< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, JULY FOURTH,
SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX
(Page 3 - 7)

     When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which compel them to a separation.
     We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
     Prudence indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the form to which they are accustomed.
     But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and provide new guards for their future security.
     Such has been the patient sufferance of the colonies, and such is now the necessity of which constrains them to alter their former system of government.
     The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.
     To prove this let these facts be submitted to a candid world:  He has refused his assent to pass laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.  He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish their right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.  He has called together legislative bodies at pleasure, unusual and uncomfortable and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.  He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.  He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation have returned to the people for their exercise.  The States remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.  He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.  He has obstructed the administration of a justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.  He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.  He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.  He kept among us in times of peace a standing army without the consent of our legislators.  He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.  He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation.
     For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them by a mock trial and punishment for any urders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses; for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; For taking away our charger, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our government; for suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.  He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
     He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.  He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a Christian nation.  He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to became the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
     He has excited domestic insurrection among us and has endeavored to bring the inhabitants of our frontiers under the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.  In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms.  Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.  A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
     Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.  We have warned them from time to time of the attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.  We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.  We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.  They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation; and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war; in peace, friends.  We, therefore, representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.
     That they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other acts and things which an independent state may of right do.
     And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, July fourth, seventeen hundred and seventy-six.  John Hancock, President.

Signers Names.

     Georgia - Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton,
     New Hampshire - Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
     Massachusetts Bay - Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
     Rhode Island - Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.
     Connecticut - Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
     New York - William Floyd, Philip Livingstone, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris.
     New Jersey - Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, Abraham Clark and John Hart.
     Pennsylvania - Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, John Hancock, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.
     Delaware - Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean.
     Maryland - Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Caroll, of Carrollton.
     Virginia - George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
     North Carolina - William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
     South Carolina - Edward Rutledge, Thomas Hayward, Thomas Lynch, Arthur Middleton.

THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.
(Page 14 - 16)
[Extract from the History of the United States of America, by Timothy Pitkin,
Vol. 2, Page 214.]

     In consequence of cessations of the United States became possessed of all the lands northwest of the Ohio, and the establishment of a government for the inhabitants already settled, as well as others how might remove these, became necessary.
     (The Colonial Congress, then in session at New York).
     This Congress, therefore, in July, 1787, established an Ordinance for the government of this territory.
     This Ordinance is the basis of the governments established by Congress in all the territories of the United States, and may be considered an anomaly in American legislation.  The whole territory was under one district, subject to be divided into two, at the pleasure of Congress.  
     With respect to the mode of governing the settlers in this territory or colony, the ordinance provided that until the number of free male inhabitants of full age in the district should amount to five thousand, the legislative, executive and judicial power should be vested in a governor and three judges, who, together with a secretary, were to be appointed by Congress.  The governor was to remain in office three years and the judges during good behavior.  The governor, with the judges were empowered to adopt and publish such laws of the original states, criminal and civil, as might be necessary, and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Congress; such laws to be in force until disapproved by that body.  The governor was empowered to divide the district into counties or townships and to appoint all civil officers.  As soon as the free, male inhabitants of full age and should amount to five thousand, a general assembly was to be constituted, to consist of the governor, a legislative council, and house of representatives.  The representatives to be chosen from the counties or townships, one for every five hundred free, white male inhabitants, until the number should amount to twenty-vie, after that the number to be regulated by the legislature.  A representative must have been a citizen of the United States for three years, and be a resident of the district, or have resided three years in the district, in either case to have the fee simple of two hundred acres of land in the district.  An elector was to reside in the district, have a freehold of fifty acres of land therein, and be a citizen of one of the states, or a like freehold and two years residence.  The representatives to be chosen for two years.
     The legislative council was to consist of five persons, to continue five years in office, unless sooner removed by Congress, were chosen in the following manner:  The house of representatives to nominate ten persons, each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land; out of this number Congress was to appoint five to constitute the council.  The general assembly had power to make laws for the government of the district not repugnant to the Ordinance.  All laws to have the sanction of the majority of both houses, and the assent of the governor.  The legislative assembly were authorized by joint ballot to elect a delegate, who was to have a seat in Congress with the right of debating, but not of voting.
     It was necessary to establish certain principles as the basis of the laws, constitutions, and governments, which might be formed in the territory, as well as to provide for its future political connection with the American confederacy.  Congress, therefore, at the same time established certain articles, which were to be considered as articles of compact between the original states and the people of the territory, and which were to remain unalterable unless by common consent.  By these no person in the territory was ever to be molested on account of his mode of worship, or religious sentiments, and every person was entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and all those other fundamental rights usually inserted in American bills of rights.  Schools, and the means of education were forever to be encouraged, and the utmost good faith to be observed toward the Indians; particularly their lands and property were never to be taken from them without their consent.
     The territory and the states to be formed therein were forever to remain a part of the American confederacy, but not less than three, nor more than five states, were to be established.
     The bounds of these were fixed with liberty for Congress to alter them, by forming one or two new states in that part of the territory lying north of an east and west line drawn through the southern bend, or extreme of Lake Michigan.  It was also provided that whenever in any of these states there should be sixty thousand free inhabitants, such state was to be admitted into the Union, on the same terms or at liberty to form a permanent constitution and government, such constitution and government was to be republican and conform to the principles of the articles.
     If consistent with the general interests of the confederacy such state, however, might be admitted into the Union with a less number than sixty thousand free inhabitants.  By the sixth and last article it was provided there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory otherwise than in the punishment of crime, of which the party should have been duly convicted, and in consequence of this lastwise and salutary provision the evil of slavery has been prevented in all the new states formed out of this territory northwest of the river Ohio."
     NOTE: - Mr. Dana of Massachusetts is said to be the author of the sixth article.
     P. S. - When this ordinance was being framed in New York City, the Constitutional Convention was preparing a Constitution for the National in Philadelphia.

