History of Athens County, Ohio - 197

CHAPTER VI.

Town and Township of Athens.

THE records of the Ohio Company show that on the 9th of November, 1790, a committee of three was appointed to reconnoiter and survey the lands of the Company lying on the upper Hockhocking. This committee consisted of Jonathan Devol, Robert Oliver and Haffield White, and was styled "the reconnoitering committee." Owing, however, to Indian hostilities, the work was deferred Some years and the regular survey of Athens and adjoining townships was not begun till January, 1795. The surveying party, which came up the Hockhocking river in canoes, was accompanied by a guard of fifteen men, aS the Indian war had hardly closed and it was feared that bands of the savages might be found lurking in these deep forests. But none were met with, and the survey was completed during the ensuing Spring and summer.*

* We quote from the records of the Ohio Company, December

198 - Town and Township of Athens.

Some account of the first Settlement of the town of Athens and of its history up to the organization of the county is given in Chapter IV. The township as established by the county commissioners at their first meeting included territory which now forms five townships, viz: Swan and Brown, of Vinton county, and Waterloo, Canaan and Athens of Athens county. Thus though not so extensive as Alexander or Ames, Athens township nevertheless included a large extent of country. It was, for that period, a fair two days journey across the township ; and although the country was now emerging from the condition of an unbroken wilderness,

" Where beasts with men divided empire claim, And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim,"

8th, 1795, the following report of the committee for examining the lands on the Hockhocking, suitable for fifth division lots :

"We, the subscribers, being appointed a committee by a resolve of the agents of the Ohio Company of the 9th of November, 1790, and for the purpose expressed in said resolve, but being prevented from attending to that business by the 1ndian war, until a treaty took place, since which (in company with Jeffrey Matthewson, a surveyor appointed by the superintendent of surveys), having measured and very minutely examined the lands of the Hockhocking, report : That in range 14, township 10, the following sections or mile squares, viz : No. 13, 19, 20, 25, 31, and 32; in range 15, township 12, sections No. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 17, 23, 24, 30, 35, and 36; in range 16, township 12., sections No. 5, 12, and 18 ; in range 16, township 33, sections No. 13, 14, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 33 and 34, we find are suitable to be laid out in fifth division lots agreeably to a map herewith exhibited. Having also examined and surveyed the land at the mouth of the great Hockhocking we find it very suitable for house lots and in quantity according to the map herewith exhibited.

JONATHAN DEVOL,

ROBERT OLIVER, Committee."

HAYFIELD WHITE,

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it was Still very wild and thinly populated. The Rev. James Quinn, a pioneer Methodist preacher who died in Highland county at an advanced age in 1847, settled in Ohio in 1804. The Same year he and the Rev. John Meek were appointed to the "Hockhocking circuit," which embraced not only the Hockhocking valley but also the settlements on the Muskingum and on the Scioto from the high bank below Chillicothe up to the neighborhood of where Columbus now stands. In 18o5 Mr. Quinn was returned to the same circuit with the Rev. Joseph Williams as his colleague. A camp-meeting, probably the first ever held in the county, was held by Bishop Asbury and Mr. Quinn near the town of Athens in 181o. Mr. Quinn States that it lasted four days, and that Bishop Asbury preached two powerful Sermons. In his autobiography, published many years Since, Mr. Quinn Says:

My first missionary excursion up the Hockhocking valley was performed in December, 1799. Leaving the vicinity of Marietta I ascended the Muskingum to the mouth of Wolf creek and then took the trace to Athens and the falls of Hockhocking. But, taking the right hand trace I left Athens to the left and passing through Amestown, struck the Hockhocking at the identical spot where Nelsonville now stands. There, at the foot of a large beech tree, I stopped and prayed. Having given my horse his mess of corn, and eaten my piece of pone and meat, I cut my name on the beech, mounted poor Wilks and went on. Between sundown and dark I reached the old Indian town near the falls. Here I found three families. They came together and I preached to them. I passed on up the river as far as

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there were any settlements, spending nearly a week with the people in the vicinity of where Lancaster now is. I then returned by the way I had come and stopped again at my beech tree. Saturday night found me at Athens and in comfortable lodgings at the house of a Mr. Stevens. The people came together the next day, which I think was the first sabbath of January, 1800. I took for my text St. Paul's language to the Athenians of old, 'Of this ignorance,' etc. There were a few Methodists in the region round about, and we had a refreshing time."

This Mr. Quinn was ordained by Bishop Whatcoat, who was ordained by Wesley himself.

Between this time and the organization of the county in 1805 steps were taken by the trustees of the university toward establishing the town.

On the 6th of June, 1804, they passed an " ordinance providing for the sale of lots in the town of Athens." Sec. I appointed Rufus Putnam and Samuel Carpenter to survey and lay off the town of Athens agreeably with the rule of the resolution of the legislature of December 18th, 1799. Sec. 2 directed the treasurer of the university to have the town plat recorded. Sec. 3 directed Putnam and Carpenter, after due notice, to Sell on the first Monday of November, 1804, at public auction, twenty-seven house-lots and an equal number of out-lots at their discretion, excepting and reserving house-lots number 57 and 58. The remaining sections related to the form of certificate and lease to be given.

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The Sale took place November 5th, 1804, and with the following result:

On the 2nd of April, 1806, Rufus Putnam and Dudley Woodbridge were appointed a committee to conduct a second sale of town lots, which took place November 25, 1806. Some of the lots previously sold were sold again, payments having not been made. The following is the report of the second sale:

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Justices of the Peace.

1814—John L. Lewis, Abel Miller, Henry Bartlett.

1817—Henry Bartlett, Stephen Pilcher.

1829—Reuben J. Davis, A. G. Brown.

1835—A. G. Brown.

1836—Henry Bartlett.

1838—Abram Van Vorhes.

1842—Henry Bartlett.

1844—Norman Root.

1847—A. G. Brown.

1848—Sumner Bartlett.

1850—H. K. Blackstone, Enoch Cabeen.

1851—Daniel S. Dana.

1852—Norman Root.

1853—Daniel S. Dana, Jacob T. Stanley.

1855—Oscar W. Brown.

1856—Norman Root, Deloro Culley.

1858—William Golden, Wm. Loring Brown.

1859—Norman Root.

1861—William Golden, Wm. Loring Brown.

1862—Norman Root.

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JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.—Continued.

1864—C. R. Sheldon, Wm. A. Thomas, Wm. L. Brown.

1865—Norman Root.

1867—G. W. Baker, O. W. Brown, H. C. Martin.

1868—W. A. Thomas.

Schools.

The first school established in Athens was in 1801, and was taught by John Goldthwaite. The school house (a log one) was situated on Joseph Higgins's place, about three miles south of Athens. Henry Bartlett taught in this house several quarters, between 1802 and 1806. Michael Higgins, now seventy-four years old, attended Esquire Bartlett's school, and relates that, on one occasion, when the scholars undertook, according to a custom then prevalent, to bar the master out, on a certain day, and had made all very fast, Mr. Bartlett procured a roll of brimstone from the nearest house, climbed to the top of the school house, and dropped the brimstone down the open chimney into the fire; then placing Something over the chimney, he soon smoked the boys into an unconditional surrender.

The first school house on the town plat was a Small brick building, which stood about where Grosvenor & Dana's law office now is—just east of the Presbyterian church. This has long since disappeared. It was built about 1806 or '7. Capt. David Pratt taught here for several years. Some of the best remembered among

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his successors are Mrs. Sarah Foster ("Grandma Foster"), Miss Sallie Jewett, the Rev. James McAboy, the Rev. Mr. McDill, Mrs. Burton, Prof. Andrews, L. D. Shepherd, Mr. Sears, Mr. Blake, the Rev. Joseph Marvin, the Rev. Charles Townsend, Samuel Marsh, Miss Haft, and James D. Johnson. About twelve years ago, the union school system, so successful every where, was adopted in Athens, since when the public school has taken a respectable rank. About eight thousand dollars was raised by taxation, and a convenient and spacious school building erected. The site is a commanding one; the building, of brick, is sixty-five feet front by seventy-one deep, and three stories in hight; the first and second stories each thirteen feet high, and the third story eighteen feet. The ground and second floor are each divided into four class rooms, two twenty-two by twenty-eight feet, and two twenty-seven by twenty-eight feet, and the third floor furnishes a hall sixty-two by fifty-Six feet. Mr. L. R. Jarvis superintended the stone work, Mr. J. B. Paul, the brick work, and Mr. William Shaffer, the wood work. Mr. Cyrus Grant was the first superintendent of this school, and was succeeded by Mr. J. K. Mower, and Miss Eunice Rice. The Rev. Mr. Travis followed, then Mr. Doan, the Rev. John Pratt, the Rev. W. H. Scott, Captain Charles Barker, and Mr. Goodspeed, the present superintendent. The institution is well sustained and growing in usefulness.

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The Methodist Church.

The establishment of the Methodist church, here, antedates that of any other religious Society. Three quarters of a century ago, this denomination had already developed that spirit of energy and religious enterprise, which has not only made it the pioneer church, and forerunner of other denominations, but has caused it to become the most powerful church organization in America. We have quoted elsewhere, from the Rev. Mr. Quinn, an account of a missionary tour, which he made up the Hockhocking valley in 1800, when he preached at Athens. The Methodists have had a Society here from that time, and during the early as well as later years of their church history here, have numbered among their preachers some very able, earnest, and useful men. In 1805, the Rev. Jacob Young preached on this circuit. The Rev. Geo. C. Light preached here about the same time. In 1806, Peter Cartwright, who afterward became celebrated in the church, visited Athens and Alexander townships, preaching and forming societies. About 1815, the Rev. Thomas MorriS (now Bishop Morris), was on this circuit, and preached statedly at Athens. Among the early Methodist preachers here were the Rev. Cornelius Springer, the Rev. Daniel Limerick, the Rev. Curtis Goddard, the Rev. Abraham Lippett, the Rev.

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John Ferree, the Rev. Abraham Baker, the Rev. Henry S. Fernandez, the Rev. Absalom Fox, the Rev. Asa Stroud, and the Rev. Robert O. Spencer—some of them being on the Muskingum and some on the Athens circuit.

During the early years of this century, the Methodists held their meetings at different houses, but in 1812 or '13, they built a brick church on the lot now owned and occupied by Prof. W. H. Young, and in 1825, they erected a brick parsonage adjoining. The church building, having been used as such nearly thirty years, fell into decay, and was then used for some years as a foundery; it has now disappeared. The parsonage forms a part of Prof. Young's present house. The present Methodist church was built in 1837. It is to be regretted that a continuous sketch of the Methodist society at Athens can not be furnished ; its early establishment and long career of usefulness entitle it to a more extended hiStory than we are able to offer.

The Presbyterian, Church.

The First Presbyterian Society of Athens was organized in the autumn of 1809 by the Rev. Jacob Lindley. The original members of the organization were but nine in number, viz: Joshua Wyatt and wife, Josiah Coe, Arthur Coates, Dr. Eliphaz Perkins, Alvan Bingham, Mrs. Sally Foster and the Rev. Jacob

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Lindley and wife. Public service was held for a time in the little brick school house which stood just east of the present site of the Presbyterian church, and afterward in the court house until the year 1828, when the present brick church was built. In 1815, the church numbered forty-seven members, and a revival that year added forty-three. In the year 1820, there were fifty- six added to the church, and the whole number of church members at that time was 177.

In 1827, steps were taken for the full organization and incorporation of the society. The following document, though incomplete and without date, possesses some interest as illustrating one step in the history of the church. The original paper, in the hand-writing of Joseph B. Miles, is yellow, time-worn, and mutilated —the last page with the signatures being lost.

" ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION.

" We, the undersigned, taking into consideration the great importance of religious and moral instruction, and believing that the regular and stated preaching of the gospel is necessary for the promotion of these virtues ; and as it is ordained of God that tbey who preach the gospel, shall live by the gospel, and the laborer is worthy of his hire, and in order to obtain the same, we who receive spiritual food ought to contribute of our earthly substance, as God shall enable us, to those who dispense to us the bread of life, and in order the more effectually to promote these objects, do enter into the following articles of association.

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I.

This society shall be known by the name of the First Presbyterian Society of Athens.

II.

There shall be a meeting of this society on the first Monday of May, annually, for the purpose of electing the officers of the society, amending or adding to the articles of association and doing such other business as may be necessary for the society to transact.

III

The officers of this society, shall consist of three trustees, a clerk, and collector, who shall also be treasurer, to hold their offices for one year, and until others are chosen in their places, to be chosen by a majority of voters present.

IV.

It shall be the duty of the trustees to hire preaching, either by the week, month, or year, as they may think best, to be paid in the kind, and to the amount of subscriptions, to settle with the persons employed ; also, to solicit subscriptions, receive donations or contributions, for the purposes of defraying the expenses of preaching, and to give public notice of the annual meetings of the society. Said trustees shall meet on their own adjournment, from time to time, as they may think best for tbe benefit of the society.

V.

It shall be the duty of the clerk to keep a fair record of the doings of the society, and a fair list of the subscribers' names, with the amount subscribed, and the time of subscribing, and to make out a list of subscriptions to the collector.

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VI.

It shall be the duty of the collector to collect and receive all moneys or other property due the society by subscription or otherwise, and to pay out the same by order of the trustees, which order shall be signed by the chairman of the trustees.

VII.

No person shall have a vote to control the funds of this society after it is organized, unless they shall subscribe something towards the support of preaching, and no member shall be eligible to office until after he shall have subscribed.

VIII.

On the death, removal, or resignation of any of the officers of the society, it shall be the duty of the trustees to appoint a person or persons to fill the place, until the next annual election.

IX.

It shall be in the power of any three subscribers to call a meeting of the society at any time when they may think necessary by giving written notice in three public places in the town of Athens, setting forth the objects of said meeting, and haying it proclaimed on the Sabbath before said meeting in the congregation.

X.

Should the funds of the society be deemed sufficient at any time to settle a regular preacher of the gospel. by themselves, or with the joint subscriptions of the adjoining settlements, and the society should deem it necessary, it shall be the duty of the trustees in such case, to invite preachers as candidates, but no preacher shall be regularly settled without the consent of two-

226 - Town and Township of Athens.

thirds of the members present at a meeting of the society for the purpose of giving a call.

XI.

The society shall have power to dismiss any officer of the society for misconduct, by a vote of a majority of the members present, at a meeting of the society.

XII.

Owing to the scarcity of money, any of the kinds of country produce are to be received in payment of subscriptions, named in the thirteenth article of this association, the prices of such articles to be fixed by the trustees of the society, on or before the first of November, annually, and any payment made by the subscribers to the person employed to preach, and his receipt produced to the collector, shall be a sufficient voucher for the amount on his subscription.

