PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 99

guilty. So much cost for the witness to pay." Then, address ing the witness, ordered him to pay it over quick or he wou send him to jail for contempt of court, so the witness fork it over.

The Original Forest of Rutland.

S. C. Larkin. - Dr. Frank Parker.

This record of the Dogwood blossoming is because it blooms with more uniformity than any other tree, showing late or early spring, and the foregoing table has been carefully kept, year by year. S. C. L.

The name Rutland was given to the township through the influence of five of its citizens who came from Rutland, Vermont, and Rutland, Massachusetts. Their names were, viz.: John Miles, Luke Brine, Abel Larkin, Brewster Higley and Shubael Nobles. The village of Rutland was laid out in 1828, by Barzillai H. Miles and Abijah Hubbell, Jr., and the survey was made by Samuel Halliday, and the acknowledgment of the deeds for the streets before Abel Larkin, Associate Judge, August 20th, 1828. The original lots consisted of one-fourth of an acre in Section No. 14, and fractions of Nos. 1 and 7. Other lots have been added from Section No. 8 and No. 7.

PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 103

SAMUEL HALLIDAY.

Mr. Samuel Halliday came from Scotland, fresh with educational honors from the University of Edinburgh, and en route to a professorship in the Ohio University at Athens, had by the difficulties of travel in a new country been impeded in his progress, and by one of those strange events in life was stranded in the little country place of Rutland, where he found his life work. He was soon engaged in teaching, and established a reputation for success in giving instruction to his pupils. Judge Ephraim Cutler sent his two sons, Manasseh and William P., to attend the "Halliday School," boarding them with the Larkins. Gen. Holcomb sent his son Anselm to be taught in the Scotchman's College at Rutland. Mr. Halliday married Miss Eliza Parker, a daughter of William Parker, an intelligent pioneer, thus locating himself as a citizen, he entered into the plans for increasing the public utilities. He surveyed and laid out the village of Rutland, and surveyed and laid out the lots in the Miles graveyard. He was influential in the erection of the two-story brick schoolhouse. When the county seat of Meigs county was located in Chester, William Weldon was the first Auditor, and after one year Mr. Samuel Halliday was elected Auditor, and served the county in that office for twenty-four successive years. He moved to Pomeroy when it was made the seat of justice, but afterwards Mr. Halliday moved to Southern Illinois, where Mrs. Eliza Halliday died. His sons were engaged in business in Cairo, having accumulated considerable wealth, and Mr. Halliday spent a few years with them.

He returned to Ohio, bought a farm in Gallia county, married a widow lady, Mrs. Braley, and passed his last days in comfortable, honorable retirement. "The memory of the just is blessed."

The brick school-house, referred to above, was used for all kinds of public assemblies, religious or political, as well as lectures on temperance or abolition. There was not a meeting

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house in the township, so this house was a preaching place for all denominations, when the services would not interfere with the school.

A payment of five dollars was made by the township trustees for the privilege of holding elections in this school building.

Spelling schools and singing schools met in this "town hall" and young people enjoyed the social opportunity.

There was a debating club, of considerable importance in helping young men to try their skill in oratory, or sharpen their wits by controversy. They had rules that secured to them an exclusive selection of membership.

Many intellectual contests were held there by the young men engaged in debating. The growth of minds, and the friendship of hearts, nursed in that building, will continue while life shall last with those thus associated.

THE WIND-STORM OF 1826.

The severest wind-storm ever known in Rutland from its first settlement, came on Sunday afternoon, October 29th, 1826. The school-house just mentioned suffered greatly. The upper story was swept off entirely, and the roof only was ever replaced. The strong current of this wind was not more than a quarter mile in width, showing greater strength in some places than in others in its course, which was a little south of east. It came from Salem township, but did little damage until reaching the brick house of Felix Benedict, the upper part of which was blown down. In the village of Rutland, a frame house, the residence of Mr. Beebe, was blown all to pieces, but fortunately the family had gone out of the house, and so escaped with their lives. Passing over a hill a half mile east, which was covered with heavy timber, it completely felled the standing trees. Then pitching over another hill into the valley of Hysell run, it removed all the timber except

PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 105

a few saplings that were not twisted off. At the base of the hill stood a log cabin, the home of Royal Hysell. There were nine persons inside when the storm began, Mr. Royal Hysell and family, and Mr. James McGuire, Sr. The house was leveled to a log or two at the bottom, but no one was hurt. Passing over Thomas Fork, near the residence of Charles Russell, the wind felled all the heavy timber on the hillside, and then passed on to the Ohio river, where the Whitlock’s lived, and across the river into Virginia, and report came of its destructive path many miles into the country.

The first school in the first school-house in Salisbury township was taught by Samuel Denny, from Massachusetts, who also helped build the school-house. The school consisted of nine scholars, viz. : James Smith, John Smith, Sarah Kerr and Christena Niswonger, these four from near the mouth of Leading creek, and five children from Judge Higley's family. This term of school was in the winter of 1801-1802. Miss Electa Higley, afterwards Mrs. Benjamin Williams, was the woman to teach in that school-house. Mr. Denny taught one year in a house that belonged to Widow Case.

Mr. Denny delivered the first oration at a celebration of the 4th of July, in 1806. He stood on a mound not far from the Case house.

Mr. Denny left Ohio in 1810, and returned to Massachusetts where he married and died there.

Miss Fanny Smith taught school there, in 1811. She was married afterwards to Mr. Asa Maples. Probably the next school in the order of time was taught by James G. Green, a preacher, from Kentucky in 1809.

Miss Uretta Benedict had a school in a blacksmith's shop, built by Mr. Rufus Wells, but who had moved to Wilkesville. This was in 1811. The teacher was afterwards the wife of Cornelius Merrill. In 1812, Elisha Rathburn taught a school in a house belonging to Samuel Danforth that stood near the

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present dwelling of John F. Stevens. In 1812, a school-house was built on land now owned by Mr. George V. Lasher, and stood a few rods west of the old blacksmith shop. Miss Polly Wyatt, a lady from Athens, taught school in this neighborhood in 1812.

In 1816, a school-house was erected on land one hundred feet north of the southeast corner of Section No. 8, now owned by S. C. Larkin.

This house was built of logs, hewed or dressed on the inside as far up as the joists, with a stone chimney built on the outside, while the cracks between the logs were chinked with small pieces of wood or stone and daubed on the outside with mud. The windows for light were made by cutting out one-half of the upper side of the log at the proper height, and one-half of the log next above, on the under side, so as to match. Instead of glass, paper was fastened on, and then greased so as to admit the light. This was done on two sides of the house, and benches were made for the children to sit on, and boards laid on pins driven into the logs below the windows were for writing tables. The floor was made of boards, and loose boards were laid on joists overhead. The roof was made according to the common log-cabin style, by having eavebearers and buttling poles to hold the long shingles in proper place. Nails were scarce and few were used in building.

The first teacher in this house was David Lindsey, who taught in the winter of 1816 and 1817. He then settled on the east branch of Thomas Fork, near the Rutland and Chester road, His successor ac a teacher was Barrett, who came from Vermont, bringing a young wife with him. They moved into the school-house and taught the winter school. His habit was to rise early, cut wood, make a fire, eat breakfast, and then move the household goods into the loft each morning before school hours. This was in November, 1817, and the winter 1818.

PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 107

Brewster Higley, Jr., and his sister, Susan Higley, were teachers at some time in this log school-house. Mr. Samuel Halliday taught many terms in a house on the school lot, and continued to teach in different neighborhoods until the brick school house was built, where he taught until his election as Auditor of Meigs county, which office he held for twenty-four years, having been elected in 1825.

"First school-house was a small log cabin, built about 1809 on the ground now occupied by the lower graveyard in Middleport. The first teacher in that house was Jared Gaston, in 1810. The second teacher was Sally Higley, afterwards the wife of Daniel C. McNaughton, and the next term of school was taught by John Gilliland, who continued to teach about one year. The second school-house was built of hewed logs a short distance above Leading creek, on the Ministerial Section, and was designed for a meeting house, as well as a school-house. It was in this house that the first Courts of Common Pleas were held for the county of Meigs in the year 1819." Recollections, John C. Hysell, Esq., who lived with his father where the Rutland road came out to the river at the mouth of Bone Hollow, their home for eight or nine years, while he was a boy of sixteen years.

Joel Lowther was born in Loudon county, Virginia, August 4th, 1741. He was a Revolutionary soldier and drew a pension. He made his home at the house of John Stevens in Rutland, and died there November 7th, 1853. After his death, the Military Record was examined by Jesse Hubbell, then acting Justice of the Peace, who found that record made him one year older than his own account, which made him 112 years, 3 months and 3 days old, at the time of his death.

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GRANT AND KNIGHT FAMILIES.

December 1st, 1817, the families of John Grant, Sr., and wife, Sarah Boltwood Grant ; their sons, Samuel Grant, wife and children ; John Knight and wife, nee Agnes Grant, landed at Silver run, Salisbury township, having had a long and tedious journey from Maine, which was made, first in wagons as far as Wellsburg on the upper Ohio, where a flatboat was constructed in which they floated down the river to Silver run, their destination. With them came a lad, John Pierce, whose home had been with the senior Grant for several years. Landress Grant, a bachelor brother, came also.

John Grant, Sr., died in June, 1820, and Mrs. Sarah Grant died in March, 1824. They are buried in the "Miles Cemetery," side by side.

Samuel Grant married in Maine, Hannah Davis, and they landed with a family of eight children, viz.:

Oliver Grant, married Mary Jones, daughter of Philip Jones, of Middleport, and moved to Iowa.

There was an invalid son of Samuel Grant, who lived to mature years, but died many years ago.

