Nathan W. Dean/Grandmother
Brown Era (1841-1850's):
The Demise:
It is not clear what took place
in Mudsock that caused it to wane and wither 
Most
of the records available describe the village in its heyday, the ten
year span from 1827-1837. The village was seemingly an important
commercial and cultural center of the township. Glazier was
doing a good business. The postoffice was here. The first church
was here and its membership increasing. Nathan Dean was selling some
small building sites. So what happened that reversed it all?
That is unclear; however, negative influences were present.
Which, if any, was most destructive may never be known.
Amesville, the current township seat, was plated in 1837 - a town
formally laid out in square blocks. Mary Grosvenor wrote that it was
necessary by the terms of the Northwest Ordinance and rules of the
Ohio Company that each township have a designated and established
town. Early communities or neighborhoods like Mudsock were
spontaneous and informal. The younger Amesville quickly replaced
Mudsock as the commercial center of the township. The primary
landowner and perhaps promoter, Nathan Dean, Jr. died the very year
Amesville was planned. Glazier closed and moved his store soon after
the death of Col. Nathan Dean. He later established a hardware
business in Athens. The brick church was irregularly used, in need of
extensive repair, and finally abandoned in or before 1858. The small
plots of land sold by Dean came back into the ownership of
his son, Nathan W. Loring Glazier is supposed to have pulled
buildings a half mile west to higher ground on his farm to avoid
flooding. The History of the Hocking
Valley, written in 1883, mentions major floods
occurred in 1832, 1847, 1858, and 1873, the most destructive
occurring prior to 1883, date of the book was in 1873. However, this
account states that the flood of 1847 was the most destructive upto
its time, causing extensive widespread property damage in all
tributaries of the Hocking River, to include Federal Creek lying
adjacent to Mudsock. The last written information on Mudsock
describes abandoning the church.
Grandmother Brown's biography
describes her early life in Amesville from 1846-1857, an 11 year
period that husband, Daniel, and partner, James Dickey,
operated a successful general store; one that would certainly rival
and probably surpass that of Glazier. Mr. Brown would routinely
travel to Pittsburgh to order merchandise to be delivered by
teamsters several times a year. The owners bought farm products that
they sold not only locally but to broader markets as far distant as
Cincinnati and New Orleans. Many of the Brown children were
born here. Author Brown referred to what might have been Mudsock in
two places. She describes an incident. "Not far from Ames was a
settlement of homes. 'As we passed those houses,' said Dan'l, 'I
noticed everybody staring and laughing, so I looked behind me. And
there was Mistress Kate sitting with her face to the horse's tail...
." p 97. Describing the clergy and use of alcohol, she said, 'The
lower settlement in Ames Township enjoyed, indeed, the services of a
Free-Will Baptist...who preached to the people once a month and
received in pay three barrels of whiskey.' p 99.
Control of the village fell to
older son, Nathan William, seventeen in 1837. Over the next 18
years he would become a successful farmer and stock raiser.
About
1855 he build the current 'Dean Home' now owned by Mr. & Mrs.
Anthony Sargenti (home pictured). By the time of the
publication of the 1875 Athens County
Atlas, the only residences or buildings shown in
the Mudsock area of the Ames township plat were a Nathan W. Dean
home, two Loring Glazier homes, and a newer, wooden one-room
Mudsock/Glazier school, located just south of the Glazier home on the
west side of what is now Potter Road.
