THOMAS BACKUS was born at Norwich, Connecticut, Aug. 8, 1785.  His father, Elijah Backus, was a native of the same place.  After graduating at Yale college, and being admitted to the bar in Connecticut, in the year 1800, he removed to Marietta, Ohio, and engaged in the practice of the law in partnership with Wyllis Silliman, and established the Gazette newspaper there, and issued the first number Nov. 30, 1861, with Elijah Backus as editor, who had been appointed receiver of public moneys of the United States.  It sustained the administration of President Jefferson, and was the first Democratic paper issued in Ohio.  Elijah Backus was a member of the Ohio State senate in 1803.  Hon. Lewis Cass read law with him, and was admitted to the bar at Marietta.   He was the owner of the island in the Ohio river below Marietta, which, afterward, became celebrated as Blannerhasset Island, he having sold it to Mr. Blannerhasset Island, he having sold it to Mr. Blannerhasset.  Elijah Backus removed, in 1808, to Ruskin, Illinois, and was Judge of the court of claims when he died there, in 1812.
     Thomas Backus was educated in Connecticut, and after graduating at Yale college, returned to his father's home at Marietta, Ohio, studied law in the office of Backus and Silliman, and was admitted to the bar, at Marietta, in 1808, by the supreme court.  On Nov. 10, 1810, he was married to Temperance Lord, and in 1811 removed to Franklinton, Franklin county, Ohio, and engaged in the practice of law.  In 1820 he was appointed prosecuting attorney by the court.  He owned a large body of land, six miles up the Scioto from Franklinton, and was largely engaged in real estate operations.  He removed, with his family, in 1823, to Union, Ohio, and was there appointed prosecuting attorney, and during his term of office died, Oct. 25, 1825, and his wife soon after removed back with the family to Franklinton, and, in 1828, to Columbus.
     Mr. Backus wrote frequently for the newspapers.  He was an able and incisive writer.  He sometimes indulged i poetry.  His lines on the demolition of the beautiful Indian mound, on the corner of High and Mound streets, Columbus, that was used up in the manufacture of bricks for the first State house, and from which human bones were taken, became celebrated for their pathos, and were published i Martin's history of Franklin county, page 51.
Page 63 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

SAMUEL BARTLIT, grain dealer and substantial business man of Canal Winchester, is the son of Elihu and Betsey Bartlit, and was born in Jay, Essex county, New York, Nov. 16, 1811.  His parents died when he was young - his mother in 1816, and his father in 1824.   He lived with his oldest brother, John F., until he was twenty-one years of age, when he went to Keesville, in Essex county, and attended school.  A short time afterward he was elected constable, and subsequently was appointed deputy sheriff of the county.  Next we find him a clerk in a hotel in Albany, for about a year, when he joined his brother, John F., and family, in 1837, on their way to Ohio.  They located in Kirkersville, Licking county, Ohio, where the brothers opened a store, which they continued about a year, removing thence to Reynoldsburg, Franklin county, Ohio, then a growing little town.  They remained in trade there, however, only a few months, when they sold their goods and came, in the spring of 1839, to Canal Winchester.  They immediately afterward opened with a miscellaneous stock of goods, in a one story frame building, on the site of the present dry goods store of the Messrs. Gayman.  They soon afterward changed their location to the tow-path side of the canal, in order to catch the best trade, occupying the small, red building which used to stand where the Commercial hotel now does.  Merchandizing was carried on, in those days, almost entirely by barter and trade, and the Bartlit brothers exchanged their goods with the farmers for produce, pork, butter, eggs, etc., which, in turn, they sold to the boatmen for the same price in cash.  Samuel would sleep in the rear part of the store, and when the boatman came along, as he did, in the night, he would arose him by tapping on the window, and receive whatever of produce had been taken into the store during the day.  The brothers continued in trade together until 1844, when John F. sold his interest to his brother, and removed to Waterloo, and subsequently to Columbus, where he was engaged in banking.  In 1850 Samuel Bartlit erected the building now occupied by the Gayman brothers, and continued there in trade until September, 1856, when he sold out to his nephew, Samuel Pond.  During all this time Mr. Bartlit was engaged in the grain and produce business, which gradually grew in proportions, and he erected in 1847, a large warehouse (since burned down) on the north side of the canal.
     Mr. Bartlit has given but little attention to outside speculation, but the result of the few ventures he has made in his directon, attests the soundness of his judgment.  In 1856 he purchased some realestate in the eastern part of Columbus, and the same year a tract of land of nine hundred acres on Big Darby, in this county, for seven thousand seven hundred dollars.  At the time of this purchase he had not seen the land, but the investment proved highly profitable, as did the other also.
     Mr. Bartlit was largely instrumental in securing, in 1851, the annexation to Madison township of one tier of sections in Fairfield county, by which the village of Canal Winchester was thrown into Franklin county.
     In 1853 he was the candidate of the Democratic party for State senator from Franklin and Pickaway counties.  He was nominated, as he himself says, not because of any special merit or qualifications, but rather because of his availability.  His election over so strong an opponent as P. B. Wilcox, the Whig candidate, and overcoming an adverse majority, was a handsome compliment to his personal popularity and strength.  His two years' term in the senate was alike creditable to himself and to his constituents.
     Mr. Bartlit was a pronounced Union man during the war of the rebellion, but he continued to act with the Democratic party until the nomination of Vallandigham for governor, in 1863, when he left it, voted for Brough, and has since been a staunch Republican.
     As a successful business man, Mr. Bartlit's career furnishes an instructive lesson.  With little to begin with, save a liberal capital of pluck and energy, he has, by industry and the observance of sound business principles, amassed a fine property and established an honorable reputation.
     Mr. Bartlit has never married.  On the death of David M. Cowan, the husband of his half-sister, Amanda, in 1850, Mr. Bartlit brought the mother and her two children, Charles and David, the youngest less than a year old - to his home.  The mother married again, in 1868, but the boys have always remained with their uncle, who has been to them all that a father could be to his children.  Charles  was given a collegiate education, graduating at Kenyon college, Gambier, Ohio, in 1868.  He is proprietor of the Empire mills, near Winchester, and has practical supervision of his uncle's business.
     In the following sketch of Mrs. Pollay, sister of Mr. Bartlit, is given a genealogy of the family, so far as it can be ascertained.
Page 454 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