Royal C. Grant, the inventor and machinist of Middleport, 0., married Lovina Fuller, who died many years ago.

William Grant married Esther Hobart and settled in Middleport, 0. He was associated with his brothers, John and Samuel Grant, Jr., in the steam flouring mill, one of the finest mills ever built in Meigs county.

Ebenezer Tuttle Grant married Sarah Jones, daughter of Philip Jones, of Middleport. They moved to Minnesota.

Lydia Grant was married to Phineas Robinson of Chester, died many years ago, leaving two children, a son William Fenn Robinson, and the daughter Elizabeth was married to George Grow, grandson of Judge Grow.

John Grant married Mary Roup, both died many years ago.

PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 109

Eliza Grant was the wife of William Wright, of Kentucky.

Cyrus Grant married Charlotte Hebard, of Athens county. He was known as Col. Grant, for many years identified with the business interests of Pomeroy. Samuel Grant, Sr., and all of his family are dead.

Mr. William Hobart came from Spencer, Tioga county, N. Y., in 1818, to Leading creek. Mrs. Hobart, nee Hugg, with two children, were with him. They had five children born in Meigs county. The older children were Isaac Hobart and Phebe, married to Mr. Hanlin, of Middleport, 0. Esther Hobart became the wife of William Grant and reared a family of marked intellectual force. California, a daughter, was for years a noted teacher in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and passed away in 1906, deeply mourned. Electa Grant spent some years teaching in the "New Church" Academy in Philadelphia. Julia was the wife of James Boggess, a prominent citizen of Meigs, and has been County Treasurer. William Grant, Jr., was a farmer in Great Bend, Kansas, a successful man. Lucy Grant, the youngest child, is a teacher of kindergarten schools.

There were two children of Samuel Grant and wife born after they came to Ohio, viz.: William Grant, who married Esther Hobart, and lived in Middleport. He and brother, John Grant, were enterprising and successful millers for many years in Middleport. They operated the roller process for making flour, about the first of any mill in Meigs county. Mr. William Grant was one of a company who went overland to California in 1849.

Samuel Grant, Jr., was an invalid, and died unmarried.

Belinda, the daughter, died when quite young.

Mr. Samuel Grant, Sr., operated mills in different parts of Meigs county. At the Higley Mills on Leading Creek soon after his arrival ; later, he took charge of the Stedman mill on Shade river, and built, or rebuilt, the mill at Chester. He

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bought land and settled on his farm below Middleport, and spent the remainder of his life in the vicinity of Pomeroy and Middleport, alternately with his sons. He died in 1866 at the great age of 93 years. His wife, Mrs. Grant, lived a few years after her husband, dying "well up in the nineties," of age.

John Grant, brother of Samuel Grant, was born on April 11th, 1789, in the State of Maine. He married Mahetible Mahew, and they had two children when arriving at Silver run, Meigs county.

Thompson Grant married Cynthia McNaughton.

Franklin Grant, when a small boy, was drowned in Leading creek.

Andrew, another child, was choked to death by a grain of corn falling into his throat or windpipe.

Mary Grant was married to Elias Hutton, and moved to Delphos, Kansas.

John, Jr., married Lucinda Lellan, residing in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Sarah, first; Simpson, second ; Steward Grant, living at Greeley, Iowa.

Lydia Grant, unmarried, living with her father at Greeley, Iowa.

Henry C. married Clarissa Merrill, located at Ironton, Ohio.

In 1852, John Grant, Sr., moved to Greeley, Iowa, being upwards of ninety-three years old. Mrs. John Grant died in 1864. While John Grant, Sr., lived in Rutland, 0., he enjoyed the respect and confidence of all classes of the people. He was Justice of the Peace in 1826, and Township Treasurer for many years.

He died at his daughter's, Mrs. Hutton, of Delphos, Kansas, December 16th, 1889, aged 100 years, 8 months and 5 days.

This long-lived family, as the records indicate, were of Scotch descent, and known as far back as Peter Grant, who, it is supposed emigrated in colonial days and settled in Maine.

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John Knight and his wife Agnes, nee Grant, came from Maine in the "Grant Company" in 1817. Their children were, viz. : Daniel, who died at the age of 18 years.

Benjamin Knight married Dolly Newell, settled in Chester, Meigs county. Calvin Knight married Jane Barton, first wife died. He then married Euretta Stowe. Sarah B. Knight was married to Samuel Torrence. Samuel Knight married Elizabeth Mitchell, a preacher of the Christian denomination, and moved to Kansas.

Louisa, the wife of Francis Chase, lived in Rutland. Both are dead.

Lydia Knight was married to John Whiteside, of Long Bottom.

Agnes Knight became Mrs. Alvin Rife, of Chester, long since dead.

Rhoda Knight was never married, but cared for both of her parents in their old age and to their death with filial devotion. She died in 1906.

Eunice Knight was Mrs. Osborn ; moved to Davenport, Iowa, and died.

Olive Knight, unmarried, dead many years.

Almira, wife of Oscar Newell, of Chester, left a widow, but since dead.

Mr. John Knight moved his family six times, always in Meigs county. He opened the first coal bank on Naylor's run, Pomeroy, 0. He died in Chester in 1875, in his 93d year. Mrs. Knight preceding him a year, and died aged 87 years. Pioneer sketch, by G. W. Chase, December 1st, 1882.

At the meeting of the Meigs County Pioneer Association in August, 1882, a very interesting paper was presented by Mr. Silas Jones of personal recollection of incidents related by John Warth, Esq., of events and experiences of himself and his brother, George Warth, in the early days of Indian troubles, while his father's family were living in the stockade, and where his brother, Robert Warth, was shot, killed and

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scalped by Indians. This paper by Mr. Silas Jones is reproduced in this history. The fact that the Warth brothers carried the first United States mail between Marietta and Gallipolis, brought out the letter of Col. David Barber, of Harmar, who was present at the reading by the secretary, Mr. George McQuigg. Before the reading of the letter, Mrs. E. L. Bicknell placed an "In Memoriam" in the secretary's hands which he read as preparatory to the correspondence with Col. Barber.

"I come today to speak of the dead, of funerals without hearse, and burials in graves hollowed out by kindly neighbors, and mourned sincerely by loving hearts. The pioneers who died were laid in plots of ground not held by any special tenure, often private burial places convenient of access to the families bereaved. In the subsequent changes of ownership of land ; in the wide scattering of relatives; these places have been neglected, and graves of our ancestors have too often been lost. Allow me to call attention to a "burying ground," I use the Quaker term, as most befitting, situated on the farm of my late father, N. Bicknell, and the portion now owned by me. It is in all respects a pioneer graveyard. There have been no interments in it for forty years. Here are the graves of Mrs. Abigail Lindley, who drove the first carriage from Athens to Great Bend ; Mr. Haviland Chase, from Otsego, N. Y., whose tombstone is marked with the compass and square ; Mr. Isaac Laveaux Roberts, also with compass and square. He was grandfather of the well-known Capt. William Roberts, steamboatman, of Letart, 0. Mr. Smith and wife. and Mrs. Smith, second, wife of John Smith, mother of Mr. Thomas Smith, and great grandmother of Prof. Thomas S. Carr, of Syracuse, 0. Mr. Duncan, a Scotchman, and his wife, who came from Scotland, with the famous Nahum Ward colony. Mrs. McDaniel, of the same Scotch company, Mr. George Warth, wife and daughter. Two children of Charles and Lydia McClain, nee Roush, little ones—"Mary Jane and

PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY - 112

Isabel." Mr. Artemas Johnson and his little daughter Margaret, and others.

Mrs. Lindley was a sister of President Lindley, first President of the Ohio University at Athens, 0. I well rememben his visit to his sister's grave, stopping over night at my father': house. Mr. George Warth was the real pioneer. His gray( is known, but has never been marked by a stone. In regarc to him I wrote to Col. David Barber, of Harmar, and receivec an interesting letter, which shall be read presently.

Before this letter is read, I beg to state my object in pre senting these names before you. It is my wish to secure the ground where these dead are lying by a deed, in some fora claiming the oversight and guardianship of the membership of the Meigs County Pioneer Society. It contains nearly one-fourth of an acre, on the bank of the Ohio river, a south east corner lot, that might be made, with small expense, a place fair to look upon. I ask for this old pioneer, this Indiat scout, George Warth, a stone for his grave. What more? The ground is grown up with brush and briars, and without a fence. In order to deed the land a survey will be necessary and some expense will be incurred to clear it out, and enclose it with a fence. Two men are lying there with the compass and square on their headstones.

These beautiful lines,

"My flesh shall slumber in the ground,

Till the last trumpet's joyful sound,

Then burst death's chain in sweet surprise,

And in my Savior's image rise,"

are the Christian watchwords on the tombstone of Mrs. Lind ley. Shall the plow of any future proprietor lengthen furrow, over these graves? Will you help secure God's acre from un hallowed uses?

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Col. Barber's letter was then read, he being present,:

"Harmar, April 27th, 1881.

Mrs. E. L. Bicknell:

Your favor of the 18th inst. was duly received. In reply thereto I copy from Hildreth's Pioneer History. He gives the names of families in and near Fort Harmar in the time of the Indian hostilities. Among them, George Warth and wife and two daughters and five sons. Catharine Warth, a daughter of Mr. George Warth, Sr., was married to Joseph Fletcher, a young man from New England, and settled in Gallia county. He was a surveyor of the county, and a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in 1844.

Pickett Marvin, a young man from the Eastern States, married Polly Warth, a sister of Catharine Fletcher. They settled in Gallia county, where Mr. Marvin served several years as Magistrate.

