LANCASTER IN 1805

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     Josiah Espy, long a cashier of Columbus, Ohio, made a tour of Ohio in 1805 and visited Lancaster. He says: ‘‘October 23, I arrived at Pitcher’s in New Lancaster, although sickly it is growing very rapidly, and property now sells for more than its real value.  The number of emigrants is greater than can be accommodated with buildings to reside in.  It already contains about ninety dwelling houses, some of them very commodious.  Another cause of the high price of property here, and of its rapid growth, is the expectation of its being the future seat of the State government.”

LANCASTER IN 1815

     Dr. John Cotton, of Marietta, before he settled down to his life work, made a trip of exploration to Ohio, and among other places visited Lancaster.  He says that he found it a flourishing town, of eight hundred or one thousand inhabitants (largely German), surrounded by beautiful and well cultivated farms.

CHARLES ROBERT SHERMAN

     Charles Robert Sherman, father of John and William T. Sherman, was born in Norwalk, Conn., 17th September, 1788.  He was the eldest son of Judge Taylor Sherman and Elizabeth Stoddard.  Taylor Sherman, son of Judge Daniel Sherman, was born in 1758, and was married in 1787 to Elizabeth Stoddard.

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They moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, where he spent his life, dying May 15, 1815.  Elizabeth Stoddard was born at Woodbury, Connecticut, June 17, 1767.  After the death of her husband she came to Ohio with her children, living first with Charles R. Sherman in Lancaster.  Here her daughter Elizabeth married the future Judge Parker, who studied law with Charles R. Sherman, and she went with them to live in Mansfield, Ohio.  She was a granddaughter of Rev. Anthony Stoddard, of Connecticut.  She died in Mansfield, Ohio, August 1, 1848.  Charles R. Sherman received a good education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1810.  May 8, 1810, he was married to Mary Hoyt, of Norwalk, Connecticut, a playmate from childhood.  She was the daughter of Isaac Hoyt, a prominent citizen of Norwalk, a man in comfortable circumstances.  She was educated at the Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Female Seminary.  In 1810, some months after he was married, he went to Ohio to look up a location.  He visited Lancaster and decided to make his home there, and in December of that year or in the winter of 1811 he returned to Connecticut, where he remained until the summer of 1811, when he in company with his wife, and young child Charles T. Sherman, returned to Lancaster.
     The trip was made on horseback, most of the way through a wilderness, and the babe was carried the entire distance, resting on a pillow.  The trip showed the pluck and spirit of this New England couple.  Charles R. Sherman immediately became one of the leading spirits of his new home, and we find him within one year the Major of the First Regiment of Ohio Militia.  He was the brilliant young orator who addressed the militia, called together by the Governor

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for the purpose of obtaining volunteers for the war against Great Britian.  This event took place April the 16th, 1812.  His speech was reported by Sanderson’s Independent Press and may be found in John Sherman’s Autobiography.  The result of this meeting was the raising of a company by George Sanderson, which was soon to be surrendered by General Hull at Detroit.  November 9, 1813, he was appointed by President Madison Collector of Internal Revenue for the third district of Ohio, which position he held four years.  In July, 1817, without previous notice, the government refused to take any money from collectors, except paper of the Bank of the United States.  This order found large sums in the hands of his deputies in currency that soon became worthless.  To add to this calamity some of his deputies failed, and failure on his part could not be averted. Sherman went down, and his bondsmen.  Judge Samuel Carpenter and Judge Daniel Van Metre, went with him.  It is well known that Mr. Sherman subsequently made good their losses, and squared his accounts with the government.  In 1823, he was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio, by the Legislature.  His associates were Judges Pease.  Hitchcock and Burnett, men of great ability and wide experience.  It is sufficient evidence of his ability as a lawyer to know that the Ohio Legislature thought him worthy to be the associate of such eminent jurists.  He died at Lebanon, Ohio, June 24th, 1829, in his forty-first year, in the prime of life and in the midst of usefulness.  It is safe to say that at the time of his death he was the ablest lawyer and most popular citizen of Lancaster, second to no man.

