The Pioneers of Watertown

The Marietta Register, December 14, 1871

Warren, Dec. 1, 1871.

A. T. Nye, Esq., Dear Sir:

I can give the names of nearly all of the first permanent settlers of Watertown. William Ford, Sr., and family of  sons and one daughter, William Ford, Jr., Nathan Proctor, Jacob Proctor, my father Simeon Deming, Horace Wolcott, and families, all came together from Massachusetts and Connecticut, I think, in 1795, to the headwaters, came down in the spring and went out and built their cabins and removed their families to Watertown.

Elias Wolcott came the next year and is now living, the only one of the first settlers. Also John Waterman and Ferrand Waterman were early settlers and remained during their life time. One brother, Sherman Waterman, was shot by the Indians. He swam across the creek to the block house and died. Major Haffield White and his son, Peletiah White and family, were permanent residents at Wolf Creek Mills.

Ezekiel Deming came soon after and settled permanently; also Simon Starlin and sons, and sons' sons, too numerous to count.

Jason Humiston came previous to 1800. I can not be definite about the year when the families came.

William Woodford came early, married Diana Ford, and became a permanent resident. William Ford, Jr., also returned from Wayne's army and married and raised a family of twelve children.

All those parents named except three have lived and died in Watertown. Nathan Proctor settled in Barlow.

I can recollect many events of the War of 1812, perhaps not of interest. There was a number of young men went from Watertown in that service: Elias Wolcott, Lorey Ford, Elisha Mallory, Norman Hart, Benedict Hutchins, Duty Green, David Deming, William Henry, Alexander Walker, Neal Walker, all living to return except Norman Hart.

Joel Deming 

Beverly

The Marietta Intelligencer, April 9, 1857

Mr. Barton, who spent a few days in Beverly last week canvassing for the Intelligencer, collected a few "items" concerning that enterprising burgh, which we are fain to make room for. He is enthusiastic in praise of the hospitality and good cheer with which he was received, and the manner in which he speaks of the ladies shows that the young man has a heart very susceptible to feminine influences. It is to be hoped for our sake that no fair one will be captivated by his "handsome countenance" until he has accomplished our work.

Notwithstanding the "hard times" and the "tightness of the money market," the merchants and other businessmen of Beverly are in good spirits in anticipation of a fair business season. The flouring mills and other manufacturing establishments are in active operation, and these give an impulse to all other branches of industry.

Among the dry goods merchants who are worthily mentioned are S. F. Seeley, whose store was found crowded with merchandize and customers too, and who was rapidly disposing of his large stock of fashionable and staple goods. S. G. Hoge, an active, enterprising young man, who is building up a fine business, was in daily expectation of a large addition to his already extensive assortment of goods, which he is determined to sell as cheap as the cheapest. W. A. Hawley, occupying the large and commodious room formerly occupied by Mr. McCullom, is doing a large business. His stock is selected with much care and with reference to the special wants and tastes of his customers. He sells a great many goods at small profits.

A few doors above Mr. Hawley's is the grocery store of R. Williams, who is prepared to accommodate the public with everything in his line cheap for cash. His clerk, S. F. Young, is so obliging and attentive that this establishment cannot fail to become popular with the people.

Dr. C. W. Glines, brother of C. E. Glines of Marietta, is located at Beverly in the practice of his profession of dentistry. He is represented as a mild spoken man but a great jawer. However both the theory and practice of his may be, he understands his profession and is bound to succeed.

Messrs. Dodge, Bain & Co., owners of the large flouring mill known as the "Upper Mill," erected a year or so ago, are extensively engaged in the manufacture of flour. They purchase wheat at the highest and sell flour at the lowest market price, being content with small profits. The Beverly flour has always sustained a high reputation and there is no fear that it will be damaged in the hands of such men as Dodge, Bain & Brook.

H. A. Staley of the Woolen Factory contemplates a change of business soon. We hope his experience in woolen manufactures has not been as sad as that of the company in Marietta. May success attend him in whatever enterprise he engages.

The extensive tannery of P. O. Dodge is still carried on and is doing a fine business under the management of the enterprising proprietor.

