MEIGS COUNTY

CHAPTER CXLIX

MEIGS COUNTY'S PREHISTORIC PICTURE MAKERS

ABORIGINES PECKED FACES, FEET AND OTHER IMAGES INTO OHIO RIVER ROCKS NEAR SAXON-OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CUT SOME OF THESE PETROGLYPHS OUT OF THE STONE AND THEY ARE IN THE STATE MUSEUM AT COLUMBUS-RACINE MOUNDS AND STONE GRAVES REPORTED-IN THE COUNTY HAVE BEEN REPORTED TWENTY-SEVEN MOUNDS, ONE VILLAGE SITE, TWO STONE GRAVES AND THREE PETROGLYPHS.

Meigs County was the scene of early coal mining on quite a large scale and of a battle which gave a fatal turn to the Morgan raid, but long before these historical events gave her a certain distinction among the galaxy of Buckeye counties some of her prehistoric denizens wrote upon her river bed the state's most remarkable rock pictures.

Fortunately the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society laid plans to preserve what remained of these rare petroglyphs. In 1913 they were located, examined and in due time described by the late Dr. William C. Mills, then curator of the society, in his valuable work, the "Archeological Atlas of Ohio." Some of these pictures were quarried out of the stone and preserved in the society's museum.

A SPOT FAVORED BY THE MOUND BUILDER

On the West Virginia shore, opposite the Town of Saxon, near which most of this Meigs County rock-writing was done, have been found numerous prehistoric works and an extensive village site. These, the petroglyphs and some mounds on the Ohio side near the latter, indicate the importance of the locality as a scene of the Mound Builders' activities. The Meigs County petroglyphs are dealt with in Doctor Mills' Atlas with a fullness of detail

- 553 -

554 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

which indicates their marked value from the archeologist's point of view. We quote as follows :

"The fine examples of rock pectographs or petroglyphs, situated near the town of Saxon, are the feature of the archeology of Meigs County. These petroglyphs, of which there are two groups, were located and examined by the Museum staff in August, 1913. The pectographs, or picture writings as they are sometimes termed, are cut, pecked, and ground into the horizontal surface of the sand rock which forms the bed of the river at that point. The level of the surface bearing. the pictures is barely above low water mark, so that they are exposed only when the river is at low stage.

WHAT DOES THE WRITING MEAN?

"Picture writing., as practiced by the aboriginal inhabitants of Ohio, had not reached a stage of development sufficiently advanced which at this late date would make it possible to translate its characters into ideas. These characters doubtless had a meaning. which was entirely local or personal in its nature and which was intelligible only to those who made them and were familiar with the events to which they referred. Thus, as a source of historical information the value of the petroglyphs is limited.

"The principal group of petroglyphs at Saxon covers an area of upwards of an acre, while a secondary group of less importance is situated a short distance above. The rock pictures repre-sent birds, animals, human beings, the tracks or foot-prints of all these, besides numerous unknown and partly obliterated figures. Among the animals depicted, those which can be readily distinguished are the bear, deer and panther the turtle, fish and serpent and several kinds of birds.

THEY WERE SAVED IN TIME

"Many of the figures at Saxon already have been wholly or partly obliterated by the action of ice and gravel-floes which grind over them during the times of high water or floods. Only where the rocks into which they were cut happen to be of a ferruginous nature, and thus quite hard, are the pictures well preserved. With the pictures so inaccessible and visible only at infrequent intervals, and with their destruction only a matter of a short time,

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 555

the Society feels itself fortunate in having secured some of the .best of these petroglyphs, which were cut from their bed in the rock and are now on exhibition at the Museum.

RACINE REMAINS RECORDED

"Adjacent to the petroglyphs there are several mounds, while on the West Virginia side there are numerous works and an extensive prehistoric village site. Other petroglyphs, located just above Racine, formerly were visible, but at the present time have been practically obliterated.

"In the vicinity of Racine there are seven mounds and a number of stone graves. There have been noted in the county a total of tvv-enty-seven mounds, three groups of petroglyphs, one village site and two stone graves."

The remains recorded by townships are : Rutland, mounds 2; Salisbury, mounds 1; Chester, mounds 7; Sutton, mounds 10, village sites 1, stone graves 2, petroglyphs 1; Letart, mounds 5, petroglyphs 2; Lebanon, mounds 2. Totals, mounds 27, village sites 1, stone graves 2, petroglyphs 3.

36-VOL. 2

CHAPTER CL

PIONEERS WAITED FOR PEACE ON THE FRONTIER

AFTER WAYNE'S VICTORY OF 1794 THE HUMAN TIDE BEGAN TO FLOW TOWARD MEIGS-MANY CAME FROM NEW ENGLAND BY WAY OF MARIETTA-COUNTY ERECTED 1819 FROM ATHENS AND GALLIA TERRITORY WITH A POPULATION OF ABOUT 4,000-MIDDLEPORT CHOSEN THE COUNTY SEAT BUT LATER CHESTER WON THE PRIZE AND YIELDED IT IN TURN TO POMERoY, WHERE A COURTHOUSE WAS ERECTED-EARLY COURTS HAD BEEN HELD IN A MEETING HOUSE-COAL LANDS RENTED FROM RUFUS PUTNAM-POMEROY BECAME THE COUNTY SEAT A YEAR AFTER INCORPORATION.

The Indian wars which ended with Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers (1794) had long kept men of pioneering proclivities at their homes east and south of the Ohio River, and the territory now known as Meigs County, like sections located along the stream on the north and the west, had to wait for settlers until Wayne's success had established confidence that savage hostilities had ceased.

In 1796-97, however, the tide of pioneers began to reach Meigs, the earliest settlements taking place on the Ohio shore at Letart, in Lebanon and Sutton townships, and at the mouth of Leading Creek. In or about 1800 a settlement was made at Tuppers Plains, Orange Township, and in Rutland. Two families reached Salem Township in 1801-03. Columbia's first settlement started in 1804. Settlers came to Bedford, Scipio and Olive townships a little later than 1796-97. By 1820 this nucleus of a county had grown to a total of 4,480 inhabitants. The earliest pioneers were mainly New Englanders who had come by way of Marietta.

GALLIA AND ATHENS DRAWN UPON

The county was organized in June, 1819, pursuant to an act of the Legislature passed January 21 of that year, which provided that her territory should come from parts of Gallia and Athens counties and be bounded as follows :

- 557 -

558 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

"Beginning at a point on the Ohio River where the line between the fourth and fifth townships in range eleven intersects the same; thence west with the same to the north and south line between the fifteenth and sixteenth ranges; thence south with the same to the northwestern corner of section thirty-five in township number seven in range fifteen, thence directly east to the western line of range thirteen ; thence south with the same to the Ohio River ; thence up the same with the meanders thereof to the place of beginning; containing 400 square miles." The population was then about 4,000. The county's name was given in honor of Governor Return Jonathan Meigs.

