OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express

 

Welcome to
Meigs County, Ohio

History & Genealogy

The Pioneer History of Meigs County
by Stillman Carter Larkin
One Volume with Illustrations
Columbus, Ohio:
The Berlin Printing Company
1908

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SKETCH OF EARLY HISTORY
by Luther Hecox
Pg. 63

     Thurman Hecox and family moved from the Whetstone Witestone, New York, to Newbury in Ohio, between the Big Hocking and Little Hocking rivers in August, 1800, and the same year moved up the Hocking river four miles into Troy township.  The next year, 1801, they planted corn on the George Acklely farm and one day when they were hoeing corn they killed five rattlesnakes, not until Mr. Hecox had been bitten by one.  They had to go up the Muskingum river four miles above Marietta to a floating mill in summer; in winter they lived on boiled corn and turnips.  Their meat was venison.  The nearest neighbor was Mr. Humphrey, who lived on what is known as Waterman’s hill.  Another neighbor was Mr. Sutton, a trapper.  In 1803 they moved to the middle branch of Shade river, to No. 4, in Troy township.  They moved with an ox sled and two yoke of oxen, the first team that ever went through Tupper’s Plains.  David Daily drove the hogs, and as they tired out he had to camp in the woods with them to keep the wolves from killing them.  David Daily was a Revolutionary Soldier.  Nathan Burris was the first family to settle on the middle branch of Shade river, one mile above where Levi Stedman built his first mill.  Solomon Burris, an uncle to Nathan Burris, lived there.  Mr. Longworth and Mr. Stone settled on Congress land, and Jacob Cowdery settled on the middle branch, at the mouth of the west branch of Shade river, above Stedman’s mill.  Levi Stedman and Peter Grow lived in Gallia county, half a mile below the line between the two counties.  Afterward they got one section annexed to Athens county, which then ran no farther than the Orange township line, with the exception of one section which belonged to Gallia county.  This line runs east to the Ohio river, near the mouth of a small stream called Indian run.  Samuel Branch came next with his family and located on the east side of the middle branch of Shade river, and Ezra Hoyt came about the same time.  Jacob Rice settled on the west side of the west branch in 1806.  Mr. Kingsbury took land on the first fork of the west branch of Shade river, which is known as Kingsbury, after the name of the first settler.  He was a brother-in-law to Levi Stedman.  The first organization of militia was in 1805.  Thurman Hecox was elected captain and Josiah Guthrie first lieutenant.  He lived in No. 5, Jacob Halsey and a man named Lasley lived on the middle branch of Shade river.  They hauled grain to the mouth of Hocking, there loaded in canoes and pushed up to the floating mill on the Muskingum river above Marietta, a trip that took nine days to go and return.  There were no stores nearer than Marietta or Gallipolis.  Prices were high – sixty-two and one-half cents for prints, the same for brown sheeting, and tea was two dollars a pound.  Bears, panthers, wolves and deer were plenty, also small game.  Wild turkeys were seen in flocks of hundreds.  Mr. Hecox killed a bear that weighed four hundred pounds when dressed.  William and Heptha Hecox were in the woods and treed a half-grown bear.  Jeptha ran home to get an ax, or a gun, and left William and the dogs to watch the bear.  While he was gone the bear came down the tree, the dogs seized him, and William took a pine knot and struck him in the head and killed him.  Levi Stedman had his hog pen near his house and one night he was away and a bear came into the pen to get a hog, but Mrs. Stedman threw a firebrand at him from the window and frightened him away.  Cyrus Cowdery killed an elk, the last one seen in these parts.  John Sloan was hunting deer one day when his dogs treed a panther.  He shot and wounded it, when it came at him; the dogs caught hold, and Sloan declares that he “shot the animal nine times before he killed it.”  In the year 1804 Mr. Hecox bought a pair of hand-mill stones, on which they ground wheat and corn, and sifted it through a buckskin sieve.  Levi Stedman built a log mill on what is now Chester, and put Mr. Hecox’s hand mill stones in his mill until he could get larger ones.  These pioneers had to go to the Scioto river to obtain salt, a journey of seventy miles, and paid two dollars a bushel for the salt.  There was only a horse-path for travel, and carried by pack horses the salt, the party camping out at night.  Later roads were made for the sue of carts and oxen.  They went to Marietta for all mail matter until 1812.  There was a mail route opened from Parkersburg to Point Pleasant running through by Stedman’s Mill.  Levi Stedman was appointed Postmaster, he was also the first Justice of the Peace, and Thurman Hecox was Constable.  These men filled these offices for a number of years, without opposition.  Levi Stedman opened a store, carried on farming, ran a saw and grist mill, kept a tavern, and owned a distillery.  Wool had to be carded, spun and woven by hand, flax was raised, and manufactured into cloth, for wearing apparel.  Some men had suits of dressed deerskin.  The first preaching was at Nathan Burris’ house, and next by Rev. Eli Stedman at Samuel Branch’s.  Afterward they had occasional preaching by different denominations.  In 1820, Elisha Rathburn was the preacher, and a goodly number experienced religion and united with the Bible Christian Church.  The first school-house was built on Samuel Branch’s land, and the first teacher there was Miss Pratt, who lived on Pratt’s fork, a mile up the river.  William and Benjamin Bellows were settlers in this neighborhood, until William sold out to Caleb Cartwright, a preacher of the Seventh Day Baptist.
     The name of Stedman occurs so frequently that an explanation is in order.  From Walker’s History of Athens, we take the statement:  Alexander Stedman, a native of Vermont, and by profession an artisan, settled in Rome township in 1804.  In 1805, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and served in that position several years.  One of his sons was Eli Stedman, a minister.  Another son was Levi Stedman, a Commissioner of Athens county, and for a short time in Meigs.  Bial Stedman married Sally Foster in 1811,” and had sons and daughters.  Capt. Julius C. Stedman, a son of Bial Stedman, was a soldier in the Mexican War, and a soldier in 116th Ohio  V. I. from the first to the close of the Civil War.  He always had a home in or near Athens.

