Ohio History Journal

THE PROPOSED TOWN OF CORNISH, OHIO

 

 

By DONALD W. FERGUSON

 

As a part of the study of westward expansion of the United

States, the story of "paper" towns--towns which never survived

their founders, or which existed only in the imagination of their

promoters--fills an interesting chapter. The plan of Lystra, Ken-

tucky, reproduced in Charles O. Paullin's Atlas of the Historical

Geography of the United States (New York, 1932), is a very

good example of the definiteness with which the promoters set

down all the details, even to street names and the location of pub-

lic buildings, of a municipality whose existence was only pros-

pective, and which never came into being.

The proposed town of Cornish, Ohio, is of considerably later

date, and the circumstances are somewhat different. The story

is connected with the early history of Kenyon College, and is

summed up in the following paragraph from the late Dr. George

F. Smythe's Kenyon College, Its First Century (New Haven,

1924):

In 1829, when the need of money was very pressing, Bishop Chase

planned, and had surveyed and recorded, a village, which he named Cor-

nish, in the North Section, on Schenk's Creek, about three miles from

Gambier. Here were plotted streets, a market place, reservations for a

church and schoolhouse, numerous in-lots and out-lots, all seeming very

attractive in the plans and prospectus, and the Bishop hoped to find many

purchasers. To that end, mainly, he made a journey to Philadelphia. But

no one wanted to buy, and so the plan came to nothing.

Among the Bishop Philander Chase manuscript collection, in

the Kenyon College Library, there are a map of the proposed

town, which is here reproduced, and a printed prospectus which

has been copied. The latter was sent by Chase to Bishop William

Meade of Virginia, and bears a note in Chase's handwriting, dated

June 2, Philadelphia:

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246     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

VERY DEAR BROTHER:

In addition to the annexed printed letter now most respectfully ad-

dressed to you I beg leave to subjoin a few words; the object of which

is to entreat you to aid Mr. Fitch the Bearer with advice, your name and

influence among your excellent Friends in Virginia.

If I fail in this my last effort, the consequences will be most fatal.

If I succeed, our Institution will under God be put, beyond the reach of

doubt or danger as to the event of its final success.

The failure of the plan was undoubtedly a heavy blow to

Chase. He had named the town after his birthplace, Cornish,

New Hampshire, and had hoped that it would make the young

college, self-supporting; perhaps he was influenced by the opposi-

tion, a few years earlier, of a large section of eastern clergy under

the leadership of Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York, to

the founding of the college. He had already tried, and failed,

to get a Congressional grant, and the disputes which led to his

resignation as president of Kenyon College and bishop of Ohio

in 1831 had already begun. It is interesting to note that Chase,

in his Reminiscences (Boston, 1848), does not mention his Cor-

nish plan at all.

A copy of the prospectus follows:

 

VERY DEAR SIR,

In presenting you the accompanying map of the town of Cornish,

near Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio, Bishop Chase has no other view than

to serve the cause of religion and learning in the west of our dear country.

Kenyon College is greatly in want of funds to carry on her extensive

buildings; -- and having failed to obtain material aid she is compelled,

however prematurely, to turn her eye toward her own resources. The chief

of these, is the possession of 4,000 acres of land, lying north of the college

section of the same quantity. This tract is of so good a quality, and

watered so abundantly, and lies within such convenient distance, that could

the Seminary wait a little time till the buildings shall all have been entirely

finished, and the great plan in full operation, there is little doubt of its

being greatly and additionally enhanced in value.

But in the present circumstances, delay would be ruin. The debts of

the institution must be paid. The buildings, now but partly erected, must

go on and be finished immediately; for the eyes of the world are upon us,

and the western country is famishing for want of means within the reach

of their ability to educate their children. Thousands and tens of thousands

are growing up in ignorance; and the evil, if not soon arrested, will become

too great to be cured.

Urged on by this state of things Bishop Chase has caused the land

to be surveyed, and a town to be laid off into in-lots and out-lots and reg-

ular streets, of which the accompanying map is an exact representation.

It is situated three miles north of Kenyon College, and two miles and three

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PROPOSED TOWN OF CORNISH                      247

