|
< CLICK HERE TO
RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >
SKETCH OF EARLY HISTORY
by Luther Hecox
Pg. 63
Thurman Hecox and family moved from
the Whetstone Witestone, New York, to Newbury
in Ohio, between the Big Hocking and Little Hocking rivers in August, 1800, and
the same year moved up the Hocking river four miles into Troy township. The next year, 1801,
they planted corn on the George Acklely
farm and one day when they were hoeing corn they killed five rattlesnakes,
not until Mr. Hecox had been bitten
by one. They had to go up the Muskingum
river four miles above Marietta
to a floating mill in summer; in winter they lived on boiled corn and turnips. Their meat was venison. The nearest neighbor was
Mr. Humphrey, who lived on what is known as Waterman’s hill. Another neighbor was
Mr. Sutton, a trapper. In 1803 they moved to the
middle branch of Shade river, to No. 4, in Troy township. They moved with an ox
sled and two yoke of oxen, the first team that ever went through Tupper’s
Plains.
David Daily drove the hogs, and as
they tired out he had to camp in the woods with them to keep the wolves from
killing them.
David Daily was a Revolutionary Soldier.
Nathan Burris was the first family to
settle on the middle branch of Shade river, one mile above where
Levi Stedman built his first mill.
Solomon Burris, an uncle to Nathan
Burris, lived there.
Mr. Longworth and
Mr. Stone settled on Congress land,
and Jacob Cowdery settled on the
middle branch, at the mouth of the west branch of Shade river, above
Stedman’s mill.
Levi Stedman and Peter Grow lived
in Gallia county, half a mile below the line between the two counties. Afterward they got one section annexed to
Athens county, which then ran no farther than the
Orange township line, with the exception of one section which belonged to
Gallia county. This line runs
east to the Ohio river, near the mouth of a
small stream called Indian run.
Samuel Branch came next with his
family and located on the east side of the middle branch of Shade river, and
Ezra Hoyt came about the same time.
Jacob Rice settled on the west side of the west branch in 1806. Mr.
Kingsbury took land on the first fork of the west branch of Shade river,
which is known as Kingsbury, after the name of the first settler. He was a brother-in-law to
Levi Stedman. The first organization of militia was in
1805.
Thurman Hecox was elected captain and
Josiah Guthrie first lieutenant. He lived in No.
5, Jacob Halsey and a man named
Lasley lived on the middle branch of
Shade river. They hauled grain to the
mouth of Hocking, there loaded in canoes and pushed up to the floating mill on
the Muskingum river above Marietta, a trip that took nine days to go and return. There were no stores nearer than
Marietta
or Gallipolis. Prices were high –
sixty-two and one-half cents for prints, the same for brown sheeting, and tea
was two dollars a pound. Bears, panthers,
wolves and deer were plenty, also small game.
Wild turkeys were seen in flocks of hundreds. Mr.
Hecox killed a bear that weighed four hundred pounds when dressed.
William and Heptha Hecox were in
the woods and treed a half-grown bear.
Jeptha ran home to get an ax, or a
gun, and left William and the dogs to
watch the bear. While he was gone the
bear came down the tree, the dogs seized him, and
William took a pine knot and struck him in the head and killed him. Levi Stedman had his hog pen near his house and one night he was away and a bear came
into the pen to get a hog, but Mrs. Stedman threw a firebrand at him from the window and frightened him away.
Cyrus Cowdery killed an elk, the last one seen in these parts.
John Sloan was hunting deer one day when his dogs treed a panther. He shot and wounded it, when it came at
him; the dogs caught hold, and Sloan
declares that he “shot the animal nine times before he killed it.” In the year 1804
Mr. Hecox bought a pair of hand-mill
stones, on which they ground wheat and corn, and sifted it through a buckskin
sieve.
Levi Stedman built a log mill on what is now Chester, and put Mr. Hecox’s hand mill stones in his mill until he could get larger ones. These pioneers had to go to the Scioto river to obtain salt, a journey of seventy miles, and paid two dollars
a bushel for the salt. There was only a
horse-path for travel, and carried by pack horses the salt, the party camping
out at night. Later roads were made for
the sue of carts and oxen. They went to
Marietta for all mail matter until 1812. There was a mail route opened from
Parkersburg to Point Pleasant
running through by Stedman’s Mill. Levi Stedman was appointed Postmaster, he was also the first Justice of the Peace, and
Thurman Hecox was Constable. These men filled these offices for a
number of years, without opposition.