EXTRACT FROM J. H. STEWART'S SKETCH OF LONGBOTTOM
Pg. 67

     Long Bottom is situated in the eastern part of Meigs county.  The first settlers were Thomas Rairdon and the Colmans, probably before 1800, as the date is not positively known.  William Buffington bought land in 1808, and several families came about that time, the Whitesides, Collins' and others.  Thomas Rairdon built the first grist mill in 1815.  The first postoffice was kept on the Warner farm in 1815.  Robert Collins, Postmater.  The first Methodist Church was built in 1844.  The first Christian Church in 1847, and the first store was kept by John Roberts and William hicks in 1839, near the mouth of Forked run.  J. H. Stewart came to Long Bottom in 1830.  The leading business of the place has been the working up of a splendid forest into staves, and the manufacture of  various kinds of casks.  In 1819, this locality was an almost unbroken forest."
     Lebanon township was formed in 1813, taken out of Letart township, and possesses a greater river boundary than any other township in Meigs county.  Trees of great size, and timber of the finest quality, covered the rich bottom lands of the Ohio river and the creeks of Old Town and Groundhog, while the hills bore the best yellow pine and spruce for lumber.  The sugar maple, hickory, black oak and white oak, poplar, beech and sycamore excelled in size and quality any forests of Europe.  The black walnut, white walnut and wild cherry were favorite woods for the manufacture of furniture, and for inside work of the best houses.  Black walnut and cherry were used particularly for the making of coffins in those early days.  So these trees of Lebanon had special attractions to the commercial eyes of later emigrants.  More than one farm was paid for by the cordwood cut and sold to steamboats for fuel, when steamboats first ran on the Ohio river.  Besides the trees, were growths of wild fruits, crab apples, red and black hawes, raspberries and blackberries, and two or three varieties of grapes, and not least in profusion, beauty or lusciousness, was the papaw.  There were herbs and roots used for medicinal purposes, and collected to sell for money.   Ginseng, snakeroot and nervine, or ladies' slipper, grew in abundance in the shade of the great trees.  Two remarkable trees are worthy of notice.  One, a monster sycamore on Old Town creek not far from the mouth of the stream.  It was hollow, and made a home for a family once, afterwards served as a stable for horses.  The other tree was a sycamore, and hollow, and stood on the bottom land of N. Bicknell's farm in Great Bend.

