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| SAMUEL
ALLISON, a native of Maryland, settled here in 1836, as a
farmer. He reared a large family, some of whom have been well
known in the county. Mr. W. H. Allison, a son of his, now
lives in Chillicothe, but owns considerable property in Athens county. |
EDWARD R.
AMES, third son of Silvanus Ames, was bon in Ames township,
May 20, 1806 on the farm now owned by James and George Henry.
His early education, though limited, was healthful and solid, and,
while still a youth, having access to the local library in Amesville,
he formed a taste for reading that has largely influenced the
conduct of his life. At the age of twenty he left his father's
farm to attend the Ohio university at Athens, where he remained some
two or three years, mainly supporting himself,, meanwhile, by
teaching and other chance employments. While at college he
became a member of the Methodist church.
In the autumn of 1828 the late Bishop Roberts presided
over the Ohio conference of the Methodist church, which was held at
Chillicothe. to see their manner of doing business, and to
obtain some knowledge as to the growth of the church, the young
collegian attended the session. Bishop Roberts, who had a rare
discernment of men, saw the youth and that there was something more
than ordinary in him. The result of their acquaintance was,
that, acting on the advice of the bishop to "go west", young Ames
accompanied him a few weeks later to the Illinois conference, held
that year in Madison, Indiana. Here he made further
acquaintance with active Methodists from the western states, and, at
their suggestion, he proceeded to Illinois and opened a high school
at Lebanon, in the present county of St. Clair. He had fine
success as a teacher, and remained here, making friends influence,
till 1830. In the autumn of this year he was licensed to
preach by the Illinois conference and was admitted and appointed to
Shoal Creek circuit, embracing an indefinite extent of country.
Thenceforward, for some years, his was the usual
history of a Methodist itinerant. He was elected as a delegate
from the Indiana conference to the general conference, which met in
Baltimore in 1840, and, by that body, elected corresponding
secretary of the missionary society for the south and west.
This was before the days of railroads. Traveling was slow and
difficult, and the labors of his office were arduous and wide
extended. During the four years that he filled it, he traveled
some twenty-five thousand miles. In one tour he passed over
the entire frontier line, from Lake Superior to Texas, camping out
almost the whole route, and one part of the time so destitute of
provisions that, for two days, the only nourishment of himself
and fellow travelers, was a little moistened maple sugar.
In 1852 he was elected one of the bishops of the
Methodist Episcopal church, since when his official labors have been
most onerous, responsible, and unremitting. Possessed of
extraordinary capacity for business, and of great physical
endurance, no task appals, and apparently no amount of labor
fatigues him. His character and talents are so well known,
both in and out of church, as to render any analysis or description
of them unnecessary in this place.
Bishop Ames is esteemed one of the most eloquent
preachers in the Methodist church, as he certainly is one of the
most popular. A well known minister and editor of the church
says:
"As a conference debater he was always effective.
We often met in the conference room, but never did we hear him make
a speech ten minutes long. He listened to the discussion til
he saw the strong points of a case, and these he would present in a
few clear, terse statements, which could not be misunderstood, and
which went far toward conviction. As a public speaker he is
impressive and commanding, whether on the platform or in the pulpit.
His voice is quite peculiar, and while under his management it is
quite effective, yet it should never be imitated. He rises
calmly, states his subject clearly, introduces it with some striking
remark, which at once rivets the attention, and then by an easy,
direct manner, moves along the track of thought chosen for the
occasion. His sermons, though never written, are evidently
carefully thought out. His style is molded by the old English
classics. Many of his sentences are pure aphorisms. On
he talks, till he talks up into the highest realm of thought.
We think perhaps his most effective preaching was when he was
presiding elder and addressed gathered thousands on western camp
grounds. then we have seen his whole soul aroused, and his
full tide of impassioned oratory was almost resistless. We
forbear sketching some of those scenes, though they pass before us."
During the greater part of his adult life, Bishop Ames
has resided in Indiana, though his official duties have required
protracted absences from home, and long journeys to the most distant
parts of the country. A few years since he removed to
Baltimore, Maryland, which is his present place of residence.
Of late yeas he has frequently visited Athens, where he has
relatives living, and where he finds great enjoyment in meeting the
friends of his youth, and in recalling early memories. He is
very fond of familiar converse, and, in his "hours of ease," talks
in the most genial manner, of early reminiscences or of more modern
and weighty affairs. During an evening recently passed by the
writer in his company, when his boyhood and early life were the
topic of speech, he gave, with much amusement, the following account
ofTHE WOLF HUNT.
"In 1822 Pitt Putnam, of
Marietta,, organized a grand wolf hunt, to be held on the head
waters of Big run. I suppose Putnam inherited his aversion to
wolves from his Massachusetts ancestor, as men sometimes inherit
politics or religion; at any rate he seemed to think that he had a
call to exterminate wolves. The region fixed on for the hunt
lay in Washington county, not far from the borders of Ames, and a
great many of the male inhabitants of Ames and Bern took part in it.
A space about four miles square was surveyed in the years of the
forest, and marked all the way around by blazing the trees.
General notice was given some weeks beforehand through the newspaper
printed at Marietta, and I remember that a rude diagram of the
country and of the line of battle was published. The plan of
proceeding was well organized. The hunters were to be
stationed at regular distances from each other, all the way around
the tract, some supplied with guns and others with horns.
Certain men were appointed captains, lieutenants, etc., and gave
orders to those nearest them. On the appointed day the
hunters assembled from all directions, and were soon placed. I
was then only sixteen years old, and was more highly excited over
the affair than I am apt to become over any event now-a-days.
when all was ready, the men stationed, armed, etc., a horn was blown
by the leader, and the signal in a few minutes passed around the
whole circuit; whereupon they all began to march toward a common
center, keeping in line. Each man was ordered to make as great
a hubbub as possible, those with horns to blow them and the rest to
shout and halloo. I was a pretty well grown boy of my age, and
was allowed to march with the rest. Furnished with a tin horn
nearly as long as myself, I blew such blasts as I would, I suppose,
have shaken down the walls of Jericho, if they had been there, and
blew till I had no strength to blow any more. The object of
the noise, hooting, blowing horns and beating bushes was to scare up
the wolves, and dive them before us, and, of course, when the poor
doomed wolves had been thus driven closer and closer to a common
center by the contracting lines, the purpose was to slay them
ruthlessly, by the hundreds, that is, if they were there. As
we drew near the center, where there was a running brook and a cave
in the rocks, the excitement increased. soon wild animals of
different sorts were seen darting about. there were deer in
considerable numbers and though in poor condition as I remember a
great many were killed. In their fright and eagerness to
escape, they ran directly at the liens of hunters, and I saw some of
them leap clear over the heads of the men. Foxes were numerous
too, and a good many were killed, with smaller game of different
sorts. But we were after wolves; and after all our marching
and hallooing, and beating of bushes, my recollection is that not a
single wolf was captured or killed - or, if any, over one or two -
and the whole affair was a laughable failure, so far as the wolf
part was concerned. I think I have never wasted so much breath
to so little profit as I did in blowing that tin horn. I
walked home a tired boy, and very skeptical as to Pitt Putnam's
having any great inspiration as a wolf hunter." |
SILVANUS
AMES, long known in this county as Judge Ames, was
born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Mar. 26, 1771. His father,
whose ancestor, William Ames, came from England in 1654, was
a graduate of Harvard college, and an Episcopalian clergyman.
He preached several years at Trinity church, in Taunton,
Massachusetts, as afterwards a chaplain in the revolutionary army,
and died in the camp at Valley Forge, during the hard winter of
1777-78. Silvanus Ames married Nabby Lee Johnsonin
1795, and moved to the northwestern territory in 1798. They
settled temporarily in Belpre, whence they removed to Ames township,
in May, 1800, and settled on the farm now owned by the Henrys
and still familiarly called the "Ames farm." Mr.
Ames' strong sense and solid judgment gave him a commanding
influence among the early settlers, and he was soon brought into the
public life of that day. He was the public life of that day.
He was the second sheriff of the county, colonel of militia, trustee
of the Ohio university for many years, and associate judge from 1813
to 1823. He was also several times elected representative to
the state legislature, and in all of these positions evinced a
capacity for public affairs, and gained the approbation of the
community. Intimately connected, as he was, with the political
movements of the day, Judge Ames' house became the resort of
the political leaders in southern Ohio, and a favorite stopping
place of public men, when making their long trips between the east
and west. He was an active and liberal supporter of all
educational and religious movements, and an acknowledged leader in
the community for several years. He died Sept. 23, 1823.
At the time of his death his family consisted of five sons and four
daughters, of whom four sons and daughters are now living, viz: the
Rev. Bishop E. R. Ames, John, in Kansas, Charles B.,
in the state of Mississippi, and George W., at Greencastle,
Indiana. One of the daughters, Mrs. Eliza Dawes, lives
at Ripon, Wisconsin, and the other, Mrs. A. B. Walker, at
Athens. Another daughter, Mrs. de Steiguer, died in
Athens, July 29, 1851; a son of her's, Rodolph de Steiguer, a
native of the county, is a leading lawyer at Athens.
Page 411 |
| ELMER
ARMSTRONG, youngest
son of the preceding, was born in Alexander township, January 17, 1812, and
now lives on the farm which his father settled upon in 1799. One of
the apple trees, brought from Pennsylvania by his father in 1799, and
planted on the place that year, is still living - measures seven feet seven
and a half inches in circumference, and rarely fails to bear a good annual
crop of apples. Mr. Armstrong married the daughter of Levi
Booth, formerly of Alexander, and has one son and two daughters.
He has for many years been well known as a prosperous farmer and successful
dealer in live stock. |
THOMAS
ARMSTRONG, born April
2, 1777, in Greene county, Pennsylvania, came to Athens county in 1799, and
settled in Alexander township, where his son, Elmer Armstrong, now
lives. Mrs. Alice Armstrong, wife of Thomas, was also a
native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Col. Wm. Crawford,
who served creditably in the revolutionary and Indian wars.
In March, 1799, Mr. Armstrong and wife, with
their first child, then three months old, accompanied by Charles Harper,
wife and child, put their movable goods, consisting in part of furniture,
live stock, etc. and forty young apple trees into a flatboat at the mouth of
Muddy creek, on the Monongahela river, and set out for northwestern
territory. Landing at the mouth of the Hockhocking, in April 1799, the
women and children, and live stock, were sent forward from this point by
land to Athens, while the goods, provisions, etc., were poled up the
river by Messrs, Armstrong and Harper in a pirogue.
There was no road from Athens to Alexander (their destination), but the
woods being tolerably open, they made "a rig" from poles, to which a horse
was hitched, and thus their goods were hauled out. Provisions were
scarce, and the new settlers depended mainly on hunting for meat, and on the
skins of the wild animals, which the men very generally used, for clothes.
Mr. Armstrong himself was never much of a hunter, but frequently
received a share of the meat and skins for packing the game home for the
hunters on his horse. The manner of packing bears and deer was to take
the entrails out, skin the nose of the animal for a crupper for the horse,
place the skin on the back of the horse, tying the skin of the fore-legs
around his breast; then put on a second one, with the two flesh sides
together. Buffalo skins were cut in strips and used for bed cords, and
for harness "tugs" in hauling. On one occasion, Mrs. Armstrong
was the dogs pursue a deer on to the ice in the creek, near the house, when,
there being no man at hand, she hastened down with an ax and butcher's
knife, and, the deer being helpless on the ice, killed it with the ax and
cut its throat with the knife. The skin of this deer was dressed, made
into gloves by Mrs. A. and sent to her friends in Pennsylvania.
In her youth, Mrs. Armstrong spent some time in
a fort, which was on her father's farm, near Carmichaeltown, Pennsylvania.
During that period the Indians were peaceable, and, for a time, committed no
hostilities. But, one Sabbath morning, the Reverend John Corbley,
a Baptist minister, started to church, a short distance from the fort, and,
when returning to the house for something which had been forgotten, he and
the family were furiously set upon by Indians. The savages instantly
killed the wife and babe, and scalped the two daughters. Mr.
Corbley and two boys made their escape into the fort. Col.
Crawford immediately went with a party in pursuit. He did not
overtake the Indians, but found the woman and child dead, and the two girls
yet alive. They were carried into the fort, their wounds dressed, and
both recovered, married, and raised families, and a daughter of one of them
is now living in St. Mary's, Ohio.
In the summer of 1799, Mr. Armstrong prepared to
erect a substantial log house on his place. On such occasions, the
settlers from far and near were expected to assemble and aid in the labor.
It was also an occasion of much mirth and good feeling; the slender news of
the settlement was discussed, and there was a general interchange of
neighborly offices. Among others who came to assist Mr. Armstrong
at his "raising" were John Thompson, then a prominent citizen of the
township, but long since dead, and Wm. Gabriel, Matthew Haning, and
Thomas Jones, who settled in Alexander in 1798 and 1799.
Mr. Armstrong was for several years lister of
taxes in Alexander, and collector of college rents. He was also
sheriff of the county, and held other positions of trust in the community.
He died October 22, 1853. |
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