Was originated March 5, 1816.  It is claimed before it was organized that it was known as Chestnut township, or the chestnut region, on account of its great growth of that kind of trees.  Its population in1870 was 1,921. The following is the list of officers of the township, as appears upon the official records:

    Justices of the Peace - John Wilson, Aug. 11, 1831; James Stanley, May 8, 1833; J. M. Hamilton, Sept. 11, 1834; John Wilson, Sept. 11, 1834; William Walker, Aug. 19, 1837; John Craig, Aug. 19, 1837; William Walker,..........etc
 

     Thomas Pittinger was born in Brooks county, Virginia, July 11, 1791, and removed with his father, Henry, to Ohio in 1814, settling east of Rowsburg.  In

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* A number of these would be in Ashland county now.

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1816 he was married to Kate Smith, who died Sept. 11, 1858.  He had by this marriage eleven children, five of whom are living, viz:  Alexander, John S., Daniel, William D. and Eliza Jane.
     Mr. Pittinger is one of the survivors of the war of 1812, and the only volunteer soldier of that war who carried a musket through Wayne county.  He has distinct and vivid recollections of the campaign, and his reminiscences are inserted in another chapter of this book.  Times were rough and hard, he says, when they came to the county.  Fighting, drinking and quarreling were every-day affairs.  A good knock-down adjusted difficulties, and the whole was sealed with a dram.  John Smith and Lydia Pittinger were the first couple married in his neighborhood.  A child of old Mr. Chasey was the first buried in the Lucas graveyard.  His brother Daniel on one occasion whipped John Meeks.
     Mr. Pittinger knew the Driskels, old Johnnycake, Baptiste Jerome and Isaac Pew who bit off Driskel's nose.  He drilled in the militia in the olden days at Blacleyville, Reedsburg, etc.  Though bordering on to ninety years, he is erect as a column, and when he discusses the scenes and events of 1812 his bright eyes flash, his step quickens, and the old man is a boy again.  He joined the Presbyterian church under the ministry of Rev. Beer, at Mt. Hope, in 1834.  His son Daniel, with whom he lives, was born Nov. 3, 1825 and was married Sept. 6, 1848, to Lydia Shutt.  He is a farmer, an honorable man, and a member of the Methodist church at Lafayette, Ashland county, Ohio.

     Matthias Camp was born in Westmoreland county, Mar. 18, 1794.  He removed to Wayne county in the spring of 1815, first stopping with his brother, Anthony Camp, in Baughman township, where he took jobs fo clearing, and did rough carpenter work.  He thus continued until the fall of 1821, when, Nov. 1, 1821, he was married to Sarah Evans, sister of James Evans, of Orrville, she dying Oct. 24, 1868.  In 1823 he settled in Chester, then Perry township, on section 1, north-west quarter, and now owned by his son John.  Mr. Camp has had the following children:  Silas, James, John, Anthony, Mary, Evans, Wesley, Margaret, Sarah, Agnes and Matthias.  Anthony and Matthias were both soldiers in the 41st Ohio, and both dead; the former shot at Lookout Mountain, Nov. 25,  1863, the latter dying of disease at Louisville, Ky., Feb. 16, 1862.  Silas was in the same regiment, and received a wound in the same charge.  F. W. Eckerman, a son-in-law of Mr. Camp, was in the same charge, but escaped, though subsequently wounded at Dallas, Georgia, and dying July 4, 1864.  Mr. Camp is six feet high, weighs one hundred and eighty pounds, and is in his eighty-fifth year, and is the noblest specimen of pioneer physical manhood in the county.  In his younger years he must have had a Titan's strength.  He has been a farmer all his life, and his labors have been well rewarded.  He is a sincere, honest, generous hearted man, and for fifty years has been a member of the Methodist church at Pleasant Grove.