     DR. PHILIP LAUCK and REV. EZRA GROVER came from Eastern Virginia with their families in 1813 and bought a fine tract of land in Lebanon township, on the Ohio river bottom.  Rev. Grover was a Methodist preacher, but was superannuated from the Baltimore Conference.  Dr. Lauck was his son-in-law by marriage and had an extensive and successful practice, which took him away from home much of the time, so that the care of his growing family, and of the making of a farm out of the wilderness developed upon Father Grover and Mrs. Lauck.  Rev. Grover was a good preacher, a zealous Christian and an able defender of the faith, as held by Methodism.  They opened their door for public preaching, and many a wary itinerant was cheered by their hospitality.  Dr. Lauck died comparatively young, leaving a widow and six children.  The sons, Isaac, Ezra, and Simon; the daughters, Mary Ann, Hannah and Elizabeth.  Isaac Lauck married Nancy Hall, and Ezra Lauck married her sister, Rachel Hall, of Old Town.  they moved to Missouri many years ago.  Mary Ann Lauck died of consumption in early womanhood, Hannah Lauck married Nicholas Richardson, son of a Scotch family who came to Sterling Bottom.  Elizabeth Lauck was married to James Amsden, a highly respected man, who took charge of the farm, and the family after the death of Father Grover in 1835. 
     In 1811, a company of Scotch from Glasgow, Scotland, through the influence of Nathan Ward of the Ohio Company's Land Purchase, emigrated to Ohio, and settling on Sterling Bottom, named for the "land of the heather."  George Richardson, the Pattersons, McCoys and others.  Dissatisfaction, discontent, homesickness and death served to break up and scatter the company.  Only Mr. George Richardson remained, and he was a merchant and capable of adapting himself to the primitive conditions of the country.  Mrs. Richardson was a native of Antigua, one of the British West Indies, and had inherited slaves and plantation interests, but England freed the slaves, and much of the riches vanished.  They had a family, one daughter, Eliza Richardson.  Nicholas Richardson, the eldest son, married Hannah Lauck.  George, Jr., and other children names unknown.  The Richardsons left Sterling Bottom some time in  the 30's.

     PHILIP BUFFINGTON purchased the Island of Duvol in 1796, ever since known as Buffington's Island.   Joseph Buffington came from Hampshire county, Virginia, in 1814, bought a farm, Jacob Buffington also, located on the Ohio bottoms, opposite and below the island.  They both had large families of sons and daughters.  They were well-to-do, industrious, hospitable people - good neighbors. 

THE PICTURED ROCKS OF ANTIQUITY.
Pg. 69

     The rock of Antiquity is so called from the fact that the earliest settlers found engraven on its face inscriptions and figures of ancient date.  These consisted of names of persons not English; also the figure of an Indian cut in the face of the rock.  HE was represented as in a squatting position, his right elbow on his knew, with a tomahawk pipe in his mouth.  Dr. Fuller Elliot, a man of much learning, thought that these inscriptions were made by a party of Frenchmen who descended the river after the evacuation of Fort Duquesne - now Pittsburg, as the date on the rock seemed to correspond with that event.  The inscriptions are now obliterated.
     The rock in question is situated about four miles below Letart Falls, and is detached from a confused mass of rocs that have fallen from the cliff above.  The village of Antiquity takes its name from this rock. -
Silas Jones.

Comments on the Foregoing by Stillman C. Larkin.

     The opinion of Judge Elliot (who at an early period lived near the noted rock, and saw the inscriptions), that they were made by a party of Frenchmen, is doubtless correct.  But what particular party did the work is not so clear.  The English and French nations were contending for many years by diplomacy, and by wars, to secure teh title and possession of the Ohio Valley, and were not slack in employing every available means to strengthen their claims.  In a history of the Kanawha Valley by Professor V. A. Wilson, is the following:

     "In 1748, the British Parliament passed laws authorizing the formation of many new settlements and issuing land grants for the settlement of the upper Ohio.  In view of such aggression the Governor General of Canada, by order of his home government, determined to place along the 'Oyo,' or La Belle Riviere, a number of leaden plates suitably inscribed, asserting the claims of France to lands on both sides of the river, even to the source of the tributaries.  The command consisted of eight subaltern officers, six cadets, 180 Canadians and 55 Indians, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 270 men in all.
     The expedition left Montreal on the 15th of June, 1749, and on the 29th reached the junction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers, where the first plate was buried.  The expedition then descended the river depositing plates at the mouths of the principal tributaries, and on the 18th of August they reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha and on the point between the rivers the fifth plate was buried.  It was found in 1846 by a son of
John Beale of Mason county, West Virginia, and was removed from the spot where it had lain for ninety-seven years.
     From the mouth of the Great Kanawha the voyage was continued down the river depositing plates until they reached the mouth of the Great Miami, where they buried the sixth and last plate, Aug. 30th, 1749, and returned to Montreal by way of Maumee."  It being the business of this company to establish monuments of ownership, it seems reasonable to suppose that they might have made the inscriptions on the rock at Antiquity, a historic monument worthy of giving name to that enterprising village of Antiquity.  S. C. L.

