Lucas Fathers Jackson County - Original Bounds - Creative Act - William Given - Organizing Commissioners - First Election in Bloomfield Township - Founders of Large Families - Franklin Township Voters - The Electors of Lick - The Hamlets - Joseph Armstrong - Madison Township Voters - Milton Township - First County Officers - Commissioners' First Meeting - Three Townships Created - Jefferson Township - Changes of County Boundaries - Road Building - Other County Business.
pg. 379

     The seats of justice of Athens, Gallia, Scioto and Ross counties had been established at the first settlement made in each county.  These settlements had been made on rivers, Athens on the Hockhocking, Gallipolis and Portsmouth on the Ohio, and Chillicothe on the Scioto, and when Gallia and Scioto counties were erected in 1803, and Athens in 1805, their outermost boundaries touching Ross, were a whole day's journey from their respective seats of justice.  It was only a question of time until the inhabitants of the hinterlands found it necessary to seek the establishment of a new seat of justice which they could visit and return from the same day.  The lawlessness of some of the salt boilers, and of so many squatters in the deep woods, was another determining cause, which, added to the political ambitions of certain citizens of the Salt Works, led to the movement which caused the establishment of Jackson County.  William Given, Hugh Poor, David Paine, and others joined in a petition, which was signed by a large number of citizens of the four counties already named, and a representative body went on horse back to Chillicothe, in December, 1815, to bring the matter before the Legislature.  They enlisted the services of Robert Lucas, senator from Gallia and Scioto counties, who had been a salt boiler himself and he presented the petition.

LUCAS FATHERS JACKSON COUNTY

     The entry in the Senate Journal reads thus: Dec. 22, 1815, Robert Lucas, senator from Gallia and Scioto Counties, presented a petition of certain inhabitants of Ross, Gallia, Scioto and Athens Counties, praying that a new county may be set off, in such manner that the seat of justice may be established at the Scioto Salt Works."  The petition was referred

Page 380 -
to a committee of three, of which Lucas was made chairman, "to report thereon by bill or otherwise."  The committee acted favorably, and a bill to erect the county of Jackson, named in honor of the hero of New Orleans, was introduced by Senator Lucas Dec. 26, 1815.  It was read a second time December 27, and passed the senate December 29.  It was messaged to the House and read the first time the same day, read the second time December 30, and passed Jan. 10, 1816, became a law two days later, January 12, 1816, and went into effect Mar. 1, 1816.

ORIGINAL BOUNDS.

CREATIVE ACTS.

WILLIAM GIVEN

     William Given, who was so signally honored, by being named in the law establishing the new county, and by having his house selected as the

Page 381 -

ORGANIZING COMMISSIONERS

Page 382 -

FIRST ELECTION ON BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP.

Page 383 -
were fined $12 each, and Christopher Long $6 under each indictment.  Benjamin Long entered a plea of guilty for assaulting Lackey at the November ter, 1816, and was fined $10.  The cause of the fued between the Longs and Hales is not known.

FOUNDERS OF LARGE FAMILIES.

