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This is a fractional township, and prior to 18__ was
embraced in Washington township, which was at first
twelve miles long and six broad. Eaton was the
official center of the township, and it was not long
before there was a demand for a division of the
territory and the establishment of a new township.
This demand became popular and resulted in the shape
of a petition urging that of the southern part of
Washington township a new township be established.
But the county commissioners were inclined to be
conservative and the petitioners did not receive a
favorable answer. Though for a time the
project was an apparent failure, the cause survived.
The people of the little township owe their
independence to their importunity of one of the
first settlers.
Gasper Potterf, living
in the southern part of the long of the long
township, felt the necessity of a division. In
addition to the argument that a new township would
be a great convenience to the people, he urged that
it would be a great saving of money to them,
inasmuch as the growing wickedness and the
consequent increase of illegitimate children, who
would have to be supported at public expense, would
greatly increase the township taxation. This
master stroke of logic cut off twenty-four sections
from the southern half of Washington township, and
the commissioners immortalized the name of the
persistent advocate by naming the new
township Gasper, after the Christian name of Mr.
Potterf.
The township as it
now stands is six miles from east to west, by four
miles from north to south. It is bounded on
the north by Washington township, on the east by
Lanier, on the south by Somers and on the west by
Dixon.PHYSICAL FEATURES.
The surface of the
township is, in the main, level, the exceptions
being the valleys of Seven Mile and Paint through
the township, the former through the eastern, and
the the latter through the western part. A
portion of the land adjacent to the streams is
somewhat broken. Besides the streams named
there are numerous tributary streams fed by springs,
affording an abundance of water for stock.
SOIL.
This
township has a variety of soil. The
watercourses are bordered with rich bottom land.
The rolling land extending on either side is covered
with a reddish clay limestone soil, while the level
portions of the township are supplied with a black
loam interspersed with a good clay soil.
The soil of the township produces bountiful crops of
corn, wheat, oats, barley, flax, and grasses of
every-description. The productive capacity of
the land has of late years been much increased by a
judicious rotation of crops, and the growing of
clover as a fertilizer. The fact is well
remembered by the writer, that when the virgin soil
first began to fail to produce remunerative crops
under the old system of farming, a large number of
farmers became discouraged, and believing that their
land was about worn out, and that it would soon
become worthless and sterile, many sold at a nominal
price and went west in search of better land.
Much of the land thus deserted produces better crops
today than it did a quarter of a century ago, and no
doubt the productiveness will increase if the system
of cultivation continues to improve.
Page 157 (175) -
Owing to the good
natural drainage, this township is peculiarly free
from the more malignant types of fever.
Malarial and bilious diseases seldom occur, and the
township has a reputation for the general good
health of its citizens.
TIMBER.
Originally the township
was heavily timbered with poplar, oak, walnut, ash,
hard maple, beach, and a great variety of other
trees. Although these heavy forests have
fallen victims to the woodman’s axe, there are still
considerable areas of woodland and many majestic
poplars are still standing.
In earlier days there was a heavy undergrowth of spice
wood, prickly ash, Indian arrow, and leather wood.
All of these shrubs were useful to the pioneers,
although the grubbing and picking of them required
about one third of the labor of clearing the
forests. The prickly ash was a medicine for
bilious attacks; the spicewood was in universal use
for the making of tea; Indian arrow wood was
extensively used by the settlers, as well as by
Indian bowmen, and the leatherwood was extensively
used in the manufacture of primitive harness.
The primeval forest teemed with game of all kinds,
especially bear, deer, and wild turkeys. These
furnished the supplies of meat, and the skin of the
bear and deer furnished excellent material for
wearing apparel.
THE PIONEERS OF GASPER.
It has generally been thought that the first
settler in this township was Gasper Potterf,
after whom the township was named, but after a
careful investigation the writer finds that Silas
Dooley, sr., settled on Paint creek, in the
western part of the township, in 1805, while
Potterf located on Seven Mile creek, in the
eastern part, in 1806. We will, therefore,
begin with Silas Dooley, sr. The writer
gleans most of his facts respecting the settlement
of Mr. Dooley from an interview held with a
friend a few years prior to the death of the aged
pioneer, and published at the time of the Eaton
Register, February 20, 1873.
Silas Dooley, sr.,
was born in a blockhouse in Madison county,
Kentucky, Mar. 8, 1786. He was the seventh
child of Moses Dooley, who emigrated with his
family - a wife and five children - in 1781, from
Bedford county, Virginia, a distance of five hundred
miles, the mother carrying her youngest child in her
arms and walking most of the way, having no other
way of traveling, except on pack horses. The
route led through mountainous country, and numerous
dangers lurked in their pathway, but despite the
hardships endured they arrived safely in Kentucky.
The savage barbarities of the Indians compelled the
settlers to life in forts strongly garrisoned.
The Indian massacres of 187203 disheartened the
settlers very much, and they longed for liberty from
their enforced imprisonment. Moses Dooley,
chafing under the long confinement and apprehensive
of the safety of the morals of his children, who
were often thrown into bad company, concluded at all
hazards to move to a farm.
Accordingly, with several
others he settled in the midst of a canebrake in
Madison county, Kentucky. There they erected a
school-house and educated their children.
In 1805 Moses Dooley,
with his son, Silas, accompanied by Jacob
Railsback, started for Ohio in search of land.
They came to Springfield, now Springdale, Hamilton
county, Ohio, and spent the first night with
Elder Thompson, a Presbyterian minister.
As Mr. Thompson was at that time in need of a
hand Silas was hired for one month.
On Monday morning the
company started for Seven Mile, arriving on the next
Sunday at the house of John Pottenger, which
was located about a mile and a half north of the
present site of Camden. They made his home
their headquarters during the three or four days
they were prospecting for a suitable locations for
settlement. Mr. Dooley chose one
hundred and sixty acres of land on Paint creek, now
owned principally by John Overholser. Jacob
Railsback selected a quarter section on Seven
Mile, in Gasper township, which land is now owned by
the Huffmans. The party then turned
their faces homeward, Silas stopping at
Springfield to fulfil his engagement with
Elder Thompson. His work was rail
splitting, at ten dollars per month. With a
part of the first money received he paid for his
axe.
