576 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY amongst others present at the solemnization of their said marriage, and subscription in manner aforesaid as witnesses thereunto, have hereunto set our hands the day and year above written. Valentine Hollingsworth Henry Hollingsworth Nathaniel Park Jacob Chandler Lydia Hollingsworth Richard Hilaria Samuel Hollingsworth Thomas Moor George Robinson William Britton William Powell Robert Hutchinson Robert Pile Nathaniel Newland Nathaniel Cartmell Mary Conoway Thomas Hollingsworth Grace Hollingsworth Thomas Cox Ann Hollingsworth Eliza Park Abraham Hollingsworth grew up at Winchester, Virginia, with the usual education that was then afforded in that locality. He learned the tanner's trade at Charlestown, Virginia, and went from there to Louisville, Ky., where he made a tanyard, and after living there a few years returned to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, where he was married to Miss Nancy Connel in 1814 and soon went back to Louisville, Ky., to reside, He remained there about three years, when he removed to West Union, Ohio, where he engaged in the business of tanning and currying, which he carried on until 1834, at the yard now owned by Louis Smith, when he retired from all business and lived a life of ease and comfort until his death on March 7, 1864. Directly after his marriage he started back to Louisville with his wife. At Pittsburg they took a flatboat to Louisville, which was then a small place so small that he personally knew every one living there. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1820; and faithful in attendance on all the public services, of his own. church. At the weekly prayer meeting, he was always present and took part. The writer thinks he would have been more at home in the Presbyterian Church. He did not like the revival meeting of his own church, though he attended them until after the sermon, when he would get up and leave. The scenes about the mourners' bench were distasteful to him, and he would not witness them ; and he certainly believed in the Presbyterian doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints for he practiced it. His religion was the same yesterday, today and forever and he always in grace. At many of the Methodist revival meetings I have seen him, at the close of the sermon take his grandson, Pat Lockhart, and retired in the in most dignified manner. He was a thin, spare man, tall and straight as an Indian and he always walked with a dignified carriage. In politics he was a Whig, and afterwards a Republican. He was a great admirer and follower of both Daniel Webster and Henry In the year 1824, when Adams, Clay and Jackson were candidates for the Presidency, there was a light horse militia company in Adams County of which Mr. Hollingsworth was a member. At one of their muster days, after the drill and muSter was over, and the company was dismounted, the commanding officer drew a line on the ground for his sword in front of the muster and requested all who favored Henry Clay for the Presidency to Step out of the muster and cross the line. Mr. Hol- PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 577 lingswort, Gen. Joseph Darlinton and John W. Kincaid promptly came out of the ranks and stepped across the line. Though not an Abolitionist at the outset, he did not like to live in a slave state and for that reason left Kentucky. He first undertook to be in favor of the removal of the blacks from this country by colonization, but finding that impracticable, he became an ardent Abolitionist, and is his dying hours, he was greatly comforted by the fact that President Lincoln had freed the slaves. He never held any public offices, except those of School Director and Justice of the Peace, two terms. His home in Union he owned from the time he came there in 1817, and the present Hollingsworth home, built on the plan of "Abraham's delight" at Winchester, Virginia, was built in 1836, in place of his former home taken down 'to make place for the new one. The Maysville and Zanesville Turnpike was built between 1838 and 1840, and he superintended its construction between Maysville and West Union. He had three daughters. The first married a Mr. Lockhart and reared a large family. She died three years ago at the home of one of her sons in Kansas. Another daughter, Susan M., was one of the victims of the awful scourge of Asiatic cholera, and died July 7, 1895, aged twelve years. Mr. Hollingsworth's wife survived him several years and died at the ripe age of eighty-six. Mr. Hollingsworth's daughter, Caroline, never married. She lived in West Union all her life and was most highly esteemed. She furnished the data for this sketch in 1894 and since then she has joined the silent majority. Col. William Kirker. William Kirker was born January 24, 1791, in the vicinity of Pittsburg, Penn., the son of Governor Thomas Kirker and Sarah Smith, his wife. He was the eldest son and child of a family of thirteen. He married Esther Williamson and died February TO, 1857. His father moved to Manchester in 1792 and lived there until 1794 when he located on the well known Kirker farm in Liberty Township. In the War of 1812, he was a First Lieutenant and after the war, he was made a Colonel of the Militia, which position he held until near the time of his death. He was County Commissioner in 1825 and again in 1832. He was made an elder in the Presbyterian Church at West Union in 1826, his father being an elder in the same church. He was a delegate to the Presbytery from his church from September 29, 1826, many times, until April 5, 1854. He was always courteous and kind to everyone and was noted for his philanthilthropy. Judge J. C. Coryell said of him that he was the most useful man in his community, and that the poor, the widow and the orphan lost their best friend when he died. His wife, Esther Williamson, was born cn June 4, 1797, and died January 4, 1880. He had a large family of children whose descendants are scattered throughout the United States. 578 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Nathaniel Kirkpatrick, late of Wayne Township, Adams County, was born May 29, By 1816. the time he attained manhood he began work for himself on a farm near Harshaville. He was married in 1841 to Margaret A. Patton, daughter of John Patton of Cherry Fork, born on the sixteenth of April, 1824. They had four sons, three of whom are now living. John Patton Kirkpatrick, resides at Kansas City, born June 23, 1843. He married a daughter of William L. McVey. Adams Anderson Kirkpatrick, who has a separate sketch herein, was born November hi, 1847, and Robert Stewart Kirkpatrick. His wife died soon after the birth of her youngest son, and he was married the following year to Mrs. America Kerr, widow of Robert Kerr. They had one child, Oscar Bennett Kirkpatrick, born December 6, 1856, now a physician at North Liberty. Nathaniel Kirkpatrick lived near Harshaville when he was first married. He then removed to the old home, now the property of Huston Harsha, occupied by a man by the name of Beekly, just before his first wife died, and he resided there until 1882, when he removed to North Liberty. While residing at Harshaville, he was one of the first elders in the U. P. Church at Unity, and after his removal to his home on Grace's Run, he was a member of the Cherry Fork Church. He was a trustee of Wayne Township for many years, but never sought or held any pUblic offices, but he usually attended all the political conventions, either as a delegate or spectator. Mr. Kirkpatrick was a man of wide and extensive reading, well formed on all current topics of Church and State. He was a man of decided opinions, and was fond of giving expression to them. His op ions on religious and political subjects were well considered, and he a leader among men. He exercised a great deal of influence in the circle of his own acquaintance. To him is entitled the suggestion which m the Hon. John T. Wilson first State Senator and afterwards Congress and many of the political results in. his county and district were due his suggestions. He was a very ardent Republican and always slavery. He was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, from station at Gen. William McIntire's to the house of Joseph W. Rothrock, at Mt. Leigh, and has conducted many a fugitive over this route. fugitive applied to him in vain, and no bondsman ever placed him under his care and was returned to slavery. He was an Abolitionist ways, but prior to the war, thought it best to go into the Republican pa and did so, but never acted as a third party man. Prior to the Republican party he was a Whig. He was a most agreeable companion, a neighbor and a good citizen. He was always cheerful and genial, an was always pleasant to meet him and converse with him. He app to be built on the plan of which there are very few models and in generation which has succeeded him there seems to be fewer. His passing was a loss to the community and to all who knew him. He died June 20, 1886. Col. John Kincaid was born June 22, 1779, near Richmond, Virginia. He came with his father, Thomas Kincaid, to Limestone (Maysville, Kentucky) about 1788. In 1797, he came to the settlement at Manchester and remained there until 1800, when he married Sallie Hannah, March 27, 1800, and moved to PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 579 near the Kirker graveyard. Here he and his wife lived for a few years and then moved to what is now the old Kincaid homestead, where they died. They raised a family of eleven children, seven boys and four girls, The boys were Thomas J., John H., Dr. William P., Dr. Samuel W. and Dr. W. P. Kincaid, who was Senator four years from the Clermont County District. John Kincaid was one of the first Justices of the Peace of Liberty Township and served from 1818 to 1830. He was commissioned Captain of the First Company in the First Battalion, Third Regiment, First Brigade and Second Division of the Militia of this State by Gov. Thomas Worthington, May 19, 1815. He was commissioned Lieutenant - Colonel of the Second Regiment in the First Brigade and Second Division of the Militia of Ohio by Thomas Worthington, Governor, October 20, 1818. He was commissioned Associate Judge for a term of seven years by Governor Allen Trimble, January 18, 1828, which he held at the time of his death, whjch occurred April 3, 1834. The letters and papers he left behind are ring witnesses of a broad and well-balanced mind. He did as much for Adams County from 1800 to 1834 as any man who lived in it. In 1812, he raised a company at West Union for the war and was appointed Colonel of a regiment. John Kincaid was a Presbyterian and helped to build and organize the stone church at West Union in 1809. But in 183o, the Presbyterian Church denounced Free Masonry and he was asked to church renounce the order, which he positively refused to do, left the Presbyterian Church and joined the old Union Church at Bentonville. John Kincaid was one of the charter members of the West Union Lodge, No. 43, Free and Accepted Masons, which was issued in 1817. He was the first Junior Warden and afterward Master several times. He was a Knight Templar Mason and his Royal Arch apron, sash and Knight Templar jewel are still preserved. The jewel is solid silver and finely engraved. They are all in fine condition and are nearing the century mark. The possessor, his grandson, W. S. Kincaid, prizes them highly. Money. could not buy them. Sallie Kincaid, wife of John Kincaid, died October 22, 1824, and on January 19, 1826, he married Dorcas Alexander. On the morning of April 1, 1834, John Kincaid walked down across his farm to look at some calves and came in about ten o'clock, sick, and ion the morning of the third, he was a corpse. He died at the age of fifty-five, yet he got in more than a good many men would in one hundred-years. At the time of his death, he was the nominee of the Whig party for Congress and would have been elected had he lived. Joseph West Lafferty. Joseph West Lafferty was born in Connelsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, October 27, 18o9. In the year 1814 his parents emigrated to Ohio, settled on a farm three miles east of West Union and his father took up the business of wool carding and carried it on for more than thirty years. From his majority until 1848, he was a Democrat. From November 15, 1834, until December 15, 1841, he was the postmaster at West Union. In 1848, he supported Van Buren on the Free Soil ticket. When the Republican party was organized in 1856, he identified himself with that and 580 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY supported it until his death. l Ie was an ardent supporter of the war for the Union and two of his sons were in the service. When the Internal Revenue Act went into effect in 1862, Mr. Lafferty was appointed a Deputy Assessor for his county and served as such for several years. He took great interest in the advancement of the community in which he lived and served on the Board of Education for a number of years. He was a member of the Board when the separate districts were united and a schoolhouse for graded schools built. There was bitter opposition to the new districts and house, but Mr. Lafferty and others stood for the advanced ideas and they prevailed. In March, 1839, he was married to Elizabeth Burwell, daughter Nicholas of Burwell, who survived him. His children were Sarah Rebecca, wife of Smith Grimes of Mineral Springs; Dr. Nelson B. Lafferty, of Hillsboro, Charles L. Lafferty, of Pittsburg, Penn., and Joseph and Julia F. Lafferty, of West Union. Mr. Lafferty was a student of men and affairs. He was a good reader and a careful thinker. He had pronounced views on all public questions and his views were all made and expressed after mature deliberation. It was always agreeable and profitable to listen to his discussion of any subject, because he would not express his views until after much study and after careful deliberation. His views were advanced on all subjects and they were earnest and conscientious. All evil and wrong was abhorrent to him. The emotions of his soul were always generous. He had the dignity and air of a Chesterfield and it was indoors in him. He always wore a silk hat and wore a standing collar with stock. He was neat and careful of his personal appearance ; he had a pleasing address and was always courteous to every one he met. No more of a gentleman in his manners and address could be found anywhere. He was a most useful and valuable citizen, always leading public opinion on all matters of public concern, general or local. He died August 27, 1867, respected by all who knew him. Andrew Livingstone was an early settler of Adams County. He was born November 3, 1769, and must have located in Adams County about 1800. On February 10, 1810, he was appointed an Associate Judge of Adams County, and was reappointed twice, serving continuously in the office until February, 1832. From April 13, 1836, for three years, he was a Justice of the Peace for Adams County. From July io, 1841, to November 4, 1846, he was the postmaster at Manchester, Ohio. He died July 4, 1847, and is interred in the old cemetery at Manchester. His wife, Margaret, died August 17, 1826, at the age of forty-four years and he never remarried. He had two sons and two daughters. His sons were Samuel and Lucien Samuel married Elizabeth Ellison. They lived on the Williamson farm near Manchester, but went to Minneapolis and died there. The daughters were Nancy and Lucinda Jane. Lucinda married David Ellison, a brother of William Ellison and lived and died in Manchester. She has a daughter, Mrs. David Stableton, residing in Manchester. Judge Livingstone was a Democrat and a Presbyterian. He was a man of the highest integrity and often chosen as guardian and administrator of estates. He enjoyed the confidence of the public all his life. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 581 Peter Lee was one of Massie's surveyors and was a native of Mason County, Kentucky. He possessed a large fortune and was reported a liberal and honest man. He was unostentatious in his manner and respected by all who knew him. He was never married. Peter Lee was one of Col. Robert Todd's expedition in June, 1787, which marked out Todd's Trace. He was still living in 1826 and testified in May of that year at Georgetown, Ohio, in a case of Martin v. Boone and McDowell, 2 Ohio, 237. Colonel John Lodwick was born in Winchester, Va., March 24, 1767. There he was reared and there he married Elizabeth Cooley, a widow with one child in June, 1790. She was born in 1760. His eldest child, Sarah, married first to Robert Hood and for a second marriage to Alexander Woodrow, was born July 13, 1791, in Winchester, Virginia. With this child, his wife and step-child, he emigrated to Kentucky in 1792, and in 1794 took up his residence in the Stockade at Manchester, Ohio. He was one of the first grand jurors of Adams. County, serving at a Court of Quarter Sessions held at Manchester, September, 1797. He purchased the Col. John Means farm, where A. V. Hutson now resides, directly after the treaty of Greenville, and moved there. His son, William, was born in Manchester, January 14, 1794. Ludlow was horn March 11, 1796, and his son James, long a resident of Portsmouth, was born on the Means farm, March 15, 1798, and here on July 6, 1800, his wife, Elizabeth, died and was buried on the farm. In June, 1802, he married Hannah Finley, daughter of Major Joseph L. Finley, and by her became the father of the following children, all born in Adams County : Kennedy, Lyle, Joseph, Michael, Preston, John N., Jane F., married to Jacob McCabe, and the only one now living; Martha Scott, afterwards married to Eli Kinney ; Nancy Finley, afterwards married to J. Scott Peebles. In 1803, he was elected Sheriff of the County, and served until 1807. On May 17, 1804, he auctioned off the lots in the new town of West Union, and forty-nine years afterwards, on a visit to West Union, could point out each lot and the name of the person to whom he sold it. In 181o, he was again elected sheriff and served one term. In 1812, though fifty-five years of age, he went into the war at the head of a regiment and performed distinguished services. He was an excellent disciplinarian and one of the bravest of man. Gen. Harrison, under whom he served, gave great meed of praise to his soldierly qualities. In 1819, he was a fourth time elected Sheriff of the County and served one term. While he held the office, at the opening of the term, he formed a procession and marched the judges from the hotel to the court room with martial music. On these occasions he wore a cocked hat and carried a sword. No one sustained the dignity of the office as fully as he did. He was very fond of musters, and on these ions he was much admired for his soldierly bearing. In 1815, he moved to West Union, and built the house afterwards known as the Benjamin Woods tavern, and where Lewis Johnston now resides. In 1819, he sold his farm in Sprigg Township to Col. John Means and purchased the McDade farm west of West Union in Liberty 582 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Township. He was County Commissioner. from December 1, 1823, for three years. He removed to the McDade farm after his retirement from the Sheriff's office. On July 28, 1827, his second wife, Hannah Finley, died, aged forty-four years. In October, 1828, he married his third wife, Eliza B. Flliot, a widow, who died October 2, 1857, in Hamilton County, Ohio, and is buried at Spring Grove, Cincinnati. In 1832, Col. John Lodwick sold all his possessions in Adams County and purchased a farm in Storrs Township, Hamilton County, where he spent the remainder of his days. This farm fronted the Ohio River, and he sold off part after part for suburban residences until finally he sold the last part of it and moved on to Pike Street in Cincinnati, where he died. Many of the prominent families of Cincinnati have suburban homes on the land he bought in 1832. Whil' residing in Storrs Township, he connected himself with the Presbyterian Church, and was a faithful member for the remainder of his days. In 1840, he had the remains of his two wives, Elizabeth and Hannah, taken up and re-buried in the West Union Cemetery. He placed over them a slab tomb, giving the usual data as to birth and death, followed by this: "Their languishing heads are at rest, Their thinking and aching are o'er, Their quiet, immovable breasts Are heaved by affection no more." From that time, during the remainder of his life, as long as able to travel, every summer, he would visit West Union for the purpose of looking after this tomb. His daughter, Sarah, resided in West Union and he would visit her. He always brought her many household gifts and would sometimes remain several weeks. On one of these visits the writer met and conversed with him. He had the most remarkable physical powers. He survived until the age of ninety-four and was then carried off by a cancer of the face. Had it not been for this, he would have lived beyond a century. Think of one dying prematurely at ninety-four, but such was the case of Col. Lodwick. Not one in 100,000 had such vitality as he had. He was always full of animal spirits, of humor and fun. No one enjoyed a humorous story more than he did, and but few had such a repertoire of them. He was always an entertaining and agreeable companion, as well for the young as for the old, and he retained all his faculties and his great flow of spirits to the last. At ninety-four, he was as cheerful, humorous and urbane as at any part of his life. In politics, he was always a Democrat and never wavered from that faith. He trained all his sons in that party and they adhered to it during their lives. In religion, he was a Presbyterian and greatly devoted to the church. No descendants of his are now living in Adams County. A number of them reside in Cincinnati and a few still remain in Portsmouth. It seems remarkable to reflect that one who at twenty-four years of age had resided in the Stockade at Manchester should survive till the day of President Lincoln's first inauguration, March 4, 1861. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 583 "Black Joe" Logan. Joseph Logan was born a slave in the State of North Carolina, about 1797 or 1798. He was, of course, kept in ignorance of reading or writing, and was brought up as slaves were at that time. He belonged to the Smith family, then a prominent family in North Carolina, and a daughter of which had married the Reverend William Williamson. He resided in Rutherford County. In about 1817, he contracted a slave marriage with Jemima, a black girl of about seventeen years of age, the property of another branch of the Smith family. Logan was then called Smith, after the family name of his master, John Smith. He was of ordinary height, weight about one hundred and forty pounds, and was a v-shaped man, with broad shoulders, and muscular in every fibre of his frame. He was as black as a coal, and slave as he was, he was a man, in the full sense of the term, and would take no affront, either for himself, or for any of his friends. While of ordinary size, he was more powerful and muscular than most of the men of his race, and would not hesitate to use his great strength when occasion required. He was a favorite servant of his master, and usually travelled with him on all of his journeys. In 18o3, his master's sister, Mrs. Jane Smith Williamson, emigrated to Ohio with her husband, and they had taken twenty-seven of his race with them, to set them free. Joseph had accompanied his master to Ohio on a visit to his master's sister, between 1806 and 1816, and had some idea of a free State, and of the condition of the freemen of his race. In 1819, by the death of the owner of his wife, she was willing to pay the legacy of $300 to Jane Smith Williamson, his master's niece, and he knew that she was liable to be sold to pay the legacy, and to be sent to the slave market in New Orleans, and this probable event was freely talked of in the family. His feelings, while such an event was impending, cannot be told. Fortunately for him, Miss Jane Williamson would not permit his wife to be sold, but elected to take her and her two children in satisfaction of the legacy. He heard of this, but did not know what it meant, until Miss Williamson came from Ohio, and stated that she would take Jemima and her two children. In the meantime, one of Jemima's children died, leaving her with but one. Logan begged Miss Williamson to buy him, and take him to Ohio with his wife; but she was unable to do so, for want of means. It was the tenth of March, 1821, when Miss Williamson and her brother, afterward the Reverend Thomas Smith Williamson, started North. Each of them rode horseback, and the third horse carried Jemima and her child. Logan was not permitted to bid his wife and child good-bye, nor did he know they were started until after they had gone, and it was some time after they left before he learned of their destination. He simply knew that Miss Williamson intended to take Jemima away with her when she went. That same summer his master visited Ohio and took Logan with him. John Smith visited his sister, Mrs. Williamson, and Logan got to see his wife and spent some time with her, and it was there that he told her that he intended to be a free man, and a slave no longer. Logan's master had been uniformly kind to him, and had promised that he would, at some future time, give him his freedom. After spend- 584 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY ing several months in Ohio, John Smith took his slave Logan, and went back to North Carolina. Logan took note of the entire route of their return, and determined to escape at the first opportunity. He made friends with, the slaves on his route, returning, so that they would remember him, and aid him. As a precautionary measure to his escape, he privately beat and whipped all the slave-hunting dogs in the vicinity of his home, so that they would refuse to follow him. He started in the summer of 1822, the next summer after his return from Ohio. While his master would not follow him, knowing that he would never be taken alive, other slave hunters of the vicinity undertook to recapture him, but the dogs refused their accustomed duties. When they found the trail of Logan, they sneaked back to their masters, and thus, the hunt had to be abandoned. But Logan was pursued at several points along his route by strange dogs. At one time he killed two do with a hatchet, which he carried with him, and wounded two others badly that they had to be killed. At another time, he plunged into a river to escape the dogs. Two of them swam into the river after him, and seized them, one at a time, and held their heads under the water until they were drowned. He could not be taken by dogs, as he either frightened them so badly they would not follow him, or he would fight and kill them before the hunters could come up to them. At one time, he was closely pushed that he was forced to abandoned the clothing which he carried and which was of the best quality, the gift of his master. At another time was so closely pursued by two men on horseback, that they were within few feet of him. They ordered him to halt, but he refused, where they shot at him, but missed him. He traveled mostly by night, and followed the North Star. Wherever he could, he walked in the streams cut off the scent of the dogs, for these often followed him a short distant. He knew the general course of the mountains and streams he had before before, and kept to the North all the time. He went from North Carolina to the Poage settlement In Tennessee where he was acquainted. There he learned that Colonel James P Poage had taken his slaves North, and set them free. At this point he came near being recaptured by professional slave hunters. His master had not pursued him, and would not. He knew, and had been told, that Logan would not be recaptured, and would die rather than suffer such a thing. He was, therefore, willing to suffer his loss ; but this did not prevent slave hunters anywhere along his route from seeking to recapture him. The rivers on his route he swam, where he could not wade them but he swam none, until he had first inspected them by daylight, and then swam them at night. Most of his travelling was done between midnight and morning, and on clear nights. He made his inquiries for the route, of slaves, of children, or of white men, whom he met alone. He would inquire for a route, but would never take the one he inquired for, but would travel parallel with it and away from it. Occasionally, he ventured to travel by daylight. He swam the Ohio River near Ashland, Kentucky, and started westward, inquiring for the Reverend William Williamson, who was well known in Ohio. He thought it safe to travel by daylight in a free State. Not far east of Portsmouth, he met two men, who were willing to be man hunters PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 585 They recognized him as a fugitive from labor, and told him they believed they would take him and remand him to slavery. He picked one of them up, and threw him over an adjoining fence. Then the next one concluded that Logan was too powerful a darkey for him to tamper with. They gave him directions, however, to find the Reverend William Williamson, and he took a detour, miles to the north. Near Bentonville, he met a stone cutter who attempted to arrest him. Logan told him he could not take him South unless he killed him first. He then hid himself until the next morning. "The Beeches," where Rev. Williamson resided, was about a mile and a half from Bentonville, and his wife resided there. Next morning, after his adventure with the stone cutter, his wife was the first person he met, and that must have been a joyful meeting for two poor, black people, who felt that they had no friends on earth but each other. Jemima had been looking anxiously for her husband, as he had told her, when on the visit the year before, that he intended to come to her, or die in the attempt. Logan's master knew very well where he was. In fact, several slave bunters wrote him, offering to take Logan back to slavery for a suitable reward, but the master declined to give any reward. He knew that Logan would not be taken alive, and dead, he had no value. Logan made enemies, who wrote his master where he was, and to come and take him ; but the master declined to attempt to recapture him. Logan gave it out freely that if any attempt were made to recapture him, he would kill as many of his captors as he could, and would die himself, before he would be retaken. He had demonstrated his physical prowess on many occasions, and his statement was strictly believed. In Ohio, Logan was a part of the Underground Railroad system, and he helped every runaway slave he could, to freedom. At one time, twelve slave catchers had surrounded his cabin, but he and his friends got away from them. Once, he accompanied the late Thomas Means to Bentonville. Some of the citizens expressed surprise that a fugitive slave should go abroad so boldly. Mr. Means told them that if any of them were fools enough to get killed trying to recapture Logan, the community could very well spare them. It was a common thing in West Union, Ohio, after Logan removed there, for anyone who got angry with Logan, to write to his master to come and take him back ; but the master, having promised to free him, and Logan having freed himself, declined to take any steps or to offer any reward to reclaim him. Logan, like Hercules, was in the habit of carrying a great club with him wherever he went, and it was well known that he would use it on dogs or men, as occasion required. Once, he was caught without his club, and was attacked by three men. They were all armed, and he was not. They attempted to seize him, but before they could do anything, he knocked them all three down. disarmed all of them, and then told them that he was glad he had forgotten his club that day, as otherwise, no doubt he would have killed them. Barney Mullen lived near West Union. and would come to the village, get drunk and over-awe every one by his prowess. He had the common Irish prejudice against a negro, and one day struck Logan with his 586 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY fist. Logan staggered for several yards, but did not fall. As he recovered, he came back at Mullen with a rush. and butted him over. He then pounded him well, and filled his eyes with sand from the highway. It took Barney two hours to wash the sand from his eyes. Soon after, he left the country in disgust, emigrating to Illinois. He declared he would not live in a country where a negro could whip a white man. Logan was fond of being about the hotels and public stables in West Union, and handling horses. He was a follower and attendant of some of the fast young men of West Union, notably, of Bill Lee. One day in 1849, Lee was drunk, and handling a revolver in his right hand. He dropped it on the floor, and it was discharged, the ball lodging in Logan's great toe. The wound brought on lockjaw, of which Logan died. He was thus carried off in his prime, with a constitution, which, in the ordinary course of nature, would have lasted him to the age of ninety. Logan learned to read after he came to Ohio, and there is a story that his freedom was purchased of his master for $200, of which he contributed $100 himself, and $200 was contributed by his friends. I am led to believe that this story is not true ; but it was current in his lifetime for many years before his death. Logan, no doubt, gave it countenance, for it served as a protection 2gainSt the man hunters. It is said that Logan's master visited Ohio several times after Logan's escape and always saw him and conversed with him on those occasions: On the first visit after Logan's escape, the master asked Logan to return to North Carolina, urging the kind treatment he had always received. Logan admitted that, but said that he had escaped to be with his wife, and preferred to remain in Ohio. The master told him that he would never send for him, and gave him $10, assuring him of his good wishes. Jemima, the wife of Logan, survived until September 25, 1885, when she died at the supposed age of eighty-five. Logan left several children, Joseph Logan, his son, at the age of sixty-one, is a resident of West Union. He is a quiet, peaceable citizen, respected by all. Logan also left a daughter, who is married and has a family of children; one girl of which is a music teacher, and has a class of white pupils. Jane Williamson, who set Jemima free, at a great sacrifice to herself, survived until the twenty-fourth of March, 1895, when she passed away at the great age of ninety-three. The history of the world contains no nobler act than the freeing of Jemima by Jane Williamson, and no mre daring adventure than that of the escape of Logan. John Loughry, Sr., was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1786. He was married to Margaret Black, of Ohio, January 3, 1809. In 1812, he was a Captain in the Volunteer Service, and was stationed at Buffalo, and then called to the frontier. He was there until Christmas and then went home. He went to Columbus, Ohio, in 1817, and was Mayor of the town in 1823. On locating in Columbus. he connected with the First Presbyterian Church and soon after was made one of its ruling elders. While in Columbus, he followed the business of contracting on public works, as such he never worked on Sunday or permitted the men in his employ PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 587 to do so. His wife died in 1827, and in 1829 he was married to Miss Elizabeth K. Cunning. He remained in Columbus until 1831, when he went to Rockville to get stone to build the canal locks at Cincinnati to lead the canal into the river. That took three years. He then went into the business of building steamboats and built the "Columbia," the "Atlanta" and others. He built a large saw and grist mill at Rockville and carried on a large business. He also went into the culture of peaches and pears. He had great success in the peach culture. He retired from business in 1855, turning it over to his son, John C. Loughry, except the fruit business, which he retained until his death. He took a great interest in the Presbyterian Church at Sandy Springs and had the church and parson age rebuilt. He was an elder in Dr. Hayes' Church in Columbus while a resident there and also in the Sandy Springs Church. He was liberal in all things, kind and generous. He was the build of men which keeps the world going and preserves all that is good in it. He was an enterprising, loyal citizen, a good man, a pleasant neighbor and a devoted Christian. He died August 6, 1862, leaving a son, John C. Loughry, who has a sketch herein, and two daughters, Mrs. Dr. Awl, of Columbus, Ohio, and Mrs. Dr. Marshall, of Blairsville, Pennsylvania. General Nathaniel Massie, the founder of Manchester and the leader in the third settlement in Ohio, was born December 28, 1763, in Goochland County, Virginia His grandfather, Charles Massie, with two brothers, had emigrated to Virginia from Chester in England in 1680. His son, Nathaniel Massie, was married to Elizabeth Watkins in 176o and our subject was their eldest child. He had two brothers and a sister. His brother Henry was the original proprietor and founder of the city of Portsmouth, Scioto County. When he was eleven years of age, his mother died, and two years later father married again. Nathaniel Massie had a good education and learned the science of surveying. In 1780 and 1781, he served with the Virginia Militia in the War of the Revolution. In 1783, at the close of the Revolutionary War, at the age of twenty, young Massie set out for Kentucky. He was a Surveyor. His father had already located lands in Kentucky and he had excellent letters of introduction. He adapted himself to the conditions of life he found in Kentucky and made a most expert woodsman, hunter and Indian fighter. He had courage, endurance, and a happy temperament. He would endure any hardships incident to his life without complaint. He was a trader in salt in 1788 and made money in the business. He established a reputation as a land locator which brought him business and made him money. He was a tall and uncommonly fine looking young man. His form was slender and well made. He was muscular, very active, and his countenance expressed energy and good sense. During his residence in Kentucky, he made several expeditions into that part of the Northwest Territory now Ohio, and in 1790, formed the determination to establish a settlement at Manchester. He offered an inlot, an outlot and one hundred acres of land to the first twenty-five who would accompany him. His offers were accepted by nineteen persons, and a written contract entered into December 1, 1790. Of those who signed, the de- 588 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY scendants of the Lindsey's, Wades, Clarks Ellisons, Simerals, McCutcheons and Stouts are well known to the present generation. In the winter of 1790, in pursuance of this agreement, a settlement was made at Manchester, composed of Virginians, the third in Ohio. A block house and stockade were built. While the first people of Manchester lived in daily dread of the Indians, and while two of their number were carried off by them, vet they enjoyed themselves more than the present inhabitants. Massie was not, however, content to remain at the Station at Manchester. He located the land on Gift Ridge in Monroe Township in order to give each of his settlers the one hundred. acres of land he had promised and he located one thousand acres of the finest upland for himself, being the tract afterward known as Buckeye Station. This he sold to his brother-in-law, Judge Byrd, in 1807 Massie began his explorations of the Scioto country soon after his location at Manchester and explored Paint Valley. Here, two miles west of, Bainbridge, he located one thousand acres of land on which he afte4 ward made his home. It is today the finest body of land in Ohio, and the writer would rather own it than any tract of the same quantity in the state. Massie must have had a wonderful faculty of judging land in the virgin forest, for he never failed to select excellent land. In 1796 he located the city of Chillicothe. In 1799, he represented Adams, County in the first Territorial Legislature with Joseph Darlinton as his colleague. In December, 1797, though a layman, he was a Common Pleas Judge4, of Adams County, and a Colonel of the Militia. He was married to Miss Susan Everad Meade, daughter of Colonel David Meade, of Chaumiero, Kentucky, in 1800, and thereby became the bother-in-law of Charles Wiling Byrd, then Secretary of the. Northwest Territory, and of Creighton, the first Secretary of the State of Ohio. He was a member oil the second Territorial Legislature from Ross County, where he had taken up his residence. He was a member of the first Constitution Convention from that county. He was a member of the State Senate: from Ross County at its first and second sessions. On January 11, 1804, he was commissioned as Major General of the Second Division of the Ohio Militia, having been elected to that office by the Legislature. It is from this appointment he derived the title of General. At the same time his friend, David Bradford of Ada County, was commissioned as Quartermaster General of the same division. He was a member of the House from Ross County in 1806 and 1807, and a candidate for Governor in 1807 and received 4,757 votes to 6,050 votes for Return J. Meigs, who was declared ineligible to tho office. Massie declined to take the office when Meigs was declared eligible and it was filled by his friend, Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate. To show how he was estimated among those who knew best we give the vote for Governor in the following counties: Ross Massie, 1032; Meigs, 62; Adams—Massie, 441; Meigs, - 114; Franklin - Massie, 332; Meigs, 30. On the question of the ineligibility of Meigs for the office of Governor, the vote of the General Assembly stood twenty-four in favor to twenty against. Thomas Kirker, the Senator from Adams and Scioto, and Speaker, did not vote. Of the representatives from Adams and PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 589 Scioto, Dr. Alexander Campbell, Andrew Ellison and Phillip Lewis, Jr., voted the ineligibility of Meigs. That vote made Thomas Kirker Governor from December 8, 1867, for another year. Massie might have had the honor himself, but preferred that it should go to Thomas Kirker, who was Governor of the State almost two years without having been elected to the office, by filling two successive vacancies. General Massie's activity in public affairs largely ceased after his race for Governor. He had a national reputation and was known as well in Kentucky and Virginia as in Ohio. He resided in the Virginia Military District and was better acquainted with it both as to the manner of locating lands and the lands in it that any man of his time. He was employed locating warrants wherever course he could or would accept employment. Of course he could not serve all and had to refuse many, but his friends were numerous and some he could not deny. Besides, he had a large private business of his own. The large tracts of real estate which he owned required most of his time. He made sales, subdivisions for purchasers, perfected titles, made deeds, paid taxes and made leases. He built saw and grist mills, paper mills, and, at the time of his death, was tnaking ready to build an iron furnace. He was full of the activities of this life, but his career was cut short. In the fall of 1813, he was attacked by pneumonia, the result of exposure. The doctors of that day believed in heroic treatment and the result was at that he was bled profusely and the disease carried him off. He died November 3, 1813, at his pleasant home and was buried there in a field in front of the house, between it and Paint Creek. His wife survived him until 1837, when she died and was buried at his side. There their remains rested until June, 1870, when, by request of the citizens of Chillicothe, they were removed to the beautiful cemetery of Chillicothe and re-interred on a lot which overlooks the entire city. General Massie was a lover of fine scenery. He enjoyed the view from Buckeye Station many times, in all its primitive wilderness. He enjoyed the view from his home in the picturesque Paint Valley, and in life he has stood on the spot where his ashes are laid and viewed the beautiful Scioto Valley, and could his spirit visit the scene of the last resting place of his body, it would no doubt be satisfied with the honor shown his memory by the people of Chillicothe. His son, Nathaniel Massie, was for the greater part of his life a citizen of Adams County. He was born February 16, 1805, in Ross County. He married a daughter of the Rev. John Collins and reared a large family. He made his home in Adams County from 1854 until 1874, when his wife died. He removed to Hillsboro in 1880 and resided there until his death in March, 1894. He and his wife are interred in the old South Cemetery at West Union in a spot which has as fine an outlook as the spot where his distinguished father reposes. We have refrained from giving a more extensive account of General Nathaniel Massie because his life has recently (1896) been published by his distinguished grandson, the Hon. David Meade Massie, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and we could only copy from that most interesting work. To all who desire to read up the founding of our State, we recommend the persual of this work. General Massie was the founder of Adams County and of its largest town, Manchester, and his memory should be held in affectionate remembrance by every citizen of the county. 