NORTH LIBERTY — Pike Township has some fine hills, and, despite their steep grades, most are used for cropland and pasture.
The Crunkilton family has long farmed the northern portion of the township near the Richland and Knox County line, down the road from the little village of North Liberty. In fact, they have the original land grant deed awarded to a long-ago ancestor; the document was signed by President Andrew Jackson.
When siblings Mark, Connie and Brad Crunkilton were growing up, they called one particularly tall hill behind their grandmother’s house “The Beast,” and another hill nearby “The Mountain.”
The Beast rises steeply beside Butler Road, last year’s harvested cornfield still covering its top, which is at 1,345 feet in elevation. A hike is required to get to the summit, but the 10 percent grade is gentle enough for comfortable walking.
The top affords a stunning 360-degree view, one of the prettiest in Knox County.
Far below, the Dennis Miller family was busy on its farmstead, plowing with a three-horse team of Belgians named Jane, Dick and Judy. Amish children ran along the road, barefoot and waving at the strangers standing high above them. A hawk soared by, below visitors’ eye level.
Across Butler Road stands another hill, nearly as tall. Its top is a patchwork of contoured fields in interesting shapes; some are green with young wheat, and some are brown, waiting to be tilled. A team of black horses pulling a plow made quick work of a small field at the top, methodically treading back and forth until — from a distance — the field’s color became a deeper, moister shade of brown and the team’s work was done.
Connie (Crunkilton) and Dick Wyman own The Beast, one of the highest hills on the family property. Dick said Pike Township is a great place.
“It’s just so mellow here,” he said. “But if you need anything, it’s amazing what happens. This is a take-care-of-each-other kind of community. It’s a really neat way to live.”
He stopped to listen to the silence.
“And this is as noisy as it gets,” he added with a grin.
The big hill is bordered by the Greenville Treaty line. The house at the foot of it, owned by the Nicley family, sets just across the line. Visitors hiking to the top of the hill walk directly along the treaty line.
The Treaty of Greenville was signed in 1795 in order to end the “Indian wars” in what was then called the Northwest Territory. President George Washington wanted to open up the territory to white settlement, but the Native Americans were less than excited about that.
Twice, the native warriors virtually destroyed the armies Washington sent. But in August 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne and an army of 2,500 soldiers achieved a victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near Toledo.
In exchange for about $20,000 in supplies given to them, the tribes turned over to the United States government much of what would become Ohio. On Aug. 3, 1775, Wayne and leaders of Indian nations and tribes signed “A Treaty of Peace Between the United States of America and the Tribes of Indians called Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chipewas, Putawatimes, Miamis, Eel-River, Weeas, Kickapoos, Piankashaws and Kaskaskias.” It established a boundary between Indian lands, north of the line, and the land to the south — much of modern-day Ohio — that would be open to white settlers.
In Knox County, the treaty line runs through the northern parts of Pike and Berlin townships and cuts through the middle of Middlebury Township, where it follows Yankee Street.
