Licking County, then part of Fairfield County, first settled in 1813 at present-day Utica

Even though Ohio became the 17th state in 1803, it didn’t mean the area that we now call Licking County was settled. This area was part of Fairfield County and was named Licking Township.

The county as we know it wasn’t established until 1808. During these early years, many land speculators tried to make money off the westward expansion. One of these men was Joseph Hardy who, in 1800, was conveyed 3,460 acres in Ohio from President John Adams. In 1807, Hardy sold the land to Jonas Stanberry for $1 an acre. Stanberry then divided the land into lots.

In 1810, Stanberry sold lot No. 9, which consisted of 73 acres, to William Robertson and his younger brother James, who were living in Zanesville at the time. The brothers were originally from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The acres they purchased are where the present village of Utica sits.

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The brothers moved to their land in 1810. One of their first projects was building a dam on the North Fork of the Licking River to divert water to power their future sawmill and grist mill. While the brothers were digging the mill race to carry the water from the dam to the mills, they unearthed two or three bones that measured from 4 to 6 feet in length. They were thought to be the ribs of an animal and may have been the first Mastodon bones found in the county. The mill race flowed east from the North Fork, through the area where Licking County Library’s Utica branch now stands and then across modern-day Route 13, behind the current Mill Street Mill.

In January 1813, William returned to Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and married his cousin Sarah. Sometime after that, the newlyweds began their journey on horseback to their home in Ohio. They arrived in Newark on March 2 and were the guests of Judge Wilson. They stayed in town the next day and that evening were the guests of Moses Moore. On March 4, they swam their horses across the Licking River for the last part of their journey.

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“Hills History of Licking County,” published in 1881, has two versions of the story of their trip home. As the couple arrived in sight of their cabin, they began to cross the flooded river. About midstream, Sarah’s horse became entangled in either wood or floating ice and fell, throwing her into the water. In one story, William jumped into the water and brought his unconscious bride to shore. The other version is that she grabbed a root near shore and held on until William could help her out. Either way, it wasn’t quite the welcome home either imagined.

In 1814, William laid out the lots for a new town and filed a plat map with the court in Pittsburgh for approval. The town consisted of a 50-foot-wide street that ran north to west. On each side of that street, he set aside 10 lots, 66 feet wide and 165 feet deep. Those lots were then divided by two alleys that ran east to west that were to be 15 feet wide.

On Feb. 6, 1816, the map was approved and recorded in the court records establishing the village of Wilmington in Washington Township, Licking County, Ohio.

Doug Stout is the Licking County Library local history coordinator. You may contact him at 740.349.5571 or dstout@lickingcountylibrary.org .

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Licking County, then part of Fairfield County, first settled in 1813 at present-day Utica