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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
RARDIN, born near Pittsburg, April 29, 1797, came here in 1822
and settled on the state road between Marietta and Athens. For
many years the wolves were a great scourge, and the secluded valley of
the Marietta run, at the head of which he lived, was about their last
retreat. Mr. Rardin has been a farmer all his life and
his descendants are well known in the township.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 440 |
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DAVID
RATHBURN, born in Rhode Island in 1766, removed to the state
of New York, where he lived several years, and thence, in 1809, to
Ames township in Athens county. Here he rented the Cutler
farm for one year, and then moved up into the "hill settlement,"
some five miles further north, where he tended the horse mill owned
by Christopher Herrold, for about four years. This was
the first mill erected in this part of the country, and was
patronized by the settlers for many miles around. In 1814 he
bought a farm on the little creek where Judge Walker lived,
and resided there till his death, Mar. 8, 1850. After coming
on this farm, Mr. Rathburn got up an excellent hand mill that
proved a great convenience to the neighborhood at times. He
had great skill in trapping wild animals, and his neighbors, for
miles around, would come to him for instruction in preparing bait
and setting traps for wolves. He left two sons and four
daughters; the sons and one daughter, wife of Judge R. A. Fulton,
are still living in the same neighborhood in Ames township.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 428 |
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CAPT.
SABINUS RICE, son of Jason and Sarah Hibbard Rice, was
born in Pultney, Vermont, Dec. 18, 1795, and came with his father's
family to Ohio in the year 1800. The journey from New England
was made in the usual way at that time - by wagon to Pittsburg, and
thence down the Ohio river by flat boat. His parents lived for
about three years at the White Oak settlement, on the Muskingum
river, a few miles north of Marietta, whence in 1803, they removed
to Ames township, where they bought and settled on an eighty acre
farm. By hard work and good management they acquired a
comfortable competency, and the later years of the old people were
passed in ease. The Rice family will long be remembered in the
community where they lived, for their hospitality, refinement and
intelligence.
Jason Rice died in 1843, in his eighty-eighth
year. His wife died in 1824, aged sixty-two years. Their
children were Reuben, Ambrose, Jonas, Sabinus, Sally, Jason
and Melona, of whom the two last only are living.
Jason is a farmer in Ames township and highly respected, and the
sister, now Mrs. William Corner, lives in Malta, Ohio,
Jonas Rice died on the Mississippi river, near Natchez, in 1829,
of yellow fever. A grandson of his, Thomas H. Sheldon,
is now cashier of the National Bank at Athens. Ambrose,
who possessed great mathematical talent, removed to the northern
part of Ohio, where he became very wealthy, and died many years
since. Sabinus Rice, a man of excellent judgment and
most amiable character, was one of the leading citizens of Ames.
He died July 23, 1852. His only son, Sabinus Jason Rice,
died in Ames township, in April, 1857, leaving a wife and two
children. Of the daughters of Capt. Rice, Mrs. Esther
Richardson lives in Spring Hill, Ohio; Mrs. Rebecca R.
Hibbard in Wauseon, Fulton county, Ohio, and Mrs. Eunice M.
Mower in Springfield, Ohio.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 413 |
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SAMUEL
ROBBINS was one of the early settlers of York. He was
born in Massachusetts in 1771, came to Athens county in 1819, and to
Nelsonville in 1822, where he lived the rest of his life. He
built and carried on the first tannery in this part of the county.
He died Sep. 21, 1832. His descendants are mostly living in
York.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 547 |
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SOLOMON
ROBERTS, a native of New York, came to Athens county in 1819
and settled in Nelsonville in March, 1821. He found here less
than half a dozen cabins and one frame house. Coal was not
known to exist about Nelsonville for several years after this date.
Mr. Roberts being a blacksmith got his coal from
Minker's run and Monday creek, for some time after he cam here.
Prior to the opening of the canal, samples of the Nelsonville coal
were sent in wagons to Lancaster, Circleville, and other towns for
blacksmithing, and its quality fully tested and approved.
Mr. Roberts and his son, Mr. W. P. Roberts, are
well known in Nelsonville.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page
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NORMAN ROOT, born in Canaan, Litchfield county,
Connecticut, January 22, 1798, removed to Ohio in 1816, and to the town of
Athens about the year 1820. In 1824 he married Jane Brice, sister of
Thomas Brice, long known as a leading citizen of Athens. In 1827 Mr. Root
was elected county auditor, and served till 1839, being re-elected five
times. He was also, for many years, recorder of Athens, and held other
positions of trust in the community, in all of which he discharged his
duty with scrupulous fidelity. He was a man of great modesty and
reticence, but of sound judgment and excellent business capacity. He was,
for a long time, prominent as a Free Mason, and, for forty years, was a
devoted and consistent member of the Methodist church. He died September
21, 1867.
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ELMER ROWELL,
one of the few surviving pioneers of this period, was born in the country of
Middlesex, Massachusetts, in the year 1793, of excellent parentage, the
family on both sides of the house being noted for their sterling honesty,
intelligence, and patriotism. In 1811 his father, Elijah Rowell,
migrated with his little family to the then "far west," and settled in Rome
township, where Mr. Rowell has passed nearly the whole of his
peaceful and useful life, and where he continues to reside, respected and
beloved by all who known him. In the year 1812 young Rowell,
then only nineteen years old, began to teach school, and continued teaching
during the winter season for many years. He had eminent fitness for
educating the young, and his unwearying fidelity and philosophic methods of
instruction gained for him a deserved popularity. In 1815 he married
Esther Culver, daughter of Roswell Culver, who is still
living. To them were born six children, of which only three survive,
viz: Ohiolus, born in Rome township, Mrs. Theresa P. Dorr,
wife of Edmund Dorr, and William Wirt Rowell. Esquire
Rowell has been a farmer during the most of his life. He has
always taken a lively interest in the welfare of the community where he
dwells, and has filled, at different times, all the township offices and the
office of county commissioner.
Source: History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M.
Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 506 |
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