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CHAPTER IX.

Ames Township.

THIS was one of the four original townships into which the county was divided on its organization in 1805. The county included then more than twice its present area, and Ames comprised the territory which now forms the townships of Marion and Homer in Morgan county ; Ward, Green, and Starr in Hocking county, and Trimble, York, Dover, Bern, and Ames in Athens county. The settlement of Ames was begun about a year after that of Athens, and the first settlers were Judge Ephraim Cutler and George Ewing, with their families. In the summer of 1797 Ephraim Cutler, one of the original associates of the Ohio Company, finding that a considerable portion of his lands lay on the waters of Federal creek, in the sixth township, of the thirteenth range, and being desirous to visit them and fix their location, explored a way and cut a horSe path through the wilderness from Waterford on the Muskingum, to what is now Ames township. He was accompanied and assisted by Mr. George Ewing, who,

364 - Ames Township.

with his little family, had come from western Virginia to the Ohio Company's purchase in 1794, and had lived till the close of the Indian war in one of the block houses of the Waterford settlement. In the autumn of 1797 they made a second visit to and more thorough exploration of Mr. Cutler's landss. This time they were accompanied by Captain Benjamin Brown who had recently arrived in the colony from Massachusetts. Mr. Ewing and Capt. Brown each owned one hundred acres of land in the company's " donation tract on the Muskingum, which they exchanged with Mr. Cutler for land on Federal creek, agreeing to assist him in forming a settlement. They found a fertile region, heavily timbered, well watered, and abounding in game. Traces of the buffalo and elk showed that they were not yet exterminated, and deer, bears, wild turkeys, and smaller game were found in great abundance. Wolves and panthers were very numerous, and continued for many years to be a source of annoy_ ance and danger.

The result of their second visit to the valley of Federal creek was a determination to locate there. Mr. Ewing brought his family out in March, 1798, and settled on what is now known as the Thomas Gardner farm. It was nearly a year later that Judge Cutler and Capt. Brown brought their families over from Waterford. The domestic effects and portable property of sithe two families were loaded into large canoes and sent,

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in charge of Capt. Brown, down the Muskingum and Ohio rivers to the mouth of the Hockhocking, and up that stream to Federal creek, a distance of about eighty miles. The women and children, on horse back, were escorted by Mr. Cutler through the pathless woods and over the hills to their new home. In a narrative written a few years later Mr. Cutler thus refers to this journey :

" I, with four horses, took Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cutler and all our children to go twenty miles tbrough an entire wilderness to our new home. Night overtook us before we were able to cross Sharp's fork of Federal creek, and we were obliged to encamp. We experienced a very rainy night. The creek in the morning was rapidly rising. I hurried, got Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cutler and the children, with the baggage and horses, over tbe creek, all except A. G. Brown,* then a child three or four years old, whom I took in my arms, and as I stepped on a drift of flood-wood, which reached across the creek, it broke away from the bank. We were in danger, but a gracious Providence preserved us and we got safely across. We arrived at our camp, near where we built our cabin, May 7th, 1799•"

Mr. Cutler settled on lands now owned by his son, Mr. William P. Cutler, and Capt. Brown on the farm where Daniel Fleming now lives. In May, 1800, Silvanus Ames, afterward known as Judge Ames, came from Belpre with his family and settled near Mr. Cutler on the farm which he occupied till his death in 1823.

Judge Brown of Athens.

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Deacon Joshua Wyatt came with his family about the same time and settled on the farm in section 1 now owned by the heirs of George Wyatt. All of these men bore a large part in the early history of Amesville. Their wives, too, were persons of solid minds and superior culture. The writer remembers to have heard Mrs. Ames, who had been tenderly reared in the family of a New England clergyman, but whose energy and character were equal to any occasion, describe the hardships of her tedious journey from Massachusetts to Ohio, in the year 1799, which she made all the way on horseback, carrying an infant in her arms. Mrs. Cutler and Mrs. Wyatt were also women of great excellence; the former died in 1809, and the latter a few years later.

A pioneer settlement is fortunate if its founders cultivate at the beginning a respect for law and order, due regard for the ordinances of religion, and a healthy desire for literary culture. These early influences seem to be permanent, and the character of a community for generations is often fixed for good or evil by the forces dominant at its birth. Amesville, not less than the sister settlement at Athens, was favored in this regard.

"Schools of an elevated character," says Ephraim Cutler, "were soon established. Two gentlemen, graduates of Harvard college—Mr. Moses Everett, son of the Rev. Moses Everett, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Mr. Charles Cutler—taught successively several nears.

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For some time the youth enjoyed no other means of acquiring knowledge. Mr. Cutler took the United States Gazette, at that time the only newspaper taken in the settlement ; and that, except by fortunate accident, did not arrive much oftener than once in three months." Steps were taken, at an early day, to form a circulating library. In 1803 the inhabitants of Ames assembled in public meeting to consider the subject of roads, which, having been disposed of, the intellectual wants of the settlement became a topic of discussion. They were entirely isolated and remote from established schools and libraries, and felt keenly the necessity of providing some means for their own and their children's mental improvement. The establishment of a library was suggested, and all agreed that this was the readiest way to meet the case, provided funds could be raised and the books obtained. The scarcity of money seemed an almost insuperable obstacle. We can form little idea at this day of the almost total dearth of any medium of exchange which existed in our pioneer settlements. The little transactions of the colony were carried on almost wholly by barter and exchange in kind. Very little more produce was raised than each family needed, and, indeed, there was no market for any surplus. Judge A. G. Brown says that, soon after they settled in Ames, his older brother raised a little crop of hemp, which they took in a canoe down Federal creek and the Hockhocking, and up to Marietta, where

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they succeeded in disposing of it for a small sum ; and adds: "So scarce was money that I can hardly remember ever seeing a piece of coin till I was a well-grown boy. It was with difficulty we obtained enough to pay our taxes with and buy tea for mother--as for clothes and other things, we either depended on the forests for them, or bartered for them, or did without." In this great scarcity of money the purchase of books for a library seemed like an impossibility; but the subject waS canvassed by the meeting, and it was resolved to attempt it. Before the end of the year, by dint of economy, and using every ingenious device to procure necessary funds, a sum of money was raised. Some of the settlers were good hunters, and, there being a ready cash market for furs and skins, which were bought by the agents of John Jacob Astor and others, these easily paid their subscriptions. At all events, the movement was successful, and the money was paid in. Esquire Samuel Brown was just ready to make a business trip to New England. He was going in a light wagon, and took with him a quantity of bear-skins and other furs, which he designed exchanging in Boston for such goods as were needed in the settlement. The money was placed in his hands, and he was deputed to make the first purchase of books for the embryo library—the first in Ohio. He was furnished with letters to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris (a gentleman of education and note, who had visited the western

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country a short time before), and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, who accompanied Mr. Brown to Boston and selected a valuable collection of books. This was the first public library formed in the northwestern territory, though not, as some have supposed, the first incorporated. The "Dayton library Society" was incorporated February 21, 1805; a library "at Granville, in the county of Fairfield," January 26, 1807; one at Newtown, Hamilton county, February 10, 1808, and the "Coon-skin library," as it has been familiarly called of late years, was incorporated, under the name of the "Western library association," by an act passed February 19, 1810. But, that to Athens county belongs the honor of having given birth to the first library created in the territory of the northwest, does not admit of any doubt. The original record of the association is before us, entitled "Laws and regulations of the Western library association, founded at Ames, February 2., 1804." The preamble to the articles sets forth that, "considering the many beneficial effects which social libraries are calculated to produce in societies where they are established, as a source both of rational entertainment and instruction, we, the subscribers, wishing to participate in those blessings, agree to form ourselves into a society for this purpose, under the title of the Western library association, in the town of Ames. Furthermore, at a meeting of the said association, at the house of Christopher Herrold, on Thursday, the ad of February,

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1804, agreed that the following articles be adopted as the rules of the society." The shares were $2.50 each, and each share paid a tax of twenty-five cents a year. Among the founders and original stockholders, whose names are subscribed to the articles, were the following, viz.: Ephraim Cutler, four shares; Jason Rice, two; Silvanus Ames, two; Benjamin L. Brown, one; Martin Boyles, one; Ezra Green, one; George Ewing, one; John Brown, Jun., one ; Josiah True, one; George Ewing, Jun., one; Daniel Weethee, two; Timothy Wilkins, two; Benjamin Brown, one; Samuel Brown, 2d, one; Samuel Brown, Sen., one; Simon Converse, one; Christopher Herrold, one ; Edmund Dorr, one; George Wolf, one ; Nathan Woodbury, one; Joshua Wyatt, one; George Walker, one ; Elijah Hatch, one; Zebulon Griffin, one; Jehiel Gregory, one; George Castle, one ; Samuel Brown, one, etc. Among the subscribers in later years appear the names of Dr. Ezra Walker, Othniel Nye, Sally Rice, Nehemiah Gregory, Thomas Ewing, JaSon Rice, Lucy Ames, John M. Hibbard, Seth Child, Ebenezer Champlin, Elisha Lattimer, Cyrus Tuttle, Pearly Brown, Robert Fulton, R. S. Lovell, Michael Tippie, James Pugsley, and others among the early residents of Ames.

December 17th, 1804, a meeting of the shareholders was held at the house of Silvanus Ames, and Ephraim Cutler was elected librarian. It was also "voted to accept fifty-one books, purchased by Samuel Brown."

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At the annual meeting held at the house of Ephraim Cutler, January 7th, 1805, the. committee reported that they "have received pay for thirty-two Shares, amounting to $82.50, of which they have laid out $73.50 for books." For this year Benjamin Brown, Ephraim Cutler and Daniel Weethee were elected the committee of managers, and Ephraim Cutler librarian. "Voted that the thanks of this association be transmitted, post paid, to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, for his assistance rendered in the selection and purchase of the books which constitute our library." The list of this first purchase of books is before us. It contains "Robertson's North America;" "Harris' Encyclopedia," 4 volumes; " Morse's Geography," 2 volumes; "Adams' Truth of Religion;" "Goldsmith's Works," 4 volumes; "Evelina," 2 volumes; "Children of the Abbey," 2 volumes; " Blair's Lectures;" "Clark's Discourses;" "Ramsey's American Revolution," 2 volumes; "Goldsmith's Animated Nature," 4 volumes; "Playfair's History of Jacobinism," 2 volumes; "George Barnwell;" "Camilla," 3 volumes; " Beggar Girl," 3 volumes, &c. Later purchases included "Shakspeare;" " Don Quixote;" "Locke's Essays," "Scottish Chiefs," "Josephus," "Smith's Wealth of Nations," "Spectator," " Plutarch's Lives," "Arabian Nights," "Life of Washington," &c.

In 1807 John Brown was elected librarian, and William Green, Thos. M. Hamilton and John Brown managers for one year.