XIII.

All subscriptions shall be specified in dollars and cents, and we do hereby agree to pay the several amounts annexed to our names for the above purpose, in cash, or wheat, flour, rye, oats, corn, beef, pork, flax, wool, or country linen, at the prices affixed."

Though among the earliest religious societies organized in the state, this church was not incorporated till 1828. The act, passed February 7th of that year, names aS the incorporators, Columbus Bierce, Isaac Taylor, Joseph B. Miles, Charles Shipman, Francis Beardsley, Samuel Miller, Eben Foster, John Perkins, Hull Foster, John Gillmore, and Cephas Carpenter, and Messrs. Miles, Bierce, Taylor, Beardsley, and

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Carpenter, were constituted trustees of the church, to act as such till the first annual meeting. The Rev. Jacob Lindley acted as moderator of the session and pastor until about 1828, since when, fifteen ministers have served the church either as stated supply or as pastors, among whom will be recognized the names of some very devout and able men. The entire list in the order of time is as follows:

Rev. Jacob Lindley, contemporary ; Rev. Samuel Davies Hoge, contemporary ; Rev. Robert G. Wilson, Rev. John Spaulding (now of New York city), Rev. William Burton, Rev. Timothy Stearns, Rev. N. B. Purington, Rev. Wm. H. McGuffey, Rev. Wells Andrews, Rev. Aaron Williams, Rev. Moses A. Hoge, Rev. Addison Ballard, Rev. Alfred Ryors, Rev. S. Dieffendorf, Rev. John H. Pratt, Rev. James F. Holcomb.

The Rev. John H. Pratt began his labors here in 1854, laboring one year as " stated supply," after which he received a call as pastor. During the period of his pastorate (fourteen years), two hundred members were added to the church. The deaths and removals of members during the same period were, however, numerous —the latter especially so—so that the present active membership is only about one hundred and twenty-five. During the past few years the church has been rebuilt, and a lecture-room added. The old-fashioned, lofty pulpit (looking up toward which, twenty-five years ago, little children of the writer's age, used to strain their necks till they ached), has given place to a modern plat-

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228 - Town and Township of Athens.

form. In those days, the pulpit being at the front end of the church, the congregation faced about on taking their seats. Thus, facing toward the preacher and the pulpit, they looked also toward the front doors, out of which, as they stood open in fine summer weather, the juveniles could gaze longingly and hear the lowing of the cattle, and watch the entrance of the sabbath-breaking bees, "forever going and coming ;" or curiously speculate about the wicked, solitary horseback traveler who, with dusty portmanteau, pursuing his journey through the village, just then passed the church. But "tempera mutantur et nos mutamur cum illis." The times are changed, and we with them. The old pastors are gone; the gray heads of twenty-five years ago have many of them been laid in their last sleep, and the active men of the church then, are the gray heads now. The little boys, whose will then was "the wind's will," and whose thoughts were " long, long thoughts," are in turn, become the active men of the present day. It is their children now who are looking at the green hills, listening to the humming bees and thinking strange, mysterious thoughts. Happy children if their childhood be as serene as their fathers' was—if their sabbaths be as quiet and their surroundings as healthful as were those of the old village church.

Cemeteries.

For considerably more than half a century after Athens was settled, the dead were buried in the old grave yard northwest of town, which was set apart for that use by the trustees of the university in 1806. The place never was ornamented to any extent, and for many years past only a few forest trees have given it their grateful shade. Here, a little apart from their surviving friends, rest the fathers of the village.

" The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."

In January, 1864, the citizens of Athens feeling the need of a more beautiful burying ground, organized the Athens Cemetery Association, with a capital stock of $4,000, divided into shares of $100, which was incorporated under a general law of the state. An eligible site was selected weSt of the town, and a purchase made of twelve acres, which has since been tastefully laid off into winding walks and drives, and handsomely ornamented with shrubbery. Some appropriate and costly monuments already adorn the new cemetery, which is a place of pleasant resort for the residents of Athens, and is a credit to the town. The organization is officered as follows: Calvary Morris, president, H. J. Topky, secretary, A. B. Walker,

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treasurer, and Calvary Morris, J. W. Harris, J. H. Pratt, W. P. Johnson, and Jesse Van Law, trustees.

The citizens of Alexander township have recently begun a similar improvement by the addition of several acres to their former burying ground at the Cumberland Presbyterian church, near Hebbardsville. The addition is neatly laid off into lots with avenues and walks, and ornamented with shrubbery. It is to be hoped these examples will be followed by other towns and townships in the county. The appropriate burial of the dead and proper care for their resting place by the living, is a mark of christian civilization, and the universal attention now given to the subject in this country, indicates a pleaSing change in public sentiment. Beautiful cemeteries are scattered over the country, some of them very celebrated, and soon no enterprising town will be without one. Lucretius says of the earth—,

"Omniparens, eadem rerum est commune sepulchrum."

The parent of all, she is also the common sepulchre. Let our burial places, therefore, be beautified with the "greenery of nature," and let the adornments of art be added to please the senses and soothe the feelings of the living.

Newspapers.

The first newspaper published in Athens, was The Athens Mirror and Literary Register, commenced in

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1825, by A. G. Brown. The Mirror was political and literary in its character, printed once a week on paper of Super-royal size (Sixteen pages about nine by five inches to each number), and continued through five years. It was printed on a wooden press with a stone bed, and required four pulls to each sheet.

Several copies of the old Mirror, running from January to May, 1829, are before us, and furnish Some interesting bits of local history. Each number contains the advertisements of Joseph B. Miles, Ebenezer Currier, and Thomas Brice, offering their " complete and extensive assortments of goods for sale low for cash, or in exchange for wheat, rye, corn, pork, butter, feathers, rags, calf and deer skins, fur skins, buck horns, ginseng, bees wax, etc."

In February, 1829, the publisher announces that "all who wish to see a fifth volume of the Mirror published, are desired to send in their names before the 1st day of May, next ; " and earnestly solicits increased patronage. In the issue of February 21, 1829, the editor apologizes for being delayed beyond the usual time for publication, by stating that "a young man in our employ unluckily received a severe hurt while Skating on the ice." Probably that young man was John Brough, afterwards governor of Ohio, etc., who was then employed in the office.

About this time the temperance question was considerably discussed in the town. A sermon delivered on

232 - Town and Township of Athens.

the subject, January 22, 1829, by the Rev. Robt. G. Wilson; is published in full in the Mirror. A society was formed, of which Dr. Wilson was president, the Rev. John Spaulding vice president, and Professor Joseph Dana secretary, and a pledge was kept at the Mirror office for signatures. The constitution of the society, printed in the Mirror, is accompanied by the following note: "It is understood that merchants and others having contracts or quantities of spirits now on hand, shall have reasonable time to close and dispose of the same on becoming members." The movement was pushed with great earnestness and success by the good men who inaugurated it, and doubtless there was sufficient need of reform. Some of the seed sown fell on good ground in. Ames township, and blossomed forth into the following unique advertisement, which appeared in the Mirror of April 25, 1829:

"A CHALLENGE.

"ATTENTION GROG DRINKERS ! !

"SAMUEL L. MOHLER, of Ames township, having been for sixteen years in the constant habit of drinking, and getting drunk on an average, as often as once a month, has resolved to refrain entirely from the practice in future ; and as a test of his sincerity, he offers to pledge the new wood work to a good wagon, against any property of equal value, that he will refrain from drinking ardent spirits longer than any other man who has been in the habit, an equal, or half the length of time;

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provided both live to make the trial. Any person disposed to take him up can give notice to that effect. "April 10, 1829."

We are not able to state whether this interesting challenge was ever accepted or not; perhaps Mr. Mohler's virtuous resolve went toward improving that nameless place which is said to be "paved with good intentions; " we can not tell.

A committee consisting of Thomas Brice, John Gilmore, Amos Crippen, and Norman Root, appointed to Settle the accounts of the town of Athens for the year ending February 18, 1829, publish an itemized report, Showing the total receipts to have been one hundred and seventy-three dollars and twenty-three cents, and total expenditures one hundred and twelve dollars and ninety-four cents.

The Mirror was succeeded in 1830 by The Western Spectator, edited and published by Isaac Maxon, who came from Marietta in 1825, bringing young John Brough as a type-setter. The paper continued under Mr. Maxon's management for Six years. In 1836 it was bought by Mr. Abram Van Vorhes, who changed the name to the Hocking Valley Gazette and Athens Messenger. Under this name Mr. Van Vorhes edited and published the paper for several years, enlarging it to imperial size, printing it with new press and type, and otherwise greatly improving it.

In January, 1844, the Gazette was succeeded by the Athens Messenger, edited and published fo. a time

234 - Town and Township of Athens.

by Mr. Nelson H. Van Vorhes, and afterward by him and his brother, Mr. A. J. Van Vorhes. In the spring of 1854, N. H. Van Vorhes retired from the paper, which continued in the hands of his brother until October 1, 1855, when the establishment was purchased by the late Mr. George Walsh, who only retained control one year, when it was once more sold to N. H. Van Vorhes.

Mr. Van Vorhes edited and published the paper till January, 1861; Mr. T. F. Wildes, from January, 1861, till September, 1862; Mr. Jesse Van Law, from September, 1862, till November, 1865; Mr. J. W. Stinchcomb, from November, 1865, till November, 1866; Mr. J. R. S. Bond, from November, 1866, till March, 1868, and Mr. C. E. M. Jennings, from that till the present time.

The Court House.

For about a year and a half after the organization of the county, the court was held in a room, rented for that purpose, of Leonard Jewett and Silas Bingham. In 1807-8, a hewed log court house was erected, very near the spot where the present one stands, in which the courts were held for about ten years. This temple of justice must have been a pretty substantial structure, if its chimney, described in the following extract from the records of the county commissioners may be taken as a "specimen brick:"

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" September 7, 1807. The commissioners proceeded to adopt the following plan for a chimney in the court house in the town of Athens, to wit : The foundation to be laid with stone, one foot below the surface, the remainder to be of brick, to be well laid in good lime mortar ; one fire place below and two above—the fire place below to be four feet clear in the back, twenty-two inches deep, and five feet four inches wide in front, to be secured by a bar of iron the size of a common fiat bar, and secured with a sufficient bolt let into the discharging piece—the bolt to be secured by a fore lock and key, the bolt about one foot and five or six inches in length, and the discharging piece six inches thick. The fire places above to be each eighteen inches back, and built proportionably with the rest of the chimney, which is to be raised three feet above the top of the building ; the upper fire places to be well coated, and the whole to be completed, including the hearths, in a workmanlike manner, on or before the 20th day of November next ; which (contract) being put up at public sale, was struck off at seventy-eight dollars."

The resources of the settlement being very limited, this same building was used also for a school house, and meeting house. In the records of the county commissioners we find the following entry:

" December 7, 1811—Resolved, by the commissioners, that from and after this date, the court house in the town of Athens shall not be used as a school house or a meeting house, unless- the inhabitants of said town shall agree to furnish, for the use of the court, during the time of its session, a sufficient quantity of fire wood, ready cut, fit for the fire ; also to keep the house in as good repair as it now is, and keep the same well swept during the sitting of the court ; and that the clerk notify the inhabitants as aforesaid, by advertisement posted on the court house door."

236 - Town and Township of Athens.

Perhaps the school teacher was careless about shutting the door at night, and probably school boys, in those days, like other boys before and since, were not Scrupulous about keeping the floor clean ; for the next entry on the subject is as follows:

"June 2, 1812.—The board appointed Ebenezer Currier a committee to see, on condition the court house is used as a school house, that the door of said house be kept shut whenever the house is not occupied, every night, and that it be kept clean ; also, that a sufficient quantity of fire wood be constantly kept for the court and commissioners, and that the house be left in as good repair as when entered upon."

And, finally, on this head, it was ordered, December 8, 1813:

"That the court house shall be no longer used as a school house, and that Henry Bartlett be a committee to take care of the same, and have said house repaired by the 1st of January

next."

"June 8, 1814, it was Ordered, that the north and east sides of lots Nos. 35 and 37, on which the court house and jail now stand, be fenced with good, sawed, white oak palings, of five feet in length, the posts to be of black locust, four by five inches square, and six and a half feet long, the rails of good white oak, and the panels ten feet long, with a small gate before the present court house door, and a gate of ten feet wide near the north east corner, fronting the east."

Caleb Merrit and Joseph B. Miles were appointed a committee to carry the above resolution into effect.

The old hewed log court house was the one in use

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while Thomas Ewing was attending college at Athens, and he was, doubtless, a frequent visitor here. Here he probably gained his first familiarity with judicial proceedings, and acquired his earliest knowledge of the workings of the law. The practitioners at the Athens bar of that day, if they noticed an unsophisticated youth, on a back seat, intently listening to their professional efforts, little imagined that that youth would live to become one of the greatest expounders of the law our country has yet produced, and to ornament some of the highest positions in the land.

Proposals for a new court house (the one now in use) must have been published in the spring or early summer of 1814, for in the proceedings of the meeting of the county commissioners, held August 1, of that year, present, Asahel Cooley, Caleb Merrit, and Robert Linzee, it is entered:

" Proceeded to sell, to the lowest bidder, certain articles, agreeable to advertisement, to be furnished for the erecting of a court house, viz : to Ebenezer Currier, twelve hundred feet of black walnut boards, one and one-fourth inches thick ; one hundred feet of poplar boards, one and one-half inches thick, and five hundred feet, ditto, one and one-fourth inches thick— to be delivered on the court house lot, piled up properly for drying, and to be delivered on or before the 1st day of January next. To Edmund Dorr, twenty perch of rough stone, for the foundation—to be laid, according to advertisement, before the 15th day of November next."

238 - Town and Township of Athens.

The following entries, copied from the old records of the county commissioners, mark the progress and history of the present court houSe:"

“ November 16, 1814.—Ordered, that the wall for the foundation of the court house be six inches thicker than described heretofore, and that the same be laid in mortar of lime and coarse sand, and that such further compensation be allowed to Edmund Dorr, contractor for the same, as masons shall adjudge."

" December 5, 1814.—County of Athens, to Joseph B. Miles, Dr.,

To 1,925 feet of boards and scantling, - $19 25

Hauling same from mill - 3 00

Drawing plan of court house, - 1 00

" December 6, 1814.—Ordered, that the clerk notify, by advertisement, set up in three public places in Athens, the furnishing of three ranges of cut stone, two feet wide and nine inches thick, to be well laid in lime mortar ; also the furnishing of one hundred thousand good merchantable brick, to be delivered on the court house lot by the 1st day of August next. Proposals will be received by the commissioners, in writing, at their meeting, on the second Monday in January next."

