| Notes |
- Year of birth not readable in town birth record. Ancestry.com indexed as 1771, but may have been 1769 as in Paul Clay's tree.
Begin quote
In the division of the county known as Berkshire Township, settlements followed a few years later than those mentioned in Liberty. Moses Byxbe is recorded as the first settler, or rather as the leader of a colony, who settled in this section in the fall of 1804. He owned 8000 acres of land, which he had obtained by the purchase of land warrants from Revolutionary soldiers, and, being a man of influence and enterprise, he had induced a number of friends and neighbors to emigrate with him to the land of promise. The colony came from Berkshire County, Mass., where Byxbe had followed the vocation of tavern-keeping, and, in this business, had received a number of land warrants from soldiers for board. On his arrival here, he laid out a village plat, and called the place Berkshire, for his native county in the old Bay State. The village, thelirst laid out in Delaware County, has never attained the ponderous proportions of Cincinnati, or Cleveland, or Toledo, or many other cities of more modern origin. A post office of the name of Berkshire is about all there is left of this ancient town. The removal of Byxbe to Delaware, and the laying-out of the county seat, destroyed the hopes of Berkshire. Among the names of early settlers in this township we notice those of John Patterson, Maj. Thomas Brown, Solomon Jones, James Gregory, Nicholas Handley, "Nijah' Rice, David Pierce, Joseph Pierce, Maj. Plum and William Gamble. Maj. Brown had made a visit to the "Great West," from his home in Massachusetts, in 1803, visiting Detroit and Cincinnati. Favorably impressed with the country in the vicinity of the latter place, he determined to emigrate to it. He returned home by way of the Berkshire settlement, and Byxbe induced him to settle in that locality. The family of Brown started for their new home in the West in September, 1805. They crossed the Alleghanies and found Zanesville, with a few log huts and a small mill; a little improvement at Bowling Green, a few cabins at Newark, and at Granville the body of a cabin ; and beyond, Brown's wagon was the second to mark the route through the wilderness. The family found shelter with Mr. Root until their own cabin was ready for occupancy.....
----In the meantime, Maj. Thomas Brown, who had gone to Detroit looking for land to locate upon, came back by way of the Byxbe settlement. He was persuaded to cast in his lot with this community, and remained with them until June. Meanwhile the boy Jack, after asking Col. Byxbe to marry him to the girl of his heart (who explained his legal inability to accommodate him), applied to Maj. Brown, who possessed the title of Squire as well. Here the difficulty was not less insurmountable, as he had no jurisdiction. How the poor fellow' made out is not known, but the cows starved to death for lack of attention. In June of 1805, by Mr. Byxbe's directions. Mr. Root surveyed a road out to the present site of Granville, and as soon as this was completed, the I Byxbe family, in their carriage, accompanied with a wagon in which rode Potter, Brown, and another man who furnished one of the two horses, started for Lenox, Mass.; Brown for his family, and Byxbe for more settlers. The whole male portion of the settlement escorted them, cutting out the road as far as surveyed, taking three days to accomplish the distance. Each night they built substantial camps of elm bark, which they left standing for those who might pass over the road subsequently. On their journey out they met the colony which settled at Granville, within two days' travel of their destination. In the following year, Maj. Brown returned with his family, accompanied by David Prince and John Patters 'n with their families. Col. Byxbe remaining behind to spread the news of his new-found El Dorado and to sell it. Joseph Prince followed early the next spring. On arriving at the frontier, Maj. Brown found a wagon-track leading toward his destination, the first track to Berkshire over that route. It was subsequently found to be the track of Nathaniel Hall, who afterward built the mill on Alum Creek. About this time came the family of James Gregory-a family of high social position and mental attainments. The names of Solomon Jones, a Mr. Helt, and Georsre Fisher also appear, and, further south, those of John B. Grist, Joseph Patrick. David Armstrong. Samuel and David Landon, and Gideon and William Oosterhaus. In 1800, steps were undertaken by Maj. Brown to have the township organized, and it was set off with the name of Berkshire. It was not long before Mr. Byxbe returned and occupied a double log-cabin, which he had built on the "street" just before he went East.
Berkshire Corners
In 1811, Maj. Brown built the first brick house in the township, placing it southeast of the "Corners," where it now stands. There is a tradition that the walls were pierced by portholes for muskets, and certain marks are pointed out to the visitor as the traces of these holes. This is a mistake. The house is the immediate successor of the log cabin, and was built of brick made near the spot where the building stands. It was a peculiarity of Berkshire that brick houses preceded "framed " houses, but it is explained by the fact that there happened to be a brickmaker and mason in the community. During the war of 1812, this house was used as a rallying point, and a place of security, for the families of the little settlement, but it was never called to face the foe. The war of 1812 affected Berkshire not essentially different from the other townships of the county removed from the frontier. Judge Carpenter furnished a large quantity of oats for the army, and John B. Grist and David Armstrong,
From the historical records of this region we can see the following, "Salina's history dates back to 1856 when a colony, organized and led by Senator Preston B. Plum, located a settlement on the Saline River near the present site of the city." From his United States political biography we also know about this Preston B. Plum that he was born in the Ohio Region of the United States, and as his biography says, "PLUMB, Preston B., a Senator from Kansas; born in Delaware County, Ohio, October 12, 1837; attended a preparatory school; learned the trade of printing and afterward purchased and edited the Xenia News; moved to Lawrence, Kans., in 1856, to support the "Free-State" movement."
From the historical records in Ohio we can read of this father, "Among the names of early settlers in this township we notice those of John Patterson, Maj. Thomas Brown, Solomon Jones, James Gregory, Nicholas Handley, " Nijah " Rice, David Pierce, Joseph Pierce, Maj. Plum and William Gamble."
We can further read that these settlers were the followers of the American Revolutionary Mason military leader Moses Byxbe, and as we can read from their historical texts, "Colonel Moses Byxbe of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, purchased 8,000 acres in this township and led his first group of settlers here in 1804. After erecting cabins, he returned east and persuaded others to follow to his lands. By 1806, the original Berkshire Township was founded by included parts of Brown, Kingston, Berlin, Orange, Genoa, Trenton, and Sharon Townships. The others formed separate townships until the present Berkshire Township remained in 1821. Follow the links to find out more about Berkshire Township."
It should also be noted of importance that these Masons led by Moses Byxbe were well knowledgeable about this region of Ohio they were occupying, as this was the once home of the ancient peoples in American known as the mound builders[sic], and as we can read, "The second race, "continues the same authority, " as determined by the character of their civilization, were the Mound-Builders, the remains of whose works constitute the most interesting class of antiquities found within the limits of the United States. Like the ruins of Central America, they antedate the most ancient records ; tradition can furnish no account of them, and their character can only be partially gleaned from the internal evidences which they themselves afford."
end quote from Perrin, William Henry: History of Delaware County and Ohio. Chicago: O L Basdkin, 1882 Google free books http://books.google.com/books?id=wRAVAAAAYAAJ, pp. 191ff, 428ff
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1769 - 1816 (46 years)
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