Moses Dooley and
Jacob Railsback went on to Cincinnati, and then
entered the land they had selected. The price
was two dollars per acre, to be paid in specie, one
fourth in hand and the residue in three annual
installments. The payment of sixteen dollars
gave the settlers the refusal of the land for forty
days, and a second payment of eighty dollars secured
it for two years.
Now comes the turning
point in Silas Dooley's life. Homesick,
out of work, without money and poorly clad, he
became discouraged and resolved to go home to his
native Kentucky. Having no other means of
accomplishing the two hundred and fifty miles that
lay between himself and his relatives, he resolved
to walk. Just as he was getting under way he
met Captain David E. Hendricks, who
immediately hired him to clear six acres of land,
for which he was to receive three dollars and fifty
cents per acres. This clearing is now occupied
by the town of Camden. The same year Robert
Runyon put the cleared land in corn. At
the same time Captain Hendricks had three
other hands chopping and splitting rails, viz:
Isaac Wiseman, James Wright, and Thomas Combs,
a half Indian. The chopping went steadily on
until the deer became so tame that they would browse
off the tops of the trees while the men would be
cutting up the trunks. They worked in
different places for Captain Hendricks, and
cleared part of the ground on which Eaton now
stands. Messrs. Wiseman and Dooley
cut down a giant poplar tree on the lot now occupied
by the Presbyterian church. Thus was his time
occupied until the arrival of his father, mother and
brother, David, who came toward the close of
the year 1805.
Page 176 -
The family was soon busily
engaged in making the farm previously entered
habitable. The first house consisted of a camp
but, constructed of round poles, enclosing three
sides and leaving one end open for a fire in front.
They had a skillet and a Dutch oven, in which they
boiled and baked, and made sugar. Their farm
was well stocked with sugar trees, and the largest
and best of making sugar, viz: To allow the
sugar water to freeze and to throw away the
successive coats of ice that would form on the
surface of the liquid until nothing but the finest
quality of molasses would remain. She made
sugar also by making a clay furnace, and then
inverted the skillet lids and baked a clay rim
around them, in which she boiled the sugar water.
By dint of hard labor the family felled the timber,
picked and cleared away the brush, and thus prepared
six acres of land for the reception of corn, which
they constantly attended, and managed to lay by.
A few days after the noted eclipse, which occurred
in June, 1806, they went to James Crawford's
and held a Thanksgiving meeting. After this
they started back to Kentucky to remove the balance
of their family; and in August of the same year they
got started, bringing their teams and a number of
cattle with them. They were accompanied by one
or two neighbor families. Upon their arrival
they cut and hewed the logs for their cabin.
The Indians often came from Fort St. Clair, and
camped by the big sulphur springs on the farm of
Silas Dooley, afterwards owned by his son,
Hayden.
In the spring of 1807
Silas Dooley entered a quarter section of
Paint creek, three and a half miles southwest of
Eaton. In that same year he cleared five acres
of this land, and raised thereon a good crop of
corn, despite the thefts of the squirrels. The
following winter he was sick, and did nothing until
spring, when he broke up his cleared ground again
and prepared to plant. But at this junction
Silas stopped work, and Cornelius, Katie
and Polly VanAusdal, and perhaps Sallie
Dooley wouldn't stop work for anything short of
his own wedding. On the fifth of May, 1808, he
was married to Johanna Westerfield, the
daughter of Samuel Westerfield. The
infair was held on the sixth of his father's and the
honeymoon was spent in planting corn. Then he
set to work to construct a round log cabin,
fourteen feet square, with the puncheon floor and
large, open fireplace, and he testified that there
were spent the happiest days of his life.
In the War of 1812 Mr.
Dooley was a member of Captain David E.
Hendricks' rifle company, which was not subject
to the draft, as the militia volunteered in a body.
It was a full company of sixty-four men, rank and
file, and was raised in the Paint and Upper Seven
Mile settlements. Many families were thus left
destitute of male help, but the parents, wives, and
daughters put their hands to the plow, rolled logs,
and carried and burned brush.
Silas Dooley
procured a substitute in the person of Nathaniel
Bloomfield, the father of William Bloomfield
of Eaton.
In 1819 Mrs. Dooley,
the mother of Silas, died and was buried in a
coffin furnished at an expense not exceeding one
dollar.
Mr. Dooley, sr.,
traveled extensively through parts of Indiana and
Ohio while engaged in the ministry of the Gospel.
In the winter of 1822 he was suddenly smitten with
winter fever, and sending for Silas and George,
he told them of his approaching death, and requested
George to take his measure for his coffin,
which was to be made similar to that of his wife.
George replied, "Oh father, I can't do that!"
The old gentleman told him to measure Silas,
who was of the same height as his father.
Moses Dooley soon breathed his last, and in
order to get the coffin there in time, secured the
assistance of the late William Caster.
Silas Dooley, died July 8, 1877, aged ninety-one
years and four months. Of his family of five
sons and two daughters, all are dead save Silas
Dooley, jr., who lives on the home place.
Hayden W. Dooley
was born in Preble county, in 1814, and in 1836 was
married to Adaline A. Runyon, born in 1817,
and died in 1872. They had two children.
Marquis L. was born Oct. 16, 1837, and
Mary E. was born Dec. 7, 1838.
Silas Dooley, jr., the
youngest son of Silas Dooley, the pioneer of
Gasper township, was born on the home place, where
he now resides. In 1846 he was married to
Isabel, daughter of Alexander and Rebecca
McCracken, who settled in Preble county about
1818. To Mr. and Mrs. Dudley have been
born two children, one of whom, Emma, wife of
William Morton, is still living. Mr.
Dooley owns a farm of one hundred and sixty-two
acres of land adjoining his residence.
EARLY INCIDENTS.
Ordinarily the daily life of the pioneers were
made up principally of hard work, plenty of good,
through plain, faire, and sound, invigorating sleep.