There are recorded accounts of
flooding in the area, one occurring in 1847. This flood was reported
to have been the most destructive one to its time. We don't know when
or why Loring Glazier went out of business, but it is recorded that
after he did that he used oxen to drag buildings from the Mudsock
area to the much higher ground of his adjacent property to avoid
flooding. The timing of the 1847 flood and the last recorded
references to Mudsock may be coincidental. Further, Nathan W. Dean,
heir to the area, built his own home east of the Mudsock Cemetery, on
high ground distant from the village area. Grandmother Brown who
moved to Amesville in 1846 as a young bride, describes incidents
occurring to residents in what I believe to be Mudsock. If so, that
would establish some activity there in the late 1840s. By 1875, there
are no residences in the Mudsock area and the relocated former
residence of Rev. Charles Fisk is seen. The writer knows from
first-hand experience, having lived in the 'village area', that there
was frequent flooding around the entrance to the cemetery. It was not
uncommon in the 1940s and 50s for auto traffic between Athens and
Amesville to be closed at the entrance of the cemetery due to
highwater. The water would invariably block traffic sooner at this
location than any other along then Route 50A to Athens. In the 1960s
this section of SR 550 [renamed from 50A] was elevated
approximately 3 feet. 
[It
should be noted, however, that the author also lived for a longer
period of time in Amesville (1947-55) where annual flooding of the
main street was typical.] Even the name, Mudsock, would suggest
that soil in the area was characteristically wet and frequently
unable to adequately support man or beast.
As I made a June 28, 1998
revision to this page there had just been a severe flood in Amesville
and Mudsock, one drawing national media coverage. The picture to the
right shows the water over the road in front of the Mudsock cemetery.
It had crested at 12 feet in this exact location only fourteen hours
earlier. Amesville had experienced 22 feet of water over its
main street with the level reaching the second story of some
businesses.The next two pictures show the extent of this flood in
Amesville. Featured are its impact on my boyhood home. This was the
second major flood in two years and represented the worst recorded
Ames township flood, the second in just two years.
Pictured above in the
center of the picture is my boyhood home in Amesville. It is
located on the main street and within 500 yards of the banks of
Federal Creek. When I lived here in the 1940s and 50s the upper
story was our home; the lower story was primarily my mother's
restaurant. The one-story wing on the right was my father's Sohio
Service Station. I'm told that damage to the building will
necessitate it being razed.
Pictured above is an
aerial view of the June, 1998, flooding of Amesville. The white
circle surrounds my boyhood home pictured earlier. The series of
white arrows designates the location of Federal Creek and its
southeasterly flow direction. The blue arrow on the right
indicates the direction to Mudsock; it is approximately 1/2 mile
to the west.
The negative influences
attributed to the gradual demise and abandoning of Mudsock may have
been:
- presence of a formally
designed, growing and more prosperous Amesville just half mile to
the east.
- the death of primary
village proprietor, Nathan Dean, Jr., and the absence of any
interested or experienced family member to succeed him in
managing his village enterprise.
- lack of extensive personal
ownership of the village properties by residents and businessmen.
- spring flooding.
Records show that Glazier moved Mudsock buildings to higher
ground on his farm to avoid flooding. One was seemingly the Rev.
Charles Fisk home, built in 1830. The implications of his action
was that there had been significant flooding there in the past. A
flood similar to the recent 1998 one would have certainly
discouraged the continued presence of residents and merchants. As
a postscript to the 1998 area flood, it is apparent that several
older Amesville buildings were damaged to the point of requiring
removal. Some businesses there have and will not reopen; others
will relocate to structures on higher ground. The residents of the
recently constructed home on the Mudsock site are seriously
considering moving..
- relocation of the
Presbyterian church to Amesville.
All
that remains of this once-village are written and verbal records,
Mudsock Cemetery, a pile of 150 year old bricks from the early
church, recently Raymond Dean's garden location, this written
account, and - according to Raymond Dean, prior to his death, - "the
mudhole".
Terms: Coonskin, Ames,
Amesville, Athens County, Silas Dean, Nathan Dean, Richard Dean,
Northwest Territory, Ohio Company, Marietta, Ephriam Cutler, Rufus
Putnam, Mudsock, Thomas Ewing, Benjamin Brown, Revolutionary War,
Western Library Association, Presbyterian Church, early postoffice,
tourism, Silas Bingham