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PROCEEDINGS of the
FIRST COUNTY COURT of COMMON PLEAS for MEIGS COUNTY, STATE OF
OHIO, ss:
Pg 83
April Term, in the Year 1819.
Be it remembered, That
at a term of Court of Common Pleas for the county of Meigs,
begun and held at the temporary seat of justice: Present,
Hon. Ezra Osborn, president, judge of the Eighth Judicial
Circuit of the Court of Common Pleas for the State of Ohio; and
Horatio Strong, Fuller Elliot and James E. Phelps,
Esqs., associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas for Meigs
county, who produced their several commissions under the great
seal of the State of Ohio, which were read in open court.
Robert C. Barton was appointed clerk pro tem, of
the said court in complying with the requisitions of the law.
Samuel F. Vinton was appointed prosecuting attorney for
the present and succeeding terms.
The court then adjourned until tomorrow at 9 o'clock.
EZRA OSBORN.
Second Day - The court
met pursuant to adjournment. Present: The same judges as
of yesterday. The clerk, on motion, produced a bond as
sureties for the faithful discharge of his duties. The
same was approved, and he was duly sworn into office, and the
senior associate was directed to deliver the said bond to the
county treasurer.
On motion, it was ordered that license be renewed to
James E. Phelps to keep a house of entertainment at his new
dwelling house on his complying with the requisitions of the
law. A notice was duly served on James E. Phelps
and Fuller Elliot, Esqs., associates of the court, by
Horatio Strong, senior associate, to meet at the temporary
seat of justice on the twelfth day of April, instant, for the
purpose of appointing a recorder of the county, according to
law. Ordered by the court that the clerk within twenty
days give notice to the trustees of each township that they make
a selection of grand and petit jurors, and that they return to
him thereof to him in twenty days thereafter. And he is
required to have them subpoenaed to attend in their respective
capacities as jurors at this place on the first day of next
term, by the sheriff. On motion, ordered that licenses be
granted to George Russell for a ferry across Leading
creek where he now keeps it on his complying with the
regulations of the law.
On motion, ordered that license be granted to Elisha
Rathburn, of Rutland, to solemnize the bonds of matrimony.
On the application of James H. Hayman and Alexander
Miller for the appointment of county surveyor, the court was
equally divided and the application laid over until the next
term.
Ordered by the court that the clerk pro tem, use his
private seal for all processes issuing from court until a county
seal shall be provided. The court adjourned until
half-past 1 o'clock P. M. The court met pursuant to
adjournment. Present: Horatio Strong, Fuller Elliot,
James E. Phelps, Esqs., associate judges. On petition
of Thomas Ridding, of Sutton, for a license to keep a
house of entertainment at his dwelling house, ordered that the
clerk give him a license on his complying with the requisitions
of the law. The minutes being read and approved by the
court and adjourned without day.
HORATIO STRONG
April 12th, 1819.
Pursuant to request, the associate judges assembled at
the temporary seat of justice. Present: Horatio Strong,
Fuller Elliot, and James E. Phelps, Esqs., associate
judges.
Robert E. Barton ..... (more to come)
EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF THE
PROCEEDINGS
of the FIRST COMMISSIONERS
of MEIGS COUNTY, STATE OF OHIO,
APRIL 30th, 1819.
Pg. 87
The commissioners of
said county met this day, to-wit, Levi Stedman and
William Alexander, who, after being duly sworn by
Archibald Murray, a justice of the peace for the county
aforesaid, and lodging a certificate thereof in the office of
the Court of Common Pleas for the said county, proceeded to
business.
Benjamin Stout, duly elected sheriff of said
county, presented a bond, of which the following is a copy,
which was approved and delivered to the county treasurer:
More to come.........................
In various
communications that have been submitted to us there has been
much of the same character related by Mrs. Knight, so we
have taken the liberty of making extracts from her excellent
paper instead of using the entire history. - S. C. L.
It is a serious fact that among the first early
settlers in what is now Meigs county and who bought land, that
no subsequent account of their lives or families has been
obtained, an omission which at this late day it is almost
impossible to supply after the lapse of nearly a century.
We find in the records of deeds of Washington county and of
Gallia county names of men who bought land and made homes in
what is now Meigs county. Ezra and Joshua Chapman
and Levi Chapman purchased land dating to 1787.