The sisters, Ruth and Sally Fleehart, who were married to George and John Warth, brothers, were noted for their skill with the rifle. It was said that Sally Fleehart could bring down a hawk upon the wing, or a squirrel from a tree top as readily as her husband, John Warth. These women had been brought up on the frontier and possessed all the intrepidity and courage of women of that class. This ends the record in Col. Barber's letter. In regard to Mr. George Warth, he was one of a party who accompanied Governor Return J. Meigs on his perilous journey down the Ohio river. He was less favored by fortune than brother John ; nevertheless, services to his country should be appreciated. Silas Jones.

At the pioneer meeting of 1883, a committee was appointed to procure a suitable monument to be placed at the grave of George Warth.

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Rutland, Ohio, August 14th, 1884,

The committee appointed to erect a monument to mark t resting place of George Warth beg leave to report. T amount contributed by members at the last meeting:

$8.50. Robert Combs, dime collection, $5.00. Donated outside of the Society, $16.00. Donated by L. A. Weaver, $8.00. Total - $37.50

Paid for monument - $35.00

For hauling and putting it up 2..50

$37.50

SILAS JONES,

Chairman of Committee

Thus are remembered the services of an Indian spy and scout, who carried the U. S. mail from Marietta to Gallipolis in a canoe, defended by his unerring rifle, and propelled by pole in his strong hands. S. C. L.

This pioneer graveyard was surveyed and deeded to Lebanon township by Mrs. Emetine L. Bicknell, and the deed was recorded in the Recorder's office at the Court House in Pomeroy, O., in 1883. She also paid to the wife of Uriah Sayre, for her labor, and her boys, money for the cleaning of brush and briars of this same pioneer graveyard in the fall of 1882.

FLAX.

In those primitive times the raising of flax and the manufacturing of the same was an important business. It could not be exchanged for or supplied by anything else. The ground needed for cultivation had to be good, mellow land, free from weeds, and was sown broadcast. When grown and seed nearly ripe, it was pulled up by the roots by hand and spread upon the ground where it grew, and where it remained until dry. It was then bound in small bundles, and the seed pounded off with flails, after which it was taken to a meadow or pasture, and spread evenly on the grass to lie until the rain and weather

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had weakened the pith or inside of the stem, or rotted it sufficiently to be easily broken when dry. It was then taken up and bound ready for the brake. The brakeman would take a handful of flax and place it under the brake, and with his other hand ply the brake till all the sheaves were mashed fine. Then the ends of the handfuls were slightly combed by what was called a hatchel, and the broken stems were thrown away as useless. Then both ends were thoroughly combed, and the tow saved for use. The flax that remained after these processes was fine, smooth and glossy. The tow was carded on hand cards into rolls, or bats, and was spun on a "big wheel" like wool ; but the flax was spread over a distaff and spun on a little wheel, and operated by the foot on a treadle. This thread made the warp, and the tow yarn made the filling when woven into cloth, which was called "tow and linen cloth," and was commonly worn by men for trousers in summer. The linen warp was sometimes colored with copperas, a yellow brown, and filled with woolen yarn colored with butternut bark, and was called butternut jeans, and made winter clothing. For a change, both linen chain and woolen filling were colored with indigo and made blue jeans for men and boys, coats and trousers.

Experiments were made with other material, as of buckskin, the hide of the deer, when properly tanned was a soft, pliable leather, made into gloves, mittens and moccasins, very rarely into the garments for men or boys.

Attempts were made to raise cotton, but in such small quantities, and lacking proper machinery to take the seeds out of the cotton, the effort was unsuccessful.

At a later period a few families entered into silk culture, planted white mulberry trees, and had rooms fitted for feeding the worms, but it was considered an unhealthy business, and was abandoned.

Perhaps no article of household furnishings was prized more highly than the long pendulum wall clock. The firm of Reed

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and Watson, of Cleveland, Ohio, made them, and sold to farmers in Rutland, on nine months' time, for twenty dollars per clock. Abel Larkin, Esq., bought one in December, 1813, and paid for it in flannel at one dollar a yard the next fall. This clock of Judge Larkin's, bought in 1813, had been in constant use, and always keeping correct time, was still running in December, 1893, after eighty years of service.

Among the few equipments of a log cabin, and a great convenience for cooking over the fire, was the crane. It was a bar of iron fastened in staples in one side of the fireplace, and movable, hung with hooks of different lengths for the use of the kettles in cooking. The teakettle, the pot with boiled dinner and the beans were easily hung over the log fire, while with a long shovel coals were drawn out from under the fore-stick and put on the hearth for the oven to bake the bread.

Many a family have enjoyed a supper of mush and milk, sitting around the family table with bowls for the father and mother and tin cups and iron spoons for the children. The best mush was made from the corn, grated on a tin grater, before the corn was quite hard enough to shell. This was sifted, and carefully dropped by one hand into the water boiling in the kettle over the fire, while the other hand stirred it in ; it had to be stirred all the while the meal was passing from the other hand to avoid lumps, and the boiling continued during the process. The salt was put in the water first.

To make bread, mills were necessary, and the pioneers used hand-mills for crushing corn and wheat. In 1791, a floating mill was built at Marietta. It required swift water to run this mill, which was operated in the Ohio river not far from the island now known as Blannerhasset, and ground wheat for the inhabitants for many miles distant during the Indian War. Many canoe loads of grain were brought from Graham's Station, Point Pleasant and Gallipolis. After Indian hostilities had ceased, the mill broke loose from its moorings and floated down the Ohio river some sixty miles, when the chain cable

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got entangled in a rock and retained it. Some French settlers from Gallipolis bought it, and it was kept at Letart Falls, as the swift current there could run the mill. The first name we have been able to obtain as miller at Letart was George Burns, but it is probable he was preceded by some man whose name is not recorded.

In 1798, a floating mill was built by Col. Devol, the second one by Col. Devol and Mr. Greene, which was on the Muskingum river several miles above Marietta, which did all the grinding for the inhabitants on the Ohio and Muskingum rivers for fifty miles above and below the mill. This mill is referred to by Mr. Luther Heacox in his history of Olive township, and also by Mrs. Dolly Knight in her paper giving a history of Chester.

In 1806, a saw and grist mill was built on Leading creek by Brewster Higley, James E. Phelps and Joel Higley, Jr. Asa Daine was the millwright. The mill was known afterwards by the names of different owners, as Higley's mill, Bingham's mill and others. Several miles farther up Leading creek was the grist mill built by Samuel Denny in 1803. A saw mill was added subsequently, and this mill stood about twenty years. A log mill was built on the middle fork of Shade river by Levi Stedman about 1808, the first mill in that locality, and he used hand millstones obtained from Mr. Trueman Heacox until proper millstones could be provided.

In 1815, Thomas Rairdon built a grist mill at Long Bottom. Samuel Grant took charge of the Stedman mill at Chester in 1820, and rebuilt it, although Levi Stedman had supplanted the log mill by a frame one ; still it was a water mill, needing new machinery.

Sloper's mill on Shade river farther down the stream than Chester was noted for making flour that would "raise" salt-rising bread, however dark.

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Cross' mill on Bowman's run was far in advance of other mills in turning out good flour. This was a water mill, dating 1839.

Joseph D. Plummer and his wife Dorothy came from Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Rutland, Ohio, having spent several months at Marietta, in the spring of 1817. He bought of Eli Stedman the southwest corner of Congress Section No. 8, where he resided until his death, October 16th, 1852, aged 81 years and 3 months.

Mrs. Dorothy Plummer died December 9th, 1854, aged 79 years 3 months.

Their children were two sons and five daughters. The eldest son Ebenezer took the lead in business. He was influential in the building of the Presbyterian Church, the first church of that denomination in the township of Rutland, in 1820. Mr. Eben Plummer was a singer and led the singing in that church. After his marriage he took care of his parents for a few years, when he sold to his brother, Herriman Plummer, and moved to some Western State.

Herriman Plummer married Lucinda Stout, daughter of Benjamin Stout, who died, leaving quite a family of children, after some years. For his second wife, Mr. Plummer married Miss Rebecca Mauck, of Gallia county, and spent a few of his last years in that county. He was a man of great industry, and besides farming, he engaged in building boats, and in the salt business.

Herriman Plummer was born April 6th, 1802, and died May 31st, 1894, at the age of 92 years and 25 days.

Hannah Plummer, the oldest daughter of Joseph and Dorothy Plummer, was married to Jacob Rice, of Marietta. They had one son, Henry Rice, who lived on a part of the "old Plummer farm," and where he died in 1859, aged 36 years.

Melinda Plummer was married to John C. Bestow, of Chester, had two sons, Joseph and Henry. Mr. Bestow married for

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his first wife a daughter of Levi Stedman, who died leaving one son, Levi S. Bestow.

The second wife died in a few years after marriage.

Harriet Plummer was married to Robert McElhenney, of Middleport, and died November 18th, 1855.

Sarah Plummer was the wife of Lewis Nye, of Pomeroy, where he was engaged in the milling business, but after a few years moved to Illinois, where they both died.

Eliza Plummer, the youngest daughter, never married. She died November 20th, 1873, aged 26 years.

John McVey died in Salem township, February 1st, 1885, aged 94 years.

Allen Sayles came to Rutland in 1819, and died there in 1838. Mrs. Sayles died July 18th, 1851.

Mrs. Noah Smith had three daughters. Nancy, married to Capt. Jesse Hubbell, of Rutland. Jennie became Mrs. Maples, and Theresa Smith was married to Eliazer Barker, who was drowned iri Leading creek in June, 1813. She afterwards married Laundres Grant.

In the fall of 1816 two brothers, Josiah and Robert Simpson, came from Penobscot, Maine, to Rutland, Ohio. Josiah bought the northwest corner of Section No. 8, Congress land, and moved his family into a house on the premises. They had a large family. Josiah Simpson, Jr., married Theresa Higley, and had two daughters—Mary, Mrs. Thomas Kirker, and Adaline, Mrs. Samuel Higley.