" February 1, 1815.—The commissioners met for the purpose of consulting as to the practicability of proceeding in building the court house."

It was decided to proceed, and at their meeting, March 7th, the clerk was directed to

" Advertise in the American Friend, for furnishing brick and stone in amounts as aforesaid ; proposals to be received by the

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commissioners, at the court house, on the second Monday of April next, from 10 A. M., to 4 P. M., on said day."

"April 10, 1815.—The commissioners met for the purpose of contracting for the furnishing of cut stone for the court house ; also of one hundred thousand brick for the same. After having received the proposals of Elijah Hatch, Esq., and Edmund Dorr, for furnishing brick, and of William Dorr, William Alcock, and Jonathan Amlin, for furnishing and laying cut and hewed stone," the board adjourned till next day.

"Tuesday, April 1.—Proceeded to receive bonds of William Alcock and Jonathan Amlin for the stone work, and agreed with them for the sum of three hundred dollars, payable October 1st, next. Proceeded also to take bonds from Edmund Dorr, for the furnishing of one hundred thousand brick for the court house ; amount of said contract, six hundred dollars, in county orders, on the completion of the contract."

June 7, 1815, the clerk was directed to advertise for materials, and making doors and window frames; also for sleepers, joists, and rafters, and for framing timber for floor, laying the brick, etc.

"July 17 , 1815.—The commissioners proceeded to contract as follows: with John Havner, for laying up the brick walls of court house, five hundred dollars ; with Abel Stedman, furnishing timber, framing cupola, etc., two hundred and seventy-four dollars ; and with Elijah Hatch, for shingles, sixty-seven dollars."

" September 5, 1815.—Agreed with John Porter, he being the lowest bidder, for the following jobs of work, viz : putting a cornice round the court house, at fifty cents per foot; also boarding the roof of the same, for the sum of twelve dollars; and shingling the same at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per thousand, and at one dollar for each hip."

240 - Town and Township of Athens.

"September 6, 1815.—The board appointed James Gillmore superintendent, to oversee and superintend the building of the court house, and to call on Charles Shipman and J. B. Miles to assist him at any time when required."

" September 26.—Resolved by the board, that the sum of four hundred dollars be borrowed from the Bank of Marietta. for the purpose of paying for the stone work on the court house, including window sills, etc., and for the purpose of purchasing nails; and that an order issue for the said amount, payable to Asahel Cooley, and that the same be sent by William Skinner, and deposited in the Bank of Marietta, for the purpose of obtaining the sum aforesaid."

"September 27.—Busy in making arrangements for the building of the court house, and making proposals to the trustees of the Ohio university for the loan of one thousand dollars."

"Thursday, 28.-Agreed with the trustees of the Ohio university, for a loan of one thousand dollars, for one year. at six per cent. interest."

"Friday, 29,Resolved, That Robert Linzee and James Gillmore be a committee to examine the mason work of the court house, when finished, and receive the same, and also to ascertain the number of brick in said building."

The laying of the brick was finished in October, 1815, and John Havner received his pay in full, viz : $500, as per contract.

"Wednesday, December 6, 1815.—Resolved, by the commissioners of the county of Athens, That, in consideration of a subscription by sundry individuals, viz: Josiah Coe, Cephas Carpenter, Mary Ann Ackley, Lydia Ackley, James Gillmore, Jacob Dumbaugh, John Johnstone, Enos Thompson, David Pratt, Daniel Stewart, Joseph B. Miles, Henry Bartlett, Robert Linzee, Charles Shipman, Ebenezer Currier, Eliphaz Perkins, Chauncey F. Perkins, Alvan Bingham, Amos Crippen, John

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Porter, James J. Fuller, James Session, Silas Bingham, John White, Abel Stedman, Eliphaz Perkins, jun., S. S. Johnstone, John Havner, Thomas Armstrong, Seth Child, Asahel Cooley, Thomas McClelland, and Arthur Coates, amounting to $506, to be paid into the county treasury to assist in building the court house in said county, and this day presented by a committee appointed for that purpose by the subscribers ; the commissioners do agree that the subscribers and their associates have the privilege of holding meetings for religious purposes, on the Sabbath and other days, for eight years from the first day of January, 1816, when it shall not interfere with the county business, upon condition that $500 of the above-named subscription be paid to Henry Bartlett on or before the first day of March next ; and that each subscriber, on his paying the sum subscribed by him, shall receive a receipt for the same, to be refunded in eight years, without interest ; and provided further, that if the said sum of $500 is not paid in by the time specified, then it shall be optional with the commissioners to refund the money or continue the privilege, and if they should not continue the privilege, then the money is to be refunded. And it is also understood that the aforesaid sum of $500 be appropriated for finishing the lower room of the court house, if the whole of said sum be necessary. The following form of receipt shall be given by Henry Bartlett, clerk of the commissioners, for the purposes aforesaid: 'Received of A. B. the sum of —, which is to be refunded to the said A. B., or his heirs or assigns, at the end of eight years from the first day of January, 1816, out of the county treasury, without interest.'

" January 6, 1816.—It is agreed by the commissioners and Joseph B. Miles, that the said Miles furnish the glass and oil for the court house, and that, after deducting the amount of said Miles's subscription from the articles, the balance be paid him, on delivery thereof.

Same day.—" Agreed with John Walker for making the sash for the lower and upper rooms of the court house, priming the same, and setting the glass, and fitting the sash in the frames, at

242 - Town and Township of Athens.

ten cents per light—materials to be furnished by the commissioners. Also, agreed with John Walker for laying the lower floor, at $4. so per square. The above contracts to be completed by May 1, 1816.

" Agreed with John Porter for finishing the upper part of the cupola, from the cornice up (including cornice), putting up rafters, boarding and shingling roof, putting on timber, with a ball agreeable to a plan this day exhibited, to be completed by May 1st, 1817. Also agreed with John Porter, finishing and building the stairs for the sum of $60 ; the banisters to be mortised into the hand-rails and string board, and completed in a workmanlike manner.

[Time for completing the above contracts extended to the 1st day of September.] "

Same date.—" WHEREAS, Robert Linzee and Asahel Cooley, have loaned of the corporation of the Ohio university, the sum of $1,000 for the use and benefit of the county of Athens, in building the court house ; therefore, be it resolved, that so much of the tax of this present year be appropriated for the benefit of said Linzee and Cooley, as will satisfy said sum and interest."

Same date.—" Resolved, That James Gillmore and Henry Bartlett, be a committee to receive bonds of the several contractors on the court house, and that the said Gillmore and Bartlett, be a committee to dispose of the $1,000 borrowed by Asahel Cooley and Robert Linzee, for the use and benefit of Athens county, which sum said committee are directed to apportion among the different contractors who have heretofore filled their contracts on said building in proportion to their claims, after deducting therefrom six per cent."

"June 13, 1816.—Agreed with John Walker, for completing the following jobs or parcels of work : finishing the judges' seats in the court house agreeably to the plan, twenty panels in front, with bed moulding and capping for a cornice; five panels on each side of the bar, nine in front ; two sheriffs' boxes ;

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two tables for the bar, and clerk's seat, agreeably to the plan ; after finishing thereof, the same to be adjudged by Messrs. Corp and Shipman, and the price determined by them ; also agreed with same for making, finishing, and hanging the three outside doors of the court house, and casing the jambs."

"June 25, 1817.—Resolved, That the superintending committee be authorized to employ John Bowman to paint the roof, cupola, etc., of the court house."

The foregoing extracts from the old county records include nearly every entry relating to the court house, and quite fully present the history of its erection. The building was about completed during the autumn of 1817, and has been in continuous use ever since. It has undergone changes and repairs both inside and outside, but much of the original work still remains— an evidence of the honesty and fidelity with which the mechanics of those days labored. It is an antiquated and most unornamental building, and must ere long give way to a finer structure; but, perhaps, the walls of its successor will never echo the voices of greater men or better lawyers than have plead within the old court house.

The first resident lawyer in Athens was Artemus Sawyer, a young man of high literary and scholastic attainments, who arrived in 1808. In 1810, he was appointed prosecuting attorney, and acted as such for a few years, until he fell an early victim to habits of intemperance. E. B. Merwin, of Lancaster, acted as prosecutor before Sawyer, and was one of the

244 - Town and Township of Athens.

principal practitioners of this period at the Athens court. Gen. Philemon Beecher, and Wm. W. Irwin, of Lancaster, were also regular attendants. William Woodbridge, of Marietta, practiced here until his removal to Michigan, where he became governor, senator, etc. The Hon. Thomas Ewing attended the courts in Athens county very constantly for several years, after his admission to the bar, as did also the late Samuel F. Vinton, who took up his residence in Gallipolis about 1817. Mr. Vinton represented this district in Congress for twenty-two years. Gen. Goddard, of Zanesville, also practiced here for several years, commencing about 1818. The Hon. Henry Stanbery came in a little later, but practiced for several years in the Athens courts, and his maiden speech was delivered in the present court house.* Messrs. Hocking H. Hunter, Brazee, and Nash must also be added to the great lawyers who practiced here. Gen. Dwight Jarvis, who resided and practiced here about five years,

* Mr. Stanbery, in response to an inquiry addressed to him by the writer, touching the correctness of the tradition that his " maiden speech" was delivered here, replied:

"The 'tradition' is correct. I was admitted to the bar at Gallipolis, in May, 1824, and made my first jury speech at Athens in the following June. The case was of a character (in bastardy) and the evidence so broad as not to admit of publication. It involved some nice questions as to the period of gestation, etc., with which, of course, I was not at all familiar; so that I can very truly say that this was my ' first great cause least understood.' I did, however, succeed in making one point which had a telling effect on the jury. The defense was mainly placed on an attempt to impeach the veracity of the mother of the children (for they were twins); I appeared for the mother, and she was the only witness to fix the paternity of the boys on the defendant.

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from 1825 to 1830, was the second resident lawyer, not reckoning Joseph Dana, then a professor in the university, who though never fairly engaged in the practice, attended to a few caSes, at intervals, when not occupied with teaching. At a somewhat later period, the late Judge Arius Nye, of Marietta, was among the most constant and faithful attendants, from abroad, at the Athens bar. Since about 1832, there has been no lack of resident lawyers (some of them of marked ability), and the attendance from abroad has been less frequent; in fact, of late years, non-resident lawyers are seldom seen here. The resident lawyers at the present time are Messrs. Grosvenor & Dana, Messrs. de Steiguer Jewett, Messrs. Browns & Wildes, Messrs. Golden & Townsend, and Robert E. Constable.

Grand Juries from 1805 to 1815.

The first grand jury that ever sat in the county, was drawn in November, 1805, and was composed as follows:

John Dixon, John Hewitt, Samuel Moore, John Corey, Peter Boyles, Jeremiah Riggs, Canaday Lowry, William How-

I argued to the jury that our case was sustained by three witnesses. The counsel for the defense promptly contradicted this assertion, appealing to the jury that the mother was our only witness. I replied that it was true that the mother was the only witness who had testified under oath, but that her testimony was fully corroborated by that of the twins themselves—calling the attention of the jury to certain points of resemblance which they bore to the defendant, and quoting the well known line, ' 0, holy nature thou dost never plead in vain.' so it turned out in this instance, for the silent testimony of the twins carried the case."

246 - Town and Township of Athens.

lett, Robert Fulton, Alvan Bingham, Josiah Coe, Philip M. Starr.

March Term, 1806.—Alvan Bingham, Hopson Beebe, John Thompson, Silas Dean, John Lowry, Josiah Coe.;' Daniel Stewart, Robert Fulton, Baruch Dorr, Edmund Dorr, Peter Boyles, John Corey, Benaziah Simmons.

July Term, 1806.—Alvan Bingham, John Havner, David Pratt, Reuben Hurlbut, Jacob Boyles, Moses Bean, Canaday Lowry, Alexander Fulton, George Wolf, Joseph Brooks, Abraham Shidler, John Corey, Peter Boyles.

November Term, 1806.—Jehiel Gregory, Silas Dean, Samuel Humphreys, Thomas Sharp, William Howlett, Ignatius Thompson, Trueman Hewx, Michael Barker, Amos Thompson,

William Weir, Phineas Allen, Benaziah Simmons, Silas Bingham.

March Term, 1807.—Hopson Beebe, Archibald Stewart, William Brooks, Alvan Bingham, Christopher Wolf, John Thompson, Jared Bobo, John Steele, Abram Pugsley, Josiah Waters, John Miller, John Hewitt, Jason Rice, Jehiel Gregory.

December Term, 1807.—Stephen Pilcher, Joseph Seamans, Obadiah Walker, Benjamin Davis, Jason Rice, John Corey, James Crippen, John Thompson, Jesse Halsey, Nathaniel

Williams, John Brooks, Aaron Young, Simon Speed, Jehiel Gregory, Roswell Culver.

April Term, 1808.—George Seamans, Samuel Beaumont, Elijah Pilcher, Joshua Wyatt, Eleazar Penrod, Nehemiah Gregory, Uriah Tippee, John Simontown, Samuel Russell,

Charles Harper, David Chapman, Baruch Dorr, Azel Johnson, Leonard Jewett.

August Term, 1808.—John Thompson, Moses Bean, Charles Harper, James Filcher, David Boyles, John Walker, Ebenezer Currier, William Woodward, Caleb Merritt, Edmund Dorr,

John Kelso, Jacob Wolf, John Lowry, William Gabill, Elijah Filcher.

December Term, 1808.—Amos Thompson, Daniel Stewart, Joseph Fuller, Charles Rice, William Howlett, Robert Palmer,

History of Athens County, Ohio - 247

John Brown, Jacob Boyles, Peter Boyles, Win. Barrows, John Abbot, Simeon Cooley, Josiah Coe, Peter Grow.

April Term, 1809.—Nathan Woodbury, Azel Johnson, Wm. Peane, Thomas Armstrong, Wm. Harper, Isaac Stanley, Robert Linzee, Othniel Tuttle, Daniel Weethee, Jacob Cowdry, Isaac Barker Joshua Wood, Arthur Coates, John Brown 2d.

August Term, 1809.—Leonard Jewett, Martin Mansfield, Reuben Davis, William Rabb, Caleb Merritt, Daniel Stewart, Wm. Howlett, Wm. Weir, Samuel Coleman, Levi Johnson, Thomas Armstrong, Jacob Humphrey, Stephen Buckingham.

December Term, 1809.—Jehiel Gregory, George Walker, Jason Rice, Zebulon Griffin, Jonathan Watkins, Wm. Burch, Elijah Pilcher, Joseph Pugsley, John Armstrong, John Johnstone, Samuel Luckey, Martin Mansfield, Amos Thompson, Wm. Howlett, Eli Reynolds.

