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There was a time when township government played an
important part in the lives of the people. Under
the first constitution of Ohio there were many officials
provided and the citizens took a pride in accepting
these positions, and the faithful performance of duty
was the first and almost the only consideration for the
compensation was small.
EARLY RECORDS OF
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
The following transcript from the records of Jefferson
Township is a sample of many: "At a session of the
Trustees of Jefferson township oil the third day of
March, 1828, the following fees were allowed for the
small township officers, to wit: John Horton was
allowed for his services as Trustee 37½
cents, and also for his services as supervisor 37½
cents. Peter Seel and William McNeal
were also allowed for their services as Trustee 37½
cents each. Solomon Mackley allowed 37½
cents for his services as clerk. Thomas Farley
allowed 37½ cents
for his services as supervisor. Benjamin Arthur
allowed for his services as supervisor 28 cents, and
Abner Cutler 9 cents. James
Kelly allowed 56_ cents for his services as
Treasurer. Solomon Mackley, Clerk.''
In addition to the officers enumerated, there were two
overseers of the poor, two fence viewers, two justices,
two constables, a lister, together with a supervisor for
each road district, and the official roster of a
township with 50 to 100 voters often included from 20 to
30 names.
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Thus fully one-fourth of the voters were in actual
service as officials all the time, securing training in
self goveminent, and this training doubtless accounts
for the appearance of so many able men in public life in
Ohio from 1840 to 1880. Although serving for
small pay these officer's exercised a great influence.
They laid out the first roads, built the first
schoolhouses, administered pioneer justice and charity
and furnished men to manage county and state affairs.
There were so many persons interested in every public
transaction that there was no opportunity for graft and
no possibility of shirking a duty. The result was
a most economical and efficient system of local
government so far as the lights of the time admitted.
The matter of laying out roads, for instance, was a very
simple matter, as the following entry indicates:
"The State of Ohio, Jackson County: We the undersigned
viewers being called on to view a certain road
commencing at the east end of Joseph Phillips
lane on the Hales Creek road, thence to intersect the
Oak Hill road, and after viewing, we consider the same
to he a useful road for the citizens and the public, and
that there can be a good road made, and that we consider
that there is no damages due to any person or persons
through whose land the said road passes. Given
under our hands this the ninth day of March, 1839.
Levi Rambo, William Comer, Viewers."
The trustees established the said road Apr. 1, 1839,
and it is a road to this day, better laid than many
county or state roads, laid at great expense and after
much red tape and formality. The overseers of the
poor had one correct notion in early days, which should
be readopted. For instance, tins order appears in
the record: "Thomas Moore and Sarah,
his wife, Prudence Moore, Julian
Moore, Judith Moore and her child are
all summoned Nov. 7th, 1840, to depart Jefferson
township. By order of the Overseers of the Poor,
Thomas Brock, Enoch Ewing.
Served by Davis Mackley, constable."
Moore was a squatter who spent his time in
idleness and his daughter Judith had given birth
to an illegitimate child. When that event,
occurred in such a family the overseers acted and
banished them, for the rule was that every man had to
work. This was the badge of nobility in the woods
among the pioneers, for the pioneers know that idleness
always led pauperism and vice in its train.
Davis Mackley, the constable named above,
afterward read law, became an attorney, served as
prosecutor of the county and became the editor and later
the owner also of the Standard. Solomon
Mackley was his uncle and lived on the hill west of
Oak Hill, where be established a horse mill in 1830.
James Kelly, named above, was a relative
of President U. S. Grant's family, and Grant's
parents visited his family when he lived near Oak Hill.
Peter Sell was the first white settler to
buy land in Jefferson, and John Horton and
Joseph Phillips were the founders of
families now numerous and influential in the county.
The same could be written about the officials of all the
other townships in the county.
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JUSTICES OF THE
PEACE
Perhaps the most noted men in the township government
were the justices of the peace, then familiarly known as
"Squires." Many aspired to those offices from time
to time, but usually the people found after a time that
certain men were peculiarly fitted for those offices,
men of truth, hating covetousness, and re-elected them
time after time until they secured a position in their
respective communities that is not within the reach of
anyone today. Among the many men who have served
as squires in this county were Jeremiah Rice, of
Bloomfield, who moved with his family to Minnesota in
1869. James W. McDaniel, of Madison, who
was buried in the old, almost forgotten, grave yard east
of Massey's Spring. Capt. William J. Evans,
of Madison, and John S. Stephenson, of Jefferson,
both of whom were afterward elected to county offices.
