Greene Street School

The Marietta Register, September 2, 1875

The schools all began Monday, but Greene Street Grammar School didn't. Reason - no teacher. It will soon become a matter of public policy and public concern, and if the Board are forever to stand a set-off, the reasons should be given, fully and explicitly to the public when we venture one party or the other will feel disposed to change the base.

It is not our purpose to give any advice in these remarks, but possibly to reflect the status at present writing. Everybody knows the Board stand three for Mr. Phillips or nobody, and other three for anybody of good qualifications but Mr. Phillips. The first argue that he has been tried and found superior, why not keep him? See resolutions and they are supported by a large petition of good citizens. The others state that he has been guilt of grave misdemeanors, which they charge and stand ready to prove, and they cannot and will not consent that he again go into the public schools.

We know what these charges are and know they are serious, but we do not know whether they are true or false. These members are also supported by a petition of good citizens. Three stand for Mr. Phillips, and three not for any particular applicant, but offer to put in any one of several.

The feeling is intense and bitter with many. There are citizens who say to both parties to stand firm, although it would seem to be unnecessary advice.

There are other citizens who have no particular choice in teachers, and they argue that school should go on. They have nothing against Mr. Phillips, have not investigated the charges, and don't propose to But admitting he is able as his friends claim, it does not argue that nobody else can fill his place.

If this dead-lock continues, there will not likely be any school before January.

There are others again who suggest that the entire Board resign, while again it is said this is a child's play, and it is their duty to agree on someone and start the school. They are supreme in the matter, and whether it be devotion to principle or personal spite, the public are the sufferers.

John Dean Phillips, 1832-1888

[Ed. note] J. D. Phillips was born on a farm near Marietta in 1832, son of Joseph and Margaret Phillips, and graduated from Marietta College with the Class of 1854. He immediately engaged in teaching, taking posts at the Greene Street Grammar School and Harmar Grammar School, among others. He taught for 34 years, and over 3,000 pupils received instruction from him. In 1879, Phillips accepted the superintendency of the Harmar Public Schools and also continued teaching. After becoming ill during the summer of 1888, he resigned from his position and died August 15 of that year.

Bosworth House

The Marietta Register, August 25, 1870

D. P. Bosworth has moved into his new house, Third Street, above Putnam.

Home of Daniel Perkins Bosworth at 316 Third Street.

1850 Census Statistics

Marietta Intelligencer, August 15, 1850:

1850 Census Statistics of Barlow

The Deputy Marshals of this County are now busily engaged in performing the duties of their appointment, and we hope to make weekly reports of their proceedings. By favor of B. F. Stone, we are enabled this week to give an abstract of the census returns of Barlow.

The increase of population in that township is greater than we expected, being over 20 percent. Two facts are worthy of special notice. 

1st. The number of families in the township exceeds the number of dwelling houses only two. We doubt whether there are a score of townships in Ohio in which only one dwelling house in a hundred has two families.

The rate percent of mortality is almost unprecedentedly small, less than 4-5 of one percent!

From Mr. Stone's items we copy as follows:

The population of Barlow is 1,062. There are in the township three ministers and three churches. The value of church property is $800. The church buildings will seat 875 persons, viz: Old School Presbyterian, 375; New School, 200; Methodist Episcopal, 300.

There are in the township 188 dwelling houses and 190 families. There were eight deaths in the year ending June 1, 1850, viz: two of consumption, one disease of the heart; one dropsy; one tonsillitis; one erysipelas; one scarlet fever; and one inflammation of the head. The ages of the persons deceased were 71, 38 26, 19, 16, 4, 2, and 2.

The Crops of 1849 were very short. The estimate is that the wheat fell short 7/8, oats 1/4, and potatoes 1/2. The potato crop was cut short by rot. As to the wheat crop, Mr. Stone says: "You may think reporting the crop of 1840 [1849] was 7/8 short is a wild idea, but I verily believe that no person could with any degree of propriety say that the calculation is far from the fact."