     John Camp, son of Matthias, ,was born June 12, 1826, on the old homestead farm, where, with his father, he remained until he was twenty one years of age.  He then followed carpentering for twenty-three years, building bridges, barns, houses, school-houses and churches, having erected forty-six barns, six churches, ten school-houses, and thirty-five private dwellings.  He is now devoting his attention and time to agriculture, owning a large amount of real estate.  He is a most industrious and resolute man, of fine muscular development, like his father, and of remarkable intelligence and memory.  He has recently crossed the line into Ashland county, and with him his father lives.  He was married to Miss Ellen, daughter of Arthur Campbell, of Ashland county, and has had eleven children, three of whom are dead.  He is a member of the Methodist church at Lafayette.

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     Adam Rumbaugh was born April 22, 1793, in Northampton county, Pa., and was married Mar. 16, 1815, to Elizabeth Lauffer, of that county.  He died Aug. 7, 1870.  His grandfather served in the Revolutionary war.  In March, 1819, he removed to Chester township, settling on the farm now owned by his son Jacob, where he died.  He immigrated to the county in a three-horse wagon, bringing his wife and two children, Isaac and John, also harrow-teeth, plows, bedding, etc.  The only house between him and Wooster stood on Albert Smyser's place, owned by John Emery, which a man named John Lowry once owned and sold to Michael Mowry for 1,100 gallons of whisky.  The following are members of his family: Isaac, John, Maria, Henry, David, Solomon, William, Sarah, Hannah, Jacob and Elizabeth.  Jacob, his youngest son, was born Oct. 22, 1835, in Chester township, and owns a splendid farm.  He was married June 9, 1859, to Mary A., daughter of Michael Mowry, and has three children, and is a member of the German Reformed church.  Solomon Rumbaugh was born Dec. 17, 1826, on the old place, where he worked until he was 29 years of age, and was married Aug. 21, 1855, to Mary, daughter of Abraham Miller, and has six children.  Isaac Rumbaugh was born in Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio with his father when three years of age.  He was twice married - first, in 1838, to Mary Rumbaugh, of Greene township; second, in 1854, to Catharine Pfaeifer.  He is a farmer, and member of the Lutheran church.  Adam Rumbaugh deeded the grounds for what is known as the "Rumbaugh Graveyard," and John Rumbaugh was the first child buried there, having been drowned in a spring, and being but eighteen months old.  Henry Rumbaugh was born Feb. 24, 1822, in Chester township, and was married to Mary, daughter of Christian Rice, May 7, 1844, subsequently removing to Crawford county.  In the spring of 1865 he enlisted in the 197th Ohio Regiment, and Apr. 13, of that year he died of erysipelas, at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio.  Mr. Rumbaugh was an esteemed and worthy man, and left behind him a moral, virtuous and influential family, noted for their industry.

     Phillip Hefflefinger was born in Cumberland county, Pa., Sept. 28, 1787.  He was first married to Isabella McCormick of the same county, who lived less than a year, having one child that died in 1871.  He was remarried Jan. 12, 1818, to Elizabeth Mowrey, and by this union had eight children.  In the spring of 1818 he came West, arriving in Wayne county June 5, and for a while lived in a school house near the residence of the late Daniel Silvers.  Two years prior to this he had been out and bought the farm for $700, on which he lived and died.  His second wife died Mar. 7, 1871, aged 70 years.  She was a member of the Presbyterian church, he having, for 25 years before his death, in 1877, been united with the Methodists.  He was an honest, pure-minded, sincerely pious man, living to a ripe old age.  In his letter years he was under the kind of care of his daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Captain Reed.

     Robert Rathbun, one of the earliest pioneers, was born in Rhode Island, Sept. 17, 1771, and removed to Wayne county in November, 1814, settling on the farm on which his son Samuel now resides, which land he entered.  He was married to Anna Allen, and had the following children: Mary, married to Nathan Warner; Robert, married to Hannah Warner; Samuel, married to Elizabeth Edmonds; Caleb A., married to Mary Edmonds, and Anna, married to Thomas McCully.  He died Apr. 2, 1822, his wife following him to the grave Apr. 18, 1834.  Samuel Rathbun, son of Robert, was born in Cayuga county, New York, Mar. 15, 1800, and came to Wayne county with his father, and by marriage with Elizabeth Edmonds had the following children: Rosannah married to Andrew Byers,

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now residing in Indiana; Manilla, married to Allen Bodine; Robert, Anna, George, Mary; Samuel, who became a soldier in the 16th Regiment and died in the fall of 1863; Peter; and William A., who still lives with his father.  Mrs. Rathbun died May 29, 1873.

