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Athens County, Ohio
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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 hćc olim
meminisse juvabit." - Virgil.
Publ. Cincinnati:
Robert Clarke & Co.
1869.
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1869 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
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ALEXANDER CALDWELL
was born in Ireland in 1791, came to the United States in 1804 and
to Carthage township in 1816, where he settled as a farmer and still
lives. He served one term as justice of the peace and several
years as township trustee. His descendants are numerous and
respectable.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 456 |
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DR. EBEN G. CARPENTER
was born at Alstead, New
Hampshire, in 1808. His father was a physician, and, of eight brothers, five
studied medicine. Dr. C. graduated at the Berkshire Medical college at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1831, practiced in New Hampshire a year or so,
came to Ohio in 1833 and settled at Chester, Meigs county (then the county
seat). In 1836 he came to Athens, where he has lived ever since, engaging
very actively in the practice of his profession. Dr. C. has been notably
successful as an operative surgeon.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 302 |
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CAPTAIN
PARKER CARPENTER, a native of Killingly, Connecticut, came to
this township in 1817, and settled on a new farm a little north of
the present village of New England. He served in the war of
1812, before leaving Connecticut. A few years before his death
he removed to Athens township and settled on a fine farm about two
miles from Athens, where he died Nov. 6, 1852, aged seventy-three
years. He was an excellent citizen. Some of this
descendants still live in the county, and are highly respected.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 449 |
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ELIPHALET CASE
came from Rome
township, with his family, in 1808, and brought into cultivation the fine
farm on which Professor Miller now lives. Case married a
daughter of Job Ruter, and was an influential citizen during the
early days of the county.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 507 |
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JOHN M. CHASE.
In the year 1817 John M. Chase, a native of Danville, Maine,
moved to the county, and settled as a farmer in Alexander township, where he
resided till his death in 1860. Of his family two sons and four
daughters are now living in this and the adjoining county of Meigs.
Gardiner F. Chase, his son, born in Danville,
Maine, in 1811, came to Alexander in 1817, and now lives on the farm ion
which his father settled in that year.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 360 |
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SAMUEL CLARK
settled here about 1820.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 524 |
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LEWIS
COLUMBIA, born in France in 1770, came to Ames township in
1815 and settled on the creek above the Owens settlement,
whence, after a few years, he moved on to Walker's branch and
settled on the farm now owned by Mahlon Kasler. He has
erected a rude tannery, the first established in this part of the
country, which served a good purpose to a limited extent in tanning
the skins of wild animals, with which the region then abounded.
He died in 1825.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 433 |
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ASAHEL
COOLEY, SEN. The first white settler within the limits
of what is now Carthage township was Asahel Cooley, Sen.
He came from near Springfield, Massachusetts, to Belpre in 1797,
moved to what is now Athens county in 1799, traversing a dense
wilderness between the Muskingum and the Hockhocking, and settled
within the present limits of Carthage. With the aid of his
grown up sons he had soon cleared a piece of land and prepared a
home which was known long afterward for its good cheer and genuine
hospitality. Esquire Cooley was a man of well-informed
mind, active business habits and gentlemanly manners. He was
for many hears justice of the peace and county commissioner and held
other offices of trust in the very early history of the county.
His oldest son, Simeon Cooley, built the Coolville mills in
1815, and, in connection with them, what was then considered a large
distillery. He laid out near his mills and now neat and
thriving village of Coolville which, with a slight abbreviation,
bears his name. The youngest and only surviving son of
Esquire Cooley, Heman Cooley, is a respectable farmer
living near Coolville in Troy township, and is now seventy-three
years of age.
The near year after Ashael Cooley came, his
brother-in-law, Mr. Abram Frost, and settled in Carthage with
a large family. Many of his descendants have removed to
western sates. One of his sons, Heman Frost,
settled as a farmer in Rome township, where he was highly respected,
and, during his long residence there of about forty years, ranked as
one of her best citizens. He died June 5, 1868, aged
seventy-eight years. His last illness was caused by a severe
fall from a scaffold in his barn.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 453 |
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ROBERT H.
COTTON settled here in 1836. He was a native of Virginia
and a model farmer. He settled on the farm where the village of
Marshfield now stands, and sold that land to the railroad company.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 539 |
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NEIL COURTNEY
was an Englishman by birth, and was,
for a time, in the British navy during the revolutionary war. Near the close
of the war, while the vessel on which he was serving lay off Long Island, he
deserted the service into which he had been impressed, swam half a mile to
shore, and assumed allegiance to the new government. He came to Athens
county in 1806, and settled one mile north of Athens, on what was afterward
known as the "Courtney farm." The following entries appear in the old
records of the county commissioners:
"April 8, 1809. The petitions of William Dorr and Neil
Courtney, praying for
an alteration in the road leading from the Horse mill to the mouth of Sunday
creek, and from Athens to Coe's mill, read the first time. Petition granted. Jehiel
Gregory, Samuel Moore, and Robert Linzee appointed viewers, to meet
at Neil Courtney's on Monday, the 12th instant, at 9 o'clock A. M."
