---

ASHLAND was formed February 26, 1846.  The surface on the south is hilly, the remainder f the county rolling  The soil of the upland is a sandy loam;  of the valleys -- which comprise a large part of the county -- a rich sandy and gravelly loam, and very productive.  The principal crop is wheat, of which probably no portion of the state, of equal extent, produces more.  A great quantity of oats, corn, potatoes, &c., is raised, and grass and fruit in abundance.  A majority of the population are of Pennsylvania origin.  Its present territory originally comprised the townships of Vermillion, Montgomery, Orange, Green and Hanover, with parts of Monroe, Mifflin, Milton and Clear Creek of Richland County;  also the principal part of the townships of Jackson, Perry, Mohecan [sic.] and Lake, of Wayne County;  of Sullivan and Troy, Lorain County;  and Ruggles, of Huron County.  This tract, in 1840, contained a population of about 20,000, or 50 inhabitants to a square mile.

Public Buildings in Ashland

Ashland, the county seat, was laid out in 1816, by William Montgomery, and bore, for many years, the name of Uniontown;  it was changed to its present name in compliment to Henry Clay, whose seat near Lexington, Ky., bears that name.  Daniel Carter, from Butler Co., Pa., raised the first cabin in the county, about the year 1811, which stood where the store of Wm. Granger now is, in Ashland.  Robert Newell, 3 miles east, and Mr. Fry, 1½ miles north of the village, raised cabins about the same time.  In 1817, the first store was opened by Joseph Sheets, in a frame building now kept as a store by the widow Yonker.  Joseph Sheets, David Markley, Samuel Ury, Nicholas Shæffer, Alanson Andrews, Elias Slocum and George W. Palmer were among the first settlers of the place.  Ashland is a flourishing village, 89 miles nw. of Columbus, and 14 from Mansfield.  It contains 5 churches, viz.:  2 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal Methodist, 1 Lutheran, and 1 Disciples, 9 dry goods, 4 grocery, 1 book, and 2 drug stores, 2 newspaper printing offices, a flourishing classical academy, numbering over 100 pupils of both sexes, and a population estimated at 1300.  The above view was taken in front of the site selected for the erection of a court house, the Methodist Church building -- seen on the left -- being now used for that purpose;  the structures with steeples, commencing on the right, are the 1st. Presbyterian Church, the academy, and the 2nd. Presbyterian Church.

At the organization, of the first court of common pleas for this county, at Ashland, an old gentleman, by the name of David Burns, was one of the grand jurors, who, as a remarkable fact, it is said, was also a member of the first grand jury ever empanelled in Ohio.  The court met near the mouth of the Wegee creek, in Belmont County, in 1795;  the country being sparsely settled, he was compelled to travel forty miles to the place of holding court.

Jeromesville, 8 miles SE. of Ashland, on Lake Fork of Mohiccan [sic.], contains 6 stores and about 500 people.  In the late war, it was the only settlement within the present limits of the county, and consisted of a few families, who erected pickets for their safety.  There was at that time a Frenchman, named Jerome, who resided there and gave name to the locality.  He had been an Indian trader, and had taken a squaw for a wife.  The people of that nation always became more easily domesticated among the Aborigines than the English.  From very early times it was the policy of the French government not to allow their soldiers to take wives with them into the wilderness.  Hence the soldiers and traders frequently married among the Indians, and were enabled to sustain themselves with far less difficulty.

The Delaware Indians had a settlement at or near Jeromesville, which they had left at the beginning of the war.  Their chief was old Captain Pipe, who resided near the road to Mansfield, one mile south of Jeromesville.  When young he was a great warrior, and the implacable foe of the whites.  He was in the St. Clair's defeat, where, according to his own account, he distinguished himself and slaughtered white men until his arm was weary with the work.  He had a daughter of great beauty.  A young chief, of noble mien, became in love with her, and on his suit being rejected, mortally poisoned himself with the May apple.  A Captain Pipe, whose Indian name was Tauhangecaupouye, removed to the small Delaware Reserve, in the upper part of Marion County, and when his tribe sold out, about 20 years since, accompanied them to the far west, where he has since died.

Loudonville 18 s., Rowsburg 9 e., Savannah 7 nw., Orange 4 e. and Haysville [sic.] 8 s. of Ashland, are villages having each from 50 to 60 dwellings.  At the last is the Haysville [sic.] Literary Institute:  the building is a substantial brick edifice.  Sullivan 14 ne., and Perrysville 18 sw., have each but a few dwellings.