Michael McCoy, of Hamilton; Williamson
Sourlock, of Bloomfield; John McCartney,
of Liberty; Stephen Dunham, of Milton;
Solomon Mackley and William Comer,
of Jefferson. James W. McDaniel came to
America before the revolution and served as a body guard
to General Washington during that war. He
came to Ohio and settled half a mile below Oak Hill in
1819. He was one of the first justices and his
knowledge of books caused his neighbors to ask him to
start a school. His only son, Rev. Levi
McDaniel, was a minister of the Baptist Church, he
began to preach about 1820. He and Dr. Gabriel
McNeal had many joint discussions on the questions
of baptism. His father died in 1847, aged
ninety-eight years and eight months. Rev. Levi
McDaniel moved to Scioto County in 1859 and settled
in Rush Township, where he died Dec. 19, 1864. His
wife died in November, 1879, aged eighty-one years.
They were the parents of thirteen children, of whom
Levi became a minister. His son, John
McDaniel, was born at Oak Hill in 1829 and taught
school in Jackson County several years. He moved
to Scioto County with his father and was the first
justice elected in Rush Township.
John McCartney, who has served as justice so
many years in Liberty Township, is a native of
Columbiana County, Ohio, born Oct. 6, 1837. His
father came from Ireland. He came to this county
in 1842 and was elected justice in 1866. John
S. Stephenson was one of the commissioners that
helped to bring the first railroad to Jackson. His
son, J. W. Stephenson, became a commissioner of
Pike County in after years. George W. Hale,
of Bloomfield, was another squire whose fame extended
all over the county. Samuel McDowell, one
of the early squires of Franklin, had a branch of Salt
Creek which flows through the south half of Jackson
named in his honor. There is a tradition that one
Jackson County squire sentenced a prisoner to the Ohio
Penitentiary and that the constable came as far as
Jackson on his way to Columbus; but learned there that a
squire's jurisdiction had some limitations.
The townships retained much of their influence upon the
lives of the people until the war period and then came
the building of political
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machines which made the county the
unit in all political matters, and eliminated townships
as factors in the body politic. Gradually
legislation was enacted which destroyed home rule in the
townships. First the selection of juries was taken
from the trustees and given to jury commissions
appointed by the common pleas judge presiding in the
county, who, in the case of Jackson County, was a
non-resident. The result was to place the
selection of local juries in the hands of a citizen of
Pike County. Next came the seizure of the election
machinery by political machines, the selection of
election officers being turned over to a commission of
four members named by the secretary of state.
The next officials shorn of their power were the
justices. Attorneys are nearly always located at
county seats and they gradually transferred many of the
cases from township justices to those at the county
seat, to town magistrates or the probate judge, all of
which caused the county squire to lose his former high
position. Then came another raid upon township
trustees, when their power over the poor was turned over
largely to infirmary officials. About the same
time new road legislation turned much road control over
to the county commissions.
CHANGES IN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
The next assault was made on the school system.
First the three director system in the sub-districts was
abolished. Second, the one director was abolished
and a township board of five members was elected to take
the place of the board of one man from each district.
In 1914 the final step was taken, and a county board was
created to take over the control of all rural schools.
The same year a new line of attack was carried out by
abolishing the elected assessor and turning over the
assessing power to a county assessor and his deputies,
holding office at the will of a state board. The
outcome of all this will be the early abolition of all
township government and the delegating of all power
hitherto given to their officials to county officials.
These changes have gradually undermined the community
feeling and ideals in the rural districts, and in
Jackson County the county officials elected in 19144
were with one exception citizens of the municipalities,
the great majority being citizens of the county seat.
THE ORIGINAL
TOWNSHIPS.
The original County of Jackson was divided into five
townships on the 1st day of March, 1816, viz., Milton,
Lick, Madison, Bloomfield and Franklin. But in
July, 1816, it was found expedient to redivide the
county, and Jackson, Clinton and Milton townships were
erected July 1, 1816. Bloomfield, Madison,
Franklin, Scioto and Lick townships on July 21. In
1818 more territory was annexed to the county and the
townships of Harrison and Richland were organized.
Washington was organized in September, 1821; Jefferson
in January, 1822, and Hamilton in December, 1825.
Finally Liberty was established in 1839. It was
carved largely out of Lick.
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DIVISIONS AFTER
1850.
These remained the divisions of the county until 1850,
when Vinton County was organized and Jackson County was
robbed of three of its fourteen townships, viz.,
Clinton. Harrison and Richland, which had a population
of 1,750 in 1840. The Village of Charleston was
thus lost to the county at the same time and this in the
end doubtless served as the salvation of Jackson as the
county seat, for had Vinton not been organized the
movement of population into Wellston after 1873 would in
all probability have taken the seat of justice from
Jackson to Wellston.