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with a brilliant mind and sound judgment, and both as judge and man of stainless integrity.  He had the esteem and confidence of his associates Upon the bench,, and made friends in every courtroom and was the idol of the young lawyers of Ohio.  For many years he was a very prominent and enthusiastic member of the Masonic fraternity and master of the lodge in Lancaster.  Judge Sherman was a hospitable man and his home was the center of a refined society.  He entertained many distinguished guests.  Governor De Witt Clinton and the Duke of Saxe Weimar were entertained by him in the year 1825.  He was a trustee of the Ohio University at Athens, and a member of the committee that examined Thomas Ewing in grammar, rhetoric, languages, geography, natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy and mathematics.  The committee expressed much gratification at his proficiency, and May the 3d, 1815, recommended him for the degree of bachelor of arts and sciences.  The death of Judge Sherman left his widow with the care and training of eleven children, none of whom had reached their majority, and with limited means for their support.  The friends of Judge Sherman came to her relief and assisted in caring for the children.  In the year 1844 she removed to Mansfield, Ohio, where John Sherman and the two youngest daughters made up the family.  The young people soon married, but she continued to keep house up to the time of her death, September 23, 1852.  Her remains were brought to Lancaster and interred beside those of her husband in Elmwood Cemetery.  The history of the eleven orphan children of Judge Sherman is a very remarkable one.  The daughters were all happily married to men who made their mark in the communities in which

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they lived.  The sons were all successful men in business or in professions.  Elizabeth married William J. Reese; Amelia, Robert McComb, of Mansfield; Julia, John G. Willock, of Lancaster; Susan, Thomas W. Bartley, of Mansfield, who became Governor of Ohio and Judge of the Supreme Court; and Fanny married C. W. Moulton, of Cincinnati.  There are those still living in Lancaster who witnessed the sorrow and distress of the mother and her small children on that awful day when news came that Judge Sherman was dying in a distant town.  But kind friends, and time with its healing power, soothed their sorrows and dried their tears.  The good mother lived to see her children well established in the world and her two favorite boys just entering upon careers as wonderful and as honorable as any of the century.  The first case of Charles R. Sherman as attorney at the Lancaster bar, that is recorded, is Fanny Mills against Jacob Boos and the overseers of the poor for the restoration of her child Peggy, who had been taken from her on the plea that she could not support her.  She was an unmarried woman, the child a mulatto.  The petition in this case is dated December 18th, 1810.  At the January term, 1812, he was prosecuting attorney.  But his name is not again mentioned in that connection, and the presumption is that R. F. Slaughter was sick or absent and that he performed the duty of prosecutor that term by direction of the court.

SAMUEL F. MACCRACKEN

     Samuel F. Maccracken came to Lancaster from Pennsylvania in July, 1810.  He was born in the year 1785.  Upon his arrival in Lancaster he immediately opened a general store upon the Green corner.  In

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1815 he was the proprietor of a tanyard at the foot of Broad Street. September 15th, 1815, he married Miss Sarah Craft at Carlisle, Pa.  In 1824 he opened a branch store in Circleville, which was conducted by Jacob Lutz.  In 1829, with William J. Reese as partner, he opened a branch store in Newark, which was conducted by a former clerk, Daniel Duncan.  In time Lutz and Duncan purchased the stocks of goods.  Lutz became a prominent merchant of Circleville and Daniel Duncan a distinguished citizen of Newark and a prominent politician.  He was the father of Charles Duncan, son-in-law of Dr. Effinger.  General Maccracken sold his tannery, in what year cannot be ascertained, to William V. Thorne, and James M. Pratt became his partner.  After Thorne’s death Pratt became sole proprietor.  In the year 1826 General Maccracken was an insurance agent.  He had previously been advertised as an agent for a New Jersey lottery scheme.  He also served as a director of the Ohio penitentiary.  General Maccracken retired from the mercantile business in the year 1830.  About this time he was appointed one of the fund commissioners of the state of Ohio, a very important office at that time.  He continued to hold this position and disburse the funds of the state until the Ohio canals were completed.  In the year 1838 or 1839, he made a trio to England as the financial agent of the state of Ohio, for the purpose of securing a loan.  He was accompanied by his son, James C. Maccracken.  In the year 1830 General Maccracken sold his store to Myers, Fall and Dresback (George Myers). Dresback dying, the business was continued by Myers and Fall up to April 1st, 1835, when Henry T. Myers was admitted as a partner.  Myers retired March 21st, 1837.  March 31st, 1838,