     Dr. Fuller Elliott was the son of Aaron Elliot and wife Lydia, and was born in Sutton, MAssachusetts.  He was a university graduate, and chose the profession of medicine.  Fuller Elliot was an agent, and possibly a stockholder in the Ohio Company's Purchase, as the county records show his name in the making of deeds of lands in 1792 to purchasers of lands situated in Washington and Gallia counties.  He entered land for himself in 1805, 277 acres, and again in 1817, 648 acres in Letart township.
   Fuller Elliot was a man of high character and rare attainment, and locating in Letart at that early date; was prominent in helping to organize townships, and in all matters pertaining to public interest and benefit.  He was appointed Associate Judge of Gallia, and afterwards of Meigs county.  He was elected to the Legislature of Ohio, in all offices serving with fidelity to the people, and honor to himself.  He married a daughter of Seth Jones who lived near, and came to Letart about the same time.  Judge Elliot and wife had a large family.  Mary Elliot the eldest daughter, was born June 7, 1803, and was married to John Weldon.  Mrs. Weldon spent most of her married life not far from her father's home, and reared a numerous family.  Serena Elliot, another daughter, married - Swearingen and moved to West Virginia.
     Decatur S. Elliot married Parma Sherwood, and resided in West Virginia, Graham Station.  They had a number of children.  Decatur Elliot and two or three of his sons were soldiers in the Civil War to preserve the Union.
     Philip Elliot, a son of Fuller Elliot, married Serena Myers, and had four children- Martha, Eliza, Thornton J. and Benjamin  He had served as lieutenant in the militia, but died young.
     Thornton J. Elliot, a son of Philip Elliot, served in the Civil War, and won honorable distinction and promotions for bravery and irreproachable conduct during the War for the Union.
     In his later life Judge Elliot resumed the practice of medicine until his death which occurred in 1832, at the age of 60 years.

     JAMES SMITH, Sr., removed from Marietta, and located above the mouth of Leading Creek in the spring of 1797.  He died May 8th, 1817.  His wife was Elizabeth Mack, who died Aug. 9th, 1821, aged 77 years.  He was 73 years of age.
     Their children were:  Benjamin Smith, Esq., born Oct. 1st, 1770, and married Alma Barker, a daughter of Judge Isaac Barker, of Athens, O.
     Their children were five sons and four daughters.
     Benjamin Smith, Sr. died Aug. 7th, 1836, aged 66 years.
     Mrs. Smith died Aug. 29th, 1831, aged 54 years 8 months 11 days.
     John, James, Benjamin, Baker and Sardine (the sons, and Polly, Elizabeth, Catharine and Rhoda and Amy, daughters, of Benjamin Smith, Sr.
     John N. Smith
lived and died in Middleport, Meigs county.
     James Smith married Eliza Murray of Rutland, and emigrated to Arkansas where they both died.
     Benjamin Smith, second, a native of Salisbury, born in 1814, and died on May 12th, 1887, aged 83 years.
     Baker Smith settled on the West Branch of Thomas Fork creek.
     Sardine Smith lived on Hysell run.
     Polly Smith was married to John Harris.
     Elizabeth Smith
, wife of Dr. William an Duyn.
     Catharine Smith
was married to Hamilton Murray.
     Rhoda Smith
became the wife of Nial R. Nye.
     Amy Smith
was Mrs. Dr. Abel Phelps.
     James Smith, Jr.
, married Sally Hubbell, sister of Capt. Jesse Hubbell.  He died Aug. 8th, 1844, aged 61 years 6 months.
     Mrs. Smith died April 20th, 1861, aged 61 years.
     Esquire John Smith married Betsy Monroe and lived on the old homestead.  He died in 1872.  They had a numerous family of sons and daughters.
     The daughters were: Polly, Mrs. Stone, of Washington county, O.; Betsy, Mrs. Russell; Catharine, Mrs. Fulsom; Jane, Mrs. Erastus Stow.
     Mr. Stow
died in 1842, and Mrs. Stow died in 1870.