     Many of these voters were founders of large families.  John and Hugh Scurlock were natives of Stokes County, North Carolina, and were brothers of James Scurlock, born in 1796, and George born July 19, 1800.  There were perhaps two or three other brothers, William, Joshua and Joseph and a sister named Lydia, who after her coming to this county married Nelson Aleshire.  The father of this family, whose name was James, died in North Carolina, and the widow and her children came to Ohio in 1806.  George was only sixteen years old when this election occurred, hence he could not vote.  He married Elizabeth, sister of Robert G. Hanna, who was a clerk of the election.  Both were children of John Hanna, who was one of Gen. Andrew Lewis' men in 1774.  George Scurlock and his wife were the parents of nine children.  He died at the age of eighty years, and his wife, who was born Oct. 27, 1800, died in her sixty-ninth year.  The family is now quite numerous in the county.
     Sharp and Thomas Barton were father and son.  The father was born in Patrick County, Virginia, and he and his wife, Jennie, came to Gallia County in 1811.  There Thomas Barton married Charlotte, daughter of James and Mary Hale, in 1815, and he became a citizen of this county when those sections of Gallia County were annexed in 1816. Their third son, Hamby Barton, who was born Nov. 30, 1827, and was married Nov. 10, 1853, to Lucinda Quickel, lived until the summer of 1915, together with his wife.  Thus they lived together nearly sixty-two years.  Thomas Barton died Aug. 27, 1845, and his wife Sept. 28, 1877.  James Hale, who was perhaps the oldest of the family that voted at the election, is said to have come from Virginia to the Licks in 1800, but he returned to Virginia to marry and brought his wife, Mary, to this county in 1811.  Several of his descendants still remain in the county, but only one of them bears the family name.  Alexander Poor was a native of North Carolina, and came to this county in 1809.  He was later a member of the Legislature and was colonel of the militia for many years.  James Lackey was a native of Virginia and came to Bloomfield in 1806.  John L. Corn came to the county in 1811 from Patrick County, Virginia, where his son James was born Sept. 28, 1804.  This son married Milly Vernon, who was born in Stokes County, North Carolina, and they became the parents of nine children, of whom Riley Corn became the most widely known in Jackson County.  His daughter married Charles M. Davis, and they live near Rempel.  Samuel McClure, who was the presiding judge in Bloomfield Township's first election, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, May 4, 1785, and was married to Nancy Levisay, born September, 1782, in the same county on Feb. 12, 1801.  They moved to Bloomfield in 1811.  They had ten children and their descend-

Page 384 -
ants now form perhaps the most numerous family connection in the county.  The oldest daughter, Margaret, married Charles Slavens, who was born in Virginia Mar. 6, 1796.  This occurred Aug. 29, 1821, and they located in Pike County, where the husband died Apr. 16, 1871.  The wife survived until she was an octogenarian.  Reuben Slavens, their son, was a soldier in the Civil War, and served as commissioner and treasurer of Pike County.  It is a coincidence that his son, Jacob Slavens, was elected treasurer of the same county as a republican Nov. 3, 1914, although the county is strongly democratic.  Samuel Slavens named for his grandfather, Samuel McClure, was one of the famous Andrews raiders in the Civil War, and was one of the seven patriots hanged by the Confederates June 20, 1862.  Nancy, a sister of Reuben and Samuel Slavens, married Hugh Gilliland, Martha, the second daughter, married Samuel Stephenson Jan. 25, 1826, and Arthur McClure, her brother, married Jane Stephenson the same day.
     Nancy McClure married Benjamin Callaghan Feb. 15, 1826.  She lived until Mar. 2, 1891, and died in her sixty-eighth year.  Polly McClure married William Smith Feb. 12, 1829.  Betsy married John Comer Dec. 23, 1830, and they returned to Virginia.  Susannah married Joseph Cackley Sept. 1, 1836; Jacob Warwick McClure married Emily Burris Feb. 18, 1841.  Thomas Perry McClure married Lucinda Miller July 14, 1842, and Charles Slavens McClure, the tenth child, married Margaret Callahan May 20, 1852.  This roster of names indicates that the McClures became allied with many of the other pioneer families and those alliances were multiplied by the grandchildren until many of the inhabitants of Bloomfield, Franklin, Scioto and Hamilton are of the McClure blood.  While hundreds of representatives are located elsewhere, Michael and David Stoker, in the list of voters came from Stokes County, North Carolina, in 1806.  Catherine Stoker married Alexander Lackey and the children of their grandson, Leonidas F. Lackey, still live in the township.
     In this connection it may be noted that Enoch Russell came to Bloomfield in 1806, but for some reason he did not attend the election.  He was a soldier of the Revolution.  William Keeton was the son of David Keeton another soldier of the Revolution.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP VOTERS.

     Franklin Township had for its election officers:
    Judges, John Rook, John Farney and Abraham Baker; and clerks, Isaac Baker and William Stephenson.  Teter Null was the first of the sixty-one electors to cast his vote.  The others were:

SHARON WICK'S NOTE:   I alphabetized these names to make it easier to search them.

