CEDARVILE HISTORY

(EARLEY SETTLERS)

OLD SETTLERS.

   The first persons who made homes for themselves and families in this township were principally from Kentucky and South Carolina, from which states they emigrated on account of their antipathy to slavery. They were mainly decendants of the Covenanters, who came to the United States from Scotland in the early days of our republic's life.

   The first persons who established themselves and families permanently in this township were two brothers, John and Thomas Townsley, who emigrated from Kentucky, and came here in 1801. The former was the father of eight children, and the latter of five. Upon arriving here, they located upon the banks of Massie's Creek, and purchased about one thousand acres of land, where they had chosen to build themselves homes. They built small, round log cabins, and, quickly as it could be done, cleared a small spot of ground which the families tended in partnership, and from which in the summer of 1801 they harvested the first crop of corn that had been raised by a white man in Cedarville Township.These were stalwart men, of unflagging energy, just such as were necessary to contend with the opposing elements of an unsettled country; and by their ceaseless activity, united with an Indomitable will, they succeeded before their deaths in laying the foundations of a settlement, the rapidity of whose progress has not been excelled, or, considering the circumstances, even equalled by thatof any other township in Greene County. These men and their children are now all dead; but the grandchildren of the old stock are still in the vicinity of their father's early homes, grown old and gray in a community they may well be proud of, as having been established on the ever prosperous basis of morality, by their revered forefathers. Thomas vacated his round log cabin, with its ground floor in 1805, when he moved into the hewed log house he had just completed, and which was the first of that kind in the township, and was considered an elegant structure.

    Wm. McClelland came, with his family, to this township from Kentucky, in 1802, and settled about one mile from the present village of Cedarville, on the borders of Massie's Creek, where he became the owner of one hundred and fifty acres of heavily timbered land. He arrived here early in the spring, and immediately went to work to build his cabin, which he soon had ready for occupation, after which he turned his attention to the work of preparing a piece of ground for corn, that he might have food for his family during the coming winter. He cleared a small spot, and planted his corn in June, from which time on he was obliged to keep the squirrels from it till it had become nearly two feet high. In the fall, however, he harvested enough corn to supply all his wants till the next year.

    Alexander McCoy had a family of nine children, and came with them to this township, from Kentucky, in 1802. He located west of where Cedarville now is, and purchased six hundred acres of land, heavily timbered, and full of bears, wolves, deer, and nearly all kinds of small game, together with a tribe of Indians who had a camp upon the place. These latter, however, were peaceable, and the first settlers never received at their hands anything but the kindest, and most humane treatment. Mr. McCoy put up a little log hut, into which he moved, and remained several years. He cleared the land up as rapidly as possible, and in a few years had it in what was in that day considered a good condition. Jacob Miller, the present owner of this farm, bought it for $7.00 per acre. It would now probably sell for $100.00 per acre. David Mitchel emigrated from Pennsylvania, and went to the blue grass regions in Kentucky, in about 1779, where he remained till he brought his family of four children to this township in 1802. He had owned one thousand acres of land in the most fertile section inKentucky, but his hatred to slavery, and all its concomitant evils, induced him to dispose of his fruitful plantation in that delightful locality and come here, where whatever might be the disadvantages of the country, the clanking of' the slave's galling chains would at least be unheard. He purchased about one hundred and sixty acres of land on Clarke's Run, three miles northwest of Cedarville, and built his cabin in the woods, and applied himself vigorously to the work of clearing his farm, and making his surroundings in this neighborhood as comfortable as possible. He remained upon the old place till his death.

    David Laughhead was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state he emigrated prior to the beginning the present century, and settled in Kentucky, where he remained till he came here in 1802, and located on Clark's Run, where he bought five hundred acres of land at about $1.75 per acre, all of which was a pathless wilderness, in which ranged at will multitudes of all kinds of wild animals native to our state. Not discouraged by the gloomy aspect of things in this vicinity, Mr. Laughhead went cheerfully to work, and in a few weeks after his arrival here, had succeeded in completing a temporary dwelling place, after which he began the laborious work of removing the forest, and in a few years had what was in those days considered a large number of acres under cultivation. The country was wild, comforts were scarce, and neighbors miles apart, but notwithstanding all these disadvantages, our state was a land of freedom, where the sinful laws of slave-holding were not tolerated, and these noble old Covenanters were willing to endure the hardships and privations of anew and unsettled country -providing they enjoyed the satisfaction arising from a free conscience, together with the knowledge that one of the greatest evils ever tolerated in any country would never be introduced into their midst.

   Captain Herrod, from Kentucky, settled in the eastern part of this township, about five miles from where Cedarville is now, shortly after the Townsley brothers settled in another part of the township. He probably came here in the fall of 1801. He had a family of sons and daughters, and purchased a large tract of land, which he continued to improve and cultivate till his death, many years ago.

   William Moreland immigrated to this township from Kentucky, in the spring of 1805, and located on something more than two hundred acres of land, about three miles east of Cedarville, being the second person who located in this part of the township. He built

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