PROFESSOR JOHN STEVENS.

no dwelling to cover them; no father or brothers or friends to receive and welcome them; a howling wilderness before them; their funds probably exhausted. But. if they had nothing in their pockets, their heads and hearts were full; they had untried courage and strong moral and intellectual power. The sun, moon and stars were shining above them all in their brilliancy, and the blessed canopy of heaven was dropping down manna in their paths."

The religious nature of the colonists was clearly shown by their zeal in putting first the things of the Kingdom.

rushing back. The echo of their voices, as "the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang," was so peculiar, so different from what it had been in the meeting-house which they had left behind forever, that tears came to every eye. They wept when they remembered Zion.

In connection with the singing there was a strange incident. The northeast quarter of what was afterwards known as Granville township had been purchased by some Welsh people, and one of these, Deacon Theophilus Rees, had missed some of his cattle. On the Sunday morning mentioned he heard the lowing of the oxen be

longing to the company,

of whose arrival on the town site a mile and a half away he was entirely ignorant. Thinking to find his cattle, he walked toward the southwest, and when he reached the top of a hill overlooking the camp of the newcomers, he heard the sound of music. He did not understand a word of English, and the singing seemed to come from the branches of the trees around him. He stood in rapt bewilderment; he thought of those

When the village plot was reached, an itinerant Presbyterian minister named Cyrus Riggs was there, having heard of their coming from the advance guard. Scarcely waiting to unloose their oxen, a hundred gathered around him to hear a sermon. On the Sunday following, at the sound of a horn, a company of ninety-three met near where the first tree had been cut down (now the centre of the village) and held worship. Two sermons were read, and prayers were offered by three of the company. As all knelt together in the forest, it was a scene that touched every heart. Memories of the old home and of the old meeting-house which they had helped to build came

KING HALL, SHEPARDSON COLLEGE.

heavenly hosts which sang the glad anthem to the watching shepherds on the hills of Judæa. At last he rightly determined the direction of the sounds and, pushing forward through the trees, he saw the worshipping company. Without making his presence known, he hastened home to his cabin, told his wondering wife what he had seen, and then said, "The promise of God is a bond," by this Welsh proverb signifying that there need be no fear of the new neighbors. This was the happy introduction of the two elements of population which, working always in the utmost harmony, joined to make up the history of Granville, Ohio. Before another week had passed the first house was finished. It was designed for various purposes, being used for some time for a town hall, for the meeting place for the company, for a hotel, and for a place of worship. The reproduction of its quaint features is sufficiently suggestive.

The minutes of the last meeting which the company' held in Granville, Massachusetts, close with the entry: "Voted, that this Meeting be Adjourned to the first Monday of December Next at Nine O'Clock

were

in the Morning to Meet on the Hardy Section Which the Co. purchased in the State of Ohio for the purpose of Making the first Division of Lands the Company Owns in Sd State."

This company illustrates in a striking way the development of civil government. An interesting comparison might be made between it and some such company as that which settled Plymouth, where governmental functions. carried on by the business organization for some time, until popular demand or public exigency forced the formation of a body politic. Of course the Granville company was not unique in this respect. The company seems to have served as town government for a number of months. Among other actions taken, it reserved the summit of a peculiarly shaped hill for public purposes, thus at the very beginning providing for what has always been open land, but which within the last few years only has been improved for park purposes. In addition, it was voted "to Establish the Bureying Ground," to set aside a lot "for the Seport of the Gospel," an

other one for "the Seport of a School," and a spring, which was long famous in the community, was reserved for public use. These several actions, providing as they did for the church, the school, the graveyard, the park and the spring, are really characteristic of the quality of citizenship which has marked the people of this new Granville from the beginning. One finds in them the spirit of the New Englander, determined to build for the future under the ideas dominant in that glorious ordinance under which the whole Northwest Territory was to become a place of homes for a free people. The same thing is illustrated in a vote taken a month or two later, when a committee was ordered "to receive subscriptions for the encouragement of a library and to draw up in form a constitution for the said Library Co." Books were purchased and circulated throughout the community for a number of years. It is to be regretted that

the interest

and on the first day of January, 1807, Granville township was set apart as one of the divisions of Fairfield County. The only officers chosen seem to have been called magistrates, the judicial functions apparently being the first ones recognized. The company continued to hold meetings, and new members were elected to it from time to time, the settlement remaining a close corporation where each member was received after vote. The first regular election of the township was held in April, 1807, when the following officers were chosen: a clerk, three trustees, two overseers of the poor, two fence-viewers, two house appraisers, one of them being the listor, four

did not develop sufficiently for the permanent establishment of a library of sufficient vitality to last until the present time. Like similar efforts in later years, this organization disappeared, although as in the case of a later library company the charter of the society was strained sufficiently to allow it to be used for banking purposes in the days of the "wild-cat currency."

In May of 1806 a committee was appointed to ask for the incorporation of the community into an election district of Fairfield County. Nothing, however, seems to have been done until late in the fall of the same year, when another committee was chosen to take measures to have the township organized. The necessary order from the County Court was obtained;

supervisors of highways, two constables and a treasurer. The total expenses of the town up to this time seem to have amounted to two dollars. Mention of these first officers suggests a comparison with the organization of the present day. The overseers of the poor no longer appear as distinct officers of the township, the duties being included in those of the trustees. If there is any longer work for the fence-viewers, at least no separate officials are selected for this purpose. The duty of appraising property is now in the hands of a single officer called an assessor, whose work is limited to a comparatively few days of each year.

