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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

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Welcome to
Athens County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

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.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

< BACK TO 1869 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
 
  DYAR SELBY, born in New York in 1784, came to Ohio at an early day, and about 1833 settled in Bern township - has been township trustee and justice of the peace.  His descendants live in Bern.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 440
 

CHARLES SHIPMAN, for more than twenty years an active and leading citizen of Athens, was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, August 28, 1787. He came to Marietta, with his father's family, in 1790, and they remained in the "stockade" during the Indian war. Colonel Shipman came to the town of Athens in 1813, and engaged in merchandising, in which line his business talent and popular manners soon gave him decided prominence, and ultimately large success. In early times he visited Philadelphia for the purchase of goods, once every year, and sometimes twice a year, always on horseback. Some of the old citizens of Athens still remember the fine sorrel horse, long owned by Colonel Shipman, on which he thus made nineteen trips from Athens to Philadelphia and back.
     Colonel Shipman was a man of fine social qualities, genial manners, and benevolent heart. He was the first, or one of the first, merchants in this part of the state to discard the sale of intoxicating drinks, to stop the practice of " treating" customers, and to engage actively in the temperance cause. He was, during the most of his life, a professor of religion, and for many years a ruling elder of the Presbyterian church of Athens.
     Colonel Shipman
(he was elected colonel of a militia regiment during his residence at Athens) married Frances White Dana, of Belpre, in 1811. She died in 1813. The only issue of this marriage was a son, William C. Shipman, for many years past a citizen of New Albany, Indiana. In 1815 he married Joanna, the eldest daughter of Esquire Henry Bartlett, who is still living in Marietta. Colonel Shipman left Athens in 1836 to reside at Marietta, where he died July 7, 1860.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 294

  WILLIAM SICKLES, born in Pennsylvania, May 1st, 1802, came to Athens county in 1805, with his father's family, and settled on the Thomas Grim farm in Waterloo.  After two years they removed to Alexander and settled on the Peter Long farm, where they lived about twenty-three years, and afterwards several years again in Waterloo.  When a young man Mr. Sickles has killed as many as five deer in one day.  In one autumn he killed in the aggregate forty-nine deer.  Joseph Bobo, of Lodi, and Abram Gabriel each killed in that season the same number - forty-nine.  He remembers when there was but one house on the road between Alexander and the present town of Jackson, then called Scioto Salt Works.  He has ground a great many bushels of corn in a hand mill made of two stones; the upper one revolved on the lower by means of a short handle let into the edge.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 60
  JOSEPH SIMMONS was born in Pennsylvania in 1772, and settled in Canaan township in 1797.  He says:

     "The forests were full of game, and we could kill all the wild meat we wanted, but salt was the great need.  However, we had to have it, and used to pack it on horses from the salt licks (over forty miles), at the rate of $4.00 a bushel, bitter water included.  We raised corn, and we had a little hand mill to grind our hominy and meal for mush.  There was a little tub mill on Margaret's creek and one on Duck creek (Washington county), but none on Hockhocking.  The number of males within the present limits of the township was six or seven, during the year after I came here."
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 445

