Joshua Warner
Joshua Warner, son of Nathan, was born in Northampton Co., Pa., July 29, 1798. When but two years of age he removed with his father to Tuscarawas, and thence to Wayne county in 1811. He remained with his father on the farm until his death. His father and boys cut out the State road the length of their land, the Killbuck bottom being almost impossible to cross, they fording the stream slightly north of the bridge at Joseph Eichar's The family helped to build the present road across the bottom, which is almost wholly underlaid with logs. Bears, panthers, wolves, deer and rattlesnakes were in abundance. A portion of Beall's troops encamped at the spring at his late residence. He distinctly remembered Captain Anderson and Capital Blackburn. Blackburn was a splendid man, and staid with his men on his premises for two weeks. A portion of the soldiers encamped upon the residence of Benjamin Mycrantz, husband of Sophia Silvers. Mr. Warner was of opinion that an artillery company moved in conjunction with Beall's army, and that it passed south of Wooster, crossing the farms occupied by William Wallace and James Lusk, etc. A soldier named Ezekiel Bascomb died at his house, and in his last hours was waited on by a Mr. Coon. He was buried upon a knoll at the forks of the road, south of Hugh Culbertson's. The blockhouse in which for two weeks the neighbors gathered at night and slept, was 24x30; it still remains, and is occupied by the family of the deceased, though it has been handsomely repaired and converted into a comfortable residence.
The first school house built in Plain township was south of the house of the late Daniel Silvers, at the curve of, and north of the road, on an open lot, and the first teacher was Judge William Goodfellow. The Methodists organized a society at his father's house as early as 1812, and in 1814 Rev. John Chord and William Odell were circuit preachers, and it was likewise the first Methodist organization in Wayne county. Quarterly meetings were also held there by distinguished divines like Adam Poe, Bigelow, Christie, Finley, and others. His house was the nucleus of ministers and pious men; he entertained everybody that came; hung the big kettles on the crane; cooked for all of them, and when the beds were full, spread coverings on the floor for his guests. Amasa Warner was married to Miss L. Foreman, and she and her child were the first persons buried in the Warner graveyard. The father of Joshua Warner deeded these grounds for interment, first for the family burial, but subsequently for the public. Ebenezer Warner and his son Nathan are buried in the old graveyard on the old Benjamin Jones farm; the son, but fifteen years of age, was killed by skids falling upon him at the Jones barn. Sacrilegious vandals for the last several years have been growing wheat and corn over the bones of these honored pioneers.
Mr. Warner was twice married--first, to Maragaret Smith, April 24, 1828, who died about six years thereafter; second, to Roseanna Edmonds, April 12, 1842. He left nine children and three grandchildren. His family are all members of the Methodist church. After a lingering and painful sickness, he died Tuesday morning, December 18, 1877, in his eightieth year.
The life of Joshua Warner was a sermon of itself, uttered in simplicity and truth. It was characterized by lowliness of spirit and purity of heart and way, devoid of all pretense and distinctly pious and pure. In early life he became a Christian--not a pro-fessor--and fastening on to the truths and promises of the Scriptures was carried on to the final triumph. His religious convictions were powerful and solemn; and the thought of life and its deceiving joys, of death and its unseen but sure realities, were ever present with him. He realized the absolute dependecy of the soul upon its Giver. He lived in an atmosphere of prayer--"the soul's sincere desire." With him what was right was eternally right. He took no backward steps in the cause and work of the Great Teacher, but daily advanced in the better life, until when spoken to by his Master he passed to the reward. He was a man of great evenness of way; of signal earnestness in all things, and most kind and gentle disposition.
From History of Wayne County, Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time, by Robert Douglass, 1878