DERIVED FROM A FAMOUS SOURCE

The territory which forms Meigs County has rich and extended historical associations. Known before 1787 as a park of the Northwest Territory, it became a part of the Ohio Company's lands when that association bought its immense Ohio tract from the general government, a transaction which is dealt with in the general history which introduces the first volume of this work. The Meigs County land is a part of what was the Ohio Company's first purchase. The Ordinance of 1787 and the good will of Rufus Putnam and his Marietta associates of the Ohio Company contributed to its settlement and Ohio statehood contributed further to its advancement along lines of civilization.

WHEN WASHINGTON CROSSED THE "NECK"

When George Washington and Captain Crawford descended the Ohio in the fall of 1770 they went as far as the Great Kanawha and then retraced their course up the river. Thus was the great Virginian enabled to appraise with his practiced eyes the long shore line of the territory which forty-nine years later became Meigs County. On the way upstream he and Crawford left their boat, which continued on its course, while he and his friend took a long walk across the base of the Bend, in Meigs territory, and reentered the boat at its upper end. Washington wrote in his journal : "Walked across the neck on foot, with Captain Crawford—the distance, according to our walking, about eight miles."

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 561

TOWNSHIPS, HOW DERIVED AND WHEN ORGANIZED

From Gallia County came Letart Township, organized in 1803 ; Salisbury Township, organized in 1805; Rutland Township, organized 1812; Lebanon Township, organized 1813 ; Salem Township, organized 1814 ; Sutton Township, organized 1814.

From Athens County came Orange Township, set off in 1813; Olive Township, set off 1819 ; Scipio Township, set off 1819; Columbia Township, set off 1820; Bedford, including Chester Township, 1821.

Having on January 21, 1819, passed the act to erect Meigs County, the Legislature proceeded February 18, 1820, to appoint David Mitchell, of Scioto County; Elnathan Schofield, of Fairfield County, and Joseph J. Martin, of Pike County, to locate the county seat, and they selected a 100-acre lot (No. 313) in town-ship 1, range 13, afterwards a part of the Village of Middleport. Benjamin Smith donated twenty acres of land for public buildings and village lots.

This location was unsatisfactory to portions of the inhabitants and the Legislature appointed a new commission January 31, 1822, composed of William Vance, of Ross County; John Barr, of Pickaway County, and William Dunn, of Belmont County, to re-locate the seat of justice. They decided to place it on section 24, township 3, range 12, then in Orange Township, and later Chester.

CHESTER LOST TO POMEROY

Levi Stedman donated thirty acres for village lots and public buildings. But this act of location was no more permanent than was that which had awarded Middleport the prize, for in 1841 the county seat was established at Pomeroy. Here Pomeroy Sons & Co., through their trustees, Messrs. Wright, Howe and Erwin, donated five lots within the village to become the site of a courthouse and other public buildings.

The county failed to place public buildings on the Middleport site, but when Chester became the county seat a 36x38-foot two-story brick courthouse, a 20x20-foot hewed-log jail, a 16x20-foot frame jailer's residence and a small brick building for the county clerk's office were erected in Chester at a cost of about $5,000. Chester retains one distinction : it is one of Ohio's "high spots," with an altitude of 1,292 feet.

562 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

EARLIEST OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS

The county's first board of commissioners, Levi Stedman and William Alexander, met soon after the county's organization, and Benjamin Stout was elected sheriff, his bond bearing date of April 30, 1819. Philip Jones, of Salisbury Township, was appointed treasurer, and Robert C. Barton the commissioners' clerk. At their June meeting, 1819, the county commissioners certified the tax duplicate, which amounted to $496.93. In Salisbury Township there were seventy-nine taxpayers ; six houses valued at from $160 to $900 each; 106 horses and 206 head of cattle.

CHESTER ONCE A BUSY SPOT

No county courthouse having been as yet erected, the Legislature by a special act passed January 21, 1821, directed that the county courts meet at the house of Levi Stedman, in the third township and twelfth range. On October 14, 1822, the commissioners decided to ask for bids on public buildings. By 1823 the county's tax duplicate had grown to a total of $624.38.

The choice of Chester as the county seat gave the little settlement quite a growth. Accompanying and following erection of the county buildings there was an increase in privately owned structures. The "Meigs County High School and Teachers' Institute" was incorporated and a brick building was erected for its 'use. The county seat's removal to Pomeroy in 1841 resulted in losses to Chester in population and business.

POMEROY IN EARLY DAYS

The Township of Salisbury came into being in 1807 by action of the commissioners of Gallia County. The first settler in the Pomeroy section of the township, says Larkin, the historian, was Samuel Ervin, who built a cabin in 1807 near the site of what is known as the Horton boat yard.

Growth was slow. By 1834 but twelve families resided in the Narrows, near the upper part of Pomeroy. In 1883 James M. Evans, Meigs County historian, said of the next succeeding period:

"Pomeroy was incorporated in 1840 and was so named from respect for Mr. S. W. Pomeroy, Sr., the original proprietor of a

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 563

large share of the site of the town, as first laid out, Coalport being. at the time a separate town.

"After the removal of the seat of justice to Pomeroy a temporary courthouse was erected on the corner of Linn and Second streets, since enlarged and converted into a church. In a short time the present courthouse, or the older portion of it, was erected, and other necessary buildings.

GAVE POMEROY AN IMPETUS

"The location of the county seat on its present site soon drew after it or in its vicinity, several business firms from other points, and the town in a few years began to assume a brisk and business like character. Among the earlier mercantile firms were Ralston & Stirns, O. & H. Branch, W. H. Remington and others."

At this period (1883) Pomeroy had two steam sawmills, a grist mill and a shovel factory. In 1840 Salisbury's population numbered but 1,507, including Pomeroy, Coalport, Middleport and Sheffield. By 1870 Pomeroy's population alone had reached 5,824.

THE BEGINNING OF MIDDLEPORT

From Hardesty's Encyclopedia we extract the following :

"That part of the Town of Middleport extending from Mill Street to the present corporation line of Pomeroy was laid out by Philip Jones and incorporated June 7, 1855, by the county com-missioners. Several additions were subsequently made and finally December 11, 1874, what has been known for years as Lower Pomeroy was by the authority of the county commissioners incorporated with Middleport, thus enlarging the town to its present limits."

In 1870 Middleport's population was 2,236, and in 1880 it had grown to 3,032. In 1883 Middleport's public schools were housed in three buildings and its churches numbered six for white congregations and three for colored worshippers.

THE EARLY COURTS IN MEIGS COUNTY

The first court of common pleas assembled in April, 1819. Present, Hon. Ezra Osborn, president, and Horatio Strong, Fuller Elliot and James Phelps, associate judges. Robert C. Barton was

564 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

appointed clerk pro tem, and Samuel F. Vinton prosecuting attorney.

The court's minutes covering the proceedings of November 22, 1819, emphasized the non-existence of a courthouse by stating that the court was in session "at the meeting house in Salisbury Township." In this connection we reproduce the following interesting paragraph from Stillman Carter Larkin's "Pioneer History of Meigs County," published in 1908 :

COURT HELD IN A CHURCH

"By law of Congress, Section 29 in every township six miles square in the Ohio Company's purchase should be reserved for ministerial purposes. The land on which this meeting house stood belonged to Salisbury Township and the courts of common pleas were held in it for two years when, unfortunately, it was burned down.