At the same time that the county lost its northern
townships it gained some valuable farming territory on
the south and east, including the site of the original
Welsh settlement in Western Gallia. For thirty-two
years after the loss of the three townships to Vinton
County there was no new township erected, but after the
opening of the coal field north of Jackson, leading
spirits in the neighborhood of old Washington Church
concluded that the time had come for a new township, and
Coal was established Twelve sections were taken from
Lick and eight sections from Washington, making twenty
in all, mostly drained by Pigeon Creek and its
branches. About twenty years later township
jurisdiction W. Coal, Washington and Milton was
abolished within the limits of Wellston, and this closes
the history of township formation down to the present,
There are now twelve townships in the county.
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.
Bloomfield Township was organized in July, 1816.
Its first assessor was Joshua Scurlock.
Its early records have been lost, the oldest known to be
in existence being that of 1841, when George
Scurlock, William Hale and John
Stephenson were trustees; Robert Mims,
clerk; Joseph Freaser, treasurer, and
John Callahan, D. James and H. C.
Miller, justices. The last, named established
a postoffice at his residence and named it Rocky Hill,
but he removed to Jackson in 1846. Bloomfield was
settled by two strains of immigrants, one from North
Carolina the other from Virginia. George
Scurlock came from North Carolina in 1806 and
founded a large family which is still numerous in the
county, one of his sons, Williamson Scurlock,
born Nov. 22 1830 held the the office of justice for
nearly half his life. The famous Plummer
Williams calf case, which went up to the Supreme
Court of Ohio and was settled in favor of Charles
Williams, originiated in his court. One of
George Scurlock's sons, G. W. Scurlock, still
survives.
THE HAMLETS.
This township has three small hamlets: Winchester laid
out Mar. 26, 1845, by John V. Norton; Vega, laid
out by Joseph Hanna, Aug. 28, 1816, and
Pattonville, laid out by Joshua Pevey, Apr. 6,
1847.
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Winchester is the largest. It is located near the
center of the township and the fine oak grove of
Harrison Poor near it is admirably located and suited
for a community park. At one time it had a hotel
and several stores and a population of nearly 100.
When the railroad came it passed along the valley to the
west and the hamlet of Foraker was established at the
station, but neither of them have grown and there are
barely fifty people in the two now. D. E. Evans
is the postmaster. Harrison Poor is the
merchant in Winchester and Dr. Oscar McLaughlin
is the resident physician. He is the youngest son
of Aaron McLaughlin, who was a native of Gallia
County, born Aug. 15, 1818. He was taken charge
of, owning to the death of his parents, when he was only
three years old, by the overseer of the poor, and was
bound to Jacob Mohler of Madison Township in
Jackson County in 1823. He grew up an upright man
and became a leading citizen. His first wife was
Ann, a member of the famous Corn family
which has so many representatives in the river counties
of Ohio. Oscar is the son of his second
wife, Sarah Swanson, a native of Gallion County.
Stephen C. Markham, who is a blacksmith and now
one of the oldest rsidenets of Bloomfield, is a grandson
of John and Mary Jones Evans, who were one of the
first six families to immigrate from Wales to this
county nearly a century ago. He was a son of
Richard Markham and Ellen Evans, their
daughter. It is related that his grandparents had
some gold and silver when they emigrated but they were
advised to change the coin into paper money.
Becoming discouraged in the new world, they were
planning to return to Wales when their cabin in the
woods was burned accidentally one day, and the paper
money with it, leaving them poorer than any of their
neighbors and unable to leave the country. They
remained in the county and eventually prospered.
Their son, John J. Evans, became one of the
influential citizens of the county. His farm home
was near Vega, a much smaller hamlet than Winchester.
Three of his daughters married three brothers,
Andrew, William and James K. Hurson, and
three single daughters still reside at the old homestead
known as Briar Ranch. Morris A. Hurson,
oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Hurson, is
superintendent of the rural schools of Jackson County,
elected to that position in 1914. One of the most
widely known citizens of Foraker, is Hon. Gomer E.
Evans, another grandson of the pioneers, who has
served two terms in the Ohio House. Living near
the Village of Foraker with his son, Isaac F. Barton,
was Hamby Barton and his aged wife, who were
married Nov. 10, 1853. He was a descendant of the
earliest pioneers on both sides of the house.
Pattonsville, the smallest of the hamlets, like Vega,
had a postoffice at one time, but both have been
discontinued.
METHODIST CHURCHES
IN TOWNSHIP.
There are three Methodist Episcopal churches in the
township, Winchester organized in 1842?, Vega
organized in 1840, and Union
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organized in 1812, and a class at Keystone organized
soon after the furnace was built in 1848. The
Calvinistic Methodists organized a Welsh church at
Bethania about 1847, and a church was built in 1856
which cost $400. The original log house cost $50.