THE OHIO LAND COMPANY'S PURCHASE.
(Page 17)

     The Ohio Land Company originated with the disbanded officers of the Revolutionary army, while a large portion of the stockholders were citizens at large.  This company was organized in Boston early in the year 1787.  The purchase from Congress consisted of a million and a half acres of land by negotiations made by Rev. Manassah Cutler, in 1787.  The State of Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802, and comprised that portion of the Northwest Territory on its eastern boundary, extending from the Ohio river on the south to the shores of Lake Erie on the north, comprising seventeen million five hundred thousand acres of very fine land.    The lands of the Ohio Company's purchase were located in the southern part of the state bordering on the Ohio river.
     These lands were surveyed by men appointed by the President, George Washington, of whom were General Tupper, General Meigs, General Israel Putnam, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, John Matthews, and others.  These surveyors divided the lands into townships containing six square miles, and these townships were sub-divided into ranges, and further surveyed into sections of 640 acres.  Townships, ranges, and sections were numbered, as were 100-acre lots, which sold to purchasers.  In every township, three section are reserved for Congress, Ministerial and school purposes.  The boundaries of these lands were permanent, thus, when any county or township or road refers to certain points - Township 2, Range 11, Section 6 - it has reference to the surveys of the Ohio Company's purchase.

Meigs County.

     Meigs county was formed in June, 1819, and was composed of territory set off from Gallia county, Athens county, and Washington county,, and contained the following townships:
     From Gallia County - Letart township, organized in 1803; Salisbury township, organized in 1805; Rutland township organized in 1812; Lebanon township, organized in 1813; Salem township, organized in 1814; Sutton township, organized 1814.
     From Athens County - Orange township, set off in 1813; Olive township, set off in 1819; Scipio township, set off in 1819; Columbia township, set off in 1820; Bedford, including Chester, township, set off in 1821.

NAMES OF HEADS OF FAMILIES IN LEBANON,
LETART, AND SUTTON TOWNSHIPS, OHIO, 1820.

