HOLMES COUNTY
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Holmes County
was formed January 20, 1824, and organized the next year. It was named from Major HOLMES, a
gallant young officer of the war of 1812, who was killed in the unsuccessful
attack upon Mackinac, under Col. CROGHAN, August 4, 1814. Fort Holmes at Mackinac was also named
from him.
Area about 420 square miles. In 1887 the acres
cultivated were 99,862; in pasture, 111,913; woodland, 50,474; lying waste,
2,919; produced in wheat, 462,252 bushels; rye, 6,145; buckwheat, 1,096; oats,
553,489; barley, 898; corn, 554,491; broom corn, 1,200 lbs. brush; meadow hay,
23,882 tons; clover hay, 11,440; potatoes, 56,161 bushels; tobacco, 955 lbs.;
butter, 499,561; cheese, 197,623; sorghum, 870 gallons; maple syrup, 5017;
honey, 5,505 lbs.; eggs, 550,828 dozen; grapes, 19,550 lbs.; wine, 317 gallons;
apples, 24,153 bush.;
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peaches, 24,153; pears, 1,110; wool, 211,529 lbs.; milch
cows owned, 6,868. School census, 1888, 7,029; teachers, 171. Miles of railroad track, 47.
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
|
Townships And Census |
1840 |
1880 |
Berlin, |
1,151 |
1,378 |
|
Paint, |
1,361 |
1,381 |
German, |
1,281 |
1,517 |
|
Prairie, |
1,347 |
1,462 |
Hardy, |
1,985 |
3,230 |
|
Richland, |
1,088 |
1,463 |
Killbuck, |
906 |
1,375 |
|
Ripley, |
1,279 |
1,359 |
Knox, |
1,178 |
1,005 |
|
Salt Creek, |
1,730 |
1,494 |
Mechanic, |
1,400 |
1,271 |
|
Walnut Creek, |
1,000 |
1,371 |
Monroe, |
898 |
1,054 |
|
Washington, |
1,457 |
1,416 |
Population of
Holmes in 1830 was 9,123; 1840, 18,061; 1860, 20,589; 1880, 20,766; of whom
17,436 were born in Ohio, 1,345 in Pennsylvania, 105 in Indiana, 96 in
Virginia, 74 in New York, 2 in Kentucky, 782 in German Empire, 177 in France,
71 in Ireland, 45 in England and Wales, 9 in Scotland, 5 in British America,
and 18 in Sweden and Norway. Census, 1890, 21,139.
The following
historical and descriptive sketch of Holmes county and
of Millersburg, the county-seat, was carefully prepared by one of its venerable
citizens, Mr. G. F. NEWTON, of Millersburg. It being more full
than that in our first edition we substitute it.
The territory
included within the county of Holmes was taken from the counties of Wayne,
Coshocton and Tuscarawas: from Wayne, 87,440 acres, from Coshocton, 162,200
acres, and from Tuscarawas, 16,200 acres; total area,
267,840. A line running diagonally
through the county from east-northeast to west-southwest, commonly known as the
“Indian Boundary” line, separates the United States military
district and the Indian reservation (new purchase).
The territory
north of this line was surveyed into townships of six miles square, and again
into sections of 640 acres. That
south of said line is surveyed into townships of five miles square, and again
into quarter townships of 4,000 acres. Some of these quarter townships were
again divided into 100 acre lots for the private soldiers of 1776. Within this county 480 of these 100 acre
lots were given to the soldiers of the Revolutionary war. Six of the 4,000 acre
tracts of land were set apart as schools-land for the Connecticut Western
Reserve and subsequently sold at public sale. The remainder of this territory was
surveyed into sections of 640 acres and sold at private entry at Zanesville.
The valley of Killbuck river passes
from north to south through the centre of the county; the valley is deep and
adjoining hills high and steep. On each side of the river, seven to nine miles
distant, is a high ridge of land, separating its waters from those of the
Mohican and Tuscarawas. From the
valley to the hilltops are innumerable springs of pure water, many of them very
strong, which in their rapid descent to the river furnish good water-power.
In the
northwest corner of the country is Odell’s
Lake, a beautiful body of pure water, in places thirty feet deep. It is half a mile broad, two miles long,
and abounds in fish. It furnishes
water-power sufficient to run a large flouring mill. The P. Ft. W. & C. R. R. has
constructed a station on the north side of this lake. Since then it has become a popular place
of resort for pleasure and fishing parties.