Ezra and Joshua Chapman lived and died in Letart
township. Henry Roush bought thirty-six acres of
land in 1808 in Letart. Adam Harpold, in 1812, a
farm in Letart township. Thomas Alexander, first,
in 1803. After 1810, there seems to have been a steady
influx of families from Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, as
well as the earlier emigrants from New England. The names
of Sayre, Hall and Price are presented by a large number of
people living in Meigs county.
GEORGE C.
COOPER was a son of Abraham Cooper
and Margaret Cooper, nee Wetzel, daughter of
Lewis Wetzel, of frontier notoriety. Mr. Cooper
lived in Charter several years as a salesman in Colonel David
Barber's store. Moving to Middleport, he was an active
member of the Meigs County Pioneer Society, being the first
corresponding secretary of the same. Mr. Cooper was
one of the most upright, reliable of men and universally
respected. He died in Middleport, Ohio, in 1878.
PERSIS
O. COOPER, nee Blackstone, wife of
George W. Cooper, was born in Athens, Ohio, May 22nd,
1822. She was a grand-daughter of Major John White.
She died at New Carlisle, Ohio, July 23rd, 1894.
MAJOR
JOHN WHITE was
born in 1758 in Pomfret, Conn., and was a soldier in the
Revolutionary army. He was said to be one of the
bodyguards at the execution of Major Andre, and was
familiar with all the circumstances connected with the attempted
betrayal of the army by Benedict Arnold. He was one
of a company that landed at Marietta in 1789 and lived in the
blockhouse, serving at times as an Indian scout. While
here he married Priscilla Duval. After his marriage
he moved to Waterford, subsequently to Athens county, until the
death of his wife in 1838, when he came to his son-in-law's and
daughter's, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Fair, of Chester, Meigs
county, with whom he remained until his decease, in his
eighty-seventh year. He is buried in the Chester cemetery.
SAMUEL ERVIN built a cabin near the site of what
is known as the "Horton boatyard" in 1807, being the
first settlers of the town of Pomeroy. Amos Partlow
came in 1809 and built his cabin about where the Excelsior Salt
Works are situated, and that was the second house. The
third cabin was erected by Frank Hughes on the ground
where the court house stands, and John Mason put a cabin
on Sugar run, being the fourth dwelling house in Pomeroy.
Mr. Ervin vacated his house in favor of John Bailey
and built another cabin at the mouth of Kerr's run; lived
there in 1815, when he sold to Nathan Clark, who was
therefore about the fifth settler of the town of Pomeroy.
Some of the above mentioned improvements were sold to other
parties. Clark sold his improvement to Robert
Bailey or Randall Stivers, who afterwards sold to
Major Dill. Nial Ney bought a lot of Dill and
built the first store house, where he kept the first post office
in Pomeroy in 1827. Mr. John Knight bought the
improvement made by Mr. Erwin of a Mr. Miles, and
Samuel Grant bought the Partlow improvement.
Robert Bailey, Elihu Higley, John Bailey, David
Bailey, Hedgeman Hysell, Leonard Hysell and Elam Higley
met at the house of Samuel Ervin and from there started
to Gallipolis and volunteered under General Tupper to
serve in the War of 1812.
Thomas Ervin, Robert Bailey, David Bailey and
John Bailey were pioneer keelboat men, who boated salt from
Kanawha to Pittsburg, the boat being owned by P. Green
and Jack Allen.
The first public road cut through the woods from
Gallipolis to Chester was opened by Samuel Ervin, Asahel
Cooley and Hamilton Kerr. [Note. - The date of this
road is not given, but there were settlements on Leading creek
and at Athens as early as at Chester, and may have been opened
as early by way of these settlements form Gallipolis to Athens.]
It should be borne in mind that many roads were barely marked
out for horse or foot men that were never opened for teams.
Mr. Thomas Matthews settled in Chester in 1798 or 1799,
and he told me (Larkin) while we were in company passing
over the hill on the Rutland road in Middleport that there was
where he and Hamilton Kerr and some other men whose names
are forgotten located a road to Shade river, crossing Leading
creek where the K. & M. Railroad crosses that stream, running
immediately up the point of that hill and following the ridge
all the way west of Middleport and Pomeroy, but that road was
never opened for teams. S. C. L.
Mr. Ervin stated that in 1814 the Ohio river was
very high, so that his father, Samuel Ervin and family,
were compelled to leave the cabin and take shelter in a cave,
where they lived seven days and nights, in much discomfort, as
it was in the month of February.
