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    As a matter of peculiar interest in the history of this township, the following is copied from its original records, which are still in existence.  It will be observed by a comparison of dates, that the township was organized and officers elected over a year before Gallia county was formed, and about a year before the meeting of the first general assembly of the State, (Mar. 1, 1803):

OLD TOWNSHIP RECORDS.

     "Records of the Township of Gallipolis, A. D. 1802.  Territory of the United States, Northwest of the river Ohio, Washington county.  At a township meeting begun and held for the township of Gallipolis, at the house of John Bing, in the township of Gallipolis on the first Monday of March, A. D. 1802.  [This was the old Baxter House on Front street, the first frame building erected in the town, and now standing].  The electors of that township assembled and proceeded to elect as follows, to-wit:
     "Robert Stafford, chairman; John Robinson, township clerk; John P. R. Bureau, Hamilton Kerr, and Robert Safford, trustees or managers; James Wearly and John Bing, overseers of the poor; Joshua Chitwood, Abraham Lassley and Michael Hammond fence viewers; John P. R. Bureau and Joseph Devacht, appraisers of houses; N. Thevenin, lister of property; Joseph Fletcher, John Entsminger, John Bing, Nicholas Thevenin and James Smith, Supervisors of roads; Peter Marret, Andrew Armstrong, and William McDonald, constables.
     "Voted that the next annual meeting he at the house of John Bing, in the town of Gallipolis.  Test., John Robinson, T. Clerk.
     "The first day of May, 1802, the aforesaid constables were duly qualified according to law.  Test., John Robinson, T. Clerk.
     "May 3d, 1802, Nicholas Thevenin ordered the ear-mark of his cattle, sheep, and hogs to be recorded, to-wit:  Two swallow forks and his brand N. T.  Test., John Robinson, T. Clerk."
     Next follows the record of the qualification of officers and a long list of notices of the car-marks of stock.  Those giving the latter during the year 1802, are recorded as follows, in addition to the one above given: John Bing, Norman McCloud, Patrick Reed, Joshua Chitwood, Michael Aleshire, John Duret, Abraham Lessly, Jacob Rousch, Edward McMillan, John Robinson, John Entsminger, David Rees, Samuel Rees, Andrew Irwin, Hamilton Kerr, Joseph Rife, Robert Safford, Shadrack Stillwell, Richard Brians, Hugh Daniels, Benson Jones and Alexander Armstrong.
     Among the township officers elected in 1803 was Francis LeClercq, clerk, the subject of one of the following sketches.  James Burford, who gained a national reputation as a most wonderful story-teller, was chairman of the board of fence-viewers.  There is no doubt but that he made business lively for his associates, and was placed in the rail fence department as the one best adapted to his style of making reports.
     On the first Monday of April 1808, it is recorded that "the electors of the township assembled to the number of fifteen, and proceeded to elect.
     J. P. R. Bureau is first mentioned as justice of the peace in 1808; Robert Safford, however, occupied that position in 1798.  In 1808 Lewis Newsom was appointed clerk.
     April 14th, 1812, it is again recorded that Mr. Bureau qualified as justice of the peace, giving Edward W. Tupper and Christopher Etienne as bondsmen.  May 2d, of that year, the township was laid off into road districts.
     March 1st, 1813, the trustees met at the court-house "pursuant to the 7th section of a law entitled 'An act for the incorporation of townships.'"
     April 19th, 1823, the trustee met and passed the following resolution:
     "Resolved, That from and after the first day of May next, no black or mulatto person be permitted to settle or reside within the bounds of the township of Gallipolis, unless he, she or they shall have fully complied with the statute entitled 'An act to regulate black and mulatto persons,' passed the 5th day of January, 1804, and the amendments thereto."
     April 4th, 1831, the trustee appointed William Preston and J. W. Devacht a committee to defend the rights of the township in certain real estate, which they considered as "having escheated to this township to the use of the poor therein, by act of the legislature January 25th, 1816, against a claim made by the trustees of the Gallia Academy.  W. Allen, afterward United States senator and governor of Ohio, was appointed their attorney on the 22d, who was to have been paid seventy-five dollars if he gained the suit, and nothing if he failed.  As the matter was neglected by him he was discharged, and Mr. Murphy (who died while serving an appointment as minister to Mexico), was appointed upon the same terms.
     This old book of records of Gallipolis township, dates from the first Monday in March, 1802, to May 28th, 1839, covering a period of over thirty-seven years.
     By referring to the preceding history of the county, a statement can be found of the organizing and formation of the township, under the State government, May 10th, 1803.  The officers of the township in 1882 are as follows:  Trustees, J. M. Alexander, P. B. Pritchett, Samuel Kerr; treasurer, Captain John A. Hamilton; clerk, George W. Heaton; justices of the peace, William W. Martindale, Alexander Vance, J. G. Damoron; constables, L. J. Langley, Thomas Guyn.
     The principal point of interest in the township and county is the old town of Gallipolis, and considerable space will be devoted to a detailed history of its settlement.

HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF GALLIPOLIS - INTRODUCTORY.

     After the close of the revolutionary war, and the return of General Lafayette and his troops to France, in 1783, the French officers and soldiers discoursed freely upon the blessings in store for the citizens of the free and independent nation, which had won for itself the right to self-government in the New World.  The French people, smarting under the misrule of Louis XVI, and influenced by the eloquence of the ambitious and talented Mirabeau, and of Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and other wild enthusiasts, where aroused into efforts to revolutionize that country and establish a similar form of government in France.  Each succeeding year added supporters to the cause, and in 1787 the revolution was at its height, destroying all civil institutions and rearing upon the ruins the self-styled National Assembly.  In 1788 the members of the late parliament were exiled.  In 1789 the bastile was destroyed, the gospel was trampled under foot, Louis XVI, and his royal consort were brought to the scaffold, and infidelity and misrule seemed to control the destinies of France.
     While this reign of terror existed, and the best blood of the nation was being sacrificed to the cruel passions of the lawless and misguided people, all who could left their native country of foreign lands.
     At this time an office was opened on the streets of Paris, for the sale of lands owned by the "Scioto Company," "on the northwestern bank of the Ohio river, above the confluence of the Big Scioto river with the Ohio, in the Northwestern Territory of the United States, in North America."
     The company alleged the ownership of three millions of acres of land, and in a general prospectus, set forth in glowing colors, the unparalleled advantages of an ownership in this new El Dorado - fine mill sites, with never-failing water power, banks of bituminous coal, iron, lead, gold and silver mines and a climate and soil unsurpassed.  The price demanded was a French crown per acre.  None questioned the validity of the title, as the office seemed to the under the supervision of Joel Barlow the American Minister to France.

EMBARKATON OF THE EMIGRANTS.

     In February, 1790, emigrants numbering over six hundred set sail from Havre de Grace.  Five ships were chartered to take them to Alexandria, Virginia, and owing to adverse winds and a lack of nautical skill, many of them did not arrive until the following May.
     They were cordially received by the people, as the valuable assistance which France had recently rendered them, in their struggle for independence had engendered a warm feeling of fraternity.  With their title deeds in their possession, and with feelings of exultation and joyful anticipations, this adventurous band landed, only to learn that they had been deceived and defrauded.  The lands described in their deeds of conveyance were located far westward, in an unbroken wilderness, infested by savage

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