All the valleys
of this county are very productive when properly cultivated, and those of
Paint, Martin’s and Doughty’s creeks are
wide and beautiful. The chief
productions are wheat, corn, oats, hay, sheep, cattle and horses. Taking into consideration its size,
Holmes is hardly surpassed by any county in the State for its productions of
wheat and fine horses.
The
southwest part of the county is quite broken and hilly; yet its immense
quarries of brown, white and blue limestone, coal and other minerals,
make it
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equally valuable with other parts. Coal has been successfully mined in
every township of the county and in some of them extensively.
FIRST SETTLEMENT.
In July, 1809,
Jonathan GRANT, of Beaver county, Pa., and his son,
then a boy, built the first cabin in the county. They came on foot through the woods,
carrying a gun, ammunition and tools for doing their work. Their cabin was on Salt creek, in Prairie
township, about one mile east of the Killbuck. They made a clearing and sowed a large patch for
turnips. GRANT then fell sick, and
for twenty-eight days lay on a bed of bark and leaves, and subsisted chiefly on
roots, attended only by his son. He
became reduced to a skeleton, and the boy was but little better.
An Indian
passing along the valley discovered the cabin and stopped. He told GRANT that “Pale
Face” and his family were encamped in the Killbuck
valley, at a big spring, and pointed the direction. The boy went and in a short time
returned with Jonathan BUTLER, who had, with his father-in-law, James MORGAN,
reached the valley the day previous.
Through the
timely assistance of BUTLER, GRANT soon recovered and became of much service to
his new acquaintances. GRANT could speak the Indian language, and was with the
surveyors as their “lookout” while surveying the “new
purchase,” and knew all about the country, as well as being a great
hunter. His patch of turnips turned
out abundantly and of excellent quality, and proved of much service that fall
and next spring. GRANT did not
return home to his family in Pennsylvania until cold weather.
In April, 1810,
Edwin MARTIN, then John L. DAWSON, David and Robert KNOX, settled on
Martin’s creek, about one mile south of Grant’s cabin. A few days later a dozen or more
families settled in that neighborhood, Grant’s among them. Settlements were commenced on the east
end of this county–then Tuscarawas–along the valleys of Walnut and
Sugar creeks, in 1809-10, by the TROYERS, HOCHTELLERS, WEAVERS, MILLERS, DOMERS,
BERGERS and others: also on Doughty, the CARPENTERS and MORRISONS. In 1810-11 Peter CASEY and others
settled on the Killbuck, near Millersburg; and
Abraham SHRIMLIN farther south on Shrimlin creek.
Peter SHIMER, Jacob KORN, Thomas EDGAR and others, near Berlin; and the
FINNEYS, MACKEY, HEVELANDS and others, in what is now Monroe township, then in
Coshocton county. In 1810-11 the
PRIESTS, BONNETS, NEWKIRKS, DRAKES and QUICKS settled in the valley of Mohican,
then Wayne county.
In 1812 the
settlers fearing the Indians built a block-house on the DAWSON land, half a
mile east of Holmesville; but the Indians not
becoming troublesome it was used but a short time. Col. CRAWFORD on his unfortunate
campaign crossed the Killbuck north of Holmes, and
camped at night near the “big spring,” May 30, 1781; there one of
his men died that night, and his burial-place was marked on a beech-tree near
by. At this spring Jonathan BUTLER
settled, and February 4, 1810, his daughter Hannah was born. The spring is
known as the first burial and first birth-place of white persons in the county.
On the
organization of the county the associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas
appointed were: Peter CASEY, William HUTCHINSON and George LUKE. They met at Millersburg, February 18,
1825, and organized the court. They
appointed James S. IRVINE clerk of court and county recorder, and Samuel
ROBINSON county surveyor. They also
issued a proclamation for an election to ensue April 4th, for the
necessary township and county officers, whereby Daniel HUTCHINSON was elected
sheriff; Anson WHEATON, coroner; Seth HUNT, auditor; for county commissioners,
David I. FINNEY, Griffith JOHNSON and Frederick HALL. The commissioners at their June term organized
the county into townships, which remain unchanged.
Millersburg in 1846.–Millersburg, the county-seat, is
situated on elevated
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ground, surrounded by lofty hills, on Killbuck creek, eighty-seven miles northeast of Columbus,
and about seventy south of Cleveland.
It was laid out in 1824, by Charles MILLER and Adam JOHNSON, and public
lots sold on the 4th of June of that year. There had been previously, a quarter of
a mile north, a town of the same name, laid out about the year 1816. The names recollected of the first
settlers in the village are Seth HUNT, Colonel William PAINTER, Samuel S.