Levi Stedman opened a store, carried
on farming, ran a saw and grist mill, kept a tavern, and owned a distillery. Wool had to be carded, spun and woven by
hand, flax was raised, and manufactured into cloth, for wearing apparel. Some men had suits of dressed deerskin. The first preaching was at
Nathan Burris’ house, and next by
Rev. Eli Stedman at
Samuel Branch’s. Afterward they had occasional preaching by
different denominations. In 1820,
Elisha Rathburn was the preacher, and
a goodly number experienced religion and united with the Bible Christian Church. The first school-house was built on
Samuel Branch’s land, and the first
teacher there was Miss Pratt, who
lived on Pratt’s fork, a mile up the
river.
William and Benjamin Bellows were settlers in
this neighborhood, until William sold
out to Caleb Cartwright, a preacher of the Seventh Day Baptist.
The name of
Stedman occurs so frequently that an explanation is in order. From
Walker’s History of Athens, we take the statement: “Alexander
Stedman, a native of Vermont, and by
profession an artisan, settled in Rome
township in 1804. In 1805, he was
appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and served in that position
several years. One of his sons was
Eli Stedman, a minister. Another son was
Levi Stedman, a Commissioner of Athens county, and for a short time in Meigs. Bial Stedman married Sally Foster in 1811,”
and had sons and daughters.
Capt. Julius C. Stedman, a son of
Bial Stedman, was a soldier in the
Mexican War, and a soldier in 116th
Ohio V. I. from the first to the close of the
Civil War. He always had a home in or
near Athens.
EXTRACT FROM J. H. STEWART'S SKETCH OF LONGBOTTOM
Pg. 67
Long Bottom is situated
in the eastern part of Meigs county. The first settlers
were Thomas Rairdon and the Colmans, probably
before 1800, as the date is not positively known.
William Buffington bought land in 1808, and several families
came about that time, the Whitesides, Collins' and
others. Thomas Rairdon built the first grist mill
in 1815. The first postoffice was kept on the Warner
farm in 1815. Robert Collins, Postmater.
The first Methodist Church was built in 1844. The first
Christian Church in 1847, and the first store was kept by
John Roberts and William hicks in 1839, near the
mouth of Forked run. J. H. Stewart came to Long
Bottom in 1830. The leading business of the place has been
the working up of a splendid forest into staves, and the
manufacture of various kinds of casks. In 1819, this
locality was an almost unbroken forest."
Lebanon township was formed in 1813, taken out of
Letart township, and possesses a greater river boundary than any
other township in Meigs county. Trees of great size, and
timber of the finest quality, covered the rich bottom lands of
the Ohio river and the creeks of Old Town and Groundhog, while
the hills bore the best yellow pine and spruce for lumber.
The sugar maple, hickory, black oak and white oak, poplar, beech
and sycamore excelled in size and quality any forests of Europe.
The black walnut, white walnut and wild cherry were favorite
woods for the manufacture of furniture, and for inside work of
the best houses. Black walnut and cherry were used
particularly for the making of coffins in those early days.
So these trees of Lebanon had special attractions to the
commercial eyes of later emigrants. More than one farm was
paid for by the cordwood cut and sold to steamboats for fuel,
when steamboats first ran on the Ohio river. Besides the
trees, were growths of wild fruits, crab apples, red and black
hawes, raspberries and blackberries, and two or three varieties
of grapes, and not least in profusion, beauty or lusciousness,
was the papaw. There were herbs and roots used for
medicinal purposes, and collected to sell for money.
Ginseng, snakeroot and nervine, or ladies' slipper, grew in
abundance in the shade of the great trees. Two remarkable
trees are worthy of notice. One, a monster sycamore on Old
Town creek not far from the mouth of the stream. It was
hollow, and made a home for a family once, afterwards served as
a stable for horses. The other tree was a sycamore, and
hollow, and stood on the bottom land of N. Bicknell's
farm in Great Bend.
DR. PHILIP
LAUCK and REV. EZRA GROVER
came from Eastern Virginia with their families in 1813 and
bought a fine tract of land in Lebanon township, on the Ohio
river bottom. Rev. Grover was a Methodist preacher,
but was superannuated from the Baltimore Conference.
