Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/422

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��one built at Salem, which was occupied until after the railroad came through ; and one was built in the town of Shiloh.

Several attempts have been made to start and build up towns in this township, but every attempt failed until after the railroad came through, and Shiloh was established. Almost as far back as the oldest inhabitant can remem- ber, a man by the name of Powers attempted to start a town on the southwest quarter of Section 1, which he called Salem. A town was actually laid out and platted, but the plat was never recorded, and no town came into existence. The lots were vacated after a time, and belong to the farms that corner at old Salem Church. Powers brought a small stock of goods there and attempted the mercantile business, but it was a failure. The only houses Ijuilt were the Methodist Church, a Lutheran Church, a log building occupied by Powers for storeroom and dwelling, and the log house before men- tioned, as being occupied as a schoolhouse.

The second attempt at building a town was in the southern part of the township, on the line between Sections 33 and 34. This was laid out in 1832, by John Sn3'der, Abraham Fox and Michael Conrod, and called London. Sn3-der owned the land. Fortj'-seven lots were laid out. Peter Keller, Mrs. Conrod and Abraham Fox were the first residents, the latter building a dwelling and storeroom, partly brick and partly frame, on the principal corner, in which he opened a small store. John Fireoved afterward kept store in the same house. Keller started a blacksmith-shop. The place struggled for existence several years, and gathered a cluster of farmhouses at the cross roads there. At present no business is done, but half a dozen well-to-do farmers who own the land around, occupy its houses.

The third attempt at town building was on Section 13, in 1837. The cabin of John Long, the first settler, was located here, upon what afterward liecame an important public highway.

��The road was much traveled by teams trans- porting grain from Knox County and other portions of the interior, to the lake, then the great and only outlet for the rapidly increasing products of Ohio. Taverns along this road were frequent, and a necessit}', and Mr. Long's cabin liecame, without any effort on his part, a stopping-place for the early teams. Mr. Long did not wish to keep a hotel ; he had started a tannery, and this in addition to his farm was all he could attend to. He sold out his hotel to a man by the name of Rumer, and built another house for himself near his tan-yard. After a time, Rumer sold out to Mr. John Plank, who secured sufficient ground, and, in 1837, laid out a town which he first called Pl^^mouth, but which he afterward changed to Richland ; however, the town was always better known as Planktown. In time, the old cabin was pulled down, a larger house built, and Planktown became a noted stopping-place for the great number of teams that dailj' traveled over the road. Mr. David Long says, as many as two hundred teams loaded with wheat from the rich valleys of the tributaries of the Mus- kingum were known to pass Planktown in one day, during the season immediately following harvest. Rumer had also kept a grocery- in connection with his hotel, which was the first store in the place. After Planktown was laid out, it grew quite rapidly for a town in those daj's, and became in time a place of perhaps two hundred people, with two stores carrying assorted stocks, and two hotels. J. Saviers kept one of the stores at an early day.

The frontier towns of those days — as of to- daj' — were cursed with a class of men known and recognized as roughs — thieves, gamblers, murderers and every species of criminals known to the law. These, escaping from jus- tice, took up their residence on the frontier, where they felt more secure.

Planktown was more than usuall}' infested with this kind of vermin, which continued to

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