Page 385

An election to choose justices was held the same day, but by a different set of officers.  They were Teter Null, Samuel Traxler and Hugh Gilliland,d judges and John Martin and Francis Holland, clerks.  Sixty votes were cast, of which John George had 32, Thomas Scott, 29, Isaac Baker 28, Nottingham Mercer, 26; George and Scott  were winners.
     John Martin named above was the pioneer who came to the Licks in 1796, and has been spoken of already.  Peter Seel was the first white man to settle permanently in what is now known as Jefferson Township, building his cabin in the woods near the site of the Diamond brickyard, below Oak Hill, in 1814.  His nearest neighbor was Lewis Adkins, who owned what has been long known since his days as the Joseph Cackley farm.  Seel was a native of Germany, but emigrated when a young lad.  He died Feb. 21, 1868, aged eighty-four years, leaving 140 descendants.  Isaiah Sheward was the founder of a large family, who still takes an active interest in township and county affairs.  The Hollands, Nulls, Scotts, Craigs, Kirbys, Duncans and Georges have left the township and the county, but the Dixons, Nelsons, Howards, Johnsons, Trexlers, Mercers, Grahams, Gillilands, Stephensons and others have many representatives in the county.  J. H. Rook, descendant of John Rook, died in 1915, at the home of his son in Washington C. H.  A number of these voters moved to Lick Township as soon as the sale of lots in 1817 enabled them to buy property near the Licks.  This movement down the valley toward Jackson has continued until this day, and a large proportion of the inhabitants of the county seat, can claim descent from the sturdy Franklins of this fine old township.  James Graham, named among these voters, became a leading citizen of Scioto Township after its organization in 1816.  He was a Virginian by birth, and he married Catherine Rickabaugh who was born in Pennsylvania.  They were the parents of twelve children who grew to maturity, viz.: Phoebe, who was married to Abraham Dixon; Elizabeth, the wife of Eli Dixon; John; Felix, who married Lucinda Russell; Jehiel, who married Rebecca Graham; Catherine, the wife of John Haley; Lydia, the wife of Nathan Gilliland; Sarah, the wife of John Norris; Mahala, wife of Levi McCoy; James, who married Margaret Norris, and was long the largest man in the county, weighing 360 pounds; lastly, Mary, the wife of Franklin McCoy, and Hannah, who married Lewis Davis.  These twelve clans are nearly as numerous as the McClures, Hertons, Stephensons, Browns and Arthurs.  Thomas Craig was another soldier of the Revolution.  He belonged in the Maryland line and served under Capt. Richard Davis, in the first regiment, commanded by Colonel Rollins.  He enlisted in 1776, was taken prisoner at Fort Washington and was not discharged until 1784.  His pension certifi-

Page 386 -
cate was No. 10,780.  A third Revolutionary soldier in Franklin was Jules Dawson of the Virginia line.  He served three years and seven months in the Thirteenth Regiment.  He was in battle against the Indians at Coshocton on the Muskingum at the mouth of White Woman's Creek, and also on Big Beaver.  A number of his descendants still live in Franklin.  He survived until after the Fourth of July, 1843, for he and Thomas Oliver, another veteran of the Revolution, were taken to Jackson that day, to a great celebration held in their honor as the last survivors of the Revolution in the county.  Oliver died Feb. 23, 1844, and Dawson outlived him only a few months.  Oliver was a native of Maryland, where he was born May 10, 1763.  His father died when he was only fourteen years old, and he went to live with his uncle, David Leffland, in Loudon County, Virginia.  When sixteen years old, in 1779, he enlisted in the Sixth Virginia Regiment, under Colonel Muhlenborg and served three years and seven months.  He became a pensioner in 1834, getting $80 a year.  He had come to Ohio in 1816 and settled in Madison Township, but he moved later to the Mt. Zion neighborhood in Franklin, and was buried in Mt. Zion graveyard.  Oliver was married three times, and was the father of a large family, whose members are now widely scattered.  One son named Hiram was a soldier in the Civil War.  A number of other veterans of the Revolution died in this county, among them James Hulse of the Virginia line, who served three years in the company of Abraham Shepard in the Twelfth Regiment and received a land war rant from Virginia.  William Clarke of Jefferson, who served three years in the First Regiment of Virginia Artillery and fought at Hampton and in North Carolina, when Colonel Buford was defeated, was another.

