OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express

 

Welcome to
Meigs County, Ohio

History & Genealogy

The Pioneer History of Meigs County
by Stillman Carter Larkin
One Volume with Illustrations
Columbus, Ohio:
The Berlin Printing Company
1908
Pgs. 163 - 178

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >

p. 163 -

MRS NOAH SMITH, the mother of Livingston Smith, came from Vermont to Leading Creek, Ohio, with three daughters, besides the son, heretofore mentioned.  They were: Theres, who was married to Eliezer Barker, who was drowned in Leading creek in June, 1813.  She afterwards was Mrs. Laundress Grant.  Jenny Smith married a Mr. Maples.  Nancy Smith became the wife of Captail Jesse Hubbell.

WILLIAM JOHNSON was born in Ireland and married Sally Harmon.  They emigrated to the United States and came to Shade river in Chester township in 1800.  There they made a home, in which they raised a large family.  This was a religious family, and all lived to honor their pious parentage.  Abram Johnson was a local preacher, and Thomas Johnson moved west.  Mary  was the wife of John MilesAdaline, Mrs. Henry Ellis.  Sarah, Mrs. John Wolf.  William Johnson and his wife died in 1836 and 1848.

JOHN ENTSMINTER was born in Virginia in September, 1757, and when but a youth of seventeen years was an active participant in the battle at Point Pleasant under the immediate command of Colonel Charles Lewis.  He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War under General Francis Marion and subsequently under General Morgan.  He fought at the battle of Cowpens.  Many incidents of soldier life were related by him in later years to his children.  Mr. Entsminger was captured by the British at one time, but released on condition that he would go home and fight no more.  A comrade, whose name was Vansant, and he started home, but on the way they came across several Tories who were building a house and who twitted them about having been captured.  They went on a

P. 164 -

 little farther, when Mr. Entsminger said to his comrade, "I wish we had thrashed them," and, going on a little farther, he said "Let's go back and thrash them."  So they turned back and whipped the Tory men, took them prisoners and marched with them to the Continental army and again took up arms and served until the close of the war for independence.   John Entsminger married Jane Reese, Feb. 16th, 1787.  She was born on July 26th, 1759.  They moved with their family from Botetourt county, Va., to Ohio, in the fall of 1797.  They traveled overland, bringing their stock and household goods with them.  They would travel all days and camp at night.  Sometimes stopping a day to cook and bake, when necessary.  They milked their cows, and after using what milk they wanted put the rest of it in the churn, set the churn in the wagon, and the butter was ready to take out when they stopped at night.  They crossed the Ohio river about five miles above where Gallipolis now stands, known then as French Town.  At that time, leaving out the primitive town, there was but one house besides theirs in a radius of ten miles on the Ohio side of the river.  They ground corn on hand mills and went to Logan for flour.  Later they could buy flour from the canoe men who poled their crafts up stream.  Salted bear meat and fresh game supplied their tables.  Although fifty-five years of age, Mr. Entsminger volunteered and served a term under General Tupper in 1812 in the Northeast.  His eldest son, David Entsminger, was a soldier in the War of 1812.  Mr. John Entsminger and his wife had a family of two sons and four daughters.  David, John Lewis.  The daughters were: Mrs. Luther Shepherd, Mrs. John Bing, Mrs. Daniel Grayum and Mrs. David Grayum, who was left a widow with two daughters and two sons.  Henry Grayum served as major in the Civil War; William Grayum was a captain in the Fourth West Virginia from the first to the close of the war in 1865.  Mr. Entsminger felt crowded when the settlers moved into that neighborhood, so he went farther into the wilderness


Stone House Built by Luther Donaldson, a Revolutionary Soldier, the Home of his old age.

Pg. 165 -

and located near where Langsville is now and lived there with his son, John Lewis Entsminger, until the close of his eventful life, on October 10th, 1830, fifty-six years to a day from the celebrated battle of Point Pleasant, aged seventy-eight years.  He was buried in the Miles Cemetery.  Mrs. Jane Entsminger died May 19th, 1830, in the seventy-first years of her age, and is buried in the Miles Cemetery at Rutland, Ohio.