"Mr. Levi Stedman, of Chester, invited the judges to hold court in his house. When the second set of commissioners met they went where the court was held and decided to locate the county seat, as Mr. Levi Stedman offered to make a good deed of land, enough to lay out a town. The offer was accepted. The county seat was located there, the town laid out and named Chester. The question was asked why the county seat was not located at Middleport?

"Mr. Benjamin Smith and his wife Alma had agreed to donate . . . the land for a town and to secure it by a good title deed. Smith had given a bond for $5,000, with his brother, John Smith, and Samuel Everett as sureties, but it has been stated that upon reconsidering the matter Mrs. Smith refused to acknowledge the deed, which she had a right to do according to the law of Ohio. The commissioners did not bring suit against the sureties, as John Smith lived on his father's farm and Samuel Everett was a young man not owning any real estate." Thus no suit was brought and thus Middleport lost the county seat.

Interesting light was thrown upon Chester and its vicinity at a pioneer gathering in 1885, when Mrs. Dolly Knight read a paper full of local color. One passage follows :

"In 1798 Peter Grow and Levi Stedman built their first cabins in what afterwards became the town of Chester. Many families who came from Vermont and Massachusetts and located on Shade

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 565

River, in and about Chester, in the first years of 1800, ought to be included in pioneer history. Thomas L. Halsey (1792) bought land of the Ohio Company's purchase; Jacob and Joel Cowdery in 1807 and 1808, and the Branch, Rice and Walker families and others.

VINTON AND EWING CAME

"Those families from the New England States brought their ideas of education with them and until they could have a com-mon school they would work hard by day and in the evening teach their children. They succeeded in bringing up some intelligent sons and daughters. Their books were few but well chosen and carefully read. After Meigs County was made and organized, with the county seat located at Chester, the principal lawyers to attend the common pleas court at Chester were Samuel F. Vinton and Thomas Ewing."

After 1810 there was a steady inflow of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and New England pioneers to Meigs County territory.

SOME OF THE EARLY PIONEERS

One of the earliest settlers was Amos Dunham, who located in the county in 1802. Having purchased sixty acres of land, built a log cabin and acquired a wife to keep him company in it, he went ahead hopefully to pay for his acres and in due time succeeded. Henry Howe says that Nathaniel Clarke was the first pioneer to settle where Pomeroy now is and that he came thither about 1816. He adds that David Bradshaw opened Pomeroy's first coal bank in 1819, that later 1,200 bushels of coal were taken to Louisville and sold for 25 cents a bushel, and that this was Pomeroy's first shipment of coal.

KNIGHT RENTED COAL LINES FROM PUTNAM

At Coalport, however, Hoover & Cashell had made attempts to ship coal as early as 1805 or 1806 and one small load was sent out, but the unprofitable outcome moved the firm to abandon their enterprise. John Knight in about 1820 rented from Rufus Putnam at the rate of $20 a year a large acreage of coal lands and began to operate mines.

566 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

Josiah Dill entered 160 acres of Congress lands located in what became the upper part of Pomeroy and on a part of the tract he laid out a few town lots. When this land was entered July 15, 1825, Samuel Grant entered near the same spot eighty acres of land. Nial Nye became postmaster of Nyesville, the post office name for Pomeroy. The town was incorporated in 1840 and became the county seat the following year.

CHAPTER CLI

SOME OF THE EARLIEST SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES

SALISBURY TOWNSHIP'S FIRST SCHOOL OPENED 1801-SELAH BARRETT TAUGHT IN SCHOOLHOUSE THAT HE AND HIS NEW WIFE LIVED IN-SQUARES IN THE LOGS MADE INTO WINDOWS BY THE USE OF GREASED PAPER-CHURCHES CAME INTO EXISTENCE SLOWLY BUT ZEAL WAS NOT LACKING-FORTY YEARS AFTER IT BECAME THE COUNTY SEAT, POMEROY SUPPORTED TWELVE CHURCHES AND MIDDLEPORT SEVEN-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES OF 1928.

Salisbury Township's first school was taught by Samuel Denny, from Massachusetts, who had helped to build the school-house. Of the nine pupils, four were from the mouth of Leading Creek and five were Judge Higley's children. This was in 1801-2.

An old record speaks of an early schoolhouse that was a small log cabin, built about 1809, on the ground occupied (in 1908) by the lower graveyard in Middleport. Its first teacher (1810) was Jared Gaston, and the second was Sally Higley. Another schoolhouse is spoken of as a hewed-log building which stood a short distance above Leading Creek, on the ministerial section, and it was in this little building that Meigs County's common pleas court held its first sessions in 1819.

SCHOOLHOUSE WAS A HOME TOO

Stillman Carter Larkin, the Meigs County historian, is authority for an enlightening story of a log schoolhouse built in 1816 on land 100 feet north of the southeast corner of Section No. 8. He says of it :

"The first teacher in this house was David Lindsey, who taught in the winter of 1816-17. He then settled on the east branch of Thomas Fork, near the Rutland and Chester road. His successor as a teacher was Selah Barrett, who came from Vermont, bringing a young wife with him. They moved into the schoolhouse and taught the winter school. His habit was to rise early, cut wood, make a fire, eat breakfast and then move the

- 567 -

568 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

household goods into the loft each morning, before school hours. This was in November, 1817, and the winter of 1818."

It is so choice a story of human grit that the reader will enjoy a description of this building which was at once a home and schoolhouse. The logs which formed its walls were dressed on the inside and the stone chimney was on the outside. The spaces between the logs were "chinked" and mud-daubed on the outside. The squares cut into the logs for windows were covered with greased paper. The benches were very rude and writing tables consisted of boards laid on pins sunk into the logs under the windows.

POMEROY'S MANY CHURCHES

The county's earliest churches were very primitive, matching in that particular the early houses of worship established all around them in the Ohio country. The congregations were small but their zeal was lasting. They sprang up gradually in different parts of the county, worshipping at first in log houses and as best they could building for themselves frame meeting houses and in some instances brick.

It is on record that in 1883 Pomeroy supported a church of each of the denominations named : Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic, German Methodist, Lutheran, Evangelical Protestant, Welsh Baptist, First German Lutheran, Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, Welsh Congregational, and United Brethren in Christ. These congregations are said to have possessed comfortable houses of worship, the most costly of which was the Episcopal. This had been erected at a cost of $20,000.

SOME MIDDLEPORT CHURCHES

In the same year at Middleport there were Presbyterian, Free Will Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, Christian, New Church, Wes-leyan Methodist and Universalist congregations. In 1866 and 1867 the Middleport Board of Education had taken an advanced step in public school matters, erecting a commodious three-story brick schoolhouse containing ten rooms and a large hall for exhibitions and examinations. The building and site cost $40,000. There were two other smaller schoolhouses. A Meigs County map printed in 1883 indicates the existence in the county of about 50 churches and 114 schoolhouses.

