Population of Mohican Township in 1820.................... 632
     Population of Mohican Township in 1830....................1316
     Population of Mohican Township in 1840....................2046
     Population of Mohican Township in 1850....................1774
     Population of Mohican Township in 1860....................1712

     A memorandum, furnished by Judge Ingmand, says that of the seventy-six voters whose names appear in that of the seventy-six voters whose names appear in the above list, only ten are now residents of the township;  forty-three are known to be dead; thirteen are known to be living elsewhere; ten are either deceased or residing in other States, or other counties in Ohio.  Those marked with an asterisk (*) are know to be dead.

An Estate of Johnny Appleseed.

     Alexander Finley, in his lifetime, sold to Jonathan Chapman what is estimated to be three acres, in the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section 26 - being in the quarter originally entered by said Finley, and which is now owned by A. J. Young, and forms part of the little town of Lake Fork.  This land was deeded to Chapman by Finley, but the deed was lost, though recorded, and the tract never transferred on the auditor's books.  The taxes have regularly been paid, by Finley's heirs, when in their possession, and by the present owner, Mr. Young, since the farm came into his ownership.  Recently, other parties, after fruitless efforts to buy of the heirs of Finley, have taken possession of the disputed tract, and assumed ownership by virtue of such possession.  Chapman had made slight improvement, and started a small nursery.

CHURCHES IN MOHICAN TOWNSHIP.

LAKE FORK CHAPEL.

     The Methodist Episcopal denomination have a church of this name, situated on the east side of Jerome Fork, within a few rods of the county line, and half a mile east of Lake Fork Post-office.  The building, which is a frame, was erected in 1858, and is 28 by 34 feet.  The congregation had previously worshiped in the school-house, near Lake Fork.  Rev. Mr. Starr and Rev. Mr. Wilcox supply the pulpit for the current year.  Mark Wilson is steward and class-leader.  There are twenty members. 

UNITED BRETHREN.

     This denomination have a church organization and building, three-fourths of a mile north of Lake Fork.  There are twenty members.  Rev. Mr. Price has charge of the congregation.  S. A. Taylor is steward of the church.  The building was erected in 1857 and is 30 by 38 feet.  It is known as the Fairview Chapel.
     The same denomination also have a church on the east line of the township, known as the "Oak Grove Meeting-House," under the charge of the clergyman above named.  The building is 26 by 30, and was erected in 1858.  There are fifty members belonging to the church.  Solomon Kahl is the steward. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF
MOHICAN TOWNSHIP.

ELECTION OF APRIL, 1858.

    Clerk, Charles K. Bollman -Trustees, John Metcalf, Joseph Heichel, and Zebulon Metcalf - Treasurer, Samuel Rouch.

ELECTION OF APRIL, 1849

     Clerk, T. J. Hargrave - Trustees, J. D. Karns, Tomas Metcalf, and Elias Bates - Treasurer, E. J. Vanimmon.

ELECTION OF APRIL, 1860.

     Clerk, T. J. Hargrave - Trustees, J. D. Karns, Thomas Metcalf, and Elias Bates - Treasurer, E. J. Vanimmon.

ELECTION OF APRIL, 1861

     Clerk, J. J. Winbigler - Trustees, Thomas Metcalf, Joseph Austin and George Bender - Treasurer, John Garst

ELECTION OF APRIL, 1862.
    Clerk, J. A. Strayer - Trustees, George Bender, David Ely, and John Garn - Treasurer, John Garst - Assessor, Joseph Heichel - Constables, J. S. Wetherbee and John Heichel.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE FOR
MOHICAN TOWNSHIP

(INSERT NAMES AND DATES)

JEROMEVILLE.

     The town was laid out on the 14th of February, 1815, by Christian Deardoff and William Vaughn.

     Population in 1830 .................123
     Population in 1860 ................. 332

Borough Officers for 1862

     Mayor: S. H. Hand - Recorder: John Wilson - Council: B. Hildebrand, John Hoffman, G. W. Britton, John Webster, and Henry Bower - Treasurer: E. J. Van Immon.
     The town contains 4 churches, 1 physician, 1 hotel, 1 grist mill running three pairs of burrs, 1 saw and lath mill running two saws, (which mills are chiefly propelled by water,) 1 tannery, 1 dry goods store, 1 tailor ship, 3 boot and shoe shops, 2 blacksmith shops, 1 tin shop, 2 groceries, 1 cabinet shop.

CHURCHES IN JEROMEVILLE.

     There are four: Old School Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Lutheran, and Disciple.

PRESBYTERIAN

METHODIST EPISCOPAL

LUTHERAN.