     The STOW family:
     Eliza, married Dr. Augustus Watkins.
     Euretta Stow
was married to Franklin Knight, of Chester, Meigs county.
     Mary
Stow was married to David R. Jacobs, and resided in Pomeroy.
     James Smith Stow, born July, 1806, went to Washington county, and died there in 1895, aged 89 years 1 month.
     John Stow went to California - to Mississippi with a boat of produce, and died in the south among strangers.
     Erastus Stow married Lucretia Whaley and lived on the old Stow farm.  He was a soldier in the Civil War until its close, when he returned home and died.  Mrs. Stow died Dec. 18th, 1895.
  They had a family. 

     LUKE BRINE moved with his family from Rutland, Vermont, to Leading Creek in 1805.  He bought a farm near New Lima.  He sold his farm to Horace Holt in 1824 or '25, and moved to Marion county, O.  His children were three sons and three daughters.
     Jonathan Brine, a son, married Elizabeth Bobo, of Athens county, O.  He was an ordained minister of the Christian Church.  They had a numerous family.  One daughter, Eliza H., was married to B. F. Stivers a blacksmith, who lived in Pomeroy.
     Luman Brine was born in Rutland, O., in 1806.  He married Lena Sylvester, and had a family of children.  Lumon Brine died April 16th, 1879.  His widow lived on the home farm with her son-in-law, Harvey Stansbury, until her death in October, 1887, aged 81 years, 7 months, 18 days.
     Almon Brine lived in Indiana, and died there.
     Betsy Brine married William Gaston. 
     Sophia Brine
was the wife of William Larue.
     Semela Brine
was the first wife of
John Gaston.

     THOMAS GASTON was a native of New England, and served seven years in the Revolutionary Army.  He moved with his family to the State of New York, and afterwards, induced by liberal grants of land, emigrated to Canada.  But on account of conscription measures by the British government and the  unfriendly feeling existing between that government and the United States, he disposed of his property there at a sacrifice and with others in like condition left Canada, and came to Ohio, landing at Silver run, Gallia county, in 1807.  He was a millwright, and moved to the Higley Mills.  Later he bought a farm near New Lima, where he spent his remaining days.  He was a member of the Regular Baptist Church, and preached occasionally.  Mr. Gaston and his wife had a large family.  He was a man highly esteemed by all who knew him.  He died in 1823 and was buried in the Miles graveyard.
     Mrs. Gaston died some years after, while with some relatives in Indiana.  Their children are:
     Jared Gaston, married Sally Stivers.
     Anson Gaston
married Lucretia Holt.
     William Gaston
married Betsy Brine.
     Jonathan Gaston
's wife was Selusia Morton.
     John Gaston
was married twice; his first wife was Semelia Brine, and for his second wife Lydia Larue, who was born Mar. 6, 1806.
     Her parents were Jacob Larue and Sally Gardner, who were married in the Block House at Marietta four or five years Larue, was a French Huguenot.  Mrs. Lydia Gaston was married a second time, to Thomas Wood, who died in 1876, while Mrs. Wood continued to live in the old Gaston homestead until her death in 1893.
     James Gaston married Mary Woodworth, in Canada.
     Thomas Gaston, second, died when quite a young man.
     Elijah Gaston married Samantha Woodworth and emigrated to the West.  The daughters were: Hannah, Mrs. Joseph Richardson; Polly, Mrs. Joseph Skinner.   All are dead, 1893.  Roena.

     FREDERICK HYSELL was a soldier of the Revolution and came from eastern Virginia to Ohio in 1805, to the lower part of Gallia county, but afterwards moved to Salisbury township, in what is known now as Middleport.  He married Nancy Smith, and they had sons and daughters.  Mr. Hysell died at a good old age, and his wife died in 1823.
     Their children: Edward Hysell lived on a farm in Salisbury township.  Catharine, Mrs. Jason Tomas, settled in lower Rutland township.  Elizabeth, Mrs. George Hoppes, lived in Salisbury, near Bradbury.  Margaret, Mrs. Anthony Hysell, lived on Thomas fork.  Francis Hysell married Nancy Dodson and lived on a farm on Hysell run.  Smith Hysell married Elizabeth Hunter and lived in Salisbury township.  John C. Hysell enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens.  He was township clerk seven years and served as justice of the peace for Salisbury eight years and for Rutland twelve years - twenty years entitled him to be "Squire Hysell always.  He was county commissioner one term, when the court house was built at Pomeroy, and superintended the same.  He belonged to the Christian church in Rutland, and was an active, useful elder for many years.  His wife was Miss Jane Bailey.
     Nancy Hysell
, a daughter of Frederic Hysell, was married to Enoch Murray and lived on Thomas Fork.  She died in 1892 or 1893.
     James B. Hysell, of Middleport, was a son of John C. Hysell, a good citizen, held several responsible offices, was mayor of Middleport, trustee of the Meigs County Children's Home, and held other positions of honor.  He died in 1906.