590 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Thomas Williamson Means, iron manufacturer, son of John and Anne (Williamson) Means, was born November 3, 1803, in Spartansburg, South Carolina. He spent six years in a select school established by his father, which was chiefly for the education of his own children, and he acquired, not only a fine English education, but also a respectable knowledge of the classics. His father moved to Ohio in 1819, when he was sixteen years of age. He labored upon his father's farm and clerked in a store for several years in which his father was interested in West Union, and in 1826 he took a flat-boat loaded with produce to New Orleans. In the same year he became storekeeper at Union Furnace which his father and others were then building four miles from Hanging Rock. This was the first blast furnace built in Ohio in the Hanging Rock region, and he had the pleasure of first "firing" it. The old Steam, Hopewell, Pactolus and Argillite were the only furnaces previous in existence in that region and they were in Kentucky. Since 1885, the old Union has not been in operation, but the lands belonging to it are yet, in part, owned by his heirs. In 1837, he and David Sinton became the owners of Union Furnace and rebuilt it in 1844. In 1845, they built Ohio Furnace. In 1847, he became interested in, and helped build Buena Vista Furnace in Kentucky. In 1852, he bought Bellefonte Furnace in Kentucky. In 1854, he became interested in helped build Vinton Furnace in Ohio; in 1863, in connection with others bought Pine Grove Furnace in Kentucky, and the Hanging Rock coal works, and in the following year, with others, bought Amanda Furnace in Kentucky. In 1845, he and David Sinton built a tram-road to Ohio Furnace, one of the first roads of its kind built in Ohio, and now a railroad five miles in length runs from the river to Pine Grove Furnace. The Ohio was the first charcoal furnace in the country which made as high as ten tons a day and was the first that averaged over fifteen tons. This furnace also produced iron with less expense to the ton than had then been achieved in any other. In 1832, when the Union had been worked up to six tons a day, the Pennsylvania furnaces were averaging but two tons. He, in connection with the Culbertsons, built the Princess, a stone coal furnace, ten miles from Ashland, in Kentucky, and also, later with Capt. John Kyle and F. B. Willard, built another at Hanging Rock. In the first year of Union Furnace, three hundred tons of iron were produced; in the last year, 1855, it reached twenty-five hundred. Three hundred in 1837 was as large a yearly production as had been reached in the United States, and this rate was fully up to that of England. The largest furnaces now reach fifteen thousand tons a month in this country. Under the superintendence of himself and David Sinton, the experiments for introducing the hot blast were first made, and at their Union Furnace they putt up the second hot blast in the United States, only a few years after its introduction in 1828. This was probably the greatest step forward that had yet been made in the manufacture of iron. Always favoring the advance in improvements, many changes were made by him in the form of furnaces and in the modes of operating them. Under his patronage, in 1860, at Ohio Furnace, was introduced the Davis hot blast, which greatly improved and modified the charcoal furnaces of the country. He was longer engaged and doubtless more extensively and directly concerned in the growth and prosperity of the iron business than PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 591. and other man in the Ohio Valley. Besides his large interests in the various furnaces, he had a very considerable interest in eighteen thousand acres of iron ore, coal and farm lands in Ohio, and nearly fifty thousand In Kentucky. He was one of the originators of the Cincinnati and Big Sandy Packet Company and was its leading stockholder; was one of the incorporators of the Norton Iron Works of Ashland, Kentucky, and of its largest stockholders; helped lay out the town of Ashland, was a large stockholder in the Ironton, Ohio Iron Railroad Company ;" was one of the originators of the Second National Bank of Ironton, and its president at the organization in 1864, and was also a stockholder of the Ashland National Bank. In 1865, he purchased a farm near Hanging Rock and resided there several years. He cast his first Presidential vote for John Quincy Adams, and was identified with the Whig party while it lasted. At its dissolution, he became a Republican, and during the Civil War was an ardent supporter of the National Government. In his religious views, he was a Presbyterian, but not a member of any church. After the organization of the Congregational Church in Ironton, he attended that. He was a man of fine personal appearance and correct business habits of a strong constitution, able to sustain a long life of incessant activity; with a high sense of social and business integrity, his great fortune was the legitimate result of uncommon business ability and judgement. He possessed a pleasing address, was agreeable in manners and wholly void of ostentation. He had a peculiarly retentive memory as to historical and statistical facts. He could give names, dates of election and length of terms of State and National officers - Presidents, Congressman, U. S. Justices, etc. Could give dates and other facts as to tariff legislation, and as to treaties with foreign countries; also could give in millions, tons, bushels, dollars, values of the imports and exports and production by the United States, and of many of the States, for instance, of cotton, corn, wheat, hay, iron, wines, etc. He was fond of discussion, and often in argument about protection, etc., surprised hearers at his to accurate knowledge of matters. He had always a good general knowledge of his business affairs, was good at planning, but poor in detail. Was fearless of man or beast, but careless as to his dress. Mr. Means was married December 4, 1828, to Sarah Ellison, daughter of John Ellison, Jr., of Buckeye Station, Adams County. She died in 1871 at the age of sixty-one in their home at Hanging Rock. Their children now living are John, of Ashland, William and Margaret. In December, 1881, he bought a residence in Ashland, Kentucky, where he lived until his death, June 8, 189o. No man did more for the development of the Hanging Rock iron region that he, and in that respect he was a great public benefactor. Rev. Marion Morrison was born in Adams County, Ohio, June 2, 1821. He received his common school education in a log schoolhouse near his father's home. He taught school three winters, continuing to work on the farm in the summer. In 1842, he started to college at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, graduated in 1846, and was licensed to preach the Gospel by the Chillicothe Presbytery, April, 1849, and was ordained by the same August 21, 592 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY 1858. He was Pastor of Tranquility congregation for six years. He was elected as Professor of Mathematics in Monmouth College, Illinois, in 1856 and served in that capacity until the autumn of 1862. He was Chaplain of the 9th Illinois Regiment from August, 1863, until August, 1864. He published the Western Presbyterian for several years at Mommouth, Illinois ; was pastor of Fairfield, Illinois, congregation January 1, 1866, until December, 1870; of Amity, Iowa, from March 1, 1871, until August 30, 1876. He was appointed general missionary by the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church for Nebraksa and Kansas and served in that capacity for one year. He was pastor of Mission Creek Church from April 1, 1878, until December 1, 1889; was pastor of the U. P. congregation at Starkville, Miss., for about one and a half years. When there, he broke down with nervous prostration and had to abandon the active work of the ministry. He returned to Mission Creek, Nebraska, and has made his home with his only daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Barr, ever since, preaching only occasionally when able. He received the degree of D. D. from Monmouth College. He is the author of the "Life of the Rev. David MacDill, D. D.," and of the "History of the Ninth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers." Dr. Morrison has been a whole-souled, industrious, active and earnest preacher. Recompense Murphy. Recompense Murphy was born in Pitts' Grove, Salem County, New Jersey, in 1774. He emigrated to Ohio in 1805, coming down the river in a flat-boat. He had been married in New Jersey to Catherine Newkirk. Her grandfather was David Whittaker, and he and his wife followed Recompense Murphy to Ohio. Our subject located the first summer on the Ohio River, at the mouth of Turkey Creek, in Scioto County. After that, he went to Sandy Springs, Adams County, where he bought land and farmed. He built a brick house on his land near the river front, which has long since disappeared, having been destroyed by the encroachments of the Ohio River. He had a brother William who came with him from New Jersey,, but removed to Illinois, were he died. Samuel Murphy, another brother, located near Franklin, Ohio. Mary, a sister, married Samuel Swing, whose son David, was the father of the celebrated Professor Swing, of Chicago. Our subject had a brother, John, who remained in New Jersey. Another sister, Elizabeth, married a Mr. Ogden and lived in New Fairmount, near Cincinnati. The children of Recompense Murphy were David Whittaker Murphy, born in 1800, of whom, a separate sketch appears, Jacob Murphy, who located in Whiteside County, Illinois, and retaining the Presbyterian faith of his mother, became an elder in the church there Recompense Sherry Murphy, who lived and died at Sandy Springs; Samuel M. Murphy, of Garrison's, Kentucky, now deceased ; John Murphy, who resides near Quincy, Kentucky ; William, who emigrated to California; Robert, who died at the age of eighteen ; Rebecca, wife of Simon Truitt, who resides at Agricola, Coffey County, Kansas, at the age of eighty-seven; Rachel Warring, who removed to Posey County, Indiana; Catherine Cox, widow of Martin Cox, who resides at Rome, PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 593 Ohio, and is the mother of Mrs. Rev. J. W. Dillon, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Mary Ann Baird, wife of Harvey Baird, who removed to Illinois. Recompense Murphy's first wife was a Presbyterian, a member of the Sandy Springs Church from 1826 until her death, June 30, 1832. Recompense Murphy was married a second time to Matilda Ives, a widow, whose maiden name was Fuller, a native of Broome County, New York. Her father was at one time a member of the General Assembly of that State. She was a shrewd, keen Yankee. Some time in the sixties, she removed to her home in New York and died there. Recompense Murphy died November 18, 1844. He made his will February 25, 1837. It was witnessed by Socrates Holbrook, Robert W. Robb, Isaac Carr and J. D. Redden. It was proven December 20, 1844, in Adams County. He gave his mansion house and one-third of his farm to his wife. He mentioned all of his children, but having already provided for four of his sons, he provided in the will for the remaining sons and two daughters. The document indicates that he was a just man. He was a member of the Sandy Springs Baptist Church, joining the same after his second marriage. and died in that faith. He was an excellent citizen and aimed to do his part in every respect in his place in the world and his cotemporaries have left the record that accomplished what he undertook. His descendants are living witnesses that his training produced the best results. David Whittaker Murphy. David Whittaker Murphy, Son of Recompense Murphy and Catherine Newkirk, his wife, was born in Salem County, New Jersey, in 1800. He was brought by his parents to Adams County when five years of age. This incident occurred when our subject was about twelve years of age. He and another boy near his own age were crossing the Ohio River in a canoe, one sitting at either end. When they had gotton far into the current, they noticed a large animal swimming toward them. It proved to be a bear, nearly grown, and was almost exhausted by its efforts. Seeing them, it made for their canoe and climbed in. The boys, of course, Were very much frightened, but nevertheless, continued paddling their canoe to the landing. The moment they touched the shore, bruin sprang out and disappeared. The boys were as glad to be rid of their shaggy companion as he was of their company. Our subject grew to manhood in Sandy Springs neighborhood, having the advantages of such schools as were there, and having and sports that boys of his time were privileged to have. His first wife was a Miss Julia Ann Turner; whom he married in Bracken County, Kentucky. By this marriage there were two sons and a daughter; James, William and Anna Maria. The sons both went South before the Civil War, and were soldiers in the Confederate Army. William was Lieutenant of a Mississippi Battery. David Murphy's second wife was Cynthia Givens, a widow, whose maiden name was McCall. The children of this marriage were David A., married to Jennie M. Ball, of Portsmouth, Ohio, now living' at Oxford. Ella M. Evans, wife of Mitchell Evans, a prominent citizens of Scioto County, residing at Friendship, Ohio; Leonidas Hamline, a partner in the well known wholesale shoe house of C. P. Tracy & Company, of 594 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Portsmouth ; John Fletcher Murphy, a clerk in the Auditor's Office of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway Company, in Cincinnati, and Miss Tillie M. Murphy, residing at Valparaiso, Indiana. Our subject and his second wife, Cynthia Givens, were earnest members of the Methodist Church all their days. Until 1848, he was a farmer, residing in Adams County, Ohio. In that year he left Adams County and removed to Buena Vista, just over the line of Adams County, in Scioto County, where he kept a hotel for awhile. He was postmaster at Buena Vista from 1868 until 1873. His home in Buena Vista was a delightful one where it was always pleasant to visit. After the death of his second wife, in 1873, he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Evans, of Friendship, Ohio, until his death in 1892. Mr. Murphy had a great deal of dry humor and could express himself so as to entertain his hearers and amuse them at the same time. He was always anti-slavery, and once, a long time before the war, being asked if he would help execute the Fugitive Slave Law, he said, "Yes, if called by the United States Marshal to be part of a posse to catch fugitives, I would help, as I must the obey law, but I would be very lame." He served as a Justice of the Peace in the two counties of Adams and Scioto, for a period of fifty years, and his decisions gave general satisfaction. He could draw an ordinary deed as well as any lawyer. In politics, he was a Whig, until the Republican party was organized, when, after 1856, he went into that party and remained a member of it during his life. However, he voted for Fillmore for President in 1856, because he felt that his election would better preserve the Union. In 1860, he voted for Lincoln and for every Republican presidential candidate from that time until 1888, his last presidential voe, which was for Benjamin Harrison. He died in February, 1892. Recompense Sherry Murphy was a son of Recompense and Catherine (Newkirk) Murphy, who came from New Jersey and settled at the mouth of Turkey Creek, Scioto County, Ohio, in 1805, where the subject of this sketch was born May 12, 1806. Recompense Murphy, Senior, soon after moved to the Irish Bottoms in Adams County, and located on a farm. Recompense Sherry Murphy spent his early life working on the farm. He was married to Rachel Kelley, August 4, 1831. They lived together in happy wedlock for fifty-three years. To them were born nine children, four boys and five girls, of whom the following are living: Mary Burwell, Troy, Ohio; Fmman McCall, Agricola, Kansas ; John R., Wellsville, Kansas; Abram K., of Rushtown, Ohio, and Lucy Givens, of Buena Vista, Ohio. He united with the Baptist Church about 1835 and remained a devoted member until his death. In politics, he was an unwavering Republican. His wife died May 28, 1883, and he followed her January 5, 1891, aged eighty-five years. Adam McCormick, died July 3, 1849, aged sixty-five years. His wife, Margaret, daughter of Andrew and Mary Ellison, died March 6, 1845, in the fifty-fifth years of her age. Their only son, Joseph McCormick, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1814. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 595 He was a plain common Irishman, with the strongest emphasis on Irish, as it shone out all about him. He lived on Brush Creek awhile, then moved to West Union. He was a member of the Baptist Church in West Union. He was a strong Whig. He owned a large tract of land near Jacksonville, in Meigs Township. He purchased the Palace Hotel property of the estate of his sister, Isabella Burgess, and died there. He lived in Cincinnati a good part of his time. He was living there in 1814 when his son Joseph was born. He was also living there in 1831 when his sister married Rev. Dyer Burgess. He was a strong Baptist. He donated the ground where the Baptist Church in West Union stands and built the church. He had considerable improved property in Cincinnati and was at that city to collect his rents in June, 1849, and when he returned to West Union, was taken sick and died. At the time of his death, he was Superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School in West Union. It is said he came from Ireland a lad and worked about the furnaces in Adams County. He was the architect of his own fortune. He made money, but how, is now buried in oblivion, but he made it honestly and was highly esteemed as a citizen. He was a carpenter by trade, and was the contractor and builder of the first bridge built in Adams County where the iron bridge now stands. James Anderson crossed it with a team and wagon loaded with pig iron from Steam Furnace, and that was the only which ever crossed it. There was ,a sudden rise in Brush Creek which undermined one of the piers and the bridge fell. Adam McCormick lived on the farm on which George A. Thomas now resides. He removed to West Union and purchased the Dyer Burgess property and lived there from 1842 until his death, in 1849. He was married to Margaret Ellison, April 6, 1813. Andrew Ellison was running Steam Furnace and Adam McCormick was a pattern maker and made patterns at the furnace while his father-in-law run it. James Anderson teamed between Steam Furnace and the river, hauling pig iron, supplies, etc. When the furnace shut down, Adam McCormick went to farming. Samuel McCullough. We have eight letters written by him to his friend, Robert Shaw, in Virginia. The first is dated Raleigh, Buckingham County, June 1, 1809. He acknowledges his of the loth, in which he finds that his friend had a tedious passage (by water) from Richmond to Baltimore and was sea-sick. He says he has enjoyed a good estate of health since his friend left. He was a merchant and complains that collections were slow. He desires his friend to bring him a Beed plane that will work one-eighth of an inch and one-half dozen of two-foot rules. On December 28, 1812, he writes from Raleigh, N. C. He asks how his business with the negroes of Anthony Jones is settled. He says he has been tossed on the wheel of fortune since he saw him. It seems he went to Baltimore and purchased goods, and shipped them to Richmond intending to take them to Nelson C. H., Virginia. At Baltimore, he met a Mr. Callam, who had purchased goods in Philadelphia, and induced him to go to Raleigh where they put the two stocks together and sold as much as $500. He wants to know if there is any store at Raleigh C. H., Va. It seems they went to Raleigh while the Legislature was in session, and sold goods rapidly until it adjourned. 