OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 48D ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 24, 2005 ************************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid Bits - Part 48 D. by Darlene E. Kelley Notes by S. Kelly Adams Cty Historical Society. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - Part 48 D. Adams Cty. Sprigg Township Sprigg Township was organized in 1806 and named in honor of Judge William Sprigg, one of the pioneer lawyers of Adams County, and afterwards a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Sprigg Township lies in the southwest corner of Adams County, bordering the Ohio River on the south and Huntington Township, Brown County on the west. It is in the blue limestone belt. In te northwest portion, Suck Run, a rapid, rough little stream flows to the west and enters Eagle Creek, just over the Brown County Line. Rising near the northern portion and flowing to the southwest aross it is Big Three Mile, the largest stream in the township. Little Three Mile rises near the center of the township and flows to the southwest into the Ohio River. Isaac Creek, named from the first settler on it, Isaac Edgington, takes its beginning near Bentonville and flows south into th Ohio to the west of Manchester. Island Creek, a small stream named from theThree Islands at its mouth, forms a portion of the eastern boundary of this township, entering the Ohio River a short distance above Manchester. The first settlers in what is now Sprigg Township were Isaac Edgington, George Edgington, William Leedom ( son-in-law of George Edgington, who settled near Bentonville in 1796); Peter Connor and William Robinson, who kept a tavern on the old Zane Trace, settled on land purchased from Andrew Ellison near Bradyville the same year; and the " Dutch Settlement" on Dutch Run was made by Michael Roush, Philip Roush, John Bryan, Peter Pence, John Pence and George Cook in 1796. The Roush and Pence families lived in Manchester and raised a crop of corn on the Lower Island in 1795. Van S. Brady ( a son of Captain Brady, the noted Indian Scout ), Joseph Beam, Peter Rankin, John Stivers, Samuel Sterritt, Daniel Henderson, John McColm, Ellis Palmer and Thomas Palmer were among the pioneers of this portion of Adams County. >From local News; A Mysterious Murder In the autumn of 1867, Sanford Phillips, a notorious and dissolute character, about forty five years of age, was murdered in broad daylight within a few rods of the old schoohouse in the north part of the village of Bentonville, while school was in session, and persons passing up and down the street; and yet the crime was not discovered until hours after it was committed. Phillips had gained control over Lydia Purdin, a young girl of seventeen years, daughter of a widow named Susan Purdin, and paid visits to her home when Mrs Purdin and her son. a boy in his teens, were absent. But Lydia Purdin at heart despised Phillips, and on occasions bestowed her smiles upon a young man named Burbage, living in the vicinity. This so enraged Phillips, who was insanely jealous, that he at one time gave young Burbage a severe beating, and threatened vengence on the entire Burbage family. One December morning, Phillips rode into the village, hitched his horse at the Pudin residence, and entered the house. It is said that Mrs. Purdin and her son were not at home at the time, and that Lydia left the house about noon for an hour or more to call on a neighbor. In the middle of the afternoon, she came running from her home screaming " There is a man in the house with his head nearly cut off!" People soon began gathering around the house and found Phillips lying in a pool of blood, murdered. He had been struck two fatal blows with an axe, one with the blade across the forehead, and the other on his neck, thus half severing the head from the body. He had seemingly been sitting on a chair when assulted, and when discovered, had been dead fr several hours. Lydia Purdin was arrested for the crime, and although the circumstancial evidence was against her, yet popular feeling in the community was so bitter against Phillips that she was not convicted. +++++++++++++ A Murder near Clayton In the days of flatboating on the Ohio, the locality known as Clayton had an unsavory reputation. It was the headquarters of many river characters, and drinking, card playing, and cockfighting was their pastime while awaiting passage to New Orleans. A pack peddler, who made regular trips to this community, very mysteriously disappeared from town. As he had no fixed place of domicile known to the people, the matter of his disappearance from the neighborhood was discussed and then almost completely forgotten, when a rough character named Goddard Pence displayed some laces and other artifacts, such as was carried by the peddler; and offered them in exchange for whiskey and tobacco at the little grocery store and saloon at Clayton. Suspicion at once pointed to him as having something to do with the peddler's disappearance. Pence was watched, and was seen to go to a hollow tree and take from it other artifacts as the peddler had upon his person. Pence was not arrested but a search was made for the body of the Peddler, from which search a body was never recovered. Another character named Bill Cook was suspected of having some hand in the affair, in which afterward he said that