Page 411 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

Page 411 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

JESSE BAUGHMAN

JESSE BAUGHMAN, son of George and Barbara (Steele) Baughman, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on the eleventh of June, 1802.  His parents were of the well-known Pennsylvania German blood.  His father was a carpenter, but Jesse was brought up mainly on the farm, giving, however, some attention to education in the common schools of that time.  In 1805 his parents removed to the country near New Albany, Plain township, Franklin County and when Jesse  was in his eleventh year, in 1812, they again removed, this time going to Mifflin township, where they lived upon a farm, and where both died in the fullness of years.  Young Baughman was married May 26, 1825 to Miss Catharine Turney, of Mifflin, and settled on the old farm till after his second marriage (his first wife died Dec. 1, 1838), which occurred May 3, 1840, and was to Miss Mary Albery, a young lady of a German-English family, residing in Jefferson township, and sister of Judge Albery, of Columbus.  He was the founder and original proprietor of the village of Bridgeport, which he laid off in 1853.  In 1859 Mr. Baughman built the first grist-mill ever erected in Mifflin township, at Gahanna, and managed it with success until 1865, when he sold out on account of poor health, and afterwards did some light labor in farming, but mostly lived a retired, quiet life, free from manual labor.  He served as county commissioner for Franklin county one term - 1853-5, and was quite often elected township trustee, assessor, land appraiser, and to various other minor offices.  He was one of the first to promote the organization of the Franklin county pioneer association, of which he remained an active member.  He was a Democrat in politics, and a Presbyterian in his religious convictions, ever an active man in church and Sabbath-school.  He died in Gahanna on the last day of 1878, much lamented by a great number of relatives and friends.  In an autobiographical notice which he contributed to the newspapers some years ago, he said of himself, and, doubtless, with the utmost truthfulness: "In all my dealings I have never been sued, neither have I ever sued any one.  I never spent twenty-five cents for cigars or tobacco, and was never intoxicated in those seventy-three years" - [the time he had then resided in the county].
     By his first marriage Mr. Baughman had five children - four sons and one daughter - of whom four are living:  Rev. George Baughman, a clergyman resident in Eaton, Preble county, Ohio; Joel, a farmer near Gahanna; Josiah, an engineer at Westerville, and Mary Ann, now Mrs. Eskridge Carter, wife of a farmer in Blendon township.  Seven children - three sons and four daughters - were the issue of the second marriage.  Four of them yet survive: William Sandford Baughman, a farmer near Gahanna; Francis, a lawyer at Battle Mountain, Nevada; Esther Josephine, now Mrs. Robert Collier, residing at No. 152 Hamilton avenue, Columbus, and Lewis Clifford Baughman, the youngest child, yet at the old home in Gahanna, residing with his mother, who is still, though somewhat advanced in years, in vigorous health, and gives promise of long life.
Page 486a - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