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In 1808 George Walker, Benjamin Brown and Samuel Beaumont were elected managers, and George Walker librarian. In 1809 John Brown, Benjamin Brown and Seth Fuller were elected managers, and John Brown librarian. In 1811 (under the incorporating act) Silvanus Ames, Ezra Green and George Ewing were chosen directors, Seth Fuller, treasurer, and Benjamin Brown, librarian. In 1812, '13 and '14 the same officers were re-elected. In 1815 Seth Fuller, Geo. Walker and Ezra Green were chosen directors, John Brown, 2d, treasurer, and Benjamin Brown, librarian. From 1816 to 182o the directors were Seth Fuller, Josiah True and Ezra Green. Benjamin Brown was librarian during 1816 and 1817, and Dr. Ezra Walker during 1818 and 1819.*

We have given considerable space to an account of

*A somewhat fanciful account of the formation of this library has heretofore appeared in print styling it the "Coon-skin library," and stating that the first purchase of books was made wholly with the furs and skins of wild animals. Some hunting adventures supposed to have occurred in the pursuit of skins are given, and the founders of the library appear rather in the light of literary Nimrods, with whom the chase was an intellectual pastime, and every crack of whose rifles brought down a volume of poems or history. The account we have given is the correct one, our facts having been obtained from one of the surviving founders, and from the records. Certainly some coon skins were sold to raise money by some of the subscribers; and doubtless some hemp, grain, deer or bear-skins, and whatever else would fetch a price; but the sobriquet of "Coon-skin library" was only invented comparatively a few years since. The literal truth about this event is sufficiently interesting, and that we have given.

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the formation and early history of this, the first public library formed in the state of Ohio, because of the interesting nature of the event, and because nearly all of the founders of the library have descendants still living in the county, who will read with pride of the part their ancestors took in establishing an institution which worked such great and lasting good. The library received additions from time to time, until there were finally accumulated Several hundred volumes—a considerable library for the place and period. Many years later it was divided, and part taken to Dover township (where Some of the original stockholders lived), where it formed the nucleus of another library, which was incorporated by an act of the legislature, passed December 21, 1830. The portion retained in Ames township was sold by the shareholders in the year 186o or 1861 to Messrs. J. H. Glazier, A.W. Glazier and E. H. Brawley, and they afterwards sold it to Mr. William P. Cutler, of Washington county (son of Judge Ephraim Cutler), who still has it in his possession.

In the year 1798 Samuel, John and Thos. McCune, three brothers, and David, Jacob and Peter Boyles, came from Pennsylvania and settled temporarily on the Hockhocking, on what is now N. 0. Warren's farm, where they remained till 1802, when they removed to the township of Ames and settled within half a mile of the present village of Amesville. George Ewing, Jun.,

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brother of Thomas Ewing, married a daughter of this David Boyles. The three McCune brothers, as also two of the Boyles brothers, were strong, athletic men, and great hunters, sometimes killing, it is said, twelve or fourteen deer and three or four bears in a day. John McCune was something of a mechanic, and used to repair the guns of his neighbors. On one occasion a man brought his gun to be mended and borrowed McCune's gun to use in the meantime. Before repairing the gun McCune went out with it to kill some game. Coming unexpectedly on a bear, he tried to shoot it, but the gun failed to go off, when the bear, as if seeing his advantage, made for the hunter. McCune, unlike his gun, went off. He ran as fast as he could for some distance, the bear closely pursuing, and McCune trying every few rods to fire his gun, which, however seemed to like the situation, and refused to be discharged. After running about half a mile, a neighbor's dogs came to his assistance, and Bruin waS driven off but not killed. Wolves were, of course, very abundant at that time, and killing a wolf was a common occurrence. The wife of John McCune seeing something pass the door of their cabin one evening which she took for a dog, set their own dog upon it, and, at the same time stepping out of the door, found it was a large black wolf. Arming herself with a pitchfork that stood within reach, she and the dog kept up a running fight of several rods and finally killed the wolf.

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John Boyles and John McCune, while hunting one day, came upon a mother bear and two cubs. Boyles fired at and wounded the old bear, and then, wishing to see his dog kill one of the cubs, laid down his gun and hissed his dog on to attack the cub—the old bear and other cub beating a retreat. Boyles, becoming interested in the fight between his dog and the cub, had approached near them, when he was disagreeably startled by seeing the old bear return, brought by the cries of the cub, and place herself between him and his gun. He was preparing to make the best battle he could with his hunting knife, when McCune, hearing his call for help, hastened to the spot and dispatched the bear by a bullet from his rifle. The sons of the McCune brothers still live in the county, and, like their fathers before them, have been famous hunters and contributed much toward ridding the Settlement and eastern part of the county of the wild game and "vermin" that So annoyed the early settlers. Jacob McCune, one of the sons of John McCune, a few years since, on the occasion of a squirrel hunt, killed in one day one hundred and three grey Squirrels, and Samuel McCune, his brother, killed eighty-three.

The year 1805 was a year of unexampled drought, and a scarcity almost amounting to a famine prevailed through all the settlements of this region. The inhabitants of Ames and Athens townships lived almost exclusively during the winter of 1805-6 on the meat of

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deer, bears, &c., and were compelled to go to Lancaster and Marietta for breadstuff.

In 1806 or 1807 Joab Hoisington settled in the township, and in 1807 Azor Nash, an eccentric character, well known here in early times. Elijah. Latimer and Obediah Clark came about the same time. The latter, who married a sister of Thomas Ewing, had been a fifer in the army, and used to play the violin at the country dances in Ames.

The first school taught in the township was in a cabin on the old Cutler place, in 1802, by Charles Cutler, a graduate of Harvard college, and eminently qualified for teaching. At an exhibition given at the close of the term, when the children recited dialogues or other pieces committed for the occasion, Thomas Ewing and John Brown, two of the pupils, spoke the dialogue of Brutus and Cassius, from Shakspeare. In 1804 a log school house was built on Silas Dean's place, near the present village of Amesville, and close by the site of the late George Walker's store. Moses Everett, a graduate of Harvard, taught the first quarter in this house. General John Brown taught here in 1807. The next school house was built in 1811, on Silvanus Ames' farm, and for' several years served as a meeting house and school house for the settlement. Sophia Walker, then recently from Vermont, taught the first quarter in this house, and Dr. Ezra Walker, her father, taught here in the winter of 1811-12.

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An incident connected with early preaching among the pioneer settlements may be mentioned. A neighborhood in the lower Settlement in Ames township, in which Squire John Brown lived, secured the services of Elder Asa Stearns, a Free Will Baptist, to preach for them once a month during the year, to be paid with three barrels of whisky. Mr. Stearns had an arrangement with Ebenezer Currier, at Athens, to take the whisky and allow him therefor twenty-four dollars, to be credited to him toward the farm he had bought of Judge Currier. The contract was faithfully carried out on all hands, Elder Stearns visiting his little congregation every third Saturday of each month during the year, at the end of which he received his salary in whisky and made the transfer of it as agreed to judge Currier.

The Rev. J. H. Hopkins, an early resident of Ames, says: "Among the pioneers of Methodism here were Gulliver Dean and wife, Mr. Haight, Judge Walker's family, the McCunes, &c. The class formed at Ames, early in this century, was ministered to at first by Mr. Austin Thompson and Mr. Dickson, local preachers, and the Rev. Messrs. Ferree, Baker, R. O. Spencer, Henry Fernandez, and Abraham Lippett, Athens circuit, preached to them. A great many years ago, when William Miller first published his lectures on the prophecies concerning the second coming of Christ, some of our people became very much alarmed to think the end of all things was so near. There was one old sister,

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quite a good woman too, no doubt, but possessed of a large share of credulousness, and consequently ready to gulp down almost anything that came from the mouth of Mr. Miller touching the signs of Christ's coming and the end of the world. She awoke one winter night, the weather extremely cold; quite a deep snow had fallen, and the roads and sledding were fine. The wind was blowing hard, and a lot of old clap-boards that had been loosely thrown down near the house, were flapping and making quite a noise. She shook the old man and told him to arise, for the day of judgment had come, or at least that Gabriel and his angels were at hand. The old man raised himself up a little and said: 'Old woman, what put this into your head? you are always anticipating some wonderful event.' 'It must be so,' was the reply, 'for I have been listening for some time to the rumbling of Gabriel's chariot wheels.' The old man told her just to lie down and be quiet, for said he, `Gabriel is too wise a creature ever to come to our world on wheels, while the sledding continues as good as it is now.'"

In early times much attention was given to militia organizations. The first organization in the eastern part of the county was made at the house of Judge Ames, in 1803, when Silvanus Ames was elected captain, Josiah True, of Dover township, lieutenant, and Samuel Brown, of Ames, ensign. The first company muster in the Same neighborhood was in 1804. At the next elec-

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tion of officers, in 1808, John Brown was made captain and George Ewing lieutenant. John Brown was subsequently advanced to major, colonel and brigadier general, to which last position he was elected in 1817, the brigade being composed of Athens, Morgan, Washington, Meigs, Gallia, and Vinton counties. The first battalion muster was held at Athens in 1805. Another was held a short time afterward on Esquire Daniel Stewart's place in Rome township, and a third on Wm. Henry's place in Canaan. Regimental musters were held annually for many years at Athens, and Colonel Jehiel Gregory, of Athens, was the first colonel; after him came Silvanus Ames, Edmund Dorr, John Brown, Charles Shipman, Calvary Morris, Absalom Boyles, Nathan Dean, Ziba Lindley, Jun., Charles Cutler, Jonas Rice, and Amos Thompson.

General John Brown was lister of lands for Ames township in 1807, in connection with which he recalls the following anecdote. As his quaint style can not be improved, we give his own words: "In 1807 I was elected lister (an office somewhat like the present assessor) of Ames township, which at that time was about thirty miles east and west, and twelve or fourteen miles north and south, while the inhabitants were few and far between. In discharging that duty I learned how hard it is to levy taxes so as to give satisfaction to all. At that time the tax on all horses three years old, in April preceding, was forty cents per head; on all cattle

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three years old ten cents. The great difficulty was to settle aS to age. Some would not tell, some would prevaricate, sometimes the man of the family was not at home, and the woman did not know, &c. One old lady I found fully posted. I had looked about the place and found they did work with two yoke of cattle; but the woman said these were 'late calves'—would be three years old during the summer. There were several cows evidently giving milk, but, somehow, none but the bell cow was old enough for me. Out of a lot of three or four horses only one was three years old. I quizzed the old lady about the singularity of nearly all the colts and calves in the settlement coming after April. `Ah,' said she, 'you are a single man and young yet, but you will learn that Providence arranges these things.' That was a clincher, and I left."

The same year the county commissioners appointed him collector of the resident land tax, and the following is a copy of the land tax duplicate as levied by him that year for the whole township:

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Residents' Lands, Ames Township, 1807.-

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The first election for township officers in Ames was held June 1, 1802 (nearly three years before the organization of the county), at the house of Silvanus Ames, and resulted as follows:

Nathan Woodbury, George Ewing and Samuel brown, trustees; Daniel Weethee, clerk; Josiah True and Samuel Brown, overseers of the poor ; Nathan Woodbury, Joseph Pugsley and John Swett, fence viewers; George Wolf and Christopher Herrold, house appraisers; Daniel Converse, lister ; Samuel Brown and Benjamin Brown, supervisors; Daniel Converse and Silvanus Ames, constables.

