and he also shot it. This took place near Mr. Bates' present home.

The earliest school-house in the Bates neighborhood was on the creek north of the present residence of Bethel Bates. James Tuttle was an early teacher there.

Timothy Bates' mill and distillery were visited by the early settlers for many miles around. The mill was in operation as early as 1815. Peo ple came twenty and thirty miles to get whisky from the distillery. The method of hauling it was to harness a horse between two poles, or "skids," one end of which rested on the ground. The barrel of whisky was then rolled upon the poles, and held in place by wooden pins placed in auger-holes bored through the poles. This improvised vehicle was dignified by the name of cars.

To show the difference between then and now in 1830, 160 acres of land belonging to Timothy Bates had an assessed valuation of $291. In 1886, 305 acres belonging to Bethel Bates in the same section, were valued at $6,260; and thirtysix acres in an adjoining section of Marion Township, with the same owner, were valued at $1,020.

Daniel Meade and his wife Hannah were among the early settlers of the township. They were Methodists, and were opposed to whisky drinking. Temperance men were rare in those days. Meade resolved one year that he would have his wheat harvested without the aid of whisky. He therefore invited his friends to come on Monday morning and assist him in the work. Some of his neigh

bors, hearing of his intention, got together on Sunday night, and by the aid of whisky, and the light of the moon, harvested the entire field before morning.

In 1811 the commissioners of Guernsey County voted to allow $2 for every scalp of a wolf over six months old. Many of the pioneers derived considerable money from the killing of wolves.

March 6, 1815, William Thompson presented a petition from residents of township 8, range 8, for the elec tion of trustees for the school section. The petition was granted, there being twenty electors in said township."

This shows that the townships of Wayne and Seneca were considerably settled as early as 1815.

Prior to 1838 a small store was kept on Abraham Rich's farm by Abraham Brown. This was the first mercantile establishment in the township, and it was but a small affair.

Seneca Township abounds in good farms and comfortable homes. The land is well improved and productive. In 1870 the population was 982; in 1880, 1,004.

The State Road was cut out through this township by the Carpenters of Monroe County. Opossum Run was named by them from the fact that they killed an opossum on that stream.

Barnesville was the nearest trading point in early years. Later the people went to Cambridge and Washington to trade.

James Finley, a Pennsylvanian,

was an early settler. He was an honest and worthy citizen. His grandson, Milton, lives on the old homestead.

An early school was taught in the house of Abraham Rich by Enoch Marpole. Levi Keller taught school when a young man on the west line of the township. On the present Craft farm was an early school-house. Another was built early on Opossum Run, in the present limits of Wayne Township. Enos Reinhart, Isaac Q. Morris, Moses Morris, Jeremiah Debolt and James Mellon were early teachers.

There were several early horsemills in the settlement. Abraham Rich and Jacob Thompson had sawmills early.

Jacob Thompson came to the township about 1815. His children were Robert, John, Elijah, Abraham, Jacob, David, Polly (Frame) and Annie, wife of Abraham Rich. Jacob Thompson, Jr., settled and died in Seneca Township. The others lived in the vicinity.

Jonathan Morris, a pioneer of Seneca Township, was born in Greene County, Pa. He married Miss Ann Richards, and in the spring of 1817 settled in what is now Seneca Township. He was largely identified with the early history of that section, and for twelve years was a magistrate. He had a family of seven sons and three daughters-Jonathan, Henry, Aaron, Moses, David, James, Isaac Q., Sarah (Moreland), Jane (Stevens) and Hannah (Moser), all of whom are dead except Isaac. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1816. He acquired

the trade of a tailor, but afterward turned his attention to teaching. He married Miss Catherine Kackley. They had a family of seven children. Mr. Morris was appointed the first clerk of courts of Noble County, and was subsequently elected to the position, serving three years. He was engaged in merchandising for eighteen years. He served as justice of the peace for twenty-one years. For a time he was heavily engaged in the tobacco trade. He has been a busy and enterprising man and a valuable citizen.

Abraham Rich erected a frame. house in 1826. It was then the only building of the kind for miles. It is still standing, and is now occupied by his widow.