"December 6, 1810. The commissioners agreed, on condition that Neil
Courtney
produce to them satisfactory proof that he has worked, or expended on the
alteration in the road leading from the Horse mill, near Esquire Bingham's,
to the mouth of Sunday creek, the sum of five dollars, that then said road
shall be established. Proof filed in office of commissioners, February—,
1811."
Mr. Courtney died January 22, 1826, in his sixty-eighth year. Numerous
descendants of his are living in this county.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page
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ROSWELL
CULVER and JOEL SPENSER settled, with their families,
in Rome about 1801. They were brothers-in-law of Judge
Hatch, having married sisters. The "widow Comfort
Crippen," another of Judge Hatch's sisters, settled in
1804 on the river, about a mile and a half below the South of
Federal creek. She brought with her six sons and three
daughters. One of the sons was Amos Crippen, long a
leading citizen of the county, and the memory of one of the
daughters, who was married to A. G. Brown, of Athens, is
still fondly cherished by her relatives and friends. Of this
large family, brought into Rome in 1804, only one now survives, viz:
Mrs. Orinda Branch, of Middleport, Meigs county. One of
the sisters, the late Mrs. Olive Currier, relict of Judge
Ebenezer Currier, died at her residence in Athens, Jan. 7, 1868,
aged eighty-two years.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 506 |
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EBENEZER CURRIER, born at Hempstead, Rockingham
county, New Hampshire, Dec. 15, 1772, came to Ohio in 1804, and to the town
of Athens in 1806, where he lived nearly fifty years. He was one of the
pioneer merchants of Athens. In 1811, having to transport a small supply of
goods from Baltimore, he hired Archelaus Stewart to fetch them. The latter
made the trip to and from Baltimore, all the way in a light wagon, and
delivered the goods safely in Athens, after a journey of about two months.
During Mr. Currier's long residence here he filled several town and township
offices, was justice of the peace, county commissioner, and county
treasurer; was four times a member of the state legislature as senator and
representative, and for about twenty-one years was associate judge of the
court of common pleas. For more than forty years he engaged here in
mercantile pursuits, in which he was quite successful, amassing a
considerable fortune. Judge Currier died March 2, 1851. Many of
his descendants live in the county.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 288 |
Ephraim Cutler |
EPHRAIM CUTLER, known in the early history of
Athens county as Judge Cutler, was the oldest son of Dr. Manasseh
Cutler, and was born at Edgartown, Duke's county, Massachusetts, April
12th, 1767. His did not receive a collegiate education, but, being an
industrious reader, he acquired during youth considerable mental culture,
and a large store of useful knowledge. From the age of three years he
lived with his grandparents, at Killingly, Connecticut, both of whom he was
wont to mention in after life with great respect and affection. His
grandfather was a pure and pious man, and an ardent patriot. In a
sketch written long afterward, Judge Cutler says:
"I will remember that the express with the news of the
battle of Lexington, which was the commencement of the revolutionary
struggle, came directly to my grandfather's house in the night after the
battle. He was in bed, and I slept with him. He arose
immediately and fired his gun three times, which was, doubtless, the agreed
signal, as it was universally expected that there would be an attack from
the British. Before sunrise he, with fifteen others, had started for
the battlefield. Before leaving he gave a particular charge to his
housekeeper to provide carefully for the wants of any soldier who might call
during his absence."
In 1787 Mr. Cutler married Miss Leah Atwood,
of Killingly, a lady whose great worth and excellence of character were for
many years well known in Athens county. After his marriage he engaged
for a few years in mercantile pursuits at Killingly. In 1795 he
accepted the agency of the Ohio Company, in which he had been a shareholder
from the beginning, and, on the 15th of June in that year, set out with his
wife and four children for the company's purchase in the northwestern
territory. The journey was made in the usual way of that time - in
wagons across the mountains to the headwaters of the Ohio, and thence down
the river in a small flat boat. While descending the river they lost
two of their children, Hezekiah, the youngest, and Mary, the
eldest, whose remains were buried in the forrest on the banks of the
beautiful river. They arrived at Marietta, September 18, 1795, having
been more than three months on the way, and thirty-one days on the river.
At Marietta Mr. Cutler lay sick for several weeks in the block house.
As soon as he was able they proceeded to the garrison at Waterford, where
they remained till the spring of 1799. The circumstances of his
removal to and settlement in Ames, in 1799, are narrated elsewhere.
Mr. and Mrs. Cutler brought with them to their new home four children -
Nancy and Charles, born in New England, and Mary and
Daniel, born in Waterford. All of these, except Charles,
are still living. Nancy, now Mrs. Carter, lives in
Franklin county, Ohio. Mary, Mrs. Gulliver Dean, lives
in Ames township, near the old Cutler homestead. Daniel
lives in Kansas and is an intelligent and prosperous farmer.