April Term, 1810.—John Brown, Benjamin Davis, Abraham Pugsley, Josiah True, Wm. Brown, Seth Fuller, Peter Phillips, Joshua Wyatt, Amos Crippen, Arthur Coates, Wm. Harper,

Samuel Moore, John McKee, Eli Reynolds.

August Term, Am.—John Corey, Arthur Coates, Daniel Weethee, Eli Reynolds, Abel Mann, James Crippen, Solomon Munroe, Charles Harper, Jarret Bobo, Joel Lowther, Jacob Cowdry, John Thompson, Jarret Jones, Joshua Wood, Elijah Pilcher.

December Term, 1810.—Jehiel Gregory, Joseph Guthrie, Charles Harper, Levi Stedman, James Armstrong, Isaac Wood, Wm. Burch, Joseph Fuller, Nathan Woodbury, Baruch Dorr, Samuel Luckey, Jabez Cooley, Silvanus Ames, Bernardus B. Lottridge, George Barrows.

April Term, 1811.—John Brown, Isaac Stephens, Caleb Merritt, Wm. Brown, Robert McKinstry, Henry Barrows, John Bowman, Abram Pugsley, Nicholas Phillips, Samuel Coleman, John

Phillips, Moses Bean, John White.

August Term, 1811.—David Simontown, John Wright, Elisha Alderman, Robert Palmer, Christopher Herrold, George Ewing,

248 - Town and Township of Athens.

Jonathan Watkins, Isaac Havner, Isaac Wood, Edmund Dorr, Elijah Pilcher, John Abbot, Aaron Young, Moses Kay:

December Term, 1811.—John Phillips, Josiah Coe, Jeremiah Shumway, Thomas Armstrong, Arthur Coates, Thomas Sharp, John White, Nehemiah Davis, Othniel Tuttle, Job Phillips, Wm. Burch, Augusting Webster, John Irwin, John McKee, Robert Lowther.

April Term, 1812.—Silas Bingham; Henry Barrows, Frederick Tubbs, Ebenezer Barrows, Martin Mansfield, John Symmes, Christopher Herrold, Jacob Cowdry, Abel Mann, Wm. McKinstry, Joel Cowdry, Enos Thompson, John Corey, Levi Johnson, Edmund Dorr.

December Term, 1812.—Christopher Wolf, John White, Daniel Weethee, Nathaniel Williams, Hopson Beebe, John Corey, David Pratt, Edmund Dorr, Reuben J. Davis, Jeremiah Riggs, Joseph Guthrie, Arthur Coates, Martin Mansfield, Stephen Pilcher, Charles Harper.

April Term, 1813.—Alvan Bingham, Hopson Beebe, Charles Harper, Edmund Dorr, Arthur Coates, John Connor, Alexander Stedman, Barnet Brice, Eliphalet Case, Eliphalet Wheeler, George Barrows, Daniel Muncie, Alvin Bingham, jr.

August Term, 1813.—Stephen Pilcher, Charles Harper, Peter Grow, Joshua Selby, Ezra Green, B. B. Lottridge, Jacob Barker, Samuel Dailey, Abel Miller, David Pratt, Robert McKinstry, Seth Fuller, Abel Glazer, Jason Rice, Caleb Merritt.

December Term, 1813.—Alvan Bingham, Robert McKinstry, Thomas McClellan, John Brown, John Holmes, John Brooks, Conklin Buckley, Enos Thompson, Seth Fuller, Jehiel Gregory, Peter Boyles, Elisha Hulburt, Henry O'Neil.

September Term, 1814.—Stephen Pilcher, John Bowman, Samuel Luckey, Wm. Dorr, Joseph McMahon, George Walker, Elihu Francis, S. P. Standiff, Elijah Pilcher, John McKee, Arthur Coates, Abel Mann, Luther Danielson, Jonas Smith, Wm. McKinstry.

January Term, 1815.—George Ackley, Justus Reynolds, Jonathan Watkins, Robert McKinstry, Wm. Johnson, Wm. Buf-

History of Athens County, Ohio - 249

fington, Wm. McKinstry, George Barrows, Azel Johnson, Joseph Fuller, Obadiah Walker, Nathan Nye, Jacob Kimes, Josiah Coe.

June Term, 1815.—Josiah Coe, George Reeves, Ezekiel Worthing, David Ducher, John Brooks, Jacob Humphrey, Cephas Carpenter, Isaac Pierce, Charles Devol, John Walker, Asahel Cooley, James Gillmore, John Abbot, John Bowman, Elijah Pilcher.

Personal and Biographical.

A history of Athens county would be very incomplete without a biographical notice of the father and projector of the Ohio university—an institution that has done so much to shape and influence the history of this community. Though never a resident of the county, perhaps no one person has exerted a more deep and lasting influence on its welfare than Dr. Manasseh Cutler. He was the son of Hezekiah Cutler, who came from a thorough Puritan stock, and was born at Killingly, Connecticut, May 3, 1742. He graduated at Yale college, at the age of twenty-three, studied theology at Dedham, with the Rev. Thomas Balch, and having settled in the ministry at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1771, soon became known for ability and learning. A minister by profession, he was also an ardent votary of science, in some of whose walks he became very eminent. In 1766, he married Mary Balch, daughter of his preceptor in theology, and to them were born Seven children, viz : Ephraim, Jervis,

250 - Town and Township of Athens.

Mary, Charles, Lavinia, Elizabeth, and Temple. Of these only three, Ephraim, Jervis, and Charles ever came to Ohio. Dr. Cutler was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781, of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, in 1783; an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1784; received the degree of LL. D. from Yale college in 1789 ; was elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1792, and was a representative in congress in 1800 and 1802. He was also active as president of a bible society in Massachusetts, and was a member of various other scientific bodies than those above named. He was a chaplain in the American army during the revolutionary war, and in one engagement took such an active and gallant part, that the colonel of his regiment presented him with a fine horse captured from the enemy.

On the formation of the Ohio Company in 1787, Dr. Cutler soon became a controlling spirit in that enterprise. In an original memorandum of his, now before us, referring to the origin of the company, etc., he says:

"At this meeting * by ye desire of Major Sargent, I attended. I had suffered exceedingly in ye war, and after it was over, by paper money and ye high price of articles of living. My salary small and family large, for several years I thought ye people had

* The meeting of March 1st, 1787.

History of Athens County, Ohio - 251

not done me justice, and I meditated leaving them. Purchasing lands in a new country appeared to be ye only thing I could do to secure a living to myself, and family in that unsettled state of public affairs. I had long before entertained an high opinion of ye lands in ye western country, which was a particular inducement to attend this meeting. The representations and plans of ye country gave me a still more favorable idea, and I determined to join ye association, but without ye most distant thought of taking an active part."

A few days later, he was chosen a director, and appointed as their agent to proceed to New York and negotiate with the congress then sitting there, for a purchase of western lands. From the very interesting journal kept by Dr. Cutler during this trip, we have quoted at some length. He conducted this negotiation with great skill and entire success. He insisted that there should be an appropriation of land in the company's purchase for the endowment of a university, and this feature was part of the contract with congress. Thus, the Ohio university is undoubtedly indebted to Dr. Cutler for its existence, and he was in later years very active in furthering its sound organization. He also originated the idea of a donation of land in each township, for educational and religious purposes, and made it a part of the contract with congreSs that two sections in each township should be reserved as school and ministerial lands.

In the summer of 1788, in order to attend a meeting of the directors of the Ohio Company, and to examine into the condition and prospects of the colony, Dr.

252 - Town and Township of Athens.

Cutler made a trip to Marietta, where he spent a short time, and became thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the country and wants of the settlers. His versatile talents and unusual business qualifications made his services to the company of great value, and for many years he continued to exercise a controlling influence in this great enterprise. During all this time he did not cease his labors as a minister of the gospel, nor his scientific investigations, particularly his botanical pursuits, in which branch of science he was very eminent.

The latter years of his life were spent peacefully in Massachusetts. He officiated as pastor of one church at Hamilton in that state, for nearly fifty years, and died in 1820.

Eliphaz Perkins, son of John Perkins, a leading citizen of Norwich, Connecticut, was born at that place, August as, 1753. Deprived of his father at an early age, he was nevertheless enabled, through the exertions of his mother, to obtain a liberal education. Soon after leaving college, Mr. Perkins married Lydia Fitch, daughter of Dr. Jabez Fitch, of Canterbury, Connecticut, and engaged for a time in the mercantile business in that town. Subsequently he engaged in the same business in New Haven; having, however, an inclination to professional pursuits, he finally entered on the study of medicine with his father-in-law, and this was his vocation during the rest of his life. The times

History of Athens County, Ohio - 253

being hard, and his family increasing, Dr. Perkins decided to remove to a new country, and, in the spring of 1789, leaving his family in Connecticut, he started for Marietta. On his arrival here he found a number of persons from Clarksburg, Virginia, engaged in laying out a road between that place and Marietta. At their urgent solicitation he returned with them to Clarksburg, where he practiced medicine for nearly two years. The Indian war began about this time, and Dr. Perkins witnessed some terrible scenes of border warfare. In one instance the savages killed and Scalped a family near where the Doctor was passing the night. One member of the family, a girl about fourteen years old, was scalped and left for dead in the fence corner. Dr. Perkins found her the next morning, still alive, took her under his care, and with good treatment and an elastic constitution, She was finally restored to health.

In the autumn of 1790, Dr. Perkins returned to Connecticut and rejoined his family, whom he had not heard from, nor they from him, for nearly two years. During the next few years, he lived part of the time in Connecticut, and part of the time in Vermont, and practiced his profession. He finally decided to remove his family to the northwest, and they set out for Marietta on the third of June, 1799. He had at this time Seven children, the eldest of whom, then a young lady of fifteen (afterwards Mrs. David Pratt, of Athens), kept a journal of their trip to Marietta, which is now before us. She says:

254 - Town and Township of Athens.

" Mother had a pleasant, easy-going horse, so that she could, whenever she choose, relieve herself from the tiresome motion of the wagon by riding on horseback. The first Sabbath was spent at Brandon, Vermont. It being a rainy day, we did not attend church, but spent the day within doors. The second Sabbath was passed at "Williamstown, Massachusetts, where we heard an excellent sermon from mother's brother, the Rev. Ebenezer Fitch. The third Sabbath, we were at Salisbury, Connecticut, where we were hospitably and kindly entertained by friends of the name of Chittenden. Here we also spent Monday in order to recruit our provision chest, which we did abundantly with bread, pies, cakes, etc., through the kind assistance of our friends. The next week brought us into Pennsylvania. At sunset on Saturday evening, we passed through Reading, intending to go a little into the country where we could find pasture for the team. About eleven o'clock we came to a large stone house with a sign for entertainment, where we were admitted. The next day was the Sabbath, and before evening, mother gave birth to twin daughters. We remained here three weeks, when, the babes being healthy, and mother's health better than before, we resumed our journey. But now sickness began to prevail among the rest of the family, probably owing to the hot weather, bad water, and the abundance of fruit which was then ripe and very inviting to children, and doubtless, indulged in too freely by them. The people, at that time, along the mountains, were not very friendly to strangers, especially if they had sickness among them, fearing some contagious disease. Many of them were Dutch, and either did not, or pretended not to understand English, so that it was often with difficulty we found a place to lodge in. Several of the children were obliged to be placed on beds in the wagon, the motion of which, soon became so painful to them, as to make it necessary to suspend traveling for a time. A shelter was necessary. At last, with great difficulty, we found a but that had been a blacksmith's shop, with a blacksmith's fire-place in it. There was no floor, but the shelter was better than nothing.

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Here we remained ten days before the sick were so far recovered as to be able to bear the jolting of the wagon. We then traveled slowly, about six or seven miles a day, till we reached McKeesport on the Monongahela river. Here we were going to take a flat-boat and pursue our journey immediately by water, but some of the children who had been sick took a relapse, and we were detained several weeks. By this time the river was so low as to make navigation dangerous, yet, as we were all so anxious to reach Marietta before cold weather, it was determined to try it. Father procured a flat-boat of the largest and strongest sort, took in two men for rowers, and having placed the family and effects on board, with provisions for the voyage, we set out on the first of November, 1799. Owing to the extreme lowness of the water, we were three days in reaching Pittsburg—only about twelve miles. When we got into the Ohio river, it was very little better. At the end of the first day's travel, about three miles below Pittsburg, our boat fastened on the rocks, swung round, and seemed in imminent danger of being broken in pieces. At length, by great exertions, it was freed from the rocks and got to shore. The children were now so frightened they could not be persuaded to enter the boat again, nor were our parents much less alarmed. A consultation was held, but what could they do ? On both sides of the river stretched an unbroken wilderness. The team had previously been sent on by land in charge of the two oldest boys. There were two horses on the boat belonging to the rowers ; these father agreed to take and endeavor, without road or compass, to cross the country by land with the family and meet the boat at Wheeling. Taking all of us and the two horses out would somewhat lighten the load, and the men thought they could get on with the boat. Mother was placed on one horse and I on the other, each of us with one child in her lap and one on the horse behind her. Father took one of the babes in his arms, which he carried walking all the way to Wheeling, and the rest of the children walked beside him. In this way we traveled about a week through the forest, sometimes finding little paths, and sometimes

256 - Town and Township of Athens.

no trace at all. There were a few settlers through this region, and we were so fortunate as to find some sort of shelter every night. At last we reached Wheeling. The boat had not yet arrived, but reached there two days later. We all entered the boat once more, and having now more water, we floated along somewhat more easily. After another week of tedious travel, we landed at Marietta on the 18th of November, 1799. But our troubles were not ended. It was impossible to get a comfortable house, and for nearly two months we occupied one not at all fit for winter. One of the children was taken with bilious colic, and his life was despaired of for several weeks. About the last of December we got into a more comfortable house, and just then mother was seized with a nervous fever. Father doctored her and was assisted by other good physicians, but without avail. After a few days of painful sickness, her toils and trials were ended by death. Father was very much crushed by this affliction, and could hardly bear up. In the spring of 1800 father was invited by some gentlemen from the Athens settlement, on the Hockhocking, to settle there. He accepted the invitation and spent the summer practicing over a large extent of sparsely populated country. Having decided to locate at Athens, he procured a house, the best the place could afford, a log cabin with one room, one window, and one door. There was a spring of excellent water near the house, and a shed for horse and cow. Being unable to go for the family himself, he employed a trusty person to escort us through the wilderness from Marietta to Athens. Our goods were sent in a small boat down the Ohio, and up the Hockhocking. Only five of us went over at this time, the other four children being left temporarily with friends in Marietta. I rode on one horse with the babe in my lap, and one of the little girls behind me, and two of the boys rode another horse, the guide walked before and led the way.

