Carroll County, Ohio

Ohio Counties

Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. I

©1888

CARROLL COUNTY

Page 359

CARROLL COUNTY was formed in the session of 1832-33 from Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Harrison and Jefferson. The population mainly originated from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, with some Germans and Scotch-Irish. The surface is somewhat hilly. Its area is 400 square miles. In 1885 the acres cultivated were 68,121; in pasture, 109,149; woodland, 40,350; lying waste, 273: produced in wheat, 81,869 bushels; corn, 514,155; apples, 303,928; sheep, 141,345; coal, 216,630 tons. School census, 1886, 5,513; teachers, 124. It has 63 miles of railroad.

Township And Census	1840	1880	Township And Census	1840	1880
Augusta	1,234	1,126	Loudon	966	965
Brown	2,165	2,305	Monroe	1,060	1,283
Centre	1,139	1,590	Orange	1,528	1,327
East	995	868	Perry	1,344	1,040
Fox	1,491	1,275	Ross	1,593	1,195
Harrison	1,308	1,075	Union	889	684
Lee	1,372	933	Washington	1,014	750

Population in 1840 was 18,108; in 1860, 15,738; 1880, 16,416, of whom 14,283 were Ohio-born.

This county was named from Charles CARROLL, of Carrollton, Md., the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He died at Baltimore, Nov. 14, 1833, aged ninety-six years. He was born Sept. 20, 1737; was of Irish descent, a Catholic, and highly educated in France and in London, thus passing his time from the age of eight years to that of twenty-eight, when he returned to Maryland a fine scholar and a polished gentleman. When informed by Gen. H. A. STIDGER, of this county, on a visit to Baltimore, that Ohio had named a county in his honor he was extremely pleased; this was about six months before his decease.

The Sandy and Beaver Canal extends from the Ohio river through Columbiana, Carroll, Stark, and Tuscarawas counties. It was begun in 1835 and it was navigable to some extent until 1850, when it was abandoned. The aggregate loss to the stockholders was nearly two millions of dollars. Its principal use was as a feeder for mills. It is said that only one boat ever made the entire passage through it. This was by contractors who built it, and because it was conditional upon their receiving their pay for its completion.

The following items upon the history of Carrollton and Carroll county are derived mainly from a series of articles, “Annals of Carroll County,” written for the Carroll Free Press by Peter M. HEROLD.

Page 360

Centreville, now Carrollton, was laid out by Peter BOHART, Oct. 4, 1815; Hon. Isaac ATKINSON gave much of the land for the site. BOHART was a Pennsylvania German and came here about 1810. About the same time came Richard BAXTER, Richard ELSON, Isaac DWYER and some others. At that time the line between Stark and Columbiana counties ran just west of the village. Here Mr. DWYER built what he called upon the sign “The Rising Sun Tavern.” When the (Quaker) Commissioners of Columbiana county refused to grant him license to sell strong drinks he removed his bar into the room on the Stark county side of the line and handed down the bottles and mixed toddies with impunity. Peter BOHART gave the land for the Carrollton cemetery and is buried in it, where also is buried Joseph BUSHONG, a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and several soldiers of the Mexican war. On the farm of Nathaniel L. SHAW, in Washington township, is a pre-historic graveyard containing the remains of a people that wee buried in earthenware coffins, two or three of which were unearthed a few years ago when digging a cellar.

Thomas L. PATTON, the first child born in Carrollton, was an officer in the Union army in the Rebellion, and is now living here, as is also John BEATTY, the first sheriff of Carroll county. He was born Oct. 4, 1804. Among his recollections is attending a Whig meeting at Massillon, July 4, 1838, where Gen. Harrison made an address. On the platform were the “POE Brothers,” Adam and Andrew, the Indian fighters, whose noted fight is related under the head of the Columbiana county. They were very old and imbecile.

Gen. B. F. POTTS, originally colonel Thirty-second Ohio volunteer infantry, was born in Fox township. He was, when a member of the Ohio Senate, offered by Grant the governorship on Montana. He refused to accept it at the time, though he did so later, and his refusal was because the adoption by Ohio of the fifteenth amendment to the constitution depended upon his vote, which would be lost if he vacated his seat.

In that daring railroad raid in Georgia of a band of Ohio men from Gen. MITCHELL’S army was Wm. CAMPBELL, a native of Fox township, and he was one of those executed. His mother’s maiden name was Jane MORGAN, and she was a cousin of Gen. John MORGAN, of the rebel army.