In the main their life was uneventful. True
little things occurred every day, which, if they
occurred nowadays, would cause each particular hair
to stand on end; and at night the howl of hungry
wolves approached the very doors of the settlers'
cabins, and such sounds would destroy modern nerves;
but to the brave, hardy, and fearless pioneer, these
daily occurrences were scarcely noticed. In
those days nerves were knight into muscles, and
cowardice was almost unknown.
Occasionally, however,
little events happened which were worthy of pioneer
notice. The death of a settler, a bear hunt,
the visits of Indians, a big meeting, and the like
called for more than passing notice. The
experiences of the pioneers were much alike, and
what happened to one man was a characteristic event
in the history of all the settlers.
On this account, in
narrating a few noteworthy incidents, we select some
portions from the life history of a representative
pioneer, and as Silas Dooley was the first
man to make a permanent settlement his eventful
career
Pages (betw. 176 & 177)
H. W. DOOLEY W/ PORTRAIT.
SILAS DOOLEY, SR.
Page 177 -
has been made the exponent of the early
incidents of the community.
The first death of which
there is any remembrance that took place in the
Seven Mile settlement after arrival of Mr. Dooley
was that of an infant child of William and Sarah
Sellers. The burial was on the place
called the Backbone, near Mrs. Mann's, in
Gasper township. James Crawford made
the little coffin of puncheons, and it fell to the
lot of Silas Dooley to dig the grave.
While engaged at this work there came an Indian and
two squaws, who appeared strangely interested,
staying while the digging was going on, and watching
with the closest attention all the details of the
burial, never once speaking a word.
The first marriage
license issued in Preble after it was severed from
Montgomery county, was procured at Eaton by Silas
Dooley, though many were married previously,
having procured licenses at Dayton. This first
license, issued about the first day of May, 1808,
authorized the solemnization of the marriage of
Silas Dooley and Hannah Westerfield, the
particulars of which marriage we noted in another
place.
In 1806 a Mr. Enoch
and son came from the Big Miami to the farm of
Isaac Enoch, now occupied by Robert Runyon,
that they might fatten their hogs upon the abundant
mast. The son was left in charge, and one day
suddenly took sick with something like a fit.
As her husband was from home, Mrs. Enoch
called upon the Dooleys for help. The
sick boy lay in convulsions, and there was no doctor
nearer than Franklin. It was decided to send
for Big Jim Crawford, who had acquired some
reputation as a practical "medicine" man.
Silas Dooley, though bare foot and thinly clad,
ran the distance of three and one-half miles to
Crawford's, over frozen ground pretty well covered
with snow. Mr. Enoch who came home
during the day started immediately for the boy's
father and Dr. DeBoyce. They travelled
all night, and a dark one it was, with nothing but a
blazed path to guide them through the forest.
But they only arrived in time to see the sick one
breathe his last.
The friendly Indians from
Fort St. Clair frequently encamped near the Big
Sulphur springs, on Silas Dooley's farm.
In the autumn of 1806 a
family encamped near these springs and were very
friendly with their white neighbors, who treated
them kindly, giving them pumpkins, and other
articles of farm produce. The Indian one day,
after killing a bear and a deer, thought that he
would return the compliment. He came to the
house and enquired for the old man, and when
Silas told him that he was not at home, the
Indian said, "maybe you have some meat; me go show
you." They started back along a cow-path and
came to the place where Abraham Overholser's
house now is, here he had killed and dressed in good
order a deer, and had taken all but the forequarters
which he gave to Silas, who tied the quarters
together and swung them across his shoulder
preparatory to the homeward trip. The Indian
made all manner of fun of the pale face's way ___
carrying a load, and while leading the way toward
the house took particular pains to lead him under a
big hornets' nest. The hornets commenced
aggressive operations, and as they swarmed about
him, the now thoroughly aroused Silas ran for
dear life, never letting go of the deer meat upon
his shoulders. The Indian stood off at a safe
distance, convulsed with laughter, and at the close
of the race innocently asked: "What you call
um?" But Silas could take a joke even
if there was in it a bitter sting.
At another time Mr. Dooley went over on Twin
creek, some eight miles distant, to purchase some
bacon, for which he paid all the money he had in the
world. The weather being very warm, the fat
meat came very near melting before he reached home.
Arriving at the house about dark, he hung the meat
against the cabin to cool before putting it away,
and went to bed feeling rich in the possession of
meat in August, - a rare luxury - but entirely
forgetting to secure said meat. In the morning
the meat was cool, but it was gone, and Mr.
Dooley considered it one of the heaviest losses
he had ever sustained.
Gasper
Potterf, sr., was a native of Virginia,
and was born in 1754. He was married to
Susannah Ridenour in 1784, and settled on
section number twenty-six, of Gasper township, in
1806, being the second settler. He was a man
of great energy and industry, and was of German
descent. In 1808 he built the first mill of
the township, on Seven Mile creek. This rude
and simple structure was of great utility to the
pioneers, doing the principal part of their grinding
for several years, and had to be run day and night
to accommodate its customers; the bolting had to be
done by hand. In connection with this mill he
also erected a distillery about the same time, and,
doing his own grinding, this was a source of great
profit to him. During the War of 1812 the
demand for whiskey at the forts advanced the price
to one dollar per gallon. The profits of this
enterprise enabled him to purchase large tracts of
Government lands, and also to erect, some time
before the year 1820, a large and well equipped mill
- which is still standing, though idle - which did a
very large business in its day. The building
is still in a pretty good state of preservation.
In addition to this he also built and run a
saw-mill, which did a very large business. In
addition to the foregoing he for many years carried
no the farming business on a farm of some three
hundred acres, and when the infirmities incident to
old age began to make inroads on his constitution,
and his strength and energy began to fail, he made a
partial distribution of his property among his
children. Prior to this he had, however, given
each of his children one hundred and sixty acres of
land.
His first wife died Nov.
7, 1831, aged sixty-five years, and forty-seven
years after her marriage. The fruit of this
marriage was thirteen children, six sons and seven
daughters, all of whom are now dead except one
daughter, who lives in Indiana. There are
quite a number of grandchildren still living in the
township.
Some years after the
death of his first wife he married a widow lady by
the name of Nancy Jane Longnecker by whom he
had three children, two sons and one daughter.