In 1803 the following were elected:

Benjamin Brown, Silvanus Ames and Daniel Weethee, trustees ; George Ewing, clerk ; Nathan Woodbury and Joshua Wyatt, overseers of the poor ; Benjamin Brown, John Brown and Samuel Brown, fence viewers ; Jacob Boyles and Edmund Dorr, house appraisers; Josiah True, lister ; William Brown, John Brown and Josiah True, supervisors; William Brown and Josiah True, constables.

Township Trustees since 1804.

1804 David Boyles, Azel Johnson, Nathan Woodbury.
1805 Benjamin Brown, Josiah True, Daniel Weethee.
1806 Ephraim Cutler, John Brown, “
1807 Abel Glazier, Benjamin Davis, Zebulon Griffin.
1808 Robert Palmer, Reuben J. Davis, George Walker.
1809-10 Seth Fuller, Josiah True, George Wolf.
1811 Silvanus Ames, George Ewing, Daniel Weethee.
1812 Joshua Wyatt, Seth Fuller, John Brown, 2d.
1813-15 Ezra Green, " “
1816 Jason Rice, Russell S. Lovell, Daniel Phillips.
1817 Silvanus Ames, " Jonas Rice.
1818 Jacob Boarman, “ Ezra Green.
1819 " John Brown, "
1820 Seth Fuller, James Cable, James Mitchell..
1821 " " Ezra Walker

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TRUSTEES--Continued.

1822-23 John Wyatt, Charles Cutler, Alanson Hibbard.
1824 “ Jacob Boarman, David Trowbridge.
1825 John Columbia, John Boyles, John M. Hibbard.
1826 Charles Cutler, Elisha McEvers, Morris Bryson.
1827-28 Sabinus Rice, L. G. Brown, "
1829 Absalom Boyles,, Jacob Boarman, John B. Brown..
1830 James Brawley “ Gulliver Dean
1831 Daniel Cable, George Black, "
1832 Silvanus Howe, “ Jonathan Buzzard.
1833 John Carter, Sabinus Rice, “
1834 “ Absalom Boyles, Silvanus Howe.
1835 L. G. Brown, John B. Miller, “
1836 " Lewis Rathburn, Daniel S. McDougal.
1837 R. G. Carter, “ ”
1838 " Charles Cutler, "
1839 Daniel Rose, William Robinson, "
1840-45 John T. Glazier, John Carter, James G. Owen.
1846-4 " D. S. McDougal, Solomon Koons.
1850 George Linscott, “ ”
1851-52 James Patterson, “ ”
1853 " G. M. McDougal, “
1854-55 " " George Linscott.
1856-57 Almon Henry, “ ”
1858 John E. Vore, " "
1859-60 “ F. L. Junod, “
1861 Moses Curtis, Solomon Koons, E. P. Henry.
1862 F. L. Junod, C. J. Brown, G. W. Wright.
1863 " “ C. H. Wyatt.
1864-65 N. P. Hoisington, " Daniel Fleming.
1866 “ Almon Henryo “
1867 " Edmund Wheeler, O. N. Owen
1868 “ Daniel Fleming, Ezra Wolfe.

Township Clerks since 1804.

1804, Benjamin Brown; 1805, Harris Parsons; 1806, Geo. Walker; 1807, Benj. Davis; 1808, Martin Boyles; 1809-18, George Walker; 1819-22, Benjamin Davis; 1823-24, Sabinus Rice; 1825-26, David Trowbridge ; 1827-28, Geo. Walker, Jun.; 1829-3o, Wm. R. Walker; 1831, Hiram Cable ; 1832-44, R. A. Fulton; 1845 to present time, J. H. Glazier.

Justices of the Peace.

1803—Ephraim Cutler, Samuel Brown. 1805—John Brown.
1806—Daniel Weethee.

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JUSTICES OF THE PEACE—Continued.

1807—George Walker.
1808—John Brown, Jonathan Watkins.
1810—George Walker, Benjamin Davis.
1811—Thos. M. Hamilton.
1813—George Walker—served till 1830.
1819—Martin Boyles—served till about 1828.
1828—John Brown.
1831—Wm. R. Walker, John B. Brown.
1834—Sabinus Rice, Charles Carter.
1837—R. A. Fulton.
1840—H. B. Brawley, R. A. Fulton.
1843—R. A. Fulton.
1845—James Bryson.
1846—Henry Clark, Lewis Rathburn.
1847—Henry Clark, James Bryson.
1849—J. M. Mitchell.
1850—Henry Clark, James Bryson.
1852—J. M. Mitchell, J. G. Owen.
1853—James Bryson.
1855—R. A. Fulton, Jas. G. Owen.
1857—Gilbert M. McDougal.
1858—Robert A. Fulton, James G. Owen.
1860—Gilbert M. McDougal.
1861—Robert A. Fulton, William Mason.
1862—James G. Owen.
1863—F. L. Junod, R. R. Ellis.
1864—Lewis Carpenter.
1865—Frederick P. Kasler, James M. Mitchell.
1866—N. P. Hoisington.
1868—Lorenzo Fulton, David L. Rathburn.

H. B. Brawley served one term about 184o; Lewis Rathburn a term, elected about 1845, and William

386 - Ames Township.

Mason a term, about 1846; but the records do not furnish exact dates.

The original township of Ames contained three hundred and sixty square miles—more than one fourth of the territorial area of Rhode Island. By the formation of new townships and counties at intervals during forty years, her extensive domain has been reduced to six miles square—the limits of a regular surveyed township. Ames has not kept pace with Some other parts of the county in population, being now ninth in that regard; but in respect of the character of her population, business enterprise, moral and educational movements, etc., she is Second to none.

Amesville, handsomely located and well built, is a thriving and interesting village. One of the best academies in the county is located here. It originated in a meeting of the citizens held in November, 1852, to consider their educational wants, when George Wyatt, Robert Henry, J. T. Glazier, James Patterson, and A. S. Dickey, were appointed a committee to report a plan for organizing a seminary. They reported on the 25th of that month, and this action was followed in due time by the incorporation of The Amesville Academy."

The school has been exceedingly well sustained, and is one of marked usefulness. Its teachers have been Mr. J. P. Weethee, from 1854 to 1856; P. B. Davis, from 1856 to 1857; A. C. Kelly, from 1857 to 1858; Mr. McGonagle, from 1858 to 186o; E. P. Henry,

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from 1860 to 1861; J. H. Doan, from 1861 to 1862; J. M. Goodspeed, from 1862 to 1864; MisS L. M. Dowling, from 1864 to 1866. The present teachers are the Rev. H. C. Cheadle, principal, and Miss M. G. Keyes, assistant, under whose management the school is growing in popularity and usefulness.

The population of Ames in 1820 was 721; in 1830 it was 857; in 1840 it was 1,431; in 1850 it was 1,482; in 1860 it was 1,335.

Personal and Biographical.

Ephraim Cutler, known in the early history of Athens county as Judge Cutler, was the oldest Son of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, and was born at Edgartown, Duke's county, Massachusetts, April 12th, 1767. He did not receive a collegiate education, but, being an industrious reader, he acquired during youth considerable mental culture, and a large Store of useful knowledge. From the age of three years he lived with his grandparents, at Killingly, Connecticut, both of whom he was wont to mention in after life with great respect and affection. His grandfather was a pure and pious man, and an ardent patriot. In a sketch written long afterward, Judge Cutler says:

" I well remember that the express with the news of the battle of Lexington, which was the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, came directly to my grandfather's house in the night after the battle. He was in bed, and I slept with him. He

388 - Ames Township.

arose immediately and fired his gun three times, which was, doubtless, the agreed signal, as it was universally expected that there would be an attack from the British. Before sunrise he, with fifteen others, had started for the battlefield. Before leaving he gave a particular charge to his housekeeper to provide carefully for the wants of any soldier who might call during his absence."

In 1787 Mr. Cutler married Miss Leah Atwood, of Killingly, a lady whose great worth and excellence of character were for many years well known in Athens county. After his marriage he engaged for a few years in mercantile pursuits at Killingly. In 1795 he accepted the agency of the Ohio Company, in which he had been a shareholder from the beginning, and, on the 15th of June in that year, Set out with his wife and four children for the company's purchase in the northwestern territory. The journey was made in the usual way of that time—in wagons across the mountains to the headwaters of the Ohio, and thence down the river in a small flat boat. While descending the river they lost two of their children, Hezekiah, the youngest, and Mary, the eldest, whose remains were buried in the forest on the banks of the beautiful river. They arrived at Marietta, September 18, 1795, having been more than three months on the way, and thirty-one days on the river. At Marietta Mr. Cutler *lay sick for Several weeks in the block house. As soon as he was able they proceeded to the garrison at Waterford, where they remained till the Spring of 1799. The circumstances of his removal to and settlement in Ames, in 1799, are

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narrated elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Cutler brought with them to their new home four children—Nancy and Charles, born in New England, and Mary and Daniel, born in Waterford. All of these, except Charles, are Still living. Nancy, now Mrs. Carter, lives in Franklin county, Ohio. Mary, Mrs. Gulliver Dean, liveS in Ames township, near the old Cutler homestead. Daniel lives in Kansas and is an intelligent and prosperous farmer.

For the next few years Mr. Cutler devoted himSelf with great energy to developing the interests of the Ohio Company, and of the Amesville Settlement in particular, taking a leading part in all the social, political and educational movements of the day. During the first year of his residence in the territory he had been commissioned by Governor St. Clair captain of the militia, justice of the peace, judge of the court of quarter sessions and of the court of common pleas. He was appointed by the territorial legislature, at its first Session, one of the seven commissioners to lease the school and ministerial lands in each township of the Ohio Company's purchase. In September, 1801, while living in Ames, Judge Cutler was elected to represent Washington county in the territorial legislature. At this legislature, which Sat at Chillicothe, the question of the formation of a state government came up, and Judge Cutler and his colleague, William R. Putnam, were the only two who voted against the measure. In

390 - Ames Township.

doing this they represented the wishes of their constituents, who were opposed to forming a state government so soon. This vote made them for a short time very unpopular in Chillicothe, and for two nights a mob threatened to attack the house where they boarded. In September, 1802, still living in Ames, Judge Cutler was chosen as one of the four delegates from Washington county to the convention to form a state constitution. In this convention, and in the framing of the first constitution of Ohio, he exercised a large influence. Article III, establishing the judicial system of the state, was almost wholly shaped and drafted by him. But the greatest service rendered by Judge Cutler in this convention was his determined opposition to the introduction of slavery into the state of Ohio; for, strange as it may seem, a strong effort was made to fasten this system on the state, notwithstanding the positive language and the solemn compact of the ordinance of 1787. There were delegates in the convention who, representing the sentiments of settlers from slave-holding States, claimed that the ordinance was in the nature of a contract, and was not binding till its terms had been accepted by the new state; and, consequently, that if she chose to reject any portion of the proposed terms, it was competent for her to do so, while adopting her fundamental law and becoming a state. We have not Space to describe the contest in detail. A determined effort was made by the party referred to to

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plant slavery on the soil of Ohio, and the great name and influence of Thomas Jefferson were used to further the attempt.* Judge Cutler stood in the breach, and with all his power and great persistency battled against this movement. His friends rallied around him; he was finally successful, and to Ephraim Cutler more than to any other man posterity is indebted for shutting and barring the doors against the introduction into Ohio of the monstrous system of African Slavery.

