KNOX COUNTY OHIO - Norton's History of Knox County [Chapter XXXV] ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Dave Ketterer Ketterer@empireone.net September 1, 2002 ************************************************ A History of Knox County, Ohio, From 1779 to 1862 Inclusive: Comprising Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes and incidents of men connected with the county from its first settlement: Together with complete lists of the senators, representatives, sherriffs, auditors, commissioners, treasurers, judges, justices of the peace, and other officers of the county, also of those who have served in a military capacity from its first organization to the present time, and also a sketch of Kenyon College, and other institutions of learning and religion within the county. By A. Banning Norton. Columbus: Richard Nevins, Printer. 1862 Entered according to the act of Congress in the year 1862 by A. Banning Norton, In the Clerk’s office of the Southern District of Ohio. ____________________________________________ CHAPTER XXXV. LIBERTY TOWNSHIP. This township, as at present bounded, was created March 9, 1825, and, in a spirit of freedom, styled Liberty. in 1830, it contained 553 inhabitants in 1840, 1,205; in 1850, 1,320; and in 1860, 1,251. Mt. Liberty contains about 150 inhabitants. It occupies all elevated position, and being situated upon the State road to the capital, and in the heart of a productive country on Dry Creek, it has been a place of considerable business. It was by T. G. Plumer, and laid out by Samuel Thatcher and George Beardshear, Oct. 8, 1835. It has two stores, kept by E.D. Bryant and Judson Hildreth; a grocery by Daniel Veatch ; a tavern, by John Thompson ; two cabinet shops by S. Wilson and by J. W Jackson and C. K. Lineweaver; two mantuamakers, Miss Samantha Severe and Miss Mary Veatch ; the carpenters are John Inscho, Arthur Pratt, Joseph Crosby : shoemakers, Jas. Cleghorn, Wm. Cleghorn, Philip Crable ; wagonmakers, J. A. Mostetler, David and George Mosteller, and Daniel Burkholder; two mills are run by Youngblood and Weller, and Peter Shafer. There are two churches, Methodist and Disciple. The Higginses, Coyles, Humphreys, Severes, Carerys, Hollisters, Magoons and Gearharts are among the earliest in this section, and their descendants are quite numerous The most extensive families are the Brickers, Lewises, Ewalts and Rineharts. Of the old stock we shall give a brief account; as to the new, their name is "legion," and it would be too prolix for the general reader did we attempt to sketch them. Lewis Bricker, Sr., of Greene county. Pa., had a very large family, and determined to distribute them in i the western country, where lands were cheap and he could provide them with farms. Accordingly he bought 1,600 acres of land in this new country, and started the elder membbers of his family to it in the spring of 1810. Of the number were Peter Bricker, and George Lewis, his brother-in-law. They came out to this wilderness region, camped one night, and the next morning hitched in their teams, and by noon were on their way back. They reported the country wild, and they did not believe it ever would be settled They saw many Indians, and heard the owls too -whooping and the wolves howling all night ; and unaccustomed to these things. they agreed with their wives to let the land go to the devil before they would risk their lives and their children in the Owl Creek regions, which they believed to be the next thing to if not quite the infernal regions. Their father, accustomed to frontier life, and knowing also the value of lands in this country determined in the fall to make another effort at a settlement. Accordingly he sent another delegation of his tribe, and continued the work until he got into this township the following children : Peter, George, John, Jacob, David, Solomon, Lewis, Catharine, Rachel and Mrs. George Lewis, who have in their own time peopled the wilderness region, felled the forest trees and cultivated the ground, multiplying the original by the double rule of three." Peter Bricker had a dozen children, and George Lewis sixteen; George Bricker eight; John Bricker, who came about a year later, Jacob. who came about 1813, five ; David came about 1817, and had six; Solomon came out the same year, and added eleven children; ; Lewis came in 1819, he had six ; Catharine married John Conkle about 1827, and had six children; Rachel married John Pruner, and had seven. All of the original Brickers remarried in Liberty, except David, who is in Morgan township. George Lewis is dead. Of his sixteen children, eleven are living, viz,: Jacob, John, George, Isaac, Ben, Peter, Solomon, Sarah, wife of Alex. Craig, Phebe, Susannah Gardner, and Rachel Burkholder. The children of old George recollect when their father went to Shrimplin's mill With a grist of corn, and left his wife and family alone, with nothing to eat and the Indians prowled about the premises, and they feared they would not be found alive on his return. Joseph Shaw, Zach. and Bazil White, John Hobbs, with their families, emigrated from Western Pennsylvania about 1834, and the Tarrs, Coleses. Crafts, and other good families have followed them and the Greater portion of those in the "Wolf Settlement," so styled for Christopher Wolf, Esq., are from the same locality Between two of the old settlers there grew up a quarrel in 1815, and a lawsuit ensued before James Smith, J. P. The Reverend James, by practice as well as profession, a peace-maker, proposed that the parties should have a friendly talk, and settle the difficulty without recourse to law. Accordingly they sat down on a log and Solomon Shaffer began in his broken pronunciation—"Now Mr. Lyingbarger" "sthop," cries George Lybarger, in an angry tone "my name is not Lyingbarger, but Lybarger, by G----, do you wish to insult me, Shaffer?" "My name is not Shaffer, but Shaffer, don't call me Shaffer, or tammed if I don't knock you down,"—and the parties sprung at each other, when James commanded the peace in the iiame of the State, and the difficulty between the belligerent old dutchmen had to be settled by the law at last. SUCCESSIVE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. 1822. Frederick Carey. 1844. Christopher Wolf. 1825. Frederick Carey. 1850. Christopher Wolf. 1828. Francis Wilkins 1853. Christopher Wolf. 1831. Francis Wilkins 1856. A. Dalrymple. 1831. Christopher Wolf. 1846. John Inscho. 1833. Christopher Wolf. 1849. John Inscho. 1837. Luther Hill. 1852. James Severe. 1837. Joseph Suaw. 1855. James Severe. 1839. W. E. Davidson. 1858. James Severe. 1842. W. E. Davidson. 1858. J. H. Tarr. 1842. Win. Oram. 1861. J. H. Tarr. 1842. Joseph Shaw. 1861. Arthur Pratt. 1847. Christopher Wolf.