he ad been "playing drunk" and watched Pence burn the body of a man in an old cabin on the old Pence farm. After some investigation by the local authorities, the matter was dropped for good, and Goddard Pence ( whether guilty or innocent), lived to be a very old man, dying in the Brown Infirmary. He was gray and stooped, suffering with rheumatism and the infirmities of old age. He had been a most powerful man; over six feet tall, raw boned and muscular, and with a " fist like a maul." Few men were of his match in a fight. It is tradition that he and old Aaron Bowman cradled, bound and shocked ten acres of wheat in one day, and drank two gallons of whiskey doing it. ++++++++++++++ Palmer Kills Indian Ellis Palmer, a pioneer of Adams County, came from Pennsylvania to Limestone at 1790. He and John Gunsaulus, or as he was called, and the name so written in many of the old land and road surveys of Adams County, " King Sawley," were noted hunters. They spent their time hunting in the region including what is Adams and Brown Counties, before any permanent settlements were made there. Both were active, strong men, and loved the chase as well as any Indian. They never owned any lands but " squatted " on choice spots near the haunts of the bear and deer. Palmer, when a lad, had seen an elder brother of his, cruelly scalped by the saages, and when he grew large enough to handle a rifle, he pushed to the frontier to seek revenge and many a red man has passed to the " happy hunting grounds" through the uneering aim of his rifle. It is related that after peace had been declared, the whites were beginning to rear their cabins on the north bank of the Ohio, an Indian came to the vacinity of Ellis Lick, named for Palmer, and he, learning of the presence of the Indian, lay in waiting for him and killed him with his rifle. He was convicted and sentenced for this Indian murder. Descendants of Palmer and Gunsaulus are scattered throughout Adams and Brown Counties. Some Sprigg villages; Bentonville was laid out by Joseph Leedom in 1839, and named for Senator Thomas Benton, of Missouri. It is the largest village in the Sprigg Township. Bradysville is a small village of perhaps 75 inhabitants and was named by its founder, Van S. Brady, who laid out a few lots there in 1839. Tiffin Township Tiffin Township was organized in 1806, and was named in honor of Edward Tiffin, Ohio's first ( and one of her wisest ) Governors. Joseph Eyler built the the first cabin in Tiffen Township where he afterwards made is home near Killistown, in the winter of 1795. The Eyler farm of 300 acres was later owned by John Crawford, Samuel McFeeters and Sandy Craigmile. When Rev. James B. Finley passed over Tod's Trace from Limestone to Chillicothe with his father's cattle and negroes in 1796, he noted the fact that there was a cabin near where the town of West Union now stands, built by Mr. Oiler, but no one lived in it. Daniel Collier, about this time, selected a site for his future home on one of the most beautiful terraces along Ohio Brush Creek, known to this day as the " Collier " farm. Just below him on the creek was Duncan McKenzie. Andrew Ellison took up his residence on Lick Fork near the old stone house which he built in 1798, where the town of Waterford was laid out. Richard Harrison, about the same time, located at Waterford and kept a tavern there. John Treber built a cabin in 1796 a half mile farther down Lick Fork where the old tavern buildng yet stands, and Peter Shoemaker, Simon Shoemaker, John Shepherd and Thomas Davis located nearby on Ohio Brush Creek. Job Dinning, John Killin, Jacob Piatt, James Ralston, and Adam Hempleman located in the vacinity of Killinstown. Simon Fields settled farther east on Brush Creek. George Harper and James Collins, James January and Robert McClanahan located near West Union. West Union was the county seat of Adams County and was estabished by act of the Legislature April 13, 1803. The act named Isaac Davis, John Evans, and James Menary as Commissioners to select a site for the new seat of Justice. They were required to make their report in duplicate: one to the Speaker of the Senate, Nathaniel Massie, and one to the Court of Common Pleas, which later were prohibited from expending any more money for public buildings until the seat of justice should be permanently located. On the 16th of Jan., 1804, the Commissioners having made their report, recommending a site about one-half mile south of Zane's Trace, on lands owned by Robert McClanahan, and near the central portion of the county, an act was passed to locate the county seat there permanently. The act provided for the purchase of the lands of McClanahan and others adjoining to an amount not exceeding 150 acres at eight dollars per acre, by the Associate Judges of the county, and to be paid out of the county treasury on their order. The title to said lands was to be vested in a Board of Trustees composed of Nathaniel Beasley, William Marshall, Salathiel Sparks, Aaron Moore, Benjamin Wood, William Collings and John Briggs. This board was required to apoint a clerk and surveyor, and to proceed to lay off lots with convenient streets for the new town to be named West Union, and to make and record a plat for same. Notice of the sale of lots was required to be published for thirty days in the Scioto Gazatte, of Chillicothe. The county commissioners were empowered to