Chapel Hill On Irish Ridge
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When you travel today on county road # 16 (Irish Ridge Road) in Monroe Township, Perry County, it is hard to visualize the changes that have taken place over the past couple hundred years. Much of the land along Irish Ridge Road is now owned by Wayne National Forest and absentee land owners. Although the Chapel Hill area was once a thriving farming community, now only a few permanent residences are still located there with very little fanning being done at this time. When the first white settlers came to this area, they found vast forests of virgin timber. For hundreds of years the native Americans had used this area as a hunting grounds. The evidence of their presence is still being discovered with each arrowhead, flint knife, grinding stone or other artifact that is found. (I might add here that as a boy growing up on Irish Ridge, I found (and lost) several arrowheads and flint knives on the farm where we lived.) They hunted deer, turkey and a variety of other game that inhabited the area at that time. Some of these species of wildlife disappeared from the area for a number of years, but the deer and wild turkey have now returned in abundance to the area. In the late 1700's and early 1800's , more and more settlers were filtering into Ohio. The Monroe Township area was slower to be settled. It was not until some of the traces and roads began to be built that we see much of an influx of settlers into the Irish Ridge area. Those of the Catholic faith were the predominate settlers of the area that was later to be known as Irish Ridge and Chapel Hill. By 1842, the Catholic church records reveal they were sending missionaries into the area to minister to the early settlers. In 1836 George Thompson and his wife Catharine came to Monroe Township and bought 80 acres of land. George had been born in Ireland and had came to America as a young boy. He had lived in New York and learned the harness making trade. He was still a young man when he came to the area. He and Bryan Murtaugh laid out the town that George called "Thompsonville" on some of the land that he and his wife owned. The name of the town was later changed to "Chapel Hill" in order to get a post office. Thompson was appointed as postmaster in 1860. He was also the Justice of the Peace for Monroe Township and held that position until his death in 1882. He also donated an acre of land for the church. The Catholic Records Society Bulletin of January 1977, related the land was deeded to the church on September 9, 1847. The church was known as St. Francis Xavier Church. The same bulletin relates the church was very active for a number of years and was the center of a lot of the activities in the area. By the early 1900's, the church and parsonage were gone. Only the cemetery remains to tell of those who once lived here. The church was not the only place of activity in Chapel Hill. According to the bulletin a columnist who signed his writings as "Quill" wrote an article in the Geneva, New York, paper where he reminisced of his early life in Chapel Hill. This writer relates "the town was a hustling little business mart". Much of the produce from that part of Morgan County came that way to market. There were two general stores, one ran by the Monnahan brothers and the other by Dennis Souders. Much of the business consisted of items traded for produce, hides and ginseng. The nearest shipping point was McCluney so items were taken by team there to be shipped. The Catholic Bulletin states there were also two hotels for travelers. The history of Perry County states that there was only one. So it is unknown if there was one or two hotels. At any rate, for a period of time the town was quite active for a small rural location. There was also a school located '4 at the bottom of the hill". The 1875, plat maps in the Perry County Court House show the school as being located just north-east of town. This school should not be confused with the Irish Ridge School that did not close until about 1952. Two of the teachers of the Chapel Hill School were "Kiss" Adams and Pat Skinnin. They taught around 1880. It is hard today to even place where Chapel Hill was located. Only three or four houses and the Catholic Cemetery remain. The cemetery has a small wooden sign to tell you that you are at the right place. There are no road signs to tell that a town ever stood here. It is easy to see why the area was called "Irish Ridge". Most of the early settlers were of Irish decent. When you walk through the cemetery, you see such names as Donnelly, O'Farrel, McNally, McBride, Kenney, Rooney and many more. The 1875 plat map for the area shows many of the same names of land owners as well as such names as McDonald, McCarty, O'Neal and others. Many of these families' descendants are still prominent in the area yet today. During the time that Chapel Hill was booming the entire Irish Ridge area consisted of farms that had been cut out of the forest. Today much of the land has gone back to some stage of reforestation. The Civil War era is one point in history for which the area can be particularly remembered. Confederate General John H. Morgan and his raiders passed through Chapel Hill when they traveled from Millertown to Portersville before they left Perry County. The stores were sacked by the raiders, and all whiskey was taken as well as anything else they wanted. Morgan's raiders were well known for this type of activity so there are many stories that relate how people hid items such as livestock from the raiders to keep them from being taken. I have been privileged to trace my lineage for several family lines on both sides of my family to the Chapel Hill and Irish Ridge area. Daniel and Catherine Gossman McNally went to the church there and are buried in a unmarked graves in the cemetery. Their daughter Sarah met my great-grand father William Hines while working at one of the hotels. They later ran the Burr Oak store. The Lattas and Posts lived on the south end of the ridge near the Spencer Ridge area. My great grand father, John W. Van Horn, owned a farm in Wildcat Hollow after he returned from the Civil War. I also had the privilege of spending my first 17 years on Irish Ridge at the head of Wildcat Hollow. I guess my roots go deep in the area of Irish Ridge and Chapel Hill. Arnold (Jr.) Van Horn 18075 Laughinan Road Lore City, Ohio 43755
Sources: (1) Catholic Records Society Bulletin (January 1977) (2) History of Fairfield/Perry County by Graham, 1883. (3) Monroe Twp. Plat Map, 1875
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