Perry Township

 

Perry Township, according to The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio, was organized in 1812 from United States Military Lands. The Military Lands tract contained 2,539,111 acres in the central part of Ohio, set aside by Congress to compensate men who served in the regular army (not the militia) during the Revolutionary War. The north half of Muskingum County lies within this tract of land. 

It's said that the township is named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who led American forces to a resounding victory over the British at the Battle of Lake Erie on September 13, 1813. However, Commodore Perry, a Navy veteran with an honorable but undistinguished career until the Battle of Lake Erie, would have been unknown to the township's residents in 1812. Since there is almost information regarding the township's organization (no exact date of formation, no mention of the township's first officers), it's possible that the 1812 date is incorrect, or that the area was originally known by a different name, or that Perry was named for an early but forgotten resident. 

Romanticized painting of Commodore Perry
at the Battle of Lake Erie

James (aka Luke) Brown, Sr., considered to be Perry's first settler, opened the township's first tavern along Zane's Trace, which ran through the township, in 1802. Not long after, Isaac Prior established a second tavern on the Trace west of Brown's. In 1812, Brown's land on which his tavern was located, was platted as the town of Sonora.

A number of settlers came to the area between 1801-1812, many from western Pennsylvania. Within 10 years of Brown building his tavern, the area that would become Perry Township boasted a cemetery; a schoolhouse and teacher, Simon Merwin; a blacksmith, Jacob Wisecarver; and at least two sawmills and two gristmills along the Salt Creek built by Jacob Livingood and John Wartenbee. The Wesley Methodist Episcopal church was founded in 1808 and met in parishoners' home, but no church structure was built until 1823. A second Methodist church (Ebenezer) was formed in 1827. 

The village of Sonora grew large enough (about 200 residents) to gain its own post office in 1855. The post office remained in operation until 1988. Sonora was a stop along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Blue Rock Township

Blue Rock Township was formed from Salt Creek Township on December 3, 1810, although no election of township officers was recorded until January 6, 1814. This is similar to the situation in Salt Creek Township, which formed in 1808, but didn't officially become a township until 1815. Blue Rock is named for the creek, rich in salt deposits, that runs through it.

Blue Rock and Salt Creek Townships have a shared history, and so Capt. John Chandler (1757-1829), for whom the Salt Creek town of Chandlersville is named, is regarded as Blue Rock's first settler. In fact, all the "firsts" of Salt Creek, such as early industries, post offices, and churches, are the "firsts" of Blue Rock. The histories of the two townships are so identical that the chapter on Blue Rock Township in the Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio contains little more than a long list of early settlers and their occupations, and a rehashing of the founding of early churches from the Salt Creek chapter. (See Salt Creek Township)

Around 1819, the discovery of oil in the northeastern part of the township held the promise of prosperity for the township. A second field was developed in 1866. In 1878, the Carr Oil Company of Muskingum County was created to take over production. However, the oil, intended for use in oil lamps, was of a poor quality, and enterprise was soon abandoned.

The steel Gaysport Bridgewas replaced in 2021

Although there are no municipalities* in Blue Rock today, there were three population centers in the 1800's that each merited a U.S. Post Office. The township's earliest population center was located on the Muskingum River, and dates from at least the 1790's. The original name is not known, but it was eventually named Gaysport for Asa Gay (1774-1854) who migrated to the area from Massachusetts around 1830. Another settlement, Rockville, was established around 1816. J. B. Milhous platted Rockville in 1854, and renamed it Ruraldale, although its post office was known as Rural Dale. The small settlement of Ridgeway became the village of Kiefer. Like the village of Opera in Newton Township, Kiefer no longer exists.

The 4, 578 acre Blue Rock State Forest lies within the township

*A municipality is an urban area locally administered and separate from township government.

Union Township

According to Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County, the area that became Union Township was originally home to people of the Shawnee nation. The authors claim that White Eyes Creek in the southern part of the township is named for a Shawnee chief. In fact, it's named for Koquethagechton (nicknamed George White Eyes), chief sachem of the Lenape (Delaware) people. Koquethagechton successfully negotiated with the Continental Congress to secure land for his people  in return for their alliance with the Americans during the Revolution. 

The first known white settlers, Henry Hardesty, Peter Monroe, Henry Hardy, William Newland, and "Mr." Mullen, arrived in the area between 1803-1806. These early settlers "squatted" in the southeast quarter of the township on School Lands. These were public lands set aside in each township by the Northwest Ordinance (1785) for the establishment of public schools. They were a great draw for settlers who couldn't afford to buy land, and their settlement was, of course, illegal. Eventually, they were forced to move on.

