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     FIRST PETIT JURY—A petit jury was empaneled on the same day, in the case of Elkanah Bramlet, ''otherwise called" Elcano Bramlet.  He had been indicted for assaulting William Mc- Connell in Lick township on July 10, 1816, and the case was tried to the following jury: Basil Johnson, Moses Gillespie, John Ogg, David Mitchel, John Corn, Salmon Goodenough, Allen Rice, Austin Palmer, Samuel Stephenson, James Weeks, William Alden and John George. The witnesses for the State were, Joseph Armstrong and Andrew Donnally.  The verdict was "guilty" and Bramlet was fined $6 and the costs.  Singulary enough, one of the jurors, Austin Palmer, had settled a little affair of his own with the court, just before taking his seat in the jury box.  He had been indicted for assaulting Andrew Frazee, of Milton township, on Aug. 10, 1816, entered his plea of "guilty" and had been fined $12 and the costs.  These affairs of honor were very common among the sturdy backwoodsmen, who brooked no insult.

     OTHER BUSINESS - BUSINESS—The only other transaction of interest at this term was the appointment of Dr. Gabriel McNeal as surveyor of Jackson county for the term of five years. There were no resident attorneys in Jackson at that time, and a foreign attorney had to be appointed prosecutor.  The attorneys in attendance at this term of court, according to the records, were Joseph Sill, Richard Douglass and N. K. Clough, all of Chillicothe.  It was the custom then, for the attorneys to travel the circuit with the court.  This term closed August 14, 1816.

     THE FIRST FALL ELECTION—The voters of Jackson county were called upon in October, 1816, to vote for State and district officers, and for county officers for the long terms.  The county had been divided by this time into eight townships, viz: Bloomfield, Clinton, Franklin, Jackson, Lick, Madison, Milton and Scioto.  Two hundred and fifty-two votes were cast.  The candi-

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     EARLY CRIMINAL RECORD

     The first settlers at the Licks being squatters, many of them were lawless men.  Davis Mackley, who knew something of the early times, wrote as follows:  There was no law administered nearer than Portsmouth or Chillicothe, and as many of the men around the salt furnaces were the worst type of adventurers, and as whisky was used in large quantities, it is not strange that fighting was common, and that murder was committed occasionally.  In the year 1803 a man named Fitzgerald was murdered by one Jack Brandon, and about the same time a man named squires was murdered by one Pleasant Webb, a notorious and dangerous character.  He had been a Tory during the Revolutionary war, and was the terror of the early settlers.  He was known by the nickname of Pompey.  I could not learn that either of these murderers was brought to justice or punishment.  All that part of Jackson from Pearl street to and beyond the fair ground was originally a wet an d marshy place, with large maple, elms, birch and other trees, with an undergrowth of alder, wild rose and other bushes.  After a time it was cleared and the timber cut, except one of the original maple trees, which yet stands on the rear of Samuel Stevenson's lot, a short distance north of the schoolhouse.  After this portion of the present town had been cleared, it was enclosed with a worm fence, and was an old pasture field seventy years ago.  This field was the place where the fighters usually went to settle their drunken quarrels.  Judge Salter, of Portsmouth, worked at the licks when he was a boy, and he once told me that a day scarcely passed without one or more fights in this field, and that blood could be seen almost any time either on the battle ground or where the pugilists had crossed the low rail fence when retiring from the field of battle.  Whisky and peach brandy were always in great demand about the licks.  A man once came with a yoke of oxen and a small wagon, and a keg of whisky, which he desired to barter for salt.  There happened to be no salt on hand at the time, but the inhabitants of Purgatory were bound to have some whisky.  They proposed to barter anything they had, but the owner of the whisky wanted nothing but salt. They proposed among other things to trade him a calf, but he still refused and was preparing to leave early next morning.  During the night they caught the calf, tied it and put it into the wagon, which was a covered one, and the owner drove off before daylight next morning.  After he had got some two miles from the licks, several men followed him and pretended they had a search warrant, and accused him of stealing the calf.  Of course he denied it, and told them to search his wagon.  One of the party raised the cover, when sure enough there was the calf.  The pretended officer then compelled the man to haul the calf back to Purgatory, and treat the crowd to all the whisky they desired before they would release him from the pretended prosecution.  Even after the county was organized, drinking whisky and fighting continued to be the principal diversions of many of the settlers.  All the criminal prosecutions at the August and November terms of court in 1816 were for fighting.  The men indicted plead guilty in nearly all cases, for such a plea established his record as a fighter.  Many of the fights were fistic duels, both parties having agreed to fight at fisticuffs, but it not infrequently happened that a ruffian would seek to whip every man that came in his way, in order to win a reputation as a bully.  At the April term, 1817, prosecutions for violations of the liquor law began.  The first indictment was found against William Howe.  It was charged that he did, on January 10, 1817, barter, sell, retail and deliver, for money, a certain spiritual liquors or strong drink, not cider or beer, by less quantity that one quart, to-wit: One-half pint of whisky to James Mail, without having first obtained a license therefor.  He plead guilty, and was fined $2 and the costs.  This kind of a conviction was then considered as not in the least reflecting upon the man convicted.  Even the very best men in the community were occasionally, indicted for such an offense, and they invariably plead guilty.  A study of the Court Record almost convinces one that such convictions were regarded as good jokes, for even the court officers were indicted in turn.  At the July term, 1817, Abraham Welch was indicted for three sales of half-pines of whisky, and one of the sales had been made to the foreman of the grand jury.  Welch was always in trouble with the courts, although he was the sheriff.  At the July term, 1817, he was indicted for assaulting one Valentine Pancake on January 10, 1817.  He pled guilty, of course, and was fined $30 and the costs.  He was also required to give a peace bond in the sum of $250.  A riot that occurred at the Jackson township spring election in 1817 furnished almost as much grist as that at the Bloomfield town house the year before.  It began with a fistic duel between Robert Darling and Joseph Hartley.  Hartley was so badly vanquished that his brother Philip went to his rescue, only to be pummeled in turn.  Darling was indicted for both offenses, the wording in the latter case being as follows: " Robert Darling, unlawfully, riotously and routously, did beat and wound and illtreat, and other wounds, to the said Philip Hartley in Jackson township."

