PART IV.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES.

CHAPTER XXII.

YORK TOWNSHIP.
Pps. 685 -

NAME - ORGANIZATION - POST OFFICES - MINERAL WEALTH - SURFACE AND STREAMS
ELECTIONS AND OFFICERS - FIRST SETTLERS - EARLY SCHOOLS - CHURCHES

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thirteen sections of Congress land, six 100-acre lots, besides a small tract, of irregular outline, in the northeast part.  It was organized Dec. 1, 1828, with the following boundaries:  Beginning at the center of Township 8, Range 3; thence east five miles; thence south five miles, to the center of Township 7, Range 2; thence west two and one-half miles; thence south two and one-half miles; thence west two and one-half miles, on the line between Townships 6 and 7, to the center of Range 3; thence north seven and one-half miles to the place of beginning.  It thus included the eastern part of Jefferson and nearly all of York, as now constituted, with small fractions subsequently annexed to Goshen and Warwick.
     York is distinctively rural in its character.  The records of plats fail to exhibit that any town plat has ever been laid out within its bounds.  Located within a few miles of New Philadelphia and Dover, the necessity of a home village has not been felt.  The construction of the Marietta & Pittsburgh Railroad down Stone Creek Valley, ten years ago, ahs destroyed its wholly agriculture nature.  Two railroad stations are situated within its limits - Black Band, on the extreme southern line of the township, and Yorktown, near its center.  At the former is a general store, owned by Jacob Foehl.  A post office was established here after the railroad was in operation, but subsequently Daniel Bear was appointed and the post office removed to Yorktown.  Henry Espenschied wa his successor, and the present dispenser of mail.  The original name, Black Band Post Office, was retained, but has since been changed to Yorktown.  Recently a post office was re-established at Black Band Station and called Deardorff's, but the original name Black Band, has been restored.  Mr. Foehl is Postmaster.  At Yorktown are a few scattered buildings, which may entitle the locality to the appellation, village.  Emanuel Mathias keeps a grocery, and Henry Espenschied is the owner of a jewelry store.  A blacksmith and a shoe shop also exist in the vicinity.
     The mineral resources of York are widely distributed and valuable.  More than twenty mines and banks of coal have been opened and worked in the township, and there are many more that may be operated when needed.  Large quantities of coal have been shipped, and the citizens of the township use it generally in place of the wood which was formerly their fuel.  Black-band iron ore has been found and extensively mined.  The deposit found in Shull's Hill has proved a valuable property to its owner, Jacob Blickensderfer purchased fifty acres of land including this hill for $500 and sold the land for $300, reserving whatever minerals it contained.  His administrators sold the reservation to David Miller for $900, and he disposed of a two-thirds interest to Rhodes & Card for about $3,000.  The ore taken from this bank has netted its owners $120,000.
     The surface of York Township is hilly  Its principal stream is Stone Creek, which traverses the township from southwest to northwest and divides its almost equally.  Old Town Creek flows in an almost parallel course through the southeastern part, and both streams enter the Tuscarawas in Goshen Township, scarcely more than a mile from their exit from York, the latter stream at a point almost opposite the site of the Moravian Mission, Schonbrunn, whence the name Old Town was probably derived.  These two streams, with their many little branches, drain the entire surface of the township.  Oak, hickory, poplar, sugar, beech, elm, and in fact nearly all varieties of timber indigenous in this latitude, including a little cottonwood, have been found in York.
     Township elections have been held at many places.  In the early years of York's existence, the cabin of Samuel Deardorff served this purpose.  The residences of Henry Ankney and William Ross successively became the voting