     Township boundaries were made anew, or within the limits of the older townships.  Letart township originally extended from the mouth of Shade river to the mouth of Kerr's run and out of its territory the townships of Lebanon and Sutton were formed.
     Salisbury township originally embraced territory as far north as Ross county, but such portions of the township as were within the boundaries of Meigs county were divided into Rutland township, Salem township, and a township remaining Salisbury.  Deeds of land are recorded according to the nomenclature of the Ohio Company's surveys.
     Ohio, having been admitted into the Union in 1802, it followed that a constitutional convention should be called to prepare a constitution for the new state, therefore, electors, or delegates, were elected according to the regulations given by the Congress of the United States, and according to the Ordinance of 1787, for the Northwest Territory, eliminating only one claim of that ordinance, viz: the property qualifications from the counties its boundaries.
     The Constitutional Convention was composed of thirty-five members.  Washington county was entitled to four delegates, as follows:  Rufus Putnam, Ephraim Cutler, Benjamin Ives Gilman, and John McIntyre.  This convention assembled at Chillicothe, Nov. 1st, 1802, and adjourned Nov. 29th, 1802.  That assembly formed Gallia county by a law that was to come in force April 30th, 1803, by a division of Washington county, with specified boundaries, but it was bounded on the west by Scioto county until 1816.  Athens county was formed March 1st, 1805, and was bounded on the south by Gallia county until Jan. 7th, 1807.  The boundary of the south of Athens county was changed to take a portion on which Chester is located, from Gallia, and add it to Athens county, where it remained until the formation of Meigs county, April 1st, 1819.
     An act of legislature authorizing associate judges to divide the counties into townships was made May 10th, 1803.  In accordance therewith Gallia county was divided into three townships - Gallipolis, Kerr's, and Letart.
     The same act of the legislature authorized the associate judges to appoint justices of the peace for each of the aforesaid townships.  Robert Safford and George W. Putnam were appointed for Gallipolis township.  In Letart township an election of justice of the peace was to be held in the house of Henry Roush - one justice of the peace for Letart township.  For Kerr's township one justice of the peace was to be elected, and the election to be held in the house of William Robinson  Another act of the legislature creating a board of county commissioners came into force March 1st, 1804.  The commissioners aforesaid on the 11th of June, 1805, proceeded to re-divide the county of Gallia into townships, recognizing the boundaries of Letart, but abolishing that of Kerr's, and forming a new township by the name of Salisbury and establishing its boundaries as follows:  Beginning on the Ohio river in the Thirteenth range of townships at the southeast corner of 100-acre lot No. 376; thence west with the south line of said lot to the southwest corner of the same; thence north to the southeast corner of Section No. 10, in Range No. 14, of Township No. 5; thence north to the northwest corner of Township No. 5, in the Fourteenth range; thence west to the county line; thence north to the northwest of the county; thence east until it intersects the line between Kerr's and Letart; thence with the same to the Ohio river; thence down to the place of beginning.
     The first election for township officers for Salisbury township was held in the house of Brewster Higley, Esq., July 27th, 1805.
     Trustees Elected. - Hamilton Kerr, James G. Phelps, Felix Benedict.
     Overseers of the Poor - John Niswonger, William Parker,
     Fence Viewers - Samuel Denny, David Thomas.
     Appraisers of Houses and Listers - William Parker, Jr., Benjamin Smith.
     Supervisors of Highways - William Green, Abijah Hubbell, John Niswonger.
     Constables - James Smith, Jared Strong
     Treasurer - Joel Higley, Jr.
     Clerk - Abel Larkin

     In accordance with the above order, John Niswonger and Horatio Strong were elected justices of the peace for Salisbury township, July 27th, 1805.
     The names of the first settlers in the territory included in Meigs county and the dates of their arrival, as follows:

     The electors for Governor of Ohio, 1805, in Salisbury township, were the following:
     John Hilverson, James E. Phelps, John Niswonger, Elam Higley, William Sparks, Brewster Higley, Daniel Strong, Caleb Gardner, Cornelius Thomas, John Miles, William Green, Nimrod Hysell, Stephen Strong, Jared Strong, William Barker, Daniel Rathburn, Samuel Denny, Hamilton Kerr, Thomas Shephard, Benjamin Williams, Horatio Strong, Joel Higley, 1st, James Smith, William Spencer, Joel Highley, Jr., Abel Larkin, Samuel Ervin, Felix Benedict.
     The state elections for Governors and state officers were held on the second Tuesday in October, 1802, and until November, 1886, when , by a constitutional provision, the time was altered to conform to the time of holding elections for the Presidents of the United States.
     Three road districts were made in Salisbury township in 1806 and the following supervisors elected, namely:
     First District: Benjamin Smith, supervisor.  He made returns for work done in 1806 to the trustees in 1807.
     Second District: Daniel Rathburn, supervisor.  He made returns for work done in 1806 to the trustees in 1807.
     Third District: John Miles supervisor.  Returns made in 1807 for work done in 1806.  The work on the highways was to pay a road tax.  By a law of 1804 every male person over 18 years of age to do three days work on the public roads.  The trustees of Salisbury township levied a tax to be worked out at sixty-two and one-half cents a day.
     Rutland township was organized in 1812, being formed out of territory embraced by Salisbury township, Gallia county, and consisted of Township 6, Range 14, of the Ohio Company's purchase.  This township 6 was divided by the original land company into thirty-six square miles, or sections of 640 acres each, commencing to number them at the southeast corner, running north.  Three sections were secured to Congress, namely:  Nos. 8, 11, and 26.  For ministerial purposes No. 29, and for school purposes No. 16, making in all five sections.  Nine sections near the center of the township were cut up into fractions of 262 acres each, as follows:  Nos. 9, 10, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, leaving twenty-two whole sections and twenty-two fractions for the company.  The fractions in Rutland township are numbered so as to correspond with the sections belonging to the company, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.  Six sections were added after the formation of Meigs county, Apr. 1st, were added after the formation of Meigs county, Apr. 1st, 1819, and are an important addition to Rutland township.  Among the pioneers who settled on this tier of sections were Joel Highley, Jr., James E. Phelp, Daniel Rathburn, and Benjamin Williams, all from Granby, Connecticut, in 1803.
     In looking back to the days when Salisbury township extended from Kerr's run westward to Ross county, we have introduced a list of some supervisors of roads, and after giving names, dates and returns, find it interesting to describe the boundaries of one or two road districts, viz, of Daniel Rathburn, Second district, ordered to do work, beginning at Widow Case's, down to the Butternut rock, when he thought most proper, this being highway tax for the year 1806:
     Daniel Rathburn, $2.15; Joel Higley, $1.95; Brewster Higley, $2.65; Abel Larkin, $1.15; Luke Brine, 85 cents; Joel Higley, Jr., $1.45; James E. Phelps, $2.05; Shubael Nobles, $1.05; Esquire Bullock, $1.35; Eli Stedman, $1.15; Benjamin Williams, 75 cents; Elam Higley, 75 cents; Jesse Fleshman, $1.55; Jesse Carpenter, 85 cents; Edward Faller, $1.65; Moses Russell, $1.85; Martin Roup, $1.65; William Sparks, 95 cents; William Campbell, 85 cents; Nicholas Sins, $1.55; _____ Stillwell, $1.55; Amos Carpenter, 75 cents.
                                                                                                        JOEL HIGLEY,
                                                                                                        JAMES E. PHELPS,
                                                                                                                           Trustees.
     October 15th, 1806.
     John Miles, supervisor of the Third road district in Salisbury township, highway taxes for the year 1806, the district beginning at the Widow Case's, up the road to the 7-mile tree:
     William Spencer, 95 cents; Abijah Hubbell, $1.35; John Miles, $1.55; Caleb Gardner, $1.65; Erastus Stow, $1.15; William Parker, Jr. $1.55; Thomas Shepherd, $1.35; Thomas Everton, 85 cents' Felix Benedict $1.15.
                                                                                                         WILLIAM PARKER,
                                                                                                          JAMES E. PHELPS,
                                                                                                          JOEL HIGLEY, JR.,
                                                                                                                                   Trustees.

     The Widow Case mentioned in the boundaries of the Second and Third road districts lived where the late lamented Virgil C. Smith afterwards lived.  Mrs. Case was his maternal grandmother, who subsequently married Abijah Hubbel, Sr.  She was the widow of John Case, mentioned, also, in the account of the settlement of Brewster Highley.  Mr. Case had gone back to Vermont, and in company with his friend and neighbor, Noah Smith, started for Ohio.  Mr. Case had a young wife, and Mr. Smith had a wife and three or four daughters, and son 3½ years old.  After journeying on the road from Philadelphia as far as Carlisle, in Cumberland county, Noah Smith suddenly died.  His family went on with Mr. Case until reaching a little town West Liberty, the county seat of Ohio county, West Virginia, where John Case suddenly died, and where Mrs. Case gave birth to a daughter - her first child, who was named Eliza.  As soon as these conditions were known by Brewster Highley he went to their relief and brought them all to Leading creek.  Mrs. Smith settled on land bought of Samuel Denny, on the west side of the creek, and Mrs. Case settled on the east side of the same stream, and nearly opposite Mrs. Smith  There she brought up her daughter, Eliza, and the Smith family were reared, so in the later years Livingston Smith and Eliza Case were married, reared a respectable family, and died, after living to a good old age. 
     The Butternut rock is on the west side of Leading creek, half a mile above the mouth of Thomas fork.  The 7-mile tree is thought to be on the road up Leading creek on the road traveled to Scioto salt furnaces, but the exact place is unknown - probably about Langsville.

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >