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CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES - 19 CHAPTER III COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND BEGINNINGS ANCIENT OWNERSHIP OF TERRITORY-THE INDIANS WHO ONCE HELD IT-PART OF THE GREAT NORTHWEST TERRITORY-ONCE INCLUDED 1N SEVERAL OTHER COUNTIES-ITS NAME-ITS COUNTY SEAT LOCATED-FIRST OFFICIAL ACTION-FIRST OFFICERS OF THE COUNTY-PART OF THE LEGISLATIVE ACT CREATING THE COUNTY. This county was carved out of the territory of other counties, hereinafter named. Being a sub-division of the State of Ohio, of course it at one date was also a part of the great Northwest Territory. Was first held by the Indian tribes elsewhere named in this work ; then was subsequently owned by France and England, before the United States was made a free and independent Republic in its declaration of 1776. The Harrison County section of this work gives much concerning the early owners and the occupancy of this territory of both Indians and Whites, for in fact what applies to one of these two counties virtually applies to the other. FIRST OFFICIAL ACTION The Centennial Edition of the Carrollton Free Press-Standard, in 1915, gave the following interesting preface to the organization of this county: The first official action of which there is any record, looking toward the establishment of what was afterward Carroll County, was taken in the House of Representatives Monday, December 14, 1818, when Stephen Ford, representative from Jefferson "Presented a petition of sundry citizens praying that a new county may be established, to be taken from the counties of Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas and Jefferson which was read and referred to Messrs. Ford, Hedges and Chapman, with leave to report by Bill or otherwise." It was "Ordered that Mr. Claypool acquaint the Senate therewith." Isaac Atkinson became interested in the establishment of Carroll County and spent several winters at Columbus in behalf of the move, making- the trips on horseback. It is stated that it cost him something over $7,000 which in those times was a fortune—to get the bill through. It is related there was much opposition to it in the Senate, and one of the influential members had taken a decided stand against the bill. Mr. Atkinson who had a line on all of the connections and associates of the Assemblymen, learned that the memberls brother-in-law kept a tavern in Columbus. He went to the brother-in-law and asked him to use his influence, recounting in detail the hard fights he had made for years, and then added : "If this bill becomes a law I am going to banquet the members of the Assembly, the State officials and 20 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES the prominent men of the State, and it is my intention to give that banquet at your tavern." The tavern-keeper's brother-in-law soon swung into line in support of the measure, and it was greatly through his influence that it was accorded such a large vote in the Senate, and, of course he was at the banquet. The bill became a law on Christmas Day, and Isaac Atkinson, in the role of Santa Claus, put something in the stocking of the community that will never be forgotten. The following is a part of the law, along with the legislative proceedings pertaining thereto: SECTION ONE. BE IT ENACTED By THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO, That so much of the counties of Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Harrison and Jefferson as comes within the fol- PICTURE OF ISAAC ATKINSON, FATHER OF CARROLL COUNTY lowing boundaries, be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate county which shall be known by the name of CARROLL, to-wit : (Here follows the detailed boundaries). Section 7 of this Act states that "On the first Monday of April next, the legal voters residing within the county of Carroll, shall assemble in their respective townships, at the usual places of holding elections, and shall proceed to elect the different county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual election, and until their successors are elected and qualified." "Section 8. That the court of said county shall be holden at any convenient house in the town of Centreville, until the permanent seat of justice for the said county of Carroll be established. "Section 9. That the Commissioners shall be appointed agreeable to an Act entitled Tor the establishment of seats of justice' fix CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES - 21 upon a permanent seat of justice for the said county of Carroll, and make report thereof to the court of Common Pleas, in and for said county, agreeably to the provisions of the above recited act ; and the Commissioners of aforesaid shall receive a compensation for their services out of the treasury of said county of Carroll. This Act shall commence and be in force from and after the first day in January next. "DAVID T. DISNEY, "Speaker of the House of Representatives. "SAMUEL R. MILLER, December 25, 1832. "Speaker of the Senate." The standing Committees on New Counties had before them the following: First—As to the county of Carroll:-"The proposed county of Carroll is composed of parts of the counties of Columbiana, Stark, Tuscarawas, Harrison and Jefferson and is in form nearly square, with a territory of about 403 square miles ; said to contain about twenty-one hundred white male inhabitants, over the age of twenty- one years, upward of sixteen hundred of whom presented their petitions to the last General Assembly for the erection of said county." Centreville named by the petitioners as the county seat, is situated near the center of the territory