Pictured, left to right, are descendants of Mount Gilead founder Jacob Young: Todd Niswonger, Sarah Strouse and Chris Niswonger. Also pictured Ann Artrip, far right, who did the research to find their link to Mount Gilead.
Alberta Stojkovic | AIM Media Midwest
The rain held off Saturday, Sept. 28, until the Founders Day Parade had gone through the village of Mount Gilead and people lining Main Street had the opportunity to get into shops and the Morrow County History Center. Mayor Donna Carver thanked Capitol Theatre owners Joey Powell and Jamie Brucker for inviting the Founders Day crowd into the theater to avoid the afternoon showers.
Carver presented Founders Day Parade Grand Marshall Ed Kimmey with a key to the city and recognized him as a descendant of one of the county’s first families, as well as being a descendant of one of the original settlers of the county.
Kimmey, a graduate of Mount Gilead High School and The Ohio State University, taught biology in Mount Gilead schools for 29 years and led the Junior High Science Fair. After retirement, he taught science at Highland Local Schools for five years and taught chemistry and microbiology in the nursing program at Marion Technical College.
Kimmey gave back to the community in many ways. He served on the Mount Gilead Exempted Village Schools Board of Education, the volunteer emergency squad, played the organ in several churches in the county, was a founding member of the Morrow County Gideon Camp, and was active in the Morrow County Jail Ministry.
Keys to the village were also given to three descendants of the founder of Mount Gilead, Jacob Young, who lived in Knox County and owned the land which he divided into lots for the village of Mount Gilead in 1824.
Ann Artrip, of the Morrow County Genealogical Society, told how she tracked down the three descendants who now live in western Ohio. Artrip called it a “reverse search” since she began with Jacob Young and went through the generations, rather than beginning with descendants. She found that Young had 10 children, 31 grandchildren and over 800 descendants. Most of them had moved to the western part of the country.
Artrip’s research led her to sixth-generation descendants Sarah Strouse, who lives in Ansonia in Darke County; Todd Niswonger of Tipp City in Miami County; and Chris Niswonger of Sidney in Shelby County. The three enjoyed the day touring the village and participating in the afternoon ceremony.
Todd Niswonger said they knew family history three generations back but were surprised to get Artrip’s call. He had a membership to Ancestry.com and was able to follow the generations back and confirm Artrip’s findings that they were indeed descendants of Jacob Young. They are delighted to extend their family’s research back three more generations. They can now trace their roots back even further to know that Young came to Ohio from New Jersey.
The three, who are siblings, were very appreciative of Artrip for giving them a tour of the village and for her research. Todd Niswonger called Carver after the ceremony to report he had a new granddaughter born on the Bicentennial Day, now the seventh generation of Jacob Young.
“Thank you for the key to the village,” said Todd Niswonger, who got a laugh from the crowd at the theater when he added, “We didn’t know what time you guys locked up.”
Village Council member Mark Phillips and Historical Society President Mike Wilson read a history of Mount Gilead for its Bicentennial Celebration. The village was known initially as Whetstone and was founded on Sept. 30, 1824, by Jacob Young. He owned the land and plotted 80 lots for the settlement. The village of Whetstone was at that time what is now the south square in a heavily timbered beech forest. The Shawnee people had used the region as a hunting ground because of the abundant wildlife. Later, friendly tribes in the Whetstone area included the Delaware and Wyandot peoples.
Settlers of northern European heritage came to Whetstone in the 1820s to build a new life for themselves and their families. Many had been Revolutionary War soldiers, and they would watch Johnny Appleseed as he carefully tended a local apple orchard. An early circuit preacher was Rev. Henry Shedd, D.D., of Dartmouth College. He held worship services in the dense woods and later at the Cross House. His wife, Mary, taught in the first school in the same frame building.
Sarah Nickols came to the village from Mount Gilead, Loudoun County, Virginia. Nickols and Daniel James wanted to change the name of Whetstone to honor the town in Virginia, and they circulated a petition for the process. A majority of the local citizens agreed and voted for the name change. The village’s name was officially changed to Mount Gilead in 1832, and the Ohio legislature incorporated Mount Gilead on Feb. 16, 1839.
Originally, part of Marion County, Mount Gilead became the seat of government for the newly created Morrow County on Feb. 24, 1848, by an act of the Ohio legislature. The village became an important agricultural, manufacturing and retail center for the Columbus region.
Alberta Stojkovic is a correspondent for The Morrow County Sentinel. She can be reached at [email protected].