The largest membership was thirty-five in the year 1879.
The church was abandoned many years ago, the members
uniting with other churches nearest to their homes.
Carmel, a Congregational church, was organized in1856,
which still exists as a society and Bethlehem was
organized in 1869 by the Welsh Baptists. Rev.
Daniel Lloyd was the organizer. Rev. Daniel
S. Jones, preached here for many years.
KEYSTONE FURNACE
Keystone was the only furnace established in this
township. It was built in 1848, by John
McConnell & Company. H. S. Brudy was
the principal owner when its career ended. It
stood on the east side of Little Raccoon and much of its
iron was taken down that stream during the rainy seasons
when the waters were high. Several of its men were
drowned in going over mill dams which obstructed the
current except during high water. Samuel Benner,
the first postmaster at Keystone, was appointed in 1855.
Wendall Churchill, who raised a company
for the Twenty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry while an
officer at Keystone, became a brigadier-general.
Samuel Thomas, who went out under Churchill,
became a colonel and settled at New York after the war,
where he was rated at his death as a millionaire.
Bloomfield Township sent out 232 soldiers to the Civil
war. It is claimed that no murder was committed
within its, borders. While its land is not
exceptionally fertile many of its farmers have become
wealthy and the majority have been noted for their great
personal independence. The present officers are
trustees, T. J. Williams, W. W. Davis and
J. D. Patterson; Clerk Cyrus Davis;
Treasurer Evan Morgan.
COAL TOWNSHIP
Coal township was established in the winter of 1882-83.
It owned its establishment to the laying out of several
small hamlets and the building of settlements near new
mines. The first hamlet was Eurekaville laid out
by John F. Shook and
Adam Scott on land then in Washington Township in
1877. This was near the small community church
named Washington, where a class was organized as early
as 1823. The office of Eurekaville was established
on Nov. 13, 1876, with Adam Winfough as
postmaster. The Ohio Southern Railroad extended
its Horse Creek branch through Coalton, the first train
passing Oct. 7, 1878. This brought many more
people into the valley and Joseph H. Wilson and
Joseph Gooding laid out the hamlet of Coalton in
1879. Owing to the existence of a post office in
another part of the state whose name resembled
Eurekaville, the name of the office was changed to
Coalton May 8, 1879.
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VILLAGE OF COALTON
The Village of Coalton combining the two hamlets was
incorporated Aug. 11, 1880, with an area of about 560
acres. The C. H. and D. Railroad had been
extended through the village the year before and its
population grew rapidly, at one time exceeding 1,500.
The population in 1910 was 1,111. Other hamlets in
the township are Altoona, laid out by Moses D. Jones,
Glen Roy laid out by Hon. Andrew Roy in May,
1883, and Goldsborough laid out the same year.
Smaller hamlets near mines are Davisville,
Chapman and Comet, Jonestown, Tom Corwin, Garfield.
A few hamlets have come and gone as mushrooms as is
always the case in mining regions. All the
hamlets, and Coalton having been dependent on the coal
industry have lost ground as the industry waned and the
last house has disappeared form the proximity of the
majority of the abandoned mines. Coalton alone
survives in anything like its former strength, but is
population is gradually leaving. Situated as it is
on three railroads, its future has possibilities and it
may regain lost ground. Its principal officials
today are: Mayor, A. M. Scott; marshal,
John Evans; clerk, C. F. Shulman; treasurer,
Thomas Luster; council, W. E. Price, J. c. Row,
J. C. Harper, Dan C. Jones, Enoch Wood, Abe James.
E. V. Springer is superintendent of schools.
FOUNDERS OF COALTON.
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FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.
Franklin was one of the original five townships of the
county, was reformed July 16, 1816, and later lost
twenty-four sections to Jefferson, six to Scioto and six
to Hamilton. Much of its history is a part of the
history of Salt Licks.
Salt Creek has its head waters within its bounds and
the old valley
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through which it flows north divides the township and
this division has always divided the people in a
measure. It has always been almost a purely
agricultural township, although there has been a little
mining industry in the southeast section of hilltop iron
or coal and limestone deposits. The Jackson shaft
coal has been found in the township but never developed.
Emanuel Traxler built
the first watermill or flourmill in 1812, and Jacob
Washam built a second in 1822. The township
has never had a furnace, or a large coal mine, no hamlet
or saloon, except at Clay, a small group of houses built
in the southeastern corner of the township in Symmes
Valley and for all practical purposes more allied with
Madison than Franklin. There have been three
postoffices, Camba, Banner and Clay, each near a
railroad station on the Portsmouth Branch, but those at
Banner and Clay have been discontinued. Mrs.