Josiah Simpson, Sr., died February 18th, 1837, in his seventy-seventh year, and his wife died in 1840, aged sixty-four years.

Josiah Simpson, Jr., died April 12th, 1874, and his wife Theresa died in 1862. He had married a second wife in De-

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cember, 1864, a widow, Mrs. Dixon, of Albany, Athens county. Her first husband was Dr. Joseph Dixon, and they had two daughters, one of whom died unmarried. The other is Mrs. John Bradford. Mrs. Simpson died in 1890 ( ?).

Nathan Simpson was the second son of Josiah Simpson, Sr., born May 20th, 1812. He married Miss Liva Nye, daughter of George Nye, of Athens county, Ohio, who died June 11th, 1845, aged thirty-three years and twenty-two days. Nathan Simpson and his wife Liva had one son and two daughters. The son, G. Perry Simpson, became a lawyer and married a daughter of Mrs. Kennedy, of Salem township, and settled in Point Pleasant, W. Va., and practiced his profession while he lived. His daughter, Miss Liva N. Simpson, was proprietor and editor of the Point Pleasant Gazette some years before her marriage.

Two daughters of Nathan Simpson were Rosantha, who died young, and Mandana, who was married to Alvin Bingham, of Rutland. They lived in Middleport several years, then moved to Missouri, and afterwards they went to Ironville, near Toledo, Ohio, where two of their sons were in business. Mrs. Mandana Bingham died there in 1896.

The daughters of Josiah Simpson, Sr., were Eliza, Mrs. Ransom Harding ; Nancy Simpson, became Mrs. Wheatley, of Indiana ; Mary Simpson, Mrs. Simms; Betsy, the second wife of Ethan Cowdery, lived on Shade river ; Ruth, Mrs. Dr. Abel Phelps, of Pomeroy, Ohio ; Lydia, Mrs. Pullens ; Susan Simpson, Mrs. Willis. There was one son, John Simpson, who died in early manhood.

Nathan Simpson married for his second wife Miss Nancy Hendry. He was an associate judge in Meigs county six years ; later filled the office of prosecuting attorney with ability and public approval.

Robert Simpson bought the northeast corner of Congress Section No. 26 in Rutland township, 160 acres. He sold this farm in a few years and purchased a fine tract of land near

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Harrisonville, in Scipio township, where he and his wife spent their remaining days. Robert Simpson, Jr., succeeded his father in the possession of the homestead. The daughters of Robert Simpson, Sr., were : Maria, Mrs. Elisha Hubbell Benedict; they moved to Kansas in 1856, and Mrs. Benedict died there. Emily Simpson, the wife of Lucius Bingham, of Rutland, Ohio ; Sarah Ann Simpson was married to Jeremiah Carpenter, of Columbia township and became the mother of a distinguished family; she died in 1887, aged eighty years and four months.

Amos Carpenter, Sr., came from Virginia at an early period and settled in Rutland township. About 1818 he sold his farm there and bought a valuable tract of land in Columbia township. Mrs. Carpenter's name was McLaughlin. They spent their last days on this farm, leaving a fine estate to their children.

John Newell and family came from Massachusetts in 1816 to Fairfield county, Ohio. He had bought land in Bedford township, Meigs county, four miles from the nearest house, and did not move his family to his land until 1819, after he had cleared it and many families had settled in the neighborhood. Mr. Newell was a tanner and shoemaker.

Mr. Newell died suddenly October 14th, 1839. Mrs. Newell died in 1871. They had a large family of sons and daughters. Sally was married to Silas Burnap and was the mother of Silas Asa Burnap, captain of an Ohio battery in the Civil War. Harriet became the wife of Milton Walker, moved to Illinois; both died. Dolly Newell married Benjamin Knight, of Chester, who was a justice of the peace for twenty years; he died February 16th, 1872. Rebecca Newell married Quartus Bridgeman, of Syracuse, who died in the forties, leaving a family of six children—four sons and two daughters.

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The Newell sons : Alonzo, who married Fanny Dyke and moved to Oregon, where they both died. Franklin Newell moved to the South, married and then died there. His son, Samuel Newell married Almira Knight, and their son is editor and proprietor of a newspaper in Ravenswood, W. Va. The third generation of the Newell family were all first class citizens in Meigs county. Mrs. Rebecca Bridgeman lost two sons in the war for the Union, Emory and Austin Bridgeman, who perished on that ill-fated steamboat, Sultana, at Vicksburg, Miss. Zelda Bridgeman married John Blair, superintendent of the Syracuse Coal and Salt Works, Meigs county. They are both dead.

Lonnis H. Bridgeman married Artemesia Young, of Racine. He was connected with the Syracuse Coal and Salt Company for many years and superintendent of the works after the resignation of Mr. John Blair. Mr. Lonnis H. Bridgeman has ever been an earnest and successful superintendent of the Methodist Sunday school in Syracuse and in later years superintendent of the district of the State Sunday School Union.

Quartus Bridgeman married Jessie McElroy, daughter of Captain J. C. McElroy, and occupied the homestead, his mother remaining there until her death. He is identified with the best interests of the town and a worker in the Methodist church and Sunday school.

Melinda Bridgeman died some years ago, the youngest child, unmarried.

Rev. Eli Stedman was born in Tunbridge, Vt., August 17th, 1777, and was married to Polly Gates, December 5th, 1798. She was born February 19th, 1778. They came to Ohio in 1804, locating in Belpre, Washington county, but removed to Leading creek in 1805. He was a preacher of the Free Will Baptist denomination.

Mary Stedman, daughter of Eli Stedman and wife, was born June 16th, 1805, and was married to Abner Stout, of Chester.

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February 27th, 1825. Mr. Abner Stout died August 28^th, 1875, and Mrs. Mary Stout died May 30th, 1882. They were both estimable people and highly respected in the community.

Auralia Stedman was a daughter of Eli Stedman and wife, and was born June 22d, 1815, in Rutland, Ohio. She was married to Mr. Branch, of Chester, who died, leaving her a widow with two children. Afterwards Mrs. Branch was married to Mr. Bartlett Paine, of Rutland. She died May 27th, 1889, aged nearly seventy-four years.

Alexander Stedman, son of Eli Stedman, was born in 1800 and died in Minnesota in 1869.

Elihu Stedman was the youngest child of Eli Stedman and wife. He married Adaline Elliott, daughter of Simeon Elliott, Esq., and a sister of Rev. Madison Elliott, at one time principal of the Chester Academy. Elihu Stedman lived in Middle-port many years, but moved to Iowa. Both are dead.

Captain Jesse Hubbell was born September 25th, 1788, in Cooperstown, N. Y., founded by the father of James Fenniniore Cooper, the novelist. He served an apprenticeship to the tanning business. In 1808 he came to Rutland, Ohio, where for a long series of years he followed his trade. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving under General W. H. Harrison, and was familiarly called Captain Hubbell on account of the years spent in military service. He was justice of the peace six years and one of the trustees of Rutland township eighteen years. He married Nancy Smith, a daughter of Noah Smith and his wife. They had two daughters, Lurinda Hubbell was the wife of Curtis Larkin, who died about 1847; Sarah Hubbell, who was married to John Easterday.

Captain Jesse Hubbell died October 17th, 1874, aged eighty-six years.

Seneca Haight was born in Washington, Dutchess county, N. Y. He came to Rutland, Ohio, in 1835. He held several offices of trust—as township clerk two years, commissioner

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one term and justice of the peace nine years. He had two daughters. Phebe Ann Haight was married to James Williamson, of Buffington Island ; died in the eighties. Mary Haight was the wife of William Skirvin. Both are dead.

Mr. Seneca Haight died November 23rd, 1855, aged fifty-nine years.

Stephen Titus was born in Dutchess county, N. Y., June 20th, 1796, and moved to Meigs county in 1833, and was married to Margarhetta Lois Nye, daughter of Melzar Nye, of Leading creek, December 18th, 1836. He was an active, energetic citizen. He represented this county in the Legislature in 1840-41. He was president of the Meigs County Agricultural Society and was president of that society six of the first years of its organization. He died at his residence in Rutland September 13th, 1871, aged seventy-five years, universally respected and lamented. They had four children, Samuel, Phebe, Margaret and George.

Mrs. Stephen Titus was no ordinary woman. With a perfect physique, fine mental equipment, a thoroughly decided moral attitude for country and for God, she was a "perfect woman, nobly planned." She was a member of the Presbyterian Church in Rutland for seventy-seven years ; also a member of the Pioneer Association of Meigs county. She died October 31st, 1907, aged ninety-two years and two months. Her home was with her son, George Titus, in the old homestead. He is quite a prominent farmer ; was sheriff of the county one or two terms.

Major Samuel Titus was a soldier in the Civil War and lost an arm. Margaret died in January, 1902. Phebe, Mrs. Gleason, lives in Kansas.

Melzar Nye purchased land from Ebenezer Nye in 1809, situated below the mouth of Leading creek, but did not make a home there until 1826, when he came to Meigs county with his family. There were five daughters and one son, Melzar

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Nye, Jr. The daughters : Sarah became the wife of Lewis Maguet, of Gallipolis. Margarhetta was married to Stephen Titus and lived in Meigs county. Mary Nye was married twice ; first husband, Nicholas Titus, and after his death the second husband was James Brown.

Alvira Nye and Almira were twin sisters. Alvira was Mrs. Thomas Fessler and lived on the Nye farm, where Mr. Fessler died. Almira Nye was married to Mr. Gates, of Gallia county. Melzar Nye, Jr., moved to Mississippi. Prominent members of the community while in Meigs county. All are gone.