At last we reached Athens in safety. We were well pleased with our new home, and rejoiced to be with father again, who was not less glad to see us once more. Here we enjoyed peace

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and happiness. The first settlers here were generally poor, and father found it easier to earn money than to collect it. If the people had not money to pay with, he never distressed them. We suffered many privations ; most of our bread had to be prepared from grain ground on hand mills, or horse mills, or pounded in a mortar, dug out of a large stump, with a spring pole fastened to an iron wedge for a pestle. A hand mill was something like a large coffee mill fastened to the side of the house or to a tree close by.

In 1803, father married Miss Catherine Greene, a sister of Mr. Griffin Greene, a prominent citizen of Marietta. Her mother, an aged and pious lady, became an inmate of our family at this time. She died in 1807, in her ninetieth year, and was the first person buried in the old grave-yard north of town."

Dr. Perkins was a man of much culture and refined manners, and, being a skillful physician, his arrival in the community was hailed with general joy. His professional skill, gentle manners, and quiet christian deportment gained him immediate popularity and influence which he was prompt to exert in every good cause. He labored to establish and sustain common Schools in the county, and was an ardent friend of and liberal contributor to the Ohio university, of which institution he was one of the first trustees, and for many years treasurer. He was post master at Athens for about seventeen years, and county treasurer for many years. His descendants are widely scattered. His sons, Chauncey and Jabez, studied medicine with their father at Athens. Jabez died January 12th, 1843, having never married. Dr. Chauncey Perkins lives in Erie county, Pennsylvania. Eliphaz was a mechanic in early

258 - Town and Township of Athens.

life, but Studied for the ministry and preached for several years before his death; his descendants are in Kansas. John, another son of Dr. Perkins, is well known in Athens, where he has lived nearly seventy years. Henry, another son, graduated at the Ohio university, and in theology at Princeton, New Jersey. He has been pastor of a Presbyterian church at Allentown, New Jersey, over thirty years. One of Dr. Perkins' daughters was married to Captain David Pratt, of Athens; another to Mr. Isaac Taylor, long known as a hotel keeper in thiS town ; another to Dr. Medbury, formerly a physician here; another to Dr. Wm. Thompson, of Richmond, Ohio. Seven of Dr. Perkins' descendants have been ministers of the gospel, and six the wives of ministers ; he died at Athens, April 29th, 1828.

The Rev. Jacob Lindley, seventh son of Demas Lindley, one of the early settlers of Washington county, Pennsylvania, was born in that county, June 13, 1774. At the age of eighteen he was sent to Jefferson college, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Princeton, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1798. After a course of theological study he was licensed to preach by the " Washington Presbytery," and in 1803, he removed to Ohio, settling first at Beverly, on the Muskingum. Having been selected by the first board of trustees of the Ohio university to organize and conduct that institution, he removed to Athens in 1808,

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and opened the academy there. For several years he had entire charge of the infant college, which he conducted with distinguished ability and success. He was the prime mover in securing the erection of the college buildings, and also in founding the Presbyterian church at Athens. He labored assiduously here for about twenty years, during part of which time he waS the only Presbyterian minister in this portion of the state. He returned in 1829 to Pennsylvania, where he spent the rest of his life, and died at the residence of his son, Dr. Lieutellus Lindley, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, January 29th, 1857.

Dr. Lindley was no common man, but an earnest thinker and conscientious worker. The leading trait in his character was an inflexible and unswerving devotion to moral principle. His whole life was a continuous effort to promote the moral welfare of others. He was of an amiable disposition, possessed an eminent degree of sound common sense, and an unerring judgment of men. His kindness of heart and known purity of life and conduct gave him great influence with all classes during his long residence at Athens. One who knew him well says : " I have seen him go into a crowd of rough backwoodsmen and hunters, who used to meet at the village tavern every Saturday, and settle and control them in their quarrels and fights, as no other man in that community could." His control of the students under his charge was equally extraor-

260 - Town and Township of Athens.

dinary, and was always marked not less by gentleness of manner than by firmness of purpose. He led a laborious life at Athens, and his works live after him.

John Brown, well known in southern Ohio as " General Brown," son of Captain Benjamin Brown, one of the pioneers of Ames, was born in Rowe, Massachusetts, December 1, 1785. In 1787, his father's family moved to Hartford, Washington county, New York, and in 1796, with several other families seeking homes in the west, came to the Forks of Yoh, on the Monongahela, three miles above Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Here they remained till February, 1797, building a boat during the winter, in which they completed their journey and arrived at Marietta, February 1797. Of the twenty-three perSons of various ages who descended the river in this boat, there are but four now living, viz : Samuel and John Brown, Mrs. Aphia Hamilton, and Mrs. Phebe Sprague. As elsewhere stated, Captain Brown's family came out to Ames township in the spring of 1799, moving their household effects by canoes down the Ohio, and up the Hockhocking and Federal creek—the members of the family not required to work the canoes, coming acroSs the country.

In 1811, Mr. Brown married Sophia Walker, daughter of Dr. Ezra Walker, and continued to live in Ames township till 1817, when he removed to the town of Athens, where he still resides. On coming to Athens,

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he kept a public house one year at the Zadoc Foster house (on the south end of the lot now owned and occupied by Judge Barker), when he bought the corner property in front of the university, and built and kept the " Brown House," So long known to the public, and so kindly remembered by his hosts of friends. He kept this house till December, 1865, a period of forty-seven years.

In 1808, Mr. Brown was elected captain in the militia, and was subsequently made major and colonel, and in 1817 was elected brigadier general. He was county auditor from 1822 to 1827, and has been treasurer of the Ohio university from 1824 to the present time. He was also mayor of Athens for several years, and coroner for two terms. He is, in every good sense, one of the village fathers who has "come down to us from a former generation." Possessed of sound judgment, a kind heart, Sterling integrity, and unfailing humor, General Brown has for fifty years had the respect and affectionate regard of this community. His genial wit still oft enlivens the social circle, and his venerable form is recognized with pleasure by all, on the Streets of the town where he has lived so long and where, without an enemy in the world, he is cheerfully approaching the end of his journey. He reared here a family of six Sons and two daughters ; four of the sons graduated at the Ohio university, and three Survive, viz: Oscar W., Wm. Loring, and Archibald Douglas ;

262 - Town and Township of Athens.

the latter is cashier of a bank in Pomeroy, Ohio. One of the daughters, Mrs. Hannah Pratt, lives in Illinois, and the other, Mrs. Lucy Hey, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A. G. Brown, Son of Captain Benjamin Brown, was born April 16th, 1798, near Waterford, in Washington county, Ohio, and has lived in Athens county since he was one year old. His youth was passed in working on his father's farm (in Ames township), and in assiduouS study and preparation for college. In due time he became a student at the Ohio university, and graduated there in 1822. From 1824 to 1825, he was preceptor in the academical department of the university. In 1825 he began the publication of the Athens Mirror, the first paper printed in the county, and continued as its editor and publisher for five years. From 1827 to 1833, he was county recorder, which office he again filled from 1836 to 1841, when he began the practice of law in Athens. In 1841 he became a member of the board of trustees of the university, which position he still holds. He was a delegate to the convention which formed the present constitution of Ohio, and was for two years president judge of the Athens district. For many years past he has practiced law in Athens. Judge Brown came to Athens county when nearly the whole of its area was an unbroken forest and to the town of Athens when it was a mere cluster of log cabins. The personal friend and associate of the leading men of the

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community who assisted in building up society here, most of whom have passed away, he has witnessed the steady development of the county during considerably more than half a century. Looking back over its whole history to a period before it was organized, he may very truthfully say :

— " Quae ipse vidi,

Et quorum pars magna fui."

Judge Brown's sons, Henry T. Brown, an active lawyer and business man, and Louis W. Brown, for many years clerk of the county, are natives of Athens, and well known in the community.

john Perkins, son of Dr. Eliphaz Perkins, was born in Leicester, Vermont, in 1791, and came to the town of Athens with his father's family in the year 1800. His father located at Athens on account of the prospective establishment of the Ohio university here, and since that time two of his sons, five grandsons and two great-grandsons have graduated at this institution. Mr. Perkins has lived in Athens nearly seventy years, and was post master here for about twenty-two years. He has been engaged in mercantile pursuits during a large part of hiS life, and is known in the county as a most upright man and a good citizen. Though nearly eighty years old, his firm step and clear mind bespeak a temperate life and approving conscience.

264 - Town and Township of Athens.

Henry Bartlett, the son of Captain William Bartlett, was born at Beverly, Massachusetts, February 3, 1771. His father was a seafaring man, and received, it is believed, the first commiSsion that was issued to engage in privateering, during the revolutionary struggle, in which he rendered conSpicuous service. In 1785, Captain Bartlett removed with his family to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and settled near the Forks of Yoh, where he lived till his death in 1794. While living in Westmoreland county, Henry Bartlett married Miss Betsey Corey, and in 1796, brought his young family to the northwestern territory and settled the next year at Athens. During his youth, Mr. Bartlett enjoyed pretty good educational advantages, and after his arrival at Athens was soon recognized as one of the readiest and most accurate clerks and business men in the community. Previous to the organization of the county, he taught school several quarters in the surrounding neighborhoods. Soon after the organization of the county in 1805, he was appointed by the county commissioners as clerk of the board and of the county courts, which position he held, discharging the duties with great fidelity for thirty years. He ceased to be clerk in 1836, and from that time till his death, acted as a justice of the peace in Athens. He was also for many yearS secretary and auditor of the Ohio university. He died September 9th, 1850. Esquire Bartlett was a man of great purity of character, thoroughly judicial mind

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and excellent capacity for business. During his early residence here, he adapted himself with admirable facility to pioneer life, and to the changing circumstances of the times, and was for many years almost indispensable in the management of county affairs. He possessed a fine quality of wit and humor, which he was fond of exercising, though always without offense to others, and which made him one of the most popular as he was one of the most highly respected men in the county. His family consisted of two sons and ten daughters, of whom nine daughters are living.

Robert Linzee, a native of western Pennsylvania, came to this county in 1801, and settled on a farm two miles below the town of Athens, on the "River road," where he lived nearly thirty years. Mr. Linzee was a leading man in the early history of the county. He was the first sheriff of the county and held the office Several years; was a member of the State legislature Several terms, a trustee of the Ohio university and associate judge of the court of common pleas. In 1830 he removed to Mercer county, Ohio, where he died in 1850.

Mr. Linzee occupied a prominent place in county affairs during his residence here, and in private life was an amiable and intereSting man. His name is still kindly remembered by thoSe who were acquainted with

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him, among whom he had many admirers and warm friends.

John Johnson, settled in Athens with hiS family as early as 1805. One of his daughters was married in 1807 to Robert Linzee, and another, about the same time, to Jacob Dombaugh, who was an active man, and at an early day kept public house where the Brown House is now situated. A son of John Johnson's, Samuel, married a daughter of Abel Glazier, of Ames. In 1815 Mr. Johnson and Mr. Glazier carried the mail, as sub-contractors, between Marietta and Chillicothe, when there were but two post offices on the route, viz., at Athens and Adelphi, Ross county.

Capt. Philip M. Starr, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, came to the town of Athens in 1801, where for several years he followed the mercantile business. Later he located on a rich and valuable farm on the river three miles below Athens where he died in 1857. Capt. Starr was a very active business man, and of more than average mental culture. He had considerable means when he came to the county, and though never in public life he was a man of influence among the early settlers. He devoted the latter part of his life to horticulture and fruit growing, in which he was notably successful.

Joseph B. Miles, for many years a merchant and

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leading citizen of Athens, was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, June 21, 1781. In 1791 he removed to the northwestern territory with his parents, who settled at Belpre, in Washington county. Here he lived till he was twenty-seven years old. In 1808 Mr. Miles came to Athens and began business as a merchant. In January, 1809, he married Miss Elizabeth Buckingham, of Carthage township. He lived in Athens for thirty-five years, during which period he was prominent in all social, religious and business movements here. He engaged extensively in the mercantile and milling business, and was universally respected as an upright man and exemplary christian. In 1843 he removed with his family to Washington, Tazewell county, Illinois, where he died September 18th, 1860. His first wife died in Athens in 182.l. By his first marriage Mr. Miles had Six children— Catherine B., who married Mr. C. Dart and died in Houston, Texas, in February 1866 ; Lucy W., who married Mr. L. A. Alderson and died in Greenbriar county, Virginia, in 1832; Belinda C., who married Mr. Jared Sperry and now lives in Mt. Vernon, Ohio; Pamelia B., who died before marriage at Havana, Cuba ; Elizabeth B., who was married in Natchez and died there of yellow fever in September, 1837 ; and Benjamin E., who now resides in Washington, Illinois. Mr. Miles married for hiS second wife Miss Elizabeth Fulton. Their children were Martha M., James H.,

268 - Town and Township of Athens.

Daniel L., Joseph B., Mary F., William R., and Sarah J. Mary, Martha and Joseph live in Washington, Illinois, James in Chicago, and Sarah J. (Mrs. Robert Wilson) in Farmington, Iowa. William R. died young; and Daniel L., who was lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-Seventh Illinois Volunteers, during the war of the rebellion, was killed in a skirmish near Farmington, Tennessee, in May, 1862. Mr. Miles's second wife died in 1862.

Jonathan Wilkins, one of the earliest inhabitants of Athens, was a man of very considerable learning, and for some time taught a pioneer school. Of his son, Timothy Wilkins, the following reminiscence is furnished by Dr. C. F. Perkins; it is hardly less strange than the history immortalized by Tennyson in " Enoch Arden."

Mr. Wilkins was skillful and enterprising in business, but, through no fault of his own, became embarrassed, was hard pressed by creditors, and pursued by writs. In those days, when a man could be imprisoned for a debt of ten dollars, to fail in business was an awful thing. Wilkins was not dishonest, but had a heart to pay if he could. He battled bravely with his misfortunes for a considerable period, but with poor success. One day in the year 1829, full of despair, he came from his home west of town, across the Hockhocking, and having transacted some business with the

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county clerk, went out, and was supposed to have returned home. The next morning it became known that he was not at his house. Inquiry and search being made, the boat in which he usually crossed the river was seen floating bottom upward, and his hat was also found swimming down the stream. Mr. Wilkins was a popular man in the community ; news of his loss soon spread, the people gathered from every quarter and measures were taken to recover the body. The river was dragged, a cannon was fired over the water, and other means resorted to, but to no purpose ; the body was not found. The excellent Mrs. Wilkins put on mourning, and friends remembered the departed for a time with affectionate regret. As time sped, the sad incident was forgotten, and Timothy Wilkins passed out of mind. His wife, faithful for a time to his memory, had for years been the wedded partner of another, and a little family was growing up around the remarried woman and her second husband, Mr. Goodrich, himself a well known and worthy citizen.