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John A. Collins became a partner of Myers and Fall and invested |10,000 in cash.  The firm name was Myers, Fall & Collins.  This firm built what is now known as the Martin, Kirn and Mumaugh Block.  January 1st, 1841, this firm dissolved, John C. Fall retiring. In his stead Myers & Collins took Zenus McElroy as partner and commenced business in the newly completed building called the Collins Block.  January, 1841, John C. Fall, John Maccracken and Thomas C. Griffin formed a partnership.  Griffin retired January, 1843.  Fall and Maccracken continued business until 1845.  At this time Fall withdrew and Maccracken gave Work Galbreath an interest in his business.  Upon the death of Galbreath James C. Maccracken became a partner and they continued business up to the year 1847, when John Maccracken retired and moved to Cincinnati.  James C. continued the business until 1849, when he sold out to Jacob Plout, and went to California.  Jacob Plout sold out to Rising and Lyons in 1853.  John C. Fall, after retiring from the firm, became a clerk in the store of Reber & Kutz and in a year or two removed to Cincinnati, and thence to California, where he became a very prominent and wealthy man.  Myers, Collins & Co. continued business a year or two but the crash finally came and they went down to rise no more.  We have traced the history of the Maccracken store, and will now return to the General.  General Maccracken was honored with the position of Brigadier-General of the Ohio Militia.  He was a man of integrity and great ability.  On one of his trips East to purchase goods he carried with him $100,000 belonging to Ohio banks.  Express companies were unknown in that day.  Near Ellicott’s mills, Maryland, the stage was held up and

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robbed, but the $100,000 in Maccracken’s trunk was overlooked by the robbers.  General Maccracken spent several years in retirement, broken in health.  About the year 1852 he built and occupied a handsome cottage on the corner of High and Mulberry Streets and sold his fine residence on Wheeling and Broad Streets to John D. Martin.  The cottage has since been changed into a fine three-story residence by F. C. Whiley.  General Maccracken, after a long, busy and eventful life, died in the year 1857.  His amiable wife survived him a number of years.  She was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and at one time superintendent of the Sunday school.  Her funeral was attended by Colonel Granville Moody.

THE CARPENTER FAMILY

     The Carpenter family was one of the largest, wealthiest, most prominent and influential of the pioneer period.  They came to Fairfield County and settled on land adjoining the future town plat in 1798.  They were natives of Lancaster County, Pa.  The pioneers of this family were Emanuel, Sr., and his cousin, Colonel Samuel Carpenter.  They were settled on their farms in log cabins before Lancaster was laid out. Emanuel was present at Zane’s sale of lots and made a purchase.  To him we are indebted for the name.  He had made the acquaintance of Zane in Wheeling, Va., and was by him induced to settle on the Hockhocking.  At the request of Emanuel Carpenter, Zane named the new town New Lancaster.  Soon after their arrival in the valley they purchased four sections of land south of the Zane section on the Hockhocking River.  They came here with the intention of erecting