     GEORGE WOLFE, farther of John, Jacob, Peter and Henry Wolfe, came from the Shenandoah valley of Virginia to the rich bottom lands on the Ohio river adjoining the present village of Racine, about 1807 and 1808, date uncertain.  He felled the great trees and toiled hard to clear land for cultivation, and in 1812 his sons, John Wolfe and Jacob Wolfe, with a four-horse covered wagon, came over the Alleghany mountains to inherit the home founded by the father, George Wolfe.  There were two younger brothers, Peter and Henry WolfeJohn Wolfe and Jacob Wolfe built each of them a two-story brick house on the river front of their respective farms and reared large families.  They tilled the land, planted fruit trees and lived to see a numerous posterity grow up around their homes, a quiet honest industrious people.  The Wolfe bottoms have been owned and cultivated by the descendants of George Wolfe for at least one hundred years.  In recent years the families have been distributed over other sections of the country.

     The FIRST REGULAR BAPTIST CHURCH in Rutland was organized on Nov. 27th, 1817, by members signing the covenant, seven men and three women.  Benjamin Richardson, clerk, and Thomas Everton, deacon.  The church was further organized on Oct. 31st, 1818, by the following persons signing the covenant:  Thomas Everton, Asahel Skinner, Anson Gaston, Benjamin, Richardson, Robert Simpson, Relief Everton,

Pg. 166 -

Betsy Richardson, Elizabeth Holt, Thomas Gaston, Jared Gaston, Ebenezer Everton, Laundress Grant, William Stevens, Joseph Richardson, Sally Stevens, Bethiah Simpson.
    
The first preachers were Aaron Holt, Peter Aleshire, Horace Persons and Thomas Gaston.  Afterwards other ministers preached at different times - James Hovey, Amos Stevens and James McAboy.  The brick schoolhouse was used for religious worship by several denominations - the Free Will Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Regular Baptists and Universalists.  The Presbyterians built a church on the lot by the Plummer homestead in 1820, it being the first church erected in Rutland township.  The Regular Baptists built their church in 1838.  Benjamin Richardson gave the lot and did a large share toward building the house.  The first Disciples, or Christian church, in Rutland was built on a lot give by Rev. Elisha Rathburn.

     RUTLAND CEMETERY was surveyed and laid out in lots in 1824 by Samuel Halliday.  The place had been used as a burying ground for a long time, but the interments had been made without regularity, so that it was difficult to make the proper arrangement of the premises when surveyed by Mr. Halliday.  The lots were made 8 by 33 feet in size.  Later, in 1872, the township of Rutland bought of George McQuigg the cemetery ground, which, including the "old graveyard," contains three and three-quarters acres of land.  The size of the new lots, 10 by 24 feet, which are staked and numbered.
     The first burial in what is now Rutland township, from the settlement in 1805, was that of a girl nine years of age and who was buried on the Higley farm, a spot afterwards abandoned, but a family burying place was made on the Higley grounds in subsequent years.  Many persons were buried on the Phelps farm.  Some of the pioneers were interred on their own land, The first grave made in the Miles' Cemetery was for a little child, but no date is known.  Dr. Clark, from New England, came to Ohio in quest of health, and died soon after

Pg. 167 -

his arrival and was the second person buried there, but his grave was unmarked and the precise location is lost, as is many another one.

     JOHN HAYMAN AND FAMILY came from Somerset county, Md., about 1810.  They came first to Letart Falls, in Virginia, but soon removed to Letart, Ohio.  Their eldest son was Spencer Marshall Hayman, who married Jerusha Chapman, a daughter of Ezra Chapman, an old settler in Letart township.  Spencer M. Hayman was a surveyor and after the organization of Meigs county, was elected as surveyor for the county, and served the public in that office for many consecutive terms.  He was also justice of the peace and the first postmaster at Apple Grove, so named because of Mr. Hayman's large orchard of fine fruit.  They brought up a large family - three sons and five daughters.  The sons were: Ezra Hayman, who married Sally Wright, of Mill Creek,, W. Va., who lived and died in Letart township.  Henry Hayman was married twice.   His first wife was Minerva Marvin, a daughter of Calvin Marvin; the second wife was a Miss Harding.  Henry Hayman lived in Mercer's Bottom, where he died.  Harrison Hayman married Agnes Williamson, a daughter of Wilkinson D. Williamson, of Lebanon township, Meigs county, Ohio.  They settled in Warth's Bottom, W. Va.  Both are dead.  The daughters: Sinai Hayman was the wife of Hillman Parr.  Betsy Hayman was married to William McKay, of Warth's Bottom.  Minerva was Mrs. Ephraim I. Sayre, of Letart township.
     Martha Ann Hayman was married to Elson Paden, and their home was just below Letart Falls, in Ohio.  They were noted for true Christian lives in benevolence.
     Angeline Hayman was the wife of Mr. Paden; both died early.
     Josiah Hayman was the second son of John Hayman and was in the family that moved from Maryland.  He married Nancy Ford, a daughter of Mrs. Esther Ford, a widow, who