     Peter Stair was born in Cumberland county, Pa., Nov. 28, 1819, and came with his father, Jacob Stair, to Wayne county in 1828, and has lived in Chester township twenty-five years.  Sept. 1, 1842, he was married to Sarah Houser.  In 1875 he was elected County Commissioner, and re-elected to the same office in 1877.  He is a solid, popular, active and substantial citizen, devoted to the interests of the county.

     John Piper was born in Chester county, Pa., Nov. 6, 1786, and was married to Mary Wisehaupt Mar. 1, 1810, her death occurring Oct. 2, 1869, at the residence of her son William.  His father was a farmer, with whom John remained until he was twenty years of age.  Prior to his marriage he learned weaving, purchasing a loom when he was twenty-four years old, which he followed for eleven years, when he concluded to go West, emigrating to Jefferson county, ,Ohio, in 1821, and bringing with him his wife and five children.  At the end of eight years employed in farming, and weaving in the winter, he removed to Chester township, settling on the farm which his son William owns, and with whom he lives.  This farm (leased land) he purchased at Mansfield at a "Congress sale" of lands, there being but a few acres cleared, and upon it no improvements except a small cabin.  He has had eleven children, viz:  Mary, Elizabeth, Catharine, Jacob, John, Valentine, Nancy, David, William,  Henry and George.  The subject of this notice was a soldier in the war of 1812.

     Jacob Piper was married Nov. 15, 1838, to Catharine Thomas, and has had eight children, five of whom are dead.  He owns several splendid farms and has recently erected one of the best houses in the township.

     William Piper, son of John, was born Oct. 22, 1827, and was married to Elizabeth Thomas, Apr. 21, 1853, and has had five children, two of whom are dead; the names of those living being Mary T., Harvey L. and Ida F. Piper.  He is a farmer, devoting himself exclusively to its pursuits, though for four years he was engaged in the dry goods and produce business in Reedsburg with David Thomas.  He has held various offices of public trust in this township, and his popularity was tested a few years ago, in a county canvass, when his ticket (Republican) was in a hopeless minority, by his running nearly one hundred ahead of it in his own township.  He is a man of marked character, of enlightened and advanced opinions, a member of the Methodist church, and a modest and courteous gentleman.

     John Moyers, a native of Westmoreland county, Pa., immigrated to Wayne county about 1825, soon thereafter purchasing the Chasey farm, near Lattasburg, and which he sold to Christian Berkey now owned by his son, Jonas Berkey. Here he engaged in farming and the nursery business, all the surrounding orchards for miles having been supplied by him.  He went into the silk-worm business as early as 1835, and raised the material to feed them.  He first planted the white mulberry, but its leaves were too small to feed them.  He then planted the Moses Multicollis, a tree which bears no fruit but has a larger leaf.  He built a silk-house to feed the worms, but the enterprise proven financially disastrous to him, and he abandoned it.  He spun some thread and had some silk handkerchiefs made, that were of the finest character.  He was a mem-

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ber of the German Baptist church, and was an enterprising, good and useful man.  His wife was known throughout the neighborhood as a pious and noble woman, everybody's friend, and charitable to the poor.  Mr. Moyers is said to have first introduced the Mediterranean wheat into Wayne county.

     Benjamin Norton was born in Franklin county, Pa., Mar. 5, 1813, and removed to Wayne county, Ohio, on his arrival at the age of manhood.  In 1850 he removed to Chester township, and purchased what was known as the Adam Shinneman farm, on which he lived until his death, Sept. 8, 1867.  He was married to Catharine Emrich, Sept. 6, 1836, and had ten children.  His son- Martin H., enlisted as a private in Captain Botsford's company soon after the breaking out of the war, but was soon appointed Sergeant, then Wagon-master, then Second Lieutenant, and then Quartermaster of the Regiment.  He died at Vicksburg, Aug. 13, 1863.
     Benjamin Norton was a noble-hearted, generous and chivalric man, public spirited, and identified with the material interests of the county.  He served through the different grades of township offices, and was elected County Commissioner, acting from 1856 to 1859, his period of service characterizing an era in the management and disposition of the finances of the county.  He was an upright, liberal and honorable man, of decided principles and consistent life.

