HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
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��about 1860. at a cost of $1,000. The principal original members were Michael, Jacob, John and David Secrist and their wives, Uriah Laf- fert}', Elizabeth Kanaga and Jonathan Plank. The first ministers were John Seibert and Rev. Bomgardner.
At present, the church is weak. Rev. Mr. Mesey has, at this time, charge of these three clrarches.
The Salem Church was organized about 1850, and the building erected in 1862, at a cost of $1,000. Its early members were Saipuel, Elias and Henr}' Moore, Jacob Shaffer and Jonathan Freeheffer and wife. The present membership is about forty, and this,- also, is about the aver- age attendance of pupils at the Sunday school.
The Mount Sinai Evangelical Church is lo- cated in Independence. This is an offshoot from the other two. and was organized and a building erected in 1875. The building and parsonage cost about $3,500. Its principal or- ganizers were Franklin Oberlin, Joseph Clever, James Near, Mary Clever, Sarah Thompson, Robert McEwin, Jonathan and George Free- heffer, and a majority of the members of their families. Bishop Stubl)s preached at the dedi- cation of the church in December, 1875, and Joseph Rosenberger was their first Pastor. The present membership is about seventy- five.
A Sunday school was organized in 1876, A. Hitchman being first Superintendent. It now numbers about forty-five members.
Three villages have been laid out in Worth- ington, two only being in existence at present.
The first of these, Newville, was laid out In' Frederick Herring in December, 1823, on the northeast and southeast quarters of Section 3, on the Clear Fork near the mill which he had previouslj' erected. His cabin, erected some years before the town was laid out, was the first dwelling on the town site. Abraham Nye was among the first residents, and was instru- mental in inducing Herring to lay out a town.
��He purchased a few lots and erected the first hotel, one of the first buildings in the place. The first people who settled in the place were the Hogans, Daniel Carpenter, George and Jacob Armentrout and Luther Richard. The latter erected the second hotel. Daniel Stoner erected the first blacksmith-shop. The first Herring mill has not been in operation for twenty years or more, but another mill erected later by the Herrings is in operation, and is owned by the Garretts, of Mansfield.
The first schoolhouse — a log one — was erected about 1826. Samuel J. Kirkwood, late Govern- or of Iowa, was one of the first teachers here. In 1830, a frame schoolhouse was erected, which was used until 1870, when the present neat, two-story frame was erected. It contains two rboms, two teachers, and accommodates sixty or seventy pupils. The population at present is about three hundred. There is one store, one hotel, and the usual number of mechanics and working people. Most of the inhabitants live by farming and various trades. The town is beautifuUj' situated on the Clear Fork, being inclosed by high, rocky bluffs. It is a rather sleepy little place, being undisturbed b}' railroads, or the rush and roar of the busi- ness world. It passes a dreamy existence, inclosed by a countr}' rugged, picturesque and charming. One of its honored citizens is Dr. J. P. Henderson, now in his seventy-eighth year, a graduate of Washington College, Penn- sylvania, who, curiously enough, elected to pass his life in this quiet village, in the practice of his profession, among these simple, honest people, surrounded by his books and his cabi- net of relics and curious things, in which he has always taken great delight.
In March, 1845, a town named Winchester was laid out on Section 9, on the Clear Fork, by Noble Calhoun. A few houses were erected, but the land upon which it was platted, being heavily mortgaged, was sold at Sheriff's sale, and the place never amounted to anjthing.
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