SOIL AND DRAINAGE OF CONGRESS TOWNSHIP - PIONEERS - WILLIAMSPORT - FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP - DEFUNCT TOWNS - SCHOOL HOUSES - JOHN COOK AND OTHERS - PULASKIVILLE

SOIL AND DRAINAGE.

     Congress township in its general appearance and character resembles Bloomfield, being rather level, yet gently undulating in some portions.  The land is tillable and the soil fertile.  There are several streams coursing through this region, affording drainage and supplying stock with water.  The early settlement gravitated between two points - Williamsport and West Point.
     The Whetstone or Olentangy, enters the township a little east of West Point, flows almost south through sections 5 and 6 when it changes to a westerly course, passing out through section 7.  A tributary of this stream rises in section 2, runs southwest two or three miles, and changes to a westerly course, passes out a little south of Whetstone, and unites with the latter in the south part of Washington township.  Two or three other small tributaries have their

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sources in the southwest part, and flowing southward, empty into the Whetstone near Mt. Gilead.  Owl creek has its source in section 13, flows almost south, and passes out through section 36.  The middle branch of Owl creek rises near Williamsport, starts out in the westerly direction, and then, with a curve of several miles extent, changes to the southward and passes through the township on section 33.  The northeast quarter of the township was generally known as the Owl Creek prairie, and is a fine farming region.  The timbered portion of the township is stocked with the different species common to this section of the state.

PIONEERS OF CONGRESS TOWNSHIP.

     Perhaps the first settler in Congress township was John Cook, Sr., who located on a farm three miles south of Williamsport in 1811.  William Levering settled on owl creek at an early day and built a horse grist mill, which was the only thing practicable then, and the settlers for miles around brought their grist of wheat and corn on horseback, hitched their horse to the grinder and ground their own grain; then mounted and returned home.  Mr. Levering built the first saw and grist mills in the township about 1815, on Owl creek.

     Enoch Hart was among the pioneers of Congress township.  He entered a piece of land embracing what was later the site of Williamsport.  William Rush, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, settled there in 1821.  He was a soldier of the War of 1812.  When Mr. Rush and wife came to Congress township, there were but five families there.
     Among the early settlers, besides Rush and Levering, were Samuel Graham, Jonathan Brewer, Samuel Graham, Timothy Gardner and a Mr. Bailey.
     When white people first began to settle in Congress township, they had to go to Mt. Vernon or Fredericktown to mill, and it took several days to make the trip.  This was before Levering built his mill on section 25, which proved a great convenience to the people.  A country store and the country blacksmith early put in an appearance.  Dan Mitchell was perhaps the first blacksmith and John Levering the next.
     In the early settlement there were plenty of Indians passing to and fro through Congress townships.  They would encamp near the streams and hunt for several days at a time.  They were great beggars and when they could not beg they would steal, and there-

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fore requited constant watching when in the neighborhood.  But after a few years they were removed to the reservations the government had provided for them, and their old haunts and hunting grounds in the forests of Morrow county are among the things of the past.
     Gideon Chamberlain was an early settler near the southern line of Congress township, where he located in 1828.  He has a son, Squire Chamberlain, now living in Williamsport.  Samuel McCleneham settled in Congress about 1831-2.  He died in 1873, but his widow is still living.  Mr. Foultz, who settled in the northeast part of the township very early, is said to have been a soldier under Napoleon Bonaparte, and participated in the ill-fated expedition to Moscow.  He is now dead.  John Moffett came from Pennsylvania, but was of Scotch descent, and came to this township in 1831, where he died in 1846.  His widow is still living and is ninety-three years old.  She crossed the mountains with her family, in 1802, and settled in southern Ohio, where she lived until her marriage and removal to this township.  She has been a member of the church for more than sixty years.  John Garverick was from Pennsylvania in 1833, and settled in north part of township, where he died in 1872.
     In 1830, there were scattered through the township the following additional settlers:  Amos Melotte, Thomas Fiddler, William Andrews, Joseph Vannator, George and James Thompson, John Swallum, Enoch Hart, William Williams, Jerry Freeland, and perhaps a few others.  Melotte was from Pennsylvania originally, but had been living for some time in the southern part of the state.  He settled here in 1831 about one and a half miles south of Williamsport.  Thomas Fiddler settled originally in this township, but moved over into Franklin township.  Andrews settled where A. B. Richardson now lives, moved to Wisconsin and died there.  Vannator came about the time of Andrews' arrival.  The Thompsons came in 1830, and were originally from Ireland.  George Thompson was the father of James, and died in 1859.  Swallum was from Virginia and is living on the place of his original settlement.  His father was one of the Hessians captured by Washington at Trenton during the Revolutionary war.  There was a family living on the adjoining "eighty" to that on which Swallum settled, when he came, but they are now all gone. Hart was from Pennsylvania, and his wife was from Maryland.  He, with his father, settled in what is now Perry township, at an early day.  Enoch Hart entered the land on which the village of Williamsport now