     David Thomas was born in Perry township, Ashland county, Nov. 27, 1827.  He has been a successful school teacher, speculator and merchant.  He was married June 30, 1857, to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Norton, and has three children.  He now owns the Norton homestead of over 200 acres, and has so improved and beautified it as to make it one of the most attractive homes of the county.  He has served in various official capacities in his township, but has steadily declined invitation to wider fields of politics.  He is a member of the Lutheran church, an honorable, influential man, and no township in the county can boast a better citizen.

     Jacob Garver was born near Hagerstown, Maryland, June 16, 1800.  His father was a farmer, and removed from Maryland to Fayette county, Pa., in 1802, and died there in 1829.  Jacob followed farming, and married Mary Lucas, Aug. 4, 1822.  In 1827 he immigrated to Wayne county, and settled on the place where he now lives, in Chester township.  An earnest Christian all his life, he became a German Baptist (Dunkard) minister, beginning to preach when forty-four years of age.  He had the following children:  Eliza, Anna, Samuel, Mary, David, George, Margaret, Lydia, Sarah, Amos, Catharine, Jesse, Melvina, Samantha, Elmina and John.  His son Amos Garver married Elizabeth Walkie, of Ashland county, and became a merchant in New Pittsburg, afterwards removing to Wooster.  He is now a commission merchant in Philadelphia, dealing largely in butter, eggs, etc., his brother-in-law, Captain G. P. Emrich, of Wooster, being a partner.  He is a thorough business man and a very clever gentleman.

     W. C. Baker, a native of Stark county, was born Feb. 1, 1826, and removed to Wayne county with his father, John Baker, in 1838, settling a mile east of New Pittsburg, where his father now lives.  He was married May 6, 1847, to Harriet Zigler, of Bucyrus, Ohio, and has two living children, David N. and Chas. W., the former married to Delilah Biddle, in 1870.
     Mr. Baker conducts a large dry goods business, giving attention to the purchase of butter and eggs, and is one of the heaviest wool buyers in the county.  He is member of the Church of God, and a man of business honor, and excellent name and character.

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     Henry Allspaugh, M. D., was born in Franklin county, Pa., Jan. 3, 1817, and, with his father, settled one mile north-east of New Pittsburg, where he remained until he was 24 years of age.  He then entered the Academy at Ashland, attending a number of sessions, after which he read medicine with Dr. Pixley, of New Pittsburg, where he began practice, and after two years removed to Lattasburg.  He was married in November, 1866, to Miss Sidney Bringman, of Rockland county, Ohio.

