Notes from my Knapsack 12-4-2025
Jeff Gill
Munson land and Granville heritage
___
Jesse Munson has long intrigued me.
One of the first stories of Granville I happened to hear caught the agricultural side of my soul. It had to do with the arrival of wagons from Granville, Massachusetts and neighboring Connecticut in November of 1805.
A party of wagons drawn by oxen arrived about Nov. 2 and camped on the open space, sheltered by the Welsh Hills, now called the Munson Springs Preserve. It was the Jones cabin area at the time, the blue ash logs of the Jones & Cunningham cabins still standing, though Lillie Jones had died, her husband and children now residing far to the south, and Patrick Cunningham a resident of the newly laid out Newark just east of them.
The Jones cabin was about where Longford and Galway Drives meet; the Cunningham cabin just up the slope into the nature reserve, below the springs then without a name in English. On the level ground, dozens of wagons drew up in a vast circle, in the center "night was made lurid with a great burning log heap," according to Bushnell's 1889 history.
Lieutenant Jesse Munson, always honored with that title for his service as a leader of men in the Revolutionary War, had come because almost all of his nine children with Miriam were coming to Ohio. He was of the advanced age of (your author gulps) 64, and when he realized his whole heritage was heading for Ohio, he threw his lot in with them.
Still quite spry (ouch: yes, I'm 64 too), he was a great help along the way; he knew wagons and carpentry, and when a bolt broke, he whipped out a piece of hardwood and made a replacement part that lasted to their destination, arriving at the area of what we now call Munson Springs on Nov. 12. The next day, some hundred first settlers would make their way across Clear Run to today's Four Corners, chop down their first tree, and establish Granville.
But on Nov. 12, 1805, effectively arriving at their destination, Jesse jumped down as legend tells it, grasped a handful of the soil, squeezed it, smelled it, and tasted it. Yes, tasted the soil. He liked the flavor, and told his sons "I should have that farm."
On Dec. 10, there was an auction for the right to choose lots for purchase. Lt. Jesse Munson obtained much of the land on either side of what we now call Newark-Granville Road, from today's Jones Road to Cherry Valley Road, including the springs just up the slope into the hills which now bear his name.
The parcel we now call the Munson Springs Reserve, ironically, was purchased by Levi Hayes, often called Deacon Hayes for his role in the establishment of the Congregational Church in the village, now First Presbyterian. He built a log tavern which in 1808 would host the founding of Licking County, and the first meeting of the county Common Pleas Court. This first "courthouse" would be replaced in 1810 by a large two-story frame house, built with the output of the Munson saw mill built on Raccoon Creek just west of where Arby's sits today. The 1810 House was unique in having a single central chimney and five fireplaces built into it between the two stories and basement; it stood until the 1980s across from Fackler's in what is now the small woodlot facing the road. Each spring, a few clusters of heirloom daffodils mark the location of its front door.
Today, this parcel and the Great Lawn of the Bryn Du Mansion are the only acreage on the east side of the village which are covered with the good soil Jesse Munson tasted. Modern development bulldozes off the topsoil down to clay subsoil before starting construction, then at the end imports a thin layer of topsoil or rolls out sod to begin life again.
At Munson Springs, our history still goes deep.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he does not, as a rule, taste dirt to assess real estate, but he's not a farmer, either. Tell him your favorite history tale at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
If it needs to go under 600 words, remove this:
…though Lillie Jones had died, her husband and children now residing far to the south, and Patrick Cunningham a resident of the newly laid out Newark just east of them.
The Jones cabin was about where Longford and Galway Drives meet; the Cunningham cabin just up the slope into the nature reserve, below the springs then without a name in English.
Jeff Gill
Munson land and Granville heritage
___
Jesse Munson has long intrigued me.
One of the first stories of Granville I happened to hear caught the agricultural side of my soul. It had to do with the arrival of wagons from Granville, Massachusetts and neighboring Connecticut in November of 1805.
A party of wagons drawn by oxen arrived about Nov. 2 and camped on the open space, sheltered by the Welsh Hills, now called the Munson Springs Preserve. It was the Jones cabin area at the time, the blue ash logs of the Jones & Cunningham cabins still standing, though Lillie Jones had died, her husband and children now residing far to the south, and Patrick Cunningham a resident of the newly laid out Newark just east of them.
The Jones cabin was about where Longford and Galway Drives meet; the Cunningham cabin just up the slope into the nature reserve, below the springs then without a name in English. On the level ground, dozens of wagons drew up in a vast circle, in the center "night was made lurid with a great burning log heap," according to Bushnell's 1889 history.
Lieutenant Jesse Munson, always honored with that title for his service as a leader of men in the Revolutionary War, had come because almost all of his nine children with Miriam were coming to Ohio. He was of the advanced age of (your author gulps) 64, and when he realized his whole heritage was heading for Ohio, he threw his lot in with them.
Still quite spry (ouch: yes, I'm 64 too), he was a great help along the way; he knew wagons and carpentry, and when a bolt broke, he whipped out a piece of hardwood and made a replacement part that lasted to their destination, arriving at the area of what we now call Munson Springs on Nov. 12. The next day, some hundred first settlers would make their way across Clear Run to today's Four Corners, chop down their first tree, and establish Granville.
But on Nov. 12, 1805, effectively arriving at their destination, Jesse jumped down as legend tells it, grasped a handful of the soil, squeezed it, smelled it, and tasted it. Yes, tasted the soil. He liked the flavor, and told his sons "I should have that farm."
On Dec. 10, there was an auction for the right to choose lots for purchase. Lt. Jesse Munson obtained much of the land on either side of what we now call Newark-Granville Road, from today's Jones Road to Cherry Valley Road, including the springs just up the slope into the hills which now bear his name.
The parcel we now call the Munson Springs Reserve, ironically, was purchased by Levi Hayes, often called Deacon Hayes for his role in the establishment of the Congregational Church in the village, now First Presbyterian. He built a log tavern which in 1808 would host the founding of Licking County, and the first meeting of the county Common Pleas Court. This first "courthouse" would be replaced in 1810 by a large two-story frame house, built with the output of the Munson saw mill built on Raccoon Creek just west of where Arby's sits today. The 1810 House was unique in having a single central chimney and five fireplaces built into it between the two stories and basement; it stood until the 1980s across from Fackler's in what is now the small woodlot facing the road. Each spring, a few clusters of heirloom daffodils mark the location of its front door.
Today, this parcel and the Great Lawn of the Bryn Du Mansion are the only acreage on the east side of the village which are covered with the good soil Jesse Munson tasted. Modern development bulldozes off the topsoil down to clay subsoil before starting construction, then at the end imports a thin layer of topsoil or rolls out sod to begin life again.
At Munson Springs, our history still goes deep.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he does not, as a rule, taste dirt to assess real estate, but he's not a farmer, either. Tell him your favorite history tale at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky.
If it needs to go under 600 words, remove this:
…though Lillie Jones had died, her husband and children now residing far to the south, and Patrick Cunningham a resident of the newly laid out Newark just east of them.
The Jones cabin was about where Longford and Galway Drives meet; the Cunningham cabin just up the slope into the nature reserve, below the springs then without a name in English.
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