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stands, in 1827, and soon afterward he and his young wife settled on it.  He erected a cabin on this land, and lived one year in it without a door, except a quilt hung before the opening.  This afforded but a slight protection against the wolves, which sometimes became very fierce and forced the family to guard the opening against the intrusion of the unwelcome animals.  Mr. Hart sold his property to a man named Freeland, and moved into the northern pa of the township, where he died in April, 1878.
     Probably the next arrival, after those already mentioned, was John Russell.  He was from New York, and is supposed to have settled about 1824.  He entered the place where Dan Mitchell lived and died, and where his widow is still living.  He sold out to Mr. Mitchell, upon his arrival in 1828, and bought a farm between Bellville and Lexington.  Here he remained but a few years, when he sold his place and removed farther west, where he died some years afterward.  Dan Mitchell, who went by the name of "Dan," and did not allow himself to be called Daniel, bought out Russell.  He was from Washington county, Pennsylvania, and settled originally in Perry township, in the spring of 1823, where he dwelt until the fall of 1828.  He then sold out and removed to Congress township, and settled where his widow now lives, one mile east of the village of Williamsport.  She is seventy-nine years old, and enjoys good health.  The came from Pennsylvania in wagons, and were sixteen days on the road.  It was at a disagreeable season of the year, the ground was muddy, and over much of the route their wagon was the first to open the way.  Often they had to stop and cut out a road and build pole bridges over the streams.  But "time, patience and perseverance" finally overcame all obstacles, and the journey was accomplished without accident.  Mr. Mitchell died about a year ago, but has several children still living, among whom is Z. H. Mitchell, who owns a saw mill east of Williamsport.  Another son keeps a hotel in that village.  The elder Mitchell was a man of some prominence in his neighborhood, and was one of the early county commissioners.
     The schoolmaster was an early addition to the settlement, as well as the pioneer preacher.  One of the first schools taught in the township, was by Benjamin P. Truex, about 1834.  It was kept in a small cabin, built for school purposes, not far from the village of Williamsport.  A man named Hayden taught school near Dan Mitchell's, at a very early day, perhaps the next school after that taught by Truex.  The house in which Truex taught was the first built in the township, perhaps, for school purposes.  It was the usual log cabin school house.

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     The first birth in the township was that of Lavina Mitchell, a daughter of Martin Mitchell.  She was born in 1829.  The first marriage could not be ascertained.  One of the first deaths was that of Samuel Peoples, who was killed at a house-raising at a very early day.  Margaret Swallum died in 1832.
     The first roads through Congress township were the Indian and emigrant trails.  The first laid out by authority was the Delaware and Mansfield road, which passes through the township.  Congress township has excellent roads, which in most cases are laid out on sectional lines, and are kept in good condition.
     The pioneer preachers came into the township at an early date, and some of them were pioneers themselves.  Private houses were used to hold services in until churches or school houses were built.  The preachers in those days were seldom college graduates, but they had physical power and could be heard at a considerable distance, and they would preach from three to four hours.  When called upon to preach a funeral, exposure to cold and wet and storm did not prevent an answer to the call of distress from stricken fellow pioneers.  It was considered as a part of the work of the Master, and was done without money and without price.
     It cannot be definitely ascertained who was the first preacher in Congress township, but the Rev. Silas Ensign was one of them and is supposed to have been the first Methodist preacher in the field here.  He used to preach at Gardner's long before there was either a church or school house in the township.  The Revs. David James and John Thomas were Welshmen and two of the pioneer Baptists.  The Rev. Mr. Shedd was one of the first Presbyterian preachers.

WILLIAMSPORT.