In 1834, a vague rumor—an undefined whisper from the distant southwest—circulated through the settlement that Mr. Wilkins yet survived. Soon more positive assertions were made, and finally it was said that the missing man waS alive and on his way home. At last a neighbor received a letter from Wilkins, announcing his approach; fearing to shock his wife by a Sudden appearance, he had himself originated the rumors of

270 - Town and Township of Athens.

safety, and now announced that he would soon be in Athens. He knew of his wife's second marriage, and in friendly spirit proposed to meet her and Mr. Goodrich. Much excitement and distress ensued. Mr. Wilkins arrived; there was a cordial meeting and strange interview among the parties most concerned. The conference was friendly and satisfactory. Messrs. Wilkins and Goodrich honestly left to the wife of their rivalship the final choice of her companion, and she selected her first love, to the great grief, but with the full acquiescence of her second. The reunited pair bade adieu to their friends, and together set out for the distant south.

Mr. Wilkins' disappearance was a ruse to escape his creditors. He went to New Orleans, engaged successfully in boating, accumulated money enough to pay off all his debts, which he honorably did, and returned to claim his beloved.

John Gillmore, was born in Washington county, New York, December 25, 1786. Soon afterward his father's family removed to Rutland, Vermont, whence they emigrated in 1813 to Ohio. They were accompanied by Cephas Carpenter, a relative by marriage, and all settled in Athens. The father, James Gillmore, was the first elder in the Presbyterian church formed here about the time of his arrival, and was an excellent man ; he died July 25, 1827. John Gillmore held sev-

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eral minor local offices, and served with credit two terms in the state legislature. In 1836 he removed with his family to Illinois, and finally settled at Rock Island, where he died, July 9th, 1859. The Gillmores are remembered as one of the most substantial families of the town during their long residence here. One of the daughters of Mr. James Gillmore, Ann Eliza, married the Rev. S. S. Miles (brother of Mr. Joseph B. Miles), who now lives in Geneseo, Illinois.

Archibald B. Walker, son of Dr. Ezra Walker, was born in East Poultney, Vermont, October 15th, 1800, and came to Ames township with hiS father's family when ten. years old. In 1825 he married Lucy W., daughter of Judge Silvanus Ames, and in 1826 they removed to the town of Athens, where they have since resided continuously, and reared a family of two sons and four daughters. Soon after coming to Athens, Mr. Walker, having formed a partnership with his brother- in-law, James J. Fuller, engaged for a few years in the cattle-driving and pork-packing business. In 1839 they commenced the manufacture of salt at the old furnace, opposite Chauncey, afterward owned by Judge Pruden, and soon after they bored the wells and erected the furnaces now owned by M. M. Greene & Co., at Salina. For a period of twenty years the firm name of Fuller & Walker was well and favorably known in the valley. The partnership was dissolved in 1853. Since

272 - Town and Township of Athens.

that time, Mr. Walker has not engaged in active business on his own account. During his long residence in the county, he has always been one of the most prompt to embrace, and ardent in the support of every useful local enterprise. At home and abroad, in personal intercourse and through the press, he has ever been ready and efficient in advocating the development of the county, and presenting her claims. He was one of the original friends, and for several years a director of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and an early and strenuous advocate for the construction of the Hockhocking Valley railroad, which is now building under the energetic control of younger men, and which he is likely to live to see finished.

Having been through his whole life scrupulously faithful and exact in the discharge of every duty, public and private, Mr. Walker is peacefully completing the last stage of a long and worthy career in the very spot where he began it. If his part has been acted on a comparatively narrow stage, it has nevertheless, been well acted—"there all the honor lies." Happy in the respect of his neighbors and the affection of children and grand-children, he possesses, in the words of Shakspeare :

" That which should accompany old age,

As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends."

Dr. Leonard Jewett, one of the pioneer physicians of the county, was born September 6, 1770, in Littleton

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county, Massachusetts. He studied medicine and surgery at the Boston Medical college, and received a diploma from that institution in 1792; In 1796 he married Miss Mary Porter, of Rutledge, Massachusetts. After this he served four years as assistant surgeon in the New York hospital. In 1802 he removed from New York to Washington county, Ohio, and in 1804 or '5 to the town of Athens, and occupied a house built by Captain Silas Bingham, on the lot now owned and occupied by Mr. George W. Norris. In 1806 he was elected to the state senate, which position he held till 1811. When hostilities began in 1812, he was commissioned as surgeon in the army of the northwest, under Harrison, and was assigned to duty on the staff of General Tupper. At the close of the war he returned to Athens and resumed the practice of medicine with success. In 1816, while performing a surgical operation, he received poisonous matter into a small wound on his hand, the absorption of which produced violent inflammation and sudden death; he died May 13, 1816. Dr. Jewett was a gentleman of fine intelligence and professional ability, and there are those living who still cherish his memory as one of the leaders among the early citizens of the county.

Four of his sons survive; three of them, Joseph, Leonard, and Leonidas Jewett, live in the vicinity of Athens, and one resides in Oregon. Leonidas was

274 - Town and Township of Athens.

county auditor from 1839 to 1843, and was for many years a successful lawyer of Athens.

Leonidas Jewett, jr., son of the last named, a lawyer of promise, is settled at Athens, where he was born. During the late war of the rebellion, he served three years with credit as adjutant of the Sixty-first Ohio regiment.

Calvary Morris, was born near Charleston, West Virginia, in 1798, and spent his youth in the Kanawha valley, laboring on a farm, and battling with the hardships of pioneer life. In 1818 he married the eldest daughter of Dr. Leonard Jewett, of Athens, and in the spring of 1819, located permanently in that town. " Finding myself;" says Mr. Morris, "a stranger in a strange land, and obliged to make provision for the support of my family, my first step was to rent five acres of ground, upon which to raise a crop of corn. While cultivating that ground, during the summer of 1819, the Rev. Jacob Lindley (then acting president of the Ohio university) came to me and Said that a school teacher was much needed in our town, and proposed that I undertake it. I informed him that I was not at all qualified—that reading, writing, spelling, and a limited knowledge of arithmetic was the extent of my education. He said that the wants of the community required that arithmetic, geography, and English grammar be taught in the school, and, now,' said

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he, I will tell you what to do. I have the books and you have brains; take my books, go to studying, and recite to me every day for three weeks, and by that time I will have a school made up for you; you will then find no difficulty in keeping ahead of your scholars so as to give satisfaction in teaching, and no one will ever suspect your present lack of qualifications.' I consented, went to work, and at the end of three weeks went into the school. I taught and studied during the day, and cultivated my corn-field part of the time by moonlight, and if there was ever any complaint of my lack of qualifications as a teacher, it never came to my knowledge."

In 1823, Mr. Morris was elected sheriff of Athens county, and re-elected by an almost unanimous vote in 1825. In 1827, at the close of his term as sheriff, he was elected to the lower branch of the state legislature, and re-elected in 1828. In 1829, he was elected to the state senate, and re-elected in 1833. In 1835, when the project of the Hocking canal was being warmly agitated, Mr. Morris was elected again to the popular branch of the assembly from Athens and Hocking counties as the avowed friend of that measure, and in the belief that he was the best man to engineer it through. To his adroit management and indefatigable efforts, the measure was mainly indebted for success, as he had to overcome the almost unanimous opposition of both branches of the legislature and the whole board of canal commissioners.

276 - Town and Township of Athens.

He had the pleasure of seeing the bill triumphantly passed a few days before the close of the session, and on his return home his constituents tendered him a public dinner.

In 1836 Mr. Morris was elected to congress, and re-elected in 1838 and '40.

In 1843 he retired from public life and engaged, to some extent, in wool growing and in the introduction of fine-wooled sheep into the county, in which business he rendered great service to the farming community.

In 1847 he removed to Cincinnati and engaged in mercantile pursuits, which finally proving unfortunate, he returned to Athens in 1854, and in 1855 was elected probate judge of the county, which office he still holds.

Few men, if any, now living in the county, have filled a larger part in its official history than Judge Morris, and, during his varied services, he has discharged every trust with honor and fidelity. His public life lay chiefly in the better days of the republic, and of our politics, and, from his present standpoint, secure in the confidence and respect of all his neighbors, he has the rare and happy fortune of being able to . review his whole career without shame and without remorse.

Judge Morris is a brother of the Reverend Bishop Morris of the M. E. church. William D. Morris, of Illinois, and Levi Morris, of Louisiana, are the other surviving brothers.

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Capt. Isaac Barker, came from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the northwestern territory in the autumn of 1788. For several years he lived in the Belpre settlement on the Ohio river, about fifteen miles from Marietta, and his name is preserved as one of the heads of families who, in the year 1792, took refuge in the block house called "Farmers' Castle," where he and his family remained till the violence of the Indian war was spent. In 1798 he removed with his family of five sons and three daughters to Athens township, and settled near the village of Athens, where he passed the remainder of his life. Capt. Barker was a sea-faring man in early life, being supercargo and captain of an East India vessel, and, during the revolutionary war, took an active part in the privateering service. His sons were Michael, Isaac, Joseph, William, and Timothy.

Michael Barker, son of Capt. Isaac Barker, born in 1776 at New Bedford, Massachusetts, came with his father's family to Marietta in the autumn of 1788. During the Indian war, from 1792 to 1795, while they lived in Farmers' Castle at Belpre, Michael served as a scout or spy against the Indians in a company raised under the authority of the Ohio Company. He came to Athens county and settled near the town of Athens in April, 1798, where he spent the rest of his life. He married a daughter of Wm. Harper, who was county

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treasurer from 1809 to 1811. Mr. Barker was for many years a constable in Athens township, and held other local offices. He was a man of Scrupulous exactness in his dealings, and of much firmness and decision of character. He died June l0th, 1857.

Isaac Barker, jr. (son of Capt. Isaac Barker), long known in Athens county as Judge Barker, was born in Massachusetts, February 17th, 1779. He remembers his father setting out with his family for the northwestern territory, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1788. They had one wagon drawn by two oxen and a horse, and were accompanied on the journey by Capt. Dana and his family, also emigrating to the west. Their journey was not marked by any special incidents. At one stage Capt. Barker's oxen having become footsore, he exchanged them with a Dutch tavern keeper where they stopped for a fresh yoke. The next morning the boys started on early with the team, the father remaining behind a little while. They had not gone far before they came to a very bad place in the road, over which the oxen refused to go. After working with them for some time the boys Suddenly thought it was because the Dutch oxen could not understand English that they were so stubborn ; one of them accordingly went back for the Dutchman, who soon arrived, and, by dint of considerable hard swearing at the oxen, in good Dutch, got the team over. The emigrants traveled by land to Sum-

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rill's ferry on the Youghiogheny, where they procured keel boats and continued their journey by water to Marietta. Captain Barker's family spent several months in the family of Paul Fearing, at Marietta, and removed thence early in 1790 to Belpre, where he settled on a one-hundred-acre donation lot. They had hard work to get along here, especially for the first year or two. Mr. Barker says corn was four dollars a bushel and none to be had at that. They lived for one year almost solely on corn bread and wild meat. " One quart of cracked corn," he says, "was the daily allowance for our family of eleven. The children used to stand by looking wistfully while their mother baked the daily loaf, and, having received their share, would hoard it carefully, nibbling it like mice during the day." They lived in a block house, or garrison, some four or five years, during the Indian war. At this time, says Mr. Barker, " I was a pretty smart boy and able to handle a gun, and while father and my older brother worked in the field I 'Stood guard with the rifle. Every evening we barred up the door before sundown. In the morning we would open it an hour or so after sunrise, look carefully about, and, if no signs of Indians appeared, brother Michael would go out (the door being instantly barred behind him), and scout around a little." Several men and one or two whole families were killed in that neighborhood by the Indians during, these years. Mr. Barker recollects the massacre of the

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Armstrong family just across the river from where they lived, the killing of Benoni Hurlbut, the chase of Waldo Putnam and a man by the name of Bradford, by the Indians, and the killing of Jonas Davis. This Mr. Davis was engaged to be married to one of Mr. Barker's sisters. One cold day during the war, seeing an old skiff lodged on the ice some distance up the river, he ventured out to get some nails out of her—they being very scarce. He never returned. Being missed, after several hours, and search made, he was found dead, stripped, and scalped on the ice. Though a mere boy during the war, Judge Barker received at its close one hundred acres of land as a bounty from the Ohio,. Company—Gen. Putnam saying that he had done a man's work and was entitled to a man's pay. He used frequently to stand guard at the garrison. Capt. Barker's family came to Athens in 1798, poling their goods up the Hockhocking in a light flat boat. These boats were built with a " running board" along each side ; a man on each side, furnished with a long pole

with a pointed iron socket at the end, would plant it firmly in the bottom at the bow, and then with the upper end against his shoulder would run to the other end of the boat, propelling her by that means. After coming to Athens they lived a year at the point close by Harper's Ferry. Judge Barker tended this ferry for a while, and married Christiana, a daughter of Mr. Harper. At this time they got their milling from

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Capt. Devol's floating mill, some five miles up the Muskingum. It took four days to go and come, and Mr. Barker has himself more than once made this long trip to mill, going down the Hocking and up the Ohio in a pirogue and back by the same means, camping out over night.

Moses Hewitt and his family lived a short distance up Margaret's creek. In the year 1800 some thirty or forty Indians came in on Factory run, and three of them came over to Mr. Hewitt's house. They were somewhat in liquor, and Mrs. Hewitt in alarm sent hastily for her husband, who was a short distance from the house. When Mr. Hewitt came he ordered them in their own language (he had been a captive among them several years before), to " go away." They refused and were insulting, whereupon, Mr. Hewitt flew at the drunken ones and knocked one into the fireplace and another headlong out of the door. Mr. Barker was in the house and saw all this. A large athletic Indian, who seemed entirely sober, then grappled with Mr. Hewitt, and, after a violent struggle, threw him on the floor. Mrs. Hewitt and Mr. Barker, excited and alarmed, were about to pull the Indian off, when Hewitt, who was a noted fighter, told them to stand off and let him alone. The fight continued, and Hewitt very soon managed to get his thumb into the Indian's eye, and the Indian's thumb into his mouth, when the latter screamed lustily and begged till Mr.

