, and their bolting operation was not number one; yet they could grind corn or chop grain very well.  One of those mills was owned by Andrew Alexander, located in Uniontown, about where the Union Mills office now stands.  Another was owned by Conrad Kline, two miles east of Uniontown, very near where the bridge now crosses the creek on the road from Ashland to Mr. Roseberry's.  The third was a little mill owned by Thomas Oram, one and a half miles northeast from Uniontown, on the spot where J. G. Sloan's mill, or more recently, where John Sharack's mill now stands.  And the fourth of the aforesaid mills was owned by Martin Mason, five miles north from Uniontown, where Leidigh's mill now stands.  These mills accommodated the country with four and meal for quite a distance, to the best of their ability, and the inhabitants seemed to cherish the privilege of having access even to poor mills.  Persons wishing to obtain good flour, and circumstances would permit, frequently sent their wheat or took it to Herring's mill, on the Clear Fork, about twenty miles distant; or to a mill at Loudonville, eighteen miles from Uniontown.  Either of the lat named mills made good fine flour; and sometimes three or four neighbors would unite and load a team for one of these mills, and each one bear his proportion of the expense, and generally felt well paid for the cost incurred.  A trip to one of these mills consumed about three days, if they brought their flour home with them.
     On my arrival at Uniontown, in 1821, the place did not present a very flattering appearance, but I found some good inhabitants in it, and a healthy place.  I also discovered, from the fertility of the soil in the vicinity, that it must become rich from agriculture.  In that I was not mistaken; by  reference to our State Agricultural Reports, it will be seen that but few if any township in the State of Ohio produces a greater annual product than Montgomery Township.
                                                        FRANCIS GRAHAM.
     ASHLAND, June 20th, 1861.
Source: A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County from The Earliest to the Present Date, by H. S. Knapp, Publ. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. - 1863 - Page 183 - 193

Antiquities of a Perished Race.

     Upon the quarter above mentioned, there was a circular embankment, embracing about half an acre of ground.  The embankment was about five feet in height, forming a regular circle, with the exception that it had been broken on the west side of what appeared to have been a gateway.  This supposed gateway was about twelve feet in width.  The embankment, as well as the interior space, was covered with a heavy growth of timber.  In the center of the circle was a mound of irregular sides, the center of which rose about three and a half feet above the natural surface of the ground.  Evacuations were made in this mound to the depth of about nine feet, which appeared to be the distance of the artificial work.  No other relics than wood, coal, and a substance resembling feathers, were found.  These were discovered near the lowest depth.  The latter substance rapidly decomposed on exposure to the air.  This ancient work was about half a mile northeast of the old Indian Greentown.
     Another similar embankment, but near twice the height of the one above described, was situated about half a mile east of Greentown.  It inclosed near an acre of ground, but had no mound within the inclosure.  The plow has nearly obliterated these ancient works, though their outlines can yet be traced.
Source: A History of the Pioneer and Modern Times of Ashland County from The Earliest to the Present Date, by H. S. Knapp, Publ. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. - 1863 - Page 324