The village of Jerome, also known as Beachtown,
Pleasant Hill, and Frankfort, was platted in the
year 1846 by William Irwin, County Surveyor,
for Henry Beach, and the Beach
family was the only family residing there.
It is pleasantly situated and in the early days was
a thriving business town, but like other inland
villages, while it is still a good business town, it
has not increased greatly in population. The
Beaches and majority of the old inhabitants
have passed away, but the village and vicinity have
always been noted for good substantial citizenship,
a thriving farming community, and the merchants do a
good business in all lines, and at al times.
The first merchants of the village were Amos and
Kilburn Beach, and the first tavern keeper was
William Case. Other merchants who have
been prominent business men in the village are H.
B. Seely, Lattimer & Hamilton, George Dixon, Oliver
Asbury. The merchants now doing business
are Daniel Landecker and H. B. Seely
Company.
Herrick B. Seely was for many years a merchant
in the village, and aso served as Postmaster.
He was a fine businessman and stood high in the
community and among wholesale merchants as a man of
strict integrity. At his death the business
descended to his sons, one of whom still continues
in business in the village in general merchandise,
under the firm name of H. B. Seely Co.
the firm does a large and profitable business, and
are in every way worthy successors of their father,
who laid the foundation for long-continued
mercantile business by the family.
The first Methodist Church was organized at Jerome in
the year 1835 and services were first held at the
residence of Henry Beach. Among the
early members were the Beaches, Stones, Hallecks,
Wells and Frederick families.
A log church was erected in 1842, which was occupied as
a church until short time before the outbreak of the
Civil War. A frame church was erected and
dedicated April 15th, 1860, by a Rev. Dr. Warner
as pastor. Among the ministers who have served
as pastors of the congregation are: Rev. Chase,
Rev. Hathaway, Rev. John E. Moore, Rev. Edward
Rudesill, Rev. J. Shoop, Rev. Thurston, Rev. Ferris,
Rev. Pierman, Rev. Abernathy, Rev. J. K. Argo, Rev.
Pryor, Rev. Theodore Crayton, Rev. A. Holcomb, Rev.
A. L. Rogers, Rev. B. J. Judd, Rev. Tubbs, Rev.
Thomas Ricketts, Rev. Thomas Wakefield, Rev. J. H.
Middling, Rev. A. Plum, Rev. John Gordon.
The Jerome Presbyterian
Church was organized December 16th, 1853, and
Rev. William Brinkerhoff was the first pastor.
Templeton Liggett and John Fleck were
the first Ruling Elders. Rev. Brinkerhoff
served as pastor of the church until the
congregation decided to become a Congregational
Church, on November 2d, 1862, and he then resigned
as pastor. Afterward Rev. Hawn, an
old-school Presbyterian, became pastor, followed by
Rev. C. N. Coulter in 1866. In 1867 the
denomination was again changed to the new-school
Presbyterian, and Rev. A. N. Hamlin became
pastor, followed by Rev. Stevenson, Rev. Mason,
Rev. Hill, Rev. Crow, Rev. Thomas, Rev. Christ, Rev.
Henry Shedd. About the year 1898 the
Presbyterian and Methodist congregations united and
the Presbyterian Society was abandoned. the
Methodists now have a good, strong congregation
under the pastorate of Rev. John Gordon.
SCHOOLS.
The
educational privileges have always compared
favorably in the schools of the village with other
schools in the township, which is noted in the
county for its excellent schools. Under the
present efficient Superintendent, Professor Homer
E. Cahall, the Special High School ranks among
the best in the county.
The new school building, known as the Ryan Memorial
School, Jerome Special High School, is modern in
every respect and speaks volumns for the community
in which it is located. The district, with the
help of Mr. Ryan, erected this spacious and
beautiful structure, and the school and community
owe to Mr. Ryan, the great benefactor, a debt
of gratitude for his untiring energy and efforts in
their behalf. The School Board and all
progressive citizens are entitled to great credit
for their support toward securing a new building,
and thus advancing the cause of education in this
community.
The building is a model as regards beauty and
convenience and cost approximately $11,000. It
is a four -room building, and includes library room,
office of the School Board and the superintendent,
together with a spacious auditorium in the basement,
which seats about 300 people. Nothing has been
spared that might add to the comfort of the pupils,
and teh library is up-to-date and contains about 400
volumes. Through the efforts of the
superintendent and the School Board the school was
placed in the list of second-grade high schools of
the State. The school is equipped with a fine
apparatus for Physics, Agriculture, and Botany, and
the present corps of teachers are very efficient.
The Primary Department is in charge of Miss
Marie Pounds, who is an excellent instructor
for that grade. Mr. Lon McMillan is in
charge of the Intermediate grades, while
Professor H. E. Cahall has charge of the High
School Department. Mr. McMillan has
been a student both at Delaware and Ada
Universities, and Professor Cahall is a
graduate of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
There are about 100 pupils attending the school this
year. The district has been centralized, the
pupils being conveyed to school in modern vehicles.