W. H. BLAKE, M. D.      Samuel L. Blake, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, emigrated to Ohio from Middletown, Connecticut, in the year 1816, and settled in Alexander township, Athens county.  He was born in 1777, and died in 1859.  His son, Samuel B., born in Alexander township in 1817, and married in 1845, Polly Camp, who was born in the same township Jan. 15, 1825.  Polly Camp was a daughter of John Camp, and Lois French who were early settlers in the township before mentioned, removing also from Connecticut. 
     The parents of the subject of this biography are still living in their native township, and have a family of six children, as follows: William H., born Feb. 23, 1846; Henry C., born Oct. 23, 1747, a practicing physician in Lockbourne, Franklin county, Ohio, and married Jan. 1, 1879, Miss Fannie P. Vause; Hattie, who married Clark A. Potter, of Athens, and now living in Texas, born Oct. 6, 1850; Mary E., who married in 1877, Charles F. Tedrow, was born Aug. 20, 1855, and now living in Athens county; John C., born Sept. 30, 1862, and Charles F., born Dec. 13, 1865, living at home.
     Dr. Blake read medicine with Drs. Earhart and McClure, of Albany, Athens county, Ohio, and was graduated at Starling Medical college, Columbus, Ohio, in the spring of 1870.  Between his two terms at collee, he practiced in Doddridge county, Virginia, and after receiving his diploma, he established himself at the little village of Shadeville, Franklin county, Ohio, which he found a favorable location for a physician, possessing requisite energy and qualifications for success.  Dr. Blake soon built up a fine business, and now has a large and lucrative practice, his field comprising this township and adjacent territory within the county and he northern part of Pickaway county.  Having a larger practice then he could attend to, he induced his brother, Dr. H. C. Blake, to locate in Lockbourne in the spring of 1876, to whom he resigned his practice in that vicinity.
     Dr. Blake was married Nov. 28, 1873, to Ellen, daughter of David and Charlotte (Dulen) Williams, of Lockbourne, born Oct. 28, 1855.  Two children are the result of this union - Ola, born Aug. 31, 1874, and Samuel D., born Sept. 16, 1877.
     Dr. Blake has two honorable discharges from the late war, having served six months as a member of the Fourth Independent battalion, Ohio volunteer cavalry, and afterwards in the One Hundred and Eight-first regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, from the date of its organization until the close of the war.
     Dr. Blake, ever since he entered his profession, has given to the practice and study of medicine his whole attention and energy, refusing to accept positions of official trust, but seeking to attain the highest rank as a skilful physician and surgeon, following in the footsteps of his illustrious great grandfather (Jesse Camp) who settled in Athens county, Ohio, in 1814, from New Haven county, Connecticut, and was a noted surgeon in his day.

REUBEN BONAM was born in Maryland, and settled in Franklinton about the same time as John S. Wills.  He was appointed prosecuting attorney by the court in 1805, and was a man of fine education, but giving way to intemperate habits, and was the vice of the times, he became too poor to dress even decently, got in some trouble about money that was missing, went off, and enlisted at Cincinnati, as a private soldier, in one of the regular regiments, going to New Orleans.  Tradition says that there he became a reformed and sober man, and, after his discharge from the service, died, a respectable citizen, and left descendants.
Page 63 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