     FIRST CONVICT

     The first person sent from this county to the penitentiary was Burgess Squires, convicted at the May term, 1817, of issuing counterfeit money.  There was a great scarcity of the circulating medium at the licks at all times, and this led some adventurous souls to increase the circulation by issuing counterfeit bank money to a considerable amount.  There was no bank here, and no persons handling money in sufficient quantities to become familiar with the currency of the country.  This made the passing of counterfeit money that much the easier, for the victimized merchant, tavern keeper or official would not learn of the imposition that had been practiced upon him, until he tried to pass the money at Chillicothe or elsewhere.  But experience is a dear school, and the business men of Jackson began to be on the lookout for bad money.  Andrew Donnally, the tavernkeeper, was the first person to cause an arrest.  It seems that one Nimrod Kirk gave him six notes, signed by I. Ross and N. Mercer, and each payable for 50 cents in specie or bank currency at Brownsville.  He received these notes March 1, 1817, and a few days later he learned that they were forged.  When the grand jury met at the July term he laid the case before them, and Kirk was indicted.  He plead not guilty, and the case came on for trial.  Kirk was ably defended and was acquitted July 23, 1817.  The next day the trial of Burgess Squires began.  The indictment charged that Burgess Squires, on Mar. 10, 1817, died unlawfully utter and publish as true and genuine a false, forged and counterfeit bank note, purporting to be drawn and payable for $10 by the Bank of Pennsylvania; also one false, forged and counterfeit bank note payable for $1 by the Bank of New Lisbon.  It appears that he had paid these notes to Abraham Welch, the sheriff of the county, who, together with Dr. N. W. Andrews, Francis Holland and Levi Mercer, was a witness against him.  Burgess  was represented by Hon. N. K. Clough, of Chillicothe, while Hon. Joseph Sill, of the same place, acted as prosecutor.  Burgess plead not guilty, and a jury was empanelled.  The jurors were Cornelius Culp, Anthony Howard, James Dempsey, William Reed, Joseph Armstrong, Jared Strong, Moses Gillespie, Alexander Poor, Peter Williams, William Grove, Daniel Harris and Reuben Long   Some prominent men were on this jury.  Armstrong was director of the town of Jackson and Strong was the representative in the Ohio Legislature.  The jury returned the verdict "guilty."  All of Clough's efforts to save his client were unavailing, and Squires was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary, twenty-four hours of that time to be in the solitary cell.  The conviction of Squires led to some very ugly talk about the others, even Welch, the prosecuting witness against him, and another county officer, still more prominent.  Welch was finally indicted for counterfeiting, and gave bond in the sum of $500, with J. W. Ross, Francis Holland and John Graham, as securities.  At the next term of court Welch's case was called, but he did not appear, and his bond was declared forfeited, but it was respited one more term.  On Monday, March 23, 1818, the case was called the last time, but no Welch appeared, and the bond was forfeited.  Welch had left the county and never returned here.  The conviction of Squires and the departure of Welch put an end to the circulation of counterfeit money in Jackson.