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Hewitt released him. The moment he was on his feet, the Indian ran to the door, and, putting his hand to his mouth, gave a regular war whoop, loud and long continued, and then ran away. Mr. Hewitt himself was now alarmed, thinking that the Indians would come over in the night and kill his family. Accordingly he requested Garner Bobo, a man named Cutter, and Mr. Barker, to stay in the house over night while he took his wife and the children some distance across the river. Mr. Barker says, " We had but one gun among us— Bobo had that. I was armed with a heavy clothes- pounder, and Cutter had a conchshell which he was to blow for help in case of great danger. Thus accoutered we barred the door and prepared to pass the night. We took turns sleeping and watching, and the night passed without any alarm. About daylight I, being on watch, saw some three or four figures gliding about the house and thought the redskins were after us now, sure enough. I woke Bobo who had his gun ready in a minute, and we were preparing for a fight or a siege when we heard a loud laugh outside, and looking out saw Hewitt and two or three others coming up to the house. They had come over to scare us. We saw nothing more of the Indians, and I think this was the last considerable party of them Seen in this part of the country."

About this time Mr. Barker and Martin Mansfield, both vigorous and athletic young men, boated a man

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by the name of King, with his family, from the mouth of the Hockhocking river to the falls near Logan, and then dragging their boat around the falls, continued to within eight miles of Lancaster, the place of destination.

The town plat of Athens was very heavily timbered at that time, and the few cabins that stood here were widely separated. Mr. Barker, though not a great hunter, killed great numbers of deer and turkeys hereabouts. He remembers the following incident :

Chris. Stevens, who lived back of the college green, and a German named Heck, were hunting one day and treed a bear in a large poplar not far from Stevens' house. The bear climbed nearly to the top of the tree, which was very tall. They had but one gun between them and Stevens was to shoot. He had leveled his gun, taken aim, and sighted a long time ; Heck stood a little of waiting for him to fire, when, his patience exhausted, he asked, " Why don't you shoot? " Stevens, who was a kind-hearted man, deliberately lowered his gun and said, " I can't bear to see the poor thing fall so far !"

"Gott im himmels," cried the German, " gif me de gun den—I shoots him if he falls mit de ground till a a tousand feet," and bruin soon came tumbling down.

Old Capt. Barker's first cabin stood about where Joseph Herrold's house now stands. He afterward built a log house near the river, south of John White's present residence. Judge Barker's first cabin was about

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one hundred yards west of his father's first house, and he afterward built a two story hewed log house on the river bank just at the turn of the road, which was standing a few years since and occupied by the Beveridge family. In 1815 Judge Barker moved to the town plat and took the "Dunbaugh House," which stood where the " Brown House" now stands, and which had been kept for a few years by one Jacob Dunbaugh. Mr. Barker kept tavern here till 1818, when he bought the lot where he now resides. There was a hewed log house on this lot, and he kept tavern in this while his brick house was building, and till it was finished in 1823, and then in his present dwelling till about 1830.

During his residence here, Mr. Barker has held the offices of county sheriff, county treasurer, collector of rents for the university, and was judge of the court of common pleas for about ten years. He has lived for nearly three score years and ten in the town of Athens, where he is passing the evening of his days in quiet serenity. Though now eighty-nine years old, he devoted a part of every day during this season (1868), to working in his garden—his favorite employment—and is in possession of all his faculties.

Abel Stedman, son of Judge Alexander Stedman, was born at Newbridge, Vermont, February 26, 1785, and came to the town of Athens in 1802. In 1811 he married Miss Sally Foster. In 1812 he enlisted in the

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United States service, and on the march from Sandusky to Chillicothe he marched next in the ranks to Thomas Corwin. Returning to Athens he engaged in his trade of house carpenter, and passed the rest of his days here. He was a man of active temperament and untiring industry, a professing christian and full of good works. He died December 2o, 1859.

Zadoc Foster, a native of Massachusetts, moved with his family to the northwestern territory in 1796. He came, like many others of that time, with an ox team as far as Olean point, on the Allegheny river, and thence proceeded by raft down the Ohio to Marietta, in the autumn of 1796. Remaining that winter in the stockade, he made a settlement in the spring at Belpre, and remained there till he came to Athens in 1809. During his residence at the Belpre settlement Indians were frequently seen, but had ceased to be considered dangerous, while the game was so abundant that deers and turkeys were sometimes shot, from the door of the cabin in which he lived.

Mr. Foster kept public house in Athens till his death, by the "cold plague," in 1814, first in the McNichol house, on the lot now occupied by Mr. E. C. Crippen, and afterwards across the street, on the lot now occupied by Judge Barker. His widow, Mrs. Sarah Foster, continued to keep the

tavern a few years after his death. She then began to teach a school for

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young children, in which vocation she was eminently useful and beloved during the remainder of her life. She continued to teach within four days of her death, which occurred in 1849.

Hull Foster, only surviving son of Zadoc Foster, was born in Sudbury, Rutland county, Vermont, January 23, 1796, and came to the northwestern territory, with his father's family, when a few months old. His first visit to Athens was in 1804 or 1805. He came to visit Dr. Leonard Jewett's family, and traveled on horseback from Belpre, there being no visible road, but only a horse path which crossed the river at the present site of Coolville. There was a sort of ferry at this point. At that time one Strickland kept public house in a log building, on the lot now occupied by Judge Barker, and Joseph B. Miles had a small lot of goods in a room of the same house. Timothy Wilkins had a cabin near where General John Brown now lives, and ran a little distillery in the hollow close by. Esquire Henry Bartlett lived in a cabin back of the college green, near the present site of Mr. J. L. Kessinger's house. There was a horse mill on the point of the hill, a short distance northeast of town, on the Bingham farm. Mr. Foster, when a boy, drove the horse at this mill; the usual terms of grinding were, that parties should bring their own horse and pay one- fourth of the corn as toll. In 1809 his father removed

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with his family to Athens. In the interval a few brick houses had been built; Dr. Eliphaz Perkins had built on the Ballard corner, and Esquire Henry Bartlett on Congress street, nearly opposite Dr. Wilson's present residence ; these, with Abbott's tavern, the academy building, near Nelson Van Vorhes' present residence, and a school house just east of where the Presbyterian church now Stands, were, it is thought, all the brick buildings here in 1809. When about Seventeen, Mr. Foster took up the trade of shoemaking—to use his own expression, "just as a cow does kicking—in her own head." Between 1816 and 1820 he traveled with his kit on his back, through the west and southwest, visiting the present states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc. In 1821 he returned to Athens, resumed his trade, and built the house where Mr. Abner Cooley now lives. Soon after he married his first wife, a daughter of Mr. Ira Carpenter. Since then he has steadily adhered to his trade, at which he has worked for more than fifty years, and still works some, though under no necessity to do, so. There is one family in the county for whom he has made shoes for five generations. He has been twice married—his second wife was a daughter of Mr. William Brown, of Lee township— and is now a widower. A man of strong sense, strict integrity, and marked force of character, his life and virtues are known and read of all his neighbors.

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Ebenezer Currier, born at Hempstead, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, December 15, 1772, came to Ohio in 1804, and to the town of Athens in 1806, where he lived nearly fifty years. He was one of the pioneer merchants of Athens. In 1811, having to transport a small supply of goods from Baltimore, he hired Archelaus Stewart to fetch them. The latter made the trip to and from Baltimore, all the way in a light wagon, and delivered the goods safely in Athens, after a journey of about two months. During Mr. Currier's long residence here he filled several town and township offices, was justice of the peace, county commissioner, and county treasurer ; was four times a member of the state legislature as senator and representative, and for about twenty-one years was associate judge of the court of common pleas. For more than forty years he engaged here in mercantile pursuits, in which he was quite successful, amassing a considerable fortune. Judge Currier died March 2, 1851. Many of his descendants live in the county.

Conrad Hawk was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania. While a young man he removed to Harrison county, Virginia, where he married Miss Nancy Read in 1805, and whence he moved to Athens county in 1810. He settled as a farmer in Athens township, where he died, October 1, 1841. Mr. Hawk's family, formerly well and favorably known in this community,

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are now scattered. William, the oldest son, died in 1864, while commanding a steamer in General Banks' expedition up the Red river. John lives in Texas ; James and Columbus in Clarke county, Ohio, and Geo. W. in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. One of the daughters, now MrS. Dr. Huxford, lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the other, Mrs. Durbin, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

Nicholas Baker, senior, born in England in 1760, was brought to this country at seven years of age, for forty- four years followed the sea, as cabin boy and sailor, and in 1814, with his only son Isaiah Baker, came to Athens county where he lived in his son's family, in the vicinity of Athens, till his death in 1829.

Isaiah Baker, son of the foregoing, born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in the year 1780, came to this county with his family in 1814, and settled three miles west of Athens, where he followed farming the rest of his life. He died in 1825, leaving seven sons and three daughters, all of whom are living, except one son, Matthias, who was killed by the kick of a horse in 1837. Mr. Baker was a worthy member of the Methodist church.

Nicholas Baker, son of Isaiah, born in Massachusetts in 1799, has lived in Athens (town and township) fifty-four years. Social and genial in his daily intercourse with friends, few men lead a more placid life than

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"Uncle Nick." With a heart corresponding in capacity to his ponderous frame, with a healthy and happy temperament, he is one of those kind-hearted men whom dumb animals like and children make friends with. He fondly cherishes the remembrance of his once having lived in Judge Silvanus Ames' family, in Ames township, in the summer of 1817. Edward R. Ames (Rev. Bishop Ames) at that time was eleven years old, and Mr. Baker, partial to him in boyhood, refers to their early acquaintance with lively pleasure. He relates with much gusto and laughter how " the bishop," being naturally rather lazy, would lie on the grass in the shade and amuse young Baker with hiS talk, while the latter cheerfully performed an extra amount of work for his dreaming companion. Mr. Baker, formerly a farmer, has resided for many years past in the town of Athens. His son, George W. Baker, is now treasurer of Athens county.

Jacob L. Baker, another of the sons of Isaiah Baker, is an extensive farmer in Athens township. He has a family of seven sons and one daughter, most of whom are well settled on good farms in the neighborhood of their father, who manages to buy an additional farm as often as needed, for some of his family.

The five other sons of Isaiah Baker removed to the west and are there settled—most of them in Illinois.

Capt. David Pratt, born at Colchester, Connecticut, in 1780, came with his father's family to Marietta in

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1798, and removed to Athens in 1812. Here he was for many years a successful teacher, and there are old men living who well remember his thorough instruction and his stern discipline. In 1814 he married Miss Julia Perkins, eldest daughter of Dr. Eliphaz Perkins, whose christian graces and excellence of character were long known and admired in Athens. To them were born three sons and three daughters, all of whom are now living. The sons are all graduates of the Ohio university; two of them, the Rev. Eliphaz Perkins Pratt and the Rev. John H. Pratt being well-known ministers of the Presbyterian church, and the third, Dr. Robert Pratt, a successful physician in Illinois.

David Pratt died in 1861, and hiS wife in 1867, aged eighty-three. They were both members of the Presbyterian church in Athens for more than half a century.

Joseph Dana, born at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1768, was educated at Dartmouth college and graduated in 1788. He intended to pursue the ministry, but owing to delicate health did not carry out this purpose; he subsequently studied and qualified himself for the practice of the law. He Served some time in the Massachusetts legislature, but his health continuing frail, he resolved to leave New England. In 1817 he removed west and settled at Athens, where he at first engaged in the practice of law. Though never a ready speaker, Mr. Dana was a thorough lawyer and fine

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special pleader—a branch of the practice necessarily more cultivated in those days than now. About two years after coming here he was elected professor of languages in the university—a position for which he was admirably qualified by his fine scholarship and intellectual habits. His connection with the university continued till 1835 when the infirmities of age led him to resign his position.

Professor Dana was an accomplished scholar and cultivated gentleman. He was, for many years, an elder in the Presbyterian church here, and a lofty intellectuality pervaded his religion and all his modes of thought. He died November 18th, 184.9. His sons, Joseph M. Dana, Daniel S. Dana, Capt. William Henry Dana, U. S. N., and others of his descendants are well known in this community.

James Brice waS born in Maryland in the year 1750, and, removing to western Pennsylvania, Settled near Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) in 1787. While living here he held various public stations, such as member of the state legislature, county commissioner, collector of internal revenue, trustee of Washington college, etc. In 1821 he removed further west, and settled in the town of Athens, where he passed the latter years of his life, living in the family of his son. He was a man of high character, and during his long life was an active

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and exemplary christian. He died in Athens, December 22, 1832.

Barnet Brice, his son, and a native of Pennsylvania, preceded his father to Athens, having settled here in 1807, He kept public house many years (he built the Union hotel now occupied by O. B. Potter), and was extensively acquainted through the country. He died about 1853.

Thomas Brice, another son of James, came to Athens in 1818. He was a successful merchant here for many years, and a large dealer in cattle from 1820 to 1830. He built the brick dwelling house on Court street, now owned and occupied by Dr. W. P. Johnson.

In 1815 Nathan Dean, with his family, mostly grown, of six sons and three daughters, came to this county from Norton, BriStol county, Massachusetts. The young people all settled here, and raised respectable families in subsequent life. Three of them, William, Gulliver, and John N. Dean, made the brick, in the Summer of 1816, for the central building of the Ohio university in Athens, and later, in 1835, one of them, John N. Dean, made the brick for the two additional or wing buildings of the university, The eldest of the family, afterward Colonel Nathan Dean, settled near Amesville, in the eastern part of the county, and died much respected in the year 1839.

At the time this family left Massachusetts, in 1815,

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the manufactures of the country were only so far advanced, that, in making nails, their heads were made singly by hand, and these brothers had worked considerably at heading nails by hand before coming to Ohio. One of their ancestors, James Leonard, is believed to have been the first man that manufactured iron in America, and a Son of his, Jonathan Leonard, the first to manufacture steel. Jonathan went to England and feigned to be simple, in order to get work in an establishment manufacturing steel, and thus gained the knowledge which the English were studiously endeavoring to conceal from the artisans of other countries. Upon his return the firm of "Leonard & Kinsley" successfully engaged in the production of steel in this country.

Charles Shipman, for more than twenty years an active and leading citizen of Athens, was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, August 28, 1787. He came to Marietta, with his father's family, in 179o, and they remained in the "Stockade" during the Indian war. Colonel Shipman came to the town of Athens in 1813, and engaged in merchandising, in which line his business talent and popular manners soon gave him decided prominence, and ultimately large success. In early times he visited Philadelphia for the purchase of goods, once every year, and sometimes twice a year, always on horseback. Some of the old citizens of Athens still remember the

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fine sorrel horse, long owned by Colonel Shipman, on which he thus made nineteen trips from Athens to Philadelphia and back.

Colonel Shipman was a man of fine social qualities, genial manners, and benevolent heart. He was the first, or one of the first, merchants in this part of the state to discard the sale of intoxicating drinks, to stop the practice of " treating" customers, and to engage actively in the temperance cause. He was, during the most of his life, a professor of religion, and for many years a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church of Athens.