596 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY His next letter is dated January 10, 1813, acknowledging one of the 4th. He says he boards in the family of Mrs. Burch, a very decent, pious old lady, who has a daughter equally pious as herself and possessing considerable accomplishments, having resided in Philadelphia with a Rev. Burch, her brother. Of Raleigh, he says its people are principally emigrants from Scotland, orderly and sober, but possessing strong prejudices. He says, that with but few exceptions, they are Federalists. He speaks of the schools in Raleigh and their influence in improving the manners and, in some instances, the morals of the people. He says they are the means of circulating a great deal of money. He further says that the country is poor and the planters have nothing which suits the markets but pork, tobacco and cotton. He wants to know if he thinks his friend, John Randolph, will be reelected in his district in Virginia and whether there is any change in political sentiments there whether the people are pleased with the war and the manner in which it has been conducted. Also his opinion respecting the combination of the non-importation law. On January 24, 1813, he is still at Raleigh, but complains of the war affecting the business. He says there is no demand for cotton or tobacco, and pork is the only article that commands money and that at a low price. He says there are twenty stores in Raleigh, and he intends to remove early in the Spring, probably to Virginia. He says in that country, where wheat is cultivated, is the best place to do business during the war, because it will sell high. He wishes to be informed what effect the war has had in that part of the country, where his correspondent resides, as to sale of goods and the circulation of money. February 8, 1813, he writes his friend, Robert, that he intends to leave Raleigh in the Spring and wants to come to Nelson C. H., if his friend thinks best. He is afraid the war is not pushel with energy and that the spirit of the nation has never been up to war pitch. He thinks there will be great difficulty in raising men and money and that the opposition to the war is so strong, and from the way in which the war was managed it will end in a separation of the Union and the destruction of our most excellent Constitution, though he will hope for better things. February 24, 1813, he writes thanking his friend for full information as to the political situation. He doubts about purchasing spring goods as the times are precarious. He thinks the Government will be compelled to repeal the non-importation law in order to get revenue, or otherwise levy taxes which will make it unpopular. He thinks in case of a repeal, goods would come in plenty through the neutrals. He thinks our privateers will not bring in many trips because the British fleets will blockade Hampton Roads and other bays. He relates a duel between Thomas Stanley, of Newbern, and a Mr. Henry, of the same place, in which the former was killed by the latter. The cause of the duel was that Henry had paid attentions to Stanley's Sister, and then dropped her. May 20, 1813, he writes from Cecil County, Maryland, that he had made money by his venture in Raleigh. He went to Petersburg, Va. to change the State notes of North Carolina for Virginia as they would not pass to the north of that place and could not be changed at par, at any other place. He says goods were too high in Baltimore to purchase with any safety as the war might stop and drop prices. He informs his PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 597 cousin that he has changed his state of life and married his cousin, Mary McVey ; that she is the only child and daughter of his Uncle McVey, who owns a fine farm on the main stage road from Philadelphia to Baltimore with some negroes and other property. "As to her qualities, you will no doubt think me a partial judge." He says her qualities justified his choice and her appearance pleased his fancy. He says the injury done there by the British caused nothing but alarm and since the British went down the bay, politics have been more tranquil, but they are so divided on politics, they are continually on the jar. He says the epithet "Tory," is brandished on all occasions and that all the entire party seems fo be aiming at military despotism. if they could obtain it. He asks his friend's views of the political situation and to tell him how the elections have terminated in Virginia and how his speculation in flour has turned out, in view of the blockade. The last letter is April 12, 1815. He writes that since the peace, "prices of grain have fallen instead of raised and the public was disappointed. That wheat was only one dollar per bushel and other grain correspondingly low. He complained that times were dull. He wants his friend to secure him house and store-room at Nelson C. H. He desired to be informed as to the election and the result of the contest between Epps and Randolph. In every letter, he sends his regards to his wife and family, and his friends, and all the letters are written on plain paper, :now yellow with age, and folded, sealed with a wafer seal and addressed on the fourth page. They are addressed to Robert Shaw, at Buckingham C. H., Virginia, and are marked "free." They mark the writer as a student of the times, deeply interested in political matters and a Federalist. His friend, Robert Shaw, no doubt, was of the same political faith. The letters of Robert Shaw to Samuel McCullough have not been preserved. McCullough emigrated to Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1815, and from there to Adams County, Ohio, in 1816, where he followed the business of merchandising (luring the remainder of his life. His wife died February 6, 1835, at the age of forty-three, at West Union, Ohio, of consumption, after a long illness. He died on the eighth of June, 1835, of Asiatic cholera in his store in West Union on the spot where Miller and unn's drug store now stands. He was born May 5, 1775, and she was seventeen years his junior. They were the parents of Addison McCullough, deceased, and of William McCullough, of Sidney, Ohio. Samuel McCullough, for the nineteen years he resided in Adams County, was a just and good man and respected by every one. He was quiet and unobtrusive in his views, but a reader and thinker who kept himself well informed on all public questions.. He was by instinct and training a merchant. He knew the right time to buy and the right time to sell. He was a successful merchant always made money. He was trained to the business from boyhood and seemed to have a natural faculty for it. His son, John, died at Catlettsburg, Ky., in 1851. Addison died at Point Pleasant, W. Va., November 16, 1876. A son, George W., died in infancy. Mr. McCullough lost his wife February 6, 1835, just a few months before his own tragic death of Asiatic cholera. The ashes of both repose in the cemetery at Tranquility, Ohio. 598 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Addison McCullough was born in Adams County, April 25, 1817. His parents were Samuel McCullough and his wife, Mary McVey, both from Cecil County, Maryland. His childhood and boyhood were spent in West Union, where his father was a prominent and successful merchant. He was attending college at Augusta, Kentucky, in June, 1835, when he was called home by the death of his father. He did not return to school but took charge of father's business which he continued successfully in West Union, until 1847, when he closed it out and invested the proceeds in Star Furnace in Carter County, Kentucky. He was married in West Union on June 27, 1837, to Eliza Ann Willson, eldest daughter of Dr. Wm. B. Willson. He left West Union in the winter of 1847 and 1848 and removed to Catlettsburg, Kentucky. He was the financial agent of Lampton, McCullough & Company, of Star Furnace, until 1854, when he sold a portion of his interest in the concern and purchased an interest in Hecla Furnace. At this time, he removed to Ironton, which continued his residence until his death. He continued his connection with Hecla Furnace until his died at the residence. His wife died December 16, 1868, at Ironton, and he died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Flla Capehart, at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, November 16, 1876. Both are interred at Woodlawn near Ironton Addison McCullough was of a thoughtful and serious mind ; he was religious by nature and instinct. In West Union, he lived in an atmosphere of earnest and sincere religious influence. He joined the Presbyterian Church at West Union at an early age, and when there was a division in the church there on account of slavery, he, with the family of Dr. William B. Willson and others, went into a new church organization in which he and Dr. William B. Willson were made elders. He was highly respected and much loved by the people of West Union, and when he left there in 1848 there was universal regret and heartfelt grief. He was a loving and lovable man, and his practical charity while in West Union had endeared him to all. Soon after he located in Ironton, he was made an elder in the church there and filled that office until his death. Though a thorough business man, the church held his affections and he was always present at all its services and social meetings. He was of a quiet disposition and spoke ill of no one. In the church meeting, he was earnest and fervent, eloquent in speech and prayer. He was a diligent biblical student and was faithful in his attendance in the teacher's meetings for the study of the Bible: He was respected and esteemed by every one in Ironton as a model citizen and a true Christian gentleman. His death was like his life. His last illness continued eight weeks and he suffered much, but no complaint escaped him. The consolations of his religion made his final hours full of mental joy. His children are Mr. Samuel McCullough, born in West Union, now a resident of Washington, D. C., where he bolds a government position; Mrs. Julia Sechler, wife of Thomas M. Sechier, of Moline, Illinois ; Mrs Ella Capehart, wife of Hon. James Capehart, formerly a Congressman from West Virginia. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 599 William McColm was born November 18 1796, in Allegheny County, Maryland, and emigrated to Adams Count , Ohio, with his father, John McColm and family, about the year 1800, and settled on Gift Ridge. His brothers John, Malcolm, Matthew and David were all prosperous farmers, lived to a ripe old age, and have passed to their reward, excepting David, who lives near Bentonville. William McColm married Lucy Turner, July 17, 1827, at New Richmond, Ohio. Their children were John T., Sarah, William S., the latter only of the three surviving and who resides at Portsmouth, Ohio. Mrs. Lucy McColm died at Clinton Furnace, December 24, 1833. The subject of our sketch was married again June 24, 1835, at Buckhorn Furnace, to Martha McLaughlin, to whom were born James A., Mary, Henry A., Matthew and Clay F., all of whom are deceased except Henry A., a resident of New Comer, Delaware County, Indiana. William McColm was the descendant of Scotch-Irish parents and showed their characteristics in all his walks of life ; was a Whig in politics; a Methodist Protestant in religion and a square man in all his dealings. He was a clerk and afterwards a store-keeper in West Union from 1824 to 1833, when he was induced by the late William Salter and other owners of Clinton Furnace to take an interest in the furnace and act as store-keeper and furnace clerk. His investment in Clinton Furnace proving unprofitable, he moved to Buckhorn and later to Amanda Furnace, where he was employed in the same capacity as at Clinton. On June 1, 1840, he was appointed Treasurer of Scioto County in place of John Waller, who refused to qualify. He was elected to that office in 1841 and re-elected in 1843, 1845, 1847 and 1849. He qualified for his sixth term, June 3, 1850. He died on his farm in Washington Township, September 7, 1850, while an incumbent of the office of County Treasurer. His wife died in Portsmouth, Ohio, April 9, 1890, and both interred at Greenlawn, at that place. Mr. McColm was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church of Portsmouth, Ohio, during his entire residence in that city. His congregation met at the house of Mrs. Sill, on Fourth Street, before the church on Fifth Street in the rear of Connolly's store was erected. He was always a Whig and anti-slavery. He was a strong advocate of temperance, being a member of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which flourished in his day. Major Joseph McKee was born at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, in the year of 1789 and remained with his parents until 1807, at which time he emigrated to Cabin Creek, Kentucky, where he resided for four years, when he removed near the mouth of Brush Creek in Greene Township in Ohio. He was in the War of 1812, in which he served until December 24, 1814. On returning from the war he engaged in keel-boating salt down the Ohio River from the Kanawha Saline to Louisville, Ky. In 1828, he was made Major in the Second Regiment, First Brigade, Eighth Division of the Ohio Militia. He was married in 1812 to Miss Margaret Eakins, who resided near the mouth of Brush Creek. There were thirteen children born of this marriage, nine boys and four girls, Elizabeth, Susan, James, Mary, John, Joseph, William, Priscilla, David, George, Wilson, Rebecca, and Richard. Seven 600 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY of these sons served in the Union army in the late Civil War. Our subject shouldered his gun in 1864 to assist in resisting General John Morgan's Raid, at which time he was seventy-five years of age. He serviced nine years successively as Justice of the Peace in Greene Township, during which time he solemnized numerous marriages. Mr. McKee was an elder in the Christian Church, and lived up to his profession. He was regarded as a good neighbor and citizen, and ever ready to help the poor and needy. He died near Waggoner's Ripple, at the age of ninety-two years and twenty-nine days. His wife, Margaret McKee, died seven years earlier. He was the grandfather of the Sheriff, James W. McKee, who was the son of David McKee, now residing at Wichita, Kansas having removed there from Adams County in 1882. Joseph McKee was a Jeffersonian Democrat of the strictest sort, and his grandson, Sheriff James W. McKee, is recognized as one of the most reliable leaders of the Democrat party in Adams County. Mary Barbara Minick. Our subject was born May 29, 1795, between Spires and Manheim, in Bavaria, Germany. Her maiden name was Foerst. We are not advised as to her parents or early history, but she was born and reared a Protestant, and in 1826 identified herself with a division of the Protestants, branch of the Lutheran Church, believing in a deeper and more exalted piety. This branch or division of the German Protestants were of similar views to the followers of John Welsey as compared to the Church England. They had many meetings for prayer and conference, and Mrs. Minick was one of their most enthusiastic adherents. She was married in 1815 to John Peter Minick, or Winch, as it is properly written. We believe a correct translation in English would be Menken. Her husband was born April 9, 1792. They had two children born in Germany. Peter Minick was a soldier under the first Napoleon for a short time, in the campaigns where the Germans last supported his standard. He and one subject lived in Germany and kept house until 1830, when she was thirty-five years of age and he thirty-eight. It was while she was living in Germany that she had an experience given to none since the days of Elijah. When she was a young married woman, aged thirty-one, and in a time, when she had been attending meetings of the pietists faithfully for some weeks, she fell down in her own house with a hemorrhage, and was found in an unconscious condition by her husband. She was put to bed and lay in an apparently unconscious state for six weeks, though, as she afterwards told, she was conscious towards the last, but was unable to move or speak. At the end of six weeks, she died, or apparently died. Her physicians, her nurses and her friends thought she was dead, and she was dressed for burial. At that time, in her neighborhood, it was customary to keep the dead three days where circumstances permitted it, and this was done in her case. At the end of that time, some of her friends thought they saw, signs of life, and she was kept a day longer. On the fourth day, her funeral was set and the bells rung for that purpose. Her friends as assembled and the funeral services were held. When the funeral procession was about to start, she came to life and was taken out of her coffin and put to bed. She was very weak and feeble for a long time, but finally recovered her health entirely, and when she did, she related this wonderful experience: PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 601 While apparently unconscious in her six weeks' sickness, she was conscious most of the time, and knew what was going on about her. She could hear what was said, but could not communicate. She felt the approach of death ; she noticed the cessation of circulation in her extremities, and the approach of it to her heart. Then she became unconscious. Then the first thing she knew, an angel approached her and took her in charge. She had no sense of the time she traveled with him through space, but found herself in an outer court of a great pleasure garden or park. There was like lattice work before her, and beyond that, were a great company of happy people, surrounding a loved object. She could hear the most rapturous music and singing of the multitudes. At another place within the inner court, She saw a company sitting about a table. Their faces shone so she could not look upon them, and was compelled to take her eyes from them. Among those she saw in the inner court was the face of a young woman friend of hers, who had attended the pietist meetings with her. She made a request of her guide to be admitted to the inner court, but he said, "No, you must return to earth and preach Christ a period loner before you can be admitted." She then seemed to be spirited away by four angels and let down to earth as it were in a sheet. As soon as she was able, after her return, she told her vision. People came from all the surrounding country to see her and converse with her. In relating her vision, she predicted the death of her friend, whose face she had seen in Paradise, and it took place within a year, but she died in the triumph of faith. Mrs. Minick believed in this heavenly vision as much as she believed in her own existence. To her it was as real as anything which ever occurred to her, and it influenced her entire life. The angel's message was ever as fresh to her and ever as important as the day she received it, and she followed it to the last of her life. She and her husband had heard of the United States and longed to go there. His experience with the service under the great Napoleon satisfied him and made him wish for America. So he and his wife and two children came to the United States in 1830. They located at Piketon, Ohio, where they lived several years. Then they moved to West Union, Ohio, where they spent all of his life and most of hers. She lived in the ittle brick house just opposite the Pflaummer residence, then Dr. Wm. B. Willson's residence. She believed that cleanliness preceded godliness, and her home was always scrupulously neat and clean. She and her husband had and kept a most wonderful garden. A self-respecting weed would not grow in it, and none were ever seen in it, and all of the vegetables grew just as though they thought it their duty to do so to please her. One room in her house she had fitted up for religious meetings, and many were held there, the services being conducted in her mother tongue. She had an occupation. She was a doctress