DISCIPLE.

MOHICANVILLE.

CHURCHES IN MOHICANVILLE.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL.

GERMAN REFORMED.

REMINISCENCES OF THE PIONEERS OF MOHICAN TOWNSHIP.

GEORGE W. BASFORD emigrated from Maryland to Mohican Township, in October, 1824, and established himself in a clothing establishment in the town of Jeromeville.  At this date his family consisted of his wife and an infant daughter.

JOHN COOPER immigrated to Clearcreek Township in the fall of 1822, and purchased of John Haney forty acres of land, lying west of the farm now owned by John Bryte.  In 1828, he sold this place and removed to section 28, Mohican Township.

NATHAN DALLY emigrated from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and removed temporarily to a cabin which stood upon the farm now owned by George Botdorf, on the 17th day of February, 1817.  His family then consisted of his wife and ten children.  He had, the previous year, purchased of John Lawrence (who resided about two miles southwest of  Wooster) the southeast quarter of section 32, (being the land upon a part of which is now the town of Mohicanville.)  In the spring of the year of his arrival with his family, he entered the southwest quarter of section 32, Mohican Township.  Upon neither of the quarter sections described was there any improvement.  His nearest neighbor on the north was William Metcalf, one mile distant; on the east, Alexander Finley, distant three miles; on the south, Jabez Smith, distant one-fourth mile; and on the west, Isaac Downey, about six miles distant.
     The quarter purchased of Lawrence subsequently reverted to him, and after several transfers, Simeon Bell and Henry Sherradden became its owners, and the original proprietors of the town of Mohicanville.
     Mr. Dally, during the first spring of his residence in the township, erected a house on the margin of the "Fall's Spring," nearly opposite the present residence of his son, Vincent Dally.  This cabin House was standing until within about twelve years since.

THOMAS EAGLE arrived in the township of Mohican on the 2d day of May, 1809, having succeeded the family of Alexander Finley a few weeks.  His family then consisted of his wife and daughter Amelia  He first opened a small farm on the land now owned and occupied by Henry Treace.  In the early part of the war, he, together with several of his neighbors, removed their families to the fort, at Wooster, as security against attacks by Indians.
     Mr. Eagle was well acquainted with Baptiste Jerome, who often related to Mr. Eagle circumstances connected with the Indian war against General Anthony Wayne - among other "yarns," one running to the effect that himself and a party of eight Indians came upon a reconnoitering party near the Maumee River led by Wayne, and that he (Jerome) and the Indians leveled and discharged their rifles at "Mad Anthony" without any effect.  Several years after the war of 1812, Jerome lost his Indian wife and daughter, and subsequently married a white woman, and removed to the mouth of Huron River, where he soon after died, it is said, in a drunken revel.
     The fort at Jeromeville, Mr. Eagle says, was built under the authority of General Bell.
     The fort at Wooster was under the command of Captain George Stidger, whose force amounted to about one hundred and sixty men.
     A few days prior to the massacre on the Black Fork, Mr. Eagle left Wooster in charge of a company of men for the defense of the neighbors, who had remained in Mohican Township, having received information that they were threatened by an attack from the Indians.  Some hours after arriving at the fort on James Collyer's place, the Indians appeared and made some hostile demonstrations; but it is supposed came to the conclusion that Eagle's force was too formidable and too well secured, and they retired toward Jeromeville, on their route killing all the hogs that came in their way.
     Mr. Eagle says that he piloted Bell's army from Wooster to Jeromeville, and from thence several miles west.  He is now about eighty-one years of age, and in feeble health.

WILLIAM EWING immigrated to Mohican Twp. in the fall of 1814, from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and removed to the farm which had previously been entered for him by his father, John Ewing - which farm is situated about two miles southeast of Jeromeville, and is now occupied by the family of the late Michael Heickle.  His immediate neighbor was John Bryan.

Mills, Markets, etc.

     Odell's mill, in Wayne County, was the most convenient place for obtaining supplies of four.  The first year of his residence in the township, wheat sold at $1.50 per bushel; but about the time he had sufficient land under cultivation to enable him to raise a surplus, the price fell to 25 cents per bushel.  Some years later the neighborhood obtained their supplies of salt at Portland, on the lake, at $4 per barrel.  It was regarded as a favorable exchange when a barrel of salt could be obtained for a barrel of flour.

The Indian "Buckwheat."

     Mr. Ewing's acquaintance with this Indian commenced soon after he settled in the country.  He represents Buckwheat as a man of good sense, benevolent disposition, and remarkable for his fondness of white children.  He was never married.  The sins of his race were visited upon his unoffending head, at an early age, in his death at the hands of one whose brother had years previously been murdered by Indians in a distant part of the State.

