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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.
��County. Mr. Constance Lake, who built the first mill, Avas buried in the first graveyard, which was laid out near Eckley's Church.
"Hammond's Meeting-house," in the southern part of the township, was erected by the Methodists in 1852.
The German Evangelical, in the " Risser set- tlement," was organized in 1860. The house was built in 1847 by the Mennonites, a de- nomination that embraced about fifteen fami- lies. Rev. John Risser was the first Pastor, and the oflScers Christian Herschler and John Latschar. After a time, a half-interest in the house was sold to the German Lutheran society.
The Church of God, better known as the Winebrenarian, was organized in 1835, with about twenty members. Rev. Thomas Hickor- nell and Rev. Jacob Keller were the first Pas- tors. Michael Stevens and Archibald McGrew were the first Elders. It was erected near the eastern line of the township.
In Hayesville, the Old School Presbyterian Church was organized in the fall of 1846, and had as the first minister Rev. Benjamin T. Lowe. An Associate Church was organized in Ha^-esville at an early day. It was called the "Associate Congregation of Haj'esville," and in 1858, upon the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed, became the United Pres- byterian.
The first Methodist Church in Hayesville was organized in 1828, at the house of Richard Jackman. About two years after Hayesville was laid out, the society erected a house for worship, 28x35 feet, the membership at this time amounting to thirty. In 1855, another building was erected, at a cost of $1,400. It is 38x50 feet in size. Mr. Palmer, one of the earliest settlers, says the first clergymen in the township were Presbyterian missionaries, who in traveling to and from the missions among the Senecas and Wyandots made it a practice for many years to preach at the house of Mr. Palmer and others. Eckley's Church
��was quite a large one, made of unhewn logs, in which the Methodist quarterly meetings were generally held, and to which the settlers came from a great distance, bringing their pro- visions, and camping out about the church — sometimes using its capacious fire-place for cooking purposes.
In 1849, Sylvester Alger and George W. Urie, architects, constructed the Ashland County Infirmary in this township. It cost about $4,000.
Hayesville was laid out October 26, 1830, by John Cox and Linus Hayes, on the land first entered by Lemuel Boulter. The year before this, an effort had been made to start a town two miles west of where Hayesville was after- ward located. They gave it the name of Will- iamsburg, but it never became a town. The inhabitants in that part of the county felt, how- ever, that a town must be started somewhere near them, along that main road from Wooster to Mansfield. There was also, by this time, an important road passing north and south, upon which teams and men were frequentl}^ passing, engaged in the business of transporting their grain and produce from the older and richer counties of Knox and Licking to the markets at the lakeside. A stopping-place was needed for the travelers on both these roads, and the cabin of Linus Hayes, standing at the intersec- tion of these roads, was converted into a tav- ern. After awhile, it occurred to Mr. Hayes that a town could be built up here, and thus Hayesville was laid out. Probably two-thirds of the earl}^ towns in the count}' came into ex- istence under about the same circumstances. A blacksmith-shop and one or two cabins were built at the cross roads before the town was laid out. John Cox built a cabin on the north- west corner of the principal streets and started the first store. This gentleman undertook to sell the first lots in the town at auction, and on the day named for the sale quite a number of pioneers attended. The business opened in the
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