HENRY, George STOUT, Samuel C. M’DOWELL, R. K. ENOS, Jonathan KORN, John
SMURR, John GLASGOW, Thomas HOSKINS, James WITHROW, James
M’KENNAN–the first lawyer in Holmes, and James S. IRVINE, the first
physician in the same. A short time
previous to the sale three houses were erected. The first was a frame, on the northeast
corner of Jackson and Washington streets; the second, a frame, on the northeast
corner of Washington and Adams streets; and the last, a log, on the site of S.
C. BEAVER’S residence. The Seceder church, the first built, was erected in 1830, and
the Methodist Episcopal in 1833.
The village was laid out in the forest, and in 1830 the population
reached to 320. About fourteen
years since, on a Sunday afternoon, a fire broke out in the frame house on the
corner of Washington and Adams streets, and destroyed a large part of the
village. Among the buildings burned
were the court-house and jail, which were of log, the first standing on the
northeast corner of the public square, and the other a few rods south of
it. Millersburg contains 1
Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal Methodist, 1 Lutheran and 1 Seceder
church, 2 newspaper printing-offices, 10 dry-goods and 3 grocery stores, 1
foundry, 1 grist-mill, and had, in 1846, 673 inhabitants.–Old Edition.
MILLERSBURG is
eighty-three miles northeast of Columbus and eighty-four miles south of
Cleveland, on the C. A. & C. Railroad.
Newspapers: Holmes County Farmer,
Democratic, NEWTON & BARTON, editors and proprietors; Holmes County Republican, Republican, WHITE & CUNNINGHAM,
proprietors. Churches: 1 Catholic,
1 Disciples, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 German Reformed, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Presbyterian. Banks: Commercial, Robert LONG, president,
John E. KOCH, Jr., cashier; L. Mayer’s Exchange, C. R. MAYER, cashier; J.
& G. Adams, A. C. ADAMS, cashier.
County Officers, 1888: Auditor, Edwin A. UHL; Clerk, Jacob J. STROME;
Commissioners, Jacob SCHMIDT, Philip PETRY, Henry SHAFER; Coroner, John A.
GONSER; Infirmary Directors, Edward E. OLMSTEAD, Joseph GEISINGER, John
MCCLELLAND; Probate Judge, Richard W. TANEYHILL; Prosecuting Attorney, Samuel
N. SCHWARTZ; Recorders, Theodore H. THOME, Jacob B. LEPLEY; Sheriff, William S.
TROYER; Surveyor, William S. HANNA; Treasurers, A. B. RUDY, Samuel
ANDERSON. City Officers, 1888:
Mayor, John P. LARIMER; Clerk, J. G. WALKUP; Treasurer, Allen G. SPRANKLE;
Marshal, John E. ALBERTSON.
Manufacturers and Employees.–GRAY & ADAMS, planing
mill, 4 hands; Henry SNYDER, tiles, etc., 12; MAXWELL, HECKER & POMERENE,
flour, etc., 10.–State Report,
1888. Population
in 1880, 1,814. School census, 1888, 590; John A. MCDOWELL, superintendent. Census, 1890, 1,923.
The county has
had three court-houses and three jails. The first of these were constructed of
wood and burned in 1834; these were replaced by brick structures, since taken
down to give place to the present buildings. The present court-house, completed in
1886, is all of stone, in three colors–white, blue and gray–taken
from quarries within the county.
For beauty and durability they are unsurpassed by any in the State. In the county are ten thriving villages,
all having good schools, churches, stores and various mechanical shops.
The
county has fifteen school districts, 106 well-built school-houses, many of them
having large grounds with trees, vines and flowers; eleven of them with two or
more departments, and sixty-one comfortable frame, brick or stone churches, and
about as many more worshipping congregations meet in school-houses, which, if
the entire population of the county were at once to assemble, would give an
average of 120 attendants at each place.
Page 938
Top
Picture
Drawn by
Henry Howe in 1846
MILLERSBURG
Bottom
Picture
Ross
Hall, Millersburg, Photo, 1886
MILLERSBURG.
Each
of the views is take from the same point, forty years
apart in time.
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The first
newspaper published in the county, the Millersburg
Gazette, was printed June 9, 1828.
It was Democratic in politics, and as such had a continuous publication
as the official paper of the county.
In 1840 its name was changed to Holmes
County Farmer, which name it still bears. It is now published by D. G. NEWTON and
L. G. BARTON; the former has been connected with its publication thirty-three
years. In 1835 an opposition paper,
the Holmes County Whig, was
started. It had many suspensions,
revivals and changes of name. In
1870 Messrs. WHITE & CUNNINGHAM became proprietors of the Holmes County Republican. Under their management it has been more
prosperous, and has had a continuous publication.
