Union County, Biographies
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NORTON PARKER CHIPMAN Chipman, Norton Parker, soldier, lawyer, congressman, was born March 7, 1834, in Milford Centre, Ohio. At the close of the civil war he was brevetted brigadier-general. He was appointed secretary of the territorial government of the District of Columbia at its organization. In 1871-75 he was a territorial delegate to the forty-second and forty-third congresses as a republican. [Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States, by William Herringshaw, 1909 - Transcribed by Therman Kellar] The Richwood Gazette (Richwood, Ohio) November 18, 1980 The Living Past..Roots of Richwood by Bill Brown WYANDOT INDIAN TRAIL Presages Ohio Rt. 37 On Christmas Day, 1826, Benjamin Carter and his family became the first settlers in what was to become Jackson Township. They came from south of Fulton Creek (Leesburg), following a Wyandot Indian trail which led from Fulton Creek to Rush Creek. The trail was later followed by the gravel road which became Route 37. Assisting the Carter household was Harvey Moore, a young, single man who later settled near them. Ebenezer Cheney soon followed, bringing family and possessions in an ox cart. Also in 1826, the first steam locomotive was demonstrated by Colonel John Stevens and son, Robert and Edward. The drive to unify the nation began soon after, with the railroad coming to Richwood in 1864. In 1829, 21 registered voters petitioned the County Commissioners in Marysville for establishment of the township. As originally laid out it included most of what is now Claibourne Township. The latter was established in 1834, two years after Richwood was platted. Jacob Colling, in 1830, built a blacksmith shop, and Jesse Bell set up in competition in 1832. The first sawmill was a water-powered mill built in 1840 by William Britt, one mile north of Essex. Sometime later, Warner Bridge built a sawmill two miles west of Essex. He added a crude set of grinding burrs by which he could make a coarse meal, in time of high water. The first cemetery was located on the farm of Ebenezer Cheney in 1828. In that year the three pioneer families living in the area each lost a member - Johnie Carter, Elizabeth Cheney and Mary Allen are buried thee. A post office was opened in "Rushcreek" (Essex) in 1848, receiving mail once a week. This office was closed in 1907. The Woodland post office was opened in 1869 and discontinued in 1907. Now in 1980, nothing remains of Woodland except the ruins of a grain elevator foundation and the name of a road, Union County 315. Source: "Handbook of Useful Information pertaining to Jackson Township, Union County, Ohio" by I. N. Robertson (1915, Worden Publishing Co.) (submitted by Ida Maack Recu) |