Colonel Shipman (he was elected colonel of a militia regiment during his residence at Athens) married Frances White Dana, of Belpre, in 1811. She died in 1813. The only issue of this marriage was a son, William C. Shipman, for many years past a citizen of New Albany, Indiana. In 1815 he married Joanna, the eldest daughter of Esquire Henry Bartlett, who is still living in Marietta. Colonel Shipman left Athens in 1836 to reside at Marietta, where he died July 7, 1860.

Silas Pruden, born in Norristown, New Jersey, in 1773, came to Athens county in 1815, and purchased the mills and farm east of Athens, then owned by Col. Jehiel Gregory, who soon after removed to Fayette county, Ohio. Mr. Pruden rebuilt and improved the mills, which were known as the "Pruden mills," till

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about 1836, when Mr. Pruden sold them with the adjoining farm, etc., to J. B. & R. W. Miles. Mr. Pruden was a man of considerable means, and raised a highly respectable family of six sons and seven daughters. In November, 1832, one of his daughters, Achsah, was married to John Brough, late governor of Ohio. Mr. Pruden was a member of the Presbyterian church during his residence in the county, and a most worthy man. In 1837 he removed to Hocking county, where he died, November 30, 1856.

Samuel B. Pruden, son of Silas Pruden, was born at Norristown, New Jersey, January 17, 1798, and came to Athens county with his father's family in 1815. On arriving at manhood he developed unusual capacity for business, and, during his long residence in the county, was one of her prominent and leading citizens. In 1826 he began the milling and wool-carding business at the "Bingham mills," west of Athens, which he continued about ten years. In 1836 he established himself permanently about two miles below Athens, on the Hockhocking, where he erected an oil mill, a grist and saw mill, and in 1840 a salt boiling establishment. The settlement that he here founded has long been known as Harmony. For many years Mr. Pruden carried on the manufacture of salt at this point, and also at Chauncey, in Dover township, where he owned another furnace. He was associate judge for one term,

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trustee of the Ohio university for several years, and represented the county in the state legislature in 1854-5. He also held the office of county surveyor for many years. As a member of the Masonic fraternity he advanced from one degree to another in that body, till he became commander of the Athens Encampment of Knights Templar. He died December 10, 1863.

Neil Courtney was an Englishman by birth, and was, for a time, in the British navy during the revolutionary war. Near the close of the war, while the vessel on which he was serving lay off Long Island, he deserted the service into which he had been impressed, swam half a mile to shore, and assumed allegiance to the new government. He came to Athens county in 1806, and settled one mile north of Athens, on what was afterward known as the "Courtney farm." The following entries appear in the old records of the county commissioners:

"April 8, 1809. The petitions of William Dorr and Neil Courtney, praying for an alteration in the road leading from the Horse mill to the mouth of Sunday creek, and from Athens to Coe's mill, read the first time. Petition granted. Jehiel Gregory, Samuel Moore, and Robert Linzee appointed viewers, to meet at Neil Courtney's on Monday, the 12th instant, at 9 o'clock A. M."

" December 6, 1810. The commissioners agreed, on condition that Neil Courtney produce to them satisfactory proof that

298 - Town and Township of Athens.

he has worked, or expended on the alteration in the road leading from the Horse mill, near Esquire Bingham's, to the mouth of Sunday creek, the sum of five dollars, that then said road shall be established. Proof filed in office of commissioners, February --, 1811."

Mr. Courtney died January 22, 1826, in his sixty- eighth year. Numerous descendants of his are living in this county.

Joseph Goodspeed, born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in June, 1774, came to this county, with his family of five sons and three daughters, in 1818, and settled on a farm about two miles west of Athens, where he died February 12, 1857. His two sons, David and Ezra Goodspeed, well known in the county as successful farmers, were born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and came to Athens, with their father, in 1818. Many of their descendants still live in the county, and are highly respected. Major Arza Goodspeed, son of. David, was killed before Vicksburg, while bravely doing his duty as a soldier of the Union, and J. McKinly Goodspeed, son of Ezra, and a graduate of the Ohio university, is at present superintendent of the Athens union schools.

Francis Beardsley, born at Stratford, Hartford county, Connecticut, December 28, 1792, came to Athens in 1814, where he has lived ever since. Soon after com-

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ing here he married Miss Culver, sister of John Gillmore's wife, who died in —. For his second wife he married Rebecca, daughter of Esquire Henry Bartlett. Of a retiring disposition and unobtrusive manners, Mr. Beardsley has led a quiet and useful life. A model of christian rectitude under all circumstances, he is respected and eSteemed by all who know him.

Norman Root, born in Canaan, Litchfield county, Connecticut, January 22, 1798, removed to. Ohio in 1816, and to the town of Athens about the year 1820. In 1824 he married Jane Brice, sister of Thomas Brice, long known as a leading citizen of Athens. In 1827 Mr. Root was elected county auditor, and served till 1839, being re-elected five times. He was also, for many years, recorder of Athens, and held other positions of trust in the community, in all of which he discharged his duty with scrupulous fidelity. He was a man of great modesty and reticence, but of sound judgment and excellent business capacity. He was, for a long time, prominent as a Free Mason, and, for forty years, was a devoted and consistent member of the Methodist church. He died September 21, 1867.

E. Hastings Moore, born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, in 1812, came to Athens county with the family of his father, David Moore, in 1817. For about ten years the youth lived on a farm in Dover

300 - Town and Township of Athens.

township, and then for several years on a farm in this township, about two miles from Athens, whence he finally removed to the town itself, where he has ever since resided. Mr. Moore had a good common school education (he taught some when a young man), and a taste for practical mathematics. In 1836 he became deputy county surveyor, and in 1838 was elected by the people to that office, then a difficult and laborious one. He held this position till 1846, discharging its duties with uncommon accuracy and entire acceptance to the public. In 1846 he was elected county auditor, which office he held, under re-elections, fourteen years. In '1862 he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the fifteenth Ohio district, and held the office till i866. In 1868 he was elected to the forty-first congress from the fifteenth Ohio district as a republican. He is also president of the First National Bank at Athens.

Mr. Moore is a man of great practical sense and strict integrity, and is esteemed by all as a valuable citizen.

William Golden, born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, October 5th, 1799, came to Athens county in 1824, and settled at first in Athens, but later, in Alexander township, as a farmer. Here he was elected justice of the peace for many successive yearS. He was county sheriff from 1843 to 1847, and county treasurer

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from 1848 to 1854. In 1843 he removed to the town of Athens, where he has since resided, and is now post master. Three of his sons are living, viz: John C., a farmer and stock dealer in Meigs county, Elmer, a merchant in Jackson, Ohio, and William R.

William Reed Golden, son of the last named, was born in Athens, April 11th, 1827, and passed his early years on his father's farm in Alexander. He was educated at the Ohio university, studied law at Athens with Lot L. Smith, and attended lectures at the National Law School at Ballston Spa, New York, where he graduated in 1851. Returning to Athens, he entered on the practice of his profession here in 1852. In 1865 he was elected, as a democrat, to the state senate, and re-elected in October, 1867, to represent the counties of Athens, Hocking, and Fairfield, composing the ninth senatorial district. He haS recently removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he is now engaged in the practice of law.

John Welch, born. in 18o5, in Harrison county, Ohio, came to Athens county about 1828, and settled in Rome township. Here he and his brother Thomas Welch bought the " Beebe mill," at that time owned by their father, and for some years he pursued the milling business. While performing his duties as miller, Mr. Welch studied law with Professor Joseph

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Dana of Athens, going some fourteen miles to recite once in a week or two. Having finished his studies and prepared to change his vocation, he removed to Athens, where he was admitted to the bar in 1833 by the supreme court of Ohio, sitting in Athens county. In this field his success was assured from the start. His eminent abilities, indefatigable industry and devotion to his profession Soon placed him at the head of the Athens bar, and finally among the ablest lawyers of the state. He was prosecuting attorney of Athens county for several years ; a member of the State senate in 1846-7 ; a representative in congress in 1851-2 ; and judge of the common pleas court from 1862 to 1865. February 23d, 1865, he was appointed by the governor, judge of the supreme court of Ohio, in place of Rufus P. Ranney, resigned, and in October, 1865, was elected for Judge Ranney's unexpired term. In October, 1867, he was elected for the fall term, and occupies the position at the present time.

Judge Welch's career, which has been attended with honorable and solid success, is a sufficient eulogy upon his character as a man and citizen, and his ability as a lawyer.

Dr. Eben G. Carpenter was born at Alstead, New Hampshire, in 1808. His father was a physician, and, of eight brothers, five studied medicine. Dr. C. graduated at the Berkshire Medical college at Pittsfield,

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Massachusetts, in 1831, practiced in New Hampshire a year or so, came to Ohio in 1833 and settled at Chester, Meigs county (then the county Seat). In 1836 he came to Athens, where he has lived ever since, engaging very actively in the practice of hiS profession. Dr. C. has been notably successful as an operative surgeon.

Dr. William Blackstone was born in Bottetourt county, Virginia, in 1796, and came with his father's family to Ohio in 1802, settling first in Pickaway and afterward in Ross county. He studied medicine at Circleville, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated at the Cincinnati Medical college in 1833, having engaged actively in the practice during several years before this. Dr. B. came to Athens in 1838, and has practiced here continuously since. He and Dr. Carpenter have both partially retired from active practice.

Dr. Perkins, Dr. Jewett, Dr. Bierce (who left here about 1840), Dr. Carpenter, and Dr. Blackstone are the only resident physicians who remained for any length of time in the place during the first half of this century. There are now three practicing physicians here, viz: Dr. W. P. Johnson, Dr. C. L. Wilson, and Dr. George Carpenter.

Nelson H. Van Vorhes, son of Abraham Van Vorhes, himself for many years a leading citizen of the county,

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was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, January 23d, 1822. In 1832 his father removed with his family to Athens county, and settled in Alexander township. In 1836, his father having bought the Western Spectator and removed to Athens, Nelson entered the printing office as an apprentice. He worked diligently here for some years, part of the time having sole conduct of the paper, as his father was elected to the State legislature, and was absent for several winters. In 1844 he purchased the paper, which he continued to publish (a portion of the time in connection with his brother A. J. Van Vorhes), till 1861 as the Athens Messenger. During this time he took an active part in the political contests of the day and in furthering the home and local interests of the county. He served from 1850 to 1853 in the state legislature; in 1853 was whig candidate for secretary of state, but, with the rest of the ticket, failed of election ; in 1854 was elected probate judge of the county, but resigned to become a candidate again for the legislature. He was elected, and became speaker of the house, which position he held during two sessions. In 1857 he was re-elected to the legislature. In 1858 he was republican candidate for congress in the 11th district, but was not able to overcome the democratic majority. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention in 1860, and took an active part in the presidential campaign which followed. At the breaking out of the war in 1861,

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Mr. Van Vorhes enlisted as a private in the first company of infantry raised at Athens, and on the election of officers was chosen first lieutenant. In 1862, he was appointed colonel of the 92d Ohio regiment of infantry, which command he retained, serving in Western Virginia, till the summer of 1863, when, his health completely failing, he was forced to resign. Col. Van Vorhes has never fully recovered his health. He has held variouS local offices during the past few years, and possesses, in as high degree as ever, the confidence and respect of the community.

Charles H. Grosvenor, born in Pomfret, Connecticut, September 20, 1833, came to Athens county with his father'S family when five years old, and lived in Rome during his youth and early manhood. While clerking in the store of Daniel Stewart he obtained books from Lot L. Smith, of Athens, and read law assiduously. He practiced with Success in Athens for a few years prior to the breaking out of the rebellion, and entered the service in July, 1861, as major of the 18th Ohio infantry. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel March 16, 1863. March 14, 1865, Maj. Gen. J. B. Steedman recommended Col. Grosvenor to the secretary of war for promotion " for faithful, distinguished and gallant services." The recommendation was thus indorsed by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas : "Respectfully forwarded and earnestly recommended.

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Lieut. Col. Grosvenor has served under my command since November, 1862, and has, on all occasions, performed his duties with intelligence and zeal." Gen. Grosvenor was promoted to colonel April 8, 1865, and served till the close of the war. He was breveted brigadier general to date from March 13, 1865, and was mustered out October 28th in that year. He is now practicing law in Athens.

Samuel Knowles, a native of Connecticut, and, during early life, a Seafaring man, came to Athens county in 1808 and settled at Hockingport. In 1812 he married Miss Clarissa Curtis, sister of Judge Walter Curtis of Washington county, and in 1820 removed to the town of Athens where he reSided for many years. He was elected marshal of the town in 1825 and 1826. He removed to the west many years since and is now living in Knoxville, Iowa.

Samuel S. Knowles, son of the last named, was born at Athens, August 25, 1825, received his early education at the village schools, learned the carpenter trade when seventeen years old and followed it for a few years, entered the academy at Athens at the age of twenty-one, and pursued his studies there and in the university about four years, read law with Lot L. Smith, was admitted to the bar in 1851, elected prosecuting attorney of Athens county the same year, and held the office

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two terms. He practiced law at Athens till 1862, when he removed to Marietta. In October, 1865, he was elected state senator from the 14th district, comprising Washington, Morgan, and Noble counties, Serving two years. In April, 1864, he was elected mayor of Marietta, and re-elected in 1866, serving four years. He is now engaged in the practice of law at Marietta.

John Ballard was born in Charlemont, Massachusetts, October 1st, 1790, and came to Athens in February, 1839. During the greater part of his residence here he engaged successfully in the mercantile business ; was also for several years president of the Athens branch of the State Bank, and a leading man in the local enterprises of the place. He has now retired from business. Four of his sons are living, viz : Otis, a banker in Circleville, Ohio ; Charles, manufacturer of farm implements in Springfield, O. ; James, merchant in Athens, and the Rev. Addison Ballard at Detroit, Michigan.

Thomas F. Wildes was born at Racine, in the dominion of Canada, June 1, 1834, came to Ohio with his father's family in 1839, and to Athens in 1861 as the editor of the Athens Messenger. Mr. Wildes was an ardent republican, and in August, 1862, exchanging the pen for the sword, he entered the military service as lieutenant colonel of the 116th Ohio infantry. He was in active service with this regiment during the next

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two and a half years, in the army of West Virginia, part of the time commanding a brigade. In February, 1865, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 186th Ohio volunteer infantry, and assigned to duty in the Army of the Cumberland. March 11th, 1865, he was breveted brigadier general and commanded a brigade in the army last named till he was mustered out in September, 1865. He graduated at the law school in Cincinnati in 1866, and has since practiced his profession at Athens.