STEUBENVILLE TOWNSHIP.
As most of
the history of Steubenville Township and Mingo Junction has
already been included in the general history of the county
and in that of the city of Steubenville, it will only be
necessary to include here and in the history of other
townships such facts are are not related in the foregoing.
The original township was erected on May 30, 1803, and
included what are now Island Creek, Cross Creek and Salem
townships, the two former being cut off on June 4, 1806, and
the last named on June 3, 1807. According to the
township minutes an election was held at the court hose in
Steubenville, Zaccheus BRIGGS presiding, when the
following officers were elected by ballot: John BLACK,
clerk; Zaccheus BIGGS, James DUNLEVY and James
SHANE, trustees; Richard JOHNSON and Jonathan
NOTTINGHAM, overseers of the poor; Thomas HITCHCOCK,
William ENGLE, and Richard LEE, fence viewers;
Matthew ADAMS and Samuel HUNTER, appraisers of
houses; Andrew McCULLOUGH, lister of taxable
property; Thoams GRAY, George FRIEND, Daniel DUNLEVY
and Thomas WINTRINGER, supervisors of highways;
Anthony BLACKBURN and Andrwe McCULLOUGH,
constables. This was attested June 21. The next
minute is as follows: "At a meeting of the
subscribers, trustees of the township of Steubenville on the
11th of October, 1803, ordered that the aforesaid township
be divided in the following manner: Beginning at the
Ohio River at the mouth of Wills Creek; thence up said creek
to the head gate of Josiah JOHNSON's saw mill; thence
north to the township line; thence with said line to the
river allotted to George FRIEND." Also from the
Ohio River up said Willis Creek till opposite Benjamin
DOYLE's; thence south to Cross Creek, a straight course;
thence down said creek to the mouth, with the town of
Steubenville, to be in the district with Thomas GRAY.
(This is practically the present township except the part
below Cross Creek.) Also from the mouth of Cross Creek
up said creek on the south side of the township line west;
thence south to the township line; thence east to the Ohio
River, deeded to Daniel DUNLEVY. As also from
Wills Creek, a south course to Benjamin DOYLE's;
thence south to Cross Creek; thence up said creek to the
extreme of the township in a west corner to the place of
beginning, to be in the district allotted to Thomas
Wintringer." The officers for the succeeding year
were: Trustees: Brice VIERS, John ENGLAND, Thomas
PATTON; overseers of the poor, Jonathan NOTTINGHAM
and Samuel THOMPSON; constables, Anthony BECK
and Andrew McCULLOUGH; supervisors of highways,
Daniel TREADWAY, Jacob ARNOLD, Geo. FRIEND, Joseph PORTER;
fence viewers, Richard COX and Philip SMITH;
house appraiser, Joseph DAY; TREASURER, treasurer,
Samuel HUNTER. The only reference to changes in
the township boundaries is a minute on June 30, 1806, to the
effect that in consequence of a division of Steubenville
Township, David POWELL, late trustee, has fallen into
the township of Cross Creek, Philip CABLE is
appointed trustee in his place. On the old minute book
is found as entry of $4.43 for conducting a pauper
funeral...... Under the "squirrel act" of December 24,
1807, requiring certain taxable residents ot produce so many
squirrel scalps annually with the view of exterminating
those animals, Hans WILSON is credited with thirty
scalps; Philip CABLE, sixty; and Godfrey RICHARDS,
twenty-two; in all, 112 scalps. The idea of protecting
squirrels had not yet crystalized. On April 1, 1811,
it was certified that Mordecai BARTLEY had received
132 votes; John ADAMS, twenty-eight, and John
McGRAW, twenty-seven for justice of the peace. "July 10,
1813, Jacob FICKES produced his receipt from the
treasurer for payment of $2 for refusal to serve as
trustee." The office evidently sought the man in those
days. The present township has somewhat the shape of a
rude letter B, having six full sections and eight
fractional, fronting on Wills Creek and the Ohio River, the
northern boundary being formed for a short distance by the
creek, with straight lines on the west and south separating
it from Cross Creek, and Wells Townships. The area is
about 7,100 acres, of which 1,676 are within the corporate
limits of Steubenville. The principal streams are
Cross Creek, George's Run and Wells' Run. The Wabash
system crosses it at Mingo, with C. & P. and W. & L. E.
along the river front, and Panhandle to and up Cross Creek.