With a progressive superintendent and well-trained,
competent teachers, and with an awakened and
thoroughly Christianized community, the school will
no doubt prosper in the future as it has in the
past.
As the Jerome school of today is much further advanced
than the school of fifty years ago so we may feel
confident that fifty years hence the school will, in
the onward march of progress, by far surpass the
school of today. In the language of the
historian, "The Past has taught its lesson, the
Present has its duty, and the Future has its hope."
PHYSICIANS.
Of the
physicians who have practiced in Jerome may be named
Drs. Converse, Asberry, Holland, John E. Herriott,
Dr. P. F. Beverly (who served as surgeon of the
30th Regiment, O. V. I.), Dr. Henry, Dr. Bargar,
and Dr. Kirbey.
The following named
citizens have served as postmasters: Horace
Beach, Isaac Wells, George Leasure, Hurd Lewis, Dr.
Converse, S. H. Brake, William O'Hara, John Latham,
Joseph Brobeck, James Linn, W. Wells, H. B. Seeley,
George Dixon, Olliver Asbury, Lattimer & Hamilton,
and Pearl E. Hyland. The mail is now
received R. F. D. from Plain City.
Among the old and prominent families who settled in the
eastern section of the township in the early days
were the Stones, Donaldsons, Norrises, Colliers,
Hoberts, Fredericks, Pattersons, Dorts, Cases,
Beaches, Wells, Bishops, Evans, Moss, Hudsons,
Brobecks, Williams, McCrorys, Herriotts, Magills,
Hills, Jacksons, Neils, Langstaffs, Stuarts, Frys,
Brakes, O'Harra, Ashbaughs, Perrys, Seeleys,
Temples, Bowersmiths, McKitricks, Foxes,
Brinkerhoffs, Durboroughs, and many others who
came later. There were but few of these
families who had members that were eligible to
military service who were not represented in the
Union Army.
There were quite a military spirit abounding in the
village in the ante-bellum days. Some of hus
who took part in the Civil War can recall the days
in the late years of 1840 when the muster and
training days of the "Corn-Stalk Militia" on the
farms of James A. and Robert Curry
were looked forward to by the boys as the great
events of the year. When Captain Kilburn
Beach, in gorgeous regimentals, cockade and
flowing plumes, drilled the Militia, the rattling of
the drums and the shrill notes of the fife was the
signal for all the boys in the neighborhood to
assemble at the place of muster to hear the music
and witness the drill.
The recalls the poem in the old Second Reader of that
day:
"Was you ne'er a Schoolboy
And did you never train,
And feel the swelling of your heart,
You ne'er shall feel again;
We charged upon a flock of geese
And put them all to flight,
Except one sturdy gander
Who thought he'd show us fight;
But oh! we knew a thing or two,
Our Captain wheeled the van,
We scouted them, we routed them,
Nor lost a single man."
Little did
the boys of this neighborhood, when reading or
reciting this old poem, think they would, in a few
years, have the opportunity to charge upon an enemy
in real war, in some of the greatest battles of
modern times.
Isaac Wells, a prominent citizen of Jerome, was
Orderly Sergeant, and some of us remember about the
men lying around on the grass answering to their
names as he called the roll at the close of the
day's arduous drill. The patriotic and
military spirit instilled in the boys by the
training and muster days, in which they were too
young to take part, was aroused to fever heat when
war was declared in April, 1861. At the time
when the first company for three months was being
organized at New California, I recall that several
of us attended a war meeting at Jerome. It was
held in the Presbyterian Church and Rev. William
Brinkerhoff, pastor of the church made an
eloquent address, of which I remember one sentence
distinctly. The drums were on the pulpit
platform, to which he called attention by saying:
"Munitions of war and the Bible are side by side in
the House of the Lord."
The only full company organized in August, 1861, and
the officers at organization were: Captain,
Elijah Warner; First Lieutenant, Henry Brinkerhoff;
Second Lieutenant, Henry Hensel.
One hundred and two
soldiers served in the company during the war, and
thirty-two died in the service. The company
was assigned as Company E, 30th Regiment, O. V. I.
Captain Warner was promoted to Major of the
Regiment; Lieutenant Brinkerhoff was promoted
to Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd Mississippi, U. S.
C. T., and James D. Bain was promoted to the
Captaincy of the company.
Lieutenant Colonel
Brinkerhoff remained in the Regular Army after
the close of the Civil War, and was retired a few
years ago with the rank of Colonel. Major
Warner, Captain Bain, and Lieutenant Hensel
are all dead. As I recall, Sergeant James
C. Collier, who had a long and honorable service
from August 19th, 1861, to August 13th, 1865, is the
last survivor of that company of 102 brave Jerome
Township boys residing in the vicinity at this time.
The company had a remarkable service and the losses
were appalling, as almost one-third of their number
were killed or died in the service, and scarcely a
man in the company escaped some casualty, either by
wounds or by being captured as a prisoner of war.
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