Mr. Cutler also took a leading part in framing and securing the passage of secs. 3, 25 and 26 of article VIII of the constitution, relating to religion and education.

In December, 1806, Judge Cutler removed from Athens to Washington county, settling on the Ohio river about Six miles below Marietta. Here his first wife died in 1807. In 1808 he married Sarah Parker, a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Four of the children by this marriage are Still living, the only son, William P. Cutler, being esteemed among the first men in the state. t

* It was then a theory of Jefferson's that the extension of slavery diluted and weakened it. He desired, or at least professed to desire, its extinction.

T He was born near Marietta, July 12, 1813; was a member of the Ohio legislature from 1844 to 1846, officiating as speaker of the house during his last term; was a member of the constitutional convention of 1850; afterwards was for some years president of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad Company; was elected in 1860 a representative to the 37th congress, and has been for a few years past again officially connected with the above mentioned railroad.

392 - Ames Township.

In 1818 Judge Cutler again appeared in public life as a member of the Ohio legislature from Washington county. We regret that we can not exhibit in detail his noble services at this period of his life; we can only state the results. He succeeded in changing the land tax system from a direct tax to an ad valorem basis. Prior to 1824 the whole burden of state taxes was laid on the lands as a direct tax, levied by the acre and without reference to value. Consequently thinly populated counties like Athens and Washington actually paid more into the treasury than wealthy and populous counties like Hamilton and Butler. The System was grossly unequal and oppressive. Judge Cutler's clear vision enabled him to perceive this, and he labored long and successfully to change it, so that taxes should be assessed on the whole property of the people according to value.

His other great achievement at this time was the establishment of an excellent common School system. The first public allusion to education in Ohio is found in an oration by Solomon Drown, delivered at Marietta, April 7th, 1789. The first memorial on behalf of the general interest of public Schools read in the Ohio legislature was offered in 1816, by the Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, of Marietta, but prior to 1820 there was no organized Sentiment in the State on the Subject of common schools, and no general legislation. In 1821 the legislature passed an act for the regulation

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and support of common Schools, but it did not provide any adequate revenue for their maintenance, and was by no means an efficient system. The common school question was an issue in the elections of 1824. Several ardent advocates of a thorough system were elected, among them Judge Cutler, as senator from Washington county. We do not aver that he alone deserves the credit for the success of the measure in the legislature of 1824-5, but he was the acknowledged leader of the friends of common schools, and his experience in public affairs and as a legislator rendered his services of the greatest value. On the 5th of February, 1825, an excellent school bill, providing a thorough system and liberal support therefor by taxation, was passed by the legislature. When the vote in the senate was taken, Judge Cutler and Mr. Nathan Guilford (Senator from Cincinnati, who was an ardent and able friend of the cause, and who drafted the bill), were standing side by side. When the result was announced, a majority for the bill of twenty-two votes, Judge Cutler turned to Mr. Guilford, and, with great solemnity and earnestness, Said: "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have Seen thy salvation."

The latter years of Judge Cutler's life were spent quietly at his place in Washington county, amid the enjoyments of home and the affectionate attention of relatives and friends. He died July 8th, 1853.

394 - Ames Township.

George Ewing, commonly called during his residence in the county Lieut. Ewing, was, it is believed, the first white settler within the bounds of what is now Ames township. A native of Salem, New Jersey, he entered the continental army at the beginning of the revolutionary war, and served with credit during its whole course. For his bravery and good conduct he received, soon after entering the service, a commission as first lieutenant of the Jersey Line, which position he held till the return of peace. Shortly after the conclusion of the war he emigrated to what is now Ohio county, West Virginia, which then constituted the very frontier of civilization, and was, with the surrounding region, the scene of many a bloody conflict between the " Long- Knives" and the red men. After a few years' residence here he removed with his wife and young family, in 1793, to the Waterford Settlement, on the Muskingum river, where he passed a year or two in the block house, until the danger from Indian attacks, then imminent, had passed. In the Spring of 1798, Lieutenant Ewing, encouraged and assisted by Judge Cutler, removed his family to a place seventeen miles northwest of the frontier settlements, in what is now Ames township, and became the pioneer of that section of country. He Settled on what is now known as the Thomas Gardiner farm. During the period of his residence here he was an active supporter of schools and every means of developing and improving the commu-

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nity. He was chosen township trustee at the first election, in 1802, and in after years filled that position and the office of township clerk. He was fond of reading, possessed a bright and active mind, and a fund of sterling sense, combined with lively wit and good humor. In 1818 he removed to Perry county, Indiana, where he died about the year 1830.

Thomas Ewing, Son of the last named, was born in Ohio county, West Virginia, December 28 th, 1789. The following autobiographical sketch, kindly furnished for these pages by this now great and venerable man, will be read with especial interest:

My father settled in what is now Ames township, Athens county, early in April, 1798. He removed from the m0uth 0f Olive Green creek, on the Muskingum river, and the nearest neighb0r with whom he had association, was, in that direction, distant about eighteen miles. There were a few families settled, about the same time, on or near the present site of the town of Athens, but no road or even pathway led to them ; the distance was about twelve miles. There was also an old pioneer hunter encamped at the mouth of Federal creek, distant about ten miles. This, as far as I know, comprised the population statistics of what is now Athens county. I do not know the date of the settlement in what was called No. 5—Cooley's settlement—it was early.

At the time of my father's removal, I was with my aunt, Mrs. Morgan, near West Liberty, Virginia, going to school. I was a few months in my ninth year. Early in the year 1798, I think in May, my uncle brought me home. We descended the Ohio river in a flat boat to the, mouth of Little Hocking,

396 - Ames Township.

and crossed a bottom and a pine hill along a dim foot path, some ten or fifteen miles, and took quarters for the night at Dailey's camp. I was tired and slept well on the bear-skin bed which the rough old dame spread for me, and in the morning my uncle engaged a son of our host, a boy of eighteen, who had seen my father's cabin, to pilot us.

I was now at home, and fairly an inceptive citizen of the future Athens county. The young savage, our pilot, was much struck with some of the rude implements of civilization which he saw my brother using, especially the auger, and expressed the opinion that with an axe and an auger a man could make everything he wanted except a gun and bullet molds. My brother was engaged in making some bedsteads. He had already finished a table, in the manufacture of which he had used also an adze to smooth the plank, which he split in g0od width fr0m straight grained trees. Transportation was exceedingly difficult, and our furniture, of the rudest kind, composed of articles of the first necessity. Our kitchen utensils were " the big kettle," "the little kettle," the bake oven, frying pan, and pot ; the latter had a small hole in the bottom which was mended with a button, keyed with a nail through the eye on the outside of the p0t. We had no table furniture that would break—little of any kind. Our meat—bear meat, or raccoon, with venison or turkey, c0oked together and seasoned to the taste (a most savory dish)—was cut up in morsels and placed in the centre of the table, and the younger members of the family, armed with sharpened sticks, helped themselves about as well as with four-tined forks ; great care was taken in selecting wholesome sticks, as sassafras, spice-bush, hazel, or hickory. Sometimes the children were allowed, by way of picnic, to cut with the butcher- knife from the fresh bear meat and venison their slices and stick them, alternately, on a sharpened spit and roast before a fine hickory fire; this made a most royal dish. Bears, deer, and raccoons remained in abundance, until replaced by berds of swine. The great west would have settled slowly without corn and hogs. A bushel of seed wheat will produce, at the end of ten

History of Athens County, Ohio - 397

months, fifteen or twenty bushels ; a bushel of corn, at the end of five months, four hundred bushels, and it is used to much advantage for the last two months. Our horned cattle do not double in a year ; hogs, in the same time, increase twenty fold. It was deemed almost sacrilege to kill a sheep, and I remember well the first beef I tasted. I thought it coarse and stringy compared with venison. We had wild fruits of several varieties, very abundant, and some of them exceedingly fine. There was a sharp ridge quite near my father's house, on which I had selected four or five service or juneberry bushes, that I could easily climb, and kept an eye on them till they should get fully ripe. At the proper time, I went with one of my sisters to gather them, but a bear had been in advance of me. The limbs of all the bushes were brought down to the trunk like a folded umbrella, and the berries all gone ; there were plenty still in the woods for children and bears, but few so choice or easy of access as these. We had a great variety of wild plums, some exceedingly fine—better, to my taste, than the best tame varieties. I have not seen any of the choice varieties within the last thirty years.

We, of course, had no mills. The nearest was on Wolf creek, about fourteen miles distant"; from this we brought our first summer's supply of breadstuffs. After we gathered our first crop of corn my father instituted a hand mill which, as a kind of common property, supplied the neighborhood, after we had neighbors, for several years, until Christopher Herrold set up a horse mill on the ridge, and Henry Barrows a water mill near the mouth of Federal creek.

For the first year I was a lonely boy. My brother George, eleven years older than I, was too much a man to be my companion, and my sisters could not be with me, generally, in the woods and among the rocks and caves ; but a small spaniel dog, almost as intelligent as a boy, was always with me. I was the reader of the family, but we had few books. I remember but but one beside " Watts' Psalms and Hymns " that a child

398 - Ames Township.

could read—" The Vicar of Wakefield," which was almost committed to memory—the poetry which it contained, entirely.

Our first neighbor was Capt. Benjamin Brown, who had been an officer in the Revolutionary war. He was a man of strong intellect, without much culture. He told me many anecdotes of the war which interested me, and, among other things that I remember, gave me an account of Doctor Jenner's then recent discovery of the kine pox as a preventive of the small pox, better than I have ever yet read in any written treatise, and I remember it better than any account which I have since read. He lent me a book--one number of a periodical called the " Athenian Oracle"—something like our modern " Notes and Queries," from which, however, I learned but little. I found, too, a companion in his son, John, four years my senior, still enjoying sound health in his ripe old age.

In 1801, some one of my father's family being ill, Dr. Baker, who lived at Waterford, eighteen miles distant, was called in. He took notice of me as a reading boy, and told me he had a book he would lend me if I would come for it. I got leave of my father and went, the little spaniel being my traveling companion. The book was a translation of Virgil, the Bucolics and Georgics torn out, but the AEneid perfect. I have not happened to meet with the translation since, and do not know whose it was. The opening lines, as I remember them, were. -

" Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy,
Came to the Italian and Lavinian shores
Exiled by fate, much tossed by land and sea,
By power divine and cruel Juno's rage;
Much, too, in war, he suffered, till he reared
A city, and to Latium brought his gods—
Hence sprung his Latin progeny, the kings
Of Alba, and the walls of towering Rome."