Among the early settlers after Bazaleel WELLS
were the JOHNSONS, BICKERSTAFFS, ABRAHAMS, PERMARS,
POWELL, LOCKARD, HODBERT, MYERS, ENGLAND, POTTERS, RICKEYS,
ADAMS AND HILLS. Mrs. JOHNSON, nee Mary
BICKERSTAFF. was a name of reminiscences. Her home
was on eighty acres of land purchased from Bezaleel WELLS
a mile and a half west of old Steubenville. She
remembered hearing Lorenzo DOW preach on the street
in Steubenville in 1799 or 1800. It is known
positively that DOW was in the Short Creek Valley in
1798 and preached to the pioneers. He was known to
deliver eloquent discourses to an audience composed of one
person. They lived in a log cabin, but the old lady
declared there was "a help of comfort in it compared with
your damask curtained houses of today." Dow
arrived at Steubenville on foot, for he would not ride.
A report had gained circulation that a great divine was
coming, whom some were not slow to claim a second Christ,
which led to 200 or 300 persons gathering under a large tree
that stood at the end of the public square. Beneath
this tree was a bench upon which butchers cut up their meat,
and there was also an upping block. When Dow
arrived he look very seedy and travel worn, and staggered
somewhat, which led to Mrs. BICKERSTAFF inquiring if
he were drunk. Her husband replied, "Thee'll see
directly." Mr. DOW mounted the "upping block"
and began his sermon with these words:
"Sent by my Lord, on you I call -
The invitation is to all;
Come all the world, come sinner, thou,
All things in Christ are ready now."
The audience was so
delighted that a collection was taken up and the receipts
handed to the preacher, who sought out the most humbly
attired person in the crowd, and handed the money to him,
bidding him God speed in its use. The BICKERSTAFFs
invited the preacher to their house, but he declined,
saying, "I have not the time, my Lord's work must be done
and I must go." The farm was paid for in produce.
It was in this township on the ADAMS farm about a
mile west of Mingo that the last Indian fight took place on
Jefferson county soil, as related elsewhere. George
ADAMS, father of Henry ADAMS at the age of
seventeen joined General WAYNE's army, his home then
being in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. He aided in
building Fort Recovery, and settled in Steubenville Township
in 1796. Philip SMITH, who was with the
Crawford Sandusky Expedition, settled near Steubenville in
1799, where he lived until 1812, then removing to Wayne
county.
MINGO TOWN.
Although Mingo
Bottom was a historic point from the first advent of the
white men into this valley, was the scene of the first
recorded event in the county, had enough settlers before
1790 to at least discuss resistance to the forces sent to
eject them, was the rendezvous of the Gnaddenuten, Crawford
and other early expeditions, became a railroad junction in
1853 and was the landing place for supplies during the
building of the S. & I. R. R., was a camp during the Civil
War; in short was a leading figure in all the county's
history, yet down to the fall of 1869 there was not even the
semblance of a village there. The surrounding country
was divided into cultivated farms, with substantial homes,
but at the place itself were but one small frame house and a
little railway station. There was not even a
postoffice, and the neighboring residents came to
Steubenville to vote. The very name was appropriated
by a post-office in another section of the stae, and when it
was afterwards desired to utilize the old name which had
indicated the spot for a century and a half, it was
necessary to add it to the word "Junction." There was
a locust grove on the river bank fronting the vanishing
island, and another on the hilltop, both of which were
favorite picnic grounds. The state road down the river
here sought the base of the hill (now Commercial Street),
passing the well known watering trough at POTTER
spring, and the noise of passing trains only momentarily
disturbed the rural quiet of this peaceful valley. The
POTTER, PIEHLER, MEANS, WELLS or JUMP farms
occupied the
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