     James Robison, brother of Thomas and David, of Wooster, was born Feb. 17, 1787, in Franklin county, Pa., and in 1813 immigrated to Wayne county, temporarily stopping in Wooster, the same year building the saw-mill on Little Killbuck, in the south-east corner of Chester township.
     In 1815 he married Margaret Wilson, of Newark, Licking county, Ohio, immediately thereafter removing with his new wife on horseback, a distance of sixty-five miles, to his forest farm in Chester township.  The finger-boards at the forks of the roads stand at the south-east corner of where his first cabin was situated.  Here in the woods, peopled by savage, untutored men and wild beasts, with but scarcely a neighbor nearer than Wooster, they staked their destiny, and here Mr. Robison for over forty years, and his wife for over fifty years, remained and unraveled the skein of the rapid years.
     He was, we are nearly justified in affirming, the first white settler in Chester township, having become a citizen of it three years before it was organized, and affirming, the first white settler of Chester township, having become a citizen of it three years before it was organized, and before local civil government was established within its borders.  A saw-mill in those days was next in importance to the grist-mill, and hence the name of Robinson's Mill became generally and popularly known throughout the western part of the county, and to this day, though the builder of it has been in his grave for nearly a quarter of a century, and the mill itself has sunk to decay, it carries its old name well, and is latitude and longitude in the neighborhood yet.  Mr. Robison, aided by a single individual, spent three months in digging the race for the old saw-mill.  The woollen factory, though not so primitive an institution as the mill, ranked amongst the best of its kind in the county, and was built at a very early period.  During his presence at Columbus, in the discharge of his duties as member of the Ohio Legislature, it was destroyed by fire, the result of a defective flue - Thomas and Benjamin Neal having the management of it in his absence.  The saw-mill was also swept away by the flames.  On his return, without indulging any accusations or censure, he quietly went to work and rebuilt both the factory and the mill, putting therein new and improved machinery.  Prior to the fire he simply carded, spun and pulled, but after the rebuilding he made other additions, and introduced the manufacture of yarns, blankets, cloths, etc.
     Here was the water-power and Mr. Robison had the enterprise and intelligence to utilize it, and it became not only a benefit but a benefaction to the whole community.  He was not a visionary man nor inclined to build air-castles; he was practical, and devoted himself to maternal enterprises.  The interest he manifested in the substantial advancement of the county, and his efforts to introduce the better things of the coming time were perceived and appreciated and won him many friends and widened the sphere of his popularity.
     Disinclined as he usually was to actively participate in politics, he was nevertheless highly and honorable promoted.  He served his township as Justice of the Peace, and from Dec. 6, 1824, to Dec. 6, 1824, to Dec. 5, 1825, he was a member of the Ohio Legislature, having been re-elected in 1830, and serving to 1831, Dec. 5.  He was Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1831, and performed

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his duties in this position, as well as in the various others to which he has been elevated by his fellow citizens, with ability, and with credit to himself and those who honored him in the promotion.  He was a member of the Presbyterian church, in the faith of which he died.  He was an agreeable, sociable and intelligent man, characterized by great benevolence, whose hospitality was conspicuous, and whose charities were ever extended to the poor and friendless.  He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and aided in supplying provisions to the army of General Harrison at Fort Meigs, his wagon on one occasion standing in the woods, loaded with flour, on what is now known as the Robison Hill, on the south of the Little Killback.
     Mr. Robison had the following children: William, Mary, David, Ann, Margaret, James, Margery, John and William Robison.  Margaret, James, John and William are the only survivors.  James Robison married Catharine Weaver, was a Captain in the late war, and is now residing in Bellefontaine, Ohio.  JOHN ROBISON was married to M. C. Silvers, of Plain township, Feb. 1, 1857; is a farmer, a man of means, solid and reliable, a first-class citizen, a kind, clever and accommodating neighbor.

     Frederick Rice, his grandfather bearing the same name, was born in Pennsylvania, 1760, and served under General Washington, at Valley Forge, Trenton, etc., having been in the army five years.  He was married to a Miss Lauffer, of Westmoreland county, and had ten children, all of whom are dead.  He removed to Wayne county in 1812, and settled upon the farm where David Firestone lives, near the old Robison farm, south of Wooster, where he lived until his death, in 1850.  Christian Rice, his son, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1793, and immigrated to Wayne county about a year after his father, and was married to Charlotte Hine, of his native county.  On his arrival he settled near Tylertown, on a farm which had been entered by his father, subsequently, and in 1819, buying the farm on which his son Frederick lives, for $600.  His death occurred Jan. 17, 1852, his wife dying Feb. 16, 1859.  He had ten children, was a good citizen, and long a member of the Lutheran church.  His son Frederick, a grandson of Frederick, whose name he bears, was born Mar. 14, 1815, and removed to this county with his father.  He is now the owner of several of the most beautiful farms in Wayne county, and is an industrious, worthy, influential and valuable citizen.  He was married Mar. 5, 1840, to Diantha Firestone, and has had twelve children.

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NOTES:
* A number of these would be in Ashland county now.

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