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 571

SCHOOLS OF THE PRESENT DAY

Recently a woman died in Meigs County who had taught public school for $1.50 a week and "boarded around." Many marked changes have taken place since then.

In quite early days academies were established at Rutland, Chester, Pomeroy and Tuppers Plains. With the coming of the high schools at Pomeroy and Middleport the academies passed. For a number of years the graduates from these schools were comparatively few. But with the change of curriculum introducing electives whereby the graduates were enabled to enter business and mechanical pursuits as well as the higher institutions of learning., not only did the number of graduates from the two established high schools increase but other high schools began to spring up over the county. There are now fifteen high schools in the county, with an enrollment of nearly 1,000, employing about sixty teachers and turning out yearly about 125 graduates.

TWO EXEMPTED DISTRICTS

Most of the graduates are giving good accounts of themselves. Some go directly into business or mechanical pursuits, although most of them go through higher institutions into business and the professions.

Meigs being a rural county, there is comparatively little home demand for graduate service, so the great majority of the graduates must seek employment abroad. In this they are eminently successful. Columbus seems to have a first call on them, but they may be found in nearly every city of the state as well as in most of the cities of the country at large and in a number of foreign countries.

Meigs County has no city schools, but she has two exempted village districts, Pomeroy, with Wayne Lutz as superintendent, now in his sixth year, and Middleport, which has been under the superintendence of A. W. McKay for perhaps twenty years. The rest of the county is in its sixth year of the superintendency of C. N. Wagner.

MEIGS COUNTY CHURCHES AND THEIR PASTORS

POMEROY—Episcopalian, O. L. Forqueran ; St. Paul's Lutheran, J. C. Pilch ; Trinity Lutheran, Thomas Wilson ; M. E.,

37—VOL. 2

572 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

F. O. Weed; Presbyterian, C. W. Jones; Free Methodist (Laurel Cliff), W. E. Crane; German Methodist, G. L. Tennell; Peace Evangelical, W. L. Moenkhaus; Church of Christ, A. R. Herman; Baptist, vacant; U. B. (Enterprise and Syracuse), W. H. Long; U. B. (Mount Harmon and Nease Settlement), J. A. Storer. (Those in parentheses are out-of-town charges but the pastors' addresses are Pomeroy.)

MIDDLEPORT—M. E., C. H. Eichinger; Baptist, W. G. James; Presbyterian, A. C. V. Skinner; Church of Christ, vacant; (African) M. E., Samuel Adkins; Mount Moriah Baptist (col-ored), J. S. Richards; Nazarene, P. R. Rood.

RUTLAND—M. E., L. O. Lineberger; Baptist, H. F. Bolton ; Church of Christ, Reverend Kendall.

HARRISONVILLE—Presbyterian, F. F. Brown ; M. E., Reverend Eichinger, of Middleport.

LETART FALLS--Bert O'COnner, M. E.

CHESTER—Jasper Strickland, M. E.

PORTLAND—E. L. Miller, M. E.

REEDSVILLE—Grover C. Nutter, M. E.

RACINE--M. E., M. C. Cochran; U. B., W. E. Campbell; Baptist, vacant.

LONG BOTTOM AND REEDSVILLE—C. of C., served by D. D. Watkins, high school principal, of Tuppers Plains.

The foregoing' list was made up in March, 1928.

CHAPTER CLII

GREAT MINERAL WEALTH IN MEIGS COUNTY

THE POMEROYS MINED AND SHIPPED COAL DOWN THE OHIO ON A LARGE SCALE-BUILT BoATS, EMPLoYED 200 MEN-BUILDING oF RAILROADS INTO THE COUNTY GAVE THE MINING INDUSTRY A MARKED GROWTH-THIRD SOUTHEASTERN OHIO COUNTY IN PoINT OF PRODUCTION IN 1878-MORE THAN 1,500,000 TONS MINED IN 1920- SALT-MAKING BEGAN IN THE MIDDLE FORTIES AND POMEROY BE-CAME ONE oF THE INDUSTRY'S CHIEF CENTERS-THE BRINE WAS STRONG AND COAL WAS NEAR-OIL AND GAS POOLS REVEALED BY SALT WELLS-INSTRUCTIVE STORY OF EARLY DEVELOPMENT.

Samuel W. Pomeroy, a Boston, Massachusetts, merchant, pur-chased from Elbridge Gerry 262 acres, a part of the site of Pomeroy. Pomeroy laid ambitious plans to ship a large quantity of coal to Boston by way of New Orleans and the sea. Boxing 1,000 bushels of the black diamonds, he loaded the shipment on a flatboat, but the latter foundered at Coalport.

Nothing daunted, Pomeroy conceived even larger coal-mining enterprises and formed a company to carry them out, Pomeroy Sons & Company, whose members, besides himself, were two sons, Samuel W., Jr., and C. R., and his sons-in-law, V. B. Horton and

W. Dabney. They mined on a large scale, installed a steam sawmill and erected houses for themselves and their men. By 1834 there were twelve families in the town. A year later the company built the Candor, a steam towboat capable of towing downstream from four to six loaded barges and upstream eight to twelve "empties."

A BUSY PORT ON THE OHIO

As the undertaking' developed, the company employed about twenty-five barges, some of which carried 11,000 bushels of coal, and there were at times 200 men on the company's pay roll. Five steamboats were built in Pomeroy by the company. Most of the mining was done at Coalport, which the company laid out. The

- 575 -

576 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

Town of Middleport, located below Coalport, was laid out by Philip Jones. In 1846 Henry Howe wrote that "in all probability the time is not far distant when the towns of Pomeroy, Coalport, Middleport and Sheffield will be one continuous village."

THE POMEROY COAL IN MEIGS COUNTY

J. A. Bownocker, Ohio state geologist, is on record to the effect that the Pomeroy seam of coal, which he designates as No. 8a, "is at its best in Meigs County," and he adds that "it is found above the drainage wherever due and in the southern part becomes one of the important coal fields of the state."

Professor Bownocker declares that Salisbury Township was in 1908 the largest producer of the Pomeroy or 8a coal of any Ohio township. It was being mined for railroad shipment on the township's western side, where the coal is high in the hills. On the eastern side the coal is "under cover except on the Ohio River and two or three tributary streams." From Pomeroy the Pomeroy or No. 8a coal may be traced with scarcely a break into Bedford Township.

When railroads were built into the county many new mines were opened and much coal was shipped to the Lakes. Before that the Ohio River furnished the needed transportation. The Ohio Geological Survey, Bulletin Nine, states that Salisbury Township has been an important source of fuel from almost the time of settlement of the territory. Salt-making was then an active industry and coal was used quite largely as fuel.