     JOSHUA JOHNSON (supposed to be from Portugal) came to Ohio in very early times, and bought a valuable tract of land in what is now Scipio township, and included the land where Harrisonville is located.  He was married twice, and of the first marriage he had one son and two daughters.  His second wife was a sister-in-law of Mr. Trickler, a wealthy farmer of Gallia county.  This marriage was favored by two sons and one daughter.  The eldest son, Isaac, went to a place near Cincinnati, Ohio; and the sisters, Kate, Mrs. McHenry, and Milly, Mrs. John Ervin.  The second son, David, married Mrs. Paton, and after a few years moved to Missouri.  James married his brother Isaacs widow and lived where his father did.  The third daughter, Polly Johnson, was a maiden lady, taught school in Ohio and in Missouri.  She was a much respected and enterprising woman, and uring the excitement caused by the discovery of good in California she emigrated with some relatives from Missouri to the gold fields, where it is supposed that she died.

     LEONARD HEDRICK was born in North Carolina May 14th, 1784, and came to Marietta, Ohio, in 1800, and went on the first ship commanded by Captain James Merrill as a cabin boy to the ocean.  When he returned, he married Elizabeth Loucks, of Gallia county, but settled on his own farm in Scipio township.  Mr. Hedrick was a soldier in the War of 1812 and served under Colonel Robert Safford in the Northwest campaign.  Mrs. Hedrick was born Feb. 3rd, 1786.  Their children were:  Margaret, born Feb. 2nd, 1810, married ---- Camp, who died in a few years after the marriage; she died in Rutland, Dec. 14th, 1891, aged eighty6-one years, ten months.  Mary, born Dec. 15th, 1811, married Stillman C. Larkin, Nov. 21st, 1837, and died in the Larkin homestead, May 30th, 1904, aged ninety-two years, five months, fifteen days.  Catharine, born Sept. 25th, 1816, married James Misner, who died many years ago.  Mrs. Misner has lived in Point Pleasant, W. Va.  Sally, born Oct. 17th, 1818, married David Forrest and lived in Scipio township.  William, the only son, June 29th, 1824, lives on a part of his father's farm.  Malinda, daughter of Mrs. Camp, moved to West Virginia, married W. Starkey.  Mr. Lemuel Hedrick died Mar. 29th, 1861, aged seventy-six years and ten months.  Mrs. Hedrick died Mar. 4th, 1870, aged eighty-four years and one month.
     Mr. Hedrick was a good citizen, reliable and industrious.

     AARON HOLT came originally from near Hartford, Conn., but after the Revolutionary War was induced, like many others, to go to Canada for cheap lands, but became dissatisfied and removed with his family to Rutland, Ohio, in 8107.  His son, Horace Holt, was born Oct. 7th, 1798, in Connecticut, near Hartford,  He married Malinda Bellows, daughter of Benjamin Bellows, of Rutland, Ohio, Jan. 1st, 1824.  They had a family of five children:  Columbus B. Holt, Nial N., Electa, Mrs. John Stansbury, died many years ago; John B. Holt and Lovina, Mrs. S. D. Webb.  Horace Holt died in Rutland, Ohio, Mar. 6th, 1885, aged eighty-six years.  Mrs. Holt, nee Malinda Bellows, was born Sept. 4th, 1805, in Belpre, Ohio, and came with her father's family to Rutland in 1822.  She died May 20th, 1893, aged eighty-seven years, six months and twenty-five days.  She was much respected for her benevolence and Christian character.
    William Bellows, a son of Benjamin Bellows, was born June 1st, 1816, and married Amelia Flynn, daughter of Thomas Flynn and wife, who were early settlers of Lebanon township.  They had a large family.  He was killed in a runaway of frightened horses Aug. 18th, 1893, aged seventy-seven years two months.  Mrs. Amelia Bellows was born Sept., 1817, and died Dec. 16th, 1895, aged seventy-eight years three months.  They had lived a married life of fifty-six years, respected by their neighbors and the community.