quarters from Gambier. The road connecting the two places will be di- rect, passing through fertile and well timbered lands gently undulating all the property of the Seminary. The stream of water which washes one side of the town, is called Schenk's Creek, from the late General S., who owned lands on its fertile banks. It connects itself with Vernon River, on which the College is situ- ated, in the distance from  Cornish of about four miles. It is pure as crystal, having its source in large springs from above, which gush from the hills on all sides. It is never in summer deficient in water, nor in spring or fall does it ever overflow, so as to deface its beautiful banks, or do injury to the adjacent fields. The stream has thirteen feet head and fall in running the length of the lot, and is sufficient in quantity to turn a reasonable amount of machinery. Besides the map of the town and out-lots of Cornish accompanying this, the Surveyor took another of the in-lots alone, on which he makes his official observations, and on which is entered the certificate of its being legally recorded and acknowledged before the constituted authorities. It was intended to publish this plot also, but the expense was considered too ??     great. The writing in that instrument, however, is here subjoined for the satisfaction of all. A Copy of what is Officially Recorded on the Plot of the In-Lots of the Town of Cornish The streets are all sixty feet wide, and the alleys are twenty feet wide. The lots are all one hundred and twenty feet long east and west, by seventy feet wide, north and south. The tract, upon which the town is laid out, lies in Monroe township, Knox county, Ohio, in range twelve, township seven and section, or quarter township, four; and immediately west of Schenk's Creek. About one-third of the lots lie on a piece of elevated table land, and the residue are on side lying ground, which slopes east towards Schenk's Creek, and north towards a large spring-brook of clear and beautiful water. The small spring-brook passing through the south part of the town plot contains excellent water; but the lots lying upon it are considerably broken, in consequence of the wearing down of the stream through the sloping ground. The tract occupied by the above plot is now covered with the nat- ural forest, the timber of which consists of the different varieties of oak, black and white walnut, hickory, red (or slippery) elm, white ash, black cherry, &c.-with an undergrowth of sassafras, arrow wood, spice wood, ??&c. On the high table ground around Church Square, there is a few acres where the timber has been in a great measure destroyed by a violent wind. The spot is (now) clothed with a growth of underwood and grape vines. The species of grape which grows on this and the neighbouring hills is of a size something smaller than the common garden cherry, but of a pleasant flavour. The quality of the soil in the town, and out-lots connected with it, as well as in the country in which it is situated, is of the middling char- acter; not of the richest kind, and far from being poor. The timber is not surpassed in quality in any part of Ohio. The water of Schenk's Creek is as pure as any I ever saw in any part of the United States. The springs are very numerous. They uniformly issue from a sand-stone bed, and are as free from any mineral impregnation as rain water itself. Church square is, as its name imports, set apart by the propritor as a

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248    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

site for a church and burying-ground, and Market Square for a market

and promenade. The streets and alleys as named in the plot are set apart

as public property.

Surveyed at the request and under the direction of Bishop Chase.

E. HARKNESS, SURVEYOR.

In testimony that I have caused to be surveyed and set apart the

above tract of land as a town, to be known by the name of Cornish, in

manner and form as the same is described on the annexed plot, I have

hereto set my hand and affixed my seal, this the 9th day of April, in the

year of our Lord, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.

PHILANDER CHASE, AGENT, &c.

STATE OF OHIO, KNOX COUNTY, RECORDER'S OFFICE, MOUNT VERNON,

April 11, 1829.

On the 9th instant, the above plot was entered in my office for

Record; and is this day enrolled in Book H, page 14.

ATTEST,

HENRY B. CURTIS, RECORDER, KNOX

COUNTY, OHIO.

STATE OF OHIO, KNOX Co. ss.

Personally came before me, John Wheeler, an acting Justice of the

Peace, within and for the county aforesaid, the within named Philander

Chase, and acknowledged the signing and sealing of the within instru-

ment for the uses and purposes therein expressed.

Given under my hand, this, the 9th day of April, 1829.

JOHN WHEELER, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE.

The above described lots and out-lots of the town of Cornish, near

Kenyon College, Ohio, Bishop Chase, as agent for that Seminary, now

offers for sale, on the terms of $100 for an out-lot and an in-lot taken

together. The subject meets the approbation of all who duly consider it.

There being twice as many in-lots as out-lots, and it being designed to sell

an out-lot and an in-lot together, the purchasers are to understand that

every lot adjacent to their lots respectively, will be offered gratis to any

approved settler who will build a house thereon within a given period. It

is obvious that this will surely and greatly enhance the value of the con-

tiguous property; so that on the ground of interest, the purchaser may be

confident his money could not be more advantageously invested. And when

to this motive is joined that of benevolence to an institution now struggling

with difficulties in some degree equal to its vast importance; difficulties

which have compelled him who puts forth this proposal, to involve by mort-

gage his little all to pay the debts of the college--the reasons for making

this investment become irresistible. All who have a small sum at command

and who have entered into the motives, the design, and the spirit of this

undertaking, will make this purchase, and thus receive the blessing of God

and of approving conscience.

PHILANDER CHASE.

PHILADELPHIA, May 26, 1829.

The site of the proposed town is located about three miles

north of Gambier, and five miles northeast of Mount Vernon,

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PROPOSED TOWN OF CORNISH               249

 

where the old Danville road crosses Schenk's (pronounced

Skenk's) Creek. It is locally known as the Green place, having

been first occupied by William Green, a native of England who

moved there from Delaware County in 1848. At that time the

land was still forest. Green is buried in a small cemetery just

north of the streamlet which forms the northern boundary of

Cornish. The land is now owned by Mr. A. S. Deeds. Part of

it is still in timber, and Deeds has identified all the species of

trees named by the surveyor as still to be found there.

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