STEADY GROWTH IN COAL PRODUCTION

As early as 1878 Meigs County mines gave evidence of being energetically worked. in May of that year Ohio assessors made coal-production returns covering the twelve preceding months, and those in Meigs revealed that her position was third among Southeastern Ohio coal counties, with an output of 7,332,880 bushels, Perry and Athens only reaching higher records. The following table of bi-decennial production shows how Meigs added to her output up to 1920. There was a marked recession in 1925, when over-production in the bituminous field was curtailing the activities of Southeastern Ohio mines. The table deals with the county's

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 577

PRODUCTION IN SHORT TONS

1885 234,756

1890 255,365

1895 184,076

1900 242,275

1905 349,191

1910 599,492

1915 943,889

1920 1,509,837

1925 664,345

When coal mining recovers from over-production and the strike inaugurated in April, 1927, the Meigs County operators and miners will have an outlook equal to that of any of their classes in Southeastern Ohio. Not only is the county's coal of the, choice Pittsburgh No. 8 grade, but it belongs to those deposits in what is known as the Pomeroy Bend field, which are said to amount to 75,000 "unmined acres" and to be among the few im-mediately available for Ohio River transportation.

MEIGS COUNTY LONG A SALT PRODUCER

Prior to 1847 salt-making began on Leading Creek, a little below Middleport. Production was light, kettles being used to evaporate with. The industry began at Pomeroy in about 1850, with the use of evaporating pans. The industry grew because the brine was comparatively strong., coal was at hand and the Ohio furnished inexpensive transportation. Pomeroy became a salt center. By 1886 production had reached 3,600 barrels of salt a day.

At or near the close of the Civil war the number of salt furnaces on the Ohio side of the river had reached the peak. From that time forward production diminished, with the industry's vast expansion in New York and Michigan and later in Northeastern Ohio. By 1906 every Southeastern Ohio furnace but one at Durant, in Morgan County, and five at and near Pomeroy was closed.

SALT DROPPED FROM $2.50 TO 40 CENTS

The reduction in salt prices is one of the sensational features of America's industrial activities. Prof. J. A. Bownocker, now state geologist, has reported it thus:

"About the close of the Civil war this salt sold for $2.50 per barrel. In July, 1897, it sold for 47 cents, and has been marketable in small lots for 40 cents. This price included a barrel, the manufacture of which cost about 25 cents. In other words, 280

578 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

pounds of salt have sold for 15 cents. In July, 1903, the price was 65 cents, and in September, 1905, 70 cents."

Salt's price took an upward turn in 1899, when the United Salt Company closed one or two plants and arranged to absorb the production of others. The company was called a "salt trust," and the name seemed to fit when in the last months of 1900 the price mounted to $1.10 a barrel. The company fell into the hands of a receiver early in 1901 and prices went into a decline. By May, 1902, salt had dropped to 58 cents a barrel.

NEARBY MINES KEPT PRICES DOWN

For about twenty-five years most of the Pomeroy producers sold their output to J. B. Speed & Company, who shipped it in barges to Louisville, Kentucky, where it was repacked and marketed. The nearness and consequent cheapness of coal was in part responsible for Pomeroy's salt-making prosperity. Some manufacturers bought their supplies from owners of nearby mines ; others mined their own coal. In those days manufacturers reported that a bushel of coal served to evaporate brine enough to produce a bushel and a quarter of salt.

The wells at first had a depth of about 300 feet. Extensions were later made in search of more brine; some to a depth of more than 1,500 feet.

"When drilling first began in this (Pomeroy) territory," reports Bownocker, "the water is said to have risen nearly to the well-heads and in some cases actually overflowed. As pumping progressed the reservoirs of brine were lowered and at the same time the tubing was extended deeper into wells." Here follows a highly instructive opinion as to the Pomeroy supplies of salt water :

BRINE FROM OLD OCEAN AT POMEROY

"The quantity of brine that has been taken from these rocks is enormous, much more than the rocks could at any one time contain. This great excess has doubtless been derived from sur-rounding territory. The brine-bearing strata dip toward Pomeroy from the northwest. As the brine has been pumped from the wells the supply has been removed from the rocks lying at a higher level.

"Doubtless the brine was once a part of the ocean. As the

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 579

sand or gravel now composing the salt-bearing rocks was deposited on the ocean floor sea water filled the spaces between the grains and pebbles and has since remained in that position. It must be borne in mind, however, that the Pomeroy brines were from near the shore, perhaps from a land-locked sea and hence might vary considerably from those of the open ocean. This fact explains the presence of the relatively large amounts of iodides and bromides, since these substances are contained in certain marine plants. Probably conditions were very favorable for these plants in the early sea in the vicinity of Pomeroy."

FOUND OIL AND GAS IN A SALT WELL

The reader who follows up the mineral records of this work will find several sections whose captions could properly be a repetition of the one here used. Southeastern Ohio, with its deer licks and buffalo licks, prompted the earliest pioneers to hope that here they would be enabled to secure by their own labor salt that otherwise would cost them $8 a bushel in money.

Gas and oil by the salt-well route came in Meigs as it did in Noble and other counties. At some time in the '30s this was the process and the place was near the mouth of Leading Creek, in Rutland Township but it was not until 1852 that the county's first oil well produced in a commercial way. It was drilled in at Pomeroy, near the line between it and Middleport. The prospector's object was salt, but when the drill was at a depth beyond 200 feet oil welled up, followed a ravine to the river and at length was kept out of the latter by a dam built across the former. Nearly 100 barrels were filled with oil and shipment was made to St. Louis, where the oil was sold as a liniment.

WELL ABANDONED WHEN OPERATORS QUARREL

In one of the years of the decade ending. in 1865 a well was sunk at a point about a mile northwest of Rutland, Rutland Township, which at a depth of 830 feet yielded oil sparingly. In the early or middle '80s another well was drilled on the Rightmire farm, a few yards from the well last named, whose production was about the same at the same depth. The drill was sent down to a depth of 1,971 feet but no valuable deposits were found. Farmers drilled the next well nearby and this was a gusher which

580 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

sprinkled the top of the derrick with oil and water but which was abandoned because the operators quarreled.

The next well met the same fate when its operators fell short of funds. It was drilled about 1890 a little southwest of the wells just referred to—on the Savage farm, near the Salem Township border. Oil was found in it also. A well was drilled for salt water at a point near Minersville. The oil overflowed and ran into the river, but as the operators wanted salt, the oil and gas were cased out.

FAILURES AND PARTIAL FAILURES

Another field was explored in the early '60s on Thomas Fork, about a mile and a half back of Pomeroy. Some fifteen or twenty shallow wells were drilled, some to a depth of 300 feet, but the greater number of drills were stopped at 150 feet. Several hun-dred barrels of oil were shipped from the Highland well to Marietta.

On the Carr farm in the eastern part of Salisbury Township a well was drilled in 1894 which at a depth of 1,780 feet yielded a little gas and oil. During the same year a well drilled 2,500 feet deep on the Devlin farm, Olive Township, came in with both oil and gas but the well was abandoned. No history of Meigs County oil and gas development following- that of the '80s and '90s is available but present conditions are referred to in a later chapter.