The last meeting of the company was held in December, 1807. No busi

ness was transacted and an adjournment was taken until the first Monday in February, 1808; but no record of such adjourned meeting is found. The presumption is that it was never held, the business of the community being transacted by the civil authorities; and the Licking Company thus passing out of existence.

The early history of the town presents few characteristics not to be found in that of every western settlement. The pioneer story is much the same everywhere. The houses were made of logs, the windows of oiled paper, the seats and tables of puncheons, the chimneys of "cat and clay," and the furniture other than that mentioned, as well as the farming implements, of light, rude material. Whiskey was commonly used, and several distilleries were soon established to manufacture this necessity of the day. There was plenty of game in the woods, deer, bears, wolves, wild turkeys and

freshment, a very large number of snakes was destroyed. These competitive hunts were features of the period, one famous one securing as results one bear, three wolves, forty-nine deer, sixty or seventy turkeys, and one owl.

Far more suggestive than the little details of pioneer life are the changes which have taken place in the community during nearly a century of civic life. Here was a society which organized as a church in Massachusetts and made a settlement in Ohio in the wilderness. How long did that church maintain its efficiency? What ideas dominant among the people of the first generation have been preserved? What changes have taken place in the population? What elements of power which originated here have made themselves felt in other parts of the world? These and similar questions must be answered, there is to be appreciated in full the influence of such a community in the making of the West,-if, indeed, there is to be renewed belief in the tremendous impetus given to the great western states by the children of New England who have wandered far from the homes of their fathers.

much else to attract the hunter. The country was overrun with snakes of all sorts and conditions. The copperheads and rattlesnakes were the most dreaded. As a rule, the rattlesnakes were about four feet long, and the copperheads from eighteen to twenty inches. These reptiles were found by the springs, were plentiful where logs and stumps were overturned, and crept into the houses of the settlers quite frequently. The snakes became such nuisances that a plan for their extermination was formulated. Two companies were organized, it being understood that the beaten party should furnish three gallons of whiskey for a frolic. The competition being stimulated by the prospect of securing this liquid re

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As stated before, the Licking Company was a sort of close corporation, which welcomed new members only after election. For a long time this feature, which in a way restricted the population, was maintained by the church. As in old New England dissenters found cold comfort when they came into a community where the Standing Order was all powerful, so in Granville for many years only those were cordially welcomed who were members or supporters of the first

Congregational society. The history of this church is much like that of the average New England body. The minister was chosen for life, one of these pastors serving for a period of forty years. In the course of time there was a division in the church, which led to the organization of a new society, which was of the Episcopal faith. While the circumstances attending the inception of this new body were to some extent unpleasant, yet the feeling manifested toward it was never so bitter as that which marked the incoming of the Baptists and Methodists. Happily the old-time bitterness has long since passed away; but the pioneers of these later faiths. have left their reports of the days when anything but a Christian spirit prevailed. The good old pastor of the Congregational church, whose custom it was on the first of January of each year to preach a retrospective New Year's sermon, in which he differentiated "Baptists, Methodists and other heathen" from the children of the true church, no doubt was inspired by the best of motives; but this fling at the members of these two denominations did not prevent them from coming in larger numbers, until the most powerful influence in the town to-day is that exerted by the Baptist educational institutions, while a large part of the mercantile and farming wealth of the community is found attached to the Methodist denomination.

The religious "warning off" was not the only one which was used, for as late as 1839 the overseers of the poor issued to the constable the following order:

"Whereas, we the undersigned, overseers of the poor of Granville township, have received information that there has lately come into the said township a certain poor man, named Robinson, who is not a legal resident thereof, and will be likely to become a township charge; you are, therefore, hereby commanded forthwith to warn the said Robinson, with his family, to depart out of said township. And of this warrant make service and return. Given under our hands this first day of March, 1839."

This poor man was Marius R. Robinson, a prominent antislavery lecturer, the companion of Theodore D. Weld; and it is quite likely that the unwelcome sentiments expressed in his lectures were more persuasive to the Granville magistrates than any real fear that he might become a public charge. For Granville's slavery history was peculiar. On one day James G. Birney, the apostle of freedom, was chased through the streets by a howling mob, which pelted him. with eggs for a mile, as he rode slowly along the highway upon a horse whose mane and tail had just been shaved. On another day a fugitive slave found a safe retreat and a good meal, as he stopped in his flight to Canada. The sentiment of the majority for many years was against the slave. The minority were officers of the Underground Railroad, which had several stations in the township. Twenty years produced a wonderful change in popular ideas, so that when the war broke out it is probable that the large majority of Granville people were ready to fight for freedom. In just such a community would the effect of the Fugitive Slave Law be most felt in the change of public sentiment. Since the establishment of the Republican party, Granville has been the "banner township," sometimes indeed being the only township in the county. to vote by a majority for that party.

Liquor drinking is 110W much frowned upon in Granville. Village local option was followed by township local option, the feeling being quite marked against the saloon. There is an occasional arrest of some proprietor of a "boot-leg-saloon," to use the expressive local phrase, but the town has an exceptional record for temperance. Distilleries were quite numerous in the early days; whiskey is frequently mentioned in the records of the company; and according to the custom of the times, the pioneers drank freely. But the development of temperance feeling was very rapid, and perhaps for half of the history of