In
1801 Salem township comprised all the northwest corner of the county.
On the south its boundaries were approximately the south boundary of
the present Jefferson township extended through to about the location
of Sharon. In the list of taxables of 1801, those in Salem
included William Budd and Benjamin Bentley, the pioneers of
Sharon, from which it is evident that the old Salem township reached
south this far. In 1802 Salem township was divided, the south half
being named Pymatuning.
The original Pymatuning township
included all the territory in the present township of that name and
also the north half of Hickory [now City of Hermitage], and Jefferson
and Delaware townships.
William Fell came to this township in
1796 and soon afterward located his family here. His brother was Nathan
Fell, also one of the earliest settlers in this township. He and other
members of the family came from Westmoreland county, and their
descendants are numbered in the active citizenship of the twentieth as
they were among the industrious pioneers of the nineteenth century.
The
honor of first settlement in this township probably belongs to Jacob
Loutzenhizer, who built a saw and grist mill on Pymatuning creek in
1798. Several years later he sold the mill and moved to the junction of
the little and big Shenango rivers and became one of the notable
pioneers of Greenville.
Robert McCord also came in 1798,
locating about two miles east of Transfer, where he taught a school in
1814, the first record of education in the township. Andrew Chestnut
was a relative of this schoolmaster and came to the township at the
same time. Both families furnished soldiers to the war of 1812.
A
veteran of the Revolution who is frequently mentioned was Godfrey
Carnes, whose settlement in the township began in 1801. His descendants
still live on land secured by him when he came to the county.
The
mills first established by Jacob Loutzenhizer and later transferred to
Adam Haun were the site of a village community long known as Haun’s
Mills, but now Orangeville, a village which is for the most part in
Ohio.
Source: Twentieth
Century History of Mercer County, 1909, page 169 - 170
|
| Transformation of Pymatuning Twp. |
| Formed in 1802 from Salem Twp. |
Later divided into the following townships:
- Hickory
- Jefferson
- Delaware
- South Pymatuning
|
|
|
