Jasper township is the central western sub-division of Fayette county.  It is bounded on the north by Jefferson, on the east by Jefferson and Union townships; on the south by Concord township and Clinton county; on the west by Clinton and Green counties.
     This part of Fayette county was first settled in 1809.  Jacob and Joseph Coile, in the spring of that year, emigrated from Pendleton county, Virginia, and located on a military claim of two hundred acres belonging to their father, Gabriel Coile, a Revolutionary soldier.  The sons were both married before leaving Virginia.  These families remained here until 1814, then located near Indianapolis, Indiana.
     In 1814 another Virginia, came to the township.  This was Jacob Hershaw, who located on the original Coile claim, having traded his farm in Virginia for a hundred and sixty acres of this tract.  He was a resident until 1818 when he relocated to Indiana.
     Robert Burnett, of Pendleton county, Virginia, came here in 1810.  He was a single man and worked out by the month until 1812, then married and squatted on Government land.  He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and later served as a militiaman, being captain of a company.  He held several township offices in Jasper, including those of clerk and trustee.  He was later still appointed road viewer by the county commissioners.  He was an excellent land surveyor and surveyed out many of the county roads of Fayette county.  Between 1813 and 1821 he resided in Union township.  He was noted for his good citizenship and peaceful qualities.  It is recorded of him that in all of his more than four score years' citizenship, he was never known to have a quarrel with his neighbors or to have been engaged in a law suit.  He was a very temperate man and enjoyed old age as well as youth and young manhood.  He passed away like a golden sheaf, fully rip and mature.
     Leonard Bush, another son of the Old Dominion, was born in Pendleton county, Virginia, in 1778, and came to Ross county, Ohio, in 1809, locating at a point later known as Convenience Station, on the Dayton & Southeastern railroad.  He only remained in Ross county two years, then came to Jasper township in the spring of 1811.  He purchased two hundred acres from his father and erected him a log cabin, without a floor.  He cleared fifteen acres of timber and erected him a log cabin, without a floor.  He cleared fifteen acres of timber the first spring and planted it to corn.  He worked by means of the old style wooden-mould-board breaking plow.  He next built him a shop and followed his trade, that of a wheelwright, for seventeen years in connection with his farming operations.  By the time his son married he had secured as much as three hundred acres and, having that all to attend to, he quit working at the wagon business.
     Another early comer was a Methodist preacher named Jones Brooks, who came into the township in 1811 from Virginia.  He followed both farming and preaching.
     Jacob A. Rankin came from Virginia in 1800, settling on Salt creek, in Ross county, where he remained two years and then moved to where Bloomingburg now stands.  He died in 1876.
     Another name among the pioneers of Jasper township and Fayette county which should never lose a place in the annals of the same is that of John Coons, of whom Doctor Mason, of Milledgeville, wrote many years since the following, in substance:  "One by one the old pioneers are dropping off.  'Uncle Johnny' Coons, as he was familiarly called, has gone.  He died after a short illness, leaing a family of three children beyond the age of fifty years.  "Uncle John" was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1792, and his boyhood days were spent in welding the old flint-lock musket barrels at a government shop in the town of his birth.  Subsequently he enlisted as a soldier in the War of 1812 serving until peace was declared, after which he drew a pension so long as he lived.  He married Hannah Jones in 1820 and set out for the then 'far west,' traveling in a wagon, through an almost impassable wilderness, with no one to share his lonely and perilous undertaking save his newly-made wife of but a few days.  The land he spent his last days on was bought by him at three dollars per acre in about 1830.  In 1880 much of the timber on it could not be counted too high at one hundred dollars per acre.  At his death he was worth about seventy-five thousand dollars.  He was not a church member, but was known for his deeds of kindness and benevolence among the poor and needy.  He used to watch through the long weary hours of the night at the bedside of some sick neighbor; even in times of epidemics he chanced his life where others failed to respond.  His life work was his best monument, for his deeds truly live in the hearts and lives of many a man of this county where he labored so long and ably for the good of others."
     In 1802 Solomon Smith was born on a farm in Pendleton county, Virginia, and immigrated to Jasper township, Fayette county, Ohio, in the early settlement days.  He rented land at first from Henry Coile.  He was still living in the township in 1880 and was upwards of the eighty-year mark.  He was constable in Jasper township for thirty-four years.
     In the Center neighborhood of Jasper township, William Furguson was the first to settle.  In 1842 he bought a tract of land of Gen. James Taylor, of Kentucky, and removed to it the same year.