and nurse and followed her profession most faithfully. In the cholera of 1851, she went among the patients everywhere, and her services were thought equal to those of the regular physicians. She was the mother of four children, two sons and two daughters, the youngest born in this country. She was a woman of the most earnest and devoted piety. She believed in her religion, and she lived it every day. Her whole life, day by day, was a sermon and an argument in favor of her faith. While she never mastered the English language fully, she 602 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY would attend the Methodist revival meetings, and she enjoyed them very much. She could not express herself to her satisfaction in English, and was often, at these meetings, requested to sing in German. She always pleased to do so, and everyone felt the spirit of her hymns. She was always reluctant to tell the Heavenly Vision, as she knew many were skeptical about it, and only related it where it was appreciated, but to her it was real. She had all the faith and love of St. John, and the zeal a enthusiasm of St. Paul. She was respected and loved by all who knew her. Her husband died August 19, 1870, and her pleasant home in West Union was broken up. After that she lived with her grandchildren until the tenth of April, 1883, when her Heavenly Vision was realized. She and her husband rest in the old South cemetery at West Union, waiting the sound of Gabriel's trumpet. Her life was full of usefulness, of good deeds, she was a minister to the souls of all who knew her. David Morrison was born September 16, 1807, in Pennsylvania. He was a nephew, of John Loughry. He went from Pennsylvania direct to Rockville to engage in business under Mr. Loughry. He was married to Martha Mitchell, the daughter of Associate Judge David Mitchell, on the twenty-eighth day of November, 1835, by Rev. Eleazor Brainard, and they went to house keeping in Rockville. He remained with John Loughry from about 1831 to 1841 as a superintendent of the business of quarrying and shipping stone. From 1841 to 1847, he was engaged in boating on the Ohio River. He owned a tow-boat and a number of barges and engaged in transporting heavy goods on the Ohio River. He would load them on barges and tow the barges. From 1851 to 1859, he resided in Covington, Kentucky. He bought the Judge Mitchell farm, now owned by his sons, Albert R. and James H. Morrison, and removed there in 1859, and resided there until his death, though he never was at any time a farmer, but was always engaged on the river. He was a large man, weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds and was always active and energetic. He died suddenly March 23, 1863, from the effects of an operation on his eyes. His wife survived him until March 18, 1886. They both rest in the Mitchell cemetery on the hill overlooking the home of Judge David Mitchell, her father. They had the following children: Mary, wife of Loyal Wilcox, residing in Kansas. She has a large family and a son and daughter married Armour Morrison resides in Chicago and is engaged in the life insurance business ; Albert R. Morrison married Elizabeth McMasters, and resides in the old home in Nile Township, Scioto County ; James H. Morrison, second son, resides in Portsmouth, Ohio ; Charles W. Morrison, the youngest son, is a teacher of music in the conservatory of music at Oberlin College, and has been so engaged for twenty-three years. He went as a young man to study music and after he had completed his studies there and in Europe, he was engaged to teach there and has remained ever since. The sons are all like their father active, energetic and industrious Judge Samuel McClanahan. Robert McClanahan and Isabelle, his wife, came from Ireland and purchased land on which West Union is now located and while it was still a part of the Northwest Territory, they donated or sold the land for public PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 603 buildings to the county. Their son, Samuel, was born on the fifteenth of February, 1797. He was married to Mary Armstrong, December 14, 1815, and located on the farm west of West Union, where he lived until 1864 when he removed to North Liberty, Ohio, and died March 5, 1882. Isabelle, his daughter, married William McGovney, May 9, 1839. He was elected Associate Judge of Adams County in 1831 and served one term. He was a practical surveyor and did a great deal of work in the way of land surveying. He was also a school teacher and County Fxaminer and was one of the first School Examiners in the county. He died November 5, 1881. In politics he was a Whig, an Abolitionist and a Republican. He was a strong temperance advocate. He set the example of total abstinence by refusing to use liquor at a barn raising or in harvest, and to show his harvest hands it was not to save money, he offered to pay each one the amount extra for the cost of the whiskey they had formerly been furnished. He was a Presbyterian, a ruling elder in the church for many years, the Associate Reformed and afterwards the United Presbyterian. He was liberal in his views and spiritually minded. In the last few years of his life, there was but one book to him--the Bible. He read it four times in four years, and said that each time he re-read it there was something new. His mind was clear to the last. In his final illness, he spoke :calmly of his approaching end, and passed away in the confidence of Christian faith. In his personal appearance Judge McClanahan was a remarkable figure, and in his old age he was one of the best types of the patriarch, with his long flowing beard and dignified bearing. He was a man among men and respected by the entire community for his sterling virtues. William McGarry was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1757, and emigrated to Virginia in the Spring of 1777. He enlisted the same spring as a private. Captain Wood Jones' Company and served afterward in Captain Benjamin Hoomes' Company, Second Virginia Regiment, commanded by Col. William Febiger, in the Revolutionary War. His enlistment was for a period of three years. He was in the battles which occurred during the time of his services in New Jersey and about Philadelphia, but a large part of the time his duties consisted in hauling supplies to the army. He came to Ohio in 1795, directly after the peace of Greenville, and bought two hundred and twenty-five acres of ground on Poplar Ridge, in Tiffin Township. This land is now owned by W. J. and B. Grooms, Caleb Malone and Mr. Deitz. He left the blockhouse at Manchester and located on land in Tiffin Township when there had not been a single tree cut down in the township and none outside of Manchester. He cleared off a patch of ground and built a pole cabin and moved his family into it. There were plenty of wolves, bears, wild turkeys and deer in the forest at that time, and a great many roving Indians. His daughter has told a lady now living near West Union that she had been at that place many times when all was forest, not a house in the vicinity, and had drank out of the spring where the public well now stands. 604 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY When he made a clearing, the first thing he did was to plant peach trees and engage in the manufacture of whiskey and brandy. The squirrels and wild turkeys were so plenty that when he planted his corn it was necessary to stand guard over it until it was grown too high for them to disturb. After it was planted he made paw-paw whistles and had his children march around the corn fields at the edge of the forests during the day, blowing these whistles so that the squirrels and turkeys would not bother the corn. Some time after building his pole cabin, be built a log house with a large fire-places, and he was considered a rich man for his time. He was one of the first members of the Presbyterian Church at West Union. He was not a pensioner of the Revolutionary War, because he owned considerable land and could not obtain a pension. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Walker, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and she was the mother of five children. William McGarry had a second wife, Mary McKee, and she was the mother of three children. He was esteemed as a useful and valuable citizen. He did what could not be done in our day ; he was a very pious man and a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, and raised his family in the same manner as himself, and at the same time made and drank whiskey all the time when it was no disgrace either to make it or drink it. He died in 1845 and was buried on the farm which he cleared a owned. Ralph McClure was one of the old-time characters in West Union. He owned and occupied the property where Mrs. Sarah W. Bradford now resides, and dug the well there which was famous in his time and which is known as Ralph McClure's well to this day. Judge Byrd extolled the properties of water in his diary. Our subject was a north of Ireland Irishman with a rich brogue. He was a schoolteacher in West Union before public schools were organized. He taught many years in the home where he resided and all his schools were subscription schools. The first school David Dunbar, of Manchester ever attended was at Ralph McClure's. The latter offered young David six and one-fourth cents if he would learn the alphabet in three days and David accomplished the task. McClure once had a horse-mill on the rear of Mrs. Bradford's lot, opposite the Lawler residence, and at one time he had a distillery just south of his residence, but it was burned. He was bachelor and never attended church. He was a of medium stature and had a sharp face. He was very fond of smoking and raised his own tobacco and made his own cigars. His neighbors Seemed to have a great deal of confidence in him for they elected him Justice of the Peace in 1820, 1826 1829, 1838, 1841 and in 1844. He and Nelson Barrere were great friends. The latter would often state a suppositious case to him and get his opinion. If the opinion pleased Barrere, he would immediately bring the real case before the Justice and win it, as McClure was never known to go back on any opinion he ever expressed. He died April 24, 1846, while holding the office of Justice of the Peace. We do not know the place of his interment or whether he left any relatives. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 605 Adam McGovney was born in County Down, Ireland, December 14, 1789, of Protestant Presbyterian parents. He received a fair education, became a Free Mason and was advanced in that order to the degrees of Christian Knighthood, before leaving that country. While there he united with the Presbyterian Church. In 1818, he came to this country and located in Adams County. He was married to Miss Mary McGovney, in Adams County, on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1819. They had one child, Thomas, and she died January 14, 1820, at the age of 28 years. Her surviving husband never married. In West Union, Mr. McGovney kept a general store and part the time conducted a tannery. In 1840, he became a member of the Methodist Church and from that time until his death there was no more devout or consistent Christian than he. Always in his place at every church service, and every prayer and class meeting, he was a bright and shining light. He lived his religion every day of his life, and in his dying hours it was his comfort and solace. He was always at the Wednesday evening prayer meetings which the writer attended when a small boy. Uncle Adam, as all the boys knew him, had a fixed and certain prayer and the writer at one time knew it all and could repeat it from memory. He regards it as his loss that he cannot remember it and repeat it, until this day. One phrase in it was "Knit us, Oh Lord, closer to thy bleeding side." He, Abraham Hollingsworth, Nicholas Burwell, William R. Rape and William Allen could always be depended on to attend and be found at the weekly prayer meetings. Next to his religion, Mr. McGovney was attached to Masonry. He was faithful a Mason, as he was a church member. The writer remembered seeing him in many Masonic parades and he usually wore the crossed silver keys of the lodge jewels. He was treasurer of the lodge many years. As a neighbor and a friend he was liked by all who knew him. He published the country of his birth whenever he spoke, as he had the broadest of Irish accent, but it was a pleasure to listen to it. He was very fond of the little people, the children. He knew how to please them, to cater to their pleasures, which he was very fond of doing. They were always his friends, and he, theirs. He promised to bring the writer up to the tanner's trade and took great pleasure in explaining it all to him. Mr. McGovney was over six feet and slender. He had a very firm expression when his countenance was in repose, but when animated or in a laughing mood, no one was more agreeable. He was always ready to sympathize with those who deserved it and to aid those who needed it. On his death bed he expressed his complete confidence in the religion he professed in life. He required no religious consolation and, when approached on that subject, said, "I have long placed my confidence in my Savior." His funeral was conducted with Masonic honors by the West Union Lodge and members of other lodges in the same county. The services were at the Presbyterian Church and the interment was in the Kirker Cemetery where he was laid beside his wife who had been buried there forty years before. Adam McGovney was a just man and a model citizen. His activities were confined to his business, Masonry and the church. In his political 606 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY views he was a Democrat. His memory stands as that of a good and true man, a credit to the generation to which he belonged. He had no taste for politics and never was a candidate for office, Nit he believed in doing every duty before him, and lived his belief. Hugh McSurely was born at Lexington, Kentucky, July 14, 1806. His father came from the north of Ireland, and was a soldier under General Harrison in the War of 1812. He came to Adams County when a child and his whole life was spent there. In 1828, he was married to Mary Clark by the Rev. William Baldridge of Cherry Fork congregation. Of this church, he and his wife were members until the Unity Church was organized in 1846, when they transferred their membership there. He was an elder in the United Presbyterian Church at thirty years and held the office for fifty years. He was a man of decided convictions on all subjects. He was a Jacksonian Democrat from 1827 to 1836. He became a Whig in 1836, two years after the organization of that party. When the Whig party dissolved, he form no other political ties until the formation of the Republican party, when he joined that party and continued in it all his life. He took a great interest in the church, in all public questions and in the welfare of his country. When the war broke out, he was fifty-five years of age, ten years over the limit of age for military duty. But he determined to enter the military service and did so. Here is his record: "Hugh McSurely, Private, Company F, l0th O. V. I. Captain, John T. Wilson. Enlisted November 1, 1861, for three years ; aged 55. Discharged December 8, 1862, on Surgeon's Certificate of disability." Of course, he ought not to have gone and the Government should not have accepted him, but he did so and the inevitable followed. HiS age was against him and he broke down and was sent home. When he returned he sent his son, George A., now a residence of Oxford, Ohio, who took his place in the same company and regiment and served until July 28, 1865. His son, Samuel A., served in the F Ohio Heavy Artillery. Hugh McSurely's wife died August 19, 1865. He contracted a second marriage with Ann McClanahan, who survives him. He had five children, the sons above named, Rev. William J. McSurely, D. D., of Hillsboro, Ohio, and Sarah A. McSurely, who resides on the home farm with, his widow. Hugh McSurely always took an active interest in politics, though he was never a candidate for office. In the campaign of 1896, he took as much interest in the election of President McKinley as though he had forty years of life before him. He was honest and industrious; he was a public-spirited, honored and useful citizen and a cheerful Christian. He died December 5, 1896, in his ninety-first year. Rev. John Meek was the son of Isaac and Mary Meek, born in Short Creek, Carroll County, Virginia, January 7, 1781. His father was a descendant of a Scotch family who came to Ohio early in the century and located in Jefferson County. Our subject very early in life was impressed with the notion that he was divinely called to the ministry, and yielding to these convictions, he was licensed to preach when only nineteen years of age. In September, 1803, he was appointed by the Baltimore Conference to the Scioto Circuit, PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 607 and came to Ohio with Rev. William Burke, his presiding elder, and by him was introduced to Governor Tiffin, a local preacher. His first circuit had its extreme southwest point on Eagle Creek, a few miles from what is now known as Fitch's Chapel. Then by Bryan's, on Three Mile Creek, to George Rodgers, near the mouth of Cabin Creek, up to Manchester, thence to Peterson's on Ohio Brush Creek, Joseph Moore's, then at the mouth of Turkey Creek; then up the Scioto River to Pee Pee Prairie to Snowden Sargeants ; then to Thomas Foster's at Big Bottom ; then from Foster's to Chillicothe ; from Chillicothe to Bowdles, at Hay Run ; then to White Brown's on Deer Creek; from there to West Fall on the Scioto River; to Walnut Creek through the wilderness to old Brother Stevenson's ; then to John Robbins on Buckskin Creek ; then to Hare's at the Falls of Paint Creek ; then to Braughter's Tavern ; up over 'a blind Indian trail to Benjamin Graces' near New Market in Highland County ; then to Odell's, near Briar Ridge, thirty miles distant, and from Odell's to the place of beginning, near mouth of Eagle Creek, or Flk River. In 1805, he was appointed to Hocking Circuit with the Rev. James Quinn as senior preacher. He was here for a time and then returned to the East. Before Mr. Meek returned again to Ohio, he was married to Miss Ann Jones, daughter of John and Ann Jones, and sister of the Reverend Greenbury R. Jones, who was very well known in Adams County in ;:the early days. His wife was a clear-headed woman who appreciated ; fully her posititon as the wife of an itinerant preacher, and she was during her lifetime a true helpmeet. She died in the triumph of the great field in February, 1855. John Meek was ordained deacon in October, 1805. His certificate is dated October 3, 1805, and signed by Richard Whatcoat. In March, he was ordained as elder. His certificate of ordination is dated March 16, 1810, and signed by William McKendree. Rev. Meek's son, William McKendree Meek, was named for and baptized by Bishop McKendree. Our subject was a man of fine presence and possessed a noble bearing, unflinching courage, and polished manners. He was intellectually a strong man and ever ready to defend the doctrines and policies of the church of ' his choice. He was a camp meeting preacher of wonderful power. He had a very fine voice, clear as a bell, and it rang out quite a distance. Reverend Maxwell P. Gaddis Says : "I shall never forget a sermon which I heard him preach more than forty-five years ago at the old camp ground in Adams County, Ohio, from these words : He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him. The words that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day.' (John 12 : 48.) It would be impossible to describe the scene at the close of that eloquent effort. I - felt that I was fully compensated for the long and dusty ride even to hear him read the opening hymn, 'That awful day will surely come.' " John Meek was always in sentiment and feeling an anti-slavery man. He was earnest in the support and advocacy of colonization, the then best remedy for the evils of slavery. He closed his sixty years in the ministry in August, 186o, and on the thirtieth day of December, 186o, at his home in Felicity, in Clermont County, Ohio, he passed quietly away. His death pwas peaceful and quiet, signalizing a patient confidence in Christ, a fitting close to the long life in the ministry. His remains rest in the cemetery at Wet Union. 