CHAPTER CLIII

MEIGS IN THE CIVIL, SPANISH AND WORLD WARS

"MANY OF HER SONS WENT TO THE FRONT IN THE SIXTIES AND STAY-AT-HOMES FAITHFULLY GUARDED THE COUNTY-MORGAN'S DE-FEAT AT BUFFINGTON ISLAND WAS DISASTROUS TO HIS PLANS-GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION BY H. P. SKINNER OF THE FIGURE EIGHT HIS COLUMN CUT-RAIDERS WRIGGLED OUT OF TIGHT PLACES AND GALLOPED AWAY-EDITOR C. A. HARTLEY, WHO SERVED IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN, TELLS ABOUT THE COUNTY'S PART IN IT-TWENTY-ONE OF HER SONS LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE WORLD WAR.

THE WAR OF THE REBELLION

The young men of Meigs County patriotically joined the Union troops that were wrestling with rebellion in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, but those who remained at home felt called upon to be prepared for defense of the county itself, owing to its comparative nearness to secessionist communities and the opportunities this gave for raids by way of the Ohio

River. Historian Evans said on this score :

"In the first two or three years of the war, border alarms in Meigs County were quite frequent and the militia and all good citizens held themselves in readiness to guard the river by night or to move to any threatened point. The rebel Colonel Jenkins made several raids across the river at points above Pomeroy, doing but little mischief further than plundering a store now and then and causing by his threatening attitude a more strict and vigilant watch on the Ohio side of the river."

FLEEING SLAVES AT MIDDLEPORT

Meigs County did its full share in helping to restore the Union: its men by volunteering, fighting on the battlefields and giving up their lives (all too many of them) ; or by supporting their government in many ways at home; the women, by making garments or gathering delicacies to be forwarded to the boys at the front. A patriotic population is that within the borders of

- 581 -

582 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

Meigs and the county did its duty during the Civil war as it has done in the country's wars since. We quote from a history of Meigs County published in 1883 a striking story of the influx of many of the blacks of the Charleston, Virginia, section of the country who sought refuge north of the Ohio and entered Meigs County:

"Colonel Lightburn's retreat from Charleston before the advancing army of the rebel General Loring, in 1862, was attended with some apprehensions of danger yet with no great alarm. The retreat was more remarkable for the general exodus of the colored population of the Kahawha Valley than any other result; for as soon as it became known that the Free State troops were to be withdrawn from the valley the slaves resolved, like the children of Israel, to flee from the house of bondage. Accordingly they gathered together their household goods, improvised any kind of conveyance possible and started out with the retreating troops."

A MOTLEY HOST OF BLACKS

The column crossed the Ohio near Buffington Island and proceeded toward Gallipolis. At Middleport many of the blacks tarried, "where," says the narrator, "they were as happy as the Israelites of old when they had reached the promised land ;" and he adds that the sight of those children of nature will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. To quote further:

"All ages and sexes, some riding but most on foot; the aged and white-haired veterans of both sexes, supporting their trembling steps with staff or rod; the middle-aged and young men and women on foot talking, joking, full of antics and fun as kittens, arid the little woolly-pated pickaninnies grinning from ear to ear, as active and spry as monkies, dodging here and there, sometimes riding in wagons, sometimes on the shoulders of their elders and again on foot."

MORGAN'S RAID THROUGH MEIGS

By H. P. Skinner

Of all the counties touched by Morgan's raid, Meigs played by far the largest part. Not only was the principal engagement fought on her soil, but while other counties got the "once over"

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 585

he crossed Meigs twice, first from west to east and then from north to south. Recorded history has very little to say about this latter crossing, most accounts leaving the impression that he went almost directly from northeastern Meigs to his place of capture in Columbiana County. But there are scores of persons still living each of whom can tell a portion of the story of his trip from Heiney Ridge, near Tuppers Plains (where he took a Sunday rest till evening, after his trying experiences earlier in the day at Portland and Reedsville), around through the southern edge of Athens County to Vanderhoof, thence to near Alfred, in Meigs, and then west through Burlingham to Harrisonville, thence south, giving Rutland a second service and passing into Gallia County on the old Athens and Gallipolis state road, on his way to Cheshire, where he vainly hoped to cross the Ohio, but instead lost by surrender the greater part of his dwindling command ; and then, hurrying on down to Addison and there leaving the river and swinging up the Campain Valley and through Vinton and Athens counties to Nelsonville, where, crossing the Hocking, he pushed on to Eagleport, on the Muskingum, from which point there seems to be no discrepancy as to his route. It will be seen that Morgan, mainly in Meigs but reaching into the three adjoining counties, cut a figure eight with Rutland as the center.

The raiders came into Meigs County from the west, scattering out over various roads and across country in search of horses and food and incidentally throwing a great scare into most of the populace, though it, turned out that those who remained coolest generally fared best. The worst-used man in this section was Rickerby Knight, an aged bachelor who kept a little grocery and grog shop on Maloons Run. Pretty much his whole stock including his whisky was taken or destroyed. The old man never recovered from his loss and ended his days in the poorhouse.

At Langsville Morgan met with his first resistance in the county. The home guard had blockaded the road by felling trees on the steep hillside above and putting ropes on them and dragging them down by man power. They also burnt the bridge across Leading Creek. This delayed the main force, including the artillery, from Friday evening till toward noon Saturday. The raiders with the help of some local men whom they pressed into service chopped and rolled the logs from the road into the creek,

586 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

making a solid bridge over which they hauled their wagons and cannons.

Langsville has a story of Morgan's consideration for women and children. A Mrs. McKnight, wife of a Union soldier in the field, had twin babies two weeks old. It is said that Morgan kept a guard at each outer door of the house during his stay at the village.

Just below Langsville a raider was shot by a bushwhacker. His remains still repose in Warren Stansbury's barnyard, close to the sugar tree nearest the road.

At Rutland the Paine and Rathburn stores were looted, though Mr. Rathburn had secreted two wagon loads of his goods. Years afterward a drummer named Ahern, traveling out of Cincinnati, stood in front of the Rathburn store and pointing. over to the site of the Paine store stated that at the time of the Morgan raid he (then a wild and reckless sixteen-year-old boy) was in that store and got a bolt of muslin and, tying. one end around his waist, mounted his horse and loped him up and down the street.

From Rutland the raiders made for Middleport, but halting at the point where the public road now crosses the N. Y. C. R. R., the advance scouts returned bearing a wounded comrade and re-porting the river hills covered with "Yanks." Their course was accordingly changed for Chester.

But before leaving a most regrettable tragedy was enacted. Some stragglers who had come down Leading Greek in search of horses and were coming across the hill to join the main body, passed the home of Holliday Hysell. Mr. Hysell, a Union soldier in uniform and reported to have been in an intoxicated condition, fell to cursing the raiders. Doctor Hudson, a neighbor, was run-ning through a corn field toward Mr. Hysell to try to quiet him. Being hard of hearing, he failed to heed the command to halt. Both men were fatally shot, Hysell dying instantly and Hudson in a few days.