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mills, and selected land upon water courses.  In 1802 Colonel Samuel Carpenter returned to Pennsylvania and brought out John Carpenter and his family.  John was the patriarch of the family and did not long survive his removal to the West, dying in 1807.  With John Carpenter came Captain Roland, a soldier companion of the Revolutionary War.  He was a millwright by trade and came out to erect mills for the Carpenters.  The Carpenters were very enterprising men.  They put Captain Roland to work and brought out machinery from Lancaster, Pa., by ox teams, and soon had a flour mill and sawmill propelled by the waters of the Hocking.  The Deed’s mill stands upon the same spot and is a part of the old building.  In later years this mill was operated by Isaac Koontz.  They also built a flouring mill on Carpenter’s Run, where Christian Hartman now lives.  Captain Roland was a good mechanic, and in addition to the mills built a factory for making sickles or reaping hooks on Baldwin’s Run, where the canal now crosses.  His usefulness was cut short in the year 1810, a stroke of lightning causing his death. Emanuel Carpenter, Sr., was a member of the first Constitutional Convention in 1802.  He was complimented by the highest vote received by any candidate.  In 1801, when the Court of Quarter Sessions was organized by Governor St. Clair, Emanuel Carpenter was appointed presiding judge of that court, and his brother.  Colonel Samuel Carpenter, was made an associate judge of that court.  In 1803 Colonel Samuel Carpenter was elected one of the associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas under the new constitution.  This position he held until the time of his death in 1821.  Emanuel Carpenter died, full of years and honors, at the home of his

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son-in-law, David Carpenter, in 1822, on what is now known as the Prindle farm.  His daughter Sallie married David Shellenbarger, who died early.  In February, 1809, she married Isaac Koontz. Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., married Mary Shellenbarger.  He was a dandy of that day and on dress occasions appeared in short clothes, wearing a queue.  When but twenty-four years of age he was elected Sheriff of Fairfield County.  He owned a half section of land at the Springs now called Clarksburg.  He built a flouring mill there and a whisky distillery.  He built the brick house that is still standing on the Clarke farm.  In the year 1813 he was a member of the Ohio Legislature.  About this time he met Miss Salome Hess, the woman who became his second wife.  In the year 1814 he purchased of Ebenezer Zane four hundred and thirty-seven acres of land, part of the original Zane section. For this land he paid $6,782.  A good price for those early times.  On this land he laid off what will always be known as Carpenter’s Addition to Lancaster, Ohio.  He donated a lot to the Methodist Episcopal Church, one to the African Church, and to the Methodist Society the graveyard on the hill in the rear of the M. E. Church, where many of the early pioneers are buried.  He was a farmer, miller and distiller, and in addition to all this opened a store in the town.  This was in 1816 and Rev. Samuel Carpenter was his partner.  Emanuel Carpenter built the frame house on Broadway which Samuel Carpenter purchased and occupied after Emanuel’s death.  This was after the close of the War in 1815 and times were booming, and everybody was speculating, with the usual results; some men became rich, others became deeply involved.  The crisis came, banks failed, and the whole country was in a

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bankrupt condition.  Emanuel Carpenter was greatly embarrassed and while struggling with his debts and creditors sickened and died, February, 1818, in the thirty-fifth year of his age.  His son, Ezra Carpenter, was in later years well known in Lancaster. His grandson, Captain Lewis Carpenter, son of Ezra, served in the Union Army and is now a Methodist preacher in the Missouri Conference.  Rev. Samuel Carpenter, his nephew and partner, closed up his estate, married his widow and spent a long and happy life in the Broad Street home.  Rev. Samuel Carpenter was a man of high character and great ability.  He was one of the engineers in charge of the construction of the Hockhocking canal.  Colonel Samuel Carpenter, previously mentioned, was a bachelor and son of John Carpenter.  In 1803 he was a surveyor.  He built the first brick house in the county on the Koontz hill.  The original house is still standing with some improvement.  He was known as the best dressed man in the county, and prided himself upon his fine horses.  In his old age he became one of the bondsmen of Judge Sherman, Revenue Collector of the United States.  He did not recover from the embarrassment caused by Sherman’s failure during his lifetime.  He died in the year 1821 at the age of sixty years.  Of this once prominent and influential family but few remain of the name or blood in this county.  Charles F. Shaefler, an attorney, son of Frederick A. Shaeffer, now an old man, married a daughter of the Rev. Samuel Carpenter.  Gabriel Carpenter, the merchant, who came with Paul Carpenter in 1827, died in 1841, aged thirty-four years.  The last named were brothers.  F. H. Carpenter, who at two different periods lived in Lancaster, was a surveyor by profes-