dispose of county property at Washington. When a number of lot owners reached thirty, they were required to meet and elect a new Board of Trustees to succeed the board appointed by the act. Members of the Board were elected annually therafter. The town proper stands upon one hundred acres purchased from Robert McClanahan for $760. What is known as Harper's Addition consisted of five acres north of Mulberry street, for which was paid the sum of one dollar. Priscilla Anderson sold five acres adjoining McClanahan's for $40, so that the original plat of West Union cost $801. It sold at the public sale of lots for $2,985. Wayne Township Wayne Township takes its name from " Mad Anthony " Wayne, the hero of Story Point and the conquerer of the Indians at " Fallen Timbers" in 1794. It was formed in 1806, and was one of the six townships into which the county at that time reorganized. It was originally included the territory now occupied by Oliver Scott and Winchester Townships. Samuel Wright, who came from Kentucky to Cherry Fork and erected a cabin on the Allison farm, just west of the present village of North Liberty, was the first settler within the present limits of Wayne Township, in March 1799. Here he lived and died, having reared a large family. In the year 1800, Adam Kirkpatrick came from Bourbon County, Kentucky, and settled on a farm owned by Catherine Liggett on Grace's Run. He married Rosanna Patton. In the same year, also came Joseph McNeil and his brother James and built cabins on Cherry Fork, about a mile southeast of the village of North Liberty. The next year Francis McClellan settled near the McNeil's, Then came James and William McKittrick on lands owned by Samuel Wright. In 1801, Robert Morrison settled near Eckmansville. James Smith came to the Nathan Plummer farm in 1802, and Robert Foster located on the Foster farm two miles southeast of North Liberty. In same year came, James Young, William Finley, James Finley, John McIntire, James Caskey. Thomas Wasson in 1805, Daniel Marfatt, William, Daiel, John, and James Ross came in 1806. Villages of Wayne Towship were; North Liberty, Youngsville, and Eckmansville. Samuel Wright built the first mill, a tub-wheel, about the year 1802, Robert Thomas erected a horse mill and later was supplanted by a water mill, and then a steam mill. It was this mill that Stephen McCormick, was mangled and killed by his clothing, becoming entangled in the belting of the machinery. The last black bear ever seen in this portion of Adams County was caught in a trap by Samuel Wright's boys about the year 1835, near the mouth of Grace's Run on Cherry Fork. It weighed nearly two hundred pounds after being skinned and dressed. Deer remained plentiful in this region. The oldest man living near Youngsville, was Joseph Smittle. He lived to be 106 years old, and in full pssession of his faculties, excepting his sight which was somewhat impaired. His hair was but streaked slightly with gray, and had the appearance of a well preserved man of not more than 75 years of age. He died from a fall from a run away horse. Winchester Township This is the northwestern township of Adams County. It borders Jackson Township, Brown County, on the west, and Concord Township, Highland County, on the north. It was organized Jan 02, 1838 from territory four by six miles, off the west side of Scott, and a strip two by four miles off the north end of Wayne Township. It contains something more than thirty two square miles or about 20,000 acres of land. Among the early settlers was Joel Bailey. As early as 1799, he had come to Adams County, and was one of the first court constables when Washington, at the mouth of the Ohio Brush Creek, was the seat of justice of the county. He afterwards, perhaps about 1805, settled on what is now the Roush farm at the junction of the Buck Run and Seaman pikes east of Winchester. Here he built a stillhouse and a horse mill. He reared a numerous family, descendants of which are scattered from the Alleghenies to the Pacific Coast. John McIntyre, Andrew Clemmer and Israel Rhodes were early settlers of Winchester. In the northern part of the Township are a number of small mounds, the work of prehistoric inhabitants of this region. Some of the larger ones have been partially explored by treasure-hunters but without success, only some fragments of human skeletons, and triffling trinkets of stone and shells having been found. Morgan's Raid took place here. But this is for another story later--- Winchester was laid out Nov 08, 1815 by Joseph Darlinton, and named by him for Winchester, Virginia, near which he was born and reared to man's estate. The original plat contained seventy lots. Afterwards, Joel Bailey laid off an addition of 82 lots, known as South Winchester. It was not incorporated until 1865 and had about 800 inhabitants. Joseph Eyler kept the first hotel on the southwest corner of South Street. James and Joseph Bailey opened the first store in a log building that stood on lot 44 in 1819. Dr. A.C. Lewis was the first resident physician. The first tannery in the village was owned by Joseph Eyler, and the first oil mill was built by Levi Sparks in 1830. Moses Patterson operated a carding mill and a steam flouring mill in 1851. These together with the tannery adjoining were burned in the fall of that year. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits continued in part 49.