Dr. Lauck was his son-in-law by marriage and had an
extensive and successful practice, which took him away from home
much of the time, so that the care of his growing family, and of
the making of a farm out of the wilderness developed upon Father
Grover and Mrs. Lauck. Rev. Grover was a
good preacher, a zealous Christian and an able defender of the
faith, as held by Methodism. They opened their door for
public preaching, and many a wary itinerant was cheered by their
hospitality. Dr. Lauck died comparatively young,
leaving a widow and six children. The sons, Isaac, Ezra,
and Simon; the daughters, Mary Ann, Hannah and
Elizabeth. Isaac Lauck married Nancy Hall, and
Ezra Lauck married her sister,
Rachel Hall, of Old Town. they moved to Missouri
many years ago. Mary Ann Lauck died of consumption
in early womanhood, Hannah Lauck married Nicholas
Richardson, son of a Scotch family who came to Sterling
Bottom. Elizabeth Lauck was married to James Amsden,
a highly respected man, who took charge of the farm, and the
family after the death of Father Grover in 1835.
In 1811, a company of Scotch from Glasgow, Scotland,
through the influence of Nathan Ward of the Ohio
Company's Land Purchase, emigrated to Ohio, and settling on
Sterling Bottom, named for the "land of the heather."
George Richardson, the Pattersons, McCoys and others.
Dissatisfaction, discontent, homesickness and death served to
break up and scatter the company. Only Mr. George
Richardson remained, and he was a merchant and capable of
adapting himself to the primitive conditions of the country.
Mrs. Richardson was a native of Antigua, one of the British
West Indies, and had inherited slaves and plantation interests,
but England freed the slaves, and much of the riches vanished.
They had a family, one daughter, Eliza Richardson.
Nicholas Richardson, the eldest son, married Hannah Lauck.
George, Jr., and other children names unknown. The
Richardsons left Sterling Bottom some time in the
30's.
PHILIP BUFFINGTON
purchased the
Island of Duvol in 1796, ever since known as Buffington's
Island. Joseph Buffington came from Hampshire
county, Virginia, in 1814, bought a farm, Jacob Buffington
also, located on the Ohio bottoms, opposite and below the
island. They both had large families of sons and
daughters. They were well-to-do, industrious, hospitable
people - good neighbors.
THE PICTURED ROCKS OF
ANTIQUITY.
Pg. 69
The rock of Antiquity
is so called from the fact that the earliest settlers found
engraven on its face inscriptions and figures of ancient date.
These consisted of names of persons not English; also the figure
of an Indian cut in the face of the rock. HE was
represented as in a squatting position, his right elbow on his
knew, with a tomahawk pipe in his mouth. Dr. Fuller
Elliot, a man of much learning, thought that these
inscriptions were made by a party of Frenchmen who descended the
river after the evacuation of Fort Duquesne - now Pittsburg, as
the date on the rock seemed to correspond with that event.
The inscriptions are now obliterated.
The rock in question is situated about four miles below
Letart Falls, and is detached from a confused mass of rocs that
have fallen from the cliff above. The village of Antiquity
takes its name from this rock. - Silas Jones.
Comments on the Foregoing by Stillman C. Larkin.
The opinion of Judge
Elliot (who at an early period lived near the noted rock,
and saw the inscriptions), that they were made by a party of
Frenchmen, is doubtless correct. But what particular party
did the work is not so clear. The English and French
nations were contending for many years by diplomacy, and by
wars, to secure teh title and possession of the Ohio Valley, and
were not slack in employing every available means to strengthen
their claims. In a history of the Kanawha Valley by
Professor V. A. Wilson, is the following:
"In 1748, the British
Parliament passed laws authorizing the formation of many new
settlements and issuing land grants for the settlement of the
upper Ohio. In view of such aggression the Governor
General of Canada, by order of his home government, determined
to place along the 'Oyo,' or La Belle Riviere, a number of
leaden plates suitably inscribed, asserting the claims of France
to lands on both sides of the river, even to the source of the
tributaries. The command consisted of eight subaltern
officers, six cadets, 180 Canadians and 55 Indians, an armorer,
20 soldiers, 270 men in all.
The expedition left Montreal on the 15th of June, 1749,
and on the 29th reached the junction of the Monongahela and the
Allegheny rivers, where the first plate was buried. The
expedition then descended the river depositing plates at the
mouths of the principal tributaries, and on the 18th of August
they reached the mouth of the Great Kanawha and on the point
between the rivers the fifth plate was buried. It was
found in 1846 by a son of John Beale
of Mason county, West Virginia, and was removed from the
spot where it had lain for ninety-seven years.