THE BORRER FAMILY.   The members of the Borrer family, consisting of Mrs. Magdalene Borror and seven children, emigrated from Virginia, in 1809, and settled in the south part of Jackson township, Franklin county, on a tract of two hundred and fifty acres of land, given Mrs. Borror by her father, Christopher Strader, who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary war, from Virginia.  Her husband, Jacob Borror, also served as a soldier in the war for independence, and in the faithful discharge of his duties to his country, suffered untold hardships, which undermined a naturally strong constitution, and planted the seeds of disease which caused his death in 1804.  The members of the family were:  the mother, Mrs. Magdalene Borror, and her children - Martin, Christine, Jacob, Solomon, Isaac, Myomi, and Absalom.  The settlement and marriage of each will be found in the history of Jackson township.
     Absalom Borror was the youngest son of seven children, and was born in Hardy county, Virginia, Dec. 21, 1804.  Some years after their settlement in Ohio, he married Elizabeth Seeds, by whom he had six children;  Hiram, Louis, John S., Harriet, Ephraim, and Elizabeth.  Mrs. Borror died in about 1833, and, in February, 1834, he married Margaret Badger, who was born Dec. 27, 1814.  They have had four children:  William Martin, Catharine, Martha Jane, and Christine.  Hiram, the eldest child of Absalom Borror, married Harriet Brunk, and lives on the farm adjoining, on the southeast; Louis married Elizabeth Watts, and died at Borror's corners, where his widow now lives; John married Angeline Seeds, and lives at Borror's corners, where he has a farm; he also owns a store building on his land; Harriet died, when a young woman; Ephraim married Susan Beckett, and died on his farm, north of the "corners," where his widow now lives; Elizabeth married A. E. Brown, and lives west of Commercial Point, in Pickaway county; William Martin died in infancy; Catharine married Jonathan Swagler and died at his home, north of the "corner;" Martha Jane married Hiram V. Malott, and lives in Grove City; Christine married John Haaines, and lives on the home farm.
     In this connection appears views of the residences of Absalom Borror, John Haines, John S. Borror, Ephraim Borror, Louis Borror, Hiram Borror and H. V. Malott, the later of Grove City..
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Page 415 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

THE BUNN FAMILY - Henry and Elizabeth A. Bunn* were married in Ross county, where they settled in 1807.  He was originally from Virginia, and his wife from Pennsylvania.  Their first child, Frederick A. Bunn, was born in Ross county, Nov. 12, 1812.  When he was two or three years of age, his parents removed to Franklin county, and settled on the northwest corner of section six, in Madison township, where they remained two or three years, after which they bought one hundred and sixty acres of land on the west bank of Walnut creek, in section eight of the same township.  The farm on which they settled is at this time owned by Nelson H. Bunn.
     Frederick Bunn obtained a fair education at the schools then taught in the neighborhood, and passed his boyhood and youth in the usual avocations of the sons of the early pioneers - chopping and deadening timber, clearing the land, and planting the crops in their season. 
     On May 30, 1841, he was united in marriage to Charlotte Rarey a daughter of Benjamin Rarey, who was an early settler in Madison township, where he located in 1808.  She was born Nov. 27, 1817.  After marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bunn settled in the house occupied by his parents, who moved into the house next south of their original home.  Henry Bunn died there in May, 1848, and after his death his widow came to live with her son, Frederick, where she died in August, 1860.
     To Frederick and Charlotte Bunn were born eight children, as follows:  Louis, born July 19, 1842, who married Sarah Jones, and lives on the west bank of the Scioto river in Jackson township - a representation of his home appears in connection with the history of that township; Mary, born Sept. 12, 1843, who married Joseph Wright, and died Dec. 10, 1868; Jefferson L., born Jun. 5, 1848, who lives on the bank of Walnut creek in Madison township; Nelson H., born Nov. 10, 1851, who married Sarah Pauline Culp, and lives on the old homestead; Elizabeth, born May 7, 1854, who married William Moore, and lives in Pickaway county; an infant was born Mar. 7, 1858, and died soon after birth; Sarah, born Aug. 31, 1859, who died Oct. 6, 1859; and Catharine, born Jul. 5, 1861, who lives at home with her mother and brother, Jefferson L., on the west bank of Walnut creek.
     Frederick Bunn died Oct. 27, 1871, aged nearly fifty-nine years.  He was a good farmer and a careful business man.  Besides attending to his farm work he dealt quite extensively in stock, and during his life accumulated quite a property, which he disposed of by will before his death.  To his sons he gave hiss landed property, and to his wife and daughters an equivalent in money.
     Henry Bunn, the father of Frederick Bunn, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was taken prisoner at the time of Hull's surrender of Detroit.  When the prisoners were exchanged, by some mishap, he was left on board one of the enemy's vessels, but being possessed of a good voice and strong lungs, he managed to make the fact known, and a boat returned after him.
     Portraits of Frederick Bunn and Charlotte Bunn, his wife, appear in connection with this sketch of the family.
Page 455 - Source: History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880