Lewis Nye entered land in 1809. Nial Nye, Sr., lived at the mouth of Kerr's run, before Meigs county was organized. He had a family of sons and daughters. The sons : Lewis, Rodolcue, Milton, Buckingham, Edward and Henry. He had a store, and a postoffice called Nyesville, of which Mr. Nye was the postmaster ; a boat landing for receiving and shipping goods to Chester and other places ; a sawmill that was in operation many years. Lewis Nye and Aaron Murdoch were successors of Haven & Stackpole in the steam flouring mill ; later Lewis Nye moved west. Milton Nye went to a Western State. Rodolcue lived and died in Meigs county. Edward Nye died. His two sons are prosperous business men in Pomeroy.

Murrain.—One of the greatest difficulties with which the early settlers had to contend was a disease affecting cattle, and causing much loss, was known as murrain. There were two kinds ; one called dry murrain was the most prevalent, in which the manifolds became fevery and dry, and stopped all natural passages. The animal would linger a few days in great distress and die.

The other form was called bloody murrain and consisted of internal hemorrhages that generally proved fatal.

Many remedies were tried with little success. The murmpain gradually disappeared after 1820.

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Abel Larkin was unable to raise a yoke of oxen before that time without at least one of them dying with murrain.

It is said that Daniel Rathburn lost eighteen head of cattle in one season with murrain.

William Parker came to Rutland in 1804, and built a cabin, and in 1805 moved his family from Marietta, bringing with him three yoke of oxen, and the nigh ox out of each yoke, died of murrain. Good steers were the only property commanding cash in those days. Drovers would buy them at a low rate and drive them on foot to the eastern markets. They were not bought by weight, but by the head, according to terms agreed upon by the parties.

Another singular and disagreeable disease, though not fatal, was that of slabbers in horses. They would stand, while a copious flow of saliva would issue from the mouth until puddles of water would collect at their feet. The horse would become thin in flesh, and his strength be greatly diminished. The disorder came immediately after the introduction of the white clover, and the cultivation of the grape. Many causes were assigned by different persons as the cause of the disorder, but it is uncertain if any one discovered the real source of the trouble. It continued many years and affected other kinds of stock, but gradually disappeared from the country.

HISTORY OF THE CICADA, OR SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST.

After the first settlement on Leading creek, in the year 1812, the cicada made their appearance and periodically in seventeen years subsequently, as in 1812, 1829, 1846 and 1880. There seemed to be districts or locations where the locusts were seen in great numbers in these seventeen-year dates. The east and west lines between these two districts crossed the Ohio river near the mouth of Old Town creek, thence back into West Vriginia at or near Racine, Ohio, and back into Ohio at Silver

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run, passing north of Cheshire in Gallia county and moving on to Scioto county. There is a curiosity about the line of the two districts that they continued nearly straight without regard to the crooked Ohio river. They made their first appearance from the 15th to the 20th of May, according to warmth or coolness of the season, and remained about forty-five days before they all disappeared. The males belong to the "drum corps," while the female pierces the small twigs and limbs of trees and deposits her eggs. These in due time fall upon the earth, where they remain for another period of seventeen years, to mature their growth for a few days' work in the sunshine, which seems necessary to continue the existence of their species.

These cicada were destructive to young orchards as well as other green and growing shrubs. A gentleman in Lebanon township had an orchard of choice variety of apples, and hearing of these "seventeen-year locusts" just coming into notice, turned his flock of a hundred geese into his orchard who, devouring the pests as they came up from the ground, protected and preserved his fruit trees from any damage.

When the first settlers came to Ohio they found great numbers of wild turkeys, a large bird seen in flocks in the woods, but harmless in every way. In the fall of the year men of the settlement caught them in pens built of rails from a fence near by, and generally placed on a side hill, and were about three feet high, and covered with rails. Then a low place dug at the lower side of the pen, and extending under, just large enough for a turkey to enter, would be strewed with a little shelled corn, leading into the pen where more corn would be scattered inside. The turkey eating followed the trail into the pen, and one after another all would go in. When they wanted to go out, their heads would be up, never looking down at the entrance hole. A man with a club would go in, even where the turkeys did, and kill all, or as many as he

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desired. The meat was fine, and frequently a very large fowl would be with the flock, so that they furnished many a good dinner for an emigrant's family. The feathers were not elastic or fluffy, though some attempts were made to use them for beds and pillows, while the wings and tail feathers were serviceable for fans and dusters.

The pheasant and quail remained here all the year, but crows and blackbirds seen in large numbers in the spring and summer, migrated in the fall. The wild pigeons passed over in vast numbers when going north or south, in the early or late season. Large flocks would sometimes tarry for a while in the fall and select a roosting place, where might be seen pigeons coming from every direction to stay all night. Men would sometimes visit those roosts at night and capture many birds, which were used for food.

The wild goose was often seen by the early settlers, on their yearly migration from the lakes and swamps of the South to the lakes and swamps of the North, fleeing the approach of cold weather in each case. They moved in large flocks, with a leader to direct their course, following in a closed-up column in a triangular shape obeying the command—a singular "honk," uttered by the leader. Southern Ohio was neutral ground, as none stopped, except a few that by weakness or some unknown reason strayed from the company.

The crane was a very large bird, not numerous, though frequently seen in warm weather.

The large owl remained in this climate dumping the year, and the small owl—"screech owl"—were noted for their habits of taking chickens from the roosts at night. The large owl made a peculiar "hoot" at nightfall.

The hawk was another invader of the domestic fowls, in broad daylight swooping down on a brood of young chickens and seizing one in his talons, fly away from the distracted

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mother hen, and only to be halted by the unerring aim of the rifle-man.

It is not certain when bees were discovered by the first emigrants. The hunters were men with strong eyes so that they could see a bee in flight, and follow it to the tree where the honey was made and stored, and chopping down the tree to secure the honey was the sweet reward of the hunters' sight and patience. Hollow gums were used for domesticating bees, and some farmers made hives with ropes of straw, sewed together so as to form a conical shaped hive for bees. Boxes were made afterwards for the same purpose, until the bee moth became so destructive that other kinds of hives were invented and patented for the protection and raising of bees.

Few of the first settlers in Rutland were hunters and did not use guns. Many of the New England men, also those from New York, were carpenters, and a few were millwrights. The first thing to use was an ax, then something to draw wood. If by oxen, a yoke with a ring in it, to which a hook in a chain lengthened out to fasten around the end of a log securely to draw to the place desired.

If horses were used, then ropes or strips of rawhide were fastened to wooden Names, which served as collars. Sleds were first used, then carts, but wagons were not in general use for many years, except by some wealthy farmers. In the house, the woman was furnished with a split brush broom. These brooms were made of a hickory pole by cutting and peeling down with a knife splits from the end to make the broom. The broom corn of later years was not known in those early days. A chest served for a table till some mill was started and boards were available, so that cross-legged tables were made and shelves placed upon pins driven into the logs. A few spiders and pots to cook with and pewter plates to eat from completed the assortment. Some families had provided themselves with

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home conveniences by bringing things needful from their former homesteads, but the majority of those first settlers had come from long distances, poorly equipped for traveling or for even camp life for a while. Good housewives who had brought pewter plates from "away back east" could not give them up without protest to the daughter's innovation of a lot of porcelain ware. It was claimed that the knives would all be dull if used on such plates.

Mr. Daniel Rathburn, who was a carpenter, built a frame barn without nails. He put everything together with wooden pins. This was the first frame barn erected on Leading creek.

Wheat was cut with sickles and threshed with flails, and the grain winnowed by a sheet held by two men, who employed the wind and their united force to clear the chaff from the grain.

SALT.

In giving an account of this indispensable article I will introduce an extract from the life of Griffin Green, by S. P. Hildreth. "In 1794, when salt was worth from $6 to $8 a bushel, he projected an expedition into the Indian country near the Scioto river for the discovery of the salt springs said to be worked by the savages near the present town of Jackson. At the hazard of his life and all those with him, ten or twelve in number, he succeeded in finding the saline water and boiled some of it down on the spot in their camp kettle, making about a tablespoonful of salt. While here he narrowly escaped death from the rifle of an Indian who discovered them, unobserved by the party. After peace was concluded, this warrior related the circumstance of his raising his rifle twice to fire at a tall man who had a tin cup strung to his girdle on his loins and who was known to be Mr. Green. As he might miss his object, being a long shot, and be killed himself, he desisted and hurried back to the Indian village below the present town of Chillicothe for aid. A party of twenty warriors turned out in pur-

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suit and came on to the bank of the Ohio at Leading creek a few minutes after the whites had left it with their boat and were in the middle of the river. They were seen by the men in the boat, who felt how narrowly and providentially they had escaped."

The first settlers here got their salt from these Scioto salt works. The writer remembers hearing his father tell of taking a horse and pack saddle and going to the "Scioto Licks," as they were then called, and working a week for a sack of salt. His business was drawing salt water by means of a hand pole affixed to a sweep above. After receiving his wages, put his salt on the pack saddle and made his way home. Those salt works were under the superintendency of a state officer, and by a law passed January 24th, 1804, renters had to pay a tax of 4 cents per gallon on the capacity of the kettle used in making salt, provided always that no person or company shall under any pretense whatever be permitted to use at any time a greater number of kettles or vessels than will contain 4000 gallons, nor a less number in any one furnace than 600 gallons. After the salt works on the Kanawha were started the people here depended on Kanawha for salt, and for many years it was a place of considerable trade. Young men, on coming of age, went to Kanawha to chop wood or tend kettles when they wished to obtain a little money. It was hardly expected to get money at any other place, and salt seemed to be the medium by which trade was conducted.