The foregoing
includes all of Mr. Newton’s article. We here remark that the two views of
Millersburg were taken from the same point.
The new
court-houses, through Central Ohio more especially, are elegant structures, in
which the people of their respective counties have a just affection and pride,
for with them cluster the associations connected with the protection of society
through the administration of law, the preservation of titles to the savings of
honest industry in the form of real estate and its proper distribution to the
widow and the fatherless. The
church, the court-house and the school-house are the three prime factors of our
civilization.
For our
original account of the historical facts connected with this place and its
vicinity we were indebted to Dr. Robert K. ENOS, whose acquaintance we made on
our first visit. We substituted the
article of Mr. NEWTON (excepting the old description of Millersburg), because
it embodied the same facts with important additions. Dr. ENOS died here September 13, 1884,
after living a long and highly useful life. He was born in Hanover, Washington county, Pennsylvania, January 7, 1806, and came to this
county April 24, 1824. He was one
of the leading men in the organization of the county and town; was the oldest
inhabitant of Millersburg; cut down the first trees within its limits,
preparatory to laying it out; planted the first ornamental shade-trees; practised medicine with the first physician of Millersburg,
Dr. James S. IRVINE, until his death–thirty-one years; started with him
the first bank, and was its cashier; was the first mayor of Millersburg; was
twenty-one years clerk of court, and was the chief instrument in bringing the
first railroad to the town.
In politics he
was an ardent Republican, and, in what his friends took especial pride, as a
delegate to the Chicago Convention of 1860, he was one of the memorable Ohio
four who in that Convention brought about the nomination of Abraham
LINCOLN. The circumstances
connected with the change of votes which gave this result were published the
next morning in the Chicago Tribune,
under the caption of
The Four Votes.–“During
the progress of the third ballot for President, the steady increase of LINCOLN’s vote raised the expectations of his friends
to fever-heat that he was about to receive the nomination. When the roll-call was completed a hasty
footing discovered that LINCOLN lacked but 2½ votes of election, the
ballot standing, for LINCOLN, 331½; SEWARD, 180; scattering, 34½;
necessary to a choice 334.
Before the vote was
announced, Mr. R. M. CORWINE, of the Ohio delegation, who had voted for
Governor CHASE up to that time, and three other delegates, viz., R. K. ENOS,
John A. GURLEY and Isaac STEESE, changed their votes to LINCOLN, giving him a
majority of the whole convention and nominating him. D. H. CARRTER, chairman of
the Ohio delegation, announced the change of votes, and before the secretaries
had time to foot up and announce the result, whereupon a deafening roar of
applause arose from the immense multitude, such as had never been equalled on the American continent, nor since the day that
the walls of Jericho were blown down.”
Mr. ENOS, being a quick
accountant, had kept a tally of the vote, and discovered before any one else
that Mr. LINCOLN lacked but 2½ votes; whereupon he disclosed his
knowledge to the three others, and at his request they joined him in the vote
for Mr. Lincoln.
Dr. ENOS left a wife,
three sons and two daughters. One
son in California died in 1889; another, Henry, is of the prominent Wall street banking firm of H. K. Enos
& Co.
The
original settlers of this county were mainly from Pennsylvania, Maryland and
Virginia; also among them were some Swiss Germans.
Page 940
“In the
eastern part is an extensive settlement of Dunkards,
who originated from eastern Pennsylvania, and speak the German language. They
are excellent farmers, and live in a good, substantial style. The men wear long beards and
shad-bellied coats, and use hooks and eyes instead of buttons. The females are
attired in petticoats and short gowns, caps without frills, and when doing
out-door labor, instead of bonnets, wear broad-brimmed hats.”–Old Edition.
The
Pennsylvania emigration to Ohio was the greatest from any State; and this
particularly applies to Holmes and all the central part, the great wheat belt,
of the State. And we think
Washington county, Pa., more than from any other
single county, anywhere, helped to populate Ohio. As late as 1846–47 about
one-quarter of the members of the Ohio Legislature were natives of
Pennsylvania, exceeding the members born in any other State, or all the New
England States combined, or were born in Ohio itself. Pennsylvania strongly
gave its impress upon the judicial history of Ohio.