When I returned home with my book, and for some weeks after, my father had hands employed in clearing a new field. On Sundays, and at leisure hours I read to them, and never had a more attentive audience. At that point in the narrative, where

History of Athens County, Ohio - 399

AEneas discloses to Dido his purpose of leaving her, and tells her of the vision of Mercury bearing the mandate of Jove, one of the men sprang to his feet, declared he did not believe a word of that—he had got tired of her, and it was all a made up story as an excuse to be off—and it was a d—d shame after what she had done for him. So the reputation of AEneas suffered by that day's reading.

Our next neighbors were Ephraim Cutler, Silvanus Ames, William Brown, a married son of the Captain ; and, four or five miles distant, Nathan Woodbury, George Wolf, and Christopher Herrold—and about the same time, or a little later, Silas Dean, a rich old bachelor, Martin Boyles, and John and Samuel McCune. Mr. Cutler and my father purchased " Morse's Geography," the first edition, about 1800, for his oldest son, Charles, and myself—it in effect became my book, as Charles never used it, and I studied it most intently. By this, with such explanations as my father gave me, I acquired quite a competent knowledge of geography, and something of general history.

About this time the neighbors in our and the surrounding settlements, met and agreed to purchase books and to make a common library. They were all poor, and subscriptions small, but they raised in all about one hundred dollars. All my accumulated wealth, ten coon-skins, went into the fund, and Squire Sam. Brown, of Sunday creek, who was going to Boston, was charged with the purchase. After an absence of many weeks, he brought tbe books to Capt. Ben. Brown's in a sack on a pack horse. I was present at the untying of the sack and pouring out of tbe treasure. There were about sixty volumes, I think, and well selected ; the library of the Vatican was nothing to it, and there never was a library better read. This, with occasional additions, furnished me with reading while I remained at home.

We were quite fortunate in our schools. Moses Everett, a graduate of Yale, but an intemperate young man, who had been banished by his friends, was our first teacher ; after him,

400 - Ames Township.

Charles Cutler, a brother of Ephraim, and also a graduate of Yale. They were learned young men and faithful to their vocation. They boarded alternate weeks with their scholars, and made the winter evenings pleasant and instructive. After Barrows' mill was built at the mouth of Federal creek, I being the mill boy, used to take my two-horse loads of grain in the evening, have my grist ground, and take it home in the morning. There was an eccentric person living near the mill whose name was Jones (we called him Doctor); he was always dressed in deer-skin, his principal vocation being hunting, and I always found him in the evening, in cool weather, lying with his feet to the fire. He was a scholar, banished no doubt for intemperance; he had books, and finding my fancy for them, had me read to him, while he lay drying his feet. He was fond of poetry, and did something to correct my pronunciation and prosody. Thus, the excessive use of alcohol was the indirect means of furnishing me with school teachers.

My father entertained the impression that I would one day be a scholar, though quite unable to lend me any pecuniary aid. I grew up with the same impression until, in my nineteenth year, I almost abandoned hope. On reflection, however, I determined to make one effort to earn the means to procure an education. Having got the summer's work well disposed of, I asked of my father leave to go for a few months and try my fortune. He consented, and I set out on foot next morning, made my way through the woods to the Ohio river, got on a keel boat as a hand at small wages, and in about a week landed at Kanawha salines. I engaged and went to work at once, and in three months satisfied myself that I could earn money slowly but surely, and on my return home in December, 1809, I went to Athens and spent three months there as a student, by way of testing my capacity. I left the academy in the spring with a sufficiently high opinion of myself, and returned to Kanawha to earn money to complete my education. This year I was successful, paid off some debts which troubled my father, and

History of Athens County, Ohio - 401

returned home and spent the winter with the new books which had accumulated in the library, which, with my father's aid, I read to much advantage. I went to Kanawha the third year, and after a severe summer's labor I returned home with about six hundred dollars in money, but sick and exhausted. Instead, however, of sending for a physician, I got Don Quixote, a recent purchase, from the library, and laughed myself well in about ten days. I then went to Athens, entered as a regular student, and continued my studies there till the spring of 1815, when I left, a pretty good though an irregular scholar. During my academic term I went to Gallipolis and taught school a quarter and studied French.* I found my funds likely to fall short,

*While pursuing his studies, Mr. Ewing was also occasionally employed by the commissioners of Athens county as a surveyor, to run country roads, and such entries as the following appear in the records of that period :

" March 7th, 1814.. A petition signed by George Ewing and others, praying for a road, beginning at the Thirty-One mile tree in Ames township, on the state road; thence passing through the west part of Amos Linscott's improvement, to the mouth of Ewing's run ; thence to intersect the Lancaster road near Abel Glazier's. Read in open meeting. Order issued."

" March 8th. The commissioners appoint Thomas Ewing surveyor, and Jehiel Gregory, Jr., John White, and Stephen Pilcher viewers of said road, to meet at the house of Jno. Brown, Esq., in Ames township, on Monday, March 21, at to o'clock, A. M."

"June 8th, 1814. County of Athens to Thomas Ewing, Dr. To surveying, protracting, etc., the above road, 1 1/2 days, at $1 so per day. (Paid.) $2 25"

"June 6th, 1815. The Board appointed George Walker, John Brown 2d, and Ezra Green viewers, and Thomas Ewing surveyor of the road petitioned for by Elisha Alderman and others, in Ames town-
ship."

402 - Ames Township.

and went a fourth time to Kanawha, where, in six weeks, I earned one hundred and fifty dollars, which I thought would suffice, and returned to my studies ; after two years' rest the severe labor in the salines this time went hard with me.

After finishing my studies at Athens, I read Blackstone's Commentaries at home, and in July, 1815, went to Lancaster to study law. A. B. Walker, then a boy of about fifteen years, accompanied me to Lancaster to bring back my horse, and I remained and studied law with Gen. Beecher. I was admitted to the bar in August, 186, after fourteen months' very diligent study—the first six months about sixteen hours a day.

" July 17th, 1815. County of Athens to Thomas Ewing, Dr. To surveying and protracting the above road, including chain carriers, axemen, &c. #4.10"

Mr. Ewing says he was, on leaving college, "a pretty good, though an irregular scholar." The extent of his education is somewhat shown by the following extract from the records of the Ohio university

"May 3^rd, 1815. The committee appointed by the board of trustees to examine Thomas Ewing and John Hunter, candidates for a degree of bachelor of arts and sciences, beg leave to report:
That they have examined the applicants aforesaid in the different branches of literature, viz: in grammar, rhetoric, the languages, natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy, geography, and the various branches of mathematics, and that they have witnessed with much gratification the proficiency made by the before named students. They therefore report the following resolutions :

1. Resolved, That the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter merit the approbation of the board of trustees, and that they are each entitled to a degree of bachelor of arts and sciences.

2. That the president be authorized and required to inform the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter that they are each so entitled to such degree in this seminary, and your committee recommend that the same be conferred.

3. That the secretary of the board deliver to the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter each a copy of these resolutions.

JESSUP N. COUCH,
CHARLES R. SHERMAN,
STEPHEN LINDLEY, Committee.
J. LAWRENCE LEWIS.
Report accepted."

History of Athens County, Ohio - 403

I made my first speech at Circleville, the November following. Gen. Beecher first gave me slander case to study and prepare. I spent much time with it, but time wasted, as the cause was continued the first day of the court. He then gave me a case of contract, chiefly in depositions, which I studied diligently, but that also was continued ; a few minutes afterward a case was called, and Gen. Beecher told me that was ready—the jury was sworn, witnesses called, and the cause went on. In the examination of one of the witnesses, I thought I discovered an important fact not noticed by either counsel, and I asked leave to cross-examine further, I elicited the fact which was decisive of the case. This gave me confidence. I argued the cause closely and well, and was abundantly congratulated by the members of the bar who were present.

My next attempt was in Lancaster. Mr. Sherman, father of the general, asked me to argue a cause of his, which gave room for some discussion. I had short notice, but was quite successful, and, the cause being appealed, Mr. Sherman sent his client to employ me with him. I had as yet got no fees, and my funds were very low. This November I attended the Athens court. I had nothing to do there, but met an old neighbor, Elisha Alderman, who wanted me to go to Marietta, to defend his brother, a boy, who was to be tried for larceny. It was out of my intended beat, but I wanted business and fees, and agreed to go for $25, of which I received $10 in hand. I have had several fees since of $10,000 and upwards, but never one of which I felt the value, or in truth as valuable to me as this. I went, tried my boy, and he was convicted, but the court granted a new trial. On my way to Marietta at the next term I thought of a ground of excluding the evidence, which had escaped me on the first trial. It was not obvious, but sound. I took it, excluded the evidence and acquitted my client. This caused a sensation. I was employed at once in twelve penitentiary cases, under indictment at that term, for making and passing counterfeit money, horse stealing and perjury. As a professional man my fortune was thus briefly made.

404 - Ames Township.

Mr. Ewing's professional career thus begun, was destined to be one of uninterrupted success. In 1816 he was appointed by the commissioners prosecutor for Athens county, and continued for many years to attend the courts of Athens regularly. His eminent abilities soon gave him a commanding position among the lawyers of Ohio, and in 1830 he was elected to the United States senate, where he remained till 1837. He was a member of President Harrison's cabinet, as secretary of the treasury, in 1841. On the accession of President Taylor, in 1849, he was invited into the cabinet, and became secretary of the interior. In 1850 he was appointed United States senator from Ohio, holding the position till 1851, when he retired from public life and resumed the practice of law. As a lawyer, orator, publicist and Statesman, Thomas Ewing ranks among the greatest the United States has produced, and Athens county may well be proud to have nourished, during his childhood and youth, so noble a citizen.

Capt. Benjamin Brown, father of General John, and of Judge A. G. Brown, and one of the most prominent among the early settlers of Ames, was born October 17, 1745, at Leicester, Massachusetts. His grandfather, William Brown, came from England to America while a youth, was the first settler in the town of Hatfield, on the Connecticut river, and was often engaged in the Indian wars of that period. Capt. John Brown,

History of Athens County, Ohio - 405

father of Benjamin, served with credit in the colonial army during the French war, and represented the town of Leicester in the Massachusetts legislature during, and for many years after, the revolutionary war. In February, 1775, Benjamin Brown, then thirty years old, joined a regiment of minute men, and two months later was engaged in active hostilities. In May he was commissioned a lieutenant in Colonel Prescott's regiment of the Massachusetts line, and in June participated in the battle of Bunker's Hill. Two of his brothers, Pearly and John Brown, were also engaged in this battle, the latter being dangerously wounded in two places, and borne off the field during the engagement. This brother Pearly was subsequently killed at the battle of White Plains, and another brother, William, died in hospital. In January, 1777, Lieut. Brown was commissioned a captain in the eighth regiment Massachusetts line. His regiment took a very active part in the operations directed against Burgoyne during the Summer of 1777, and Capt. Brown was engaged in nearly all of the battles that preceded Burgoyne's surrender, in Some of which he particularly distinguished himself by his gallantry and daring. A short time after this he was offered the position of aide-de-camp on Baron Steuben's staff, but declined it, fearing that his military knowledge was inadequate. In 1779, compelled by the necessities of his family and other perSonal reasons, he resigned his commission and returned home to provide

406 - Ames Township.

for their support. About the year 1789 he removed with his family to Hartford, Washington county, New York, then a new settlement, whence he again migrated in the fall of 1796, and sought a home in the northwestern territory. He reached Marietta in the spring of 1797, and in 1799 came to Ames township, in company with Judge Cutler, as elsewhere Stated. He was one of the prominent citizens during the time he resided in Ames, holding various township offices, and contributing largely to the advancement of the settlement. In 1817, his health becoming feeble, he went to live with his son, Gen. John Brown, in Athens, and here he died in October, 1821.

