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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.
PREFACE
Pg. iii - iv
THIS unpretending book is a record of
but narrow interest and of purely local events. Its
preparation was undertaken at the instance and request of
some of the old citizens of Athens county - a county which,
one of the earliest organized in Ohio, contains, perhaps, a
greater number of surviving pioneers than any other in the
state except Washington. The desire, on the part of
these pioneers, to see preserved in a somewhat connected
form the annals of the first settlement of the county and of
their own labors and struggles in founding society here, is
not an unnatural one. "Near is thy forgetfulness of
all things," said Marcus Aurelius, in one of
his aphorisms," and near the forgetfulness of thee by all."
With something of this feeling, it is, perhaps, that the old
always dwell with such keen pleasure on the events and
associations of their early life. Conscious of
approaching change and of waning strength, they love to
linger on the honorable achievements and labors of that
period when the eye was bright, the brain active, and the
step elastic. There is, also, a feeling among men that
the record of a well-spent and useful life, even if humble,
deserves to be remembered. They derive a pardonable
pleasure from the thought that posterity will not wholly
ignore nor forget them.
It is in recognition of this feeling that these pages
have been written. To preserve some account of the
lives and labors of the early settlers, who bore so
honorable a part in converting a wilderness into a great
commonwealth, and to rescue from total oblivion some matters
that seem worthy of being narrated, is the modest object of
this sketch concerning the history of Athens county.
In endeavoring to accomplish faithfully what was
undertaken, it has been found that the work, notwithstanding
its narrow scope, involved considerable labor and
difficulties. Much of the information touching the
first settlement of the county has passed out of reach and
is lost forever. Nearly three-quarters of a century
have elapsed since the first band of pioneers came into
Athens and Ames townships, and that generation has
disappeared. If this work had been undertaken by some
one fifteen or twenty years since, a vastly greater amount
of oral and traditional history could have been gained from
the then surviving pioneers. But they have passed
away, and it is from their sons and successors that many of
the facts herein have been obtained. It is evident
that much of the material so acquired would be more or less
vague, confused, and difficult to arrange. The writer
has, however, labored diligently to over come these
obstacles, and hopes that he has been mainly successful.
He is well aware that there will be found errors both of
omission and of commission in the book, but it is
impossible, in a work of this sort, to eliminate all such.
The writer is very conscious, too, of the literary
deficiencies of the book. It has been prepared
hurriedly, amid the constant pressure of other duties, and
the marks of haste are apparent; could he have had more
time, he would have improved and greatly condensed it.
Such as it is, however, if it shall afford any gratification
to the good people of the county, where he was born and
passed the early portion of his life, the writer will feel
pleased and well rewarded. Doubtless it will be
discovered that some prominent early settlers, or leading
men among recent citizens, have not been mentioned at all,
while comparatively too great prominence will be thought to
have been given to others; but the best has been done that
could be, under the circum stances, and it is hoped such
inequalities and defects will be overlooked.
In seeking requisite facts and information, the writer
has met with valuable assistance from so many quarters, that
it is entirely impossible to name here the numerous persons
to whom he is thus indebted, however agreeable it would be
to his own feelings to do so. He is forced, therefore,
to adopt the unsatisfactory mode of thus thanking them, one
and all, indiscriminately, for their marked and constant
courtesy.
C. M. W.
May, 1869
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