Keelboats were used as a means of transportation, and shipments were made by them of salt to Marietta, Pittsburg and the lower Ohio. In order to give some knowledge of the origin and progress of the Kanawha salt business, we append a letter which appeared in the Niles Register, Baltimore, Md., in April, 1815, and we copy from the Meigs County Telegraph, April, 1884.

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Kanawha Salt Works.

At the first settlement of this place there was a great "buffalo lick," as it was called, was discovered where some weak salt water oozed out of the bank of the river. After some time the inhabitants sunk hollow gums into the sand and gravel at that place, into which the water collected, but it was so weak that, although sufficient quantities might be collected, not mor than two to four bushels were made in a day. After the property came into the possession of my brother, Joseph Ruffner and myself (by divisee), we were desirous to see the effect of sinking large sycamore gums as low down as we could force them. We found great difficulty in this on account of the water coming in so rapidly. When we got down about eighteen feet below the surface of the river we discovered that our gums lodged on a solid, smooth freestone rock, and the water was but little improved as we descended. We then bored a hole in the rock about 2i inches in diameter, the size generally used subsequently for that purpose. After penetrating the rock eighteen or twenty feet, we struck a vein of water saltier than had been attained in this place before. Our neighbors followed our example and succeeded in obtaining good salt water in the distance of 2i miles below and four miles above us on the river. They all have to sink the gums about eighteen feet to the rock, into which they bore a hole from 100 to 200 feet deep. The rock is never perforated, though the water seeps into the holes in soft or porous places. The cost of boring was from $3 to $4 a foot. The first water that is struck in the augur hole is fresh, or an inferior quality of salt water which is excluded by means of copper or tin tubes put down into the augur hole and secured so that none of the water thar comes in above the lower end of the tube can discharge itself into the gum, which has a bottom put into it immediately upon the rock, and is secured in such a manner that no water can get into the tube except that which comes up through the tube

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from below. The water thus gathered in the gum rises about as high as the surface of the river at high water mark, and it requires from seventy to 100 gallons of it to make a bushel of salt. Each well produced on an average a sufficient quantity of water to make 300 bushels of salt per day. There are now established and in operation fifty-two furnaces, and more are being erected, containing from forty to sixty kettles of thirty-five gallons each, which make from 2500 to 3000 bushels of salt per day. The quantity may be increased as the demand shall justify. The wood in the course of time must become scarce or difficult to obtain, but we have stone coal that can be used for fuel, and the supply is inexhaustible. These works are situated six miles above Charleston, Kanawha Courthouse, sixty-six miles from the mouth of the river and twenty-six miles below the great falls. The river is navigable, with a gentle current, at all seasons of the year for boats drawing two feet of water, and at most seasons for boats of any size.

Your obedient, humble servant,

DAVID RUFFNER.

Kanawha Salt Works, November 8th, 1814.

It appears from old account books that salt rated as high as $2 per bushel in Rutland township as late as 1820. The first salt water seen on Leading creek was a small pond of reddish water, which in dry weather cattle would visit for drink, the place being near the channel of the creek, about a quarter of a mile below the old Denny mill, in a bend of Leading creek. In 1820 several of the neighbors brought in their kettles and set them on a kind of furnace and made of that water one bushel of salt. After which a company was formed consisting of Benjamin Stout, Caleb Gardner, Thomas Shepherd and Michael Aleshire, who bored a well and erected a furnace and commenced making salt in 1822, when Benjamin Stout bought out the other parties.

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In 1822 Abijah Hubbell and his son, Jabez Hubbell, and Barsley Hubbell bored a salt well above the Stout well and a furnace set for making salt in 1824.

Ruel Braley manufactured salt at his works, five miles above on Leading creek, in 1830.

The Bradford and Stedman's furnace was located about five miles below the Stout well in 1830 or 1831.

Still further down the creek Theophilus Jacobs operated a furnace for a few years with a great deal of energy.

Near the mouth of Thomas Fork Herriman Plummer bored a well and made salt in 1831.

Two other salt wells had been previously attempted in Rutland township, but failed to obtain salt water. One was bored by Joseph Giles, Sr., and the other one was by Samuel Church in 1822, which resulted in the discovery of a heavy lubricating oil, the true value of which was not understood and very little attention was paid to it.

After the Rutland furnaces began to make 200 bushels of salt per week the prices came down to 50 cents a bushel. After salt was made in large quantities along the Ohio river the works on the creek became unprofitable, and the manufacture of salt was discontinued.

In 1810 Joseph Vining and his brother, Joshua Vining, came with their families from Hartford, Conn., and settled in Rutland township, near the later residence of John B. Bradford Timothy Vining, a son of Joseph Vining, was born in Hartford July 24th, 1805. Joseph Vining died at the age of ninety-one years, and his wife near ninety years.

Timothy Vining married Sina Jones, daughter of Charles Jones, and they had a large family—six sons and three daughters. The six sons were all soldiers for their country. Mr. Vining died at the age of eighty-seven years ten months and twenty-eight days on May 23rd, 1893.

Mrs. Sina Vining died at the age of eighty-four years.

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Mrs. Jane Jones, nee McDaniel, was born and brought up in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia, until she was fifteen years old, when she came to Ohio. When twenty-four years of age she was married to Elijah Jones, of Salisbury township. They had a family of sons and daughters.

Mrs. Jones had belonged to the Christian Church for more than fifty years. She died May 29th, 1893, at the age of eighty-four years, seven months and nineteen days, and was buried in the Bradford graveyard.

Abraham Winn moved with family from New York to Canada and from there to Rutland in 1816, and bought a farm on Section 17, where he lived until his death, in 1835, at the age of sixty-four years. He left a widow and several children. Mrs. Winn died in 1860, aged eighty-six years. The children were : Joseph Winn, Sally, Mrs. Joseph Howell ; Jacob Armstrong Winn, Fanny Winn, Mrs. Charles Nobles ; Jonathan Winn, Lydia Winn, Mrs. Alexander Stedman ; John Winn lived and died in Albany, Athens county, aged eighty-three years ; William Winn went to Illinois, Nancy Winn, Mrs. Daniel Skinner.

Asahel Skinner and family moved from Maine to Rutland, Ohio, June, 1817. Mr. Skinner's first wife was Phoebe Gould, who died in September, 1817. Two of their children remained in the East ; the others were : Daniel Skinner, a miller in the southeast part of Rutland ; Alona, Mrs. William McKee ; Joseph, Joel and William Skinner, Olive, Mrs. John Chase; Isaac Skinner, Edna, Mrs. Hiram Chase; Phebe, Mrs. William Hartinger ; Asahel Skinner, David Skinner and Lucinda Skinner.

Asahel Skinner married for his second wife Jane, the daughter of Thomas Everton. Their children were : Lucinda, Mrs. Dr. Clark Rathburn ; Elizabeth, Mrs. Alexander Hogue ; Calvin, Marinda, Mrs. Metcalf ; Samantha, Thomas, Isaac Skinner. Twenty-two children of Asahel Skinner's family.

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Daniel Skinner was born in Corinth, Me., in 1801, and moved with his father, Asahel Skinner, to Rutland in May, 1817. He was constable one year and township trustee seven years. He had a numerous family. His death occurred in 1844.

Thomas Everton came from Maine in 1800 to Rutland, Ohio ; bought land and made a home for his family. He was a member of the Regular Baptist Church and was familiarly known as "Deacon" Everton. His children were : Betsy, Mrs. Benjamin Richardson—first wife ; Ebenezer Everton, Relief, Mrs. Edwards ; Thomas Everton, Jr., Polly, Mrs. Stone ; Benjamin Everton, Nancy, Mrs. Jesse W. Stevens; Sally, Mrs. Charles Richardson.

Mrs. Lucinda Pendegrass was born in Conway county, Mass., August 14th, 1793, and was married to Daniel Childs April 29th, 1813. They had a family of nine children. They came to Ohio in 1835. Mr. Childs died September 21st, 1846. Later, Mrs. Childs was married to Benjamin Richardson in 1848. He died in April, 1852. She lived a widow nearly forty years and departed this life on June 12th, 1892, aged ninety-seven years. nine months and twenty-eight days. She had led a most exemplary life, a devoted follower of her Lord. The Bible was her companion, with a remarkable memory. She read it through thirty-six times in thirty-six years. She was a member of the Baptist Church in Pomeroy at the time of her death.

John Sylvester came from Maine and located in Rutland. He married his second wife, who was a widow of Henry Filkin. They had two children, Sarah and William. John Sylvester was a son of the first wife, and John Sylvester, Jr., was a grandson of Joseph Sylvester and was noted for his great strength and his skill in wrestling.

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Joseph Giles lived in Rutland and followed the blacksmith business. He married Elizabeth Townsend in September, 1822. She was born in Kennebec county, Me., March 26th, 1803, and came to Scipio, Meigs county, in 1816.

Mr. Giles died in Rutland in 1873. Mrs. Joseph Giles died in Middleport, February 18th, 1887, aged eighty-three years, ten months.

Lemuel Powell was born near Steubenville, Ohio, March 28th, 1814. He was married twice, first to Nancy Sook, and his second wife was Miss Osca Elizabeth Tingley, from near Cincinnati. Mr. Powell died January 9th, 1894, aged nearly eighty years.

Aaron Torrence was born in Allegheny county, Pa., July 5th, 1792, and came to Meigs county in 1809. He was married to Lucy Hussey in 1823. She died in 1872. They had a family of seven children, and had been married forty-nine years. Mr. Torrence married a second wife in 1873, Mrs. Rachel Horton. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 and fought the British at New Orleans. He lived a conscientious Christian life, a member of the Methodist Church, and died at Bald Knobs, July 18th, 1884, aged ninety-two years and thirteen days.