Mifflin Twp. -
EBENEZER BUTLER.  Judge Ebenezer Butler, of Mifflin township, Franklin county, Ohio, was one of the earliest settlers of that township.  He came from New York some years previous to the war of 1812.  He was born in Connecticut, near Hartford, in the year 1758.  Following in biographical order the incidents of his life, it appears that he was among the first of the revolutionary patriots who participated in the struggle of the American colonies, in resisting British oppression.  At the early age of eighteen, he responded to the call upon the people of Connecticut, and, in conformity with the traditions of those trying times, he "left his plow standing in the furrow," received the ancient fire-lock from the hands of his mother, and joined General Putnam in the defence of Bunker Hill.  After that memorable battle, he remained in the army until sickness compelled him to leave it.
     In imitation of the primitive custom, he married when quite young.  His wife was Rebecca Davis.  Not long after this event, he discovered that the central portion of the State of New York, then a part of the extreme western frontier of the country, offered attractive inducements to enterprise, and he determined to seek a new home there.  He settled in the then small village of Pompey, where he received the appointment of land agent, for the sale of the State lands, and immediately began to prosper.  Here is somewhat numerous family of children were born.  Their names were Martha, Belinda, Aurelia, Flora, Mary, and Rebecca, the latter of whom died when quite young.  To this number two sons - Roswell and Manly - and a second daughter named Rebecca, were added.  Belinda and Aurelia were educated at the Hamilton academy; Flora and Mary were sent to Hartford, for the advantages of the higher studies and accomplishments.
     In progress of time, Mr. Butler was appointed to a judicial position on the local bench, and elected to the legislature of his adopted State.  He was the contemporary and neighbor of the father of Gerrit Smith; each the possessor of a very extensive landed estate.  Judge Butler, in the prime of life, was a man of remarkable capacity for business enterprise, engaging with equal facility and uniform success in merchandise and farming - in the milling business, and in ocean commerce, becoming largely interested in foreign trade, and the owner of a considerable investment in vessels.  He had formed a partnership with a Mr. Phillips, and, during his necessary presence in Albany, in attendance upon the legislature, his partner succeeded in defrauding him of a large sum of money, with which he absconded.  Succeeding this event, came the embargo of 1807, which ruined his shipping interests.  The result of these successive misfortunes was an embarrassment so serious that he was compelled to bring to a close his large and varied business transactions.  Upon a settlement with his creditors, which was accomplished with rigid conformity to the rules of honor, which governed him in all his transactions, he found himself still in possession of a small reserve of capital, with which to begin life anew, in the now populous and prosperous State of Ohio, then one of the youngest of the States, presenting, in the superior advantages of its agricultural lands, inducements which attracted a large emigration from the eastern States, and offering, as he conceived, an inviting opportunity for the retrieval of his fortune.  He bravely resolved to make the change, and, accordingly, joined the throng of emigrants to this then far western locality, 1 ringing with him his entire family, with the exception of his oldest daughter, who had married Mr. Atwater, an attorney-at-law in the State of New York.  He came directly to Franklin county, and entered lands to the amount of some seven hundred acres, on Alum creek, about seven miles north of the site of the future city of Columbus.  The location was an almost unbroken wilderness.  The scattered settlers were too few as yet, too impoverished, and too laboriously occupied in securing for their own households the subsistence they required, to render much of neighborly aid to each other.  The lot of the early pioneer in this State was one which it is hard to realize.  With his own hands, and with such help as he could, with difficulty, obtain, he built a log house for an immediate home.  In his oldest son - Roswell - he had a very efficient assistant, in the struggle with the difficulties which beset his efforts.  It is related of this son; that he was very popular with the pioneers, who were often benefitted by his superior intelligence.  His death, by drowning, at an early age, was felt as a great loss in the neighborhood.  In their new and trying experience, Judge Butler's daughters put to practical use the advantages of education which they had acquired in their more prosperous days.  One of them - Aurelia - opened a school in the village of Franklinton, on the opposite side of the river from Columbus.  The third daughter - Flora - found an opportunity to establish a school for young ladies, in Lancaster, then one of the most thriving towns in the State, some thirty miles distant.  Her hand was soon sought by Mr. Christian King, the leading merchant of the place, and the fourth daughter - Mary - took the school, and retained it until her marriage and Mr. Richard Douglass, an attorney-at-law, residing in Chillicothe.  His daughter, Aurelia, married Judge Orris Parrish, of Columbus.  The exposure encountered at the burning of his home, which caught fire by some accident, and was consumed so rapidly that the inmates barely escaped, seriously impaired his health, and an attack of fever subsequently occurred, which occasioned his death, in 1826, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
(Source: ‡ History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Published by Williams Bros. - 1880 - Page 489)