608 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY John Patton, of Virginia. He is so designated to distinguish him from his son, John Patton, who emigrated to Ohio. We find he was from the north of Ireland. He was one of eight brothers. We do not know what time he located in Virginia but it was not later than 1774. He was born about 1754. He was married in about 1775. His eldest child, Nathaniel Patton, born February 22, 1776; was married in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 1797. Nathaniel Patton located in Adams County in 1814, on the farm where Ramsey Duffey now lives. He went to Rush County, Indiana, 1824. His wife's name was Polly Robinson. He was the father of fourteen children, all of who but the eldest, John S. Patton, followed him to Decatur County, Indiana. He died there in 1844. The second child of John Patton, of Virginia, Martha Campbell. She married James Campbell, in Rockbridge County, Virginia. They came to Adams County and settled near Decatur, Brown County. She left a large number of descendants, among whom are the Wassons of Cherry Fork. Thomas Patton, a son, lived and died on West Fork. The wife of Gen. William McIntire was his daughter. His other children removed to Peoria, Illinois, in the forties. Nathan Patton owned the Sam McNown place in Brown County. He was a money maker and Adams County was too slow for him. He left after a few years' residence with his entire family and located in Iowa. All trace of him and his fmily have been lost to the other Pattons. John Patton, the youngest son, was born in Virginia in 1787, a notice of whom is elsewhere herein. A daughter, Jane Patton, died in middle age, unmarried. Mary Patton was born in Virginia in 1789, and was married to Charles Kirkpatrick in 1806. They came to Ohio and located on Eagle Creek. Three children were born to them, and Kirkpatrick died in the War of 1812. In 1813, she married William Fvans, and ten children were born of this union, the eldest; of which was Edward Patton Evans, of West Union, father of one of the editors of this work. She died March 22, 1830, at the age of forty-one, Nancy Milligan, the fourth daughter of John Patton, of Virginia, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, about 1791. She married William Milligan, and they located near Unity in Adams County. She was the mother of a large family. J. C. Milligan, her Son, was a County Commissioner of Adams County from 1860 to 1863. Her son, John Milligan, is living near Decatur, Brown County. John Patton, of Virginia, died in 1809 in Rockbridge County. He made his will in July, 1809, and it was probated in October, 18o9. From the tone of his will, it is judged he was a very pious, God-fearing man. The inventory of his estate on file indicates he was an ordinary Virginia farmer. He owned 278 acres of land in one body, about five and three-fourths miles from Lexington, on the upper Natural Bridge road. Two hundred acres of his land lay in Burden's Grant, and the remainder, seventy-eight acres, just outside of it. The original grant of the Burden tract was from George, the Second, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King and Defender of the Faith, etc., and on condition that one family for every thousand acres be settled on it within two years. There were 92,100 acres in the grant. The land was to be held in free and common socage and not in capite or by knight service, and to pay a rent of one shilling for every fifty acres, to be paid yearly in the Feast of St. Michael, the Archangel (Sep- PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES- 609 tember 29). Three acres out of every fifty were to be improved within three years. All these conditions were abolished by the Virginia Legislature during the Revolution. John Patton bought his two hundred acres in Burden's Grant, December 3, 1782. That is the date of his deed, but he probably had it contracted for long before that. He purchased of James Grigsby, who died April 7, 1794, and was the first person buried in the Falling Spring cemetery. John Patton hated the institution of slavery, and had intended to remove from Virginia had he lived, but he charged his children to remove from a slave state, which they did. His descendants are very much the same type of man that he was himself ; strong, prudent, economical, honest, careful, despising all sham and pretense, and hating oppression and in justice in every form. John Patton, of Ohio, so designated to distinguish him from his father, having the same name, but who never resided in Ohio, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, June 9, 1787. His mother was Martha Sharp, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister of Glasgow, Scotland. He was married to Phoebe Taylor in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1813. While he was courting her, he used to visit her about every ninety days, riding over the Natural Bridge, his home being on the opposite side of the bridge from her. He resided in Rockbridge County until 1816, when he moved to Wayne Township, Adams County, where he purchased a farm, His wife was aunt of Bishop Taylor, of the M. E. Church, so long a missionary in Africa. She was born February 2, 1794. They joined the Associate Reformed Church in North Liberty as soon as they came from Virginia and attended it all their lives. They had ten children born to them, four sons and six daughters. Martha, the eldest, was born in Virginia. She married the Rev. Robert Stewart, Who was pastor of the church at Cherry Fork for nineteen years. She died in 1852. His second son, James T., born October 25, 1815, died in 1835. He had been attending Miami University, and was expecting to become a minister of the Gospel. Another son, John Elder, lived many years near North Liberty on the Winchester road. Nathaniel C. Patton, One of the principal farmers of the county, lives near Harshaville. Henry Patton died unmarried. Of the daughters, Larissa married Alexander Caskey and had a large family. One of her sons is John P. Caskey, of the firm of Harsha & Caskey, at Portsmouth, Ohio. A daughter, Elizabeth, married Robert Morrison, of Eckmansville ; Phoebe Caroline married S. D. McIntire, and Nancy and Margaret each married a Kirkpatrick. They also had an adopted child, Phoebe C. Finley. John Patton died October 7, 1853, aged sixty-five years. His wife died October 7, 1863, aged sixty-nine years. John Patton and his wife were the very strictest Presbyterians. There was family worship morning and evening, grace before meals, and a returning of thanks after, and Sunday was devoted entirely to public and private worship, including the catechism. When anyone visited their house, he was not asked if he were a member of any church, but he was called on to say grace or take part in worship, and if he was not in a condition to do he was put in the position to be asked to be excused. In those days 610 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY religion was a severe and awful matter, and they made it a part of their every day life. Sunday was a day when only public or private worship, reading of the scriptures or catechising, and nothing else, was to be thought of. They believed that the promises were for them and their children, and acted on their belief. Their lives were models for all the world, but alas, how the world has changed since that time. The severity of the religion of the Pilgrim Fathers was no greater than that of Rockbridge County, Virginia, Presbyterians, but with all their religious severity, they did not forget to make and save money and had all that thrift which belonged alike to the New England Puritan and the north of Ireland. Protestant Irishman. John Pennywitt was born on Gift Ridge, Monroe Township, October 28, 1810, and died at Washington, D. C., May 4, 1882. In 1740 there landed at the port of New York a young immigrant from Alsace-Lorraine. His name was John Pennywitt, or Penn (The name was afterwards variously spelled Penniwitt, Pennywit, Bennywitt, etc.) He was a Huguenot; his family had been well-nigh exterminated and he had been persecuted and driven from his native land because of his religious faith. He was by occupation a miller, and found employment at his trade at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He married his employer's daughter, and with his bride started to join the Huguenot colony in South Carolina. On the way thither they passed up the Shenandoah Valley and were so impressed by the beauty of the scenery and the fertility of the soil that they decided to locate there. He built the first mill in the valley, the foundation of which is still standing near Mount Jackson. He had two sons and several daughters. One son, John, emigrated to the West and came to Adams County. He was a giant in stature and his strength was remarkable. He could carry two barrels of flour at once, one under each arm. His remains now lie in the cemetery at Quinn Chapel, He had four sons, one of whom, Mark, succeeded to the home farm on Gift Ridge Mark had six sons, one of whom, Samuel, was accidentally killed when a youth. The five surviving brothers, John, James, Reuben, David and Mark, lived to ripe old age. They were all large and muscular. There aggregate weight was more than a thousand pounds, and their combined strength doubtless exceeded that of any other family of equal numbers in southern Ohio. As to their physical development they constituted perhaps the most remarkable family that Adams County has ever produced. And they were equally noted for their sterling integrity and irreproachable character. The eldest of these brothers, John (the subject of this sketch), was married in early manhood to Ann Wade, a schoolmate of his boyhood days the daughter of a near neighbor. They reared a family of four sons and four daughters, all of whom are living at the date of this writing (September, 1899). At the age of nineteen he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Naylor's Meeting House. To that denomination he continued faithful to the end. He organized a class made up of his immediate neighbors, donated the ground and was the chief contributor to the fund for erecting Quinn Chapel, and the main support for many years of the society that worshiped there. During a considerable portion of his life he was one of the stewards of West Union circuit in which was embraced Quinn Chapel. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 611 In his younger days he served as Justice of the Peace and as Captain of Militia. He was an old-line Whig. When the Republican party came into existence he identified himself with that political organization. To the principles of that party he was firmly attached. To the institution of slavery he was always a relentless enemy. His party honored him with a nomination to the State Legislature and elected him County Commissioner. While serving in the latter capacity he was largely instrumental in securing the construction of improved roads throughout the county. He was Chairman of the Republican Executive Committee for Several years, during which period his party was generally successful at the polls ; but for his right arm he would not have used a single dollar to corrupt an American voter. The panic of 1875 brought financial ruin to him. He gave up his home and his last dollar, and in 1874, with his wife and one unmarried daughter, removed to Washington, D. C., to accept a home proffered them by one of his sons. In May, 1876, he received an appointment to a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department, which position he held during the remaining six years of his life. The distinguishing features of John Pennywitt's character were unswerving honesty, absolute integrity of purpose and unflinching adherence to the truth. He never told a lie. He was an absolute stranger to deceit. A near neighbor, Peter Thompson, saw him grow from infancy to manhood and clearly recognized this trait in his character. Once upon a time this old gentleman had occasion to repeat a statement made by him, and a bystander expressed some doubts of its truth. This aroused his Scotch ire and he burst out in tones of indignation, "I know it's true, for John Pennywitt himself told me." From this incident he became generally known as "John Pennywitt himself." Higher tribute than this can not be paid to human character. Those who knew him well never doubted a word that he uttered. He was self-educated and his education was thorough and practical. Notwithstanding his limited opportunities for attending school he became familiar with all the common branches of learning, and in mathematics he was superior to many college-bred men. He taught many terms in the public schools. Algebra, geometry and surveying he mastered without a teacher. He became widely known as a land surveyor, and in contested cases his surveys were accepted by the courts as thoroughly reliable. His remains rest in Odd Fellow's Cemetery in Manchester. His funera1 was one of the largest ever witnessed in the county. By his side sleeps the partner of his life's joys and sorrows. Adams County may justly be proud of such a son. Reuben Pennywit was born May 31, 1817, the fourth child of Mark Pennywit, who reared his family on Gift Ridge in Adams County. He had six brothers and each of them was more than six feet tall. In youth, he delighted in feats of strength. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church at Quinn Chapel at its dedication, December 20, 1842, a church built on the old Pennywit home, and largely by the contributions of the family. On April 3, 1839, he married Miss Jane Cooper, of Brown County, Ohio, who survived him. They had nine children, eight of whom were 612 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY living at the time of the death of their father. They were Captains Wylie and Alfred ; George and Mary of Manchester ; Captain Samuel Pennywit, of Natchez, Mississippi ; Mrs. Edward McMillan and Mrs. J. P. Duffey, of Cincinnati, and Joseph W. Pennywit. He died February 10, 1892. In his Christian character, he was preeminent. Colonel James Poage. This name is identical with the Scotch Pollock, or American Polk or Pogue. Robert Poage landed in Philadelphia in 1738 with his wife, Elizabeth and nine children, Margaret, John, Martha, Sarah, George, Mary, Elizabeth, William and Robert. A tenth child, Thomas, was born to them the next year. The second son, John, above named, married Mary Blair, who was a sister of the Rev. John Blair and Rev. Samuel Blair, of Pennsylvania and William Lawrence Blair, a lawyer of Kentucky. Robert Poage located his family within three miles of Staunton, Virginia. John Poage, Robert's son, had six sons and two daughters. The subject of our sketch, the fifth son, was born March 17, 1760, near Staunton, Virginia. All the sons were eminent men, surveyors, and counted wealthy for their time. Martha, the third child of Robert Poage, the emigrant, married Michael Woods, who located in the Valley of Virginia, in 1734, She was born in Ireland in 1728, and died in Ripley, Ohio, in 1818. She was the mother of eight children, all of whom grew to maturity, married and had families. Mary, her daughter, born February 18, 1760, was married to Col. James Poage, March 10, 1787, and died at Ripley, Ohio, in April, 1830. Ann, daughter of John Poage and Mary Blair, married Andrew Kincaid. She and her husband died about the same time, leaving six children, three of them daughters, whom Col. Poage took and reared as own. They grew to womanhood in Ripley and all three of them married. Robert Poage, grandfather of Col. James Poage, established his residence within three miles of Staunton, Virginia, on a tract of 772 acres, and he acquired much larger tracts afterward. He and his wife were well educated and strong Presbyterians. He led his family in Bible reading, sacred song and prayer, every morning and evening, never permitting any press of business to interfere. Sunday afternoons, his wife led all the children of the family, visitors and callers in the study of the Bible and of the shorter catechism, while he attended to the chores. This Sunday afternoon study was made very interesting and was kept up in the family of his son, John Poage, and his son-in-law, Rev. Woods. Robert Poage was one of the first Magistrates of Augusta County, and on several occasions entertained General George Washington. His son, John, father of James, the founder of Ripley, accompanied Col. Washington on the Braddock campaign and became much attached to him. Robert the emigrant, died about March 6, 1774, and his will was probated that year in Augusta County. John Poage was County Surveyor of Augusta County, Virginia, about thirty years and was Sheriff in 1778. He was a strong Presbyterian and died in the faith. He gave each of his children a large family Bible, several of which are still in existence. His will was proven in Augusta County, Virginia, April 22, 1789. General Washington himself request the Poages to aid in securing the Ohio Valley to the people of the United PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 613 Colonies. In accordance with the request, William Poage, uncle of Col. James Poage, moved to Kentucky in 1778, and there lost his life in an Indian campaign, leaving seven children. Col. James Poage went to Kentucky in 1778, but there is no authentic account of his movements from that time until his marriage in 1789, except that he was engaged with surveying parties, and in protecting the families of his relatives from the incursion of the Indians. Sometime in this period, he was at the head of a surveying party and sometimes he commanded several. His work was fraught with great dangers. No men were permitted to accompany his parties except those expert in the use of a rifle. A number of hunters accompanied the parties to provide food. The furs of the animals were carefully preserved and packed. The most efficient scouts were obtained to guard against Indian attacks which could be expected at any time. Danger often compelled several surveying parties to keep together. The head of a single party would be called a Captain. When several parties worked together, their chief was called a Colonel, and James Poage often commanded consolidated parties, and it was in this way in which he obtained his title of Colonel. Few Western surveyors did more work in dangerous localities than Colonel James Poage and yet he was never involved in any serious encounter with the Indians. He was always on the lookout for them and Indians will rarely attack an enemy except by surprise. Col. Poage could not be surprised by any of them. Whenever he encamped his party or parties, he took such precautions that he could not be surprised, and his men had implicit confidence in him as a commander. When he met the Indians openly and peaceably he always treated them fairly and with justice and kindness, and he had their respect. He did work with surveying parties in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Considerable of this work was done after his marriage. When at home he devoted himself to farming and stock raising. He could get more work and more willing work out of his farm hands and slaves than any man of his times, except his brothers, George, William and Robert, who had the same traits. Another feature of those who worked for him, whether free or slaves, was that they would he as faithful in his long absence from his home as during his presence. He took an interest in everyone who worked for him, and whenever occasion required he would turn to and perform manual labor in that perfect manner he expected it to be done for him. He had a tact with his servants that could be imitated by no one and which cannot be described. He first resided in Clarke County, Kentucky, and represented that county in the Legislature of 1796, but most of his time in Kentucky he was a resident of Mason County. He disliked and was opposed to human slavery. In 1804, he took up one thousand acres of Survey No. 418 in Ohio, along the Ohio River, the center of which contains the town of Ripey, and here he made his home and laid cat a town, which he named Staunton, for Staunton in Virginia. He located this tract because he wanted to free his slaves, and to do it had to remove to a free state. During his residence in Ripley, he was distinguished for his liberality and hospitality, but he always lacked ready money. However, that was the case with everyone in that time, but was the hardest on those disposed to he liberal. He always entertained all the visiting ministers. All distinguished visitors were his guests. It was rarely his family sat down to 614 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY a meal without guests. Every Virginian passing that way felt in duty bound to visit him, and he felt in duty bound to entertain everyone from his native State. Frequently he had so many visitors at one time, that his daughters all occupied one room and his sons all occupied the hay loft. So lavish was his hospitality that often tea, coffee and sugar were lacking at his table, but neither he nor his wife ever apologized for these deficiencies or were less cordial to their guests for the want of them. His daughters and his wife, from flax, wool and cotton, made nearly all of the clothing for the entire family and fitted it as neatly as a modern tailor. For his services in surveying Virginia and General Government, he was granted 40,000 acres of land, half near Point Pleasant, West Virginia and half that quantity near Cairo, Illinois. On this he paid out a large amount of taxes, and his executors abandoned this land after his death for want of funds to pay taxes and bring it into the market. As a husband and father, he was kind and affectionate. He was a magnetic kind of man and his family obeyed him implicitly. He exercised a wonderful influence among those around him, securing their concurrence in his judgment and direction about matters. But above all things, he was distinguished by his robust, cheerful piety. His life snf example tended to make other men believe and embrace his faith. A number of his letters breathing that earnest spirit of piety, his chief characteristic, are still in existence. His children were as follows : Martha, born in Virginia, February 17, 1788, married George Poage, son of Gen. George Poage, her uncle died in Brown County, Ohio, between 1855 and 1860. No descendants. John C. Poage, born in Virginia, April 19, 1779, married Mary Hopkins, No children. Andrew Woods Poage married Jane Gray, died April 19, 1840, at Yellow Spring, Ohio. Mary