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sion and a relative.  In the year 1805 the Ohio Legislature appointed Emanuel Carpenter, Jr., one of the appraisers of two townships of lands belonging to the Ohio University in Athens County for the purpose of fixing their value for leasing.  Colonel Samuel Carpenter was appointed by Governor Tiffin a trustee of the Ohio University in 1804, in which capacity he served until the year of his death, 1821.  Colonel Carpenter was also appointed by the Board of Trustees with Rufus Putnam a committee to lease the lands.  The Carpenters, as this sketch reveals, during the first twenty years of Lancaster, were among the leading men of the community, leaders in business and prominent in all public affairs, being men of integrity, ability and influence.  The public positions they held are evidence of their high standing in the community.  They were fair samples of a long list of brainy, stalwart men who opened up our forests and built up the civilization we to-day enjoy.  The pioneers of Fairfield County, indeed, of the state of Ohio, were a very remarkable set of men.

MRS. CATHARINE M. GUSEMAN

     Mrs. Catharine M. Guseman, widow of the late Jacob Guseman, is the oldest living resident of Lancaster.  Her maiden name was Catharine M. Pfifer; her father’s name was Jacob Pfifer.  She was born in Pittsburg, Pa., December 18, 1801.  Her father moved from Pittsburg to Huntington, Pa.  In 1806 he emigrated to Fairfield County, Ohio, and settled one mile west of Lancaster.  While living here she remembers going to town with her mother to trade with Rudolph Pitcher, who kept a store and a tavern in the same building on Main Street.  She was often with her,

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mother gathered wild plums, in a thicket, on the ground where now stand the store buildings of Christion Keller and E. H. Binninger.  The plat of Lancaster was then a wilderness, except three or four streets.  On these streets were a number of small buildings, but very much scattered.  The Hockhocking River was then quite a large stream. 
     When Catharine was eighteen years of age her father moved to Lithopolis and operated a tannery.  She came to Lancaster and has ever since resided here, a period of seventy-eight years.  She was married to Jacob Guseman October 10, 1824, and in 1832, moved upon the lot where she has ever since lived.  She has known Lancaster for ninety-one years, and has witnessed its gradual growth from a wilderness to a city. 
     For the greater part of her life she has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in a peaceful frame of mind awaits the coming of the Master, being ready and willing to go.  A stranger, conversing with her, would not place her age above eighty years.  She is well preserved, hale and hearty.  She is doubtless the oldest living native of the city of Pittsburg.

MRS. RUTH ANN CLASPILL

     Mrs. Ruth Ann Claspill, widow of R. O. Claspill, who died in 1844, is the daughter of one of the first pioneer citizens of Lancaster, Jonathan Lynch, Brigadier General of the Ohio Militia.  General Lynch was a native of Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa., and settled on the Baldwin farm, two miles from Lancaster, in the year 1799.  He built a cabin on that tract for his family and there, on the twenty-third day of December, 1799, his son Levi Lynch was born.

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     As soon as the town was laid out, November, 1800, the sale of lots occurred.  General Lynch purchased a lot at the foot of Wheeling Street and built a log house.  This house is still standing, and is a part of the present residence of James Kinney.  In this house Ruth Ann was born November 24, 1809.  She is now the oldest living woman born in Lancaster.  Mrs. Cassel and Mrs. Reese are the next, in the order mentioned.  General Lynch was a tanner, the first in the town, a public-spirited citizen and very popular.  When Governor Meigs called out the Ohio Militia to go to the relief of General Harrison, General Lynch was in command of a brigade.  His soldiers camped on what is now the Pioneer addition.  General Lynch spent a large sum of money in clothing and equipping his men and was never fully reimbursed for his outlay.  The army marched to Upper Sandusky.  Here the Governor soon learned that his force was not needed and the army was disbanded and the soldiers ordered home.  Colonel Jno. Williamson commanded a regiment in General Lynch’s brigade.  General Lynch died in 1816 in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness.  A sister of General Lynch was the wife of Samuel Matlack, Sr.—and the mother of Mrs. H. H. Hunter, Mrs. G. H. Smith and Mrs. J. B. Reed.  He failed in the mercantile business in Kentucky, and his brother-in-law assisted him in coming to Lancaster.  He lived at the foot of Main Street and collected the toll for the use of Christian and William King’s bridge over the Hockhocking and the marsh beyond.  Mrs. Claspill taught school for one year in