ALEXANDER FINLEY removed from the place now occupied by the town of Mt. Vernon, Knox County, to the farm in Mohican Township, upon which Tylertown (Lake Fort Post-office) is now situated, Apr. 17, 1809.  His family then consisted of his wife and the following named children: James, Benjamin, John, and Hannah.
     At the time Mr. Finley settled in Mohican Township, himself and family were the only white inhabitants within the limits of the territory that now constitutes the County of Ashland.
     At this date, also, there was only one family within the town of Wooster.  The name of the head of this family was Benjamin Miller.  William and Joseph Larwill, whose names are honorably connected with the history and development of Wayne County, were then young men, and boarders in the family of Mr. Miller.  This family were the nearest neighbors of Mr. Finley at the time of his settlement in Mohican Township.  Within a few weeks, however, other persons, namely, William and Thomas EAgle, Benjamin Bunn, and John Shinnebarger, all having families, settled in the neighborhood.  The year following, (1810,) Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, William Bryan, Thomas Newman, and James Slater, with their several families, removed to the township.
     The Indians in the neighborhood at this time were an intermixture of several tribes - the Mohicans, Delawares, Wyandottes, Shawnees, Chickasaws, and one or two who claimed to be of the Cherokee tribe.  They were friendly and harmless, until the war of 1812 commenced, when the main body of them disappeared, and most of them, it is supposed, became attached to the British service.
     The first year or two after Mr. Finley came to the country, he obtained his supplies of flour and corn meal from Shrimplin's mill, below Mt. Vernon.  This journey to the mill was performed in canoes or pirogues, down the Lake Fork and Mohican, and up Owl Creek, and occupied about three days for the trip.  These vessels would carry from twenty to fifty bushels of corn meal.
     The forests at this period were destitute of under brush or small timber, but were covered with sedge-grass, pea-vines, and weeds, which afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August.  The sedge-grace, when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritious and palatable food for horses and cattle during the winter.  Very little iron was used in those days.  The wooden "mould board" plow and wooden and brush harrows were generally in use twelve or fifteen years after Mr. Finley came to the country; and many continued their use several years afterward.
     Ladies and gentlemen, when they clothed their feet at all, dressed them in moccasins.  Mr. John Finley well remembers the first pair of boots he ever saw - they being a coarse article, purchased by his father, of John Fox, in 1820 or 1821 - price, eight dollars.  Leather, therefore, was not in use until many years after the settlement of the country.
     The clothing of the men was buckskin and flax linen.  The women were clothed in fabric made of raw cotton and flax linen.  Handkerchiefs, head-dresses, and aprons were made, by the thrifty house-wives, of raw cotton.  The price of calico (being from fifty to seventy-five cents per yard) placed it without the means of any but very few to purchase.  An excellent and industrious girl, as late as 1822 or 1823, toiled faithfully six weeks for six yards of calico, which, in those primitive days, before the era of hoops, was deemed sufficient for a dress.  The lady who appeared in the first calico dress, attracted, it may be supposed, considerable attention in "the settlement," and was regarded as much of an aristocrat.
     Window glass was not in use until some years after the war - oiled paper being employed as a substitute.
     The first buggy, with elliptic springs, (being an open one,) within the recollection of Mr. John Finley, amazed the good people who attended the Lake Fork Presbyterian Church, on a Sunday, about the year 1835.  After intermission, the novel vehicle attracted general attention, and when the owner, in answer to a question, gave the name of "buggy," as the one that properly described his carriage, his interrogator concluded that he was disposed to "poke fun" at him, and this opinion was generally adopted by the indignant crow.  Two horse lumber wagons were introduced about twenty years after the first settlement of the township.
     From the date of the arrival of Mr. Finley, until four or five years after the close of the war, there was a good demand and good prices for all the productions of the farm.  Wheat was, however, little grown.  The staples of the farm, consisted mainly of corn, hogs, and cattle.
     Alexander Finley died December, 1825, aged fifty-five years.

JOSHUA R. GLENN and wife removed from Maryland to Mohican Township in 1818.  Three years subsequent he purchased, at the public land sales held at Wooster, the quarter in section 17 of the Indian Reservation, which he improved, and upon which he died Sept. 21, 1855, at the age of sixty-one years.
     Maj. John Glenn, Jun., brother of Joshua R., is now a resident of Mohican Township, and immigrated at the same time with the father's family.  His father (John Glenn, Sen., who died Feb. 16, 1852, at the age of eighty-four years) had purchased 175 acres in section 9 and 10.  Upon this land Maj. Glenn yet resides.  Himself and sister (Miss Elizabeth Glenn) are the only survivors of his father's family.