His wife, whom he married in Massachusetts in 1772, and who bore him a large family of children, died at Athens in 1840, aged eighty-six years.

John Brown (nephew of Capt. Brown), born February 10, 1774, at Leicester, Massachusetts, married Miss Polly Green, of Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1797, and set out for the Ohio Company's purchase in the autumn of 1801. He brought his young family and few effects over the mountains, with one horse, in a little wagon, and, when descending difficult places in the road, attached a Small tree to the rear end of his wagon, to act as a break, or lock. When he reached Wheeling, on the Ohio river, after a most toilsome journey, he "swapped" his wagon for a canoe and two heifers, and

History of Athens County, Ohio - 407

proceeded down the river toward his destination. His second son, Lemuel Green Brown, was born the day after their landing, near Marietta, and the head of the family found himself in these rather difficult circumstances, with but fifty cents in his pocket. As soon as practicable he resumed travel, and reached Ames township in March, 1802. He first settled on the farm now owned and occupied by the heirs of Stephen Green, where he lived for a short time, and thence moved to where John D. Brown now lives. He was soon elected a justice of the peace, and was frequently re-elected, holding the position, altogether, twenty-Seven years. He was also at one time one of the appraisers of the college lands in this county, and of the same in Miami county. In 1811 he built a brick house on his farm in Ames (one of the first brick houses, if not the first, erected in this part of the county), where for many years he kept public house. Being situated on the principal thoroughfare from Marietta westward, it was, during fifteen or twenty years, much resorted to by travelers. The building was Standing till within a few years. Of excellent business capacity, and of a kind and genial nature, Mr. Brown was always able and willing to relieve the poor and help the distressed. His house was at all times open for religious services, and a list was made of Seventy-two preachers, who, at different times, had held meetings there. He was twice married,

408 - Ames Township.

and his second wife is still living in the county, nearly eighty years old. He died July 23, 1833.

Pearly Brown, oldest son of the preceding, was born in Massachusetts, July 24, 1798, and was four years old when brought to this county. In the year 1819 he married Eliza Hulbert (who is still living), and settled in Ames township, on a new farm, given him by his father. A hard-working and energetic man, he soon improved his circumstances, and laid the foundation for a competence. To afford some idea of the prices that prevailed when he was a young man, Mr. Brown states that he worked a week for Judge Currier, in Athens, in 1823, at 31 1/4 cents a day, and at Saturday night was paid in two tin cups at 25 cents each; a quarter of a pound of tea, so cents; one pound of coffee, so cents, and 37 1/2 cents in money—making $1.87 1/2—with which valuables he walked home—ten miles. While yet living with his father, in 1814 or 1815, he was hired to carry the mail, with two other riders, between Marietta and Chillicothe, the distance being about one hundred miles, and to make three trips a week, or two hundred miles a week for each rider; for which service he received $6 a month. He cultivated his farm in Ames till 1829 or 1830, when he removed to McArthurstown (then in Athens county), and engaged for many years in selling goods and dealing in live stock. In 1839 he and his partners drove across the mountains to the eastern

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markets 2,100 cattle, 1,300 hogs, 1,800 sheep and 20 horses. He was at the same time quite extensively engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, Samuel H. Brown, well known in the county for many years, and till his death in 1854, as an untiring business man. Pearly Brown has held the positions of county commissioner and justice of the peace, and is widely known in this and adjoining counties as a man of unswerving integrity. He has reared a family of three sons and six daughters. His oldest son, Pinckney Brown, is an extensive dealer in live stock.

John B. Brown, another son of John, was born in the year 1803, in Ames township, where he has lived ever since. He has been successful in life, and is respected as one of the solid men of the community.

Samuel H. Brown, youngest Son of John, was born in Ames township, October 8th, 1807. He became an active business man, and well known in southern Ohio and in the eastern markets as an extensive and successful cattle dealer, in which business he engaged, with little intermission, for over twenty-two years. He served as justice of the peace and associate judge in this county. He removed to Meigs county about 1850, and died there October 2d, 1854. He was an honest and capable man.

410 - Ames Township.

Samuel Brown, brother of John and nephew of Capt. Benjamin Brown, a native of Massachusetts, came to the northwestern territory in 1797, and settled with his family on "Round Bottom," on the Muskingum river. In the year 1800 he bought a piece of land on Sunday creek, within the limits of Ames township as soon after defined, but in the present township of Dover. In 1805 he returned to Washington county (having sold his farm on Sunday creek), and opened a new farm about eight miles west of Marietta. He lived here till 1835, when he took up his residence with his son-in-law, Mr. James Dickey, at whose house he died January 15, 1841.

William Brown, son of Capt. Benjamin Brown, settled in Ames township in the year 1800, and lived here till about 1817, when he removed to the Moses Hewitt farm, in Waterloo. In 1820 he moved to Lee township, where he lived until a Short time before his death, which took place at his son, Leonard Brown's, in Athens. His son, Austin, still lives in Lee township, on a part of the old homestead. Another son, Leonard, who served one term as sheriff and two terms as treasurer of the county, now lives in the town of Albany. He is engaged in the mercantile business, and is a leading citizen.

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John Brown, son of Samuel, was born in Ames township, December 23, 1801, but lived the greater part of the time, until 1840, in Washington county, about eight miles from Marietta. In that year he bought property. in Albany, Athens county, where he located and engaged successfully for many years in the mercantile business. In 1867 he associated with him his son, J. D. Brown, and engaged in the banking business. During the present year they have removed from Albany to Athens, which is Mr. Brown's present residence. He is a gentleman of fine business capacity, and a public Spirited citizen.

Silvanus Ames, long known in this county as Judge Ames, was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, March 26, 1771. His father, whose ancestor, William Ames, came from England in 1643, was a graduate of Harvard college, and an Episcopalian clergyman. He preached several years at Trinity church, in Taunton, Massachusetts, was afterwards a chaplain in the revolutionary army, and died in the camp at Valley Forge, during the hard winter of 1777-78. Silvanus Ames married Nabby Lee Johnson in 1795, and moved to the northwestern territory in 1798. They settled temporarily in Belpre, whence they removed to Ames township, in May, 1800, and settled on the farm now owned by the Henrys, and Still familiarly called the "Ames farm." Mr. Ames' strong sense and solid judgment gave him a commanding influence among

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the early Settlers, and he was soon brought into the public life of that day. He was the second Sheriff of the county, colonel of militia, trustee of the Ohio university for many years, and associate judge from 1813 to 1823. He was also several times elected representative to the state legislature, and in all of these positions evinced a capacity for public affairs, and gained the approbation of the community. Intimately connected, as he was, with the political movements of the day, Judge Ames' house became the resort of the political leaders in southern Ohio, and a favorite stopping place of public men, when making their long trips between the east and west. He was an active and liberal supporter of all educational and religious movements, and an acknowledged leader in the community for several years. He died September 23, 1823. At the time of his death his family consisted of five sons and four daughters, of whom four sons and two daughters are now living, viz: the Rev. Bishop E. R. Ames, John, in Kansas, Charles B., in the state of Mississippi, and George W., at Greencastle, Indiana. One of the daughters, Mrs. Eliza Dawes, lives at Ripon, Wisconsin, and the other, Mrs. A. B. Walker, at Athens. Another daughter, Mrs. de Steiguer, died at Athens, July 29, 1851; a son of her's, Rodolph de Steiguer, a native of the county, is a leading lawyer at Athens.

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Capt. Sabinus Rice, son of Jason and Sarah Hibbard Rice, waS born in Poultney, Vermont, December 18, 1795, and came with hiS father's family to Ohio in the year 1800. The journey from New England was made in the usual way at that time—by wagon to Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio river by flat boat. His parents lived for about three years at the White Oak settlement, on the Muskingum river, a few miles north of Marietta, whence, in 1803, they removed to Ames township, where they bought and Settled on an eighty acre farm. By hard work and good management they acquired a comfortable competency, and the later years of the old people were passed in ease. The Rice family will long be remembered in the community where they lived, for their hospitality, refinement and intelligence.

Jason Rice died in 1843, in his eighty-eighth year. His wife died in 1824, aged sixty-two years. Their children were Reuben, Ambrose, Jonas, Sabinus, Sally, Jason and Melona, of whom the two last only are living. Jason is a farmer in Ames township and highly respected, and the sister, now Mrs. William Corner, lives in Malta, Ohio. Jonas Rice died on the Mississippi river, near Natchez, in 1829, of yellow fever. A grandson of his, Thomas H. Sheldon, is now cashier of the National Bank at Athens. Ambrose, who possessed great mathematical talent, removed to the northern part of Ohio, where he became very wealthy, and

414 - Ames Township.

died many years since. Sabinus Rice, a man of excellent judgment and most amiable character, was one of the leading citizens of Ames. He died July 23, 1852. His only son, Sabinus Jason Rice, died in Ames township, in April, 1857, leaving a wife and two children. Of the daughters of Capt. Rice, Mrs. Esther Richardson lives in Spring Hill, Ohio; Mrs. Rebecca R. Hibbard in Wauseon, Fulton county, Ohio, and Mrs. Eunice M. Mower in Springfield, Ohio.

Isaac Linscott, a native of Maine, and of English extraction, came to Ames township in the year 1800, and settled with his large family on the farm now owned by George Linscott, Jun., where he lived till 1824. His descendants, mostly farmers, are very numerous, being scattered through Ames, Bern and Dover townships, and inherit the energy, thrift and strict honesty of their ancestor. The children of Isaac Linscott were Noah, Lydia, Joseph, Isaac, Miriam, Eleanor, Olive, Israel, Amos, John, Mary and Jonathan. Linscott's run, a branch of Ewing's run, received its name from
this family.

Joshua Wyatt, known during his residence in Athens county as "Deacon Wyatt," was a native of Beverly, Massachusetts, whence he came out as far west as Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1790, and from thence to Marietta, in 1799. He settled with his family in Ames

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township in 1801, having the year before opened a few acres of land, and got a house under way, which was finished after the family moved in. His family and goods came up the Hockhocking, in a boat, to Warren's station, in Canaan township, whence they were taken in teams across to his place in Ames. His effects made seventeen wagon loads, and were mostly hauled by Peter Mansfield, through the woods, without as yet any road. From the date of his settlement in the township till his death, in 1822, he was a leading citizen. He was a man of distinguished piety, and his life, both in public and in private, was singularly devout. Upon the organization of the first Presbyterian church in Athens he was chosen one of the elders, and, with Deacon Ackley and Judge Alvan Bingham, continued to act as such for several years. Soon after settling in Ames, as early as 1805, he appointed and himself conducted religious reading and prayer meetings at the school house. These meetings were kept up as long as he lived. His eldest daughter, Betsy Wyatt, married William Parker, May 13, 1802. This was the first wedding in Ames township, and Supposed to be the second marriage in the county.

