CHAPTER X.
WAYNE TOWNSHIP.
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     Wayne township was a part of the original Salem township which was organized by the associate judges on Apr. 20, 1805.  It is not known when the commissioners set off Wayne township, but it is certain that it was before 1811.  At the time the township included all of the present township of Rush and it was not until 1817 that any change was made in its limits.  Logan county was set off by an act of the Legislature in December, 1817, and when the act became effective on the first of the following March a strip of about a mile wide was added to the northern part of Wayne township.  What is now Rush was still a part of Wayne and so remained until it was set off in 1828.
     The discussion of Wayne township and its early settlers in this chapter is restricted to the township as it now stands; that is, to its present territorial limits.  The township as now constituted lies wholly within the Virginia Military Survey with the exception of various small portion in the extreme southwestern part of the township.  Consequently, the lands are surveyed in the hit-and-miss fashion characteristic of all the military surveys in Ohio.  In referring to settlers it is difficult to locate them definitely and it is only by giving the survey number that they may be located.  Most of the maps in atlases, as well as single township maps, fail to indicate the surveys by numbers and this renders it difficult to write an exact description of the township.

AREA AND TOPOGRAPHY
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"THE LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE."
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OLD MILITARY SURVEYS
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     The records show that there are fifty-three different military surveys represented in Wayne township, not all of which are entirely within the limits of the township, but must be listed in order to show all of the property owners within its limits.  Very few, if any, of the old Virginia Revolutionary soldiers soldiers who were granted tracts of land in Wayne township, ever saw the land which the generous-hearted state gave them.  The largest tract represented in Wayne township contained one thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight acres, survey No. 7311, and was the original entry of James Galloway.  There are only seven surveys in the township of more than one thousand acres, while there are three of less than one hundred, one survey, No. 8608, containing only twenty-two acres.  The deed records do not show that any of the original patent holders represented in this township ever lived on their land.  Most of it was transferred in this township ever lived on their land.  Most of it was transferred by a warranty or quit-claim deeds to actual settles, and most of this was in the hands of resident owners by the latter part of the thirties.  The complete list of original patent holders of Wayne township, together with the number of their surveys and the acres of each, is set forth in the following table:

THE ORIGINAL POLL-BOOK RECORD
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     As previously stated, the evidence points to the organization of the township in 1811.  The original poll-book record for an election held on Oct. 8, 1811, has been preserved and is here presented verbatim:

POLL BOOK OF WAYNE TOWNSHIP, OCTOBER 8, 1811
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     Poll Book of the election held in the township of Wayne, county of Champaign, on the eighth day of October, A. D., one thousand eight hundred and eleven.  Abraham Hughes, Nathan Norton and John Paxton, Judges, and Basil Noel and Wesley Hughes Clerks, of this election , were severally sworn as the law directs, previous to their entering upon their respective duties.

NAMES OF ELECTORS
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     Reuben Paxton, Abraham Hughes, William Tharp, William Fagan, Joshua Jones, John Black, John Richardson, John Ballinger, John Barrett, Daniel Reed, John Bowlman, John Devore, Isaac Hughes, Henry Williams, Abner Tharp, John Paxton, John Sutton, Gray Gary, Nathan Norton, William Williams, Basil Noel, Wesley Hughes, John Thomas, Nathan Tharp, Andrew Grubbs, John Bowlman, Jr., Otho Johnson, Benjamin Lee, Solomon Tharp, Jacob Paxton, William Pickrill.

     These thirty-one voters were distributed over the territory now comprehended within Wayne and Rush townships, but there is no way of determining how many of the number lived within the present limits of Wayne.  It will be noticed that not one of the thirty-one is among the list of original holders of patents in the township.  The early  elections were held at the homes of the settlers which were the most easily accessible to the majority of the voters.  Among the early voting places were the homes of Isaac Gray, Reuben Paxton, Robert Stevens, Peter Black, John Holy cross, Ebenezer Miles and Jerry Baldwin.  The first election after Rush township was set off in 1828 was at the house of Jerry Baldwin.  Peter Igou was elected justice of the peace at this election, but St. Leger Beck and Martin Flaherty contested the election and a new one was held in Feb. 8, 1828, Igou being elected this time beyond a doubt.  Among the justices of the peace elected before the Civil War may be mentioned Peter Igou, William Organ, John Stowe, David B. Williams, Robert Pennington, Lester Ware, John J. Harlin, Andrew McBride, C. O. Johnson, William Thomas, Silas Igou, Alexander Pickard, William R. Clark and John W. Barlette.  Many of these served a number of years, Peter Igou serving from 1828 to 1839, and others for there terms of three years each.

OTHER EARLY TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS
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     The early township clerks, those serving prior to the Civil War, were as follow:  John Organ, John Shaw, Wsley Hughes, George N. Swisher, Thoams Cowgill, Jr.  (served ten years, 1834-1844), Daniel Vertner, Robert Archibald, Solomon Linville, Peter P. Wilson, Solomon Linville, David Vertner and J. W. Barley.  This roster of clerks gives all who held the office up until 1864.
     Among the early trustees may be mentioned Thomas Cowgill, Sr., Henry Fairchild, Thoams Middleton, Silas Hale, Thomas Irwin, James Williams, Erastus Burnham, Jeremiah Baldwin, James De Vore, Sylvanus Smith, James Mitchell, Thomas Lary, Jesse Johnson, Thomas Goode, St. Leger Beck, Paul Igou, John Stowe, Aaron Guthridge, Simon Miller, Mathew Mason, John Middleton, William Organ, John J. Harlan and James Gray.  Many of these trustees lived in what is now Rush township.
     An examination shows the names of a large number of citizens who filled township offices of one kind or another.  During the period of the old constitution (1802 to 1852) there were many offices which were discontinued when the second constitution was adopted.  In addition to the trustees, clerk, treasurer and justices of the peace, there were overseers of the poor, fence viewers, ditch viewers, listers and road supervisors.  While a large number of citizens in the early days of Wayne township never held any public office, yet before 1840 the following freeholders are noted as being connected in some official capacity with the local township government:  Ezra Winger, Otho Johnson, James Claypole, Robert Cloud, Robert Stephens, John Richardson, Peter Black, Erastus Nutter, John W. Walburn, Ross Thomas, Allen Haines, Reuben Fairchild, Reuben Paxton, Anson Howard, Samuel Reed, William Winget, Samuel Goode, John Colwell, Andrew Hays, David Ripley, John Parthemar, Boyd Richardson, Isaac Farmer, Stephen Cranston, William Gifford, Asahel Woodsworth, Angus Clark, Solomon Black, Barney Richardson, John Wilson, Asa Gray, Jonathan Looney, William Jenkins, William Middleton, Jonathan Moorecraft, Basil Day, Simon Moorecraft, Henry Reynolds, Stephen Thompson, Moses Devore, John Spencer, Thomas Baldwin, Nicholas E. Swisher, Willis Spain, Isaac Wilson, John H. Swisher, Jeremiah Davis, Benjamin Spillers, David Parker, Thomas Wade, William Pepple, Levi Williams, William Shackleford, James Middleton, Robert Wilson, William Sharp, Elijah Breedlove, Thomas Cooper, Cephas Atkinson, George Barley and William Lary.

LIST OF VOTERS IN 1840
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     At the presidential election on Oct. 30, 1840, there were two hundred and forty-five votes cast, one hundred and ninety-one for Harrison and fifty-four for Van Buren.  This election was probably more exciting than any which has ever occurred in the township and it is fair to presume that practically every voter in the township cast his ballot on that day.  The poll book and tally sheet were kept on the same sheet of unruled foolscap and was in the handwriting of Thomas Cowgill, one of the clerks.  The other clerk was Daniel Vertner, the judges being William Organ, James Gray and John J. Harlan  The complete list of voters of the township in 1840 is here given as it appears in this record of seventy-seven years ago:

POPULATION STATISTICS
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EARLY SETTLERS
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FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS
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TYPICAL PIONEER EXPERIENCE
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STORY OF THE JOHNSON FAMILY
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SOME OTHER EARLY SETTLERS
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     The same year which brought the Johnsons to the northern part of Wayne township brought James Devore, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, to the same vicinity.  He located on a farm east of the present village of Mingo, occupying it under a lease for twelve years, at the expiration of which he bought a farm north of Middletown for three dollars and fifty cents an acre.  James Devore had seven children:  Hester, wife of Mathew Wilson; Elizabeth, wife of John Inskeep; Moses, first married Rachel Inskeep and after her death, Jane Wilkins; John married Betsy Buckler; Joshua married Elizabeth Elizabeth Clark; Jacob married Lydia Organ; Mary married Thomas Ballinger.
     Thomas Goode came to this township in 1805 and located in survey No. 4932, in the northeastern part of the township.  He lived on this farm the remainder of his life.  One of his sons, Theoderic was born on this farm and died on it, Jan. 5, 1876, leaving only one living child, Levi J. and his wife, Maria Reams, had six children, five of whom lived to maturity, Eliza, Sale, James E., Aai, Ivan T.  Polly Ann died in childhood.
     The year 1810 brought in Isaac Everett and family, who settled a mile west of Mingo.  They reared a family of nine children, Samuel, Joseph, John, Francis, Isaac, Thomas, Archibald, Mary and Elizabeth.  Samuel later acquired the old home farm.  Mary became the wife of Daniel Cowgill and Elizabeth the wife of David Martin.
     In 1813 Isaac Gray and Alexander St. Clair Hunter arrived in the township.  Gray was born in North Carolina in 1762 and located in Grayson county, Virginia, in 1801, having previously married Lydia Robinson.  They had nine children:  Elizabeth, who became the wife of Ross Thomas; John, who married Ellen Thomas, a daughter of John (Mingo) Thomas; Hannah, who married Richard Thomas; Jehu, who died unmarried in 1822; Mary, who became the wife of Aaron Guthridge in 1815 and lived to a remarkable old age, having, it is said, up to the time of her death an inexhaustible fund of early history at her command; Asa, who first married Mary E. Johnson and later, Catherine Walker; Rebecca, who married Samuel B. Lippincott; James who married Hannah Robinson; Rachel, who married Samuel Taylor.