Soon after Abraham Rich came into the township a fat hog belonging to him wandered from home, and in the evening, attracted by its squealing, he went out and found it in a ravine, with a part of its foreshoulder eaten off, but still living. Near the hog stood a large black bear. bear. Mr. Rich had no gun, but he approached near to the bear; the two looked steadily at each other; then Mr. Rich moved off in one direction and the bear in another. The next morning he got the hog part way home, and the next evening, on going to the place, found the bear again. This time he was prepared for him, and as the bear was rearing to spring over a fallen tree, he shot him. The bear rolled over into a hole where a tree had been uprooted. Rich fired another shot, and on approaching found the bear dead.

On another occasion, late in the fall, Mr. Rich tracked a bear into a hollow poplar tree, where the bear took up his quarters for the winter. Leaving the bear there till Christmas he went with Levi Keller and John Rich to secure him. They cut the tree, the bear sprang out unexpectedly, and in their excitement all three fired at him without injuring him. Abraham Rich reloaded and fired a shot which injured the bear's back, and after a considerable fight the animal was killed.

The first postoffice (Batesville by name) was established at Timothy Bates' mill prior to 1830. There was a weekly mail carried between Barnesville and McConnelsville. The only paper taken in the vicinity of Mount Ephraim was the St. Clairsville Gazette, of which Levi Keller was a subscriber. He had a box nailed on a tree, into which the carrier dropped his paper. William Van Meter was the first postmaster at Mount Ephraim.

Jacob Thompson, James Finley and the Morrises were among the earliest settlers. There were several families located on Opossum Run at an early date.

Levi Keller, one of the few pioneers of Noble County who are still living, was born on Wheeling Creek, about ten miles from Wheeling, in 1795, on the 16th of September. At the age of five years he came to Ohio, his father, George Keller, settling in Belmont County. He learned the blacksmith's trade in that county, and in 1820 came to what is now Noble County and en

gaged in teaching school in Buffalo Township. In 1821 he erected a house on the Smoky Fork of Buffalo Creek, in Center Township. In 1827 he removed to the vicinity of Mount Ephraim, where he still lives. He has followed farming and blacksmithing. At the age of twenty he married, in Guernsey County, Elizabeth Shafer, a native of Loudoun County, Va., who is still living. Mr. Keller was the first clerk of Seneca Township, and has held other offices, including that of justice of the peace for six years. He reared a large family - Mary Ann (deceased), Dr. John Keller, Jane (Vorhies) (dead), George, Isaac, William (died in the army at Cairo, Ill.), Margaret (Kackley), Caroline (deceased), Elizabeth, Levi, Simon (deceased).

Benjamin and John Keller, brothers of Levi, also settled in Noble County, the former in Seneca Township and the latter in Center. They removed to the West.

A glance at the township records of the school section shows that in 1819 William Morrison, James Finley and William Lowry were sworn into office as trustees of the school section in township 8 of range 8. The same records show the names of Archibald McVicker. 1820; Matthew Scott, 1821; Richard Coen, 1821; John Vorhies, 1822 (a brother of Ephraim and Aaron); Jonathan J. Morris, 1823; Jacob Thompson, 1825, and others. Some of those named resided in what is now Wayne Township.

*See medical chapter.

In 1821 Matthew Scott, John Meighen, Richard Coen and Jonathan Morris were the lessees of the school section.

The Rich family are among the early and prominent families of the township. For their history the reader is referred to the family history in this chapter.

David Watson and family came from Fayette County, Pa., and settled in Noble County about 1810. Their children were Ann, James, John, Rebecca (Delancy), Sarah (Williams), Ann T. (Morris), Rachel (Yoho), Cynthia (Wilson), all of whom are deceased.

John, second son of David Watson, was born in Pennsylvania in 1791, and settled in Seneca Township with his parents. He married Ellen Yoho, and died in 1873. Children: David, Margaret (first married Wilson and then Yoho), Yoho, Rebecca (deceased), Mary, Rachel (Pethtel), Barbara (Stockdale) and Nancy (deceased).