The industrious and skillful mechanics of the town find plenty of employment even in these complaining times - among whom we may mention Mr. Clogston, I. W. Fouts, I. L. W. Newton, William Eakin, and L. D. McGwigan, good workmen in their several occupations and worthy of support.

The principal hotels of Beverly are Craig's and McCadden's, both well-spoken of by Mr. B. Mr. McCadden is the proprietor of the daily mail line between this city and Zanesville. He is prompt, energetic and always up to time. 

We are constrainted to believe that Beverly is, indeed, considerable of a town, and we offer our testimony most willingly to the worth and enterprise of its citizens. We hope the time is not far distant when we may make the personal acquaintance of our subscribers there and have occular proof of the growth and prosperity of the town.

Messrs. W. V. Z. Wheeler, C. R. Barclay, S. F. Young, and others in Beverly, and C. Willard Bowen of Waterford, rendered very efficient service to Mr. B. in prosecuting his work, for which we offer our grateful acknowledgments.

 

Watertown, Palmer, Wesley, and Barlow

The Marietta Intelligencer, June 2, 1858

In a flying trip a few days since through the townships of Watertown, Palmer and Wesley and Barlow, we found grass and wheat everywhere to be doing finely; no complaints were made except occasionally that a field was found to be slightly affected with the fly. 

But murmurs, loud and deep, were heard constantly about the long-continued rains and their effect on the corn land. Comparatively little corn has been planted. None but high and sandy land would do to plant with any prospect of the corn's coming up. Many farmers had not planted a hill. The five days we were out fortunately proved pleasant and without rain, and almost every farmer we called on was found either planting or preparing to plant corn. There has been very little drying weather within the last week, and the heavy rains of yesterday have made planting impossible for at least another week. The present prospect is certainly not the most flattering to the farmers, with the low prices for produce on hand and so poor a show for another crop.

Of peaches and cherries there seemed to be a fair prospect of an average crop. We observed now and then an orchard of apple trees that gave earnest of a respectable yield, but most of the trees were without fruit. What few apples there are, are of the more ordinary kinds, the grafted fruit being most easily killed by the frost.

One very noticeable feature of the farms through the townships above mentioned is the uniformly good barns with which they are provided. More regard seems to be had for the comfort and welfare of the quadrupeds than for themselves, for in numerous instances we saw good framed barns for the cattle and rather inferior log houses for the family.

With few exceptions, the farms are in good order and well improved - fences strong and trim, implements ready for use and housed, the brush cut down in the fence corners and other out of the way places, gates and bars in good order, &c. 

There is only one fault, a very general one by the way, which we wish to complain of. It is that the front yard is too often enclosed with a rail fence and made into a pasture, a vegetable garden, or a pig pen, instead of being surrounded by a neat board or picket fence and adorned with shrubbery and flowers. There is very little, too little, attention paid to the surroundings of dwelling houses. We believe that every farmer's wife would thank her husband for a little spot in the front yard which she might have the control of, and that should be held sacred against the incursions of calves, pigs, or the plow, where the taste for flowers, so proverbial to the sex, might be cultivated, and where some relief might be obtained from the toil and drudgery of everyday life. That it would contribute immeasurably to the happiness of the wife there can be no doubt.

Every means for the development and cultivation of purity of taste, refinement of feeling, and nice perception of the beautiful ought to be improved, and none are so easily obtained at so cheap an expenditure as in the arrangement and care of shrubbery and flowers.

  

Census Items

The Marietta Register, August 25, 1870

Palmer Township returns:
  White males - 281
  White females - 303
  Colored males - 3
  Colored females - 1
  Total - 587
  Loss in ten years - 34

Fairfield Township
  White males - 403
  White females - 421
  Colored - 0
  Total - 824
  Loss in ten years - 19

Decatur Township
  White males - 622
  White females - 595
  Colored males - 112
  Colored females - 108
  Total - 1,437
  Gain in ten years - 215

Wesley Township
  White males - 646
  White females - 660
  Colored males - 106
  Colored females - 112
  Total - 1,524
  Gain in ten years - 20

We have before given Union - total 862; Barlow - 1,190; Watertown - 1,458. Muskingum was largely taken from Union Township, since 1860, so that no comparison of gain or loss can well be made there. The net gain in the other six townships is 197.

