Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/567

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��HISTORY or RICHLAND COUNTY.

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��and prairie lands are occasionally noticed, but the township was generally heavily timbered with all the varieties of hard wood, and is at present, all under a high state of cultivation. The old Wj'andot trail from the mouth of the Sandusky River to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) passes across the northeast corner, through the pres- ent village of Plymouth, and the march of Gen. Beall's army was along this trail in 1812. Gen. Beall widened this trail from a narrow path to a road of sufficient width for the passage of his wagons, and although it has been straightened in some places and abandoned in others, it is yet traceable on the map. Beall was guided through this country Ijy a Seneca chief named Capt. John, who was a great friend of the whites, and evinced great sagacity as a scout, and in guiding scouting parties of Beall's army.

Ii was along this military road that the first settlers advanced in search of homes in the ^Yest, and naturally enough, upon this road that the first settler in Plymouth Township is found, upon the present site of the village of Pl3'mouth. Here, on the headwaters of the Huron River, Abraham Trux erected his cabin, on the northwest quarter of Section 5, in the spring of 1815, and became the first settler. This cabin stood on the bank of an insignificant branch of the river, which passes through the village, and was a double cabin, of round logs. The lot is now owned by Aaron Kappenberg, and his butcher-shop occupies the exact spot upon which this first caljin was erected. Other settlers came in during this year (1815), some of them probably about the same time with 3Ir. Trux. Among these were John Concklin, who settled on the northeast quarter of Section 6 ; Daniel Kirkpatrick, northeast quarter of Section 8 ; Robert Green, southeast quarter of Section 4 ; and John Long, northwest quarter of Section 13. William and Daniel Prosser also came in this year or eai-ly in 181(3, the former settling on Section 19, and the latter on Section 13. In 1816, came John Morris, who set-

��tled on Section 15 ; Thomas McCluer, Sec- tion 14 ; James Gardner and Michael Gipson, Section 1 ; James Douglas, Section 35. Set- tlers continued to arrive rapidly until in 1818, when there was a suflflcient number to organize a township. The first election was held in the spring of 1818, in which Abraham Trux was made Justice of the Peace, Stephen Weliber, Constable ; John Concklin, John Long, and Thomas McClure, Trustees. Thomas Mc- Cluer was made Clerk, and Asa Murphy, Treas- urer.

The daughters of two of these first settlers. Catharine Trux and Susan Concklin, were mar- ried in 1817, being the first marriages cele- brated in the township ; the first to Hugh Long and the last to Oliver Granger. No death oc- curred among them for four years, the first being that of Mrs. 3Iary, wife of John Conck- lin, in 1819. The prominence of her husband in the aflfairs of the township and church had given her an extended acquaintance, and she was gi'catly beloved.

]Man3' of the settlers had served in the war of 1812, and nearly all of them were good hunters. Among the latter were Michael Trux. Charles Bodley, Jacob Wolf, Jedadiah ]Moor- head, 3Iichael Gipson, Robert Yearian and some others. Yearian made his own powder and guns, was a remarkable shot, as was also his son Frederick, who used a light rifle his father had made for him. It is related of this bo}', when he was about twelve j-ears old, he was one day separated from his father while hunting, and came suddenly upon a mother bear and her two cubs, upon whom he at once made war. The ball from his rifle was, how- ever, too small to do much execution, and the bear turned upon him, pressing him so closely that he had neither time to reload or climb a tree, and so ran in the dii-ection of his father. The latter, seeing him coming and the bear at his heels, called to him to run past him. which Fred did ; and as the bear passed, Yearian

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