Dresden was built upon hope, backs of early settlers

DRESDEN - Two hundred years ago the land speculators who owned a large tract of wilderness in Ohio decided they wanted to build a town. From their homes in Philadelphia, they hired surveyors to cut down a few trees and drive in stakes to form the new village. They wanted the name of the frontier town to be Dresden because of their German roots.

Long before the town was founded the name of the area was Wakatomika and was home to several Shawnee villages. They were described as “the most hostile of the tribes” in a documentary called “Dunmore’s War 1774” by Waites and Kellog.

The only white men who ventured into the village were traders. Many of them called the Shawnee settlement Vomit Town. They had noticed that the medicine men prescribed a handful of dry herbs for any ailment and the patient would immediately begin to throw up.

After “Mad” Anthony Wayne’s 1794 victory against the Indian Confederacy at Fallen Timbers, the Native Americans at Wakatomika were sent to reservations in northern Ohio Territory.

According to Glenn Longaberger’s book “Pioneer Days to Modern Ways,” published by Lindsey Printing Service in Dresden, the Priest family from Virginia settled on the Wakatomika Creek in 1799. James Wilcox also came up the Muskingum River to settle there. Other early settlers were James and Phineas Sprague and Isaac Cordray.

When pioneer and veteran of the Revolutionary War Major Johnathan Cass arrived in 1801, he bought land warrants for 4,000 acres on the Muskingum River. His son Lewis became the first prosecuting attorney in Muskingum County in 1804. The Cass settlement had vied with Zanesville to become the county seat, but lost to the older town.

By 1817, when the absentee German owners laid out the town, Lot 4 was reserved for a school and Lot 53 was designated a market house. Out lot number 47 was to be a cemetery.

Unfortunately, Out Lot 47 was used much too frequently. The new little town bordered a huge swamp that was a mile long and 320 feet wide. Mosquitoes infected the population with malaria. Few children lived beyond 8 years old.

The summer of 1828 was especially deadly. Dresden had only 30 log cabins and 128 inhabitants. Nine people died in one week. Draining the swamp began in in 1827, but wasn’t completed until 1851.

The citizens did not wait until the swamp was gone before they decided to resurvey the town plat. In 1828, they decided to widen the streets and to include alleys. The reason for the resurvey was because they had knowledge that a canal would be cut across Ohio and Dresden hoped to profit from the new waterway.

Much to the citizens’ dismay, the canal missed the little town. In 1832, a side cut about four miles long was made to connect the canal with the Muskingum River at Dresden. The canal passed through a trough over Wakatomika Creek and dropped through three locks to the river.

The new canal put Dresden on the map and the town fathers decided to incorporate the village in 1832. Prosperity had finally come to town. Wages from the canal construction and an eastern market for the farm produce they sold were now available. Business boomed and the population increased.

An iron works and a woolen mill were opened. A suspension bridge was built across the Muskingum in 1853 and was used until the 1913 flood destroyed it. The next step in planning Dresden’s future was to pursue getting a railroad in town.

Jefferson Township voted 340 to 114 to issue $100,000 bonds for the Steubenville and Indiana railroad. Those in town voted for the bond issue, but the farmers were against it. Once again Dresden was slighted. The railroad was built one and a half miles away from the town.

The farmers who were against it in the first place decided to form a new township they wanted to call Cass after the pioneer family. They thought this would allow them to avoid paying the tax for their share of the $100,000 bonds. The law decided they had to pay anyway.

The Civil War brought another slump in business. After the war railroad travel hurt the canal traffic. Town leaders were discouraged, but before long conditions improved. The Steubenville and Indiana had become a panhandle. The railroad built a branch line in 1871 from Zanesville to Dresden.

The first passenger train carried a load of people to the Muskingum County Fair on Oct. 12, 1871. The train also held a freight-load of sheep pelts. It was nicknamed “the sheepskin road.”

The new railroad connection stimulated the economy in much the same way the canal had. The woolen mill started by Lemach Rambo in 1852 was purchased by the Shore family in 1890. The Dresden Milling Company built a four-story building in 1884.

The “Gay 90s” took on new meaning to Dresden. Bush and Prettyman moved the Caldwell woolen mill to Dresden. The Dresden Hosiery Company began operating in 1890 and in 1898 the Dresden Rolling Mill was constructed.

However, in 1879 a fire broke out about 4 p.m. on Oct. 26, in the stables of the White Hotel. Mayor Peffer telegraphed the Zanesville mayor that the town was on fire. Women formed a bucket brigade from the canal, but an entire block at Seventh and Main streets was destroyed. The stores of Alloway and Sons and Lanning and Company were all that was left standing. The loss was estimated at $40,000.

A telephone exchange was installed in 1901 and the village council eliminated the position of lamplighter when electricity was available. Natural gas came to town in 1902 and a fire department was organized in 1903.

The 1913 flood wreaked havoc on the little village of Dresden. Besides the losing the suspension bridge, several houses and buildings belonging to the woolen mill were washed away. Many homes and businesses were damaged when the water crested at 13 feet.

When 1917 rolled around and it was time for Dresden to celebrate its first 100, World War I was being waged. It was felt that festivities would have been inappropriate. In 1967 the village observed a sesquicentennial celebration. “I have seen a lot of changes over the years,” said Mayor David Mathew, who participated in the celebration 50 years ago as a 10-year-old boy.

As Dresden observes its bicentennial with an entire year of special monthly events, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the love its citizens have for the little village.