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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History
of
Athens County, Ohio
And Incidentally
of the Ohio Land Company
and the First Settlement of the State at Marietta
with personal and biographical sketches of the early
settlers, narratives of pioneer adventures, etc.
By
Charles M. Walker
"Forsam et hæc olim
meminisse juvabit." - Virgil.
Publ. Cincinnati:
Robert Clarke & Co.
1869.
< BACK TO
1869 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
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MARTIN
MANSFIELD, born in New Jersey in 1779, settled in Canaan
township in 1797, died Aug. 7, 1860. His descendants are
numerous and highly respected in the county. His brother
Peter settled in Canaan on Willow creek about the same
time, and was a leading man among the pioneers. Three of his
sons, George, William and Allen, still live in the
same neighborhood.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 446 |
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NATHANIEL
MARTIN was born in Massachusetts in 1789, and came to
Carthage in 1836, where he has since lived a farmer. He served
as township treasurer for twenty-two years consecutively.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 458 |
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GILBERT
McDOUGAL, his (John) youngest son, was born in Ames township,
June 30, 1819, and now resides on the old place owned by his late
father. He is a successful farmer, has taught the district
school in his vicinity seventeen quarters, held the office of justice
of the peace six years, and county commissioners seven years.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 415 |
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JOHN
McDOUGAL, born in Schenectady county, New York, August 26,
1776, came to Athens county in July, 1817, and settled in Ames
township, on the creek which now bears his name, where he continued
to live till his death in 1854.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 415 |
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ABRAM and JACOB McVEY, brothers, came to Athens
from Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1832, and settled in Alexander
township. Some of their descendants are still living in the county.
About the same time a large emigration from Washington and Greene counties,
Pennsylvania, came to Athens and settled mostly in Alexander. Among
them were Joseph Post, Moses, William and John Patterson and
their families, Jacob and David Cook, Dennis Drake, Peter Vorhes,
and family, of whom five sons are living in the county, John Gray,
Elijah Brown and his sons Harry and Jerry, Lawrence Blakeway,
Cephas and Zenas DeCamp, John Winget, Joseph Barmore, William
Russell, David Pierce, John Cowan, John Brownlee, Ziba Lindley, Sen.,
and family, Elisha Jolly, William E. Bane, Absalom Conkey, John
Clutter, Daniel Espy, Solomon Leighty, Amzi Axtell, Edward Fletcher, Samuel
Lively, William Hoaglan, Abram Enlow, Joseph Parker, Ludlow Squires,
Hezekiah Topping, and Henry Carey. They formed a valuable class of
citizens, distinguished for thrift and taste in the management of farms,
stock, etc.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 361 |
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JOSEPH B.
MILES, for many years a merchant and leading citizen of Athens,
was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, June 21, 1781. In 1791 he
removed to the northwestern territory with his parents, who settled in
Belpre, in Washington county. Here he lived till he was
twenty-seven years old. In 1808 Mr. Miles came to Athens
and began business as a merchant. In January, 1809, he married
Miss Elizabeth Buckingham, of Carthage township. He lived
in Athens for thirty-five yeas, during which period he was prominent
in all social, religious and business movements here. He engaged
extensively in the mercantile and milling business, and was
universally respected as an upright man and exemplary Christian.
In 1843 he removed with his family to Washington, Tazewell county,
Illinois, where he died September 18th, 1860. His first wife
died in Athens in 1821. By his first marriage Mr. Miles
had six children - Catherine B., who married Mr. C. Dart
and died in Houston, Texas, in February 1866; Lucy W., who
married Mr. L. A. Alderson and died in Greebriar county,
Virginia, in 1832; Belinda C., who married Mr. Jared Sperry
adn now lives in Mt. Vernon, Ohio; Pamelia B., who died before
marriage at Havana, Cuba; Elizabeth B., who was married at
Natchez and died there of yellow fever in September, 1837; and
Benjamin E., who now resides in Washington, Illinois. Mr.
Miles married for his second wife Miss Elizabeth Fulton.
Their children were Martha M., James H., Daniel L., Joseph B., Mary
F., William R., and Sarah J. Mary, Martha and
Joseph live in Washington, Illinois, James in Chicago, and
Sarah J. (Mrs. Robert Wilson) in Farmington, Iowa.
William R. died young; and Daniel L., who was
lieutenant-colonel of the Forth-seventy Illinois Volunteers, during
the war of the rebellion, was killed in a skirmish near Farmington,
Tennessee, in May, 1862. Mr. Miles's second wife died in
1862.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 266 |
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ABEL MILLER
came to Athens county in 1802 from Middletown, Connecticut. In
1803 he purchased land two miles below the town of Athens in what is
now Canaan township, and built a log cabin the same year. In a
few years he had opened a fine farm, which is still known as among
the best in the valley. Mr. Miller was for a long time
county surveyor. He surveyed the two college townships at one
time, preparatory to a leasing of the lands. He was appointed
a trustee of the Ohio university in 1808, and served in that
capacity till 1825 when he resigned. He was several times
elected a justice of the peace, and served seven years as an
associate judge. He died April 23, 1827, at the age of fifty
years. Judge Miller was a man of large acquaintance,
and deserved popularity through this and adjoining counties.
