Originally Green township embraced all of Concord and parts of Jasper and Perry townships.  It is bounded on the north and east by Concord and Perry townships, on the south by Highland county and on the west by Clinton county.  It is therefore the southeaster sub-division of Fayette county.  It is one of, if not the least, of all the townships in this county.  Rattlesnake creek enters survey No. 5348, flows southeast to survey 3986, thence south to the county line.  Lee's creek has its source in Concord township, thence flows to the southeast, entering Green township in survey No. 5349, then south, crossing the entire township, entering Highland county.  The soil is generally a black loam, which has been extensively drained, and is now highly productive for any crops raised in this part of the state.
     Concord, Green and Perry townships are the only sub-divisions in Fayette county not having the advantages of railroad facilities.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

     The population in 1910 of this township was six hundred and ninety-four, but the reader is turned back to 1807, when Jesse Rowe made his advent into this county.  Aside from numerous stragglers, trappers and hunters, he was beyond doubt the first man to invade this township with a view of becoming a permanent settler.  He emigrated from Virginia to Ross county, Ohio, in 1803, with his family of nine children, John, Jesse, Jr., William, James, Elizabeth, Mary, Jane, Susan and Sarah.  He located on the Little Wabash, the old homestead, in 1807.  Shortly after the organization of Fayette county in 1810, he was chosen a justice of the peace, serving for four full terms; also held the trustee and other township offices.  He was a class leader and exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church to the close of his earthly career, the first class meeting in all his section of the country having been held at his cabin home in Green township.  In his will he left a liberal sum to go towards the interests of the church he loved so well and labored in lifetime to build up in Fayette county.  At a ripe old age, in 1845, he died.  He had served his country in the days of the Revolutionary struggle.
     John Rowe, eldest son of the first settler, settled on land given him by the father, near the old home, and he became the father of eleven children.  He took active part in the War of 1812, and held many important local offices.  He died in 1863, an honored citizen.
     Jesse Rowe, Jr., settled in Green township, but removed to Concord at the end of five years.  He was a township trustee, and after the surrender of General Hull, volunteered to defend his country, under General Beateal Harrison.
     William Rowe removed to Ross county, Ohio.
     James Rowe moved to the South at an early date.  He was a minister of the Gospel, located at Huntsville, Alabama, married and attended select school.  At the division of the church over the slavery question, he sided with the South, preaching up to the outbreaking of the Civil War, when he came north, where he remained till the war ended, then returned to Georgia, where he subsequently died.
     The remaining children of Jesse Rowe, Sr., filled honorable station in life and some of their descendants are still living in Fayette county.
     Thomas Moon, Sr., was another prominent pioneer, who emigrated from Virginia to Ohio in 1810, with his family, consisting of James, John, Jacob, Christine, Jane, David, William, Margaret, and Thomas, Jr., and settled on Rattlesnake creek.  In religion he was a Quaker (Friend) and honestly opposed to all wars, which accounts for his not being a soldier in the Revolutionary struggle and the later Indian wars.  He bought lands in Green township, called the dividing ridge, on which he erected the first flouring mill and distillery in the township and, so far as is known to the writer, in the entire county of Fayette.  His place soon came to be a favorite resort for customers.  His flour was good, and possibly his whisky was equally pure and seemed good to take, in those days.
     In all, the old gentleman had purchased eleven hundred acres, five of which lay in Highland county.  His Fayette lands were all situated in the big woods.  The cabin was erected and had a genuine puncheon floor clapboard roof, fire-place made of split sticks and a stick chimney.  In one week's time he cleared four acres of his heavy timber land, and in the autumn following cleared six additional acres, which he sowed to wheat.  Wolves and game abounded on every hand.  Squirrels came in endless droves and were so thick that he was compelled to feed them outside the fences, to prevent his crops from being totally ruined.  He died in 1828, aged seventy-one years.  He had held several offices and stood high in the county.
    John D. Moon was a good school teacher, for those days, and served under old General Jackson at New Orleans.
     Jacob Moon located on Rattlesnake creek, farmed and was a soldier in the War of 1812.
     Capt. Thomas Moon resided on the old homestead, running the mill and carrying on farming extensively.  He served five years as captain of the militia, and died aged seventy-five years.
     The other sons and daughters kept good the family name.
     In 1818 came David Davis from Highland county, to which place he had immigrated in 1817 from Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1785.  The first year in this township he rented land of John Garrett, then purchased fifty acres, and there built him a cabin.  He had eight children as follows:  Mary, Branson, Nancy, William, David, Catherine, Hannah and Melissa.  At his death in 1855 he possessed a hundred and sixty acres of land, later occupied by his son Branson.

PIONEER SKETCHES:

     Fayette county is full of rare and interesting incidents happening in the long ago when all was new and wild in this section of Ohio.  The subjoined illustrates what is meant by this:
     Edward Smith, Sr., entered the lands on the banks of Paint Creek, known as East fork, in 1810.  His land was heavily covered with timber.  A wigwam served for a domicile by night and a shelter from beasts and the pelting storms.  He started to clear his land for raising a crop, - the first thing in the mind of every early settler, - but the news of the war caused him to drop his axe and grasp his rifle and go forth in defense of his country.  Peace having been declared, he again swung the axe in that green, glad solitude.  One night, returning from the county seat, he discovered the creek out of its banks, but rode in fearlessly and was thrown from his horse and drowned.
     A story is told of Alexander Cupper, dating back to 1783, which is in substance as follows:  Cupper and famous old Daniel Boone, of Kentucky, were taken prisoners at the Three Islands by the Indians.  When within seven miles of Oldtown, Boone contrived to escape, but Cupper was then all the more closely guarded by the savages.  He was taken to town, tried by Indian council and condemned to the stake.  Confined in a structure and guarded by two powerful Indians, no escape seemed in sight for him.  The night previous to the intended burning at the stake, he was ordered to run the gauntlet down the rows of savages.  Cupper sped down the line a short distance, broke through, left his pursuers far behind, and, burying himself in the deep forest tanglewood of the then wildest portion of what is now Concord township, this county, took refuge on the banks of the Little Wabash, whence he safely made his way to Three Islands on the Ohio river.
     In 1810 George Kneedler settled in the dense forests of this township on the waters of the Rattlesnake creek.  His father was a soldier under General Washington, in the Revolutionary War, and, true to the example set by a worthy sire, the son was an active participant in the War of 1812.
     William Johnson left his native state, Virginia, in 1810, removing to Ross county, Ohio, in company with Judge McCracken.  He located on Paint creek, where he remained till 1816, when his family consisted of a wife and children as follows:  Anna, Thomas, George, Sarah and William Henry.   He bought a hundred acres of the place later known as the Levi Bryant farm of Jesse Rowe.  Here he commenced to make his improvements.  He died in 1833 possessed of five hundred acres, all well improved.
     The nearest neighbors of the Johnsons were John Rowe, John Draper and a second John Draper who lived on Rattlesnake creek.  It is told for a truth that children were in the habit of going five miles to play with "neighbor's children".
     The southwest part of Green township was settled by Virginian emigrants and North Carolinians, all members of the Friends church or society, usually denominated Quakers.  The first were James Smith, who located in the extreme corner of survey No. 1082, and Enos Haines, a portion of the lands adjoining the Clinton county line.
     In 1823 came Z. Morris from his old Virginia home - his birth place.  He was accompanied by his brother Isaac.  The first named located on a hundred-acre tract of land bought of Daniel Burress.  There he was still residing in 1881, the happy possessor of over three hundred acres, all well improved and much of it tilled annually.
     Other settlers were William Bankson, Joshua Haines, Philip Barger, one of the very first settlers of this township, Enos Reeder, Edmund and James McVey, all Quakers and excellent citizens.  The descendants of these pioneer families are still holding lands entered and bought by their forefathers in this township.

MOONS.

     Moons is the only village within the township.  It was once known as Buena Vista and still earlier as "Goatsville," which happened on account of so many Dunkards residing there, that some wag said they reminded him, with their long hair, of a lot of goats.  It is located in a part of survey No. 3987, near Rattlesnake creek.  In 1880 it has a population of about one hundred and twenty-five, which has been increased to two hundred since that date.  The township and village have six hundred and ninety-four inhabitants.
     It was in 1832 when John W. Simpson and Stephen Tudor came to this location to buy land.  The former bought a lot of James Larkins, and the latter took other land.  The main street was at that time a so-called township road, but the next year was changed to a state road.  Simpson returned to Highland county, and married, then came back, erected a small cabin, and removed thereto.  This was evidently couple No. 1 to settle as man and wife in old Buena Vista, now known as Moons.
     Stephen Tudor, a carpenter, remained in the new settlement until 1835, then sold, William Moon finally getting the land he had lived upon.  John Simpson opened the firs tstore in Buena Vista and frequently refused to sell as many yards of calico as a lady asked for, on the theory that it neve rpaid to the entirely out of any given article.  Early dealers here were Bell & Jenkins, of Washington, Isaac Tracy, Mssrs. Moon, Vickers and Silas Iron.
     The first blacksmith was Thomas Dowden; James McKinney was also an early workman at the glowing forge in this village.  William Blair conducted a combined shoe shop and whisky-selling place.
     The first physician was Doctor McKinney, this being his first place to practice his profession, and he succeeded remarkably well, it is said by old timers.  Moons is now a mere hamlet, with but little business.

MILLS AND DISTILLERIES.

     Thomas Moon was the first person to distill liquor in this township.  Abraham Crispin started another distillery a few years later.
     Thomas Moon also operated the first flouring mill in this section of Fayette county.  It was, of course, the first duty of a settler to build him a cabin home in which his family might be safe from the wild beasts that roamed throughout the forest; next he must needs clear land and plant a small crop on which to sustain life, till more improvements could be made.  When harvest time came there was indeed much joy in the family circle.  But soon another obstacle presented itself to the settler.  How was he to convert his ripened grain - corn and wheat - into meal and flour?  Steam mills were not known here then.  Water mills were a long distance apart, so "horse mills" were employed.  Most townships had what was known as treadmill, but not at first, so farmers had to go quite a distance "to mill" as they called it.  Some went to Springfield, where there was a good water mill in operation.  When the canal was constructed via Chillicothe, it appeared in operation.  When the canal was constructed via Chillicothe, it appeared a blessing, for it was then only thirty miles to mill.  The building of the Moon mill was a great boon to all within the radius of many miles.

INTERESTING INCIDENTS.

     The first shoemaker in Green township was David Bradshaw, who set up shop in 1817.  Before that the settlers had to go barefooted or wear moccasins.
     The first marriage was that uniting on January 7, 1811, David Moon and Mary Ellis.  A justice of the peace named Ralph Stout was the 'squire who performed the ceremony.
     Thieves and robbers infested this as well as other parts of this county at an early day.  Most all pioneers came in from Virginia.  They stood on their rights and were honorable.  But other settlers were from other states and disposed to pilfer and lived in partial idleness - living off of the more honorable people of the community.  Horses, cattle and hogs were frequently stolen.  Padlocks were to be placed on out-house doors.  One William Johnson was in the habit of fastening his doors this way every night.  One night his son closed the door, but neglected to attach the padlock.  He was sent back to do so, and upon approaching the stable was surprised to see a strange horse tied near the door.  He was entering the door when a man mounted the horse and was off like a flash, but luckily he was caught in the act and the horse was restored.