Capt. John settles area to become known as Chipp Twp.



Staff Writer

DOYLESTOWN -- The first permanent structure in Chippewa Township was constructed by a man named John Routson -- Capt. John, to most who knew him.

He was an explorer, a woodsman and a soldier of fortune. If there was a man who knew both the beauty and perils of the Ohio Country wilderness in the opening years of the 19th century, it was him.

Routson was born in 1790 in Adams County, Pa., and spent his early years shadowed in obscurity. But in the War of 1812, Routson, then 22, distinguished himself as the leader of a military company known as the Chippewa Rangers, attaining the rank of captain by the end of the hostilities.

Following the war, Routson, like so many other Pennsylvanians, became itchy to join the migration into the nation's great western wilderness, and in late 1815 he found himself in a small pioneer settlement in what is now Columbiana County, Ohio.

While wintering there he became enamored of Sarah Franks. Born in 1792, Sarah was the fourth of 11 children of Henry and Christina Franks who had set out in 1802 from Fayette County, Pa., bound for Ohio. Early in 1816 John and Sarah were married.

When spring came, the Routsons moved northeast into the area that is now Wayne County, settling on a farm near New Easton (later Slankerville and today Easton), just south of what would eventually become the village of Doylestown. It was there they erected a cabin.

While the origin of the Chippewa Township name has historically been ascribed to the Indian tribe said to have long inhabited the area, there is a strong possibility Routson, as the township's first settler, named the area for the military company he had commanded four years earlier.

Because he was a dedicated woodsman, it is likely more of Routson's life was spent away from his farmstead than on it as he hunted in the nearby woods for game, helped with the settlement of new families that were arriving and explored a largely unmapped wilderness.

If his lifestyle was similar to that of many of his contemporaries, it is likely Routson showed up at home only long enough to witness the birth of a new son or daughter, or to father another child who could work around the farmstead, before setting off into the woods again for further exploring.

The couple's first-born son was Samuel, born April 8, 1819. And after his birth, seven other Routson children were born between then and 1834 with near clockwork regularity. But it was Samuel who went on to leave the most indelible mark on the county's history.

Source: "The Late, Great S. Routson and His Pottery/In Search of an Early Ohio Craftsman," by Paul Locher

Sunday: Doylestown's first business


Want to leave your comments?

Sign in or Register to comment.