Whittemore Reed was brought from New Hampshire in 1798, a child, to Orange township, by his mother. He married Miss Stout and had a family of five sons—Darius, Aaron, Whittemore, Jmp., Enos and Sardine. Darius Reed married Miss Curtis, of Washington county, and engaged in the drug business in Pomeroy. They had a family—Curtis Reed, a druggist ; William Reed, banker, and Helen, the wife of Rev. Thomas Turnbull. All of these families live in Pomeroy. Darius Reed and his wife are dead. Aaron Reed married and settled in Orange, a farmer. Whittemore, Jr., married Miss Young and moved to Clermont county, a farmer. Enos Reed

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was married twice, first to Miss Curtis, and the second wife was Miss Ann Maria Seely. He was a druggist in Portsmouth, Ohio, but later went to farming. Sardine Reed graduated from West Point with first honors and bright prospects, married, and died in six months.

SAMUEL DOWNING.

Samuel Downing came from Waterville, Me., in 1815. He came overland to Pittsburg and then floated down the Ohio river on a raft or flatboat to Gallipolis, Ohio. In February, 1818, he removed to Scipio township, Meigs county, where he purchased land and opened a valuable farm. He was a surveyor and a justice of the peace for many years. He was an infidel in belief, until in later life he became a zealous Methodist. When Meigs county was organized, in 1819, the sheriff and commissioners were chosen in April to serve until after the general election in October of that year. Benjamin Stout, sheriff ; Levi Stedman, William Alexander and Elijah Runner, commissioners. At the October election in 1819 the following men were elected for commissioners by drawing of lots. It was determined that William Alexander should serve one year, Philip Jones two years and Samuel Downing three years. Mrs. Downing was Hannah Harding before marriage. They had a numerous family—six sons and one daughter. According to their ages, they were : Samuel, Jr., George, Rodney, Franklin, Hollis, Harrison and Hannah, the youngest child. Samuel Downing, Jr:, died when quite a young man. George Downing was born in Waterville, Me., April 25th, 1801.

George Downing married Harriet Chase. He was a blacksmith by trade, also a surveyor, and served many years as a justice of the peace. In 1826 an independent company of militia was organized, with Jesse Hubbell for captain, George Downing as lieutenant and Oliver Grant ensign. After seven years, the officers having served out the time of their commission, the company disbanded. He was a large, well proportioned man, of great strength. He was supposed to be the

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strongest man in southern Ohio. Many stories were told of remarkable feats of lifting great weights and other exhibitions of strength. He died July 12th, 1878, aged seventy-seven years and three months. Mrs. Downing died March 10th, 1890.

Rodney Downing was born in Waterville, Me., November 8th, 1802, and came with his father, Samuel Downing, to Ohio. He married Maria Black in 1825. They had two sons, Samuel. who died young, and John B. Downing, familiarly known as "Major" Downing. Mr. Downing and his wife became members of the Disciples or Christian Church in 1829, under the ministry of the Rev. James G. Mitchell. He lived in Rutland and kept a country store and dealt largely in produce, built flatboats and with a cargo of grain, fruit or hay sent them to trade on the coast of the Mississippi river in the South.

Mr. Rodney Downing built a steamboat, the Gen. Harrison, at the Stedman farm on Leading creek, in 1835, intended for the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade. He was one of the leading spirits in nearly every useful enterprise. He was clerk of Meigs county Court of Common Pleas for three terms. He removed to Middleport in 1847. Mrs. Maria Downing died October 22nd, 1870, in her sixty-fourth year. In April, 1873, Mr. Downing married for his second' wife Lorinda Downing, of Harding, Lake county. Ohio. He died in Middleport, December 16th, 1886, aged eighty-four years.

Franklin Downing, third son of Samuel Downing, married Nancy Black. They were members of the Christian Church in Rutland and led consistent lives, unostentatious, industrious, highly esteemed in the community.

Hollis Downing was born in Maine June 16th, 1807. He married Phebe Smith, of Middleport, with whom he lived eighteen years, when she died. He married Jane Reed for his second wife, after which they moved to Ripley, Ohio, in 1850. He married again, Ellen Ross, his third wife. Hollis Downing died December 29th, 1889, in Ripley, Ohio, aged eighty-two years six months.

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Columbia Downing was born in Maine August 23, 1809, and came with his father to Scipio township. He married Mary Gibson in 1829. Mr. Downing held many public offices, such as mayor of Middleport, magistrate, county commissioner and member of the Legislature. His first wife died, and he married Jane Smith in 1840. Columbia Downing died in Middle-port, Ohio, July 25th, 1889, aged nearly eighty years. Many friends mourned at his death.

Harrison Downing, the youngest son of Samuel Downing, married Jane Graham, of Rutland. They moved to the West many years ago, and Mr. Downing died in 1892.

Hannah Downing, the only daughter and youngest child, was married to Mr. Thompson and settled in Athens county, but afterwards moved to Pontiac, Ill., where she died February 2nd, 1894, seventy-eight years of age. She was the last of the old Downing family.

Aaron Thompson was born at Racine, Ohio, in 1815. He had spent most of his life in Meigs county, but moved to Kenova, W. Va., where he lived ten years and where he died October 23rd, 1893. He was one of the first members of the Meigs County Pioneer Society. He was a communicant of the Christian Church, respected by all who knew him. He was married twice and had a numerous family. Mrs. Thompson, second, died at Kenova, W. Va., August, 1893.

Pleney Wheeler was born in Canada in 1815. She was married to William B. Pennington in New Albany, Ind., December 31st, 1835, and moved to Middleport, Ohio, in 1847. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and sustained a character of piety and good works. She died in Middleport May 29th, 1892.

Alexander Von Schritz came to Salem township in 1816, where he brought up a large family. Joseph Von Schritz was

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his son, born in Salem township, and married Elizabeth Sloan. They moved to Omega, Pike county, Ohio, in 1849.

The Von Schritz family were mostly daughters, married, and are scattered in the country. The father, Alexander Von Schritz, was a soldier in the War of 1812.

Joseph Townsend came from the northern part of Ohio to the mouth of Leading creek in 1812. He was a tanner by trade and made morocco leather. His children were : Maria, born March 28th, 1806, and was married to Joseph Hoyt, one of five brothers who settled in Orange township in 1813 ; Margaret Townsend ; Sally Townsend was married to Berrirnan Baily in 1825, and lived in Rutland ; John Townsend ; Albert Townsend, and Charles Townsend, a son of Albert, a blind man, well known in Rutland, Ohio.

John McClenahan and his wife, who was a Cargill and lineal descendant of Rev. Donald Cargill, who was executed in 1684 at the cross in Edinburgh because of his religious principles, came from Palmer, Mass., in 1816 and settled in Chester, Meigs county. They had two children, Guy McClenahan, who resided in Sterling Bottom for a number of years, then removed to the great West. His sister was married to Lyman Stedman, a son of Levi Stedman, of Chester. They had three children, Lyman Stedman and Lucy, who was the first wife of J. J. White, of Portland, Ohio. Mr. Stedman died in 1828, and his widow, Samary Stedman, was married to David de Ford in 1832, who died in 1836, leaving one child. The third husband was Isaac Sherman, in 1839. They had four children. Mr. Sherman died in 1852, and the family emigrated to Kansas, finally to east Washington, where Samary McClenathan Sherman died at the age of ninety-three years. A life that began within sound of the Atlantic ocean and ended on the shores of the Pacific in 1898.

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Stephen Smith was a native of New Jersey, but at an early age came to Fayette county, Pa., and later, in 1823, to Meigs county. Stephen Smith and his Wife Mary had a family of fourteen children ; Sally, Leighty, Annonijah, Firman, William, Josiah, John, Elizabeth, Mrs. Branch ; Robert, Joseph V., James and Isaac. Two sons died in infancy.

Stephen Smith died in 1841.

Joseph V. Smith was born in Fayette county, Pa., January 24th, 1816, and came with his parents to Meigs county in 1823. He obtained his education in the schools of his native state and in Meigs county after coming here. He was a plasterer by trade, which he followed until 1854, when he was elected sheriff of Meigs county and served two terms. In 1863 he was appointed deputy provost marshal of the Fifth district of Ohio, and at the same time he held the office of United States marshal under President Lincoln. He served as deputy provost from April 1st, 1863, to April 1st, 1865, and as deputy United States marshal until 1864. During the incumbency of these offices he had many exciting experiences and narrow escapes. As provost marshal he arrested ninety-seven deserters from the United States army.

Mr. Smith married Rachel Hinckley, daughter of Abraham Hinckley, who died in 1848, leaving two daughters, Marietta and Prussia.

Mr. Joseph V. Smith married for his second wife a daughter of Ira Foster, on January 1st, 1870. He died January 14th, 1894, aged seventy-seven years, eleven months and twenty days. His daughter, Marietta, Mrs. Simms, died years since. Prussia, the second daughter, married Stephen Schilling and died in a few years.

Jesse Page came from Maine and located in Scipio township in 1816. He had a wife and three children when he came to Ohio. The children were : Edith Page, Mrs. Robinson ;

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Lydia, Mrs. Amos Stevens ; Elizabeth, married a Mr. Page. The sons were Samuel, Sargent, Reuben and John Page.

Jesse Page died in 1834.

William Stevens was born in 1767 at Cape Ann, Mass. He came to Rutland, Ohio, in 1818, and settled on a farm near Langsville. His children were : William, Jr., Jesse W. and Rev. Amos Stevens, Sally, Mrs. Jared Gaston ; Lois, Mrs. Cowdey; Betsy, Mrs. Danforth ; Eunice, Mrs. Davis ; Mrs. Loran Hovey was Harriet S. Rev. Amos Stevens married Lydia Page. Their children : Jesse W. Stevens, A. J. W. Stevens, Anion Lovejoy Stevens, Theresa, Mrs. Dyke ; Sarah Stevens, Mrs. Dudley. Rev. Amos Stevens' second wife was Miss Anna Aleshire. Mr. William Stevens died in 1843, aged seventy-nine years.