John McDougal, born in Schenectady county, New York, August 26, 1776, came to Athens county in July, 1817, and settled in Ames township, on the creek

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which now bears his name, where he continued to live till his death in 1854.

Gilbert McDougal, his youngest son, was born in Ames township, June 30, 1819, and now resides on the old place owned by his late father. He is a successful farmer, has taught the district school in his vicinity seventeen quarters, held the office of justice of the peace six years, and county commissioner Seven years.

Col. Absalom Boyles, born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1797, came with his father's family to the northwestern territory in 1799, and to Ames township in 1801. He grew up with the community, and was largely identified with the development of the township and county during a long and active life. With fine intelligence, high senSe of honor and ardent desire to benefit others, he was always one of the first and most active supporters of Social reform, and of every movement that tended to the common welfare. He held various civil positions in the township and county, and, in connection with the early militia organization of the county, was commissioned, by Governor Ethan A. Brown, ensign in 1819; lieutenant in 1820; captain in 1821 ; by Governor Trimble, lieutenant colonel in 1822, and by Governor Morrow, colonel in 1823.

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He lived an honorable and useful life, and died May 3, 1863, on the farm near Amesville, where he had resided for sixty-two years.

Abel Glazier was born in Massachusetts, in 1769. During early life he lived for a time in Washington county, New York, whence he removed to Athens county, and Settled in Ames township in 1804. He bought of Capt. Benj. Brown the farm on which Daniel Fleming now lives, and afterward married a daughter of Capt. Brown. He lived in the township over thirty years, during which time he was one of its most prominent and useful citizens. He died in January, 1837. Numerous descendants of his are living in the county, and are highly and justly esteemed in the communities where they dwell, for their intelligence, energy, and sterling qualities. Two of his grandsons, J. H. Glazier and A. W. Glazier, are among the first citizens of Ames township.

George Walker (known during his residence in the county as Judge Walker) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1774. His father, John Walker, came of an old family in Leicestershire, England, was a graduate of the university of Edinburgh, and a barrister at law, removed to America in 1753, married in Boston, and Settled in Hartford, Connecticut. George received a good business education, and engaged in

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mercantile business in Cooperstown, New York. For several years he was highly successful, but, through the dishonesty of a partner, he became deeply involved, and was compelled to close business at a great sacrifice. Disheartened by his losses, and soured by the meanness and dishonesty of his late associates, he determined to seek his fortune in a newer country, and came to Athens county in 1804. Here he purchased and settled on a farm near the present town of Amesville, where he remained all his life. The country was almost a wilderness, and the farm uncultivated, nor had the owner any practical knowledge of the work before him. Mrs. L. W. Ryors, to whom we are indebted for the substance of this sketch, says: "I have heard my mother say that, had it not been for the aid of the man who accompanied them in their long journey as a driver of a wagon, they would have suffered. His name was William Hassey, and he continued to live with the family, a faithful friend and helper, for nearly fifty years. In this wild pioneer life this man was invaluable in every respect, assisting my mother in her new and trying duties, and instructing my father in the art of felling trees and removing brush—not greatly to the credit of his pupil, as the family tradition testifies that he never learned to perform, with skill, that first and necessary part of pioneer life."

Soon after his arrival in the township, Mr. Walker was elected a justice of the peace, which position he

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held, continuously, for about twenty-four years. He also acted as county commissioner for sixteen years, and was elected by the legislature, an associate judge of the court of common pleas, which office he held for fourteen years. He was one of the founders and principal supporters of the Western library association, of which Mrs. Ryors recalls some reminiscences. She says: "As long as I can remember this library was kept at my father's house, and it was most highly prized by the whole family. Books, now a necessity, were then, in that isolated place, a rare luxury. The books were selected with good judgment, and comprised a little of everything—poetry, history, romance, law, medicine, and some scientific and religious works. Poems and novels were the first attraction, I am sorry to say, for the female portion of the family, but they were soon exhausted, and we were glad to turn to more substantial reading. It was no uncommon thing to find a child reading eagerly from the heavy volumes of Rollin or Hume. I was not more than ten or eleven years old, when, in the absence of any ‘juvenile books,' I read, with delight, Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and the translation of Homer's 'Iliad.'"

An active supporter of schools and of every movement calculated to promote the welfare of the community, Judge Walker exercised during his whole life a large and healthful influence. He died in 1856. His wife, who is still remembered by some of her contem-

420 - Ames Township.

poraries as a most amiable christian lady, died in 1850, aged seventy-one years.

Judge Walker had one son—George Walker, Jun., who was, for many years, a successful business man in Amesville. He is deceased. Of his Seven daughters, the eldest was married to Col. Charles Cutler; the second to Edgar Jewett, of Athens; two of the others married physicians; one a banker, and one a merchant. Another daughter, Mrs. Ryors, relict of the Rev. Alfred Ryors, minister of the Presbyterian church, is well known in Athens. Her accomplished husband, for many years connected with the Ohio university, and subsequently president of the Indiana state university, was one of the choices among the many rare and scholarly men, who, during its history, have been associated with the university at Athens. He died at Danville, Kentucky, May 8, 1858.

Edward R. Ames, third son of Silvanus Ames, was born in Ames township, May 20, I 806, on the farm now owned by James and George Henry. His early education, though limited, was healthful and Solid, and, while still a youth, having access to the local library in Amesville, he formed a taste for reading that has largely influenced the conduct of his life. At the age of twenty he left his father's farm to attend the Ohio university at Athens, where he remained some two or three yearS, mainly supporting himself, meanwhile, by

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teaching and other chance employments. While at college he became a member of the Methodist church.

In the autumn of 1828 the late Bishop Roberts presided over the Ohio conference of the Methodist church, which was held at Chillicothe. To see their manner of doing business, and to obtain some knowledge as to the growth of the church, the young collegian attended the session. Bishop Roberts, who had a rare discernment of men, saw the youth and that there was something more than ordinary in him. The result of their acquaintance was, that, acting on the advice of the bishop to "go west," young Ames accompanied him a few weeks later to the Illinois conference, held that year in Madison, Indiana. Here he made further acquaintance with active Methodists from the western states, and, at their suggestion, he proceeded to Illinois and opened a high school at Lebanon, in the present county of St. Clair. He had fine success as a teacher, and remained here, making friends and influence, till 1830. In the autumn of this year he was licensed to preach by the Illinois conference, and was admitted and appointed to Shoal Creek circuit, embracing an indefinite extent of country.
Thenceforward, for some years, his was the usual history of a Methodist itinerant. He was elected as a delegate from the Indiana conference to the general conference, which met in Baltimore in 1840, and, by that body, was elected corresponding secretary of the

422 - Ames Township.

missionary society for the south and west. This was before the days of railroads. Traveling was slow and difficult, and the labors of his office were arduous and wide extended. During the four years that he filled it, he traveled some twenty-five thousand miles. In one tour he passed over the entire frontier line, from Lake Superior to Texas, camping out almost the whole route, and one part of the time so destitute of provisions that, for two days, the only nourishment of himself and fellow travelers, was a little moistened maple sugar.

In 1852 he was elected one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church, since when his official labors have been most onerous, responsible, and unremitting. Possessed of extraordinary capacity for business, and of great physical endurance, no task appals, and apparently no amount of labor fatigues him. His character and talents are so well known, both in and out of the church, as to render any analysis or description of them unnecessary in this place.

Bishop Ames is esteemed one of the most eloquent preachers in the Methodist church, as he certainly is one of the most popular. A well known minister and editor of the church says:

“As a conference debater he was always effective. We often met in the conference room, but never did we hear him make a speech ten minutes long. He listened to the discussion till he saw the strong points of a case, and these he would present in a few clear, terse statements, which could not be misunderstood,

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and which went far toward conviction. As a public speaker he is impressive and commanding, whether on the platform or in the pulpit. His voice is quite peculiar, and while under his management it is quite effective, yet it should never be imitated. He rises calmly, states his subject clearly, introduces it with some striking remark, which at once rivets the attention, and then by an easy, direct manner, moves along the track of thought chosen for the occasion. His sermons, though never written, are evidently carefully thought out. His style is molded by the old English classics. Many of his sentences are pure aphorisms. On he talks, till he talks up into the highest realm of thought. We think perhaps his most effective preaching was when he was presiding elder, and addressed gathered thousands on western camp grounds. Then we have seen his whole soul aroused, and his full tide of impassioned oratory was almost resistless. We forbear sketching some of those scenes, though they pass before us."

During the greater part of his adult life, Bishop Ames has resided in Indiana, though his official duties have required protracted absences from home, and long journeys to the most distant parts of the country. A few years since he removed to Baltimore, Maryland, which is his present place of residence. Of late years he has frequently visited Athens, where he has relatives living, and where he finds great enjoyment in meeting the friends of his youth, and in recalling early memories. He is very fond of familiar converse, and, in his "hours of ease," talks in the most genial manner, of early reminiscences or of more modern and weighty affairs. During an evening recently passed by the

424 - Ames Township.

writer in his company, when his boyhood and early life were the topic of speech, he gave, with much amusement, the following account of

A WOLF HUNT.

"In 1822 Pitt Putnam, of Marietta, organized a grand wolf hunt, to be held on the head waters of Big run. I suppose Putnam inherited his aversion to wolves from his Massachusetts ancestor, as men sometimes inherit politics or religion; at any rate he seemed to think that he had a call to exterminate wolves. The region fixed on for the hunt lay in Washington county, not far from the borders of Ames, and a great many of the male inhabitants of Ames and Bern took part in it. A space about four miles square was surveyed in the heart of the forest, and marked all the way around by blazing the trees. General notice was given some weeks beforehand through the newspaper printed at Marietta, and I remember that a rude diagram of the country and of the line of battle was published. The plan of proceeding was well organized. The hunters were to be stationed at regular distances from each other, all the way around the tract, some supplied with guns and others with horns. Certain men were appointed captains, lieutenants, etc., and gave orders to those nearest them. On the appointed day the hunters assembled from all directions, and were soon placed. I was then only sixteen years old, and was more highly excited over the affair than I am. apt to become over any event now-a-days. When all was ready, the men stationed, armed, etc., a horn was blown by the leader, and the signal in a few minutes passed around the whole circuit ; whereupon they all began to march toward a common center, keeping in line. Each man was ordered to make as great a hubbub as possible, those with horns to blow them and the rest to shout and halloo. I was a pretty well grown boy of my age, and was allowed to march with the rest. Fur-

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nished with a tin horn nearly as long as myself, I blew such blasts as would, I suppose, have shaken down the walls of Jericho, if they had been there, and blew till I had no strength to blow any more. The object of the noise, hooting, blowing horns and beating bushes was to scare up the wolves, and drive them before us, and, of course, when the poor doomed wolves had been thus driven closer and closer to a common center by the contracting lines, the purpose was to slay them ruthlessly, by the hundreds, that is, if they were there. As we drew near the center, where there was a running brook and a cave in the rocks, the excitement increased. Soon wild animals of different sorts were seen darting about. There were deer in considerable numbers, and though in poor condition, as I remember, a great many were killed. In their fright and eagerness to escape, they ran directly at the lines of hunters, and I saw some of them leap clear over the heads of the men. Foxes were numerous too, and a good many were killed, with smaller game of different sorts. But we were after wolves ; and after all our marching and hallooing, and beating of bushes, my recollection is that not a single wolf was captured or killed—or, if any, only one or two—and the whole affair was a laughable failure, so far as the wolf part was concerned. I think I have never wasted so much breath to so little profit as I did in blowing that tin horn. I walked bome a tired boy, and very skeptical as to Pitt Putnam's having any great inspiration as a wolf hunter."