The elder son, who was named for his father,
Page 178 -
still
resides in Gasper township; the other two children
reside in Eaton.
The subject of this
sketch died Oct. 4, 1836, aged eighty-two years.
Gasper T. Potterf
was born in 1833, and in 1854, was married to
Julia Leech who was born in 1836. Eight of
their ten children are living. Jacob Leech
died in 1880, and his widow is still living with her
daughter, Mrs. Potterf.
Jacob Potterf, born
in 1786, emigrated to Ohio from Virginia in 1806,
and settled in section sixteen, Gasper township.
He died in 1862, on the farm in section thirty-four.
He married Christina Brown, born in North
Carolina in 1793, who died in 1878. Her
parents settled at a very early day in Harrison
township, on the land now occupied by the village of
Euphemia. Of their nine children, four are
living.
Isaac R. Potterf,
born on the home place in 1821, in 1844, married
Miss A. C. Campbell, who was born in Delaware in
1821, and came with her parents to Gasper township
in 1829. To them have been born four children,
three of whom are living: Lydia F.,
wife of Jacob A. Gould, lives in Camden;
Emma M. and Ella L. are at home.
They took a child to raise.
Catharine, the
eldest daughter of Jacob Potterf, married
Thomas F. Stephens who resides in Gasper
township. Elizabeth is the wife of
Henry Neff, of Camden.
Abraham
F. Pottenger lives in Gasper township.
John
Railsback was born in Bourbon county,
Kentucky, in the year 1783, and married Hannah
Conger, who was born in Kentucky in 1787.
In 1806 they settled in Gasper township, Preble
county. He entered land in section eighteen,
before he brought his wife from Kentucky. He
built a log cabin, and commenced clearing his land.
Their son, Isaac C.
Railsback, was born in Kentucky in1806, and when
but three months old, came to Gasper township with
his parents. He married Elizabeth M.
Runyon, who was born in 1841, and died in 1878,
one year after the death of her husband.
The second son of John
and Hannah Railsback was named William.
He died in early infancy.
Isaac and Elizabeth
Railsback had five children, two of whom are
living: Martha A., widow of James M.
Davis, resides in Washington township, and Julia
M. McClanahan, wife of Thomas F. McClanahan,
lives on the old farm.
Robert
Runyon, born in Kentucky in the year
1785, emigrated from the State of Preble county in
1810, and settled in this township, where he died in
1873. He was twice married, first to
Elizabeth Burns, and second to Mary
Slayback, who was born in 1791, and died in
1867. Wilson, the only surviving child
of the first marriage, lives in Eaton. Three
children of the second marriage are living. A
son, Harvey, resides in Richmond, Indiana,
and two daughters life in this county - Mary
Runyon in Eaton, and Sarah, widow of
William N. Duggins, in Dixon township.
Mrs. Duggins was born in 1829, and was married
at the age of twenty, to her husband (now deceased),
who was born in 1824. He died in the year
1875. She is the mother of six children, who
are all living.
The next in order of the
pioneers of Stephen Allbaugh,
who is a native of Maryland, and who came to Gasper
township in 1812, and has resided here continuously
ever since. He is now in the ninetieth year of
his age, although he has been somewhat afflicted
more or less for several years; but is, at this
writing, enjoying good health. In 1814 he
married Nancy Potterf, daughter of Gasper
Potterf. They have had eight children -
three sons and five daughters in Eaton, and one son
in Indiana. Mr. Allbaugh has been
engaged in farming, and in former years carried on
the distilling business. He often speaks of
the superior quality of whiskey made in an early
day, when the practice of its adulteration was
unknown, and when delirium tremens were never heard
of. He is sincerely of the opinion that copper
distilled whiskey is not injurious to health, and
can refer to men who for many years made a daily use
of whiskey without mental or physical injury, but
thinks persons had better abstain from using the
drugged whiskey thrown upon the market now.
Last spring, when the
weather was yet disagreeable and he had been
confined to a sick bed and under medical treatment
for a long time, troubled with a cough and heart
disease, he had the conviction that it was his duty
to have the ordinance of baptism administered by
immersion. So he sent for the ministers of the
Dunker church with a view of discharging that duty.
The preachers came and the time for immersion
arrived. The water of the creek being chilly
Mr. Allbaugh's neighbors held a council,
believing that in his feeble condition immersion
would prove fatal; they thereupon procured a large
bath box and filled it with water, intending to take
the chill off by putting in some warm water.
Finaly the preacher came and council was
called, and it was finally agreed to submit council
was called, and it was finally agreed to submit the
whole matter to him. He quickly decided to go
to the creek. So he was placed in a large arm
chair, surrounded by bedding and placed in a spring
wagon, taken to the creek and immersed, and taken to
his home, and improved more rapidly than he had done
at any other time. This, perhaps, may be taken
as an evidence that a determined will has a great
influence on our physical organization.
The subject of this
sketch has resided in the township sixty-eight
years. His wife died Sept. 9, 1874, aged
eighty years and twenty days.
Shortly after these
pioneers came, the township was rapidly settled,
among whom may be named the Jones family, the
Kincaid family, the Peters and
Wilkinson families in the western part of the
township, also the Baily family. In the
central part may be named the Huffman family,
the Stephens family, and the Shideler
family. In the eastern part of the
township may be named the Sayler family, who
came in 1814 (Abraham Sayler now lives on the
tract of land upon which his father settled in
1814), the Burns family, the Shewman
family, the Barnhart family, the
Brower family, the Young family, and the
Yost family. Some of them are further
mentioned.
Page 179 -
The principal part of these families settled on
government land, and are properly classed among the
original settlers. There might be many other
families named of original settlers, who, with their
posterity, left the township many years since, who
sold their lands to a second class of settlers,
among whom may be named the Campbells, the
Manns, the Floras, and the Webbs.
Armstead
Huffman was one of the early settlers of
Gasper township, and a prominent, useful man.