     Stephen Mitchel Irvin was counted among the first to invade Jasper township with a view of becoming a permanent settler.  Capt. William Palmer preceded him but a few months.  He settled in the southwestern part of Fayette county.  His land was really in portions of Fayette, Clinton and Greene counties.  Mr. Irvin's ancestors were from Ireland.  Andrew Irvin, the father, was in the War of 1812 and at the battle of Oldtown.  He died in 1830.  The son Stephen was eight years old when the family went to Kentucky.  They traveled all the way in a cart drawn by a single horse.  This was in the autumn of 1788.  For many years they suffered the privations of frontier life.  The family had come to be Calvinists and were strict Presbyterians in church faith.  The reason of Mr. Irvin coming Ohio was on account of it being a free state - he abhorred slavery and did not care to rear his family under its influences.  Here he erected his first cabin in 1813.  After clearing up land sufficient for a good large garden, he then set about planning for clearing up for farm land.  He went through the same line of hardships which he had gone through in old Kentucky.  Mills were scarce and far between.  Hence hominy was used much for the family's food.  This was produced by hollowing out a solid block of wood.  Into this a portion of corn was placed and beat with a pestle.  When finished, the hominy was delicious, but was not what all members of the family craved.  Hillsborough, Highland county, was their nearest trading place.  Here they bought their salt, groceries and dry goods.  Mrs. Irvin passed from earth and her companion's side in 1833, aged forty-three years.  This was a hard stoke to the head of the family.  Two years later he married again and this wife survived her husband, who died July 25, 1852, in his seventy-second year.  He was a man who never allowed himself to get angry.  During the last years of his eventful life he preached nearly every Sunday.  When told by Dr. I. C. Williams that he could not live long, he replied, "I did not think death was so near; but if it is God's will it is mine.
     It is impossible, at this late date, to give the locations and date of coming of many of the vanguard in this township, but suffice it to add that the majority of the men and women of Jasper who might be properly termed "first settlers" were from Kentucky and Virginia, and were of the best type of settlers.  They laid well the foundation stones. 
     Of the schools and churches, other chapters will treat in detail.  It may however, here be noted that the first school house was erected in 1816.

TOWNS AND VILLAGES

     The towns and villages of Jasper township are and have been Plymouth, Jasper Mills, Milledgeville, Allentown, Edgefield and Pearsons.
     Plymouth, situated on the Palmer Pike, is the oldest place in Jasper township.  It was platted by Robert Hogue in 1845.  The first building there was built in 1845 by Garland Johnson.  In 1880 this village had two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, one store, one church and about seventy-five population.  The township building was here and all elections were held therein.  The pioneer store was kept by Garland Johnson, who opened up in 1845, but that year sold to James McWhorter, who in 1846, sold the stock and building to E. L. Ford.  In 1848 Harvey Sanderson built and engaged in trade until about 1849, at which date he sold to E. L. Ford.
     The first blacksmith was Tate Wright, in 1845.  In 1848 Daniel Blue opened his wagon-making shop and remained many years.
     Jasper Mills is on the list of old villages of the township.  It is five miles to the west of Washington C. H. and was never legally laid out as a village, but after the finishing of the railroad in 1854, Bryan Brothers, Samuel, Joseph and John, bought five acres of land at that point of Jacob Bush, and that year erected a three-story frame grist mill, which attracted other business factors to the community.  The place was first styled Jasper, but in 1858 took the name of Jasper Mills, from the brand of flour shipped from these mills; also on account of wanting a post office different from the name of the township.  In 1859 a saw-mill was added to the industries by Bryan Brothers, and many years later a corn shelling mill was put in by a Mr. Guthrie, of Baltimore.  Thirty odd years ago this mill was operated by Tolbert & Company of Washington C. H., and they carried on an extensive business in shipping grain from the township to the various markets.
     John S. Burnett, in 1859, in company with Samuel Bryan, started a general store there.  Later the style of the firm was Beatty & Bryan, who continued until 1861, when the business was sold to Dr. Degraot, who a year later lost all by fire.  In 1863 J. L. Mark rebuilt on the site of the old store and handled groceries and dry goods till 1871, then sold to J. S. Burnett and A. E. Silcott, who were succeeded by Miller & Clark, who failed in less than one year.  Following came Charles L. Bush.
