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Holmes County
Holmes County was formed January 10, 1824, and organized the next year. The county derived its name from Major Holmes, a gallant young officer of the war of 1812. The county seat is Millersburg. Fourteen townships make up Holmes County. They are: Berlin, German, Hardy, Killbuck, Knox, Mechanic, Monroe, Paint, Prairie, Richland, Ripley, Salt Creek, Walnut Creek, and Washington.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:12 am
Millersburg
Millersburg was named in honor of Charles Miller, who, in 1815, laid out lots to establish a small village that was later to become the county seat. The first building was a tavern built in 1819. A year later, a log cabin school house was constructed and in 1821 a typical frontier store was completed. During the winter of 1820 -21, the first religious services were believed to be held in the school. A log courthouse, the first of three, was built in 1825 and by 1834 there were about sixty buildings and a population of nearly 300 persons. Millersburg was incorporated February 17, 1835.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:15 am
Berlin
The village of Berlin is the oldest existing village in Holmes County. It was laid out in 1816 with 108 plots, and all plots were purchased by 1821. Gradually Berlin became a thriving village and the center of commerce for the surrounding area. When the National Road was completed and Zane's Trace was improved to permit wagon traffic southward to Zanesville, storekeepers could more easily send wagons to obtain needed supplies. It was at this time that Berlin grew rapidly and out-distanced Benton as an outstanding business center. The town had machine shops, a foundry, dry goods stores, hotels, tailor shops, hat factories, blacksmith shops, a tannery, a chair factory, grist mills sawmills, and distilleries. In fact, the first real factory in the county was built in Berlin in 1847. This company made the first threshers to be manufactured in Ohio. Berlin was also home to the Berlin Academy which opened in the 1860s.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:16 am
Killbuck (AKA Palladium, Oxford)
Killbuck was first called Palladium and then Oxford. Finally the village was incorporated in 1882 as Killbuck. In the 1820s Killbuck Creek was a navigable stream. Produce, pelts, etc. of the area were sent down the Killbuck on flatboats to Coshocton to be sold. Early photos of Killbuck show three dry goods stores, a grocery store, three blacksmith shops, a hotel, a furniture and hardware store, a wagon shop, a flour mill, several physicians, and an undertaker. The Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, and Columbus Railroads also helped to make Killbuck the site of various early factories. In 1879 Holmes County's first oil well, a gusher, was drilled here; and 1890 saw a new industry begin and thrive in the area when a stone quarry was opened west of town.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:19 am
Holmesville
Holmesville was laid out in 1819 and became known as "The Crossing Place" for early traders and settlers. The waters that carried sand and gravel along Hershey's Run formed the only safe fording place along Killbuck Creek between where the Great Trail from Pittsburg to Detroit crossed the Killbuck Creek west of Wooster and the mouth of Killbuck Creek at the Walhonding River. During the progress of early county settlements nearly all the trails and roads seemed to lead to this crossing spot. A gristmill and sawmill were built near the crossing place and it became the social center of that locality. This was truly a place of great value to early settlers.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:20 am
Mount Hope (AKA Middletown)
Mt. Hope was laid out in 1827. Early settlers were impressed with the fertile soil, rolling land, and good water in the area. In 1841, according to records, Mt. Hope had one store, twelve houses, a post office, a school, and two churches. In 1843 H. D. Perky was born near Mt. Hope and, as an adult, he developed the first prepared breakfast food known as shredded wheat. He formed the Cereal Machine Company, later renamed the Shredded Wheat Company, which by 1900 was operating at Niagara Falls with Perky as president.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:22 am
Nashville
Nashville is located in both Washington and Knox Townships. The town was formed in 1828 and was built at the major crossroads that took travelers east to Millersburg, west to Mansfield, north to Wooster, and south to Zanesville. This was an ideal location at the time since good roads through the wilderness held great potential for prosperity for the town. Records show that by 1900 Nashville had two hardware stores, a drug store, a millinery shop, three groceries and a dry goods store. There were also three restaurants, two hotels, two barbershops, a blacksmith shop, plus shoe, saddle/harness, and paint shops. Best known was the old hotel, The American House (later renamed The Sherman House) still in use today for apartments.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:24 am