  CAPT. PHILIP M. STARR, a native of Middletown, Connecticut, came to the town of Athens in 1801, where for several years he followed the mercantile business.  Later he located on a rich and valuable farm on the river three miles below Athens where he died in 1857.  Capt. Starr was a very active business man, and of more than average mental culture.  He had considerable means when he came to the county, and though never in public life he was a man of influence among the early settlers.  He devoted the latter part of his life to horticulture and fruit growing, in which he was notably successful.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 266
  ABEL STEDMAN, son of Judge Alexander Stedman, was born at Newbridge, Vermont, February 26, 1785, and came to the town of Athens in 1802. In 1811 he married Miss Sally Foster. In 1812 he enlisted in the United States service, and on the march from Sandusky to Chillicothe he marched next in the ranks to Thomas Corwin. Returning to Athens he engaged in his trade of house carpenter, and passed the rest of his days here. He was a man of active temperament and untiring industry, a professing Christian and full of good works. He died December 20, 1859.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 84
  LEWIS STEENROD was born in a block house at Wheeling, Virginia, in June, 1791, came to Ohio in 1805, and resided in Muskingum county about eight miles east of Zanesville for over forty years.  In 1850 he removed with his family to Nelsonville where he died Dec. 10, 1860.  "Father" Steenrod, as he was called, was a man of benevolent heart and gentle life.  He was a member of the Baptist church, having united with that organization in 1812.  Some of his descendants remain in the county. 
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 547
  DANIEL STEWART was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Nov. 18, 1762.  When fifteen years old he enlisted as a soldier in the revolutionary army, and served till the close of the war.  He then removed to Sussex county, New Jersey, where he engaged successfully in business for several yeas and accumulated some means.  In 1801 he exchanged his property in New Jersey for two shares in the Ohio Company's purchase and closed out his business with a view to moving west.  Colonel William Stewart, a son who accompanied his father to Ohio, says:
     "In October, 1802, father returned to the old farm to rig out a team for emigration to the northwestern territory.  The preparations having been completed, a day and hour were set for starting.  At the appointed time, 8 o'clock a.m., about a hundred friends and neighbors from all quarters came flocking in to bid us farewell, and I shall never forget the scene that followed.  They all thought we were going so far beyond the world's boundary that we should never be heard of again.  The hubbub lasted till 5 o'clock in the afternoon before father could say good by with a strong voice, and then we started.  Went three miles and camped for the night.  The next morning we moved on.  The teams were heavily loaded and the roads tolerable till we approached the Alleghany mountains when they became terribly rough and dangerous.  Crossing the mountains the family were afraid to ride in the wagons and, therefore, walked this part of the way.  At the very steep descents father would cut saplings, fasten them top foremost to the tail of the wagon and then go down, depending on the saplings as a break.  The journey was a long, wearisome and dangerous one, but we finally reached the Hockhocking in safety."
     This was in the winter.  Mr. Stewart settled on a fine tract of land on the river about a mile above the mouth of Federal creek. Possessing considerable means, great energy, and uncommon business talent,  he soon had the best farm in the county.  As early as 1810 he had an orchard of three thousand bearing fruit trees - two thousand peach, and one thousand apple trees at that time probably the largest orchard in the state.  As his means increased so did his benevolence and public spirit.  In business he left no points unguarded, and no man could defraud or overreach him with impunity; but if he husbanded closely he gave liberally, and was always accessible to the claims of the really needy, and of educational and religious movements.  He was one of the first two justices of the peace in the township (Elijah Hatch being the other), and acted as such, altogether, more than twenty years.  He was county commissioner for many years, and was appointed by the legislature one of the early appraisers of the college lands, Captain Joshua Wyatt and John Brown being the other two.  Few men have left more decided marks on the history of the county, in its social and business affairs, than Mr. Stewart.  An active member of the Methodist church for sixty years of his life he always contributed liberally to the support of its ministers and teh erection of churches.  He died Feb. 20, 1858.
     Mr. Stewart had fourteen children, viz:  Andrew, William, Charles, John, Ezra, George, Louis, Sarah, Mary Lucinda, Harriet, Alexander, Daniel B., and Hiram.  One of these, the Rev. John Stewart, has been a traveling preacher in the Methodist church for fifty years.  Another, Ezra Stewart, married Harriet, daughter of Esquire Henry Bartlett, in 1826, and spent his life in the mercantile business in Athens.  He was a man of wonderful energy and endurance, and his unusual capacity for business is well remembered.  He died in Athens, Nov. 28, 1858.  William Stewart came to this county with his father's family in 1802, and lived here nearly forty years.  When seventeen years old he was elected a lieutenant in the militia, and was captain of a company raised here in 1812, which expected to be but was not called into the service.  Some years later he was appointed a colonel.  The contract for erecting the Ohio university buildings was awarded to him in 1817, and several years later the contract for building the county jail. In 1840 he removed to Lee county, Iowa.  In 1847 he was elected superintendent of the common schools in that state, and during that and the next year organized one hundred and five school districts.  He has held other public offices in Iowa.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 510
  DANIEL B. STEWART, son of Daniel, was born on the old Stewart farm in Rome township, Sept. 26, 1812.  The first school he remembers and which he attended was kept by Jabez Bowman, on the hill about a quarter of a mile below the old homestead.  This school was supported by contributions of its patrons.  As he grew up Mr. Stewart developed a great fondness for machinery, and was never happier than when managing or handling it.  He finally obtained his father's consent that he should go into the mill at Savannah as manager.  Here he succeeded admirably, and without any instruction.  After he had run this mill about two years he bought it of his father, run it two years more and then sold it to James E. and William T. Hatch.  The next two years he lived in Meigs county, engaging in the mercantile business at Rutland with his brother Alexander.  Returning to this county he started a store at Coolville, and also bought the saw mill on the river two miles below Savannah.  This was in 1836.  In 1837 the mill was burned.  Mr. Stewart rebuilt it in 1838, putting in at that time the first patent Parker wheel used on the Hockhocking.  In 1842 he added a grist mill, and in 1844 a woolen factory to the property.  In 1864 he sold these mills, and in 1867 removed to the town of Athens, where he owns the old Miles or Gregory mill, and has added to it a woolen factory.   Though not among the largest this factory is one of the best arranged and most complete in the country, and may challenge comparison with any of its size to be found east and west.  It is capable of carding and spinning three hundred pounds of wool daily, and when the looms are all in, can make six hundred yards of cloth a day.
     Mr. Stewart has been one of the most energetic and useful business men in the county.  At one time he was the owner of four mills on the Hockhocking, and part of the time also cultivated five farms hundred bushels of wheat in one year.  He served as justice of the peace, twenty-one years, and in 1860 was chosen presidential elector for this district.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 513
  THORNTON SWART, born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1793, settled in this township in 1838 on Possum run, adjoining Owen Gifford's place.  Mr. S. served in the war of 1812.   He now resides with his son.
Source:  History of Athens County, Ohio - By Charles M. Walker, Publ. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1869 - Page 440

 

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