     The pioneer blacksmith was Joseph Parkison in 1857, who remained until 1870 and sold out.  In 1880 a wagon shop was started by Charles W. Hyer, and a shoe shop by Richard Smith the same year.
     With the charge in times, the building of roads and pikes and additional railroad facilities, these small villages have been almost erased from the map of Fayette county.
     Allentown, otherwise known as Octa, is a station point of the Dayton & Southeastern railroad, at its junction with the Cincinnati, Wooster & Chicago railroad.  It was laid out by Elijah Allen, after whom it took its name, Allentown, but for postal reasons was subsequently called Octa.  William Allen purchased the first lot, on which he built the first building.  In 1877 a grocery was opened by John Rankin, who in a year or so sold to George Hinkle, who closed it out in 1879.  In 1880 Alfred Methews and Mr. Glass brought in a stock and remained many years.  It was also in 1880 that Frank Stone opened a hotel.  F. C. Trebein, of Xenia, in 1880, built a large frame elevator in which he fixed a set of burrs for corn grinding.
     In 1910 the population of Allentown (Octa) was ninety-one.  Its business interests consisted of:  General stores by T. W. and Milton Murphy, brothers; John Stemmitz; an elevator by John Parker; a carpenter, named Will Stevens, and the postoffice.
     There is a Methodist church at this village, but no lodges.
     The following have served as postmasters at Octa sine the office was established in April, 1882; H. B Barnes, appointed April 18, 1882; George W. Riley, October 24, 1882; John Rankin, June 20, 1884; R. R. Clemer, December 11, 1885; Gail Hamilton, July 26, 1886; U. G. Rankin, July 12, 1898; E. W. Allen, July 25, 1903; M. W. Johnson, September 22, 1904; C. S. Kelley, September 18, 1905; I. W. Murphy, September 24, 1906; Lottie Harmon, May 16, 1914.
     Milledgeville, which place in 1910 had a population of one hundred and eighty-seven, is at a point in Jasper township, one mile north from old village of Plymouth on the Chicago, Hammond & Detroit railroad.  It was laid out in 1855 by James Hogue. The first building here was the Milledgeville mill, built in 1855 by Straley, Creamer & Company.  The first store was that of Jacob Creamer in 1856.  The first brick store room was that of G. L. McAllister, in 1879.  The Lamb & Murphy brick block was built in 1880.  In 1878 a grocery was established by J. T. Hiser.  C. M. Bush opened his hotel here in 1879, and sold to Joseph Rush.  in 1881 Doctor Spangler bought the property and refitted the same.  Doctor Culy was the first doctor of the village, he locating in Milledgeville in 1863.  Prior to 1871 a shoe shop and a wagon shop were in operation.  In an account of the village in 1881 it is found that at that date the business of Milledgeville consisted of one mill, two groceries, one hotel, two doctors, one boot and shoe store, one restaurant, a postoffice, and one large store owned by Lamb, Murphy & Company, who handled dry goods, groceries, hardware, drugs, boots and shoes, queensware and farm implements.
     The present standing of Milledgeville is about as follows:  Its population is one hundred and eighty-seven.  The interests include these:  Milledgeville bank; Acton Brothers, clothing and shoes; Charles B. Hooker and A. H. Lamar, restaurants; Fred Warning, hardware; Gidding Brothers, grain and lumber; Elmer M. Allen, coal dealer; Fred Warning, harness; Acton Brothers and W. H. Chamberlin, groceries; Drs. J. R. Adams and A. N. Vandeman, physicians.  The churches are the Methodist Protestant and Baptist denominations.
     The various postmasters serving here since the office was established are as follows:  When it was "South Plymouth" they were E. L. Ford, August 26, 1852; John F. Hiser, June 11, 1874.  Name now changed to Milledgeville; Smith Rankin, appointed February 9, 1877; G. L. McAllister, November 3, 1881; J. A. Murphy, August 21, 1885; H. C. Weimer, July 10, 1889; J. M. Acton, June 23, 1893; H. W. Jones, September 11, 1897; James Armstrong, September 6, 1901; H. P. Acton, January 14, 1905; Pearl L. Barnes, January 22, 1908; Henry W. Jones, May 28, 1908; Henry Pearson, May 4, 1912.
     Seldon Station is on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, in the southeast portion of Jasper township, and is a small trading station.
     Cunningham Station, on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, is in the northeastern section of this township.
     Jasper Station and Glenden are each small stations on the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania lines, in the southern part of Jasper township.