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places, which was then transferred to Yorktown.  Frank Garnand's house was next brought into requisition, and used until the present election-house, Ankney's Schoolhouse, was selected.  The following is an almost complete list of the township magistrates, with the dates of election:
     George Bugher, 1929; George Bugher, 1835; Michael Nedrow, 1838; Edward Edmunds, 1839; Michael Nedrow, 1841, resigned 1844; Edward Edmunds, 1842; Joseph Kollar, 1844; Amos Kimmell, 1847; Simon Fackler, 1848; Amos Kimmell, 1850, resigned 1852; Simon Fackler, 1851`; Moses Bugher, 1852; Simon Fackler, 1854; Joseph Shull, 1855; Simon Fackler, 1857; Moses Bugher, 1858; Simon Fackler, 1860; Adam Bugher, 1861, resigned 1862; Moses Bugher, 1862; Paul Bucy, 1863; Francis Ankney, 1865; Paul Bucy, 1866; Francis Ankney, 1868; Paul Bucy, 1869; Solomon Humrickhouse, 1871; Paul Bucy, 1872; Solomon Humrickhouse, 1874; Rudolph Meyer, 1875; Solomon Humrickhouse, 1877; Francis Ankney 1878; Benjamin D. Shearer 1880; William Kinsey 1881; Francis Ankney, 1881.
     The Congress land in the little valleys of Stone Creek and Old Town Creek were the first settled portions of the township, and among the first Congress lands entered in the county.  When it was located, the price of land was $2 per acre, and tracts less than a quarter-section, or 160 acres, could not be entered.  The earliest settlers were principally Pennsylvanians, and of German origin.  They were a thrifty, contented and well-to-do class of people, for quite a number of them entered two or more quarters, and very few of the earliest pioneers removed from the farms which they had here wrested from the wilderness, and their descendants still inhabit the land.  The hills of the township were settled slowly, and before all the land was occupied, forty-acre farms could be entered for $1.25 per acre.  Many indigent Swiss and German emigrants thus procured homesteads at little expense, and now compose the larger portion of hte population.  They are an economical and industrious people.
     The first settler on Stone Creek and in the territory that now constitutes York Township was JOHN SHULL.  He hailed from Somerset County, Penn., and in about 1806 left his old home, with his wife Elizabeth and six children, and traveled by team to New Philadelphia.  Thence he was obliged to cut a road up Stone Creek to the north half of Section 16, Range 2, Township 8.  Henry Shanaman, his "hired hand," accompanied him, and assisted Mr. Shull in building the first cabin in the township, by the side of a spring near the present dwelling of Gabriel Shull, in the northeast quarter of Section 16.  A band of Indians had encamped here, but by making them a peace-offering of provisions, Mr. Shull prevailed upon them to remove about a half-mile further down the creek.  John Shull was by descent a German, and of the Lutheran belief.  He died in 1833.  His wife survived hima  few years.  They had twelve children - Frederick, Sarah (Bugher), Mary (Casebeer), Benjamin, Jacob, John, Peter, Samuel, Joseph, Gabriel, George and Abram - several of whom still reside in the township.
     HENRY ANKNEY
     SAMUEL DEARDORFF
     JOHN BENFER
     JOHN HUMRICKHOUSE

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     HENRY SHAFFER
     Two years elapsed, and in 1818 two more families settled in Old Town.  John Rice came from Somerset, and Jacob Fribley from Northumberland County, Penn.  Mr. Rice located on the southeast quarter of Section 6.  He was a Lutheran, and died on Stone Creek.  Some of his descendants still inhabit this county.  Jacob Fribley settled in Section 3.  His wife was Elizabeth (Woods), and they had eight sons and four daughters.  His posterity is widely and favorably known in this county.  Other settlers who came a few years later, were Edward Edmunds, John Heller, James Butt and George Kuhn.  ...................
    

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Church, dates its origin back to 1815.  Philip L. Kuhn, John F. Gernand, George W. Kuhn, John and Henry Benfer, George H. Putt and Henry Shaffer members of the German Reformed Church, and John Shull the Gimlins and others who were Lutherans, united to build a church to be sued also for school purposes.  The lot, situated on Section 16, was donated by Philip Kuhn and John Gernand on the one side, and John Shull on the other.  In March, 1815.............................. more to come

BIOGRAPHIES
 

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