On Tuesday, August 31,
1880, was held at “Ingles Sugar Grove,” near Millersburg, what was
termed the PENNSYLVANIA PICNIC. It
consisted of all persons born in Pennsylvania then residents of the town and
vicinity; these, with their families, attended to the number of about 200. The counties strongest represented were
Washington, Cumberland, Allegheny and Somerset; then Beaver, Lancaster and
Lebanon. In all sixteen counties were
represented. The day was given up to social pleasure and enjoyment. The Normal School String Band supplied
the music. At noon all partook of a
sumptuous basket-dinner in “regular old-fashioned Pennsylvania
style.” We annex a list of
the Keystone State representatives, mostly heads of families:
Elias KLOPP and wife,
Lucinda H. ROBINSON, Mary G. BARTON, Mrs. Frances LONG, Robert LONG, John
BROWN, James HEBRON, Mrs. E. A. HEBRON, John PATTERSON, Robert JUSTICE,
Catherine JUSTICE, R. K. ENOS, Mrs. T. B. CUNNINGHAM, Mrs. H. M. CUNNINGHAM,
Miss Caddie SHATTUCK, Fred SHATTUCK, Mrs. W. K. DUER, Mrs. E. J. DUER, Aaron
UHLER, Mrs. Mary BOWMAN, J. M. BOWMAN, Mrs. B. C. SHOUP, Wm. C. MCDOWELL, Hosack REED, Mrs. Susan B. INGLES, Mrs. Leah HITES, Andrew
INGLES, Aaron DEVORE, E. H. HULL, Mrs. Elizabeth ACKAMIRE, A. B. RUDY, John
COFFEE, James HAINES, Thomas J. ARNOLD, James HULL, Mrs. Thomas P. UHL, Robert
PARKINSON, John I. SPENCER, Richard HULTZ, A. J. KERR, James TIDBALL, James T.
FORGERY, Mrs. C. E. VOORHEES, John F. HUDSON, Mrs. Harvey TAYLOR, Mrs. Martha
DOUGLAS, Mrs. David MCDONALD, Mrs. A. B. MCDONALD, Mrs. Ann Maria NEDROW, Harry
DAVIS, Mrs. Eliza HANNA, Mrs. Jane MCMURRAY, Mrs. Margaret HULTZ, John HANNA,
George HANNA, Mrs. Frank MARTIN, Mrs. Delila HAINES,
Mrs. Elizabeth UHL, Mrs. Harriet PARKINSON, Mrs. Malvina
WOLGAMOT, Mrs. E. LEMMON, Mrs. Jane KIRBY, Mrs. William WALKUP, Mrs. Mary
DONALD, Mrs. Maria E. CRUMP, Mrs. Rachel SPENCER, Mrs. R. K. ENOS.
This county has
a good military record, and in front of the court-house is a handsome
soldiers’ monument, shown in our engraving. Among her early settlers were soldiers
of the Revolution and the war of 1812, and in the civil war she supplied her
full quota. The good name of the
county has suffered by an occurrence called “The Holmes County
Rebellion,” the theatre of which was in Richland, the southwest corner
township, a region of hills. It arose in June, 1863, from difficulties met with
by the enrolling officer preparatory to a draft for the army. It was reported to Governor TOD that the
malcontents were in large force, were in a regular fortified camp, with
pickets, entrenchments and cannon.
He accordingly issued a proclamation for them to disperse, and sent 420 soldiers,
mainly from Camp Chase, with a section of a battery, under Colonel
WALLACE. On June 17th
they landed at Lake Station, in the western part of the county, remained a few
days and then returned. A few
arrests were made and a few persons indicted for resisting the United States
authorities; but with a single exception the indictments were all nolled. It was
a time of intense excitement, just at the opening of the Vallandigham
campaign. The air was full of rumors and it was nearly impossible even at that
time to obtain correct details; what we possess is so contradictory that we
conclude that any further investigation would yield no satisfaction.
KILLBUCK
is six miles southwest of Millersburg, on the C. A. & C. R. R. It has 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1
Disciples’ church. School census, 1888, 142.
Page 941
WINESBURGH is
fourteen miles northeast of Millersburg.
It has 1 German Lutheran Reformed church. School census, 1888,
163.
HOLMESVILLE,
six miles north of Millersburg, on C. & A. R. R.
BERLIN, seven
miles east of Millersburg, has 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Presbyterian church. Population about 250.
BLACK
CREEK, on C. A. & C. R. R., twelve miles west of Millersburg Population
about 250.
NASHVILLE is
eleven miles northwest of Millersburg.
Population about 300.
Lakeville
Station, P. O. Plimpton, Farmerstown,
New Carlisle P. O., Walnut Creek, are small villages