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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 hæc olim
meminisse juvabit." - Virgil.
Publ. Cincinnati:
Robert Clarke & Co.
1869.
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WILLIAM
JACKSON settled in what is now Canaan township in 1799.
A native of Ireland, he came to this country with his father's
family when nine years old, and lived for twelve or fifteen years in
Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, whence, after his marriage, he
removed to the northwestern territory, and settled near the site of
the present village of New England in Canaan township. He was
a man of fine natural ability, good education, and considerable
culture. In 1800 he surveyed the first road through the woods
from Marietta to Chillicothe. In January, 1803, he was elected
representative from this (then Washington) county to the state
legislature, in opposition to Ephraim Cutler, and was an
influential member of that body. In the fall of 1803 he was
re-elected, and in the session of 1803-4, by a well-timed speech,
defeated a bill offered by Philemon Beecher, requiring a
property qualification for office holders. In 1804 he declined
a renomination, in consequence of having received an appointment
from the government to survey a large district of country on the
Wabash river. In the discharge of this duty he went to
Vincennes, Indiana, and died there soon after his arrival.
Mr. John Jackson, of New England village, who died in the winter
of 1867, was a son of his.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 444 |
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WILLIAM
JEFFERS, born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1786,
settled in Carthage township as a farmer in 1807. He has lived
in the township continuously for over sixty year, and is a highly
respected citizen. His oldest son, A. P. Jeffers was
born in 1810 in Carthage, where he still lives. He was for
several years one of the township trustees. Two of the sons of
A. P. Jeffers served in the 53d regiment O. V. I.
R. W. Jeffers, another son of William,
was born in Carthage township in 1814, and is still living there a
respectable farmer.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 456 |
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DR.
LEONARD JEWETT, one of the pioneer physicians of the county,
was born Sept. 6, 1770, in Littleton county, Massachusetts. He
studied medicine and surgery at the Boston Medical college, and
received a diploma from that institution in 1792. In 1796 he
married Miss Mary Porter, of Rutledge, Massachusetts.
After this he served four years as assistant surgeon in the New York
hospital. In 1802 he removed from New York to Washington
county, Ohio, and in 1804 or '5 to the town of Athens, and occupied
a house built by Captain Silas Bingham, on the lot now owned
and occupied by Mr. George W. Norris. In 1806 he was
elected to the state senate, which position he held till 1811.
When hostilities began in 1812, he was commissioned as surgeon in
the army of the northwest, under Harrison, and was assigned
to duty on the staff of General Tupper. At the close of
the war he returned to Athens and resumed the practice of medicine
with success. In 1816, while performing a surgical operation,
he received poisonous matter into a small wound on his hand, the
absorption of which produced violent inflammation and sudden death;
he died May 13, 1816. Dr. Jewett was a gentleman of
fine intelligence and professional ability, and there are those
living who still cherish his memory as one of the leaders among the
early citizens of the county.
Four of his sons survive; three of them, Joseph,
Leonard, and Leonidas Jewett, live in the vicinity of
Athens, and one resides in Oregon. Leonidas was county
auditor from 1839 to 1843, and was for many years a successful
lawyer of Athens.
Leonidas Jewett, jr., son of the last named, a
lawyer of promise, is settled at Athens, where he was born.
During the late war of the rebellion, he served three years with
credit as adjutant of the Sixty-first Ohio regiment.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 272 |
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LEONARD
JEWETT in 1804 or 1805 settled at the mouth of Federal creek
on a fine tract of land which lay chiefly on the south side of the
Hockhocking. He sold out very soon to Mr. John Johnson
and removed to Athens. Mr. Johnson married Miss
Sarah Wyatt, a daughter of Deacon Joshua Wyatt, of Ames,
and a woman of rare excellence. By their industry and good
management they in a few years opened up one of the best farms in
the county. Mr. Johnson was a "close dealer," and so
tenacious of his rights as to be thought by some a hard man; but he
was a benevolent at heart, and would rather give away a dollar than
be cheated of a cent. Many a destitute emigrant or needy
family has had timely relief at his hands. He was a father of
Dr. Wm. P. Johnson the present representative of the county
in the state legislature, and whose character as a man, as a
physician and a public officer is too well known in his native
county to require comment. Mrs. John Johnson, who was
born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1786, and came to Athens county
with her father's family when she was fourteen years old, died Dec.
26, 1859.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 509 |
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JOHN JOHNSON,
settled in Athens with his family as early as 1805. One of his
daughters was married in 1807 to
Robert Linzee, and
another, about the same time, to Jacob Dombaugh, who was an
active man, and at an early day kept public house where the Brown
House is now situated. A son of John Johnson's, Samuel,
married a daughter of Abel Glazier, of Ames. In 1815,
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Glazier carried the mail, as
sub-contractors, between Marietta and Chillicothe, when there were but
two post offices on the route, viz., at Athens and Adelphi, Ross
county.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 266 |
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JOHN B.
JOHNSON, son of Azel Johnson, one of the early settlers
of Dover township, settled in Trimble as a farmer in 1820. He
was the father of Mr. J. M. Johnson, recently sheriff of the
county.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 525 |
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TIMOTHY
JONES, a native of Rhode Island, was born of wealthy parents,
graduated at Brown university, became a lawyer and also a graduate
in medicine, and held a high social position in Providence, Rhode
Island, where he lived. In 1805, when near fifty years old,
his wife having died, he relinquished the comforts of settled life
and removed to Ohio. He arrived in Rome township in that year
and buried himself in the forests of Federal creek. He was a
man of considerable scientific research. During the
revolutionary war he obtained the first premium, offered by the
legislature of Massachusetts, for the manufacture of saltpeter.
His descendants possess the certificate of his admission to the bar
in Providence, in 1786. Dressed in the garb of the pioneer
working on his farm on Federal creek, he presented to those who knew
his history and character an interesting study. Some time
after coming here he married a second wife - the widow Polly
Hewitt, a daughter of Ebenezer Barrows. The Rev.
T. F. Jones is a son of theirs. An aged citizen of Rome,
who knew Dr. Jones, says, "in the forest he was a hunter - in
the log cabin parlor a perfect Chesterfield.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 508 |
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