D Guilbert, as the first postmaster. Guilbert, Gouchenour & Moore and Peter Taylor are among the ex-merchants of the village.

The present population is about twenty families. The business is represented by O. J. Wood, E. A. Davis and William Kirkbride, general stores; Leslie Crooks, sawmill and planing mill; Richlieu Belford, black smith.

In 1883 the grist-mill at this place was burned, involving a loss of several thousands. The building was first erected as a tobacco packing house by Gouchenour & Guilbert. It was converted into a mill by Jacob Purcell in 1880. The stopping of the salt works, the dying out of the oil excitement, and the burning of the mill, all have had an injurious effect upon the prosperity of the village.

A new industry has just been started the first organized effort of the kind in the county and bids fair to be successful. The South Olive Creamery Company was organized September 16, 1886, with a capital of $5,000, and the erection of a building at once begun. The stockholders are David Gouchenour, John Stevens, J. K. Haines, Charles Huffman and John Swayne. Similar enterprises are very successful in other parts of the country, and it is to be hoped that this industry will prosper here.

Dudley, a flag station on the C. & M. railroad, is a hamlet of modern growth, containing about a dozen buildings. The first store was started here in the railroad depot in 1871 by

J. P. Arnold. About six years later village lots were laid off. William Graham, who succeeded Arnold in the mercantile business, built the first house, excepting that owned by Sylvester Cunningham, which has been standing for years. The next building erected was the Universalist church. The grist-mill and sawmill of Edgar Morgareidge was built by him in 1885. At present C. L. Harris carries on the mercantile business here; William Tuttle has a blacksmith shop, and Sylvester Cunningham a cabinet-maker and wagonmaker's shop.

CHURCHES.

South Olive Methodist Protestant Church. This church was organized by Rev. George Willis. The house of worship was erected in 1881 at a cost of about $600, on a lot donated by William Kirkbride. The membership was small at first, but there is now a large congregation. The pastors have been Revs. Schuman, Orr, Wert and Baker.

New Harmony Baptist Church.— This congregation is an old one, the first organization having been in 1825. In 1843 the church was reorganized and called New Harmony. Elder William Davis was chairman of the first council and G. W. Drake of the second. The organizing members were: Rev. Joseph S. Clark, pastor: Hollis Hutchins, clerk; John Hutchins, John Morgareidge, Robinson Sanford, Joseph Davis, Joanna Hutchins, Betsey Davis, Jane Sanford, Rhoda Hutchins and John Cunningham were members of Harmony

church, and Joseph Davis, Levi Davis, Betsey Davis, Dorothy Tuttle, Rhoda Ann Davis and Susan Tolman, original members of New Harmony church in 1843. The present church, a frame building thirty-five by forty-five feet, was erected in 1856, at a cost of about $1,200. The church now has 112 members, and the Sabbath school fifty scholars. The pastors have been Revs. Joseph L. Clark, B. B. Blake, John Skinner, G. W. Glass, Henry Lyons, L. McPherson, H. Lyons, W. A. Blake, J. S. Covert, Jesse Lieurance, J. Hurlbert, William McPeek, J. G. Whittaker, II. M. Prince, William McPeek and J. G. Whittaker.

Universalist Church.-The Universalist church at Dudley was built in 1878, and dedicated August 25 of that year. It is a frame building, thirty by forty feet. Among the leading members who assisted in building the church were: William Cunningham, Alden Tilton, William Spear, Moses Blake, J. L. Rowlands, Ansel Blake, James Ogle, James Warren, W. P. Warren, Samuel Ackley, David Radcliff and David Rad

cliff, second. At the time of the organization there were about one hundred members, but the number has been considerably reduced since, owing to various causes. Rev. J. W. McMasters, who has preached for many years in the neighborhood, has been the only regular pastor.

There were many who favored the Universalist faith among the early settlers. Conspicuous among these were Gilman Dudley, John Allen, Israel Blake, Aurelius Clark, Joseph Clark, Daniel Tuttle, Hebron Tuttle and David Radcliff. Joseph Clark preached in the woods on Daniel Tuttle's farm (where William Spear now lives), as far back as 1840, and the Universalists have had preaching more or less regularly ever since.

United Brethren Church. The Olive Chapel United Brethren church, in the western part of the township, was erected in 1879. It is a neat and commodious frame building. There was preaching in this neighborhood for some years before the meeting-house was built. The congregation is not large, but good interest is manifested.

C

ENTER TOWNSHIP was erected by the county commissioners May 1, 1851, "so as to include and be composed of the following territory, to wit:

Commencing at the southeast corner of section thirty-eight, in township number seven, of range eight; thence north along the section line to the northeast corner of section four, in said township seven, range eight; thence west along the township line to the northwest corner of section two, in township number seven, and range number number nine; thence south along the section line to the southwest corner of section thirty-five, in said township number seven, and range number nine; thence east along the township line to the place of beginning, containing thirty sections."

The first election in Center Township was held on the 12th of July, 1851, in obedience to an order of the common pleas court, passed June

m

*No doubt intended for section 28; but section 38 it stands upon the record, and there is no such section.

20, 1851, for the purpose of choosing one justice of the peace. Daniel Pettay was elected to the office, and was duly qualified on the 23d of July.

