Page 131: There is a land patent reference for Section 25 of Bloom Township signed by Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, and issued on January 5, 1837, to Joseph Buchwalter, an assignee by decree of the court. This is the section of land on which the Rockmill is located. It could be that the Joseph Loveland ownership of the Rockmill site was never honored by the General Land Office.
Of those who are listed on the 1806 personal property tax list of Fairfield County, 14 were land patent holders in Bloom Township of the present day boundaries.
The first of these was David Wright, who land patent carried the date of 1802 and was signed by Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States. David Wright was associated with Joseph Loveland in a land purchase in Bloom Township, although no this 1802 purchase.
The next land patent date was in 1805, for Section 12, and was issued to Henry Tomlinson (Tumbleston on the 1806 tax list). Judge John Chaney, in his recollections, gives Tomlinson as one of his neighbors.
Those whose land patents in Bloom Township carried the date of 1806 were Samuel Spurgeon, Michael Stine, Samuel Lee, Major Bright, and Martin Falkner (Falkner spelled Felner on the 1806 tax list).
A year later, 1807, Zebulon Lee, John Hanna, Andrew Flick, Peter Hairoff, Isaac Mason, Reuben Newkirk and Samuel Harper received their land warrants (land patents) from the General Land Office at Washington, although these purchases were made through the Chillicothe Land Office.
According to the recollections of Levi Stewart in Scott’s History of Fairfield County, John Hanna was a resident of Greenfield Township, so would not be considered a pioneer of Bloom Township although he bought land there at an early date.
In 1808 we find (according to patent records) Thomas Holmes, George Needles, Henry Alspach, Adam Schneider, and Wilkinson Lane owning land in Bloom Township.
Wilkinson Lane came from Huntington County, Tennessee, in1808 and settled on Section 8 of Amanda Township. This land, he discovered, was being purchased by Thomas Cole, as he came north and took up land in Section 32 of Bloom Township.
The Hoys were among the first to settle in Bloom Township. Daniel Hoy received his land warrent in 1809, and 1816 is the date of Adam
Page 132: Hoys land patent. It was in 1809 that Phillip Glick, a neighbor of the Hoys, received his warrent for Section 30. Six years later he became owner, along with Daniel Wortering, of Section 19, the next section north.
The greatest number of government land sales in Bloom took place during the years of 1811 to 1815. During these years there were more than 40 sales of government lands. The last sale, except for the assignment made by the court in 1837, was made for government land in Bloom Township in 1832, according to the records in the Fairfield County Courthouse.
In 1802 or 1803 Christian Crumly (Crombich on land patent) came to Bloom Township and settled along the headwaters of the Hockhocking. However, he discovered he had settle on the wrong land. He crossed to the other side of the streat and took up government land sometime prior to 1812, the date of his land patent.
It was in 1813 that Jacob Baugher received the land patent for the east holf of the section where Lithopolis is located. It was Frederick Baugher who laid out the community of Centerville, now called Lithopolis.
George Hosher, immediately after making his initial payment on land in Section 3, laid out in 1806 the town of Jefferson. It was in 1811 that he received the patent for this land.
Jesse D.Courtright received his land warrent in 1814 and one year later laid out the community of Greencastle along the first road to pass through what is now Bloom Townshipo. This was the road between Lancaster and Franklinton.
Section 16, the school lands of Bloom Township, were sold by Ohio governors Douglas McArthur and Wilson Shannon in 80 acre tracts. These sales took place between 1831 and 1839, and the money from these sales was deposited with the treasurer of Fairfield County, to be used for school purposes within Bloom Township.
Nearly 100 land patents were issued by the General Land Office to lands within Bloom Township. Since the dates of these patents were in the early 1800s, these patent holders could be considered the pioneers of Bloom Township. There are many who did not take up land in the township but arrived during the early days and spent their lives there. They, too, should be considered settlers, since they helped make the township what it is today
August 4, 1973
Columbus Dispatch 5-18-95 by John Switzer
Imagine for a moment how it was when Franklinton was laid out in 1797. There were no roads then in what is now Franklin County, only trails for horse trains. The settlement was surrounded by unbroken forest wilderness.
The first road built out of Franklinton (which later became Columbus) says the "History of the City of Columbus, Ohio by Alfred Lee" went to Lancaster. The reason for that was to link Franklinton with Zane's Trace, a road that went from Wheeling, W.Va to Maysville, Ky. Ebenezer Zane laid it out in 1797. The trace passed through Lancaster and Zanesville.
"For many years it was the principal, indeed the only traveled route through the Ohio wilderness," Lee's history says.
In 1803 a road was built from the public square in Franklinton to Lancaster. Part of that road (from near Groveport to Lancaster) is now Lithopolis Road, says the book "Crossroads and Fence Corners" by Charles Goslin.
The part of the road from Lancaster to a place once called Rock Mill in Fairfield County was built a bit earlier. The place gets it name from a grist mill built there in 1799. Rock Mill Road is still on the map.
You have to remember this road building through the wilderness was going on 30 years earlier than the National Road (Rt. 40) was built.
Jo Riegel, director of community services at Wagnalls Memorial Library in Lithopolis, told me that Lithopolis was once named Centerville because it was halfway between Lancaster and Columbus. The name was changed because there was another Centerville in Ohio.
In 1836 a local doctor suggested Lithopolis, which is the Greek word for "village of stone". He chose that because there was a large sandstone quarry in town in those days. The ravine that runs the length of the town is the old quarry, Riegel said.
So if you stumble across Lithopolis Road in your travels, remember that it was the first road in these parts.
