PLEASANT TOWNSHIP

“Pleasant Township of Today” in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 447:

As a political and civil body, Pleasant Township was created in May, 1836, by striking off from the north of Noble Township nine tiers of sections (eight sections in a tier). This division would include Stockdale, but exclude Roann. It was not until 1873 that Paw Paw Township was created and the two southern tiers were taken from Pleasant, thus reducing it to its present territory—seven miles north and south, and eight miles, east and west.

The reader must keep these facts in mind, in order to reconcile apparently conflicting statements as to the first settlers of the two townships. For instance, both Pleasant and Paw Paw townships often claim John Anderson as their pioneer settler. Undoubtedly he was the first white resident in the Pleasant Township of 1836, but is displaced by another when the Pleasant Township of 1873, or of the present, is considered.

“First Settler” in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 447-8:

The local historians have reached an agreement that the first settler within the limits of Pleasant Township of today was Jesse Moyer, one of a party which in 1835, came through from Wayne County, Ohio, its members locating either in Miami or Wabash counties, near the boundary line. The story of that journey and especially the circumstances which determined Mr. Moyer’s choice of a location in Pleasant Township are thus told by Matthias Lukens, then a youth and an enthusiastic member of the colony: “I came through from Wayne County, Ohio, with a company of movers going to the Wabash Valley, in the spring of 1835. There were two families, with only two wagons—one ox team and one team of horses. The families were these: Mathhias Moyer’s seven in all; Jesse Moyer’s (brothers), five in family; as also Jacob Gill, a widower with no children, and myself, who was a boy eighteen years old, and came with them and stayed. Father (Abraham Lukens) came two years later.

“Beautiful Lakes and Rivers” in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 445-6:

Pleasant Township, comprising fifty-six square miles in the northwestern part of Wabash County, does not belie its name. It is a country of varied surface, of beautiful streams and numerous pretty lakes, and of fertile soil and comfortable homesteads. The sportsman, the lover of out-of-doors and the home-builder, are equally pleased with the outlook.

Eel River and its tributaries are chiefly responsible for the pleasant outlook of the country. That stream enters from the eastern border of the township and flows generally in a southwesterly direction, through the southeast central and southern sections into Paw Paw Township toward Roann. On its way, it passes Laketon and South Laketon, and receives Otter, Silver and Squirrel creeks from the north. These, with several smaller tributaries from that direction, bind together various chains of little lakes.

This feature is most pronounced in the watercourse west of Laketon, which embraces Long, Round and Mud lakes in a sort of triangle. Long Lake, nearly a mile long and one-third as wide, is the largest compact body of water in Pleasant Township. South of its west end is Round Lake, considerably smaller and lying directly west of Laketon, while Mud Lake to the west of Long is not much more than a fair sized pond. But they are all sunny and offer good fishing grounds, while the surrounding country is justly attractive to the hunter and tourist generally.

Silver Creek, the largest of the Eel River branches, rises in an unnamed lake in section 26, in the northwestern part of the township, and flows southeasterly through Flat Lake and other expansions of its bed into the main stream, about a mile north of the southern line of the township, between sections 16 and 21.

The largest lakes outside of the Laketon region are along the course of Squirrel Creek in the western part of the township. The source of that stream is Flora Lake in section 11. Half a mile to the south, lying mostly in section 14, is Lukens Lake, through which it flows southwest into Miami County, doubling back into Pleasant Township and emptying into the Eel River just east of Stockdale in Paw Paw Township.

Lukens Lake is nearly midway between Stockdale and the old post-office of New Harrisburg, Pleasant Township. It is a little smaller than Long Lake, and received its name from the fact that in early times most of the land upon its shores was owned by Matthias Lukens, one of the leading and wealthy pioneers of the township.

In the early times Squirrel Creek was utilized considerably as a water-power stream, some of the first settlers in that portion of the county coming up its valley from the Eel River and building cabins and mills on its banks. It derives its name from the Indian Village founded by the Indiana chief, Captain Squirrel, adjoining the site of Stockdale. Squirrel, in the Indian tongue, is Niconza, which was the name of a postoffice established, many years ago, on the banks of the creek about a mile southwest of Lukens Lake and just over the boundary line in Miami County.

LAKETON

“Laketon Platted” and “Laketon and Ijamsville Joined” in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 453:

On September 8, 1836, Laketon was platted by Hugh Hanna, Isaac Thomas and J.D. Cassatt. This was the first town laid out away from the Wabash River, and it was the ambition of its proprietors to make it a rival of North Manchester as a trading center in the Eel River Valley. There were ninety lots lying near the river on the north side, and the streets were Pottawatomie, Spring, Main, Mill and Tamarack, north and south, and Eel, Wabash, Lake and Wayne east and west. Additions were afterward made by S.P. Petrie and I.R. Mendenhall.

The site of the old Laketon is a level and beautiful tract, with Round Lake at the west and Long Lake at the northwest. A mile west, on Silver Creek, James Cox established a grist mill, or corn cracker, about the time the town was platted. William Johnson and Ira Burr were the first merchants of the place, and within a few years a blacksmith shop was built and several dwellings appeared, while along in the ‘80s it had a number of stores, a schoolhouse (District No. 12), and a newspaper. The last-named, the Laketon Herald, was established in 1883 by Charles A. Richards, then a veteran printer who had been “at the case” for over sixty years.

Soon after the completion of the Detroit, Eel River & Illinois Railroad, in 1873, Daniel Van Buskirk laid out South Laketon, south of the river, as an addition to the original town, a mile to the north. In 1874 Mr. Van Buskirk established a large general store, and in the same year Philip & Thomas Ijam set a saw mill in operation. Not long afterward they gave their family name to the postoffice established at the new addition, which was long known as Ijamsville or South Laketon and is now designated by the former name.

Mr. Van Buskirk, however, continued to be perhaps the strongest moving force at South Laketon, operating at times a sawmill, a blacksmith shop and a tile factory. Among the other early industries was the brickyard of F.H. Williamson, established in 1880, and the shingle factory of George W. Harter, started in 1881. For many years the Ohmart family has been a strong factor in the progress of Laketon—Abram, Jacob and J.E. Ohmart, the last named being a present-day resident of the pace. In 1883 the Chicago & Atlantic Railroad was completed through Pleasant Township, running between Ijamsville and Laketon.