The usual average of crops in Barlow is estimated as follows: Wheat, 12 bushels per acre, Corn 30; oats 20; Potatoes 85.

The average wages paid for hands per month with board is $10. Day laborers 50 cents and board; carpenters, 87 cents and board. Weekly wages of female domestics with board $1.

Mr. Stone concludes his letter with a remark to the truth and justice of which every man who knows anything of the people of Barlow will subscribe. He says: "I do not believe that a more kind and hospitable, or a more industrious people, can be found in this or any other country, than I found in Barlow township, Washington County, Ohio."

Probably a larger proportion of the inhabitants of Barlow are Scotch, or of Scotch descent, than of any other township in the county. They are industrious, frugal, hospitable, and scrupulously honest. The township also has some of the Yankee leaven and we suppose, a sprinkling from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. We presume the native Buckeye now predominates.

One fact more we may state in regard to Barlow. We presume there is no township in the county, and but very few in the State, in which so large a proportion of the citizens are free holders, nor one in which so few persons can be found who ever lack the necessities and comforts of life. Poverty, such as exists to a greater or less extent in nearly every township, is a thing unknown in Barlow.

Marietta Intelligencer, August 22, 1850:

1850 Census Statistics of Belpre, Warren, Beverly, and Ludlow

By favor of B. F. Stone, we are enabled to give some statistics of Belpre township. The population is 1,623 , an increase of over 20 percent since 1840. 

There are 270 dwelling houses and 278 families in the township. 

The number of deaths in the year preceding June 1, 1850, was 14, as follows: of consumption, 6; cholera infantum, 2; scrofula, 1; dropsy in the head, 1; putrid fever, 1; nervous fever, 1, unknown, 2. The ages of the persons deceased were as follows: 52 years, one; 33, one; 31, two, and 26, 25, 23, 22, 10, 6, and 3, each one; two, 1 year; and 1 less than one year.

There are four churches in Belpre, and one resident minister. The number of persons accommodated by the church buildings, and the value of the buildings, is thus stated:

Methodist, upper Belpre, 200 persons, $300 value.

Methodist, lower Belpre, 250 persons, $300 value.

Universalist, 250 persons, $300 value.

Congregational, 300 persons, $500 value.

Crops. The usual average crops are stated thus:

Wheat, 16 bushels per acre; Corn, 45; Oats, 25; Potatoes, 105. Last year Potatoes were short 1/4 and wheat about 7/8.

The increase of population in Belpre is greater than we anticipated. We shall look for the agricultural and other statistics from there with interest. Belpre is Mr. Stone's township, and he very modestly declines saying half so much in its praise as he might. We venture to copy from his letter, communicating the facts given above, one paragraph:

"Perhaps we cannot say with our Barlow neighbors that we are all industrious, to a man, yet the fact that there is a steady increase of wealth in the township proves that the majority of the people are industrious and prosperous, and sir, if you do not believe what I say about the increase of wealth in the township, I will refer you to the Auditor's books, and there you will find a steady increase of personal property, moneys and credits, new structures &c. brought upon the duplicate for taxation."

Correction for Barlow: There was an error in our statement last week as to the value of church property in Barlow. It is $1,900 instead of $800.

Warren - Beverly - Ludlow

Col. A. Stone has completed the census of Warren township and returns 1,425 inhabitants, an increase of 50 percent since 1840!

Mr. Lewis H. Green has completed the census of Ludlow, and sends us the following report:

The whole population is 1,051, an increase of nearly 100 percent since 1840! The number of males is 559; females, 492. Married within the year, four. Died within the year, 15. Born in the State of Ohio, 577. Value of real estate (by owners), $94,000. Other statistics will be published at an early day.