Glenmont (AKA Napoleon, Black Creek, Manning, Pictoria)
Glenmont was laid out in 1841 in a pleasant valley surrounded by seven hills. It soon became a thriving trade center for this area. In the early years Glenmont had many small businesses. There were grocery stores, blacksmith shops, a tin shop, hardware stores, a cheese house, a sawmill, a hotel, and a bank. The village also had a brickyard that supplied bricks for "The Old Brick Store", homes, and village sidewalks. A large industry for the village was the Glenmont Stone Quarries. These quarries not only supplied sandstone blocks for buildings and bridge culverts but also decorative stone in many distinct colors; and the company is still in operation today. The economic life of the community also depended on the busy Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, and Columbus Railroad. At one time there were four local passenger trains each day, and freight trains moved everything -- mail, milk, farm products, and stone -- by rail.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:25 am
Walnut Creek (AKA New Carlisle)
Situated in eastern Holmes County, Walnut Creek was surveyed and laid out in 1827. Early businesses included a hotel, blacksmith and carpenter shops, a tin shop and a warehouse. There was also a tannery and leather shop, a wagon shop, a cooper shop, and a place for making coffins. Walnut Creek also had saloons, the scenes of many fights. It is important to note that the first building in Holmes County, specifically designed and built for school purposes in the county, was erected in the Walnut Creek area in 1815.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:28 am
Charm (AKA Stevenson)
Charm began as a village called Stevenson around the 1860s. In 1886 the community made application for a post office. The government submitted a list of town names from which the patrons of the post office could choose. The patrons chose Charm. The community also had another name change being that originally it was recorded to be in Germantown Township. However, in 1918 Holmes County changed the township name to Clark Township. This is the only township in Holmes County that has undergone a name change. Early records for Charm show the following businesses: a harness shop, a jewelry & watch-repair shop, a cheese factory, feed mills, & general stores.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:29 am
Clark (AKA Bloomfield)
Clark was laid out in Mechanic Township in 1818. It is unique in that the town portion north of Cross Street was located in Holmes County, & the part south of Cross Street was in Coshocton County. The plat was acknowledged before a Justice of the Peace in 1823. For a time Clark was a thriving village. Over the years it supported a number of businesses including three groceries, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, a furniture store, a barber shop, a harness shop, and a tin shop. There were also two steam saw and planing mills and a cider press.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:31 am
Trail (AKA Indian Trail)
The original name of this village was Indian Trail, but in 1883 the post office objected to the unnecessarily long name and thus Indian was dropped and the name Trail remained. Early businesses of the town were: a blacksmith, plasterer, and jeweler; also sawyers and thrashers, two general stores, a cheese factory, a sawmill, and a flour mill. A later business was the making of Trail Bologna. This was a most prosperous and well-known business and it is still producing bologna in Trail today.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:33 am
Winesburg
Winesburg, in Paint Township, was laid out in 1832. It was located on the direct route from Canton to Millersburg. Early business places were: pottery, tannery, harness, gunsmith, cooper, and saddle shops. There were small factories making brooms, baskets, bologna, boots, shoes, cigars, and mattresses. The town also had two hotels and dry goods, grocery, and hardware stores. It is significant to note that the residents and former residents of Winesburg have always been proud of their village, and justly so, from the fact that since 1900, they have had a reunion every five years.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:34 am
Benton (AKA Martinsburg)
Benton was laid out in 1829, and it was the first real town to develop commercially in the county. It had gristmills, a woolen mill, a factory to make windmills and spinning wheels and several distilleries where whiskey could be purchased for twenty-five cents a gallon. Benton also had two blacksmith shops, a bottle factory, a sawmill, a wagon-maker's shop, and an elevator. There used to be ten industries getting their power from the dams along Martin's Creek. In the early years Benton was the largest and most important commercial center in Holmes County.

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Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:35 am

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