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     JACKSON COUNTY ERECTED - The organization of the Lick township government gave the inhabitants at the works a feeling of importance.  Quite a village had sprung up on the slope facing Salt creek, east of the site of the court house, and it had exchanged the name of Purgatory for Poplar Row.  The influx of settlers into the surrounding territory caused the inhabitants of Poplar Row to indulge the fond hope that its townhouse would ere long give way to a court house, the seat of justice of a new county.  The matter was talked of as early as 1810.  Settlers were now rapidly entering land in that part of Gallia county bordering on Lick township.  The first of whom there is record, was Lewis Adkins, who entered his land in 1810.  Jeremiah Roach became his neighbor in 1811, and Hugh Poor settled farther north in what is now Bloomfield township in the same year.  John Smith, Gabriel McNeaf, Benjamin, Amos and Nimrod Arthur, George Burris and perhaps others entered land in the country east or south of the licks in 1812.  Samuel McClure entered land in 1813, and John Stephenson, Moses Hale and others followed in 1814.  These settlers had a number of squatters for neighbors, whom they did not like, on account of their thieving propensities.  Their peace was disturbed too frequently also by the lawless element among the salt boilers at the licks.  This state of affairs led them to think favorably of the propositon to erect a new county, with a court house at the Salt works.  This was what the leaders at the licks wished for, and the new county movement at once assumed respectable proportions.  A delegation was sent to Chillicothe, the capital of the State, in the winter of 1815, to bring the matter before the legislature.  The petition was placed in the hands of Senator Robert Lucas, and the following

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entry appears in the senate journal for Dec. 22, 1815: Robert Lucas, senator from Gallia and Scioto counties, presented a petition of certain inhabitants of Ross, Gallia, Scioto and Athens counties praying that a new county may be set off in such a manner that the seat of justice may be established at the Scioto Salt works.  The petition was referred to a committee of three, of whom Lucas was made chairman, to report thereon by bill or otherwise.  The committee saw its way clear to report favorably, and a bill to erect the county of Jackson was introduced by Senator Lucas on Tuesday, Dec. 26, 1815, and read the first time.  It was read the second time December 27, and passed the senate December 29.  It was introduced in the house the same day, read the second time December 30, and passed Jan. 10, 1816.  It was signed up Jan. 12, 1816, and became a law.  Following is a copy of it:

AN ACT TO ERECT THE COUNTY OF JACKSON.

     Section 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Ohio, That all that part of the counties of Scioto, Gallia, Athens and Ross, included within the following limits, to-wit:  Beginning at the northwest corner of township number ten, range number seventeen, and running thence east to the northeast corner of said township; thence south to the southeast corner of township number eight in said range; thence west to the southwest corner of section number thirty-five in said township; thence south to the southeast corner of section number thirty-four, in township number seven in said range; thence west to the southwest corner of said township; thence south to the southeast corner of township number five, in range number eighteen; thence west to the southwest corner of section number thirty-three in township number five, in range number nineteen; thence north to the northwest corner of section number four in said township; thence west to the southeast corner of Pike county; thence with Pike county line to the northeast corner of said county; thence north to the northwest corner of township number eight, in range number nineteen; thence east to the range line between the seventeenth and eighteenth ranges,

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thence north with the same to the place of beginning, shall be a separate and distinct county by the name of Jackson.

     Section 2. Be it further enacted, That all suits or actions, whether of a civil or criminal nature, which shall be pending, and all crimes which shall have been committed within said counties of Scioto, Gallia, Athens and Ross, previous to the organization of the said county of Jackson, shall be prosecuted to final judgment and execution within the counties in which such suits shall be pending, or such crimes shall have been committed, in the same manner they would have been, if no division had taken place; and the sheriff, coroner and constables of the counties of Scioto, Gallia, Athens and Ross shall execute, within such parts of the county of Jackson, as belonged to their respective counties previous to the taking effect of this act, such process as shall be necessary to carry in effect such suits, prosecutions and judgments; and the collectors of taxes for the counties of Scioto, Gallia, Athens and. Ross shall collect all such taxes as shall have been levied and imposed within such parts of the county of Jackson as belonged to their respective counties previous to the taking effect of this act.

     Section 3. Be it further enacted, That all justices of the peace and constables, within those parts of the counties of Scito, Gallia, Athens and Ross, which by this act are erected into a new county, shall continue to exercise the duties of their offices until their term of service expires in the same manner as if no division of said counties had taken place.

     Section 4. Be it further enacted, That on the first Monday in April next, the legal voters residing within said county of Jackson, shall assemble in their respective townships at the usual place of holding township elections, and elect their several county officers, who shall hold their offices until the next annual election; provided that where any township shall be divided in consequence of establishing the county of Jackson, in such manner that the place of holding township elections, shall fall within the counties of Scioto, Gallia, Athens or Ross, then and in that case, the electors

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of such fractional townships shall elect in the next adjoining township or townships in said county of Jackson.

     Section 5. And be it further enacted, That the courts of said county of Jackson, shall be holden at the house of William Givens, within the reserved township, at the Scioto Salt works, until the permanent seat of justice for said county shall be established.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of March next.

     FIRST COMMISSIONERS - The legislature appointed Emanuel Traxler, John Stephenson and John Brown as Commissioners to organize the new county.  Traxler was a German by descent and a Pennsylvanian by birth.  When he arrived at manhood's estate he came west.  His first stop was on the bank of the Ohio at the mouth of the Scioto.  There he determined to make his home, and his cabin was the first erected by white men on the site of Portsmouth.  This was in the early part of the year 1796.  Other settlers came, but Traxler continued to be the leading citizen in the community, and in 1798 Governor St. Clair appointed him as the first justice of the peace in the settlement.  Traxler neglected one important matter, however, and had to pay the penalty.  In the year 1801, he discovered that Henry Massie had secured the patent from the government for the land on which his cabin and improvements stood, and he was dispossessed.   He moved inland, and there built the first watermill in Scioto county.  In 1813 he came to the Scioto salt works, and sunk a salt well, but it proved a duster.  Later he settled on a farm in Franklin township, on Fourmile, and in 1816 he built the first watermill on that creek.  John Stephenson was a native of South Carolina.  After his marriage he moved to Cabell county, Virginia, and in 1814 he entered land in what is now Bloomfield township, in this county.  He was the father of a large family, and his descendants in the county are more numerous than any other family.  His son James became Sheriff of the county a few years after its organization, and Associate Judge in 1827.  His son John held a number of offices of honor and trust, and died

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while Recorder of the county.  His grandson, John S. Stephenson, held the office of Commissioner for several terms.  The son of the latter, and his great grandson, was Commissioner of Pike county, while another great grandson, Hiram Stephenson, was Treasurer of Jackson county for four years.  The act erecting the county went into effect Mar. 1, 1816, and on that day these three Commissioners met at the house of William Givens, the temporary seat of justice, to organize the new county.  The object of the meeting was to call an election for the purpose of choosing county officers to serve until the fall election.  For convenience at this election, they divided the county into five townships, named as follows: Bloomfield, Franklin, Lick, Madison and Milton.  They also appointed judges and clerks for each voting precinct.  The record of this meeting is not on file at the Court House, and it has been either destroyed, or purloined by some relic hunter of the early days.