From the mouth of the Great Kanawha the voyage was
continued down the river depositing plates until they reached
the mouth of the Great Miami, where they buried the sixth and
last plate, Aug. 30th, 1749, and returned to Montreal by way of
Maumee." It being the business of this company to
establish monuments of ownership, it seems reasonable to suppose
that they might have made the inscriptions on the rock at
Antiquity, a historic monument worthy of giving name to that
enterprising village of Antiquity. S. C. L.
Dr. Fuller Elliott
was the son of
Aaron Elliot and wife Lydia, and was born in Sutton,
MAssachusetts. He was a university graduate, and chose the
profession of medicine. Fuller Elliot was an agent,
and possibly a stockholder in the Ohio Company's Purchase, as
the county records show his name in the making of deeds of lands
in 1792 to purchasers of lands situated in Washington and Gallia
counties. He entered land for himself in 1805, 277 acres,
and again in 1817, 648 acres in Letart township.
Fuller Elliot was a man of high character and rare
attainment, and locating in Letart at that early date; was
prominent in helping to organize townships, and in all matters
pertaining to public interest and benefit. He was
appointed Associate Judge of Gallia, and afterwards of Meigs
county. He was elected to the Legislature of Ohio, in all
offices serving with fidelity to the people, and honor to
himself. He married a daughter of Seth Jones
who lived near, and came to Letart about the same time.
Judge Elliot and wife had a large family. Mary
Elliot the eldest daughter, was born June 7, 1803, and was
married to John Weldon. Mrs. Weldon spent most of
her married life not far from her father's home, and reared a
numerous family. Serena Elliot, another daughter,
married - Swearingen and moved to West Virginia.
Decatur S. Elliot married Parma Sherwood,
and resided in West Virginia, Graham Station. They had a
number of children. Decatur Elliot and two or three
of his sons were soldiers in the Civil War to preserve the
Union.
Philip Elliot, a son of Fuller Elliot,
married Serena Myers, and had four children- Martha,
Eliza, Thornton J. and Benjamin He had served
as lieutenant in the militia, but died young.
Thornton J. Elliot, a son of Philip Elliot,
served in the Civil War, and won honorable distinction and
promotions for bravery and irreproachable conduct during the War
for the Union.
In his later life Judge Elliot resumed the
practice of medicine until his death which occurred in 1832, at
the age of 60 years.
JAMES SMITH, Sr., removed from Marietta, and located above the
mouth of Leading Creek in the spring of 1797. He died May
8th, 1817. His wife was Elizabeth Mack, who died
Aug. 9th, 1821, aged 77 years. He was 73 years of age.
Their children were: Benjamin Smith, Esq.,
born Oct. 1st, 1770, and married Alma Barker, a daughter
of Judge Isaac Barker, of Athens, O.
Their children were five sons and four daughters.
Benjamin Smith, Sr. died Aug. 7th, 1836, aged 66
years.
Mrs. Smith died Aug. 29th, 1831, aged 54 years 8
months 11 days.
John, James, Benjamin, Baker and Sardine
(the sons, and Polly, Elizabeth, Catharine and Rhoda
and Amy, daughters, of Benjamin Smith, Sr.
John N. Smith lived and died in Middleport, Meigs
county.
James Smith married Eliza Murray of
Rutland, and emigrated to Arkansas where they both died.
Benjamin Smith, second, a native of Salisbury,
born in 1814, and died on May 12th, 1887, aged 83 years.
Baker Smith settled on the West Branch of Thomas
Fork creek.
Sardine Smith lived on Hysell run.
Polly Smith was married to John Harris.
Elizabeth Smith, wife of Dr. William an Duyn.
Catharine Smith was married to Hamilton Murray.
Rhoda Smith became the wife of Nial R. Nye.
Amy Smith was Mrs. Dr. Abel Phelps.
James Smith, Jr., married Sally Hubbell,
sister of Capt. Jesse Hubbell. He died Aug. 8th,
1844, aged 61 years 6 months.
Mrs. Smith died April 20th, 1861, aged 61 years.
Esquire John Smith married Betsy Monroe
and lived on the old homestead. He died in 1872.
They had a numerous family of sons and daughters.
The daughters were: Polly, Mrs. Stone, of
Washington county, O.; Betsy, Mrs. Russell; Catharine, Mrs.
Fulsom; Jane, Mrs. Erastus Stow.