The northeast part of Union Township, where Zane's Trace came through, was settled primarily by families from Pennsylvania. The first inn along this part of the route was established by Pennsylvanian Thomas Warren in 1804. The village of New Concord began about this time, and with the establishment of the National Road, was officially platted as a town by Judge David Findley on March 24, 1828. The town became a stage station, where, according to the Biographical and Historical Memoirs, "The six stage horses driven at full speed from Zanesville...were exchanged for fresh horses." One of the National Road's four "s-bridges" is preserved just outside of New Concord.

As New Concord grew, so did the demands of its prominent citizens for a college to be established.Efforts to establish an academy to offer classical and scientific courses of study began in 1835. In March 1837, Muskingum College was granted a charter by the state legislature. In 2009, the college achieved university status. Its most famous graduate is local resident John Glenn, NASA astronaut and U.S. Senator.

Salt Creek Township

Salt Creek Township is named for the saline deposits near the area that would eventually become the village of Chandlersville. Native Americans gathered salt there long before the appearance of White settlers, and it might have been from them that the settlers in Marietta heard of the salt deposits, for which there was a desperate need. In 1795, Marietta had grown so much, that salt had become a scarce commodity. A company was formed to go north to locate the Salt Creek deposits, "mine" them, and ship much-needed salt back to Marietta and other river towns. It was a lucrative enterprise because everyone needed salt, primarily to preserve food.

John Chandler's grave marker in 
Chandlersville Cemetery

Capt. John Chandler (1757-1829), for whom Chandlersville is named, arrived with his family to the Salt Creek area from Connecticut in 1799. He purchased the Marietta company around 1801, and he and his older sons operated the salt works for about seven more years. The road used to convey the processed salt to points south became a much traveled highway, bringing more settlers to the area. A grist mill and a saw mill were established, as was a tannery, and one of Chandler's sons opened the first tavern in 1815. A Baptist church was organized in 1811, and a Methodist church in 1812. 

In December, 1808 the residents of the area sought to form a township. Although the record states this was accomplished at that time, apparently it wasn't, and it took seven more years (March 8, 1815) before Salt Creek Township was officially recognized.

Salt Creek Township saw several "firsts." It was the site of the first salt works in the Northwest Territory east of the Scioto River. It boasted the first brick schoolhouse in Muskingum County. The first circulating library (150 books) in Muskingum County was established here.

Falls Township and Zanesville

 According to the Biographical and Historic Memoirs of Muskingum County, Ohio, the area that would become Falls Township was first settled in 1790. Edward Tanner of Virginia is regarded as the earliest settler, building his family home along the bank of the Licking River. 

In May, 1796, Congress approved a contract with Col. Ebeneezer Zane, a Revolutionary War veteran, to begin construction of a road from Wheeling, Virginia* to Limestown [Maysville], Kentucky. Zane's Trace followed trails originally used by Native Peoples, and although the trails were widened to 20 feet, Zane's Trace was not "paved" in any way, and deep ruts made wagon travel along the route very challenging. It remained the only major road in Ohio until 1823 when construction on the Ohio section of the National Road began. The National Road, known today as US Route 40, followed much of Col. Zane's road.

Zane's Trace in southern Ohio

Col. Zane, for whom Zanesville is named, was aided in his road-building project by his brother, Jonathan, and his son-in-law, John McIntire, who arrived in what would become Falls Township in 1798. McIntire, who had been an itinerant cobbler in Virginia, re-made himself as a land developer in Ohio, thanks to his connection to the land-rich Col. Zane. (Zane was paid for his roadwork with tracts of land all along the route.) McIntire called the town he began platting, Westbourne. The Postmaster General changed the name to Zane's Town and that name morphed,eventually, into Zanesville.

While Westbourne-Zane's Town-Zanesville was growing, so was the surrounding rural area. Moses Dillon, a Virginia Quaker, arrived about 1804 (the year the federal government opened a land office in Zanesville) and purchased 3,000 acres of land, including the falls on the Licking River. The land he bought was rich with iron ore, and Dillon established the first blast furnace and foundry west of the Alleghanies by 1805. Not surprisingly, the village which grew up on Dillon's land was known as Dillon's Falls. Four years later, on March 9, 1808, Falls Township was organized.