The "Huckleberry-Knobs," as a citizen of Columbus once styled this part of Ohio, are "coming out." We shall by and by see if the population of the "knobs" has not increased faster in the last ten years than that of the "fertile" counties in the center of the state. We want to compare the rate percent of mortality, too. We think the returns will show that Marietta is the healthiest town in Ohio and that the rate percent of mortality in the county, in the year ending June 1, 1850, was less than one half the average of the state.

The following is a table of the returns so far made in this county, compared with the returns of the last preceding census:

Barlow - 1840, 880; 1850, 1,062

Belpre -  1840, 1,296, 1850, 1023

Beverly village - 1840, 317; 1850, 526

2nd Ward, Marietta - 1840, 858; 1850, 1,635

Warren - 1840, 931; 1850, 1,425

Ludlow - 1840, 539; 1850, 1,051

Conestoga Wagon Found By Scouts

The Marietta Daily Times, April 7, 1937

A Conestoga wagon, first type of American wagon used after the old British army wagon, is in Campus Martius Museum. It is one of the early ones built in Pennsylvania where the name "Conestoga" was given this type of vehicle because it was first built at Conestoga, Pa.

Marietta Boy Scouts are responsible for uncovering the relic which is in the museum basement. It was found in the loft of an old dilapidated barn on the old Buck farm near Swift. The Buck farm is now the Boy Scout reservation.

The wagon was brought to the lower section of the Muskingum Valley in the early 1830s by John Buck, who settled on a farm of 300 acres that remained in the Buck family generations until the Boy Scout organization bought the farm. Buck was one of the contractors who built Luke Chute dam in the Muskingum when the state of Ohio made slack water improvements in building all the dams between Marietta and Zanesville. He brought his family to the lower Muskingum Valley in the wagon. For many decades it lay forgotten in the old barn, until it was discovered and restored by the Boy Scouts.

The wagon bed was in good condition when found by the scouts. It was necessary to put in new parts underneath, including wheel axles. It still has the genuine handwoven fabric top and the tar bucket hangs underneath.

Bartlett

Marietta Register (Tri-Weekly), September 4, 1890

Some of the Early and First Settlers of Wesley Township.

James Rardin was amongst the first. He came to this township with his father's family in 1804 and lived here until July, 1889, when he died. He lived in the township longer than any other man and died in his eighty-ninth year. When he came, there was only one house in what is now Plymouth, and only one between here and Marietta, and only six or seven cabins within a range of seven or eight miles. 

Wild animals were plenty, such as deer, bear, wolves, panthers and wild cats; wild turkeys were also numerous. Indians often passed through the township on trading expeditions. About 1837 the wild game, except deer and turkeys, had all disappeared. The former at that date, and for two or three years after, were quite plenty, good hunters often killing from two to four in a day.

John Bachelor, an old man and one amongst the early settlers, was one of the most successful hunters of that day. He lived to see the large game all pass away and had to come down to shooting squirrels, and died soon after.

James and Carmi Smith have lived in the township longer than any other persons here. James was born in 1809 and came here with his father's family in 1810 and has lived here ever since. Carmi was born in 1812; has lived a few years in Fairfield Township, also a few years in Belpre, but has come back to settle in Wesley and says he expects do die here.

James Smith owns and occupies the farm his father settled on in early times. Stephen and John Randolph own and occupy the farm that their father settled on. Andrew Rardin owns and lives on a part of the farm that his father first settled on. Thomas and Abigail Swain occupy the farm owned by William Ellis, Abigail being a daughter of William Ellis. There are no other farms to my knowledge that are occupied by the descendants of the early settlers of the township. All have changed owners and some of them many times.

Wesley Township was originally quite heavily timbered, especially the northern part along Wolf Creek and Coal Run, with poplar timber. In early times there were often poplar logs cut that were sixty and eighty feet in length, that would square eighteen to twenty inches, and floated down Wolf Creek to Beverly for flatboats. But now there is but little good poplar timber left in the township. If some of the land along Wolf Creek and Coal Run had the timber on it that it had in its original state, it would be worth many times its present value.

West End.