George J. Reiniger is postmistress at Camba.
THE CHURCHES AND
THEIR FOUNDERS.
PROMINENT CITIZENS.
Baldwin Brazee Evans, who was the merchant at
Camba for many years, held the office of county auditor
for two terms. He was a grand
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son of Evan Evans, the pioneer, and a son of
Evan and Mary Cherrington Evans. He
established Camba postoffice. Cornelius
Schellenger was a pioneer of the township not already
noted. His son, Washington Schellenger, was
born in the township in 1806. His son, William
Schellenger, was auditor for two terms and was
succeeded in turn by his son, Oscar P. schellenger.
The four sons of Washington Schellenger, William,
Harrison, Charles W. and George are soldiers.
Samuel R. Johnson was another prominent citizen
in early days. His son, Samuel H.,
lives at the old homestead and another son, Van Buren
Johnson, of Scioto, was commissioner for two terms.
The township officers are R. H. Jenkins, B. F.
Masters and Euphrates Claar, trustees;
Frank H. Johnson, clerk, and Guy W. Schellenger,
treasurer. All these were elected by the
progressive party in 1913.
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP.
Hamilton Township was organized in 1825 with an area of
twenty-four miles, and these were the first officers:
Trustees, Samuel Gilliland, John Canter,
John Cantwell; clerk, Solomon Dever;
treasurer, John Walls. There is a tradition
that the first settler was a salt boiler from the Licks
in 1800, but the first homesteader was Solomon Dever,
Sr. His son, Solomon, was born in
Hampshire County, Virginia in 1796 and came to Jackson
County with his father. He lived to be an
octogenarian and his large family have been influential
in the county. George William, Franklin,
Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Francis M. and Warren.
Noah J., son of William, has been Common
Pleas judge and representative from Scioto. A.
J. Dever was an attorney and helped to build up
Jackson. Samuel Gilliland came to Jackson
County, Nov. 2 1815 and his son, Jackson Gilliland,
was all his life a resident of Hamilton.
His sons, Samuel, Cranston and Oscar, are
today three leading citizens. Michael McCoy
founded the McCoy family in the county and his
son, Vinton, still lives on the old farm, he was
born July 18, 1835. The Canter family
were among the pioneers and a number of German families,
Flaker, Gahm, Riegel, Russ,
and others, came later. Philip Meldick,
Jr., is today a prominent citizen. Jackson
Furnace, the first built in the county, was located in
Hamilton, and was instrumental in attracting population
which increased from 415 in 1840 to 1,108 in 1870.
Since that year and the dismantling of the furnace, the
population has fallen away materially.
RELIGIOUS
ORGANIZATIONS.
The first church in the township was Hamilton, organized
in 1821 by the Christian order, but it did not erect a
house of worship until 1871. This was burned
accidentally, in 1912, and a new church built out of the
lumber from the Congregational Church at Glen Roy took
its place in 1914. The Methodist Protestants built
a church at Pleasant Hill in 1856. The class had
been organized in 1856 by Rev. William Hatfield.
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The new church still standing was built in 1875.
The German Lutherans established St. Johns in 1851, and
they built their church in 1878. The old St. Johns
graveyard is the resting place of many German pioneers.
A church was established in Dever Valley, but the class
has never been very strong.
MABEE'S STAND.
The only hamlet in the township has been Mabee,
once known as Mabee's Stand, because a man,
William Mabee, started a small store there. In
course of time a postoffice was established but it was
discontinued many years ago. Vinton McCoy
was a postmaster for several years. Two murders
have been committed in the township. That of
Jackson McCoy in 1858 aroused much feeling in the
county. One of the last shooting matches in the
county was held at the home of Joseph Woods in
this township on Christmas Day, 1912, and John
Jackson was shot. The trial following ended
shooting matches on holidays.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
Jackson Township was organized in July, 1816, but
portions were afterward made a part of Washington,
Richland and Liberty. The erosions of the valleys
makes its hills seem lofty and the township is rough.
Its waters are drained by Salt Creek and its branches.
Short branches begin on high elevations and rush into
the deep gorge of Salt Creek and since the overlying
stone strata are the hardest, the underlying strain wore
away first in these short valleys with the result that
beautiful gulches were formed, extending gradually from
Salt Creek backward into the hills and terminating in
water falls of 20 to 100 feet in height. High
rocky cliffs bound these gulches on either side and
often a deep cavern is found under the rocky shell over
which the stream comes down. These caverns may be
found in nearly all the gulches, but Canter's on
Canter's Run are the best known, named for a pioneer of
the Canter family who hunted and trapped near his
cabin built in this gulch. The scenery at Canter's
Caves, which are at the head of a gulch, is beautiful,
but Bolles Gulch, Ophir Falls on Martin's Run and the
Salt Peter cave on Redfern Run, a branch of Rock Run,
are nearly as fine. Some day this region will be
made a park for the use of Southern Ohio, for such
scenery can be found nowhere else within Ohio's
boundaries.
