HISTORY OF ATHENS COUNTY, OHIO And Incidentally of the Ohio Land Company AND THE First Settlement of the State at Marietta WITH PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE EARLY SETTLERS, NARRATIVES OF PIONEER ADVENTURES, ETC. BY CHARLES M. WALKER. "Forsam et hoc olim meminisse juvabit,” - Virgil WITH MAP AND PORTRAITS. CINCINNATI: ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 1869. ATHENS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ATHENS, OHIO Athens County Courthouse - Athens, Ohio September 2007 SEARCH ENGINE When you reach the page you have been referred to by the search engine, search this page by going to the top of your browser, click Edit and then click find on this page. Type in the desired search word and click. This will take you to the places on the page where this word is found. It will take you through all of the places that this word is found on this page (RETURN TO THE HOME PAGE) PREFACE. THIS unpretending book is a record of but narrow interest and of purely local events. Its preparation was undertaken at the instance and request of some of the old citizens of Athens county—a county which, one of the earliest organized in Ohio, contains, perhaps, a greater number of surviving pioneers than any other in the state except Washington. The desire, on the part of these pioneers, to see preserved in a somewhat connected form the annals of the first settlement of the county and of their own labors and struggles in founding society here, is not an unnatural one. " Near is thy forgetfulness of all things," said Marcus Aurelius, in one of his aphorisms, " and near the forgetfulness of thee by all." With something of this feeling, it is, perhaps, that the old always dwell with such keen pleasure on the events and associations of their early life. Conscious of approaching change and of waning strength, they love to linger on the honorable achievements and labors of that (iii) iv- Preface. period when the eye was bright, the brain active, and the step elastic. There is, also, a feeling among men that the record of a well-spent and useful life, even if humble, deserves to be remembered. They derive a pardonable pleasure from the thought that posterity will not wholly ignore nor forget them. It is in recognition of this feeling that these pages have been written. To preserve some account of the lives and labors of the early settlers, who bore so honorable a part in converting a wilderness into a great commonwealth, and to rescue from total oblivion some matters that seem worthy of being narrated, is the modest object of this sketch concerning the history of Athens county. In endeavoring to accomplish faithfully what was undertaken, it has been found that the work, notwithstanding its narrow scope, involved considerable labor and difficulties. Much of the information touching the first settlement of the county has passed out of reach and is lost forever. Nearly three-quarters of a century have elapsed since the first band of pioneers came into Athens and Ames townships, and that generation has disappeared. If this work had been undertaken by some one fifteen or twenty years since, a vastly greater amount of oral and traditional history could have been gained from the then surviving pioneers. But they have passed away, and it is from Preface - v their sons and successors that many of the facts herein have been obtained. It is evident that much of the material so acquired would be more or less vague, confused, and difficult to arrange. The writer has, however, labored diligently to overcome these obstacles, and hopes that he has been mainly successful. He is well aware that there will be found errors both of omission and of commission in the book, but it is impossible, in a work of this sort, to eliminate all such. The writer is very conscious, too, of the literary deficiencies of the book. It has been prepared hurriedly, amid the constant pressure of other duties, and the marks of haste are apparent ; could he have had more time, he would have improved and greatly condensed it. Such as it is, however, if it shall afford any gratification to the good people of the county, where he was born and passed the early portion of his life, the writer will feel pleased and well rewarded. Doubtless it will be discovered that some prominent early settlers, or leading men among recent citizens, have not been mentioned at all, while comparatively too great prominence will be thought to have been given to others; but the best has been done that could be, under the circumstances, and it is hoped such inequalities and defects will be overlooked. In seeking requisite facts and information, the writer has met with valuable assistance from so many quarters, that it is entirely vi - Preface. impossible to name here the numerous persons to whom he is thus indebted, however agreeable it would be to his own feelings to do so. He is forced, therefore, to adopt the unsatisfactory mode of thus thanking them, one and all, indiscriminately, for their marked and constant courtesy. C. M. W. May, 1869. CONTENTS.