He was born in Virginia in 1788, and was an early
emigrant to Kentucky, from Byron county, from which
State, he came to Preble county after marrying
Nancy Burton. He located on the farm
in Gasper, now owned by Porter Webb, when all
around was still forest and game plenty. He
died in 1859, surviving his wife a quarter of a
century. Their children were Ambrose,
Thomas M., Sally (Mattox), Overton, Morgan, Nathan,
Nancy (White), Mary (Stephens), Alzina (Campbell),
and James. Of these, Ambrose,
Sally, Overton, Mary, and James are
deceased. Morgan and Nancy
reside in Eaton, Nathan in Dixon township,
Alzina in Gasper township, and Thomas M.,
the oldest of the family, living in Camden. He
was born in 1808, and was consequently seven years
of age when his parents settled in Gasper, and saw
much of the manners of pioneer life. He
resided upon the old residence. Mr. Huffman
was married in 1831 to Annie Conger, who died
in 1877. J. A. Huffman, a prominent
citizen of Camden, was their only son, and was born
in 1835.
Mary
Taylor was born in Butler county, Ohio,
in 1810, and in 1813 came with her parents to Preble
county, and settled in Gasper township, on the land
now owned by Job Shinn. Samuel
Stephens and Rebecca Bailey were her
parents. Mrs. Stephens emigrated from
Pennsylvania to Cincinnati, Ohio and at an early day
came to Butler county. Mr. Stephens
served six months in the War of 1812. Mr.
and Mrs. Stephens were the parents of eleven
children. Their daughter, Mary, married
James B. Taylor in 1842, who was born in
1809, and died in 1854. They had three
children, two daughters and one son.
Margaret Elizabeth lives in Eaton, and Bailey
L. Taylor resides at home. Mrs. Taylor
owns fifty-five acres of land in section
sixteen.
Christian
Sayler was born
in Frederick county, Maryland, June 5, 1785, and
subsequently removed with his brothers, Daniel,
Martin, and John, to Franklin county,
Virginia. In 1806, he and his brothers, and
their widowed mother, emigrated to Preble (then
Montgomery) county, Ohio. In 1811 he was
married to Mary, daughter of Samuel Teal,
also of Franklin county, Virginia. He
settled in 1814 in what is now Gasper township (then
Washington), in section thirty-six, where his son,
Abraham T., now lives. At that time the
region round about him was an unbroken forest.
He continued to live there until the day of his
death, which occurred on his sixty-seventh birthday,
June 5, 1852. His widow is still living with
her son, Abraham, on the old homestead, at
the advanced age of ninety-one. She was born
in Frederick county, Maryland, Sept. 11, 1789.
They had a family of nine children, four of whom are
now living, as follows: Abraham T., on
the old homestead; Elizabeth, wife of
Jacob Shewman; Joseph, and Maria, wife of
John W. Allen, all in Monroe township.
Abraham was born in
Lanier township, Mar. 5, 1812, and was married to
Elizabeth Rinehard in 1838. He has
three children living and six deceased.
In 1815,
Abraham Overholser
settled in this township, having emigrated from
Virginia, where he was born in 1805. He
resided in Gasper until his death in 1877, and was a
worthy citizen. He served as township trustee
two terms. His widow, who is still living,
was, before her marriage, Lydia Brower, and
was born in 1813. Her family at present
consists of the following named children:
Sarah, widow of George Runyon, residing
in Monroe township; Barbara, wife of
Robert Harris, in this township; "Lovina,
widow of John w. Blair, living with her
mother; John H., who married Mary A.
Bennett, daughter of Elijah and Lucinda
Bennett, and is a farmer of Dixon township.
To them were born three children, two of whom are
living.
Charles
and Elizabeth Wilkinson emigrated to
Preble county from Kentucky, at an early day.
Their youngest son, Curtis H., was born in
1827, and in 1852 was married to Sarah Jane,
daughter of Christopher and Catherine Wysong,
of Gasper township. She was born in 1831.
To Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson have been born
eleven children, of whom six are living, viz.:
Redmon E., Alice E., wife of Jacob H.
Shideler of Washington township; Catharine
Eleanor, Ida B., and Minnie M.
There are four
hundred and sixty-six acres of land at Mr.
Wilkinson's residence, and one hundred and
forty- seven acres in Gratis; all under a good state
of cultivation.
William
Campbell was born in the State of
Delaware, in 1793. In 1815 he married
Lavina McCabe, who was born in 1795. In
1827 Mr. and Mrs. Campbell emigrated from
Delaware, intending to go to Illinois. Their
settlement in Gasper township was an accident.
When they arrived at Eaton Mr. Campbell
learned that he was in Preble, and thereupon
determined to visit an old friend of his who lived
two miles south of Eaton, near where the old seven
mile bridge now stands. While enjoying the
hospitality of his friend he was delayed by a spell
of sickness, and by the time he recovered he had
decided to settle in the neighborhood, and thus
Preble county gained one of its most substantial
citizens. He settled on the farm in section
fourteen, where Jehu B. Campbell has resided
ever since his father's settlement. William
Campbell died in 1860, and his wife died in
1879. Five of their children lived to
maturity, three of whom are still living.
Jehu B., the only one living in this county, was
born in Delaware in 1823, and was married in 1847 to
Alzina Huffman, daughter of Armstead
Huffman. She was born in Gasper township
in 1827. Five of their seven children are
living, viz: Zippora, Nancy L., wife of
Dr. Porter Webb; Sallie C., wife of Isaac
Young; Dr. William A., married Minnie
Surface, and practices in Eaton; and Thomas
H. Mr. Campbell has filled all the
township offices, and from 1852 to 1868 was justice
of the peace. In the year 1873 he was elected
Page 180 -
county commissioner, which office he held for six
years.
Jonathan
Flora settled in Gasper township in the
year 1831, having emigrated from Franklin county,
Virginia. He was born in 1792, and died in
1863. His widow, whose maiden name was Mary
Bowman, is still living in Dixon township.
She was born in Franklin county, Virginia, in 1796.
They had a family of ten children, namely: Hannah,
deceased, was the wife of Abraham Cooper,
Susan, wife of Benjamin Cooper, of
Dixon township; Catharine, wife of John
Studebaker; Nancy who died young; Peter,
who died in 1865; John, living in Dixon
township, who married Mary Potterf; Mary,
wife of Thomas Charles, in Dixon township;
Jonathan F., residing in Eaton; Christian,
born in 1824, in Franklin county, Virginia,
now living in this township, married (1848) Sarah
Potterf, granddaughter of the pioneer,
Gasper Potterf. She was born in
1830, in Gasper township.