and James, twins, born March 25, 1793. She died in Ripley in 1821 and he is 1820. Robert Poage, born February 4, 1797, married Sarah Kirker, had children. Died in Illinois, February, 1874. His oldest Son, James Smith Poage, is a minister of the Gospel. Elizabeth Poage, born April, 1798, married Isaac Shepherd, a minister, died in Ripley, Ohio, July 30, 1832. No children. Ann born May 5, 1800, married Alexander Mooney. Died near Russellville, 0hio, Margaret, born September Jo, 1803. Married Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, died at St. Peter, Minn., July 21, 1872. Had ten children, the three eldest died in childhood and are buried in the old cemetery at Ripley. Three sons of the remaining seven survive. Rev. John Poage Williamson, D. D., Missionary to Dakota ; A. W. Williamson, Ph. D., Professor of Mathematics, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois ; H. M. Williamson, Editor of the Rural North West, Portland, Oregon. Also, one daughter survives, Sarah, born March 4, 1805, married Rev. Gideon H Pond, died at Bloomington, Minn., 1854. Had seven children, of whom six survive. Thomas, born at Ripley, Ohio, June 1, 1808, died there August, 1831. Rev. George Poage, born June 18, 1809, married Jane Riggs, died in Colorado in 1897. Had six children, of whom only one survives, but had a number of grandchildren, all surviving. As a farmer and stock raiser, Col. Poage had no superior and was successful in obtaining the best crops and the finest cattle and horses. PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 615 In what proved to be Col. Poage's lat sickness, he was prevailed upon to go security for a large sum for a woolen mill in which 'he had invested money. After his death, the mill failed and his estate was called on to pay the debt. Want of capacity to make the note might have been successfully pleaded, and his executor and legatees were so advised, but his children declined and the debt was paid by his estate. However, it was this that made the executor abandon the lands owned by him in West Virginia and in Illinois. Finally enough was saved out of his estate to give each one of his children a fine farm. This is the story of the founder of Ripley, and the materials were accessible to have made it more elaborate in details which would have been as interesting as any given. His ashes repose in the old abandoned cemetery of Ripley. James H. Rothrock  was born at Milroy, Pa., in 1829. In 1838, his father removed to Mt. Leigh in Adams County, where he took up wild woodland. Our subject attended schools three months each winter and the remainder of the year he spent in aiding his father subdue the wilderness. Thus he spent ten years, but in that time was schooled in humanity. His father was a Binny Abolitionist and his home was a station on the Underground Railroad. The next station north was Flat Run in Highland County, and in the ten years, from his ninth to his nineteenth year, our subject piloted not less than three hundred slaves between the stations on their road to freedom. That work was a good lesson for the boy and helped make the man. From 1848 to 185o, he attended an academy at Felicity and taught school. From 185o to 1852, he attended Franklin College at New Athens, Ohio. In 1852, he went to West Union and began the study of the law under the late Fdward P. Fvans, father of the writer of this sketch. During the time he was studying law, he taught school to earn his living. In the spring of 1852, he and Alexander Woodrow were the only two persons in Wet Union who cat'their votes for John P. Hale for President. In the spring of 1854, he and his preceptor went to Columbus, where he was admitted to the bar. He at once located in Greenfield, in Highland County, where he began the practice of law. Here, on the fifteenth of October, 1855, he was married to Miss Austie Foote. That same fall he was elected I to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of Highland County and served one term. He was a candidate for re-election in 1857, but waS defeated. He removed to Hillsboro in 1858 and remained there until 1860, when he removed to and located in Tipton, the county seat of Cedar County, Iowa. In 1861, he was elected to the Iowa Legislature and served part of the time as Speaker, pro tem. In July, 1862, he was appointed Lieutenant- Colonel of the 35th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and in that organization distinguished himself by signal bravery in battle. General William L. Davis, in speaking of the attack on the rebel works at Vicksburg, in which the 35th Iowa participated, said : "Lieutenant-Colonel Rothrock sprang to the front, ordered the regiment to charge, and, taking the lead, with hat in one hand and sword in the other, the Thirty-fifth went into that awful shower of lead and iron. The line was repulsed everywhere with fearful slaughter. No braver man than he ever drew a sword or held the affection of his soldiers more strongly." However, his constitution was broken down by the hardships of the service, and he was compelled to resign in 616 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY the fall of 1863. In 1866, he was nominated and elected District Judge. He served as such nine years, when the Governor of the State appointed him to the Supreme Bench to fill a vacancy. He was elected for the succeeding term and re-elected until he voluntarily retired after twenty-one years service. His opinions are found from the 41 to the l01 Iowa Reports. When he retired from the Supreme Judgeship, Judge H. E. Deemer one of his associates, on the Supreme Bench, said of him : "He is a man of good, common, hard sense, who took his diploma from the school of experience, and has risen to his present proud position through honest and earnest endeavor. A man, who has the best judgment upon important quetions of any man with whom I ever came into contact, a man who is king among men. He gave thirty years of continuous judicial service to his State, seven years in the District and twenty-one years on the Supreme Bench. His work as a jurist was painstaking and thorough. He never wrote an opinion without the most conscientious research. He dis his best every time." The strength of his decisions were not only recognized in Iowa, but in Ohio as well. In the latter State, his old friends of the bar always sought out his decisions and were proud to cite and rely on them as the law. To the Hon. N. M. Hubbard, his fellow townsman, we are indebted for an estimate of his character, which is most accurate. He said of Judge Rothrock: "His chief characteristics are probity, common sense and an unbiased judgment. His opinions were the result of reasoning, never of feeling. His decisions not only convinced the successful party that they were the law, but convinced the losing parties that their causes had been decided rightfully. His opinions are contained in sixty-one volumes of the Iowa Reports. They are models of compact statements, and clear analysis, which lead to irresistible conclusions. His language is plain, simple and terse Saxon. He was not a great scholar, nor of any considerable literary attainments, but he had the remarkable faculty of expressing himself in plain English so as to be clearly understood and to convince reader by his forceful reasonings. He is a good talker, a better listened, and of rare judicial talent. The people of Iowa, without dissent, honor him as one of its first citizens and most eminent jurists." The wife of his youth died April 9, 1893. He has three sons, Edward F., born in 185o ; James H., in 1869, and George L., in 1873. The writer as a boy, went to school to him in West Union while he was a law student. He was then a boarder at the home of his preceptor, and there the writer became acquainted with him. When this history was projected, he opened a correspondence with the Judge and several pleasant letters were exchanged. The Judge looked forward with pleasure to the time when he could read of his Ohio friends, those of his childhood and youth in this history, but alas ! that was never to be ! Those years of leisure to whic he and his family looked forward with pleasure were never to be lived by him. November 17, 1898, he wrote : "My race is nearly run. After three score and ten, there is little left but to wait the end." When he wrote those words, he little realized how near he was to the end. He died on the fifteenth of January, 1899. His funeral was honored by the attendance of the Governor and Supreme Judges of the State and by numerous distinguished citizens as well as by his townsmen. He has left a grand PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 617 and noble memory, and those who knew him in Ohio in his boyhood and young manhood, cherish it equally with the citizens of Iowa, who knew him so well. Adams County is proud of the history of his life. Philip Rothrock was born October 12, 1801, in Pennsylvania. His father moved to Mt. Leigh when he was eleven years of age. He went to school in the district school of the neighborhood and afterward at the North Liberty Academy. When the war broke out he raised a company for the 6oth O. V. I. for one year and was appointed Captain, November 26, 1861. He served in the organization until November , 1862, and while in it was in several battles and skirmishes, and was taken prisoner of war at Harper's Ferry in the surrender there. He remained at home until June, 1863, when he raised Company B, Second Ohio Heavy Artillery. While he was recruiting that, he and his brother, Joseph, and John Van Deman attended the North Liberty United Presbyterian Church and took communion. Philip said it would be the last time he would be with them and so it proved to be. His regiment was sent for service in East Tennessee. On August 18, 1863, he was wounded by an explosion of one of our old cannon at Cleveland, Tennessee, then used to repel an attack by the Rebel General Wheeler. The next day he was appointed Major but was never mustered. He was sent to the hospital where he remained until October 12, 1864, when he died. In November, his remains were brought to Mt. Leigh and re-interred. He was married August 18, 1857, to Rebecca F. Shaw. There were two sons of this marriage, Joseph Lewis, born June I I, 1858, who is married and now resides at Washington C. H. He has two children. Another son, Philip E., resides at Washington C. H., and is married. He is the father of four children, and is engaged in the hardware business there. Philip Rothrock was a Presbyterian, and much devoted to his faith. He was a man of generous impulses, intensely patriotic, and had he survived, he would have been a most valuable citizen in any community. His untimely death was much deplored by all who knew him. John Silvers, a son of William Stivers and Elizabeth King, was born near the city of New York in the year 1765. He had six brothers, Fdward, William, Reuben, Peter, James and Richard, and three sisters, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Bergin of Bourbon County, Ky., who afterwards settled near Columbus, Ohio. In 1775, in order to escape the Tory allies of George III, in and about New York, William Stivers moved to Spottsylvania County, Virginia. There he was comparatively safe from Tory persecutions, and during the Revolution he sent six sons to battle for the cause of Liberty, his seventh son, Richard, being too young to bear arms. John Stivers, the sixth son, volunteered in May, 1780, in Captain Robert Daniel's Company of Colonel Spencer's Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, when but little past fifteen years of age, for a period of service of five months. At the expiration of the term of his first enlistment, he again volunteered for a term of three months under Captain Robert Harris, of Colonel Regiment. At the expiration of his second term of enlistment the war was practically over. Virginia was cleared of marauding bands of Tories 618 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY and Cornwallis and his British and Hessian forces were shut up in Yorktown to stay until they marched out to the tune of "The World's Upside Down," and he surrendered his sword to Washington. In the year 1786, John Stivers married Miss Martha Neel, a daughter of John Neel, a Scotch emigrant, and settled in the forks of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. There his family of eight children were born : Samuel K., Robert, James, John, Matilda, who married Isaac Teachenor ; Lydia, who married William Shaw; Washington, and Nancy, who married Enoch Moore. In 1799, he moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and soon there after came to Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, and settled on Brier Ridge within sight of the old Methodist Church in what is now Liberty Township, where he continued to reside until his death in 1839. Before coming to Ohio he and his oldeSt brother, Reuben, who settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky, laid military warrants Nos. 6640, 6642 and 6643 covering 630 acres of land lying on Treber's Run, and on the East Fork of Fagle Creek in Adams County. The youngest brother, Richard, afterwards came to Kentucky and settled near Louisville, where he became one of the most prominent planters of that region, John Stivers was an active vigorous man, both in body and mind, and took a deep interest in his day in affairs of county and state. He was a radical Jeffersonian Democrat in his political opinions, and he was a faithful member of the Baptist Church for nearly fifty years. In personal appearance he was a little below the medium in height, but very compactly built, and weighed in full and vigorous manhood about 165 pounds. He had dark hair, steel-blue eyes and regular features, and was of a buoyant disposition and pleasing turn of mind ; yet he waS not slow to resent wrong or a personal affront. It is related of him that soon after his first enlistment in the Revolution, that while resting with his company at a spring, a bumptious militia officer rode up and addressing him as "Bud," requested a drink of water. This so enraged the youthful soldier that he seized the officer and dragged from his saddle and gave him a deserved pummelling for his impertinence. He and his faithful wife are buried in the old cemetery at Decatur, Brown County, Ohio. David Sinton The name is Anglo-Saxon, and in the early history of the family the Sintons were found settled near the border of Scotland. The ancestors this subject went to the north of Ireland with one of Cromwell's colonies. His father and mother were Quakers. His mother's name was McDonald, John Sinton, father of David Sinton, was married in Ireland. He resided in County Armagh, and was a linen manufacturer at the city of Armagh. David Sinton was born January 26, 1808, and in 1811, his father and mother came to the United States in a sailing vessel, which occupied nine weeks in the voyage. John Sinton located at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and went to merchandising with his brother-in-law, McDonald. In one year the partnership was dissolved, and Sinton removed to West Union, Ohio, where he sold goods from 1812 until 1825, at which time he closed out his business at auction. David Sinton had two sisters and one brother ; the brother, William died at West Union, and is buried in the village cemetery there. He had PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 619 studied medicine with Dr. William B. Willson, and had qualified himself for a physician, when death cut him off in his early manhood. He had just begun the practice of medicine at the time of his death. One of David Sinton's sisters never left Ireland, but married there. His other sister, who came with the remainder of the family to this country, married John Sparks, the banker, and died at Union Landing of the cholera, in 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Sparks had three children : Mary Jane, who married a McCauslen and resides near Steubenville, Ohio, and George Sparks, who resides at Clinton, Indiana. The third child died an infant at West Union, Ohio. John Sparks was born near West Union, Ohio, in 1800, and reared there. He lived awhile in Hillsboro, when a young man, and then began merchandising in West Union, Ohio, on the corner now occupied by Miller & Bunn's drug store, and was in business there from 1820 until 1830. He went to Union Landing in 1830, and remained until 1833. He then returned to West Union, Ohio, and went into the banking business, where he remained until his death in April, 1847. Bates & Surtees founded the ' bank at West Union, Ohio. They were both from Cincinnati. The bank was an unsound concern, and when it collapsed Thomas Huston lost $13,000 by its failure. David Sinton had the cholera at Union Landing in 1833, at the time his sister died of it, and he came very near dying of it himself. He left West Union in his fourteenth year, and went to Sinking Springs, in Highland County, Ohio, where he went into the employment of James McCague, who kept a tavern and a country store there, and remained at that place two years. McCague had a branch store at Dunbar- ton, Ohio. three miles south of Peebles. David Sinton was in his sixteenth year when he kept store at Dunbarton, for three or four months, McCague was a drinking man, and his wife and Sinton attended to all the business. Sinton says that the sales in the branch store at Dunbarton were principally whiskey. On Saturday, the furnace hands from the Brush Creek Forge, Steam Furnace and Marble Furnace, gathered at Dunbarton, and got gloriously drunk. Whiskey was then about six and one-fourth cents a quart, and drunks were consequently gotten up very cheap. David Sinton went to Cincinnati in 1824 and waited there four months before he could get any employment. In that time he improved his mind by reading Hume's History of England, and other works. Mr. Sinton thought he could have gotten employment, had he made himself "a hail fellow well met," with the young men of his own age with whom he became acquainted, and had he participated in their dissipations, but this he refused to do. He says those young men have been dead and forgotten for years. While trying to get work, he answered all advertisements, but with no success. He applied for the position of bookkeeper at Adams' Commission House on Main Street, but found, on looking at their books, he could of keep them. He then went to work as a porter or laborer. He put up seventy tons of bar iron from Pittsburg, and placed barrels of sugar in the ft. He had a difficulty with a fellow-laborer in the same house, and says: "I went to Mr. Adams, and asked him to discharge the other man. He refused to do so, and I discharged myself." He was disgusted with Cincinnati, and concluded to go home. He "went to Manchester on a steamboat, and from there he walked to West 620 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Union. There. he received letters, asking him to return to Sinking Springs. He went there and remained with his former employer, McCague, at eight dollars per month, for two years. Then he concluded he wanted to be a capitalist. He went into partnership with a Methodist preacher, and bought a still-house for one hundred and fifty dollars. He ran the still until he paid his debts, and then being ashamed of the business, he sold out. He guarded a prisoner for nine days in 1826 and got twenty dollars for it, and then concluded to go to Cincinnati. There he opened out a commission house for John Sparks, his brother-in-law, and Daniel Boyle, of West Union, but the venture was not successful, and the house was closed in six months. He then went to Washington C. H., in the employ of Dr. Boyd, to take charge of a store. He remained there six months at twenty-five dollars per month. Then he received an offer to go to Hanging Rock at four hundred dollars per year. He left Washington. C. H., and went to West Union to consult his brother-in-law, John Sparks. He offered Sparks to go to Union Furnace for two hundred dollars per year, and his board. The offer was accepted, and he went to Union Furnace Landing, where he kept store, and sold pig iron. He was there three years. The firm was James Rogers & Co. Rogers soon sold out, and the firm became John Sparks & Co., and Sinton became manager of the furnace at four hundred dollars per year, when other furnaces were paying one thousand dollars per year for the same service Union Furnace had cost seven thousand dollars, but was much in Sinton made the furnace put out five hundred tons of iron per year, made it pay dividends. The output was mostly hollow-ware. Sinton wanted to push the business. He leased the furnace at a rental of five thousand dollars per year for five years. The stack fell down, and the bars gave out. While rebuilding the stack, he bought great quantities of wood, and had it stored about the furnace. Before the stack was rebuilding the wood caught fire, and was all consumed. Sinton was then twenty-eight years of age, and financially broken up. He had been up three days and nights fighting fire, and was utterly discouraged. He thought he would go to Mexico, but lay down and slept eighteen consecutive hours. Twice before he had lost all he had, and he concluded he would try it again. The men who had brought in the wood, and worked at the furnace, wanted their money. Sinton professed his ability to pay, and the men were paid as they came up, in as small bills and change as could be used so as to consume as much time as possible in settling and