THOMAS GREEN, originally from Berkley County, Virginia, came to Mohican Township in 1813 - "forted," with his family, during a part of that year, at Jeromeville.  After leaving the fort, he settled in Orange Township.  At this time the only two families in that township were those of Amos Norris and Vachel Metcalf.  The farm upon which he settled was north of Orange, and is now owned by Valentine and David Heifner.
     His children were William, Jacob, Elizabeth, Abraham, George, Mariah, Solomon, John, Thomas, Sarah Ann, Julia, and Noah.
     About 1817 Mr. Green removed to Jackson Township, and after residing there several years removed to Licking County, near the residence of several brothers, and where he died in the spring of 1841.

RICHARD HARGRAVE emigrated from Pennsylvania, and commenced his residence in Jeromeville on the 22d of August, 1818.  He purchased of Mr. Deardoff, one of the original proprietors of the town, in 1820, one-half of his interest in Jeromeville.  He was the second merchant in the place - his predecessors in trade not being very successful, and having abandoned business when he opened his store.

Extracts of a Letter from J. J. Hootman, Esq.
Milo, Defiance County, Ohio, April 1, 1861.

     My father settled in Perry Township, October, 10, 1826.  The appearance of the country at the time of our settlement was quite different from what it is at present.  The major part of the village of Jeromeville was covered with fallen timber and hazel bush.  The improvements on the farms then settled were small, being log cabins surrounded by a few acres of partly cleared land.  The roads were new and unimproved, and many of them little more than bridle-paths.  The prices of produce in 1828-29 were, as I recollect distinctly: wheat 25 cents, (my father was offered 100 bushels for $25, and would not buy at that;) pork $1.50 per cwt.; corn 18 cents; salt $5.00 per barrel; coffee 50 cents per pound; tea 50 cents per quarter; butter 6 cents; eggs 0; iron 12½ cents per pound.  The usual and best market place was Portland, (now Sandusky City.)  Twenty to thirty bushels wheat, a big load for two and four horses, ten days of travel if the roads were good, two weeks if not good.  Massillon became a market town.  The opening of the Ohio Canal run the price of wheat up at once to forty cents, then to fifty, and then our farmers at that time were satisfied, and expressed with wish that the price would continue at that as they then could make money.  Our nearest grist-mill was an old concern known as Goudy's Mill, southeast of Hayesville, with one run of stone, old niggerhead  or boulder stone at that.  Another was Smith's Mill, below Mohicanville, where the Chandler Mill now stands, and of the same sort.  In the winter, when those small streams were frozen, we went to the Clearfork to Manner's Mill, now owned by T. Calhoun.  Sometimes we had to go to Owl Creek, in Knox County.
     Old Mr. Hargrave, I believe, was the first postmaster at Jeromeville, and held the office for twenty-five years.  The mode of travel was on foot or horseback if the roads would permit.

LUKE INGMAND removed from Fairfield County, Ohio, to the southwest quarter of section 11, Mohican Township, in September, 1816.  His family consisted of his wife and two children, the present Judge Edmund Ingmand, and Mrs. Mary, wife of Joshua Carr, now residing in Wood County, Ohio.  Mr. Ingmand is now (December, 1861) nearly eighty-nine years of age, and an inmate of the family of his son.

EDMUND INGMAND , when in the eleventh year, removed with his father to Mohican Township.  This, as before remarked, was in the year 1816.  Until about 1818 the 280 acres upon which he now resides was a part of the four sections (7, 8, 17, and 18) which formed the "Indian Reservation."  During that year the Federal government purchased the Indian title, and in 1821 the lands were offered in tracts of quarter sections at the Wooster land office, pursuant to public notice; but as the quarter embraced in this tract was regarded as too wet for tillage no purchasers appeared.  This land is now regarded as equal in fertility to any in the township.  The original purchase, which constitutes his present farm, was entered by Edward Arnold in 1821 or 1822, but a short time after it had been offered by the government.  Judge Ingmand became the owner of it in 1834, and the additions since made amount altogether to 280 acres.

The Indian Village, Burying-Ground, and Council House of Jerome Township.