John Bing was born in Botetourt county, Va., November 1st, 1799, and with his parents came to Gallia county, Ohio, in 1805. He came to Rutland in 1829, when he married a daughter of John Entsminger. They lived in Rutland until 1869, when they moved to Masonville, Iowa. One son, Ernest Bing, was in the Civil War.

Robert Bradford was born March 28th, 1796, in the stockade near Belpre, Washington county, Ohio. He was said to be a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford of Massachusetts. In 1822 he married Mary L. Arnold, who was born July 26th, 1798, in Rensalear county, N. Y. They came to Meigs county in 1828. Mr. Bradford sold goods in Rutland three years, and then became interested in the manufacture of salt. Subsequently retired to a farm in Salisbury township. They had a family of sons and daughters. William Wallace Bradford and John B. Bradford survived their parents.

Mr. Robert Bradford died December 3rd, 1875, aged seventy-eight years, eight months and six days. Mrs. Mary L. Bradford died July 29th, 1894, aged ninety-six years. They were good citizens and enjoyed the respect of the community.

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JOSHUA GARDNER.

A synopsis of an article from the pen of Albert G. Gardner, in which the principal statement was related to him by his father, Joshua Gardner : "Many of the early settlers were of Puritan stock, and thoroughly imbued with the love of liberty, united to dauntless courage and daring to aid or rescue from oppression any helpless fellow being. But to the story.

One morning in the early part of summer of the year 1825 a party of neighbors were at the blacksmith shop of Joseph Giles, near New Lima, among whom was Joshua Gardner, the father of Albert, who lived near. A horseman was seen approaching from the direction of Scipio, and as he came fully in view it was seen that a negro woman sat on the horse with the stranger. It was evident that she was not a willing passenger on that train, so they were promptly halted. Mr. Gardner demanded of the man his authority for taking the woman. He had none. He said that "she acknowledged herself to be a slave of the Wagners in Virginia," opposite Kerr's run in Ohio. She had made her escape from bondage and was on her way to Canada to join her husband, who had made the race for freedom some time before. Thereupon Mr. Gardner told them that he was a peace officer, a town constable, and it was his duty to prevent kidnapping as well as other crimes. Turning to the woman, he asked her "if she wanted to go with this man." She almost sobbed out, "No, sir." Mr. Gardner told her to "get down, and go where you please," and as an officer of the law he would protect her. She slipped down from the horse and started to retrace the road she came. The man started for Virginia to inform the Wagners and to put them on her track. Some of the party from the shop soon overtook the woman and guided her to the house of one Crandle, a poor man, but noble citizen, who lived in an "out of the way" place, where she could be provided for until the search and excitement should die away. The colored woman was hidden in an old brush fence by a shelving rock and fed and well taken care

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of by Mrs. Crandle and family. The Wagners were soon in the neighborhood, scouring the country and offering rewards. On one occasion a very poor man from the east side of the township came loitering around the premises of Crandle in search of deer or turkey and discovered the hiding place of the woman. Tempted by the reward offered, he started to inform the slave owners, but, as little souls are apt to be ignorant, stopped at Stephen Ralps' and told him of his plan and visions of future wealth. As soon as he left, Ralph shouldered his rifle and, marching through the woods, gave the alarm. Next morning the fire had destroyed the old brush fence and effaced all traces of its recent occupant. The Wgners concluded the old hunter was a wilful fraud. However, the woman was removed to the farm of Benjamin Bellows and secreted until he had communicated with parties in Canada and ascertained the whereabouts of the woman's husband. Mr. Bellows prepared a wagon with a false bottom, or double box, into the bottom of which he put the woman and on the top a lot of weavers' reeds and started for Canada to sell reeds. Mr. Bellows reported that he traveled one day with one of the Wgners and another party who were hunting this very woman, and that Mr. Wagner got off from his horse and helped Bellows' wagon down a steep, rocky hill to keep it from turning over, little suspecting that the object of his search was so near him.

Foiled in all other points, the Wagners determined to try the law to obtain the value of their woman chattel from Joshua Gardner. Suit was brought in Court of Common Pleas at Chester and came to trial by jury, which resulted in a verdict for the plaintiffs. An appeal was taken, and the Supreme Court held that the admissions and sayings of the woman could not be admitted to prove her identity ; if she was a competent witness she must be produced in court ; but if she was a slave she could not be a competent witness. So the case failed.

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After the trial, Judge Pease, of the Supreme Court, was heard to say "that an action of trover for the recovery of stock might do in Virginia, but it would not do in Ohio unless the stock had more than two legs." M. Bosworth.

The next step was to kidnap Gardner and deal with him according to the rules of chivalry. It was reported that twelve men were seen on horseback in disguise for that purpose, but they were anticipated by a force abundantly able to resist them. There was no attack made. The expenses of this suit and trouble consequent consumed all of Mr. Gardner's property. He made an overland trip to California and obtained money sufficient to buy a comfortable home in Rutland, Ohio, where he enjoyed the respect and confidence of his neighbors.

Mr. Joshua Gardner was born in Connecticut January 5th, 1793, and died in Rutland March 1st, 1869, aged seventy-six years. Mrs. Gardner was Nancy, the daughter of James E. Caldwell, who came with his family from Vermont in 1817.

Albert Gallatin Gardner was born in Rutland March 15th, 1820. He contributed the foregoing narrative of Joshua Gardner. He married Lucy Bellows November 27th, 1849, and had a family of six children.

Albert G. Gardner died in Rutland, Ohio, January 13th, 1891, ged seventy years, ten months and twenty-eight days.

From the "Leader," by Mr. Charles Matthews, Washington. D. C., February, 1908:

"Daniel and Timothy Smith, with their brother-in-law, Bradbury Robinson, came from Vermont in 1805. With their families, household goods, wagons and stock, they floated down the Ohio river, stopping at Belpre, Big Hocking and Leading creek. The party, after looking at land and visiting the settlements, concluded to separate. Timothy Smith and family were landed at Silver run, while Daniel Smith and their brother-in-law, having purchased their brother's share in the boat, floated down the river to Cincinnati. Timothy Smith was

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born in 1770, and married Polly Conner, who was born in 1772. They had seven children, as follows : Charlotta Smith, born May 24th, 1797, and married Elias Jones in October, 1814; she died October 4th, 1871. John Adams Smith, born February 22nd, 1800, and married Deborah Paine, November 22nd, 1822; he died January 10th, 1840. Elizabeth Smith, born January 9th, 1802, and married John S. Giles June 7th, 1818; she died November 8th, 1842. Sarah Smith, born July 10th, 1804, and married Obadiah Ralph, September 19th, 1822; she died February 3rd, 1875. Anselin Smith, born in 1806, and died in 1816. Timothy Smith, Jr., born 1810, and died at the age of nine months. Mary Smith, born December 19th, 1812, and married Moses R. Matthews, April 10th, 1831 ; she died December 24th, 1893.

Timothy Smith erected one of the first grist mills in the county. It was a tread mill, run by horse power, located on the bank of Silver Run. He also mined the first coal, shipping to Cincinnati on a raft. John Adams Smith, above mentioned, was the man arrested by Virginia officials and confined in Point Pleasant jail for running off slaves, and was rescued by his Ohio friends in 1824, described in the paper by John S. Giles, Jr., so ably for the Pioneer Society and published in the "Telegraph" in 1875.

"In 1823 Hamilton Kerr, living at the mouth of Leading creek, employed Adams Smith to act as guide for eight colored men who were on their way to Canada, a not infrequent occurrence for colored persons made free by their masters to pass through the country on their way to Canada. So Mr. Smith escorted the colored men to Columbus as hired by Mr. Kerr, with no thought of wrong doing. The fact was that Kerr had given aid to colored people, bond or free, to go north. Slave owners on the Kanawha and on the Ohio river above Point Pleasant had organized for protection and sent out detectives on both sides of the river. They concluded that Smith was guilty of aiding escaped slaves. In October, 1824, four

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men from Virginia arrested Smith without authority of a warrant or law and took him by force into Virginia, and placed him in close confinement in the jail at Point Pleasant, refusing bail for him. This gross violation of the most sacred rights o the citizens of Ohio, showing such contempt for the state' jurisdiction that it excited universal indignation, and open violence was threatened to release Smith from his illegal confinement. Many good citizens of Ohio, who had no disposition to interfere with their Virginia neighbors in holding slaves, hay no doubt often unconsciously aided slaves many times in giving them food or answering questions as to the points of coin pass when the traveling black man appeared at their doors, s it was argued that if one man, like Smith, upon whom suspi cion had fallen, could be picked up without form of law and carried beyond the jurisdiction of the state and there imprisoned without the right of bail for a supposed criminal offense what security was there for others equally exposed? This argument had its effect upon the excited people, and to th formation of a vigilance committee, with regular station signals from Colonel Jones' landing, where the Grant's mill stood in Middleport, and from Smith's landing at the mouth of Si] ver run out to where John S. Giles lived in Rutland. So per fect was the arrangement that by the sound of horns transmitted from station to station, an alarm would circulate ove the route in fifteen minutes if any suspicious person or corm pany were seen at any of these points. Smith had been detained at Point Pleasant jail six weeks, during which time plan had been matured to effect his release by force. John Giles had visited him in jail, ostensibly to take him clothing but in fact to notify him of the arrangement and to be read at any moment. Information that was considered reliable came from Point Pleasant of a plot to murder Smith in jail. was said that one of the Wagners had put one of his slaves i the jail with Smith, who, in consideration of his freedom, to commit the murder. On receipt of this information hast