Muskingum County Home c. 1900 

 Today, Zanesville covers the eastern half of the township. As of   2020, the population of that part of the township was 24,721 while the population in the western portion was 8,718. The western part   of Falls Township was the site of the Muskingum County   Infirmary (aka Muskingum County Home), which served as both   a "poor house" and "insane asylum" from 1839-2008. The   historic building was demolished in 2011. Two historic buildings   still standing in the township's western part are Headley Inn and   Smith House, stagecoach and conestoga stops along the National   Road. Falls is also the site of the only Jewish (Beth Abraham)   and Quaker (Dillon) cemeteries in the county.

Smith House

Headley Inn

*West Virginia did not become a state until 1863.

Licking Township

 There is no existing record of the exact date of the formation of Licking Township. According to The Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Muskingum County (published by Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1892), the township "was organized before 1806 from the Virginia military land."  Many of the earliest settlers, like Enos Devore and his father John, were Virginians. The above history says the Devores were the first known settlers in what would become Licking Township, arriving in 1801. Among the early settlers were Virginian Quakers, such as the Claypool family. The township was named for the river that runs through it.

A stage coach stop in Irville

If the township's approximate founding date is correct, at least seven years of township records documenting elected officers, jurors, justices of the peace, tax records, etc. have been lost. The earliest known township document is a portion of a tax book dated June 3, 1813. We have to assume that leadership in the township's early years was assumed by large landowners and business operators.

Licking Township's two main "population centers" were the villages  of Irville, platted in 1814, and Nashport, platted in 1827 to be a "port" along the newly opened Ohio Canal. Pleasant Valley, a third population center, was located on the opposite side of the Licking River from Irville and Nashport. With the founding of Irville came the township's first schoolhouse, and a Presbyterian church which was first frame building in the township.  A stagecoach route connecting Columbus and Zanesville ran through the area, and a couple of taverns served tired and thirsty travelers, as well as the locals.

In the 1960s, the construction of Dillon Dam erased Irville, Nashport, and Pleasant Valley, as well as several smaller township communities, off the map. Families were displaced and homes and stores were torn down. Bodies were exhumed from cemeteries and reinterred elsewhere. Some buildings from the original villages were moved to "New" Nashport, the township's only current-day population center. 

A detailed history of the three lost population centers, can be found in Before Dillon: Memories of the Lost Villages of Nashport, Irville, and Pleasant Valley by Rose Ellen Jenkins and Mari McLean. The book is available for purchase at the MCCOGS Market Place http://mccogs.org/sales.html

Jefferson and Cass Townships

                      Jefferson Township

The section of Muskingum County now known as Jefferson and Cass Townships was originally home to people of the Shawnee Nation. (The village of Dresden in Jefferson Township would later be founded on the remains of the Shawnee village of Wakatomika.) A military campaign  known as "Lord Dunmore's War" began to displace the native people from the area in 1774; "Mad Anthony" Wayne's victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 completed the forced removal of native peoples from the Ohio Territory, opening the territory to white settlement. The first known white settlers in Jefferson--and Cass--Townships were the Priests from Virginia, James Wilcox, James and Phineas Sprague and Isaac Cordray. Major Jonathan Cass, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, came in 1801 and bought up 4,000 acres along the Muskingum River. Cass hoped his settlement would become the county's seat, but it lost out to the older settlement of Zanesville.

                Cass Township

Jefferson Township was was officially organized in April 1805, when the first election of township officers was held at the home of Henry Northrup. In 1817, the town of Dresden was established by Philadelphians whose families had emigrated from Dresden, Germany. 1833, the area had one church, two flour mills, three sawmills, and six physicians. 

Undoubtedly hoping to grow the Dresden area, Jefferson Township held a special election in 1852 to issue $100,000 (about $360,000 today) in bonds to the Steubenville & Indiana Railway to construct a rail-line through the village. A literal "town and country" argument ensued between the township's farmers, who didn't want assume the tax liability for the bonds,  and the residents of Dresden who did. On September 6, 1853, the disagreement led to the division of Jefferson into two townships, Jefferson (half of which is the village of Dresden) and Cass. The farmers of newly formed Cass Township expected the division would allow them to avoid the taxation resulting from the bonds purchase. It didn't. And to add insult to Jefferson's injury, the railway line ended up being situated one and a half miles north of Dresden, so its residents never saw the hoped-for return on their investment. 

Today, Cass township remains almost completely rural with a population in 2020 of 1,811 people. Its only population areas are a small portion of the village of Dresden, and two unincorporated communities, Adams Mills and Trinway. The tiny township of Jefferson has a population of 1,974, with the majority (1,654) living in Dresden.