 
   

Watertown Burial Ground

The Marietta Times, November 4, 1869

Two miles and a half to the north west of Watertown village, in the township of Watertown, is one of the oldest burial places in Ohio. It is on the road from Watertown to Waterford. This graveyard is not properly taken care of. The fence is down, and several of the tombstones are broken, most likely by stray cattle. It is said that one of the pioneers was buried here as early as 1795, but no stone or other memorial attests the fact. The earliest inscription, so far as we could ascertain, is this:

"In memory of Giles Ford, who died, Sept. the 5th, 1797, in the 25th year of his age.

"How loved, how valued once, avails thee not,

To whom related, or by whom begot;

A heap of dust alone remains of thee;

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

He perished early in the pioneer struggles of this western country. Near his grave is another, inscribed:

"In memory of Catharine Ford, wife of Capt. William Ford, who died Sept. 21, 1802, in the 54th year of her age."

Next, side by side, are the graves of the early settlers who bore that family name:

"Elizabeth Ford, wife of Capt. William Ford, died, August 16, 1819, aged 64."

"William Ford, Senr., died, October 9, 1823, aged 78 years."

"William Ford, Jr., died Sept. 15, 1823, in the 52d year of his age."

"Nancy Ford, wife of Judah Ford, died, March 6, 1809, in the 20th year of her age."

Capt. William Ford must have been nearly or quite fifty years old when he came to the West. He was thirty when the war of the Revolution began. William Ford, Jr., was born in 1770, and was grown up to manhood at the time of the settlement of Waterford. Father and son died within four weeks of each other in that fatal year, 1823. The period from 1821 to 1823 seems to have been remarkable for the mortal sickness, as the dates on the gravestones show.

"In memory of John Waterman, a native of Connecticut and one of the early settlers of Ohio, who departed this life, Sept. 1, 1834, in the 67th year of his age."

The grave of John Waterman is on the northeast side of the burying ground. Below are the graves of his children: Oliver (by his first wife, Margaret) died October 16, 1823, aged 1 year, 10 months; an infant daughter (by his second wife, Rachael) born 1826; one grave with rough and unmarked head an foot stones, that of a child probably; and, "Toulmin (son of John and Margaret Waterman) who died August 5, 1822, aged 3 years, 11 months."

The graves of John Waterman's first wife and second wife are at the end of this row: "Margaret, wife of John Waterman and relict of Stephen Potts, died August 28, 1823, aged 49 years." "Rachael, wife of John Waterman, died Nov. 9, 1833, aged 47 years."

Flavius Waterman was, we conjecture, the head of the first family of the name in the new settlement. There is now no stone over his grave, though one was set up long ago. He perished soon after coming to the West and was buried here, it is thought, as early as 1796 or 1797.

"Lydia Collins, wife of Charles Collins, and formerly wife of Flavius Waterman, died October 3, 1813, aged 70 years."

"Polly, wife of Ferrand Waterman, died July 18, 1852, in the 78th year of her age."

Born in 1774, Mrs. Polly Waterman must have lived through wondrous changes in her protracted life. She felt sorrow, too, for near her grave is that of a daughter, Polly, who died forty-three years before the mother, aged one year and three months.

The tombstone over the remains of David B. Waterman is one "with uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked:

"In Memory of David B. Waterman.

Died Aug the 21 1819

In the 45 year of his Age.

Behold my friends as you pass

By as you are now so once

was I as I am now you must be

Prepare for death and follow me."

Not far from David B. Waterman's grave rest the remains of Joseph Arnold who died on the 21st of August, 1868, at the remarkable age of 89. His wife (the daughter of Captain Reuben Stearns of R.I.) died twenty years before her husband, April 7, 1848, aged 66 years.

We had made other notes of the graves in this old burial ground, but we cannot now lay our hands on them. Of the individuals who rest here, or their families, the writer knows very little, but he supposes that they were of the bold, hardy, adventurous stock which furnishes the pioneers of every settlement.