     Were Situated upon the Reservation above mentioned.  The village and burying ground were upon the land on which Rev. Elijah Yocum has for many years resided - his house having been built (by the person of whom he purchased) over the graves of the Indians.  The first proprietor,  fancying the ground as a good building site, excavated a place for his cellar, and removed the exhumed bones to a swamp in the neighborhood.  Subsequently, in excavating a mill-race some fifty rods from this place, a human skeleton was found in a position which rendered it certain that the body had been buried with the face downward, thus showing that it was, as has been alleged, the custom of many Indians to bury their dead in that position.
     The Council House was upon an elevated and beautiful spot, about one-fourth of a mile distant from the village.  The ground is now embraced in the farm of Judge Ingmand, and is about a quarter of a mile southeast of his house.  All their buildings, including their council house, were burned about the time the Indians removed from the country in 1815, whether by themselves or the whites is not generally known.

Antiquities of Mohican

     There were the remains of no less than five ancient fortifications in Mohican Township; the embankments very regular and very distinctly defined, until cultivation has nearly destroyed their original features.  Three are near Jeromeville, and two near the junction of the Muddy and Jerome Forks.  They embraced areas averaging about one and a half acres.  A mound near the old Indian village, bearing unmistakable evidence, after excavation, of its being a work of art, and upon which trees, the growth of centuries, were standing, was also in existence.  The antiquarian might be compensated for researches in Mohican Township.

The Weather in 1816-17.

     The weather during these years was memorable on account of the cold and frosts.  During the winter of 1816 corn was planted about the middle of May, during a snow storm, and men gathered their wheat harvest with overcoats upon their backs, to protect them from the rigors of the weather!  On the morning of the 1st of June, 1817, a frost visited Ohio that destroyed utterly all the fruit, and denuded the fruit and forest trees of their leaves.  It is remarkable, however, that the grain in the ground escaped the general desolation, a circumstance that is accounted for by the fact that crops were very backward.

Memoranda of Remarkable Events.

Schools, School-houses, etc.

Log Cabins.

Description of a Fort, or Block-house

WILLIAM NEWBROUGH and wife, in March, 1819, removed to the northeast quarter of section 28, Mohican Township, having purchased his land of Martin Longstrath.  Upon this farm he yet resides. 

THOMAS NEWMAN.  This gentleman is, (June, 1861,) beyond doubt, the oldest citizen now living within Ashland County.  He was born in Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, England, about 1758, which would make him now one hundred and three years of age.  Mr. Newman is also at his time among the oldest of the pioneers.  He entered the land upon which he now resides - being the northwest quarter of Section23, township 21, (Mohican,) in the year 1810.  About two years afterward he received his patent, which bears date July 1, 1812, and is signed by James Madison, President, and Edward Tiffin, (the first Governor of Ohio,) Commissioner of the General Land Office.  This document, which has been well preserved, is probably amount the oldest of its kind in the possession of the original purchaser, which now exists in the county.

RICHARD RHAMEY, SEN, immigrated to Jeromeville from Pennsylvania in 1813, his family then consisting of his wife and three children.  Richard Rhamey, Jr., who was born in the old block-house in Jeromeville, in September, 1815, is the only surviving member of the family now residing in Ashland County.

JOHN SHINABARGER emigrated from Virginia, in 1802, to Pennsylvania, from thence to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in 1805, and in 1810 from the last-named place to Mohican Township, and entered the southwest quarter of section 23, in said township.  This quarter he partly cleared, and erected thereon a saw-mill, and resided upon the place until the time of his death, which occurred January 29th, 1838, aged seventy-four years.  When he removed to Mohican Township, his wife and seven children constituted his family, the only survivor of whom, residing in Ashland County, is James S. Shinbarger, of Perry Township, and to whom we are indebted for what follows.

Cedar Trees, and remains of Buffalo and Elk, six feet underground.

     MAJOR TYLER immigrated to Mohican Township in February, 1814, having previously resided in Buffalo, New York, from which town he took his departure a few weeks after its having been burned by the British.  He entered the south half of the northwest quarter of section 26.

     RICHARD WINBIGLER immigrated to Mohican Township from Maryland, in the fall of 1818.  The members of his family at this time consisted of his wife and four children, namely, Mary Ann, Henry, Elizabeth, and William.  The only survivor of these, at this time, is Henry Winbigler, Esq., who resides upon the land originally entered by his father, which land is the west half of the northeast quarter of section 9, Mohican Township.

     NICHOLAS WIREMAN immigrated to the place now known as Mohicanville, but then as Bell's Mills, on the 15th of January, 1833, and rented of Harvey Bell his Carding and fulling establishment, which occupied the site of the present woolen manufactory of Samuel Huff.
     When Mr. Wireman became a resident of the place, in 1833, the following named persons embraced all the heads of families who were then inhabitants, viz:  Simeon, Harvey, and Samuel Bell, Henry Sherradden, and John Shaffer.  Of those named, Mr. Wireman is now the only surviving resident, the others being deceased or having removed from the village.