Doctor Ezra Walker, the first resident physician of Ames township, was born December 9, 1776, at Killingly, Connecticut, in which state he studied his profession, and practiced for some years. Removing from Connecticut he settled in Poultney, Vermont, about the year 1800, and from thence migrated with his family to Marietta, in the autumn of 1810. He remained on

426 - Ames Township.

the Muskingum till the spring of 1811, when he came with his family, consisting of wife and seven children, into Ames township, and immediately resumed the practice of medicine. He pursued a general practice for more than twenty years, and, in a few families who would never excuse him, he continued to practice for almost forty years, or till near the close of his life. When he began to practice medicine in the county, and for many years later, what with bad roads or no roads at all, absence of bridges, sparse and scattered settlements, etc., his long rides, frequently of fifteen or twenty miles, were always attended with difficulties and sometimes with dangers. In one instance he had to cross the country from where the present town of Plymouth, Washington county, is situated, to another settlement at Barrows' mill, in Rome township, which took him till far in the evening, when he found himself followed by wolves. As their numbers increased the animals were emboldened to contract their circle around him, till he was obliged to climb into a tree for safety; and there he spent the night, keeping a sharp lookout for his horse beneath, and trying to frighten away the wolves, by beating with a club against the body of the tree in which he was perched. When day
dawned his hungry enemies gradually drew off; and the doctor proceeded on his journey. When he reached the first cabin, not very far distant, and situated just below the present site of Big Run Station, he found the

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wolves had taken this man's premises in their retreat, and killed a calf near his house for their breakfast.

Doctor Walker taught school in Ames, for one or two quarters in 1811-12, always holding himself ready, however, to attend the sick. By means of his profession, and by farming some, he gained for himself and family a comfortable subsiStence, living to see his children all creditably settled in life. He died January 9, 1852.

His eldest daughter was married to John Brown know General Brown), in 1811, and his second daughter to the late James J. Fuller, of Athens, in 1815. Mrs. Brown died in 1853, and Mrs. Fuller in 1864. His sons, William R. Walker, Archibald B. Walker, Ezra Walker, and Ralph M. Walker, were natives of East Poultney, Vermont, but were reared from boyhood in Athens county. William R., though a man of fine native talent and much refinement of character, was oppressed by self-diStrust and timidity. He lived for a short time, during the early portion of his adult life, in Lancaster, Ohio, where he was highly respected for his integrity, business talent, and literary culture. Among those whose friendship he acquired at that time and always retained, was Mr. Hocking H. Hunter, who recently stated to the writer that, he "had never in all his life, seen any person who recited and acted the part of Hamlet So perfectly, in his opinion, as Wm. R. Walker." At that time fine buSiness prospects

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were opened to him, and for awhile he revolved "enterprises of great pith and moment." But melancholy overcame him. He abandoned active business and the wide fields of usefulness that were opening before him, returned to the paternal farm, and there passed the rest of his life, remote from the society which he was so well calculated to adorn. An amiable christian gentleman, he lived and died respected by the whole community. HiS death took place in 1855.

Ezra Walker, another son of Dr. Walker, graduated at the Ohio university in 1829, studied law with Judge Summers at Charleston, West Virginia, and settled in that place. He published the Kanawha Republican for several years, and afterward was superintendent of the "James River and Kanawha Improvement" more than twenty years, and until his death in March, 1853. He was widely known and universally respected.

Ralph M. Walker, the youngest brother, graduated at the Western Reserve college. The greater part of his life has been passed as a teacher in Otterbein college, Franklin county, Ohio, and in the Grand River institute in Ashtabula county. He now lives in Missouri.

David Rathburn, born in Rhode Island in 1766, removed to the state of New York, where he lived several years, and thence, in 1809, to Ames township in Athens county. Here he rented the Cutler farm

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for one year, and then moved up into the "hill settlement," some five miles further north, where he tended the horse mill owned by Christopher Herrold, for about four years. This was the first mill erected in this part of the country, and was patronized by the settlers for many miles around. In 1814 he bought a farm on the little creek where Judge Walker lived, and resided there till his death, March 8, 1850. After coming on this farm, Mr. Rathburn got up an excellent hand mill that proved a great convenience to the neighborhood at times. He had great Skill in trapping wild animals, and his neighbors, for miles around, would come to him for instruction in preparing bait and setting traps for wolves. He left two sons and four daughters; the sons and one daughter, wife of Judge R. A. Fulton, are still living in the same neighborhood in Ames township.

Capt. Thomas S. Lovell waS born in Barnstable county, Massachusetts, January 18, 1785. At the age of fifteen he went to sea as cabin boy, and, during his first cruise of three years, was advanced before the mast. Returning home he went to school for one or two terms, learned something of navigation and a little mathematics, then took to the sea again. He was successful in his calling, became master of a ship before he was twenty-one years old, and before he had reached his

430 - Ames Township.

twenty-ninth year had crossed the Atlantic forty-two times. Capt. Lovell says:

"In 1812, when war began, I loaded my ship with corn in Philadelphia for a Spanish port, depending on the good sailing of my ship for safety. I went through safely, sold my cargo at a good advance, and lay in the harbor five months, waiting for an opportunity to get out, the bay of Biscay being alive with armed vessels. When I thought it was safe to come out I did so, but myself and crew were captured. My ship was ballasted with sand. The English were very anxious to know what had become of the proceeds of my cargo. I told them I had remitted it to London, but they thought that was a Yankee lie, and they probed the sand through and through to find the money, but to no effect. I was then taken before the admiral (I forget his name), and he finally cleared me and gave me a permit to St. Ubes in Portugal, there to load with salt, and I made a good voyage home."
Finding times dull (in 1814), and commerce languishing, he resolved to quit the sea. We give Capt. Lovell's language again:

"My brother Russell and myself were partners in business, and, as times were so very dull, we decided to emigrate to the west. So we sold our property, rigged what was called a Yankee wagon, and a small wagon and team of five horses, and started for Ohio. We traveled by land to Redstone, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where we separated. My brother took the teams down by land, while I, with a flat-bottomed boat, a queer kind of craft without mast, jib, or sail, took the families and most of the effects by water to Marietta. From there we came on t o Athens county, and settled on Sharp's fork of Fed-

History of Athens County, Ohio - 431

eral creek, in what was then Ames township. We reached here November 18, 1814, after a journey of ten weeks. For awhile both families lived in one cabin, not a large one either, belonging to Job Phillips, and we had hard sailing to get along. I was willing to work, but did not know any more about farming than a land-lubber does about working a ship—however, we got along. Wolves were very troublesome; they killed our sheep constantly, and once they killed a yearling steer of mine. Elijah Latimer, who lived near us, was a famous hunter. I sold him thirty acres of land adjoining my farm, and took pay in hunting. He would furnish venison for my family, and also fight off the wolves whenever they invaded my sheep flock. Sugar making was quite an occupation when I came here. When I commenced I tapped trees without regard to kind—smooth-bark hickories, buckeyes, and sugar trees. The first pig I ever owned in Ohio got badly scratched by a bear. The men folks were all away from home, and the bear came into the door yard after some fresh pork, but piggy ran under the house and escaped with a severe cuff or two. My dogs would often tree a bear twenty or thirty rods from the cabin, when I would call Latimer and he would shoot him. They frequently weighed two hundred and fifty and three hundred pounds. Wild turkeys were very plenty. I have often set a square pen made of rails, then scattered a little corn about and into it, and caught eight or ten fine ones at a time. The pen being covered at the top the turkeys could not fly out, and they never thought of ducking their heads to get out by the same passage they came in. We had great difficulty in getting grain ground. We were far from any mill, and I have often ridden on horseback to Lancaster to get a bushel of corn ground. Before coming west I had heard that there was shipbuilding on the Ohio river, and my real object in coming to Ohio was to take out ships. There had been a few built at Marietta before I came out, but I think there was only one built after I came here, and I took that to New Orleans, where I fitted her for sea, then sailed across the gulf to Havana, and

432 - Ames Township.

from there to Baltimore. There I bought a horse and rode home, and made a good trip."

Touching this vessel and voyage we are able to add a little to Capt. Lovell's reminiscence.

We find the following item in the Cincinnati Gazette of April 15, 1816 :

" Came to anchor before this place (Cincinnati), on last Saturday evening, the schooner Maria, Captain Lovell, of and from Marietta, Ohio, bound to Boston, Mass., full cargo of pork, flour and lard. The Maria is 50 tons burthen, has 51 feet straight rabbit, 18 feet beam, and draws six feet of water. She was built, rigged, and loaded at Marietta, and is owned by Messrs. Moses McFarland and Edmund B. Dana—the latter gentleman on board. The Maria sailed hence yesterday at 11 o'clock. The present state of the water is favorable to her descent of the river. May prosperous gales waft her to her port of destination."

And in Niles' Weekly Register, published at Baltimore, we find the following item in the issue of July 13, 1816:

" Singular arrival. A fine schooner arrived at Baltimore last week, in 46 days from Marietta, Ohio, with a cargo of pork. It is well observed that the mountains have melted away before the enterprise and indefatigability of our countrymen.' "

The farmers of Athens county have a somewhat better mode now of getting their produce to market than by salt water.

History of Athens County, Ohio - 433

Captain Lovell is living on the farm where he first settled in 1814. At that time it was in Ames township, Athens county, then in Homer township, and finally in Marion township, Morgan county. Thus, living in one spot for fifty-four years, Captain Lovell has been a citizen of three different townships and two counties. He is in his eighty-fifth year and is unusually bright for one of his age.

The Lovell brothers married sisters and lived on adjoining farms for many years. Russell was a painter and was killed by the kick of a horse in the town of Athens—year unknown.

Lewis Columbia, born in France in 1770, came to Ames township is 1815 and settled on the creek above the Owens settlement, whence, after a few years, he moved on to Walker's branch and settled on the farm now owned by Mahlon Kasler. Here he erected a rude tannery, the first established in this part of the country, which served a good purpose to a limited extent in tanning the skins of wild animals, with which the region then abounded. He died in 1825.

Gulliver Dean, born in Norton, Bristol county, Massachusetts, August 9, 1772, came to Athens county with his father's family in the year 1815. In 1818 he married Miss Mary Cutler, second daughter of Judge Ephraim Cutler. He settled in Ames township where he still resides, and where his family are well known and highly respected.