HISTORY OF TIVERTON TOWNSHIP, OHIO
From Coshocton History 1881, N. N. Hill Jr.
Tiverton Center 1840s
There is no village in this township. At the center of the township, known as Tiverton Center, are a store, a blacksmith shop and half a dozen houses. The store is owned by Ed. Day. Benjamin Purdy started the first store at this place and those who followed him in mercantile business were George and Samuel Stingfellow, John Timble, Thatcher & Newell, Newell & Brother then Mr. Day. The post office called Yankee Ridge is kept in the store. It was the only one in the township. The mail is bi-weekly, the office being on the route between Nashville and d Walhonding.
Rochester 1840s (Before Cavallo 1893)
In Lots 39 and 40, east of the river, are a few dilapidated structures, most of them uninhabited, which mark the site of a once flourishing little village. Isaac Thatcher and Isaac Draper laid out Rochester in January 1833. The plat consisted of forty-four lots, and small additions were made in 1839 and in 1842, by Mr. Thatcher, Messrs. Thatcher & Draper had build a saw and grist-mill here before the town was laid out. A dam had been built across the Mohican, and three run of burr were operated in the gristmill. It remained in their possession eight or ten years, and the subsequent owners have been Thatcher & Lambaugh (Henry), Thatcher & Greer (John), John Greer, Silas As Mark Greer, William Conner, and George Jordon, Who resold to Mr. Conner. It remained in his possession until his death, about three years ago, and soon after the mill was burned. It has not been rebuilt, but a little sawmill has been erected on the site.
William Critchfield built the first house in the plat. It was a small, rude, log affair, but he soon after erected a frame building and kept tavern in it. S. H. Draper sold the first goods here, beginning about 1835, and continued five or six years. There have since been as many as three stories in operation at once time. The construction of the Walhonding Canal gave an impetus to the little village, which presaged a prosperous future, but the failure to extend the canal militated against much commercial glory and eminence. The terminus of the canal is about a mile below Rochester. A dam is here constructed across the river, and the slack-water navigation as far as Rochester made practicable.
Soon after the canal was finished, Isaac Thatcher and James Clement built a large warehouse. A large amount of grain was handled here for a few years, but from some unknown cause the business was permitted to decline.
The population of Rochester, in 1840 was 111. This was before the completion of the canal. At one time there were here two hotels, three stores, two blacksmith shops, one mill, one warehouse, one tannery, a wagon maker, a cabinetmaker and a tailor, but none of these now remain. The village has almost passed the period of decadence and will soon pass into oblivion. The Cleveland and Mt. Vernon railroad, which is only four miles north, has attracted to the villages on its rout the trade in this vicinity.
A small sawmill was operated for a few years, in early times on Folly Run by William Smith, Bradford Borden, son of Thomas Borden, about 1837 opened a little distillery on his father’s place, but continued its operation for a few years only.
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Walhonding Valley Historical Society