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.

  

Letter From Wesley Township

The Marietta Register, November 13, 1873

Plymouth, Ohio, November 10, 1873

Editors Register:

We have waited long and patiently to see something in your columns from our section of the county, and have at last concluded that Wesley must be heard from, even if our own natural modesty be sacrificed in the attempt.

It may not be generally known to "all whom it may concern" in Washington County, that Plymouth, the grand center of trade and commercial metropolis of Wesley Township, is a village of no mean pretensions. Located among the hills in the western part of the township, it presents an inviting appearance and becomes more inviting as one becomes better acquainted with its inhabitants. In population it numbers perhaps 250 souls. It boasts of three dry-goods and grocery stores, one hardware, and one drug store, two shoe shops, one harness, one wagon and one blacksmith shop.

We have three physicians, two resident ministers, and no lawyers. We never quarrel in Plymouth. Besides all these, we can claim the best hotel (so voted, I believe, by all travelers) in this section, kept by Doctor Smith, a man who has no conscientious scruples about giving a traveler a warm reception and a good dinner at living prices. Then we have a tobacco house which gives employment to several hands, owned and carried on by our enterprising young merchant, S. B. Kirby. Last, but not least, we are better situated in regard to schools than any other village of the same size in Southeastern Ohio.

First, we have the common village school, free to all, and I understand, carried on very successfully by the present teacher, Mr. Frank Cheadle. Next in order comes a tuition school, managed and taught by Miss Marietta Heald under the supervision of the Society of Friends and, if a school is to be judged from the opinions of its scholars, we must certainly pronounce this one a success.

Lastly, in a very pleasant part of the town, Bartlett Academy is located, and near the academy a large two-story boarding house is situated for the purpose of furnishing rooms for students. This school is now under the supervision of W. J. Cook and from the general good feeling which seems to exist between him and his students, we think all must be well. The fall term of this school closes soon, and indications at present are very favorable for a large and successful winter term, commencing November 24th.

An assistant teacher has been obtained from Lebanon, Ohio, and Plymouth has strong hopes that an institution of learning will be established within her limits that will give her a high position in the educational world.

The moral state of our village is far above the average. We have not a liquor shop in the place, and an intoxicated man upon our streets would be a novelty. Very little swearing or immorality of any kind is ever heard, and we have as few specimens of the "genus loafer" as can be found in any place of the same size and business.

Our farmers are complaining bitterly about the price at which they are compelled to part with their tobacco this fall, but Mr. Kirby tells them it is as well as they can do and that ends the matter.

We are very sorry to hear that our young friend, Dr. Hobson, is about to leave us. He goes to Flushing in this state, I believe. May good luck go with him and her who so recently promised to love and obey him as long as life lasts. We congratulate the people of Flushing. "What is our loss is their gain."

I have already troubled you longer than I intended, and now that your readers know our status as a city, I shall content myself hereafter by giving you a "plain, unvarnished tale" of our doings, misdoings, &c., ad infinitum.

Wesley

 

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.

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.