At Chester the raiders burned the bridge across Shade River to impede their pursuers, and the mill which stood at the end went with it. This was all to no purpose, as there was a good rock ford just below. The stores of Chester shared the common fate of looting.

Morgan's command arrived at Portland that evening. and laid them down to sleep. Next morning. came the beginning. of the

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 587

end. Probably the best estimate is that 120 were killed. About 700 were captured. An unknown number escaped across the river, among whom was the boy Ahern who paraded with the bolt of muslin at Rutland. By hiding days and riding nights he eventually reached his home near Lexington, Kentucky.

Morgan, with the remainder, estimated at 1,200, escaped up the river to Reedsville, where about 300 got across. The work was then interrupted by the gunboats. A little later Morgan, with his remnant, came to rest on Heiney, near the Athens County line and about three miles east of Tuppers Plains. On the authority of a man still living., who was twenty years of age at that time, and at whose home Morgan made his headquarters, Morgan expected to surrender at this place. But, evening coming on and no demand being made, he proceeded on the route described in the early part of this article.

Meigs has had numerous echoes of the raid in addition to the Ahern incident. Capt. Tom Jones, when in World war camp at Montgomery, Alabama, met a dignified but courteous retired cotton broker who as a first lieutenant in the Morgan command was wounded at Portland, captured, cared for at Tuppers Plains and then spent some time in the Pomeroy jail. Banker W. F. 'Reed, when living in Kansas, met two prominent men who told interesting. stories of their ride through Meigs County with Morgan. Many stories are told by Portland residents of strangers who had come there, presumably from the South, to look for treasure supposed to have been secreted by the raiders.

MEIGS COUNTY IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN

By Charles A. Hartley

"Meigs County proudly did her share in the war with Spain in 1898 and in the Boxer insurrection and in the Philippine insurrection which followed. A full company was sent from the county in a body, except twelve recruits from McArthur, Vinton County, a unit known as Company L, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At the time of the breaking out of this war a military organization existed at Middleport under the name of the Bishop Guards, which was attached to the Seventh Ohio State troops. This com-pany was hastily recruited to a membership of sixty-five and sent to Chillicothe, the headquarters of the regiment, with Colonel

38-VOL. 2

588 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

Hamilton in command. From there the regiment was ordered to Camp Bushnell, at Columbus, where it was mustered into the United States service on May 13, 1898, and immediately was entrained for the training camp at Camp Alger, Virginia. In June following the company was recruited at Middleport to its full capacity of 105 men and officers. The regiment never reached the battle front and was mustered out on November 6, 1898, at Columbus, having spent the entire summer in the training camps at Bushnell, Columbus, Ohio; at Alger, Virginia, known as Falls Church, and at Camp Meade, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There was much sickness in camp, but no deaths occurred.

"Scattering enlistments in other organizations from the county raised the county enlistment to far above a full company strength. Many volunteers from Meigs County engaged in the campaigns in Cuba and in the Philippines. Two surgeons from Meigs went through the island campaign, Dr. J. H. Hysell and Dr. D. B. Hartinger.

"L Company was commanded by Louis N. Gerber, who was at the head of the organization at the time it was mustered into the United States service and continued in command until the company was discharged. Frederick S. Russell was the first lieutenant, and Raymond H. Bell second lieutenant, both going into the service with the company and remaining with it until mustered out.

"At this date, thirty years after the war, nearly one-half of the company has been mustered out of earthly service, including the captain."

MEIGS COUNTY'S DEAD IN THE WORLD WAR

The following list of the boys who gave up their lives in that conflict gives evidence of the county's active participation. The list appears in Charles B. Galbreath's "History of Ohio" and is printed here with his permission.

Alkire, Frank, Harrisonville, October 19, 1918.

Baumgardner, Charles V., Pomeroy, October 20, 1918.

Bennett, John, Middleport, November 1, 1918.

Clouse, William, Pomeroy, October 19, 1918.

Dorst, Albert R., Long Bottom, November 26, 1918.

Feeney, Cornelius, Middleport, November 9, 1918.

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 589

Harper, Albert, Pomeroy, October 25, 1918.

Hecox, Orla T., Sumner, October 11, 1918.

Hetxer, John A., Reedsville, October 7, 1918.

Howell, Curtis V., Pomeroy, October 17, 1918.

Hysell, Ira R., Middleport, October 20, 1918.

Karr, William, Racine, October 12, 1918.

Mathews, Samuel J., Carpenter, February 11, 1918.

Price, Clive, Portland, February 28, 1918.

Reed, Norman M., Long Bottom, October 11, 1918.

Searls, Cideon A., Rutland, October 3, 1918.

Snedden, Eddie, Alfred, November 20, 1918.

Suthers, Luther D., Dexter, October 11, 1918.

Townsend, Allen, Carpenter, October 6, 1918.

Webster, Drew S., Pomeroy, July 6, 1918.

Whaley, Jasper, Rutland, June 26, 1919.

CHAPTER CLIV

MISCELLANEOUS PAST AND PRESENT ITEMS

FIRST NEWSPAPER, THE TELEGRAPH, BEGAN EXISTENCE IN 1842 AND IS STILL PRINTING THE NEWS-COUNTY HAD NO DEMOCRATIC PAPER FOR YEARS, BUT JUDGE J. E. CARLETON NoW PUBLISHES THE DEMOCRAT-C. A. HARTLEY, HIS SON OLIVER AND GRANDSON MALCOLM ARE ALL oN THE DAILY TRIBUNE-WEAVERS' REEDS MADE ON A LARGE SCALE-TWO SONS oF MEIGS IN CONGRESS, HORTON AND PLANTS-A HUGE SYCAMORE TREE-INDIANS RESORTED To "DEVIL'S HOLE"-POPULATION STATISTICS-COUNTY OFFICERS.

MEIGS COUNTY NEWSPAPERS

By Charles A. Hartley

"Meigs County has been blessed with high-grade newspapers almost from its organization. In 1842 the first newspaper was published in the county by R. T. Van Horn and O. B. Chapman. This paper has been published continuously ever since and has promise of still long years of life and prosperity. In all the years of its existence it has carried in the head the word Telegraph, and the weekly edition is still identified by that name.

"For many years Messrs. Thrall and Chapman owned and published this paper, following the retirement of Mr. Van Horn. Then came the late Editor Thompson, followed by Judge T. A. Plantz, and still later by Plantz & Son. By 1861 the name of the paper became fixed as the Meigs County Telegraph. Mr. Chapman came back as the editor of the paper, which was owned by a joint-stock company, soon after the close of the Civil war, and held that position until January 1, 1874. He was one of the renowned editors of the state. He set his own editorials from the case without copy and was a typical country editor in every other respect. His ability was recognized by the fraternity far and wide.

"He was so well regarded by Meigs Countians that he was

- 591 -

592 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

elected to the Ohio Legislature and at the beginning of 1874 went to Columbus to take up his duties in the halls of the lawmakers.