FIRST SETTLERS
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
Theier cabins were located near the fine springs which
burst forth from the Conglomerate, high on the hills.
Daniel Waller, born in the township in 1815, was
one of the best known of its citizens. Mrs.
Byers, who lived to be more than 100 years old, born
in Virginia, October, 1781, spend most of her life in
the township.
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The first steam mill in the county was established at
Leo in 1840 by Asa Cassady. In 1859 it
passed to Daniel Perry and in 1869 Robert Evin,
born in Virginia, became the owner. He died at
Leo.
SWIFTSVILLE AND RAY.
The village laid out as Swiftsville, by Samuel Swift
in 1844, was named Leo when the postoffice was
established in 1871. It was discontinued years
ago. Ray is the only other village in the
township. The town was laid out by Moses
Ray in 1854 when the Baltimore & Ohio, then the
Marietta & Cincinnati was built that far. Q. H.
McCormick became its first postmaster and held the
office until succeeded by J. R. Watts in 1913.
It has one church, Corinth, organized by the Christians
in 1852. Other churches in the township are
Trinity M. E. Church at Leo organized in the '30s,
Evergreen Baptist Church east of the village and
Pleasant Valley Church near Springer's
postoffice, organized in 1869.
Pleasant Springer, at whose home Springer's
postoffice was located, was born Sept. 10, 1845, and
spent his life in the township. He served in the
army and was commissioner of the county six years.
The postoffice established in 1882 has been
discontinued. Leach postoffice, established
at the home of Thompson Leach, Feb. 1, 1883, has
been discontinued also. The murder of Daniel
Winchell, Feb. 9, 1860, by his relations caused much
excitement. The son, nephew and son-in-law were
sent to the penitentiary.
The accidental death of James S. Wills at
Pleasant Valley Church shocked the township. He
and his son had discovered a rabbit under the church and
their gun was discharged accidentally, striking Wills,
who bled to death from an arterial wound. V. T.
Swaney is clerk of the township and G. V. Borden,
treasurer.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.
Jefferson Township was organized in January, 1822.
John Shumate was the first Lister; Basil
Lewis, William Jenkins were trustees; Solomon
Markley, treasurer. They qualified before
James McDaniel, the first justice in the township.
Solomon Mackley, the second justice qualified May
23, 1822.
James McDaniel was one of the body guard of
George Washington in the Revolution, came to Jackson
County in 1819 and died in 1847. His grave is in
the abandoned graveyard east of Oak Hill. He was
ninety-eight old at his death. For many years
after coming into the county he taught school in a log
hut near where McDaniel Switch was located
afterward. Solomon Mackley lived where
ex-Recorder William Thomas now resides, and built
a horse mill on that hill. Dr. Gabriel McNeal
settled in the township in 1810 and Peter Seel in
1814. William Hewitt, was hermit, was the
first settler. He built his cabin on Upper Hewitts
Fork, named for him about 1803, but moved
Page 540 -
back to Salt Creek in 1809. The first Methodist
class was organized in the Arthur School about 1830 and
a church building was started on land now belonging to
J. Ellis Evans, but it was abandoned. The
logs are now part of a house near Horeb Church.
This was a Welsh Church in 1811. Both are still
flourishing. R. O. Williams is pastor of
Horeb, and Bethel is on the circuit.
There have been three furnaces in the township.
Jefferson, Monroe and Cambria, and Jefferson is still
operated. The first Welshmen came into the
township in 1837 and their names are in the following
list of road hands for 1838, viz.: Peter Seel,
William White, William Price, Elijah Browning, Eli
Perry, James Boggs, George Slack, John White, Moses T.
Cummings, Landon Boyd, Joseph Cummings, John West,
Marcus West, William Ferrell, Andrew Ferrell, John
Markley, Joseph Phillips, Levi McDaniel, James
Humphries, William R. Lloyd, Martin Phillips, Mat
Farley, John Mackley, Levi Rambo, George Yeager, Gabriel
McNeal, Wm. McNeal, Thomas McNeal, Ward Comer, Jesse
Radabaugh, Green Shumate, Harrison Shumate, Amos
Jenkins, Enoch Ewing, Berry Jenkins, Josiah, Realva
and William H. C. Jenkins, Azariah and
Benjamin Arthur, James Kincaid and Elijah Dulany,
John Martin, William Martin, David Martin, Isaiah Jaycox,
James, William, Joseph, Lewis and John Horton,
John Shoemaker, Thomas Oliver, Amos Littlejohn, James
White, Thomas Brock, William Allen, Joshua Evans, Daniel
Evans, Joseph Jenkins, Robert Allen, Samuel O'Neal, John
Harmon, John Clark, William J. Leonard, Henry Allen,
Isaac Allen, James Allen, William Jones, Lewis Harmon,
Michael Dever, David Edwards, Benjamin White, Emanuel
Comer, John Jenkins, William Comer, George Comer, Thomas
Williams. The Welshmen in order of arrival
were David Edwards, Joshua and Daniel Evans,
William Jones and Thomas Williams Old
men over eighty years were not asked to work the roads
and of those was David Evans, father of
Joshua and Daniel, the first Welsh settler
on Upper Hewitts Fork.