Mr. Stow died in 1842, and Mrs. Stow died in
1870.
The STOW family:
Eliza, married Dr. Augustus Watkins.
Euretta Stow was married to Franklin Knight,
of Chester, Meigs county.
Mary Stow was married to David R. Jacobs,
and resided in Pomeroy.
James Smith Stow, born July,
1806, went to Washington county, and died there in 1895, aged 89
years 1 month.
John Stow went to California -
to Mississippi with a boat of produce, and died in the south
among strangers.
Erastus Stow married
Lucretia Whaley and lived on the old Stow farm.
He was a soldier in the Civil War until its close, when he
returned home and died. Mrs. Stow died Dec. 18th,
1895. They had a family.
LUKE BRINE
moved with his family from Rutland, Vermont, to Leading Creek in
1805. He bought a farm near New Lima. He sold his
farm to Horace Holt in 1824 or '25, and moved to Marion
county, O. His children were three sons and three
daughters.
Jonathan Brine, a son, married Elizabeth Bobo,
of Athens county, O. He was an ordained minister of the
Christian Church. They had a numerous family. One
daughter, Eliza H., was married to B. F. Stivers a
blacksmith, who lived in Pomeroy.
Luman Brine was born in Rutland, O., in 1806.
He married Lena Sylvester, and had a family of children.
Lumon Brine died April 16th, 1879. His widow lived
on the home farm with her son-in-law, Harvey Stansbury,
until her death in October, 1887, aged 81 years, 7 months, 18
days.
Almon Brine lived in Indiana, and died there.
Betsy Brine married William Gaston.
Sophia Brine was the wife of William Larue.
Semela Brine was the first wife of John Gaston.
THOMAS GASTON was a native of New England, and served seven
years in the Revolutionary Army. He moved with his family
to the State of New York, and afterwards, induced by liberal
grants of land, emigrated to Canada. But on account of
conscription measures by the British government and the
unfriendly feeling existing between that government and the
United States, he disposed of his property there at a sacrifice
and with others in like condition left Canada, and came to Ohio,
landing at Silver run, Gallia county, in 1807. He was a
millwright, and moved to the Higley Mills. Later he bought
a farm near New Lima, where he spent his remaining days.
He was a member of the Regular Baptist Church, and preached
occasionally. Mr. Gaston and his wife had a large
family. He was a man highly esteemed by all who knew him.
He died in 1823 and was buried in the Miles graveyard.
Mrs. Gaston died some years after, while with
some relatives in Indiana. Their children are:
Jared Gaston, married Sally Stivers.
Anson Gaston married Lucretia Holt.
William Gaston married Betsy Brine.
Jonathan Gaston's wife was Selusia Morton.
John Gaston was married twice; his first wife was
Semelia Brine, and for his second wife Lydia Larue,
who was born Mar. 6, 1806.
Her parents were Jacob Larue and Sally
Gardner, who were married in the Block House at Marietta
four or five years Larue, was a French Huguenot. Mrs.
Lydia Gaston was married a second time, to Thomas Wood,
who died in 1876, while Mrs. Wood continued to live in
the old Gaston homestead until her death in 1893.
James Gaston married Mary Woodworth, in
Canada.
Thomas Gaston, second, died when quite a young
man.
Elijah Gaston married Samantha Woodworth
and emigrated to the West. The daughters were: Hannah,
Mrs. Joseph Richardson; Polly, Mrs. Joseph Skinner.
All are dead, 1893. Roena.
FREDERICK HYSELL
was
a soldier of the Revolution and came from eastern Virginia to
Ohio in 1805, to the lower part of Gallia county, but afterwards
moved to Salisbury township, in what is known now as Middleport.
He married Nancy Smith, and they had sons and daughters.
Mr. Hysell died at a good old age, and his wife died in
1823.
Their children: Edward Hysell lived on a farm in
Salisbury township. Catharine, Mrs. Jason Tomas,
settled in lower Rutland township. Elizabeth, Mrs.
George Hoppes, lived in Salisbury, near Bradbury.
Margaret, Mrs. Anthony Hysell, lived on Thomas fork.
Francis Hysell married Nancy Dodson and lived on a
farm on Hysell run. Smith Hysell married
Elizabeth Hunter and lived in Salisbury township.