    Williamsport, near the center of Congress township, has less than a hundred inhabitants; two general stores, a hotel and a blacksmith shop.  There is no church in the place - United Brethren - which worships in an old frame building.  The youth there attend a district school.
     Williamsport was laid out in 1836.  Enoch Hart entered land upon which it is located, and after a few years sold out to Jerry Freeland.  He sold to William Dakan, ho laid out the village and called it Williamsport, in his own honor.  The first store was opened by William Andrews, as soon as the village was laid out; later he built a dwelling and a store house.  Dakan also had a

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store of nearly the same size.  A post office was established at the house of William Andrews, about half a mile west of the town.  The community is now served by the rural delivery.
     The first tavern was kept by Reuben Luce, and it was a favorite place of resort, being on the direct road from Delaware to Mansfield, and a place where news from the outside world could be obtained from the travelers.  Martin Mitchell was also an early hotel keeper in Williamsport.  The first school taught in the village was by Z. H. Mitchell, in 1842.
     Although Williamsport is an old town, it never obtained much size,  but there is plenty of room for growth.  Mount Tabor Methodist Episcopal church is about two miles southwest.  It was organized in 1836.  There is a cemetery adjacent to the church, which contains the mortal remains of its early members, as well as many of the pioneers of the township.
     Pleasant Grove Disciple church was founded about sixty years ago; a log meeting house was erected on a corner of John Swallum's land, and later a frame church structure was built near the site of the old log one.  A neat little burying ground adjoins this church.  Rev. William Neal, a very earnest advocate of their doctrine and a very worthy man, has been one of its ministers.
     Bryn Zion Baptist church was formerly in this township, but since the addition of Gilead township of a section or two from the southwest corner of Congress, the church is just across the line in Gilead.  This is a very old church organization, having been founded more than seventy years ago.

WEST POINT.

     The village of West Point is situated on the line between North Bloomfield and Congress townships, and is divided about equally between them...  It is a small place, with a general store and a church - the Free Methodist.  The post office has been discontinued, and the community is now supplied by the Rural Free Delivery from Galion.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.

     The pioneers brought their moral standards and their social conscience with them and established here a type of society as good as they had left behind.  They cultivated and manifested the

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great virtues of courage and of endurance - indispensible qualities in pioneer life.  They had days of hard labor and lonely nights in the primeval forests.  They had persistent struggles with the firece wilderness to subjugate the soil, hoping that those who should come after them would reap the fruit of their sowing, and through their sacrifices enter into security and peace.
     Franklin township is situated on the Greenville treaty line, and is composed in part of United States military lands and Congressional lands, the latter being that portion north of the treaty line.  It was originally surveyed in 1807.  That portion of the township situated below the treaty line was then described as being level and of second rate quality, bearing principally sugar, beech and ash timber.  Above the treaty line the land is more rolling, forming somewhat of a ridge along the line of the road passing through Pulaskiville, which divides the waters of the two branches of Owl creek.  The Middle branch takes its source in Congress township, and flows in a southerly course through the western portion of Franklin.  Another small tributary to Owl creek takes its rise just north of Pulaskiville and follows a southeasterly direction, joining the main stream in Knox county.  The soil is somewhat clayey, but the bottom lands are better soil and have some walnut timber.  In the pioneer period some of the land was swampy and needed draining.
     The boundaries of Franklin township are quite irregular.  For twenty-five years it was the extreme township in the northwest corner of Knox county.  At the time Harmony township extended northward to the natural boundary of the treaty line.  When the township was set off to form a part of Morrow county, a row of sections was taken off the eastern end above the treaty line.
     Franklin township is bounded on the north by Congress and Perry, on the east by Middlebury, Knox county, on the south by Chester and Harmony, and on the west by Harmony and Gilead townships.  The territory thus embraced is well adapted to general farming, and under the management  of the owners has proven to be second to none in the county.  Grain raising is the principal pursuit of the farmers, although stock raising has also proven profitable.  The place on the map called Pulaskiville is really only a cluster of houses at the crossing of the two main roads north of the center of the township.  This cross road hamlet was laid out in 1834 by William Linn and Richard Traux, on land which they owned.  The original plat exhibits several streets and a number of lots.  In 1836 a one story frame building was erected.

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DEFUNCT TOWNS.

     Many years ago a town was projected by Allen Kelley.  It was situated in the western end of the township on the land later owned by William Kelley.  The site was one admirably adapted to a village site with the corners of four counties centering near it, and the founder might well entertain sanguine hopes of its ultimate success, but the reorganization of the counties changed the whole aspect, and Jamestown became a thing of the past.  The House Brothers had a store there early, where they did business until Mount Gilead began to show elements of growth, when they removed to that place.  This establishment attracted trade from all points.
     Sometime previous to 1823 the village of Florida Grove was laid out on the land later owned by Thomas P. Morrison.  The project was inaugurated by Reverend George Van Eman, who then owned the land, together with Plumb Sutleff and Samuel Hardenbrook.  A number of lots were sold, but the would--be town failed to thrive, and has long since become a part of the farming land of the township.
     There were no large landholders in this township save James Brady of Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; and most of the settlers bought direct of the government at the land office in Canton.
     The congressional lands were a part of what was known as the new purchase, and were put on the market about 1809, or as soon as practicable after the necessary survey was completed.  The first actual settler was Samuel Shaw, who came from Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1810.  He was born in Carlisle, that state, in 1762, and came to Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1809, locating at Franklin a year later and settling on land where Salathiel Bonar later lived.  He had bought six hundred acres there in 1808.  Mr. Shaw is represented as a clever, quaint old gentleman, who commanded the universal respect of his fellow-townsmen.  He brought a large family of children, the oldest of whom, David, achieved considerable distinction in a local way.  He was an early school teacher, the third person to be elected to the position of justice of the peace establishment, and a county commissioner for nine years.  David People came from Jefferson county, Ohio, to Franklin, in 1810, shortly after Mr. Shaw.  He was young, unmarried, and in straitened financial circumstances.  After securing one