Rutland, Ohio, March 29th, 1878.
To the Teacher and Scholars of the School in
Pleasant Valley:
We propose to write a few items in relation to the
early history and settlement of the little spot of earth that
appears to be of so much importance and which in reality is so
very interesting to the inhabitants of what is now called
Pleasant Valley, the lawn where now stands the seat of learning
and capitol for this community, together with its surroundings
up and down the vale -
When wild turkeys and deer,
And old black bears that prowled,
Were sought by hunters here,
Through wolves as sentries howled.
This place in those
olden days was called in White Oak Flats. Now it has been
three score and ten years since the first settlement was made
within its borders. I will relate a few incidents.
Soon after the Hon. Brewster Higley settled with his
family near the mouth of the middle fork of Leading creek in the
spring of 1799, and not far from the mouth of Great run, which
drains the water of this little valley into the channel of that
little creek. Mr. Levi Stedman had established
himself on Shade river at a point where Chester now stands and
had built a mill for the grinding of wheat for the settlers.
It became necessary that a road should be opened between the two
places. Accordingly, it was agreed that Mr. Levi
Stedman was a party from Shade river and a company from
Leading creek, under the direction of Mr. Brewster Higley,
should meet near the place where little George Russell
lived at the forks of Thomas Creek. The parties having
met, proceeded to mark out the road to their respective homes.
The Leading creek party marked the way very near where it is now
established. When they passed through a very thick wood on
what is now the Stow farm and on through the low gap to a
place by the west line of the McGuire land, it being in
June and night had overtaken them, the darkness was intense, not
a gleam of light to direct them, when one of their number
thought of an expedient, which was to get into the channel of
that little stream, exceedingly crooked as it was, and to follow
its meanderings to the mouth, which was open grand, so they all
got safely home. This occurred in 1804 or 1805.
The first settler in this valley was Abel Larkin,
who moved into his cabin April 1st, 1808, on the northeast a
corner of Section No. 7, in Rutland township. The second
settler was Joseph Richardson, a little west, in 1809,
who sold to Samuel Danforth in 1811.. Mr.
Danforth resided there until his death in 1845. The
place had been occupied by different families until now, 1878,
it is owned by John F. Stevens. Richard Cook and
James McGuire came with their families from Marietta in 1813
and settled on Section No. 1. Earl P. Archer came
about that time and bought land in 1814, and Elihu Higley
married Nancy Cook and settled on Section No. 2 in 1816.
Bereman Bailey located a farm a little north in 1827.
Hazael Lathrop, who framed more buildings in this
neighborhood than any other man in his time, came from New York
in 1817. He married Catharine, a daughter of
Billy Wright, and lived in a cabin on the eastern border of
Section No. 8. He moved father west in 1825, but after
seventy years that strip of land is known as the "Lathrop
Place."
Mr. Richard Cook died July 17th, 1840, aged
seventy-three years. His wife, Irene Cook, nee
Hodge, died Oct. 7th, 1839, aged seventy-three years.
About 1812 James McGuire bought a farm in
Pleasant Valley. He was born in Ireland Aug. 14th, 1877.
He emigrated to Marietta and there married the Widow Murray,
who had four children - William, John, Eliza and
Matilda. Mrs. McGuire's maiden name of Mary
Garnet. She was a sister of the mother of John
Brough the famous war Governor of Ohio. A little story
was current about Esquire Brough, father of the Governor,
of his queer decisions when an acting magistrate. He made
the witness pay the cost of prosecution in a case of larceny.
A mechanic living in Harmar and working in Marietta had a canoe
to go over to his work an back for his meals. Persons
troubled him by taking away his canoe when he wanted it.
He therefore gave notice that he would prosecute the first one
that did it. So the next day a man came along and asked
where such a man had gone. He saw him take the canoe and
go out of the mouth of the Muskingum. "Did you see him do
that?" "Yes." Dropping his tools, he went to
Esquire Brough for a warrant, and the man and the witness
were soon before the court. There is witness said he did
not see the man take the canoe, that he said so "for a joke."
The judge figured a little and said, "I find the prisoner not
guilty. So much cost for the witness to pay." Then,
addressing the witness, ordered him to pay it over quick or he
would send him to jail for contempt of court, so the witness
forked it over.
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