"His place as editor was taken by a young man, Elmer S. Trussell, who had the advantage of several years in the business on other newspapers. He took cliarge of the paper on January 1, 1874, and made it so popular that in a few years it had more than doubled its subscriptions and ranked in importance with the Marietta Register and the Ironton Register, the three being considered the ranking weekly country papers in the state. This paper was the only republican paper published at the county seat 'for many years, had full sway, was of much political importance and the promulgator of civic pride and achievements.

"Mr. Trussell soon realized the value of the plant and its growing popularity and set about to acquire the property. The stock in the concern was still owned in various parts of the county and Mr. Trussell set about acquiring it in small blocks. When he had acquired the controlling interest he had no trouble in getting all the stock. He became the sole owner early in the '80s and continued the ownership until the plant was destroyed by fire in the early '90s.

"On September 2, 1884, he was joined in the publication of the paper by the writer of this sketch as a local newswriter up to November 5, 1890, when Mr. Hartley left the paper and joined Will H. Huntley in the purchase of the Racine Tribune, which had been established there on April 13, 1887, by W. G. Sibley. The paper was moved to Pomeroy and became a competitor of the old established Telegraph and continued as a republican organ until the two papers were merged under the control of the Union Printing Company, when the combination was joined by the Republican and the Herald, of Middleport, and all placed under one management, reducing the number of papers in Middleport to one and the same in Pomeroy, except one democratic paper in Pomeroy, The Democrat, which still exists under the manage-ment of Judge J. E. Carleton, and at the beginning of the year 1928, to which time this sketch covers, was the only democratic paper in the county.

"With the merging of the papers Mr. Trussell dropped out of the field. The late Austin W. Vorhes finally acquired the controlling stock in the Union Printing Company and he and C. A. Hartley, the latter a minor stockholder, operated the paper for

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 595

many years. At the death of Mr. Vorhes the stock in the paper went into his estate and was sold to the Ebersbach interests and Oliver Hartley, they still being the owners of the expanded prop-erty and the publishers of one of the leading weeklies of the state under the title of the Tribune-Telegraph, and the Daily Tribune, which was launched on September 13, 1926, and which had gained a remarkable circulation with 5,000 paid-in-advance subscribers by March 1, 1928. This paper absorbed the Daily News, estab-lished twenty years earlier.

"C. A. Hartley is still on the editorial staff of the paper, hav-ing been in the harness longer than any other man engaged in like work in the county—more than forty-four years. His son Oliver Hartley, who began work in a printing office as a devil boy when the paper was moved from Racine to Pomeroy (in 1890) and has been in the game ever since, is the managing editor of the daily and weekly; and his son Malcolm Hartley likewise works in the office as a sub-editor, making the rather odd combination of three generations of the Hartley family working in the edi-torial department of the same papers at the same time. Another old-timer on the paper is S. Emory Wolfe, the business manager, who has a credit of nearly forty years in various positions on the sheet.

"Other Pomeroy papers which have wine and gone were : The Leader, which was established as a republican paper in the late '90s. It was a fine paper, flourished for twenty years and then went the way of most newspapers. It was bought and merged with the Tribune-Telegraph, as was the Middleport Republican. The Independent was established and flourished for a few years and became the Daily News, published for many years by Ralston Russell.

"From early in the history of the county there had been spas-modic efforts to establish a democratic organ in the county but none ever lasted long until Judge C. E. Peoples took over the Pomeroy Democrat on February 1, 1889, and successfully operated it until he sold out to Judge J. E. Carleton a few years ago. A few months before the disastrous fire of August 20, 1926, when a whole block of Pomeroy was destroyed, the Democrat office being among the many other buildings burned, Oliver Hartley bought a half-interest in the paper. After the fire Mr. Hartley retired to devote his entire time and talents to the build-

596 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

ing up of the Daily Tribune and its parent sheet, the latter once having the third largest circulation of a country weekly in the United States, the number of paid subscribers being over 5,500.

"Mr. Carleton, as the sole owner of the Democrat, has rebuilt his office and re-equipped it and is again starting off on a renewed ease of life.

"Pomeroy, Middleport and Racine once had newspapers. Now there are but two plants in the county and they are located at the county seat, Pomeroy."

HORACE HOLT'S WEAVERS' REEDS

The manufacture of weavers' reeds is worthy of more than passing notice in the process of culling salient records of the past from Meigs County annals. Horace Holt established this industry in Rutland Township in 1823 and carried it on until his death occurred in 1885. In his youth he had gone to the Wabash country, Indiana, and fallen sick. While on the road to recovery he came. across an old weaver's reed.

Curiosity prompted him to unravel it and the process yielded knowledge of the canes which entered into the reed's construction. On returning to Rutlad he began manufacture of the reeds, send-ing cane-cutters to Mississippi and bringing the raw material by boat to Leading Creek. He invented a split-cutting machine and patented it.

A WORTHY MAN

He began the reeds' manufacture in 1831 on a large scale and his machine enabled him to control the industry to such an extent that he is said to have been at one time the country's sole producer of reeds. In due time he had manufactured 300,000 reeds. Larkin says of him :

"Mr. Holt paid good wages and treated his employes fairly and his business was a great advantage to the community. Mr. Holt was of commanding figure and had a giant's strength. Before the Civil war he was an abolitionist and his place was a station on the underground railroad. A member of the Universalist Church, he was exemplary in speech and honorable in busi-ness habits . . . and in his last years he was a prohibition-ist. He sold his manufacturing business to his son, John B. Holt."

SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 597

TWO EARLY-DAY CONGRESSMEN

A pair of the sons of Meigs represented the district of which the county was a part, many years ago, in the National House of Representatives. V. B. Horton, the first, was a member of that body in the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth and Thirty-seventh Congresses, and Tobias Plants followed in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses.

SYCAMORE TREE OF VAST GIRTH

Henry Howe, the historian, tells this remarkable true story:

"About the year 1791 or 1792 Capt. Hamilton Carr, a noted spy in the service of the United States, in his excursions through these parts discovered an enormous sycamore tree below the mouth of Carr's Run . . . which was subsequently occupied as a dwelling house. Captain Whitlock, of Coalport, informs me that he himself measured that tree and found the hollow to be eighteen feet in diameter."

INDIANS IN THE "DEVIL'S HOLE"

The Indians made much use of the Shade River, which flows into the Ohio in the northern part of the county at a point where the "Devil's Hole," a rough dark spot, became the savages' stop-ping place after they had re-crossed the Ohio at the close of forays into Western Virginia. Thence up the valley of the Shade they took captives and plunder on their way to the Scioto.

THE COUNTY'S POPULATION

When the census was taken in 1820, one year after Meigs was formed, the population was quite limited, but the seeds of growth existed and were duly cultivated by men of vision and energy. The following table will enable the reader to measure the stages of such increase as went on during the 100 years which succeeded county organization :

1820 4,480

1830 6,158

1840 11,452

1850 17,971

1860 26,534

1870 31,465

1880 32,325

1890 29,813

1900 28,620

1910 25,474

1920 26,147

598 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO

CHANGES BY TOWNSHIPS

There is food for thought in the next table, which presents the county's population changes by townships as revealed in the last three census reports: