Historical Collections of Coshocton County
Ohio
A complete panorama of the county from the time of the earliest known occupants of the territory unto the present time.
1764-1876
By William E. Hunt
Cincinnati
Robert Clark & Co Printers
(1876)
(Centennial Year)
Jefferson Township -organized in 1826

"Coshocton: the name is unquestionably a modification of the name of the old Indian town at the forks of the Muskingum Goschachgunk as somewhat variously spelled according to sound by the old croniclers in different languages. Different and quite contradictory definition of the name have been given.

"Was in the occupancy of the Delaware Indian and before them the Shawnee Indians were in the land."

Page 2 — The territory embraced in Coshocton county is part of that designated as a United States Military Land District — so called from the fact that congress, in 1798 appropriated it to satisfy certain claims of the officers and soldiers of the Revolutionary War. What land was not required for the satisfaction of the military warrants was subsequently sold by Act of Congress, under the designation of congress land.

Page 17 — In 1806, Philip Waggoner, Geo. Loose, John Wolf, and Geo. Leighninger settled in Oxford township, and the McLains were in Lafayette. In the same year the Darlings, the Butlers, John Bantham, and John Elder went to the Upper Walhonding Valley.

No regular census was taken of the county until 1820.
Fifteen hundred would probably be a large statement as to population at the time the county was organized in April 1811. Just after the close of the war (1812) there were in the county one hundred and thirty -eight resident landowners, owning tracts of land varying in size from thirty five acres to four thousand and five acres. The list includes Jefferson Township, Joseph Butler, Thomas Butler and Robert Darling.

Page 19 — It is however known that those whose names appear on this list and their children the following persons were residents of the county at that time, several of them having been for a number of years preceding: John Elder

In 1818 there were 285 resident landowners

In 1820 the census found 7,086 inhabitants in Coshocton County.

Census data Jefferson Twp:

1850
1870
929
1059

Page 41 — Jefferson Township — In 1818, the taxpaying landowners in Jefferson Township were Joseph Butler, Thomas Butler, Robert Darling, Stephen Meredith, and Abner Meredith. They were all from Virginia. Darling and the Butlers came in 1806. The Merediths a little later. They and there descendants have been well known in the land. One of Darling's sons (Thomas) was for years county commissioner. They were all farmers.

Henry Carr came from Virginia in 1805, and, after raising a few crops in the prairie in Bethlehem Township, settled in Jefferson. He was the grandfather of ex-sheriff J. H. Carr.

Page 42 — Colonel Wm. Simmon, a Virginian, who had been a colonel in the Revolutionary War, received for his service Simmons Section, the southeast quarter of this township, and settled thereon about 1819. He died at a good old age, and was buried on his farm. The family was one of the few who brought a carriage with them to the county. A son C. W. Simmons, was in the Legislature, new resides in Iowa at a very old age. A daughter was married by General Wm. Carhardt.

John Elder emigrated from Ireland to Virginia in 1804, and thence came with the Darlings to the Walhonding Valley in 1806. After making several other locations, he settled in Jefferson township about 1820. He died on his farm in 1851, now occupied by his son, Cyrus Elder, a little west of Warsaw. He was a full blooded, county Antrim, Presbyterian. He was twice married, and reared a large family, still prominent in the township. During the War of 1812, he spent some months in hauling supplies to the soldiers.



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