Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/678

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��order, I will have the offender before me and whip him within an inch of his life. As for myself, I charge no fees. Not so with Consta- ble Kline, his charge being a quart of whisky, which plaintiff and defendant will see is brought into court as promptly as possible for the use of all present."

The Squire was quite an important man, as he owned 1,000 acres of land, and was considered in other respects in comfortable circumstances.

After the war of 1812, this township, in com- mon with all others in the county, began to fill up quite rapidly, and its pioneer history is not different from that already written of other townships. As soon as the settlers could get a clearing about their cabins, and provide for their immediate wants, they began to think about schools, churches, etc.

The first church erected in this part of the county was "Old Hopewell," called "Old" perhaps from the fact that it was abandoned for another of the same name, afterward erected in Ashland. This church was erected (of logs) one mile west of Ashland in 1819, by the Pres- byterians. In the first settlement in this neigh- borhood were several Presbyterian families, viz., those of Robert Nelson, Abraham Doty, David McKinney, William Huston. David Pol- lock, Abel Montgomery and others. These formed a society in 1817, which they called " Montgomery." The Montgomerys were prom- inent among the earl}' settlers, hence the name of this church and the township. Rev. Joshua Beer and Rev. William Mathews were their first ministers. Thirty-four persons constituted the first society ; the first Elders were Robert Nelson and Abraham Doty. The congregation worshiped in the cabins of the members until 1819. The old church was a square log, sub- stantial and comfortable for that day. Its name was changed to Hopewell in 1820. One of the earliest ministers in this church was Rev. Robert Lee, from Westmoreland County, Penn. Mr. Lee afterward went further west.

��and settled in Crawford County, near the little village of Leesville, which was named for him. He was a well-known preacher in that part of the country, and a ver^' excellent man. Old Hopewell was the "mother" of all the Presb3^terian churches in this part of the country. In 1833, twenty-one members were dismissed to form a society in Clear Creek Township ; on the 5th of August in the same year, nineteen members were dismissed to form a church at Orange, five miles east of Ashland ; in April, 1834, thirty-nine mem- bers were dismissed to organize a church at Olivesburg. Thus, in less than a year, seventy-nine members yveve dismissed, showing how wide-spread was the influence of Old Hope- well. People went a long distance to church in those days, but those were not the days of news- papers, telegraphs and railroads. After send- ing out these three colonies, sixt3^-five members were yet left in Hopewell. In 1836, the old log church was abandoned for a better one, in the village of Ashland.

In the township outside the town of Ashland, two churches were erected ; one, the Evangeli- cal Lutheran, on the east line of the township, in 1838 ; Rev. Mr. Wolf was first Pastor. The other, the Glerman Baptist, or Brethren, three miles south of town. The latter have three churches, known as the "Ashland District," and the church is better known as the Dunkers, or Dunkards, (properly Tunkers), which name was given them in Germany, and still clings to them in this country, though they repudiate it.

In those early days there did not, however, appear to be any religious sects or political parties. It was emphatically an " era of good- feeling." When it was known that a man was to preach in the neighborhood, everybody, for miles around, came to the meeting ; it mattered little what denomination he belonged to, he was welcome. Most of the clergymen visiting this part of the country were, however, Presb3^terians and Baptists.

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