     The manufacture of weavers reeds was commenced and carried on by HORACE HOLT in Rutland township, Ohio, from 1823 until his death, Mar. 1`st 1885.  The history of this industry, as well as that of the man who prosecuted the business, is worth a page of careful record.  When a young man, Mr. Holt went to the Wabash country, in Indiana, and was taken sick, and while convalescent he found an old weaver's reed, which he unraveled to find how it was constructed.  This led to a knowledge of the canes from which the splits were made.  Returning to Rutland, he began in earnest to make weavers reeds.  He obtained the canes from Mississippi by sending men down the river to cut canes, convey them to the river and to purchase boats to load with these and bring them to Leading creek, a tedious and expensive enterprise.  Mr. Holt, seeing the need of a proper machine for making the splits, made such a one, which worked well, and went to Washington, D. C., and obtained a patent.  He went in a two-horse wagon, laden with reeds to sell on the way as well as to take his model for a patent, to the city of Washington.  In 1831 he began to manufacture reeds on a large scale.  The sale of reeds had been by peddlers in wagons, traveling over the country and taking store goods in return for the reeds.  That began the stores for the firm.  Mr. Holt employed his brother-in-law, John Rightmire, who was a blacksmith, to make his machines, so that he secured complete control of the weavers reeds manufacture.  It is claimed that at one period of time his was the only reed factory in the United States or Canada.  His books show that he had made 300,000 reeds, that brought about $200,000.  Mr. Holt paid good wages and treated his employes fairly, and his business was a great advantage to the community, as it furnished remunerative employment for many young women who otherwise could have earned but little.  Mr. Holt was of commanding figure and had a giant's strength.  He engaged in other kinds of business besides the making of reeds.  In a partnership with Mr. Clem. Church they built the first steam gristmill in Rutland township the first thrashing machine.  Before the Civil War he was an abolitionist, and his place was a station on the "underground railroad."  A member of the Universalist Church, he was exemplary in speech and honorable in business habits, never using intoxicating liquors or tobacco, and in his last years he was a prohibitionist.  He sold the reed manufacturing business to his son,  John B. Holt.
    
Meigs county is the richer for having had such an enterprising citizen.

     PETER LALANCE came from France with his widowed mother and sister about 1788 to Marietta, Ohio, and lived in the stockade at Harmar.  The sister was married to Robert Warth, who was killed by the Indians just out side of the fort, leaving a wife and one child, Robert Warth, Jr.  Peter Lalance was a comrade of the Warth brothers on their voyage down the Ohio river to Gallipolis, or French Town, as the Americans called it.  The Warths, George and John, were carrying United States mail in their canoes, and young Lalance was a companion.  The company had to stop over night each trip, not being able to go all of the distance in one day, and the place for stopping was at Jacob Roush's, near or at Graham's Station, Va.  Mr. Roush owned a farm and slaves.  He had a family and, as the story goes, a handsome daughter, whose beauty captivated the heart of Peter Lalance, but he kept his secret until meeting his mother, when he described mam'selle to her.  "She's very pretty," summed up his account.  "Bring her here," said his mother; "I can teach her."  So, with such permission, he asked Mr. Roush is he might woo his daughter.  "If she is willing," was the father's consent, for up to this time the ardent lover had not ventured to propose to the girl.  Matters were arranged for mam'selle to go to Marietta on the "mail boat," a trusty colored man to accompany the young woman for her protection.  Madame Lalance received her graciously, and afterwards she was married at her father's house to Peter Lalance.  He located a farm below Bowman's run, in Ohio, and reared a large family.  Communicated by Mrs. Cynthia Philson, of Racine, Ohio.

     MRS. MARY LASHER was a daughter of Aaron Holt, and his wife, Elizabeth Holt, and was born in 1803, and came with her parents to Rutland in 1807.  She was married to Charles Chase in 1823, and had a family of nine children, all of whom she reared to be respectable and useful citizens.  Dr. Owen Case of the West, and Dr. Lyman Chase, of Albany, were her sons.  After the death of Mr. Chase, she married Mr. John V. Lasher, of Rutland, with whom she lived in social and religious harmony until his death, which preceded her own about two and one-half months.