For the next few years Mr. Cutler devoted
himself with great energy to developing the interests of the Ohio Company,
and of the Amesville settlement in particular, taking a leading part in all
the social, political and educational movements of the day. During the
first year of his residence in the territory he had been commissioned by
Governor St. Clair captain of the militia, justice of the peace, judge
of the court of quarter sessions and of the court of common pleas. He
was appointed by the territorial legislature, at its first session, one of
the seven commissioners to lease the school and ministerial lands in each
township of the Ohio Company's purchase. In September, 1801, while
living in Ames, Judge Cutler was elected to represent Washington
county in the territorial legislature. At this legislature, which sat
at Chillicothe, the question of the formation of a state government came up,
and Judge Cutler and his colleague, William R. Putnam, were
the only two who voted against the measure. In doing this they
represented the wishes of their constitution. In this convention, and
in the framing of the first constitution of Ohio, he exercised a large
influence. Article III, establishing the judicial system of the state,
was almost wholly shaped and drafted by him. But the greatest service
rendered by Judge Cutler in this convention was his determined
opposition to the introduction of slavery into the state of Ohio; for,
strange as it may seem, a strong effort was made to fasten this system on
the state, notwithstanding the positive language and the solemn compact of
the ordinance of 1787. There were delegates in the convention who,
representing the sentiments of settlers from slaveholding states, claimed
that the ordinance was in the nature of a contract, and was not binding till
its terms had been accepted by the new state; and, consequently, that if she
chose to reject any portion of the proposed terms, it was competent for her
to do so, while adopting her fundamental law and becoming a state. We
have not space to describe the contest in detail. A determined effort
was made by the party referred to to plant slavery on the soil of Ohio, and
the great name and influence of Thomas Jefferson were used to further
the attempt.1. Judge Cutler stood
in the breach, and with all his power and great persistency battled against
this movement. His friends rallied around him; he was finally
successful, and to Ephraim Cutler more than to any other man
posterity is indebted for shutting and barring the doors against the
introduction into Ohio of the monstrous system of African slavery.
Mr. Cutler also took a leading part in framing
and securing the passage of secs. 3, 25, and 26 of article VIII of the
constitution, relating to religion and education.
In December, 1806, Judge Cutler removed from
Athens to Washington county, settling on the Ohio river about six miles
below Marietta. Here his first wife died in 1807. In 1808 he
married Sarah Parker, a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Four of the children by this marriage are still living, the only son,
William P. Cutler, being esteemed among the first men in the state.2.
In 1818 Judge Cutler again appeared in public
life as a member of the Ohio legislature from Washington county. We
regret that we can not exhibit in detail his noble services at this period
of his life; we can only state the results. He succeeded in changing
the land tax system from a direct tax to an ad valorem basis.
Prior to 1824 the whole burden of state taxes was laid on the lands as a
direct tax, levied by the acre and without reference to value.
Consequently thinly populated counties like Athens and Washington actually
paid more into the treasury than wealthy and populous counties like Hamilton
and Butler. The system was grossly unequal and oppressive.
Judge Cutler's clear vision enabled him to perceive this, and he labored
long and successfully to change it, so that taxes should be assessed on the
whole property of the people according to value.
His other great achievement at this time was the
establishment of an excellent common school system. The first public
allusion to education in Ohio is found in an oration by Solomon Drown,
delivered at Marietta, April 7th, 1789. The first memorial on behalf
of the general interest of public schools read in the Ohio legislature was
offered in 1816, by the Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, of Marietta, but
prior to 1820 there was no organized sentiment in the state on the subject
of common schools, and no general legislation. In 1821 the legislature
passed an act for the regulation and support of common schools, but it did
not provide any adequate revenue for their maintenance, and was by no means
an efficient system. The common school question was an issue in the
elections of 1824. Several ardent advocates of a thorough system were
elected, among them Judge Cutler, as senator from Washington county.
We do not aver that he alone deserves the credit for the success of the
measure in the legislature of 1824-5, but he was the acknowledged leader of
the friends oaf common schools, and his experience in public affairs and as
a legislator rendered his services of the greatest value. On the 5th
of February, 1825, an excellent school bill, providing a thorough system and
liberal support therefor by taxation, was passed by the legislature.
When the vote in the senate was taken, Judge Cutler and Mr. Nathan
Guilford (senator from Cincinnati, who was an ardent and able friend of
the cause, and who drafted the bill) were standing side by side. When
the result was announced a majority for the bill of twenty-two votes,
Judge Cutler turned to Mr. Guilford, and, with great solemnity
and earnestness, said: "Now Lord, lettest thou they servant depart in
peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
The latter years of Judge Cutler's life were
spent quietly at his place in Washington county, amid the enjoyments of home
and the affectionate attention of relatives and friends. He died July
8th, 1853.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ.
Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 387 |
NOTES:
1. It was then a theory of Jefferson's that the
extension of slavery diluted and weakened it. He desired, or at least
professed to desire, its extinction.
2. He was born near Marietta, July 12, 1813; was
a member of the Ohio legislature from 1844 to 1846, officiating as speaker
of the house during his last term; was a member of the constitutional
convention of 1850; afterwards was for some years president of the Marietta
& Cincinnati Railroad Company; was elected in 1860 a representative to the
37th congress, and has been for a few years past again officially connected
with the above mentioned railroad.
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