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hundred acres of land, he had not money enough to buy an ax with, and worked for some time at clearing, for four dollars per acre, to get money to help himself.  He got his first lot cleared early, and had the first rolling of the season, and afterward was called upon to "return the compliment" every day for six weeks.  About this time his horse, his only possession, died, and he was forced to put in his corn without plowing, using his hoe for all purposes of plowing and planting.  In the meanwhile, he had boarded at Mr. Shaw's, but, having prepared a home and got in his crop, he returned for his mother, whom he brought to Franklin in the same year.  In the fall of 1810, John Cook started from his home in Maryland in search of a better land and a newer community, where he might turn his limited capital to a larger account.  He was a native of New Jersey, but had emigrated in 1794 to Maryland.

SCHOOL HOUSES.

     School houses were among the first structures built by the pioneers of Franklin, and in some instances preceded the meeting houses.  The first one was built about 1815, on the site of the Owl Creek Baptist church (North branch), in the northeast corner of the township.  It was a round log affair, with a huge fireplace in one end, and greased paper windows.  This was used until 1822, when it was burned, the fire originating from some defect in the rude chimney.  In the following year, another house was put up on a part of Mr. Levering's land.  This had a brick chimney, and boards overhead, but without glass in the windows.  It was considered a fine building, and served the public for years.  About1820, a log school house was erected a little southeast of Center Corners.  Nellie Strong was the first teacher here, and W. T. Campbell followed her.  The school building was made of round logs, with an inclined puncheon running along the side of the wall, supported by pins driven into the logs, just above which a part of one log was cut away to give light.  This was covered by greased paper, which admitted all the light needed for school purposes.  Here Mr. Campbell taught the rudiments of reading, writing, "ciphering" and geography, to some thirty or forty scholars.  In explanation of the number of scholars, it should be said that they came from three or four miles away, and that each family sent several - those of Shur and Walker, in Chester, sending five pupils each.  A little later a school house was built near the cross roads,

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which was constructed on a unique plan borrowed from the pioneer structures of "York State."  It was a large, square log building, with a fireplace in the center of the room.  A large surface of stone was laid in the center of the room, at each corner of which, out of reach of the flames, was placed a large post which supported the chimney about six feet above the fire.
     The formation of Ohio as a state had opened up a vast amount of land to the enterprising pioneer.  Maryland at that time furnished one of the most available markets for the frontier settlements in the new territory, and it was no uncommon occurrence to see a string of pack-horses, numbering from ten to thirty animals, ladened with flax, making their way to Hagerstown, to return with supplies for the Ohio settlements.  The reports concerning the beauty and resources of the country, and the fertility of its soil, brought to the attention of those who began to feel crowded in the older communities the advantages to be found in Ohio.

JOHN COOK AND OTHERS.

     It was this condition of affairs that induced John Cook, John Ackerman and William Levering to mount their horses in the fall of 1810, and start to investigate the new country.  They stopped at a settlement in Wayne township, where some fifty families had settled, and were their directed to lands which are now a part of Franklin township, as desirable for farming purposes.  They were pleased with the prospects, and purchased lands adjoining those of the elder Cook.  The latter had commissioned his son to look after the boundaries of his land, and to see that it was located as he supposed it to be, and found that it was not - that the supposed spring and grove which would have added so much o his purchase were not on his land.  When this was reported to Mr. Cook he secured another half section, taking in the desired property.  Late in the year 1812 Mr. Cook started for his new home in Ohio.
     With his effects and family stowed in one of those Pennsylvania wagons known by the expressive name of land-schooners, with a team of five horses as the motor power, he started for the "far west."  The route took them along the Hagerstown pike, which had been partially completed, for about forty miles.  From this point, they followed a plainly marked road, along which there was considerable travel.  They could make but slow progress at best,