Levi Mann
was born in Gasper township in 1830, and in 1873
married Catharine Rogan, who was born in
England in 1855, and came to this country in 1871.
To them have been born four children, all of whom
are living. Mr. and Mrs. Rogan reside
in Gasper township. Mr. Mann owns one
hundred and sixty acres of land.
John F.
Huffman was born in 1831. His
people emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, and
thence to Ohio at an early day. Allen
Huffman's wife was Nancy McCampbell.
John F. Huffman was married to Susan,
daughter of Alfred Bell, of Somers township.
They have five children - Henry R., Charles F.,
Mary J., James, and Jennie, the two
latter being twins. Mr. Huffman owns a
well-improved farm of two hundred and sixty acres of
land.
T.
F. McClanahan came to Preble county from
Champaign county, Ohio. In 1869 he was married
to Mrs. Juliet L. Hugget, widow of James
E. Hugget, by whom she had two children -
Vestilla, and Georgie E. Mrs.
McClanahan is the daughter of John and Hannah
(Conger) Railsback, who were both born in
Kentucky, the former in 1783 and the latter in 1787.
They were married in 1805, and in the fall of the
following year came to Preble county and settled on
the farm of one hundred and eighty acres now
occupied by Mr. McClanahan. Mr. Railsback
died in the spring of 1873, and his wife survived
him five years, dying in 1878.
John
B. Williams emigrated from New Jersey to
Butler county, Ohio, as early as 1814. He died
in 1851, aged sixty-three years. His son,
John S., the youngest of nine children, born
in Butler county, Ohio, in 1829, married in 1852
Susan Litchiser, who was born in 1831, and moved
to Preble county in 1863, settling in Gasper
township. He has five children - Joseph E.,
William H. S., Charles B., Mary A., and
Rosella. Joseph E. married Mary
Aukerman in 1876, and has one child, John A.
Miss Alice is by profession a school teacher,
having commenced in Washington township when only
sixteen. She taught the New Lexington school
in the spring of 1879, and afterwards in Gasper
township, where she is now teaching.
Joseph
and Sarah (Sayler) Early, natives of
Virginia, emigrated from that State of Ohio many
years ago, and settled near West Alexandria.
The former died in 1852 and the latter is still
living in Camden. They had ten children; eight
are living, six in this county. Henry,
their first born, was born near West Alexandria in
1832, and in 1861 was married to Ellen Cosbey,
the youngest daughter of Thomas and Anna Cosbey,
who were old pioneers of Gasper township. To
Mr. and Mrs. Early have been born three
children - Eva May, Clarence B., and a
child that died in infancy. Mr. Early
is the miller at Barnet's mill, where he has
been for nine years. He is a miller by trade,
and has always been engaged in the milling business.
He has lived on his present farm, in section
twenty-six, for twelve years.
John D. Campbell
was born in Gasper township in 1846. In 1865
he married Miss Nancy M. Kelley, who was born
in Washington township in 1845, on the farm now
owned by J. C. Kelley. To them was one
child born, in 1866 - Nancy A. Campbell - who
died in 1867. Mr. Campbell owns
ninety-one acres of land in section twenty-one of
Gasper township.
SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL HABITS OF THE PIONEERS.
The dependence of
the pioneers on each other for assistance in raising
houses, barns, rolling logs and harvesting crops of
small grain, when it had to be cut with a sickle,
was such as to produce the finest social relations,
and the man who would have refused his neighbor
assistance when needed would have been looked upon
as entirely unworthy of respect, and would have
received the contempt of the entire community.
It was not an uncommon occurrence for fifty, and
sometimes one hundred men to meet for the purpose of
raising those large log barns that were then in use,
but have now passed away.
When clearing up a farm it was customary for the owner
to cut or burn the trees into convenient length for
rolling, then invite his neighbors to assist in
rolling them into log heaps for burning.
Sometimes when the company of men was large enough
to divide into two companies, two of the most
energetic men of the crowd would be selected and
entitled captains, who would proceed to divide the
crowd into two companies, and divide the territory
to be rolled into equal parts, and then the rush to
work would commence, one division striving to
outwork the other.
When harvest came on a counsel was held to learn whose
grain needed cutting first. That question
settled, all hands met and cut it, and continued in
this way until all was cut in the neighborhood, and
frequently from twenty to twenty-five men could be
seen in a wheat field. When grain was sown in
corn ground the space between the rows of corn was
termed “a land” and constituted “a through ” to be
cut by each man, and sometimes an expert reaper
could, by the assistance of a boy, who was called a
gouger, cut two of these “throughs,” and was,
therefore, entitled to double wages. The
writer often acted in the capacity of gouger on a
“land” with his
father.
Harvest season, instead of being considered a hard-
Page 181-
ship on account of hard labor connected with it, was
hailed with delight as a kind of social festival or
glee by our fathers.
No poor man was permitted to be under the painful
necessity of begging for the necessaries of life for
himself or family. It was a common practice of
those who had a bountiful supply to ascertain the
necessities of his less fortunate neighbors, and to
generously share with them. The stranger was
ever a welcome guest, and taken in and cared for.
Having given some space to our pioneer fathers in this
history, it is due to that noble generation of
women, who have nearly all passed away -
OUR PIONEER MOTHERS,
to give at least an outline history
of the manner in which they discharged the duties
devolving on them during the pioneer days of the
township.
Domiciled in a rude log cabin, surrounded by a dense
forest, inhabited by wild beasts and savage Indians;
her lot was truly a hard one, and her true history
at this day seems to partake more of fiction than of
reality. Compelled by force of circumstances to
perform manual labor which at this time would seem
impossible for her to endure, deprived of society,
deprived of the luxuries, and sometimes, no doubt,
of at least a bountiful
supply of the necessaries of life, she had a hard
task to perform in assisting her husband to provide
the necessaries of life for the family, and with her
own hands to manufacture from flax and wool the
fabrics to clothe the family.