making payment. He had one thousand dollars in small bills and change, and managed it so that he only paid out one hundred dollars on the first day of the run. The run continued until the third day, when one of the men put a stop to it by telling the others they were all foolS, and then they brought their money back After the furnace started up, Sinton sold iron at thirty-five dollars per ton, which he made at a cost of ten dollars per ton. At that time the furnace made six tons per day. David Sinton built Ohio Furnace during his lease on Union Furnace. It made ten tons per day, and Sinton ran it a year before his lease terminated on Union Furnace. Union Furnace was then put up and sold in partition, and David Sinton and Thomas W. Means bought it. They then owned and ran both Ohio and Union Furnace. David Sinton went to Cincinnati in 1849, where he has resided ever since. He was married at Union Landing to Jane Ellison, daughter of PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 621 John Ellison, of Adams County, Ohio, and sister to the wife of his partner, Thomas W. Means. There were two children of this marriage, Fdward, who died, unmarried, at the age of twenty-one, and the wife of the Hon, Charles P. Taft, of the Times-Star, of Cincinnati. Mrs. Jane Sinton died in 1853, at Manchester, Ohio, and is buried there. David Sinton never remarried. Mr. Sinton's father died at West Union, Ohio, Sunday, June 28, 1835, at the age of seventy-one, of that dread scourge, the Asiatic cholera. There were seven other deaths that day at the same place, and of the same disease, and it was the first day of the outbreak of the pestilence at West Union. David Sinton was then at Union Landing, and was notified by messenger, but, as was the custom at that time in cholera cases, John Sinton was buried the same day he died, and when Mr. Sinton reached West Union, his father had been buried two days. Mr. Sinton's mother survived until 1866, when she died at the ripe age of eighty-five. When the War of 1861 broke out, pig-iron was eighteen dollars per ton and David Sinton had seven thousand tons on hand. Many thought he was ruined, but he held on to that iron until it went up to seventy-five dollars per ton, when he sold it. When iron rose in price, he continued making it, and selling it for cash. In 1863, he began putting his money in Cincinnati real estate. That real estate, bought with the proceeds of irom sold at seventy-five dollars per ton, advanced until it made its owner one hundred and twenty-five dollars per ton for all the iron he sold at eeveny-five dollars per ton. During the war, his two furnaces made thirty tons of iron per day for every day they ran. Mr. Sinton attributes his great fortune to judicious investments of the money he made in the manufacture and sale of pig-iron, at the beginning of, and during the late Civil War. In Cincinnati, he has taken an active interest in many of the leading enterprises, and he has erected many substantial and elegant buildings there. He has made a number of munificent public gifts. He presented $100,000 to the Union Bethel and $33,000 to the Young Men's Christian Association. He is entirely a self-made man. He is noted for his strong common sense and self-reliance. In business matters, his litigations, his conclusions and his manner of execution are his own. He may be said to be self-educated. His readings on all topics have been extensive. In literature, science and history he is well informed, retaining all of any value he ever read, and being able to converse on all subjects with great interest to his listeners. Mr. Sinton was a Whig and has been a Republican in his political views, but never took any active interest in political matters. During the war he was a strong Union man and did all he could with his influence and means to sustain the Government. His practical religion is justice, charity and good will to all men. In private relations, he is characterized by his kindness and benevolence. Since the above was written Mr. Sinton made the princely gift of $100,000 unconditionally to the University of Cincinnati. He died August 31, 1900. 622 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Col. Samuel King Silvers, eldest son of John Stivers, the pioneer, and Martha Neel, was born near the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania February 18, 1787. In 1799, he came with his parents first to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and afterwards to Adams County, Ohio, settling on Brier Ridge. Here he helped his father to "clear out" a farm, earning some money himself by teaching school. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he volunteered as a Private in Captain Josiah Lockhart's Company of Colonel James Trimble's Regiment under General Duncan McArthur, and was surrendered to the British by General Hull, at Detroit, August 16, 1812. After his parole, he came home but learning that his brother, James, had volunteered in a Kentucky regiment he at once hastened to Maysville and re-enlisted in Captain Simmons' Company of Colonel William E. Boswell's Regiment. He served under General Greene Clay in Harrison's Campaign, and commanded a "Spy Company" in Colonel Boswell's Regiment of Kentucky Militia at the battle of the "Rapids of the Maumee," May 5, 1813. He took part in the action under Colonel Dudley, and was made a prisoner of war after the latter's defeat and death. Knowing his certain fate should he be recognized by his former captors, he assumed the name of "Samuel Bradford" and was under that name discharged. He was one of the number: that escaped the tomahawks of the Indians through the timely arrival of Tecumseh, while confined in the blockhouse at Malden. After his release by the British, he returned to Adams County, and soon afterwards married Miss Mary Creed, a daughter of Mathew Creed, who had come from Monroe County, Virginia, to Rocky Fork, Highland County, Ohio, in 1804. About the time of his marriage he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Sprigg Township, which position he held until his removal from the county in 1818. He lived for a time on a farm near the residence of his father-in-law, and then removed to Russellville, Brown County, where he followed surveying and school teaching until 1829, when he settled on a farm of three hundred and fifty acres one mile north of the present village of Fincastle. Here he resided until his death, August 7, 1864. His widow survived until November, 1867, having been born in 1790. Samuel K. Stivers was widely known as a Surveyor and civil engineer. He held the rank of Colonel, in the old State Militia, and had a large circle of warm political friends, among whom was Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, the peer of Tom Corwin in the field of political oratory. He was a Democrat of the old school a Breckenridge Democrat in 186o, and lived and died a member of the "New Light" or Christian Church. Among his warm personal friends were Gen. Nathaniel Beasley, Judge George Barrere, Colonel James Trimble and Dr. Lilly. And he n the four sons of his family, Beasley, Barrere, Trimble and Lilly. And his wife named the three daughters for her best friends, Amanda Carlisle, her cousin; Elizabeth Brockway, and Mary Creed, herself. He and his wife are buried in the old Earl Cemetery near Fincastle, Ohio. Thomas Scott was born on the thirty-first day of September, 1772, at Old Town or Skipton, at the junction of the north and south branches of the Potomac River. He came of that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which has furnished very many PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 623 remarkable and valuable men to the bar, army, navy and legislature of America. His grandparents emigrated to the United States very soon after the battle of the Boyne and settled in Berks County, Pennsylvania, from whence the father of Judge Scott removed to and settled in Virginia. In May, 1796 Mr. Scott married Catherine, daughter of Robert and Catherine Dorsey Wood. He very early connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout his long life. He was licensed a preacher when only seventeen years of age by Bishop Asbury, and was ordained at eighteen. At this period of life, Mr. Scott fully intended to devote himself to the ministry, and he prudently learned the tailoring trade so as to be sure of the necessaries of life while in charge of the then very poor and scattered flocks of the Methodist Church. In 1793, he was placed in charge of the Ohio Circuit, and in 1794, was assent delegate to a conference held in Lexington, Kentucky. By this time he had resolved to study law, and he began reading under the auspics of James Brown, of Lexington. But he was so poor that he was compelled to labor at tailoring much the greater portion of the time. In this strait, his wife (who, beside possessing in an eminent degree, all the noble attributes of womanhood, was an unusually well educated and intellectual lady) sat beside his work and read to him "Blackstone," "Coke upon Littleton," and the other law books usually put into the hands of law students in those days. Whether licensed to practice or not, and it does not appear that he was, he certainly appeared as a lawyer in the courts of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, and even prosecuted for the State in 1799 and 1800. Early in 1801, he came to Chillicothe, Ohio, and there was licensed to practice law in June, 1801. In the following winter, he was Clerk of the Territorial Legislature. In November ( from the first to the twenty-ninth), he was the Secretary of the Constitutional Convention. In January, 1803, he was commissioned Prothonotary of Common Pleas, which he held until the reorganization of the Courts, and in April of that year, he was Clerk of the Common Pleas, pro tempore, and candidate for the permanent clerkship, but was defeated for the position by John McDougal. He was then commissioned the first Justice of the Peace of the county and continued in that position for three or four years, although, meanwhile, he practiced in Common Fleas, and was also Prosecuting Attorney in 1803 and 1804. In the Fall of 1805, he was chosen Clerk of the Ohio Senate, and continued such, by successive annual elections until 1809, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, upon which he remained with good credit, until 1815. He was then Register of Public Lands from 1829 to 1845. When, after the "era of good feeling" which existed during Monroe's administration, men began to divide up again on political questions, Judge Scott took his place with the Republican party. But President Adams, having made him the promise to appoint him District Judge of the United States for Ohio and-this having been prevented by the interference Of Clay, who obtained the place for another, Judge Scott immediately became a zealous and active Jackson Democrat. He continued his affiliation with the Democracy until 1840, when he went over again to his old partisan friends, then called Whigs, and supported General Harrison's candidacy. He remained a Whig during the remainder of his life, but strongly sympathized with the anti-slavery movement which gave birth to the present Republican party. We mut not forget to mention that in all the vicis- 624 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY situdes of his long and busy life, he continued to fill the pulpit of the Methodist Church whenever called to supply it as a "local preacher." He died February 13, 1856, at the age of eighty-three, and at that time had been longer in the active practice of law than any other person in Ohio, and probably, longer a preacher of the Gospel than any mini lel in the United States. His excellent wife survived him about two years. As a lawyer, Judge Scott was painstaking, laborious and precise to a remarkable degree. Some of his briefs are marvels of patient research and also of prolixity. He had a wide reputation for learning, in the laws of realty especially, and was employed abroad in some very important cases, and for his services, received a few large fees. It will be noticed that in the foregoing sketch of his life, that, true to the instincts of the Virginian, Judge Scott loved official distinction. No position was too high for his solicitation, and none too humble for his acceptance. As a husband and a father, never was mortal man more gentle, affectionate and provident. Peter Schultz was one of the first citizens of West Union. He was first in a double sense. He was on the ground when the town was organized, and he was first in enterprise and public spirit while he remained a citizen of the town. He was born in New Jersey in 1779. In 1800, he removed with his parents to Pennsylvania. In 1804, he was married to Elizabeth Jones, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and immediately emigrated to Adams County. He attended the sale of lots. in West Union, May 17, 1804, and bought lots 4, 5, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and paid $244.00 for them. On lots 21 and 22, in 1805, he built a tannery and operated it until about 1826. He was one of the foremost business men of West Union. He was not only content to buy hides, tan them and sell leather, but he startup a saddle and harness factory. He made his leather into saddles; harness and shoes, and kept a number of men employed in manufacturing these articles. Rev. James B. Finley preached the first sermon ever delivered in West Union by a Methodist minister, at the home of Peter Sch John W. Campbell was present and took notes in shorthand. In 1807, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church under the ministry of the Rev. John Collins, and from that time until the day of his death was a most zealous, earnest Christian. He organized the first Methodist Society in West Union, and for the want of a church, it met at his house. He took a very active part in promoting the interest of the village, the county and of the Methodist Church. He accumulated considerable property while in West Union, and reared a large family. His children were Charlotte, John, Lucy, Joseph, David, William, Abbott, Ellen, Robert, Asbury and John Wilson. Campbell. Four of them were married in Adams County. Charlotte married William Compton; John married Rhoda Burdage and Lucy married Charles Mick. Joseph married Elizabeth Mick. Ellen died in childhood. Having so large a family he determined to move to Indiana, where he could purchase more land and better than he could obtain in Adams County. He gained quite a good-sized fortune, but lost a good part of it by security debts. But with his wonderful energy and by industry and economy, he accumulated PIONEER CHARACTER SKETCHES - 625 another fortune. In Indiana, as in Ohio, he made a church of his home, and was as zealous a worker in the church in Indiana as he had been in Ohio. He died October 24, 1848. After his death, his widow refused $25,000 for the farm in which she resided, and there was much other property beside. Peter Schultz was a man of energy and industry. He was the soul of integrity and honor. He was generous to every good cause and was loved by all who knew him. He never took any part in politics, but devoted his whole time to business and to good works in the church and community. Rev. David Steele, D. D. Among the early settlers of Adams County, Ohio, Rev. David Steele, D. D., occupies a prominent place. He was born near Londonderry. Ireland, on the second day of November, 18o3, and was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was the' youngest of six brothers, whose father, David Steele, was the fourth generation from Captain John Steele of Lismahago, near Glasgow, Scotland, and who fought on the side of the Covenanters in the battle of Drumclog, June 22, 1679. Descended from such stock, as might be expected, he was trained up according to the strict order observant in Covenanting families. He received his academical education on the old wall of Londonderry, famous in history because of its siege in 1688 and 1689. When about twenty years of age, he emigrated to the United States, arriving in Philadelphia, June 7, 1824. After spending a short time with an uncle in Pennsylvania, he taught school in the first academy erected in Edinsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the meantime pursuing his classical and other studies. Entering the Western University of Pennsylvania as a Senior, he graduated from that institution in 1826. After studying theology with the late Dr. John Black, of Pittsburg, ;Pennsylvania, he was licensed to preach the Gospel, April, 1830. The following year, on May 4th, he was married to Miss Eliza Johnston, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and one month afterward, he was ordained and installed Pastor of the Reformed Congregation of Brush Creek by the Ohio Presbytery at a salary of four hundred dollars a year. When he settled on crush Creek, the place was a wilderness, and he and his young wife found everything primitive and uncongenial to educated and refined living. Thousands of miles he traveled on horseback yearly, having often to ford rivers when he had to get on his knees on the saddle to keep from being saturated with water as there were few bridges in those days. For twenty-nine years, he labored in this congregation upon a salary that was hardly sufficient to procure the necessaries of life. Although a little below medium in stature, he was possessed of an excellent constitution and this enabled him to bear up under difficulties which would have been too great for others. As a scholar, he was far above most of his compeers. particularly in the ancient classics, as he could read the most difficult Latin and Greek authors at sight. He was thoroughly versed in theology and his "Notes on the Apocalypse" show that he was a master in the exposition of the Bible truth. He was instrumental in training quite a number of young men for the Gospel Ministry. His home was the resort of all educated people, who came to the neighborhood, and hospitality was a marked feature of his house. It is but proper to state that his wife 626 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY co-operated heartily with him in all his plans for the elevation and culture of all who dwelt in the vicinity-of Brush Creek. His influence for sound morality, godly living and consistent Christianity was felt far and wide and left its impress upon the whole community. Brush Creek owes much to culture and refinement to the early settlement of him and his wife. As an orator, Rev. Steele was concise, clear and frequently eloquent and impassioned, and his discrimination in the use of words showed his mastery of the English language. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from his Alma Mater a few years before his death. After leaving Ohio, he spent several years in Illinois near Spa The remainder of his life was spent in Philadelphia, and he died in fifty-fourth year of his ministry at the age of eighty-four. His rema lie in the cemetery of Petersburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. John Sparks, the Banker, was born in 1790 in Pennsylvania. He came to Adams County with his parents when a child and they located just east of where West Union was afterwards located. When a young man, he lived in Hillsboro. He began the business of merchandising in West Union on the corner now occupied by the present post office building, northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, in about 182o, and continued in that business until 1830, when he went to Union Landing, where he remained until the death of his wife in 1833. He returned to West Union in that year and went into the banking business and continued his residence in West Union until the thirty-first July, 1847, when he died, and was buried in Lovejoy Cemetery. He was twice married. His first wife was Johanna Kelvey. She died September 26, 1823, aged twenty-three. She left a daughter who survived the age of thirteen years. He was married to Sarah Sinton, sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, October 2, 1828, by the Rev. Dyer Burgess, who signed his name to the marriage record, "V. D. M." While in the dry-goods business at West Union, he was in partnership at one time with Thomas W. Means, under the name of Sparks & Means. They were also the owners of Union Furnace. George Collings, the father of Judge Henry Collings, and John Sparks once owned and conducted a queensware store at Maysville, Kentucky. Mr. Sparks afterward sold his interest to a Mr. Pemberton. Mr. Sparks had been a banker in West Union but a short time when he became a merchant. He was a man of great personal popularity the county, and although often solicited, he would never consent to run for public office at a time when almost everybody did run for office. He loaned money and helped a great many men. John Fisher remarked of him that he was the best friend he ever had. John Loughry, of Rockville, said the same thing. Most of his life was spent in merchandising pursuits in Adams County. There were three children of this second marriage one died in infancy, another is Mrs. Mary J. McCauslen, widow of Hon. Thomas McCauslen, of Steubenville, who has a separate sketch herein, and the third is George B. Sparks, a farmer, of Clinton, Indians. The esteem in which he was held by the citizens of Adams County, was expressed at the time of his funeral. He is said to have had the largest funeral ever held in the county. Everybody turned out to show respect to his memory.