John C. Hysell enjoyed the confidence of his fellow
citizens. He was township clerk seven years and served as
justice of the peace for Salisbury eight years and for Rutland
twelve years - twenty years entitled him to be "Squire
Hysell always. He was county commissioner one term,
when the court house was built at Pomeroy, and superintended the
same. He belonged to the Christian church in Rutland, and
was an active, useful elder for many years. His wife was
Miss Jane Bailey.
Nancy Hysell, a daughter of Frederic Hysell,
was married to Enoch Murray and lived on Thomas Fork.
She died in 1892 or 1893.
James B. Hysell, of Middleport, was a son of
John C. Hysell, a good citizen, held several responsible
offices, was mayor of Middleport, trustee of the Meigs County
Children's Home, and held other positions of honor. He
died in 1906.
JOSHUA
JOHNSON (supposed to be from Portugal) came to Ohio in
very early times, and bought a valuable tract of land in what is
now Scipio township, and included the land where Harrisonville
is located. He was married twice, and of the first
marriage he had one son and two daughters. His second wife
was a sister-in-law of Mr. Trickler, a wealthy farmer of
Gallia county. This marriage was favored by two sons and
one daughter. The eldest son, Isaac, went to a
place near Cincinnati, Ohio; and the sisters, Kate,
Mrs. McHenry, and Milly, Mrs. John Ervin. The
second son, David, married Mrs. Paton, and after a
few years moved to Missouri. James married his
brother Isaacs widow and lived where his father did.
The third daughter, Polly Johnson, was a maiden lady,
taught school in Ohio and in Missouri. She was a much
respected and enterprising woman, and uring the excitement
caused by the discovery of good in California she emigrated with
some relatives from Missouri to the gold fields, where it is
supposed that she died.
LEONARD
HEDRICK was born in North Carolina May 14th, 1784, and
came to Marietta, Ohio, in 1800, and went on the first ship
commanded by Captain James Merrill as a cabin boy to the
ocean. When he returned, he married Elizabeth Loucks,
of Gallia county, but settled on his own farm in Scipio
township. Mr. Hedrick was a soldier in the War of
1812 and served under Colonel Robert Safford in the
Northwest campaign. Mrs. Hedrick was born Feb. 3rd,
1786. Their children were: Margaret, born
Feb. 2nd, 1810, married ---- Camp, who died in a few years after
the marriage; she died in Rutland, Dec. 14th, 1891, aged
eighty6-one years, ten months. Mary, born Dec.
15th, 1811, married Stillman C. Larkin, Nov. 21st, 1837,
and died in the Larkin homestead, May 30th, 1904, aged
ninety-two years, five months, fifteen days. Catharine,
born Sept. 25th, 1816, married James Misner, who died
many years ago. Mrs. Misner has lived in Point
Pleasant, W. Va. Sally, born Oct. 17th, 1818,
married David Forrest and lived in Scipio township.
William, the only son, June 29th, 1824, lives on a part
of his father's farm. Malinda, daughter of Mrs.
Camp, moved to West Virginia, married W. Starkey.
Mr. Lemuel Hedrick died Mar. 29th, 1861, aged seventy-six
years and ten months. Mrs. Hedrick died Mar. 4th,
1870, aged eighty-four years and one month.
Mr. Hedrick was a good citizen, reliable and
industrious.
AARON HOLT came originally from
near Hartford, Conn., but after the Revolutionary War was
induced, like many others, to go to Canada for cheap lands, but
became dissatisfied and removed with his family to Rutland,
Ohio, in 8107. His son, Horace Holt, was born Oct.
7th, 1798, in Connecticut, near Hartford, He married
Malinda Bellows, daughter of Benjamin Bellows, of
Rutland, Ohio, Jan. 1st, 1824. They had a family of five
children: Columbus B. Holt, Nial N., Electa, Mrs. John
Stansbury, died many years ago; John B. Holt and
Lovina, Mrs. S. D. Webb. Horace Holt died in Rutland,
Ohio, Mar. 6th, 1885, aged eighty-six years. Mrs. Holt,
nee Malinda Bellows, was born Sept. 4th, 1805, in Belpre,
Ohio, and came with her father's family to Rutland in 1822.
She died May 20th, 1893, aged eighty-seven years, six months and
twenty-five days. She was much respected for her
benevolence and Christian character.
William Bellows, a son of
Benjamin Bellows, was born June 1st, 1816, and married
Amelia Flynn, daughter of Thomas Flynn and wife, who
were early settlers of Lebanon township. They had a large
family. He was killed in a runaway of frightened horses
Aug. 18th, 1893, aged seventy-seven years two months. Mrs.