When MORGAN was on his raid through Ohio he passed through Carroll county, and in Fox township he took dinner with Mrs. ALLISON, whose name was Keziah MORGAN. She was the sister of Mrs. CAMPBELL, and therefore also a cousin of MORGAN. While eating his dinner the family genealogy was traced back to Kentucky. Ere he left, the old lady gave him a clean shirt, of which John was sadly in need, and he went on his way rejoicing, with a good dinner inside and a clean shirt out. Several of MORGAN’S men who were wounded were obliged to remain behind at Mrs. ALLISON’S, and were consequently soon taken prisoners by the Union soldiers. Mrs. CAMPBELL is still living, but since the execution of her son she cannot talk upon that subject without its effects showing upon her mind; she imagines she has a mortgage upon the government. She is twice a widow; her first husband was a soldier in the Mexican war. Her last husband’s name was SHIPLEY, and her present residence is near Caldwell, Noble county.

CARROLLTON IN 1846.—Carrollton, the county-seat, is 125 miles east-northeast from Columbus. It was originally called Centretown, but on the organization of the county changed to its present name. It has a public square in the centre—shown in the engraving—on which stand the county buildings. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Methodist Episcopal and 1 Associate Reformed church, 6 mercantile stores, 2 printing offices, and 800 inhabitants.—Old Edition.

Carrollton, the county-seat, is on the C. & C. R. R., eighty-seven miles south-easterly from Cleveland. County officers, 1888: Probate Judges, James HOLDEN and Junius C. FERRALL; Clerk of Court, Harvey B. GREGG; Sheriff, John CAMPBELL; Prosecuting Attorney, Irving H. BLYTHE; Auditor, Luther M. BARRICK; Treasurer, John B. VAN FOSSEN; Recorder, Will J. BAXTER; Surveyor, Richard

Page 361

H. LEE; Coroner, Harvey D. DUNLAP; Commissioners, James MURRAY, Wm. DAVIS, James H RHINEHART.

Newspapers: Chronicle, Democrat, J. V. LAWLER & Bro., publishers; Free Press, Republican, John H. TRIPP, publisher, Peter M HEROLD, local editor; Republican,

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VIEW IN CARROLLTON.

Republican, S. T. CAMERON & Co., publishers. Churches: 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Reformed and 1 United Presbyterian .Banks: Cummings & Couch, Stockton Bros., V. STOCKTON, cashier. Population in 1880, 1,136. School census in 1886, 417. A. M. FISHELL, superintendent. In October, 1887, “no saloon in the town and no prisoners in the county jail.”

Port C. Baxter, Photo, Carrollton, 1887.

THE PUBLIC SQUARE, CARROLLTON.

The engraving shows the new court-house and other buildings on the public square. This was finished in 1886, costing with jail in the rear about $150,000. It is built mainly of Navarre sandstone, with some from Berea. It is just to the left of the old court-house shown in the old view. The old court-house was sold on the 11^th of June for $196 and the bell from $138.

Daniel McCOOK, father of one of the two famous families of “Fighting

Page 362

McCOOKS,” was the first clerk of court of Carroll county after its formation, in the winter of 1832-33. He resided in the large, white house shown on the corner, to the right of the old court-house, at the time the view was drawn; and it was the birthplace of several of his family. It is now partly occupied by Geo. J BUTLER as a dry-goods store.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

“You must see Gen. ECKLEY when you visit Carrollton,” said the various parties when I was in the counties adjoining. “He can tell you everything.” He was, they said, “a man of great public spirit and large intelligence.” On the evening of my arrival, Friday, June 11, I found two old gentlemen seated on a dry-goods box on a street corner—I may say two old boys—engaged in a social chat; and one of these was Capt. John BEATTY, the first sheriff of Carroll county; the other Gen. Ephraim R. ECKLEY, who was a judge before he was a general—a man of law before a man of war. His first greeting was, “You’ve grown old since I have seen you.” I did not remember to have ever seen him, but must have done so when formerly here—when I took the old view shown on an adjoining page—took it as one told me he remembered seeing me seated on a wheelbarrow in the centre of the street.

Gen. ECKLEY had lived almost the entire period of the history of the State; was born in 1811. Having been long in public life, he had witnessed many changes. Among his experiences was his being in at the death of the Whig party in 1854: the Free-Soil party, in nautical phrase, had “taken its wind.” He was then the Whig candidate for the United States Senate, which was the last effort of the Whigs at organization.

In 1861 he served in the Virginia campaign under ROSECRANS; later, under SHERMAN, had command at Paducah; in April, 1862, was elected to Congress, where he remained until 1869. He gave me these interesting items, illustrating the morals of the people here, viz.: that the jail was generally empty, and when used at all it was largely for violation of some police arra