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the Presbyterian church that stood where S. J. Wright’s dwelling now stands.
     She was one of the first teachers in the union schools and served in that capacity for eleven years.  The term of service is sufficient proof of her ability as a teacher.
     Since early life she has been an honored member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  She has lived a widow for fifty-three years.  Her declining years have been pleasantly spent with her daughter, Mrs. Annie E. Edgar, for many years a teacher in the public schools.

BENJAMIN SMITH

     Benjamin Smith, father of James, Robert, Daniel and Benjamin, Jr., came to Ohio in 1810 from Rockingham County, Va.  He purchased a farm on Pleasant Run, where he resided during the remainder of his life.  His sons settled in Lancaster.  James and Robert were merchants for a number of years.  James was for eight years a partner of his brother-in-law, Tunis Cox.  He married a sister of Dr. James White and they were the parents of Mrs. Wm. Latta.  He died about the year 1835.  Robert Smith married Phebe Searls, a niece of John Creed.   She came from Rhode Island to visit her uncle and while here made the acquaintance of Robert Smith.  Daniel studied medicine and practiced his profession in Lancaster.  In 1812 he was a surgeon in the army under Gen. Harrison.  In the winter of 1817 and 1818 he was a member of the Legislature.  Soon afterward be went to Virginia to live.  He is doubtless the Dr. Smith mentioned by Rev. James Quinn who advised Rev. John McMehan to strike a Lancaster man who had publicly insulted him. Benjamin Smith, Jr., studied law and practiced his pro-

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fession in Lancaster for about eight years.  He represented Fairfield County in the Ohio Legislature in 1814 and 1815.  About the year 1819 he moved to Charleston, Va., where he became an eminent lawyer and politician.  He was prominent in Virginia politics and a member of the Legislature.  He was the last of the brothers and died a few years since at the age of ninety years.  Margaret, daughter of Benjamin Smith, Sr., became the wife of John Creed and the mother of a large family.  James Smith, a cousin, came to Lancaster from Mt. Vernon, Ohio.  He studied law with John T. Brasee and went to Minnesota.  He is now a distinguished lawyer and wealthy citizen of St. Paul.  Benjamin Smith, Sr., was opposed to slavery and for that reason sought a home in Ohio.  He brought with him a number of his old servants who settled in Lancaster and became good and useful citizens.  William Peters and Scipio Smith were of the number.  Scipio Smith acquired the tin and coppersmith trade, and was the first colored man to engage in business in Lancaster.  He was a reputable man, a good workman, honest and industrious.  For many years he was a leading member of the African Church of Lancaster.  Many now living, when children, knew the one-legged colored me chanic, Scipio Smith.  A son and daughter of Robert Smith, Mrs. Samuel Rutter and Daniel Smith, live in Pleasant Township, another son in Kansas.  The blood of the South and of New England circulated in the veins of the Creed and Smith families. New England gave to Lancaster many of her most prominent and influential pioneers — Converse, Scofield, Sherman, Creed, Foster, Merwin, Torrence and Peck.

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JACOB D. DEITRICK

     Jacob D. Deitrick came to Lancaster, Ohio, from Hagerstown, Md., where he was druggist.  He came here under an agreement to found the Ohio Eagle, which he did in the year 1812, or spring of 1813.  In the year 1814 he was appointed postmaster.  In 1819 he was elected a Justice of the Peace, in which capacity he served several years.  He served seven years as an associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
     During Jackson's first term as President he was Postmaster of Lancaster, but was superseded by Henry Drum.
     He closed his earthly career in 1839.