In those days flax was grown almost exclusively for the
lint which was manufactured into linen. The
process of manufacturing was as follows, and was
principally done by female labor: The flax was
pulled by hand, tied into small sheaves, then
shocked until dry enough to beat out the seed—the
seed being threshed out. The flax was thinly
spread on a meadow or lawn to rot or to make the
wood or stem of the plant brittle, so that it could
be separated from the lint. It was then housed
in a dry place. The next process was breaking
it on a large wooden brake, which was heavy work and
had to be done by men; next came what was called
scutching; this was done by the women and children.
This was about the first labor the writer ever
performed, and he has not lived long enough yet to
overcome his aversion to this kind of labor.
The process was this: A board was driven into the
ground and stood about waist high. A hand of
broken flax was hung and held across this, and then
with a wooden scutching knife the woody part was
knocked out of the lint. To stand in one
position all day and handle a scutching knife had no
attraction for a boy.— It next went through the
heckle, from that to the spinning wheel, then to the
loom, and came out linen. Out of flax linen
our shirts were made. The tow which was
heckled out of the flax made a coarser quality of
linen, out of which pants for summer wear were made.
For winter apparel they depended entirely on the fleece
of their own sheep; the fleece being taken off,
washed and picked by hand, then taken to the
carding-mil, carded and made into rolls. It
was then ready for the spinning-wheel, two of which
constituted an outfit for a family—a small one for
old ladies. On this she
could spin sitting, and the large one for the
daughter. This spinning had to be done walking
which was hard
labor, and there are still a few of these relics to
be seen at farm houses. The spinning done, it
went to the
weaver—nearly every farm house containing a loom—and
manufactured into jeans for coats, vests and pants.
Linsey was used for female apparel, and for coverlets and blankets
for the bed.
Goods thus manufactured were of superior wearing
quality. In addition to this labor, when
sugar-making time came, the women and children
superintended that almost exclusively, and a large
supply of maple sugar
and molasses was annually made.
PIONEER SCHOOL-HOUSES AND SCHOOLS.
The writer having
received the rudiments of his education in the
school-houses erected after 1825, a detailed history
of those and the schools generally can be given from
personal knowledge. But for the history of
pioneer school-houses proper he is indebted to his
friends, Captain Abraham Sayler and Thomas
Huffman, esq., who were school boys at an
earlier day.
The first school-house of the township was built on
section twenty-five. This was a much better
building than was common then, being a hewed log
house with cross bars or sticks covered with oiled
paper in the place of glass to admit light.
The inside furniture consisted of slab benches
destitute of backs, the urchin’s spinal column being
sufficient to keep him in an upright position.
Writing desks were of the most substantial kind.
Two inch-holes were bored into the wall, and a heavy
slab pinned on them. For heating apparatus we
had a large fire-place, very near across one end of
the room, into which could be rolled large logs, the
larger boys cutting them at noon, and all hands
rolling them in. The school-house being
generally built in the forest, fuel was easily
obtained. This house was built in 1818, and
William Botton was the first teacher. He
kept what was then called a “loud school,” that is,
when no class was reciting, the school was permitted
to spell as loud as they pleased.
A difficulty originating between the northern and
southern part of the district, the south dissolved
the union, and set up for themselves. They
went to the little village of Camden; employed a man
by the name of John Simson to teach
their school. They built him a cabin, he being
a man of family. All hands went to work on
Friday, to build a school-house of poles or round
logs, got it up, chinked, and daubed it, and had it
ready for school the next Monday.
The plastering was done in the following manner:
When the building was as high as wanted, they threw
across the center of the building a log or girder,
then laying rails from this to the sides of the wall
close enough to hold mud mortar which was made by
mixing with cut straw, and tramping with a horse.
This was then thrown on the rails, which made it
air-tight. A roof of
Page 182 -
clapboards was then put on, and the house was
finished, the windows and furniture being the same
as the first one described. This house was
located on the section line between sections
thirty-five and thirty-six.
Some time in 1820 there was a school-house of a similar
description built about the center of section
sixteen. First teacher—Andrew Small.
About 1824 there was a temporary school-house built on
section fifteen. Teacher—James Welsh.
Since writing the foregoing, the writer has obtained
reliable information that a school-house had been
built on section eighteen in 1812. This was a
round log house with open fire-place, large enough
to take in large logs of wood and furniture the same
as described in school-house in the eastern part of
the township. The first teacher was Joseph
A. Dally or Joseph Anderson— the
writer’s informant is not certain which. So
the question is settled that these teachers were the
first two of the township.
These rude structures in the way of school-houses,
after the township was properly divided into more
convenient districts, were superseded by better
ones, but the furniture remained about the same for
many years.
The State school fund was very small until about 1852,
when the school system of the State was revised
under the new constitution, and ample provision made
for public schools. Prior to that time the
public fund was insufficient to maintain a school
more than three months per year, and when a longer
term was desired by the people, the residue of the
money had to be raised by subscription. This
remark does not apply to pioneer schools proper, but
to that period between, perhaps, the years 1830 and
1850. Prior to that period schools had to be
maintained almost entirely by subscription.
The county being sparsely settled school districts were
necessarily large, children frequently having to go
from two to three miles to school, and generally
through a dense forest. When snow was deep, a
log was dragged from the residence to the
school-house to break the snow. We had no
boots then but very low quartered shoes, so our
mothers would draw a pair of old stockings over our
shoes to keep out the snow. Children of that
period of our history did not go much on style of
dress and did not believe that fine clothes made the
boy or girl more respectable, and it was a very
common thing to see a young urchin wending his way
to school in very rough weather with his father’s
old pigeon tailed felt coat on for an overcoat, the
skirt dragging the snow; or the girl with her
mother’s cast-off shawl, to keep her comfortable.
This was then the fashion, and all were satisfied as
long as they were able to follow the style of the
day in dress. No child refused to attend
school on account of homely dress, no distinction
being made on that account.
The compensation received by teachers was very small,
many of them receiving less than one dollar per day.