     JOHN V. LASHER was born Aug. 9th, 1799, in Dutchess county, New York, and married Catharine Martin, Oct. 24th, 1820.  In 1825 they moved to Sullivan county, New York.  In 1835, in company with his brother-in-law, Frederick Tuckerman, they came to Ohio and settled on a farm in Rutland township.  They had a large family of nine children: William V., Charles, George V., Margaret, Mrs. Green; Mary, Mrs. Tuckerman; Beattie, Mrs. Stansbury; Carrie, Mrs. Brown.  Mrs. Catharine Lasher died in 1864.  Afterwards Mr. Lasher married Mrs. Chase, widow of Charles ChaseMr. Lasher seems to have favored all religious and political reforms.  First a Whig; then one of two or three who voted for Birney, the Liberty Party man, and in his last years for the Prohibition Party.  He died in 1864.

STOW AND THE WOLVES.
Pg. 81

     An incident related by Mrs. Eliza Watkins, nee Stow.  Mr. Erastus Stow, at an early period, when a young man, was employed by Captain James Merrill to stay with his family in Salem while he (Captain Merrill) was taking a vessel from Marietta to the ocean.  Young Stow started with ten bushels of corn to get ground on the Ohio or Muskingum.  After being gone a week, he returned to the mouth of Leading creek.  He then took a bushel of meal and started for home and walked as far as Mr. John Miles, where he stopped and borrowed a horse and proceeded on his way.  Before he reached home it became dark, and wolves began to howl and made an attack on him.  Both he and the horse were frightened.  He threw off the bag of meal, put his feet on the horse's flanks and his arms around the animal's neck and made all speed to his home.  When he arrived, Mrs. Merrill and the family came out, having heard the noise, and with firebrands drove the wolves away.  The next day they found the sack of meal, which had been torn open, but the contents not destroyed.
     Such incidents did not often occur, and the people did not seem to apprehend much danger.  Women and children often went through the woods, hunting servis berries and grapes, or frequently to hunt the cows, that would often stray from home, and were seldom molested.

A BRAVE BOY
Pg. 82

     An account given by Mrs. Sarah Torrence of an incident worthy of note was read at the pioneer meeting in August, 1879, by Mr. A. GardnerMrs. Torrence was a daughter of Mr. John Knight, who came to Meigs county in 1818.  A Mr. John Harris, who lived in Bedford township, got Mr. Knight's son Daniel, a lad of only eleven years, to stay with Mrs. Harris while he made a trip to New Orleans.  There were few families in Bedford township, and it was very lonesome for the young wife in the small cabin in the woods, where the wolves were heard nightly.  So Mrs. Harris concluded to go down to her father's, Mr. John Smith, above the mouth of Leading creek, and a son of Mr. Bissell, who was younger than Daniel, was engaged to stay and care for the stock.  One night early in March, as these boys were getting in a log to build a fire in the morning, young Knight slipped, and the log fell on him, breaking his thigh bone about the middle.  Daniel told the Bissel boy to pull their straw bed down before the fire.  Then he lay flat on his back, with one hand on each side and the fingers of each hand thrust through the cracks of the puncheon floor, directing the other boy to pull at his foot while he held on to the floor, until they actually set the bone in its place.  He had buckskin pants and took some buckskin thongs and tied above and below the break, the pants serving as splints.  Fortunately, Major Higley had gone out that day to look after some stock, and called in to see how the boys were doing and to spend the night with them, and this was the plight in which he found them.  They had corn bread of their own baking and venison.  Mr. Higley examined the boy's leg and found that it was broken, and he then mounted his horse and rode to Mr. Knight's, the father of the boy, at Middleport, who immediately started to his son in the wilderness, going by way of Chester for Dr. Robinson to accompany him.  They knew the path as far as Bissell's, but no farther.  They arrived there to find that Mr. Bissell was away from home, but Mrs. Bissell got out of bed at midnight, had her horse saddled, and piloted these two men through the dense forest to where the suffering boy lay, leaving her own little one asleep at home, and stayed with the boy until Mr. Knight returned and brought his wife and provisions.  Mrs. Knight had to stay twenty-one days before they could take the boy home.  Those were pioneer times.
 

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