CHRISTIAN NEIBLING

     Christian Neibling came to Lancaster in 1803.  He was early a hotel keeper on the lot adjoining the Hocking Valley Bank.  His hostelry was named the "Rising Sun."  He subsequently built the American House and occupied it himself in 1816.  He was a good-natured, genial man, and remarkable for his herculean strength.  When Thomas Ewing, then prosecutor, was made Deputy Sheriff or Marshal for the purpose of arresting a gang of scoundrels.  Christian Neibling was chosen as one of his aids.
     Neibling died on his farm in Pleasant Township.  Col. James Neibling of the Twenty-first Ohio, was his son.

GOTLIEB STEINMAN.

     Gotlieb Steinman came to Lancaster from Germany in the year 1811, at the age of twenty-six years.  He learned the baker's trade with Jno. Shurr and purchased

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Shurr's business.  He rented the Rokohl corner, now Mithoff House, and conducted his bakery and a hotel until the year 1824.  He then built the old-fashioned house east of and adjoining the Hocking Valley Bank, where be kept a fine hotel.  This he sold in 1829.  In 1832 he rented the old Union Hotel of Col. Noble, but was burned out in the great fire of 1833.
     In 1838 he was proprietor of the Tallmadge House, but was compelled to make an assignment. He re
moved to Cincinnati and tried his fortune there for a few years, with poor success.  Returning to Lancaster, December, 1849, he was soon thereafter elected a Justice of the Peace and held the office fourteen years.  He succeeded Jacob Green as a director of the Lancaster, Ohio, Bank, and was the first man in Lancaster to be made a Mason, serving twenty-one years as Treasurer and sixteen years as Secretary of the Lodge.
     He prepared the great dinner for the Gov. DeWitt Clinton commencement of the Ohio Canal at Hebron and lost many hundred dollars by it.  Steinman belongs to the noble band of pioneers.

GEORGE RING.

     George Ring was a native of Vermont.  He first located near Kingston, Ross County, Ohio.  From Kingston he moved to Berne Township, Fairfield County, and settled on what is now known as the J. R. Pearse farm. There he built a fulling and carding mill.  In 1817 he purchased a lot in Carpenter's addition to Lancaster, where he erected a large brick building into which he moved his family.  He soon built the woolen factory which was at first operated by water from the Hocking.  James Rice was his partner in

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the mill business, and so continued until the year 1833.  Retiring from business in his old age, he removed to his farm south of town.  He was a Justice of the Peace in Berne, and a member of Lancaster Council.  He was the last of the charter members of Masonic Lodge No. 57.
     He was a consistent member of the Old School Baptist Church, of which his life-long friend, the Rev. Samuel Carpenter, was the pastor.  George Ring was of sturdy New England stock, a bold, enterprising man.
     He was a very strong and active man and when pressed hard and compelled to fight, his adversary got the worst of it.  John Van Pearse, considered a champion, once insisted that nothing but a fight would satisfy him.  Ring reluctantly consented, and Van Pearse was badly worsted. In later years Van Pearse told the joke and laughed at his folly.  Kooken and Eaton were at one time lessees of his factory.

CHRISTIAN ROKOHL.

     Christian Rokohl was a native of Germany and came to Lancaster early in the century.  He was one of the
founders of the Lutheran Church in Lancaster, and one of the prominent members.  He prospered and became the owner of the corner lot on which now stands the Hotel Mithoff.  He died in 1824.  His son, David Rokohl, who married a sister of Joseph C. Kinkead, was for several years a Lancaster merchant.  He owned the Smith farm in Greenfield Township and built what was called a fine house at the time.  In this house he entertained Gen. W. H. Harrison when a candidate for the Presidency in 1836.  He moved from Lancaster to St. Louis and later joined the throng of

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adventurers to California.  He engaged in business in San Francisco.  In the fifties, he returned on a visit to old friends and spent a few weeks in Lancaster.  During this visit he was entertained by Jacob Cly with a number of old-time friends, at dinner at the American Hotel.  He died a few years since in San Francisco.  He was a popular and well known citizen and his name is often mentioned by old citizens.