Pg. 168 -

 came from Maryland at the time of the senior Hayman's emigration to Ohio.  Josiah Hayman lived in Letart township, where they brought up a large family.  Mr. Hayman was a local preacher, belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a fine singer, noted for leading large congregations on camp grounds.  They had a family of sons - Wesley, Henry, Calvin, Lewis, William and Charles; daughters - Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Regina and Adaline Esther.  Wesley Hayman married Thirza Maria Cross, became insane, never recovered.  Henry Hayman married Margaret Wagner and lived in Letart.  He was a man highly esteemed by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.  He was elected sheriff one or two terms.  Always identified with the affairs of his church as steward, class leader and Sunday school superintendent.  They reared a family of worthy citizens.  Calvin and Lewis Hayman died in young manhood.
     William Hayman, son of Josiah Hayman and his wife, was married to Mary Jane Donally, a daughter of Andrew B. Donally, many years clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Meigs county.  He made their home at Letart Falls, W. Va.  Was a merchant.  Esther Hayman became the wife of Lewis Pilchard; lived at Letart Falls.  Elizabeth married John Richie, but died soon afterwards.  Regina was the wife of Townsend Smart; lived in Racine and died there, leaving a family of five children - Arthur, Frank, William, Earl and one daughter.
     Adaline Hayman was the wife of Philip Jones, of West Virginia.

     Hezekiah Hayman was a nephew of John Hayman, Sr., and moved with his family from Maryland in company with his uncle to Ohio in about 1810.  One son, Robert Hayman, lives in Middleport, Ohio.  Stephen Hayman married Letitia Caldwell, and their children were: John N. Hayman, one of the commissioners of Meigs county for several terms; Stephen

Pg. 169 -

 Hayman, of Grand Island, Neb., and Maria, the widow of David Roush, who died at Grand Island, Neb.

     JOHN WAGNER was born May 12th, 1792, and came to Letart, Ohio, from Lancaster, Pa., after the War of 1812.  He was a soldier in that war.  He married Elizabeth Himeleich in 1818 and settled in Letart, Ohio.  They had three children - George H. Wagner, Alfred N. and Margaret, who became the wife of Henry Hayman, son of Josiah HaymanMrs. Elizabeth Wagner died in October 1821.  Mr. Wagner married a second wife, a widow, Mrs. Lydia McClain, and they had two children.  Mr. John Wagner died in March, 1882, and Mrs. Lydia Wagner died at ninety years of age.

     GEORGE BURNS came from Philadelphia to Letart, Ohio, at an early day.  Had charge of a floating mill at Letart Falls and kept a store, said to be the first at Letart, Ohio.  There was a family of three daughters and one son, George Burns, Jr.  The eldest daughter was Mrs. Alfred Beauchamp, of Elizabeth, W. Va.  Caroline became the wife of Thomas Alexander, of Letart, and spent her long life in their home in Letart, where they brought up a family of eleven children.  They were influential and highly respected people.  They died at the advanced ages of eighty-four and ninety years.  Regina Burns was married to John Caldwell and made a home in Letart, where they brought up a family.  She died many years ago.