and nearly equal distanced from New Lisbon, Canton, New Philadelphia and Cadiz and thirty-three miles from Steubenville. It is stated, that should this county be erected its most remote point from the county seat should not exceed twelve or fourteen miles and that as now situated, many of the petitioners reside at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles from the seats of justice of their respective counties.. After the usual pulling and hauling in the Legislature, Carroll County was finally set off from the other counties as a separate subdivision of the. State. The date being December 25, 1832. FIRST ELECTION February 22, 1833, an election of county officers was held under the organic act, at which 1,781 votes were cast, and resulted in the election of John Beatty, for sheriff ; Thomas McGavran, coroner ; John Shober, William Davis and James Ferrall, county commissioners; David Workman, treasurer ; George Beatty, auditor; A. Jones, recorder; William Brown, of Washington Township, assessor; Van Brown, surveyor ; these all held their respective offices until the general election in October following at which time all but the two county commissioners were re-elected. The prosecuting attorney was Robert McCleve. The first term of court and the first session of the county commissioners were held in the tavern of David J. Levy, corner Main and Lisbon streets, owned by Peter Bohart. Here they assembled a few times until the commissioners managed to rent temporary quarters in the Lutheran Reformed church—"Jerusalem"—on East Main Street. The jail was finished before the courthouse. David Workman had the treasurer's office at a house where later stood the Racket Store. The 22 - CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES Legislature formed Carroll County from adjoining counties and had appointed Judge John Pearce as the presiding judge, with George Davis, George Reynolds and Robert George as associate judges. Daniel McCook was made clerk of the new county. The law fixed the day for the first election of county officers as February 22, 183.3 when the first county officers were elected, as shown elsewhere. CONCERNING THE COUNTY SEAT LOCATION Until 1836 the portions of Carroll County taken from the Old counties voted for representatives with the counties from which they were respectively taken. The state was now re-apportioned and Carroll County was allowed one representative of its own. And as an acknowledgment of his untiring services of nearly seven long years in obtaining the county, Isaac Atkinson was elected the first representative to the Ohio Legislature ; he having also donated the grounds on which the courthouse and jail were built. Watson Ayers and other citizens of New Harrisburg were striving to have the county seat located there ; but Mr. Atkinson succeeded in landing the coveted prize and the name was changed to Carrollton. As an inducement to locating the courthouse in Carrollton, the business men at that time subscribed the greater part of the money from their own private funds, as the commissionerls journal "A" shows. And the record also shows that when the commissioners went to the State Bank at Steubenville to borrow money enough to complete the courthouse and pay the contractor, the bank refused to accept their promise to pay until George W. Butler endorsed the note. Gen. Ephraim R. Eckley, who was judge before he was general, was a candidate for the United States Senate in 1854 on the Whig ticket. That party really died that year and the free-soil party was ushered in. General Eckley was born in 1811 ; served from 1861 in the Virginia campaign in the Union army under General Rosecrans, later under Gen. W. T., Sherman ; had command of the forces at Paducah ; April, 1862 elected to Congress, remained till 1869. He used to state that Carroll County's jail was usually empty and from 1842 to 1863, a period of twenty-one years, the county had not supplied a single inmate to the Ohio penitentiary. THE BEGINNINGS Carroll County was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The county was erected from territory detached from Columbiana County, also parts from the counties of Stark, Tuscarawas, HarriSon and Jefferson. It was organized by the Act of December, 25, 1832. The first seat of justice was fixed at Centreville. The Sandusky and Beaver Canal was constructed through Carroll County in 1835 but in 1850 was forever abandoned and railroads since then have taken the place of water routes such as canals in this part of the world. The name of the first county seat—Centreville—was changed later to Carrollton. This place was laid out in 1815 by Peter Bohart, who had reached that section of the country in about 1810, coming from CARROLL AND HARRISON COUNTIES - 23 Pennsylvania. At that time the line between Stark and Columbiana counties ran just to the west of the village. Leesburg was laid out in 1812 by Thomas Price and Peter Sanders. In 1860, this place was the most famous station on the "Underground Railroad." It was also a favorite stopping place for great abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Fred Douglas and others. Daniel McCook, father of one of the famous families of the "Fighting McCooks," was the first clerk of courts in Carroll County after its organization. In one of the two families of McCooks, fifteen commissioned officers and one private soldier served their country in the military service. Quite an important change in territory was brought about by the Act of December 25, 1832, when certain territory belonging to Columbiana County was attached to Jefferson ; and certain other territory belonging to Tuscarawas County was added to Harrison County. |