Sections 32 and 33 of Enoch Township formerly belonged to Center, from which they were set off June 6, 1855. And on the 3d of September, 1855, the northern half of section 31, in township 7, range 8, was taken from Enoch and attached to Center.

The following may be reckoned among the early settlers of the township, though some came much later than others: Arthur Morrison, John Bryan, James Watson, Isaac Hayes, John Keller, William Davidson, Samuel Anderson, Jonathan King, William Shields, Jeremiah B. Brown, Ephraim Bates, Daniel Bates, Isaac Bates, John McGarry, Jonas Ball, James Noble, and James Dve. James Watson died in Gallia County, Isaac Hayes died in the West, John Keller in Iowa, Jonathan King in the western part of the State; Daniel and Isaac Bates moved to Indiana, James Noble and James Dye died in the

West. All the others, so far as is known, died in Noble County.

The first entry of land in the township was made in 1809, on section 12, by Ephraim Bates. James Dye made the next entry of land. He came from Greene County, Pa., and also settled in the township in 1809. He removed to Illinois.

Ephraim Bates and his sons were among the earliest settlers of Noble County. He was born in New Jer sey May 24, 1744. He served in the Revolutionary war, and was one of the first settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains in Fayette County, Pa. He died in Sarahsville January 2, 1834. His wife, Susannah, lived to an advanced age. Their children were Isaac, who lived many years near Sarahsville, but died in Indiana; Polly, who married Jolin Vorhies, and lived in Noble County; William, who settled in Guernsey County, and thence went west; Anna, who married William Dilley, and lived in Cleveland, Ohio ; Timothy, one of the pioneer settlers, of Seneca Township; Ephraim, also lived in Seneca Township; Daniel and Ezekiel, who lived in Center. Township.

a

Ephraim Bates, Sr., had one of the earliest orchards in this part of the country, and some of the trees planted by him are yet standing. He built the first mill in the township"corn-cracker" of a rude sort, but a great convenience to the settlers nevertheless. The mill was in operation in 1814. Ezekiel Bates, son of Ephraim, was the founder of Sarahsville.

John and Amos Bates, sons of Ephraim, were drafted into the service, in the war against Great Britain, soon after their arrival.

Before Bates' mill was erected the people of the township depended mainly for their flour and meal upon two horse mills, owned respectively by Elisha Fogle and Thomas Barry, and situated only a short distance apart, in the southwestern part of the township.

Isaac Bates erected a mill upon his farm, which was so arranged that it could be operated by horse-power when there was a scarcity of water. After the early mills had all fallen into ruin or disuse, a steam mill was erected at Sarahsville by a company of citizens at a cost of $4,000. company sold out to Frederick Secrest and the mill was burned. Mr. Secrest then erected a grist-mill and sawmill, which he still owns.

The

Jacob Bates was born in what was then Guernsey County, in 1810. In 1815 his father, Isaac, removed to the farm now owned by William McWilliams, where he was the first settler. He died in the township in 1883. He was a very reputable man and reared a family of eight children. His wife, whose maiden name was Jane Davidson, was a native of West Virginia. Her parents were among the pioneers; four of the family reside in the township.

Shortly after the Indian war Daniel Devolld and family emigrated from Washington County, Pa., to Belmont County, Ohio. In 1814 the family, consisting of wife and six children-John, Isabella, Nancy,

Betsey, Richard and Rachael, came to what is now Noble County, and settled in Center Township. Here he purchased from government 160 acres of land for which he paid $2 per acre, that being the price of government land at that time. On this farm the elder Devolld died at the extreme old age of ninety-two. Levi Devolld was born in York Township, Belmont County, Ohio, in 1804, and came to Noble County with his parents. At At the time of his father's emigration he states that the nearest neighbor in the north was Mr. Ephraim Bates, who came about the year 1812 and settled where the fair grounds now are in Sarahsville. Mr. Devolld further states that in 1814 there was only one road in the township, called at that time (1814) the Federal Road; all points north or south from this road had to be cut through. Marietta and Zanesville were the nearest places from which supplies could be obtained. In 1819 Mr. Devolld says that he packed flour to Marietta on a horse for which he obtained $1.50 per hundred. In 1828 he married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Smith, who settled in the township about 1814.

their nearest neighbor on the west was James Lowe, about where Olive now is; on the east, James Archer, at East Union; on the northwest Benjamin Thorla, at Belle Valley, and other pioneers of Duck Creek Valley; and on the south, Elisha Harris. According to the personal recollection of Mr. Levi Devolld, in the fallof 1814 all that portion of Guernsey County which now forms the townships of Noble, Olive, Sharon and Brookfield, voted together in one election precinct. Daniel Devolld brought the kettles which were used in Thorla and McKee's salt works, which were established the year that he came. The Devollds were fond of hunting and were successful woodsmen. Levi Devolld, soon after becoming of age, made a trip through the wilderness to the lake, finding few whites and many Indians in that region.

A tannery was started by Levi Devolld, in the southwestern part of the township about 1846, and was in operation for about eight years. connection with it Mr. Devolld manufactured boots, shoes, harnesses, etc. Some rascals stole about $500 worth of stock, and caused him to abandon the business.

In the southwestern part of the township were the following early settlers: Ambrose Merry, David Devolld, Thomas and Benjamin Barry.