He was a superior judge a good citizen, and an excellent man.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 448 |
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AMOS MILLER,
only son of Judge Abel Miller, was born in Athens county,
July 27, 1807. The early years of his life were passed on his
father's farm in Canaan. At the age of sixteen he entered the
Ohio university, and graduated in the class of 1830. In 1831
he was elected sheriff of the county, which office he held for two
terms. In 1832 he was elected by the legislature a member of
the board of trustees of the Ohio university, which position he has
held continuously ever since.
In 1840 he removed to Rome township (having previously
purchased the Case farm), where, in 1841, he established the
Miller seminary, which, from a very small beginning, has become
one of the most prosperous and useful academies in this section of
country. Professor Miller, though not an aged man, may
be classed among the pioneers.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 515 |
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WILLIAM MILLS
was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1808, removed to
Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1812, and to Carthage township in 1839,
where he still lives. By occupation he is a farmer. He
served one year as township trustee, and one year as assessor.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 459 |
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E. HASTINGS MOORE, born in Worcester county,
Massachusetts, in 1812, came to Athens county with the family of his
father, David Moore, in 1817. For about ten years the youth lived on a
farm in Dover township, and then for several years on a farm in this
township, about two miles from Athens, whence he finally removed to the
town itself where he has ever since resided. Mr. Moore had a good common
school education (he taught some when a young man), and a taste for
practical mathematics. In 1836 he became deputy county surveyor, and in
1838 was elected by the people to that office, then a difficult and
laborious one. He held this position till 1846, discharging its duties
with uncommon accuracy and entire acceptance to the public. In 1846 he was
elected county auditor, which office he held, under re-elections, fourteen
years. In 1862 he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the
fifteenth Ohio district, and held the office till 1866. In 1868 he was
elected to the forty-first congress from the fifteenth Ohio district as a
republican. He is also president of the First National Bank at Athens.
Mr. Moore is a man of great practical sense and strict integrity, and is
esteemed by all as a valuable citizen.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 299 |
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CALVARY
MORRIS, was born near Charleston, West Virginia, in 1798, and
spent his youth in the Kanawha valley, laboring on a farm, and
battling with the hardships of pioneer life. In 1818 he
married the eldest daughter of Dr. Leonard Jewett, of Athens,
and in the spring of 1819, located permanently in that town.
"Finding myself," says Mr. Morris, "a stranger in a strange
land, and obliged to make provision for the support of my family, my
first step was to rent five acres of ground, upon which to raise a
crop of corn. While cultivating that ground, during the summer
of 1819, the Rev. Jacob Lindley (then acting president of the
Ohio university) came to me and said that a school teacher was much
needed in our town, and proposed that I undertake it. I
informed him that I was not at all qualified - that reading,
writing, spelling, and a limited knowledge of arithmetic was the
extent of my education. He said that the wants of the
community required that arithmetic, geography, and English grammar
be taught in the school, and, 'now,' said he, 'I will tell you what
to do. I have the books and you have the brains; take my
books, go to studying, and recite to me every day for three weeks,
and by that time I will have a school made up for you; you will then
find no difficulty in keeping ahead of your scholars so as to give
satisfaction in teaching, and no one will ever suspect your present
lack of qualifications.' I consented, went to work, and at the
end of three weeks went into the school. I taught and studied
during the day, and cultivated my corn-field part of the time by
moonlight, and if there was ever any complaint of my lack of
qualifications as a teacher, it never came to my knowledge.
In 1823, Mr. Morris was elected sheriff of
Athens county, and re-elected by an almost unanimous vote in 1825.
In 1827, at the close of his term as sheriff, eh was elected to the
lower branch of the state legislature and re-elected in 1828.
In 1829, he was elected to the state senate, and re-elected in 1833.
In 1835, when the project of the Hocking canal was being warmly
agitated, Mr. Morris was elected again to the popular branch
of the assembly from Athens and Hocking counties as the avowed
friend of that measure, and in the belief that he was the best man
to engineer it through. To his adroit management and
indefatigable efforts, the measure was mainly indebted for success,
as he had to overcome the almost unanimous opposition of both
branches of the legislature and the whole board of canal
commissioners. He had the pleasure of seeing the bill
triumphantly passed a few days before the close of the session, and
on his return home his constituents tendered him a public dinner.
In 1836, Mr. Morris was elected to congress, and
re-elected in 1838 and '40.
In 1843 he retired from public life and engaged, to
some extent in wool growing and in the introduction of fine-wooled
sheep into the county, in which business he rendered great service
to the farming community.
In 1847 he removed to Cincinnati and engaged in
mercantile pursuits, which finally proving unfortunate, he returned
to Athens in 1854, and in 1855 was elected probate judge of the
county, which office he still holds.
Few men, if any, now living in the county, have filled
a larger part in its official history than Judge Morris,
and, during his varied services, he has discharged every trust with
honor and fidelity. His public life lay chiefly in the better
days of the republic, and of our politics, and, from his present
standpoint, secure in the confidence and respect of all his
neighbors, he has the rare and happy fortune of being able to review
his whole career without shame and without remorse.
Judge Morris is a brother of the
Reverend Bishop Morris of the M. E. church. William D.
Morris, of Illinois, and Levi Morris, of Louisiana, are
the other surviving brothers.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 274 |
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