Madison Township
The Licking River flows through Madison Township and divides the administrative district into northern and southern halves. A number of small tributary creeks feed into the Licking as it passes through Madison. Licking Valley, therefore, is an apt name for this stretch of the Licking River. The Ohio and Erie Canal and multiple railroad lines passed through Madison Township.
Contents
Moundbuilders and Native American Presence
Madison township possessed seventeen mounds and two other ancient works, as well as Native American petroglyphs. [1] There are conflicting accounts of Native American villages and settlements in the township in the mid-eighteenth century; an early European explorer of the area—Christopher Gist—wrote the first recorded account of Licking Valley in his journals, "The Land from Muskingum to this Place rich but broken—Upon the N Side of Licking Creek about 6 M from the Mouth, are several Salt Licks, or Ponds, formed by little Streams or Dreins of Water, clear but of a blueish Coulour and salt Tastes The Traders and Indians boil their meat in this Water, which (if proper Care be not taken) will sometimes make it too salt to eat." Andrew Montour, the son of a Seneca chief and well-known frontier guide and interpreter, accompanied Gist on this leg of his journey, aiding Montour and an English official named George Croghan on a diplomatic mission. The presence of this party would become enshrined in the naming of a Madison Township summit as "Montour's Point."[2] Gist often mentioned the existence of Native American towns in his travels, but made no mention in his journal of a settlement in Madison. A Native American village may have developed at the mouth of the Bowling Green Run between 1751 and the arrival of early settlers in the 1790s. The 1773 account of David Jones would indicate a Native American village called "Dan. Elleot's wife's" in Madison Township along the Licking River near Montour's Point with both Delaware and Shawnee Indians living at the location. [3] Later accounts by local chroniclers utilize these account, but also offer somewhat different presentations of Native American settlement. [4]
Early European Settlement
Christopher Gist, Licking County's first European explorer, visited the area in 1751. He was followed in 1773 by David Duncan and David Jones. Both parties left brief accounts of their passage. Montour's Point became an early important site, serving as a trading post for John Elliot in the 1780s. Elliot traded with a Native American village along Bowling Green Run, probably the same one mentioned by David Jones in his account. These early explorations set the stage for the first European Settlement of Licking County to take place in Madison Township; Elias Hughes and John Ratliff arrived in 1798 and raised their first crops on land near the Bowling Green. The land they used might have been previously cleared for cultivation by Native Americans. Isaac Stadden, another early settler, established his farm in Madison Township further upstream along the stretch of the Licking where Staddens Landing Park is located. [5] Madison Township was organized in 1812 and partitioned from Licking Township.
Despite the early settlement, no significant population center rose in Madison. When the township was organized, the growing settlement of Newark already existed to its west. Mary Ann Furnace developed briefly near its northern limits, and the village of Hanover to its east.
Claylick
Claylick was the only settlement of note in Madison Township, with the exception of Newark's eastward expansion. It lay on the Licking River and straddled the township line with neighboring Hanover. A flood in 1913 sped along the decline of Claylick, destroying the grist mill and saw mill, which accounted for much of the village's industry. A second flood in 1959 would eventually be countered by the construction of Dillon Dam, but the damage had been done. Claylick lost its post office in 1981, and virtually no evidence of a settlement remains today. [6]
Marne
The name Marne first appears in the Advocate in 1927 as a descriptor for the settlement growing near Mountour's point and Bowling Green Run, between Hanover and Newark. The settlement of Montgomery appeared on an 1894 map of the county and might be regarded as the precursor to Marne. With a population of 783 in the 2010 census, Marne is a sizable, unincorporated community. [7]
Newark
As the city of Newark expanded, its growth brought it to the edge of Madison Township and beyond. The central and eastern portion of Madison Township, along the Licking River, has become a part of Newark city. A similar growth occurred with the city of Heath in the extreme southwest corner of Madison.
For more information see also:
Smucker, Isaac . Our Pioneers: being biographical sketches of Capt. Elias Hughes, John Ratliff, Benjamin Green, Richard Pitzer, John Van Buskirk, Isaac and John Stadden, and Capt. Samuel Elliott ; with brief notices of the pioneers of 1801 and 1802. Newark, OH: Clark and King Printers, 1872.
Madison Township website - http://www.madisontwplc.net/home.html
J.G.
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References
- ↑ Mills, W., Archaeological Atlas of Ohio, (1914), 45-46
- ↑ Christopher Gist's Journals with historical and geographical and ethnographical notes of his contemporaries, ed. William Darlington, (1893), 42
- ↑ Jones, D., A Journal of Two Visits made to Some Nations of Indians on the West Side of the River Ohio, in the Years 1772 and 1773, ed. Horatio Jones, (1865), 86-88
- ↑ For later chronicles discussing these accounts see Brister, E., Centennial History, (1909), 138, 365. Brister may have confused the accounts of Gist's passage through Madison with hi exploration of Licking Township. For a more detailed account of the Native American presence in Madison Township see Hill, N., History of Licking County, (1881), 206, 503-505, and Smucker, I., Centennial History of Licking County, (1876), 5
- ↑ Brister, E., Centennial history, (1909), 365; Hill, N., History of Licking County, (1881), 503-505 ; Smucker, I., Centennial History of Licking County, (1876), 42-43
- ↑ Ohio Ghost Towns: No 44 Licking County, ed. Helwig and Helwig, (1998),51-52
- ↑ 2010 U.S. Census Data https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=1600000US3947950&tid=DECENNIALSF12010.P1
