Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/440

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY

��CHAPTER XLVL ,

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP.

Description — Streams — Soil — Timber — Organization — Early Officers — Reduction to its Present Limits — List of Voters — First Settlement — Indians' Final Farewell — Pioneer List of 1869 — Belleville — Newspapers — Bangor — Early Schools — Religion — Churches — Societies — First Orchards — Dis- tillery — Birth — Marriage — Mills — Tornado — Stories— Thk Bushong Murder — The Hermitess — Soldiers of 1812.

��JEFFERSON is one of the original sur- veyed townships, containing thirty-six sec- tions, and is one of the most important in the county, in its liistorical, as well as in its other, characteristics. Its surface is rough and di- versified, to an extent that is onl}' excelled b}- one other township in the county — Worthing- ton. The Clear Fork, Honey Creek, and a branch of the Owl Creek flow through it, from west to east, and their numerous tributaries, which gather the water from a thousand springs, make the township a succession of ridges and depressions. The Clear Fork is the largest stream, and its valle}" is from one hundred to two hundred rods wide, and the stream occupies the southern part of the flat. In ages past, it flowed along the northern part of the valley, and gradually cut away the hills toward the south, and now this bank of the stream is perpendicular, fifty feet high, and in places cliffs hang over the stream, which, in midsummer, afford a retreat as pleasant as that

"Beneath the shade of Vecta's cliflFy isle."

The Honey Creek gathers the water from the central part of the township, and the tributary of the Owl Creek and one of the Clear Fork, from the southern part. The second tier of sections, from the southern line, forms the sum- mit of the watersheds of the Owl Creek and Clear Fork. Almost the entire surface of the

��township is susceptible of cultivation. The soil of the chestnut ridges, which comprise no small part of the township, is clayey, stony and thin, Init with the use of fertilizers, in con- nection with proper cultivation, it yields abund- antly the ordinary cereals. The soil of the Clear Fork and other valleys is loam}', pre-emi- nently fertile and exuberantly productive. Had the pioneers developed the true power of the soil, stories would have returned to the East, approaching the emigrant's dream of Kansas in point of greatness. The " New Purchase " would have abounded in chickens that lay two goose eggs, each, per day ; choice pigs, full of forks, squealing to be eaten ; pure fat, rolling in the plow furrows, and the corn- stalks bearing Continental do'ilars at every " jint.'' The numerous springs, gushing from the hills, supply an abundance of water, and ren- der a large acreage of the township valuable for stock-raising.

Originall}' the territory was covered with a dense growth of oak, walnut, ash, elm, chestnut, hickory, linn, gum, sassafras, sycamore, hard and soft maple, and a good variety of the smaller growths. A large per cent of the land is 5'et covered with forest, although Jefferson is one of the most thickl}* settled townships in the count}".

The first election district, named Jefferson, was organized August 9, 1814, and was twelve

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