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and four weeks had passed before they reached their journey's end.  On their way they met with persons leaving their frontier homes, and giving the most discouraging reports of matters on the border.  At Cambridge, they met one of the soldiers who had been wounded at the Copus affair at Mansfield, who almost discouraged Mr. Cook from proceeding farther; but he was a "plucky" sort of a man, and was determined that nothing short of actual danger should impede his progress.  On reaching Mount Vernon he found that his former neighbors, who had settled near the farm to which he was going, had fled to Mount Vernon and Fredericktown for protection from the Indians, who, it was feared, were about to make a descent upon the unprotected settlements in that region.
     It was but natural that this news should create a lively alarm among the isolated settlements; the towns of Mount Vernon and Fredericktown were thronged with families anxious to arrange some plan for defense.  It was in this situation that Mr. Cook found affairs when he arrived at Mount Vernon.  He came as far as Middlebury, where he took possession of an empty cabin belonging to an old surveyor by the name of Mitchell, which he occupied until he got a cabin of his own erected.  When built, his cabin was a structure eighteen by twenty feet, "staked and ridered," a chimney constructed of "cat and clay," and contained one room and a loft.  The following year was a busy one for this part of the township.  Among Mr. Cook's neighbors were Benjamin Hart, in the edge of Perry township; John Ogle, Henry Sams, and his sons, who were married, and lived near, Andrew and Henry Sams, Jr., and a family by the name of Hoofmire.  But little improvement had been made upon their farms, and about three days in the week were spent by each family in assisting to build cabins for new arrivals, or helping to roll their neighbors' fields.  The plan was for each one to cut the timber on three or four acres, and then invite all the neighbors for three or four acres, and then invite all the neighbors for three or four miles around to roll these logs into piles for burning.  During the work, it was expected that the beneficiary would provide plenty of whiskey, and a supper when the task was finished.  The logs were cut twelve or fourteen feet long; and were handled with "handspikes" alone, as oxen were too slow motioned for the enthusiastic ardor of the pioneers.
     Meanwhile his first cabin had proved a rather uncomfortable home even for a pioneer family, and Mr. Cook employed some persons who carried on a rude carpentry, to erect a two storied, hewed log house, eighteen by twenty-six feet.  This building was

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provided with a brick chimney and a shingled roof, and was considered as quite an aristocratic residence for that time.
     Abednego Stevens, who came with a large family of grown-up children from Bedford county, Pennsylvania, was among the fist families to settle in the township.  His son William had been in the army under Harrison, an d in coming home had been attracted by the country in the township, and had entered a considerable tract lying in the southeast section of the congressional portion of the land.
     In 1812, Benjamin Corwin came to Franklin, being a tanner by trade, and on arriving immediately set about resuming his trade; he sunk vats on the Johnston road, in the eastern part of the township, and set up the first and only tannery in this vicinity.  The dearth of the raw material for his trade made the first efforts rather insignificant, but a murrain which broke out among the cattle soon furnished him with ample material for the exercise of his ability; there was but little stock save what the necessities of the situation demanded.  Cows were indispensable, and most of the pioneers brought one or more of these animals, but so great was the fatality among them that the settlers for miles around lost all they had.  It seems that the cause of this fatality was something the animals found in the woods, and the pioneers were in the habit of giving them alum, soot, soap, etc.  There was a considerable demand among the men for buckskin leather, which furnished substantial and not unattractive clothing; the skins were treated in some way and then smoked to a fine color that was permanent and attractive.  Pants of this material were made tight-fitting, as they were the reverse of comfortable on a cold day if not kept in close contact with the person all the time.  This material in many in stances furnished the whole suit, which was capped by a hat made from the skin of some fur-bearing animal.

PULASKIVILLE.

     Pulaskiville is a small village in Franklin township.  At present it has not more than a dozen houses and one general store.  It has Methodist Episcopal and New School Baptist churches.  The Baptist society was formed about 1830 by Elders James and George, of Chester.  They had previously preached at the cabins of Stevens and Campbell.  They afterwards used the school house to hold services in, and in 1840 the whole neighborhood assisted them in building a frame structure for a house of worship.  In

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1874 a new church was erected at a cost of $2,200.  The Greenville treaty lines run about a mile and a half south of this little village.
     This Greenville treaty line runs through Morrow county from east to west, somewhat diagonally, entering the county in Franklin township, and forming the north boundary of Harmony; thence through the southern part of Gilead, forming part of its southern boundary passing along part of the northern boundary of Lincoln through the southern part of Cardington township and Cardington village leaving the county at the northwest corner of Westfield township.

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