REMINISCENCES OF MRS. MARY GUTHRIDGE
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WOMAN DOCTOR'S GOOD WORK IN EARLY DAYS
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FIRST METHODIST CLASS MEETINGS
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A VERITABLE "MOTHER IN ISRAEL"
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AN EARLY MURDER RECALLED
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ACTIVE WORKERS IN FRIENDS CHURCH
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THE IGOU FAMILY
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TWO ECCENTRIC BACHELOR BROTHERS
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     Mathew Mason, born in Virginia in 1789, came to Champaign county about 1824 and bought land in survey No. 4284.  He was the principal part owner in the flouring-mill on Kings creek which bore his name for over half a century.  He was a cheerful old bachelor, who enjoyed life, worked hard, and lived until he was eighty years of age, dying on Oct. 3, 1869.  For several years he carried on a distillery in connection with his grist-mill.  His brother, John, also addicted to celibacy was, if possible, still more eccentric than his brother.  He lived more secluded and more to himself than Mathew.  He died at the age of ninety-five, surviving his brother a few years.

THE BALDWIN FAMILY
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     The Baldwin family in this county was introduced by Richard Baldwin who was born in Virginia in 1795; came to Ohio with his parents in 1805, and to Champaign county in 1824.  He lived in Salem township until 1839 and then bought a farm near Mason's mill in survey No. 4284, paying a dollar and a quarter an acre for a part of it and twelve dollars an acre for the remainder.  He added to his possessions until he owned six hundred and twenty-seven acres, and, by combining farming and the buying and selling of stock, he became one of the wealthy men of the township.  About 1850 he built a fine brick home - a mansion it was called in those days - which was probably the finest country home in the county up to that time.  There he continued to reside until his death in 1870.  He married Eleanor Williams and they had a number of children: Wilson, who married Mary Jane Johnson; Sophia, who married William R. Clark; Isaac Newton, who moved to Cincinnati and engaged in business; Mary Ann, who married Amos M. Wilson; Luretha, who married Joseph W. Johnson; Hannah E., who lived in Cincinnati with her brother; Richard Watson, who died while serving as a soldier during the Civil War; Eliza E., who married George W. Cable; Sally O., who became the wife of John M. Hunter, and Clara M., who married Moses E. Taylor.

MOVED GOODS ON A SLED
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LEADERS IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD
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THE OLD NATIONAL ROAD
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     The first half of the thirties brought in a large number of new settlers into the township.  The old national road was built through Ohio in the latter part of the twenties and the first half of the thirties and this enabled thousands to reach the West who had heretofore hesitated the hazardous river and overland trip.  It has been said that more than ten million people passed along the national road by the time of the opening of the Civil War, and Ohio secured a few of these several millions.  There was a considerable amount of land which was still in the hands of the original proprietors as late as 1840 and there are those now living who can recall that at the time of the Civil War the township was still heavily forested in many places.

SETTLERS DURING THE EARLY THIRTIES
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A COUSIN OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN.
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DECLINE IN POPULATION
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SCHOOLS
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CHURCHES
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INDUSTRIES
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A COAL MINE
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CABLE
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A STORY OF OVERREACHING AMBITION
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A STORY OF OVERREACHING AMBITION
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FURTHER PROGRESS OF VILLAGE
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MINGO
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MILL THE NUCLEUS OF THE VILLAGE
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PROGRESS OF VILLAGE OPERATIONS
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EARLY MERCHANTS OF MINGO
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POSTOFFICE
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MIDDLETOWN
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AN ACTIVE SPORTING CENTER
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END OF CHAPTER X.

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