Amelia Bellows was born Sept., 1817, and died Dec. 16th,
1895, aged seventy-eight years three months. They had
lived a married life of fifty-six years, respected by their
neighbors and the community.
The
manufacture of weavers
reeds was commenced and carried on by
HORACE HOLT
in Rutland township, Ohio, from 1823 until his death, Mar. 1`st
1885. The history of this industry, as well as that of the
man who prosecuted the business, is worth a page of careful
record. When a young man, Mr. Holt went to the
Wabash country, in Indiana, and was taken sick, and while
convalescent he found an old weaver's reed, which he unraveled
to find how it was constructed. This led to a knowledge of
the canes from which the splits were made. Returning to
Rutland, he began in earnest to make weavers reeds. He
obtained the canes from Mississippi by sending men down the
river to cut canes, convey them to the river and to purchase
boats to load with these and bring them to Leading creek, a
tedious and expensive enterprise. Mr. Holt, seeing
the need of a proper machine for making the splits, made such a
one, which worked well, and went to Washington, D. C., and
obtained a patent. He went in a two-horse wagon, laden
with reeds to sell on the way as well as to take his model for a
patent, to the city of Washington. In 1831 he began to
manufacture reeds on a large scale. The sale of reeds had
been by peddlers in wagons, traveling over the country and
taking store goods in return for the reeds. That began the
stores for the firm. Mr. Holt employed his
brother-in-law, John Rightmire, who was a blacksmith, to
make his machines, so that he secured complete control of the
weavers reeds manufacture. It is claimed that at one
period of time his was the only reed factory in the United
States or Canada. His books show that he had made 300,000
reeds, that brought about $200,000. Mr. Holt paid
good wages and treated his employes fairly, and his business was
a great advantage to the community, as it furnished remunerative
employment for many young women who otherwise could have earned
but little. Mr. Holt was of commanding figure and
had a giant's strength. He engaged in other kinds of
business besides the making of reeds. In a partnership
with Mr. Clem. Church they built the first steam
gristmill in Rutland township the first thrashing machine.
Before the Civil War he was an abolitionist, and his place was a
station on the "underground railroad." A member of the
Universalist Church, he was exemplary in speech and honorable in
business habits, never using intoxicating liquors or tobacco,
and in his last years he was a prohibitionist. He sold the
reed manufacturing business to his son, John B. Holt.
Meigs county is the richer for having had such an
enterprising citizen.
PETER LALANCE came from France
with his widowed mother and sister about 1788 to Marietta, Ohio,
and lived in the stockade at Harmar. The sister was
married to Robert Warth, who was killed by the Indians
just out side of the fort, leaving a wife and one child,
Robert Warth, Jr. Peter Lalance was a comrade
of the Warth brothers on their voyage down the Ohio river
to Gallipolis, or French Town, as the Americans called it.
The Warths, George and John, were carrying United
States mail in their canoes, and young Lalance was a
companion. The company had to stop over night each trip,
not being able to go all of the distance in one day, and the
place for stopping was at Jacob Roush's, near or at
Graham's Station, Va. Mr. Roush owned a farm
and slaves. He had a family and, as the story goes, a
handsome daughter, whose beauty captivated the heart of Peter
Lalance, but he kept his secret until meeting his mother,
when he described mam'selle to her. "She's very pretty,"
summed up his account. "Bring her here," said his mother;
"I can teach her." So, with such permission, he asked
Mr. Roush is he might woo his daughter. "If she is
willing," was the father's consent, for up to this time the
ardent lover had not ventured to propose to the girl.
Matters were arranged for mam'selle to go to Marietta on the
"mail boat," a trusty colored man to accompany the young woman
for her protection. Madame Lalance received her
graciously, and afterwards she was married at her father's house
to Peter Lalance. He located a farm below
Bowman's run, in Ohio, and reared a large family.
Communicated by Mrs. Cynthia Philson, of Racine, Ohio.
MRS. MARY LASHER was a daughter
of Aaron Holt, and his wife, Elizabeth Holt, and
was born in 1803, and came with her parents to Rutland in 1807.
She was married to Charles Chase in 1823, and had a
family of nine children, all of whom she reared to be
respectable and useful citizens. Dr. Owen Case of
the West, and Dr. Lyman Chase, of Albany, were her sons.