David, oldest son of John Watson, was born in Seneca Township, August 15, 1815. In 1834 he married Charlotte Skinner, of Monroe County. Their children are John, Angelina, Emily J., Justus F., William, Clark M., George, Caroline, James R., Alonzo H. and Ulysses G. The family settled in 1852, on the farm which they now occupy. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Republicans. Justus F. Watson enlisted November 11, 1862, in Company D, Ninth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and was mustered out at the expiration of his

term of service, July 20, 1865, serving in the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and all the campaigns of the regiment. Mrs. David Watson died in 1881, and in 1882 Mr. Watson married Mary E. Steward, and by this union has had three children, two of whom are livingCora and Garfield B.

John V. Watson, a leading farmer, was born in Seneca Township, in 1836. In 1857 he married Jane Mosser. Children Jane A. (Murphy), Martha A. and Savannah J.

Aaron Vorhies, the oldest son of John Vorhies, the pioneer of Wayne Township, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1791, and came to Ohio with his parents about 1805. He served in the War of 1812, and served in the quartermaster's department, and in 1814 married Polly Dailey, a native of Virginia. Their children were John, Phebe and Eli, dead; Stephen, Keziah (Hook), Aaron, Peter, Josiah, Nathan and William, living; Polly, deceased. Mrs. Vorhies died in 1840 and in 1841 he married Polly Shafer, who died in 1845. He afterward married Margaret Gordon, who bore four children: Nancy J. (Matheney), Sarah E., Eliza and Martha (Shafer). Aaron Vorhies died in 1861; his widow in 1875. The family were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

there embarking in the first boat that Commodore Vanderbilt ran between the isthmus and the "Golden Gate." He returned to Ohio in 1854, and in 1856 was married to Miss Rebecca Salada. They had one child, Lily J., who died in infancy. Mrs. Vorhies died in 1860, and in 1862 Mr. Vorhies married Emily Miley. To them were born seven children, five of whom are living: Hiley S., Annie, Mary Elizabeth, Joanna and Aaron D. The family belong to the Methodist church. Mr. Vorhies has been very successful as a farmer and stock-raiser and is one of the influential men of his township.

Stephen P. Vorhies, third son of Aaron Vorhies, was born in this township in 1822. In 1845 he married Jane Keller. Their children living are Vincent, John W., Mary (Williams), Seth and Sadie M. Mrs. Vorhies died in 1878, and in 1879 he married Mary Yoho. Mr. Vorhies has lived in the county nearly all his life and has followed farming.

Ephraim Vorhies, a brother of Aaron, was the first settler in the vicinity of Mount Ephraim and was the founder of the village, which was named after him, also a moundshaped elevation near the town. His brother Aaron located about a mile northeast, on the farm which his son Aaron still occupies, about 1815. They were worthy men and good citizens.

Peter Vorhies, one of the prominent farmers of Center Township, was born on the old homestead in 1829; his early life was spent upon the farm. He received a good common

school education and for some years was engaged in teaching; farming, however, has been his occupation. He removed from Seneca to Center in 1870. He married, in 1851, Miss Mary, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Williams; they have two children: William L. and Elmer E. He is a Republican and a Methodist, and one of the board of Infirmary directors.

Prominent among the early settlers were the Finleys, from Fayette County, Pa. In 1814 James Finley entered nearly five hundred acres of land in this township. His grandson, Milton, now lives on the old homestead. He was the father of John, Eliza (Atwell), Jane (Riggs), Ebenezer, Rachel (Dennison), William, James, Mary A. (McCune), Rebecca (Sawyer), by his first wife. His second wife was Mary McKibben. He died in 1861 and she in 1879. John Finley, oldest son of James, was born in 1808. He married Emma Stout. Three of their children are living— Cynthia (Gregg), Milton and Elizabeth (Crossen). John Finley died in 1872. Milton Finley enlisted in 1864 in Company B, First Ohio Cavalry, and served until mustered out September 13, 1865.

Isaac Wilson settled in this township in 1818. His descendants still remain in the county, in Seneca and Center Townships.

Among the early settlers were the Coen family. William Coen came from Pennsylvania at a very early date and was one of the pioneer shoemakers of this region. His son William, born in Pennsylvania in 1797, was. among the early settlers