THE ELECTORS OF LICK

     Only fifty-nine veterans attended the election in Lick. evidently all the electors, for the distance to the polls was not great.  The small number indicates that the great majority of the salt boilers had left, either departing from the county or settling on lands subject to entry outside of the Salt Lick Reservation. The officers were: James Weeks, John Ogg and Asa Lake, judges; and Joseph W. Ross and George L. Crookham, clerks.  The first of the fifty-nine voters was Maj. John James, grandfather of ex-Warden C. C. James.  The others were: Abraham Dehaven, William White, Horam Denny, John W. Sargeant, Joseph Clemmens, Philip Stother, Samuel Bunn, John Gillaspie, Asa Lake, James Weeks, George Bowen, Jacob Culp, Matthew Rider, Absalom Wells, Hugh Sharp, Valentine Pancake, William Givens, John Stockham, Joseph Armstrong, James Adams, John Brander, George L. Crookham, David Mitchell, Jacob Schellenger, William Brown, Salmon Goodenough, John Crago, John Armstrong, John Ogg, John O. Kelly, John Higginbotham, Charles Higginbotham, David Watson, Samuel A. Hall, John Henry Grant, Peter Marshall, Daniel Comber, John Praether, John Stewart, Henry Routt, Joseph W. Ross, Francis O'Ray, John Lake, John McGhee, Jared Strong, Daniel Harris, Daniel Clark, Samuel Aldridge, A. J. Hig

Page 387 -
gins, Isaac Newell, Jesse Watson, Alexander Hill, Abraham Welch, Elk Bramlett, William Higginbotham, William Howe, John Allen, William Hewitt.

THE HAMLETS.

JOSEPH ARMSTRONG.

Page 388 -

Page 389 -
 

MADISON TOWNSHIP VOTERS

Page 390 -
 

MILTON TOWNSHIP

Page 391 -

FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS.

COMMISSIONERS' FIRST MEETING

Page 392 -

THREE TOWNSHIPS CREATED

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP

Page 393 -
 

Page 394 -









Page 395 -

CHANGES OF COUNTY BOUNDARIES

     A number of changes have been made in the boundaries and area of Jackson County since its organization in 1816.  First an act was passed Jan. 3, 1818 that "all that part of Ross County which is comprised within township No. 9 in Range 18 and township No. 9 Range No. 19 be annexed to Jackson county."  These were organized as Harrison and Richland townships but in 1850 both were given to Vinton County.  Their population and that of Clinton then numbered 1,750.  At the same time a tier of sections east of Madison Township and another tier south of the same township were annexed to Jackson County from Gallia in order to maintain Jackson's area within the constitutional requirement.  This annexed to the county some very valuable land, and the neighborhood where the first Welsh pioneer had settled.  Vinton County was organized Mar. 23, 1850, with an area of only 402 square miles.  It was named in honor of Samuel F. Vinton, who was for years the most distinguished citizen of Gallia County.  He was born in Massachusetts, Sept. 25, 1792, and about the year 1816 he established himself at Gallipolis, where he engaged in the practice of law.  Many Jackson County people had been citizens of Gallia before 1816, and many others from Gallia moved into Jackson County afterward.  They retained a kindly interest in their old county with the result that Vinton secured much practice among them.  His manners were pleasing, and his personality charming and he became very popular in Jackson, gradually taking the bulk of the practice from the Chillicothe attorneys.  One result was that he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Jackson County at the sessions of court of 1820 to 1824 inclusive.  It was while holding this position that he was elected to Congress in 1822 where he was returned for six succeeding terms serving fourteen years altogether continuously.  Six years later he was elected for an eighth term, and served six more years, Vinton died at Washington, May 11, 1862.  It is recognized now that the erection of so many small counties in the hill country of Ohio was a mistake but in those early days the rivalry of families or of two towns, or two factions, led to those divisions.  Even as late as 1854, a man named Samson living at Oak Hill originated a movement to organize a new county with Oak Hill as the county seat, but the legal requirements under the new Constitution were such that the effort proved abortive.  There were minor changes made in the western boundary of Jackson County later, but the details are not of general interest, the object having been to straighten boundaries and promote the convenience of a few farmers.

ROAD BUILDING

     The work of laying out roads was one of the first duties of the com missioners.  The first petition received their consideration July 3, 1816.  It had been presented by Isaac Baker of Franklin Township, and prayed for the laying out of a road: Beginning at the fork of the creek two

Page 396 -

OTHER COUNTY BUSINESS

- END OF CHAPTER IV -