The writer has a distinct recollection of one of his
preceptors, who taught a term of sixty days for
thirty-three dollars. Wages, however, advanced
and when it “got to one dollar per day, it was
considered a remunerative business.
In consequence of the pitiful conpensation paid
teachers, there were but few well qualified teachers
in the business.
Pioneer teachers were not required to procure a
certificate of qualification from a board of
examiners. The most formidable ordeal he had
to pass was when he came across a school director
who was fond of assuming an air of learning and
would administer his catechism.
The first law enacted by the legislature providing for
a board of county examiners provided that applicants
should be examined in orthography, reading, writing,
and arithmetic, and if found qualified to teach
these branches, a certificate should be granted.
Sometime after the legislature amended the law so as
to include English grammar and prohibited school
directors from paying any teacher out of the public
school fund who failed to get such a certificate.
This law was unpopular in the start for the reason
that there was a lack of teachers to supply the
demand. This wise legislation immediately
advanced the compensation of teachers, and ambitious
young men soon qualified themselves to comply with
the requirements of the law. The whole
tendency of legislation from that day to this has
been to raise the standard of qualifications of
teachers—and Ohio can now boast of having a school
system second to none in the Union.
In comparing the advancement of the pupils of to-day
who have commodious and well furnished school-rooms
and school apparatus of every description— text
books of superior arrangement, and school terms of
from eight to nine months per year, taught by highly
educated teachers, with the advancement of pioneer
pupils of the same age, who were cooped up in their
little log cabin school houses, destitute of
anything entitled to the name of furniture,
destitute of school apparatus, and entirely
destitute of graded readers, by which pupils may be
classified, but being compelled from force of
circumstances to use as readers, anything that could
then be procured, from the Testament down to the
almanac, with school terms of from three to four
months per year, taught by poorly qualified
teachers, we are forced to the conclusion that
pioneer children accomplished more—or that our
children are now accomplishing less than could
reasonably be expected.
Were we asked the question how did the children ofthe
pioneers accomplish so much in the way of education,
with the limited means of schooling they enjoyed,
the answer would be, they did it by habits of
industry, energy and perseverance. Their
school terms were short, and they made the best
possible use of them. Their books were carried
home every evening, and those who had no candles or
lard to burn in the old iron lamp, would strip the
ross bark from shellbark hickory trees, and carry it
home, which, by administering to the fire in the
large fireplace of the cabin, would furnish them
with a brilliant light. It was by this system
of close application to their studies that the
pioneer children accomplished so much under the
unfavorable circumstances by which they were
surrounded. Books were scarce, but those they
had were well and carefully read.
[Page 183]
CHURCHES
The
first church of the township was located on section
eighteen, and was built in 1818. It was a
hewed log house, twenty-six by thirty feet, roofed
with shingles, and was free for all denominations of
Christians to worship in. This spirit of
liberality was characteristic of pioneer
inhabitants—selfishness and liberality were then
unknown. The trustees were Silas
Dooley, William Caster, and
John Railsback. This house served
the double purpose of school-house and church.
Elder David Purviance was the
first minister of the Christian denomination who
preached there.
The writer is indebted to Silas Dooley, jr., for
the original subscription list for the building of
this church,
which is deemed of sufficient importance to insert,
at least the names of those who contributed to the
building. The condition of subscription was
that those who were able should pay in money, and
those who were destitute of that great luxury, and
had nothing but muscle, might discharge it in work:
| John Railsback |
$30.00, |
ten days work. |
| George Dooley |
14.00, |
five days work |
| Thomas Lewallen |
5.00, |
three days |
| Thomas Harris |
5.00, |
six days work |
| John Garter |
5.00, |
two days work |
| Samuel Kirsham |
2.00, |
three days work |
| Robert Campbell |
10.00, |
in shingles |
| Silas Dooley |
15.00, |
paid in work |
| John Streat |
2.00, |
paid in work |
| Michael Niccum |
2.00, |
paid in work |
| John Hill |
3.00, |
paid in work |
| Littleberry
Blackley |
2.00, |
paid in work |
| William Caster |
6.00, |
|
| Moses Doolely |
3.00, |
paid in work |
| James Harris |
2.00, |
paid in work |
| James Harris,
sr. |
8.00, |
paid in work |
| Sam Frame |
10.00, |
paid in work |
| Reuben Dooley |
20.00, |
|
| Moses Dooley |
10.00, |
|
| William Idner |
1.00, |
in work |
| John Wilson |
1.00, |
in work |
| John Hardy |
3.00, |
|
| Samuel Martin |
10.00, |
|
| Robert Rhea |
3.00, |
in work |
| Thomas Dooley |
4.00, |
paid in work. |
In
the central and eastern portions of the township
there were no churches built at so early a day.
But Elder Benjamin Skinner, a minister of the
Baptist church, frequently held religious service at
the dwelling house of Armstead Huffman and
ministers of the Methodist church often preached at
the house of Margaret Stephens, and sometimes
at an old log school-house near by; and ministers of
the New Light or Christian denomination frequently
preached at the dwelling house of William
Sellers.
The second church built
in the township was located near Paint creek, in the
southwest corner of the township by the Baptist denomination. Under the
guidance of Elder Benjamin Skinner
the church prospered, and accessions to the church
were made rapidly. Elder Skinner
was a self educated man, and had fine natural
qualifications for a revivalist, and succeeded in
building up a prosperous church.
The writer has been unable to get the date of the
building of this church, but from the best
information attainable he believes it to have been
built shortly prior to 1840.
Shortly after this the Methodists erected Salem church
in the same vicinity, which is still in use.
Antioch church, near the center of the township, was
built in 1845. The first trustees were Ebe
Campbell, Conrad Bloss, James McCabe,
William Stephens and William
Jefferson. Jefferson is now the
only survivor of the board. There was a pretty
strong and prosperous church of the Methodist
denomination maintained here for a number of years,
and regular services held by the ministers in charge
of the district, but since the large and commodious
church was erected at Eaton by the Methodist
Episcopal denomination, Antioch has been abandoned.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES:
THE SAYLER FAMILY
WILLIAM MORTON
D. C. STUBBS
---------
* Written mainly by Henry Shideler, esq.
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