After the death of Mr. Chase, she married Mr. John V.
Lasher, of Rutland, with whom she lived in social and
religious harmony until his death, which preceded her own about
two and one-half months.
JOHN V. LASHER was born Aug. 9th, 1799, in
Dutchess county, New York, and married Catharine Martin,
Oct. 24th, 1820. In 1825 they moved to Sullivan county,
New York. In 1835, in company with his brother-in-law,
Frederick Tuckerman, they came to Ohio and settled on a farm
in Rutland township. They had a large family of nine
children: William V., Charles, George V., Margaret, Mrs.
Green; Mary, Mrs. Tuckerman; Beattie, Mrs. Stansbury; Carrie,
Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Catharine Lasher died in 1864.
Afterwards Mr. Lasher married Mrs. Chase, widow of
Charles Chase. Mr. Lasher seems to have
favored all religious and political reforms. First a Whig;
then one of two or three who voted for Birney, the
Liberty Party man, and in his last years for the Prohibition
Party. He died in 1864.
STOW
AND THE WOLVES.
Pg. 81
An incident related by
Mrs. Eliza Watkins, nee Stow. Mr. Erastus Stow,
at an early period, when a young man, was employed by Captain
James Merrill to stay with his family in Salem while he (Captain
Merrill) was taking a vessel from Marietta to the ocean.
Young Stow started with ten bushels of corn to get ground
on the Ohio or Muskingum. After being gone a week, he
returned to the mouth of Leading creek. He then took a
bushel of meal and started for home and walked as far as Mr.
John Miles, where he stopped and borrowed a horse and
proceeded on his way. Before he reached home it became
dark, and wolves began to howl and made an attack on him.
Both he and the horse were frightened. He threw off the
bag of meal, put his feet on the horse's flanks and his arms
around the animal's neck and made all speed to his home.
When he arrived, Mrs. Merrill and the family came out,
having heard the noise, and with firebrands drove the wolves
away. The next day they found the sack of meal, which had
been torn open, but the contents not destroyed.
Such incidents did not often occur, and the people did
not seem to apprehend much danger. Women and children
often went through the woods, hunting servis berries and grapes,
or frequently to hunt the cows, that would often stray from
home, and were seldom molested.
A BRAVE BOY
Pg. 82
An account given by
Mrs. Sarah Torrence of an incident worthy of note was read
at the pioneer meeting in August, 1879, by Mr. A. Gardner.
Mrs. Torrence was a daughter of Mr. John Knight,
who came to Meigs county in 1818. A Mr. John Harris,
who lived in Bedford township, got Mr. Knight's son
Daniel, a lad of only eleven years, to stay with Mrs.
Harris while he made a trip to New Orleans. There were
few families in Bedford township, and it was very lonesome for
the young wife in the small cabin in the woods, where the wolves
were heard nightly. So Mrs. Harris concluded to go
down to her father's, Mr. John Smith, above the mouth of
Leading creek, and a son of Mr. Bissell, who was younger
than Daniel, was engaged to stay and care for the stock.
One night early in March, as these boys were getting in a log to
build a fire in the morning, young Knight slipped, and
the log fell on him, breaking his thigh bone about the middle.
Daniel told the Bissel boy to pull their straw bed
down before the fire. Then he lay flat on his back, with
one hand on each side and the fingers of each hand thrust
through the cracks of the puncheon floor, directing the other
boy to pull at his foot while he held on to the floor, until
they actually set the bone in its place. He had buckskin
pants and took some buckskin thongs and tied above and below the
break, the pants serving as splints. Fortunately, Major
Higley had gone out that day to look after some stock, and
called in to see how the boys were doing and to spend the night
with them, and this was the plight in which he found them.
They had corn bread of their own baking and venison.
Mr. Higley examined the boy's leg and found that it was
broken, and he then mounted his horse and rode to Mr. Knight's,
the father of the boy, at Middleport, who immediately started to
his son in the wilderness, going by way of Chester for Dr.
Robinson to accompany him. They knew the path as far
as Bissell's, but no farther. They arrived there to
find that Mr. Bissell was away from home, but Mrs.
Bissell got out of bed at midnight, had her horse saddled,
and piloted these two men through the dense forest to where the
suffering boy lay, leaving her own little one asleep at home,
and stayed with the boy until Mr. Knight returned and
brought his wife and provisions. Mrs. Knight had to
stay twenty-one days before they could take the boy home.
Those were pioneer times.
|