John Horton came to this county settling in
Madison in 1811, and died June 6, 1869. There have
been two postoffices in the township outside of Oak
Hill, Samsonville and Monroe and the first is still in
existence. Clay Station is in the township in the
northeast corner, but the postoffice was in Franklin
(see History of Oak Hill.)
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP.
The greater part of Liberty belonged to Lick Township
until 1839 when it was erected as a separate township.
Its first officers were elected Dec. 21, 1839, at the
house of William Newell. Some of its
earliest settlers like those of Jackson Township were
soldiers who had served under General Lewis in
1774, and had discovered what a fine hunting ground
Jackson County was. One of the three great pigeon
roosts of the county was in this township and the creek
draining the neighborhood was named Pigeon Roost Creek.
The scenery along some of its gulches,
Page 541 -
Notably that on the land of Capt. Samuel White is
as fine as that of Rock Run. The Valley of Buckeye
Creek divides the township much as Franklin Township is
cut in two by another portion of this old pre-glacial
valley. A water mill was built on Buckeye in 1833
by Jacob and John Harrison, which passed to
James Simpson in 1857, and the Ohio Southern stop
near by was named Simpson for him.
SCHOOLS AND
CHURCHES.
Page 542 -
The present officers are: Trustees, John Kern, John
Weese, and P. H. Taylor, the latter a negro;
clerk, C. W. Whaley, and Henry White,
treasurer.
LICK TOWNSHIP.
Lick Township was made on organization in Ross
County and its history is that of the Salt Licks and
Jackson. It has lost much of its territory in time
to various other townships, and there is a movement to
reduce it a little more by cutting off the Town of
Jackson and the section west of it.
MADISON TOWNSHIP.
Madison Township contains forty-two sections, six
sections taken from Gallia being added to it when in
1850 Vinton County was organized. This gave it the
site of the Faulkner mill built on Black Fork in 1814.
Several men, afterward leading citizens of Jefferson,
were among its early officials, among them John
Shumate, who was lister in 1817 and 1818. He
was the grandfather of William Shumate, who lives
on the old homestead near the big spring named in the
first survey of that part of the county. The added
sections in 1850 gave Madison the site of the oldest
church in that part of the county which was erected
about 1818.
THE EARLIEST
CHURCHES.
Page 543 -
MADISON FURNACE.
MILTON TOWNSHIP.
Milton Township was organized in July, 1816, but six
sections were added in 1850, giving it forty-two square
miles. It leads all the other townships in having
had six furnaces within its borders. Buckeye built
on Little Raccoon in 1851, Cornelia built in 1854,
Latrobe in 1854, Milton in 1874, Wellston in 1874 and
Eliza in 1878. This furnace was built by Harvey
Wells and named in honor of his wife, who was a
daughter of Hon. H. S. Bundy. It suffered
many vicissitudes and was dismantled many years ago.
Much of its history belongs in that of Wellston and
other towns and the hamlets. The first postoffice
in the township was Berlin X roads established June 28,
1850, with L. W. Salmans as postmaster. The
Methodist Church at Berlin was established 1854, but an
older class had been established between Berlin and
Middleton in 1838, and named Salem. It survives
and a new church is building there now.
The United Brethren Church at Mount Carmel was organize
about 1825 and still survives. The Hawk family
had a unique record. Reuben and Nancy Hawk
were married in 1828. He was one of eleven
brothers, five of whom married five sisters. Their
son Wilson Hawk was a leading citizen of Berlin
until his death. James Hollingshead settled
in Milton in the early days and John Hollingshead,
his son, was, born there July 12, 1826. His
family is numerous and influential
William J. Kirkdall, born Aug. 15, 1829, was one
of the county's
Page 544 -
leading teachers for a generation. He married
Alvira E. Smith, and each of their seven children,
Lawson, Charles, Julia, James, Ella, Esther F.
and Fred graduated at the Ohio University.
Dr. William Sylvester, born at Portland in Meigs
County, Oct. 8, 1826, settled at Middleton to practice
medicine in 1852 and moved to Berlin and Wellston in
turn, where his son, Dr. J. E. Sylvester, is now
a leading physician. The present officers of
Milton are William Conger, clerk, and Henry
Davis, treasurer.
SCIOTO TOWNSHIP.
Scioto was organized in July, 1816. Its first
settlers were squatters from the Licks, but John
Graham entered the land in 1817, Edward Crabtree
in 1818, and Tolbert and Samuel McDowell
followed soon after. The oldest record of officers
is as follows: Trustees, Seth, Graham, John
McDowell and Nathaniel Scott; treasurer,
Peter Keller; clerk, John McDowell; justices,
Samuel McDowell and Alexander Anderson.
The first mill was
established by David Walton in 1823, who sold it
to Daniel White in 1829. He sold it to
William Crabtree in 1834 and Enoch Crabtree
bought it in 1852. It was dismantled a year ago.
There are two small hamlets, Petersburg and Grahamsville.
There have been seven or eight churches in the
township. Buckeye organized by the Presbyterians
is now a Methodist Church. The Protestant
Methodists have Truman Chapel organized in 1859 and New
Zion in 1879. The Germans have Salem and the
Baptists have Bethesda in the western part of the
township. The first Methodist class Wesley was
organized about 1845 by Rev. Daniel Clark.
They built a church in 1862, but it burned down
accidentally. They built a second church in 1878
and it is flourishing.
The German element in this township is strong and
influential. The first came into the township in
the '20s and others followed, until there have been
perhaps 100 families of that nationality in Scioto and
Franklin and Hamilton. The most common names are
Keller, Gahm, Leser, Flaker, Wittman, Riegel, Spohn,
Motz, Miller, Meldick, John Motz, long a business
man in Jackson, has lived in Pike where he was
commissioner of the county. That they have not
held offices in Jackson County is due to the fact that
they have been practically all democrats and Jackson
County has been uniformly republican for about sixty
years. Dr. J. L. Gahn was elected coroner
one term, and was a popular member of the Jackson School
Board for many years. Scioto Township had always
cast a democratic majority until 1914, when it went for
Willis against Governor Cox under the
leadership of John Motz, of Jackson, who was the
Wilson elector from the Tenth Ohio District. There
is a colony of Yankees in the township, who came
originally from Pennsylvania, and they have been
uniformly republican. There was much feeling
between them during the Civil war but the animosity has
passed away. Scioto had the third and smallest
pigeon roost of the county, but it covered fully twenty
acres on the land of James Cochran
Page 545 -
and Daniel Harrell. The waters of Pigeon
Roost Creek were black with the droppings of the birds
and nothing would drink it. The ridge when cleared
produced wonderful crops of wheat for many years, but it
has b een exhausted long ago. Enoch Crabtree,
who operated the grist mill on the Little Scioto so many
years was born in Jackson County, Sept. 1, 1824.
He was married twice, his first wife being Mary,
daughter of Peter Keller, the pioneer.
Oscar Flaker is clerk of the township.
Charles Sticklen, treasurer; William Warren,
William H. Garrett and W. B. Garrett are
trustees. There have been Levi Grahmsville, Glade
and Cove postoffices in the township and the last two
are still in existence, as the two stations of that name
on the D. T. & I. A rural route runs from Cove to
the South. In early days, there was a Star rout
from Jackson through to Scioto County, and many farmers
set up boxes for their mail as is done on rural routes
today, as suggested in Cooper's work, "The
Pioneer." The Gahn family cut a box in an
oak for their letter box and it remained until the tree
was cut down a few years ago.
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.
Washington Township was organized in 1821. After
various cuttings it has been reduced to twenty-two
sections in area, the smallest in the county except
Coal. It is cut almost in two by Pigeon Roost
Creek, named for a pigeon roost at its head water, not
far from Buffalo Skull. A crows roost used by
perhaps a quarter of a million of crows, lies at its
eastern headwaters in Wellston. Byer on the B. &
O. is the only hamlet in the township. It was laid
out as Ellsworth by John Skully in 1869.
W. W. Kennedy, George Stevenson and D. S.
Roy now have stores in it. There are two
churches belonging to the Methodists in the township -
Finley Chapel built in 1855 and the church at Byer built
in 1875. Stephen Trepp, of this townships,
has served two terms as county commissioners.
Patrick Hogan, born Mar. 17, 1818, in Ireland, came
to America in 1852 and settled on the highland in this
township. His son, T. S. Hogan, was elected
attorney general of Ohio in 1910 and re-elected in 1912,
but was defeated for U. S. senator in 1914.
- END OF CHAPTER XII - |