     OBADIAH WALKER and Casandra Walker, neé Halsey, lived in Chester township in 1805 and spent their long lives in the same locality.  They were good citizens and brought up a large family of sons and daughters.
     Jesse Walker, the eldest child, was born in 1806.  He was twice married.  Miss P. M. Richardson was the first wife, but dying, left two children.  He then married Margaret Mauck, of Cheshire, Gallia county, where they made their home '

Pg. 170 -

until death.  They had two children.  Jesse Walker died at the ripe age of eighty-five years, a kind, upright man, a member of the Free Will Baptist Church from his youth.  Milton Walker married Harriet Newell and lived in Chester several years, and then went to Illinois.  They were Methodists, earnest Christians.  Selden Walker, Vincent Walker and Obadiah Walker were youngest sons. Vincent married Sevilla Weldon and moved to Iowa and died there.  Obadiah married Emily Weldon; lived and died in Chester township.  Bethia Walker was the wife of Baza Wells, in Chester.  She had two children, but buried them and her husband also.  She was married afterwards to Benjamin Brown, of Athens, Ohio.  All are dead.
     Melissa Walker married and was left a widow in Iowa.  Emeline Walker was the wife of William Church, in Rutland, Ohio, where he died, and she sent to Iowa.  Samaria Walker was married to James Decker, of Lebanon township.  They had two or three children.  Mr. Decker and Mrs. Decker died in Lebanon township.  Caroline Walker was married to Abner Hissim, of Tanner's Run, Ohio, but later they removed to Iowa.

     In the Gallia county records of deeds made for lands coming within the boundary of Meigs county when organized is the name of Thomas Halsey purchaser, 1792.  The family of Halsey have continued in Chester and Orange townships, with their descendants.

     DR. FENN ROBINSON was the most noted doctor within the boundaries included in Meigs county in the pioneer days.  He had an extensive practice, and he was equal to any emergency.  His saddle pockets were receptacles for all medicines needed, with compartments for surgical instruments.  He could pull a tooth or cut off a man's leg, if necessity required, lance an abscess or an arm, spread a fly blister plaster or set a dislocated

Pg. 171 -

joint.  He rode through the woods, following road or trail, through creeks, at high or low tide, in rain or snow, at night or in the day - he found the way.  His patients believed in him and had faith in his skill.  His travels were in a radius of more than thirty miles from his home at Chester, and he was the family doctor for two or more generations.  No trained nurse with sick folks then, nor pharmacist to fill prescriptions.  He reared a large and highly respectable family.  Dr. Robinson never ran for Congress nor sued a poor man for his bill.  His honors rested on a noble life.

     JOHN HALL and his wife, Sarah Hall, nee Hahurst, came from Pennsylvania and settled on a tract of land in Letart township above the mouth of Old Town creek, known as Ohio river bottom land, in the year 1811.  Mrs. Hall was reared by Quaker parents.  They were industrious and thrifty and cleared for cultivation their large farm.  They had a large family of sons and daughters.
     James Hall, the eldest son, married Leah Ford, and they lived in Lebanon township and brought up a family. Their children were: William Henry Hall, Wesley, Thomas, Isaac Lewis, Spencer Marshall and a son Benjamin, who died in childhood.  Two daughters were: Sarah, who was married to Hamilton Parr and lived in Brown County, Ohio.  Ann Maria Hall died in young womanhood.  James Hall was elected justice of the peace and served one or two terms.  He was postmaster for Great Bend, Ohio, several years.  He died in 1885 or 1886.  Mrs. Hall lived to the great age of eighty-seven years, a most excellent woman.  They both died in Great Bend, Ohio.  Job Hall married Betsy Smith, daughter of Solomon Smith.  She died early, leaving two children.  Job Hall was killed on his boat on the Yazoo river, supposedly for money.
     Ela Hall married Polly Lasley John Hall married Silvina Buffington.  Aaron Hall married Nancy Crall.  The daughters

Pg. 172 -

were:  Nancy Hall, the wife of Isaac Lauck, and moved to Missouri.  Rachel was married to Ezra Lauck, and they went west.  Matilda Hall was married twice - first to Mr. Shafer and afterwards to John Lee.  She lived and died in Lebanon township.  Mary Hall was Mrs. Owen Darby; they went west.  Delilah was married to a Mr. Lornes and died in Great Bend.  Sarah Ann was married three times.  The first husband, George Cummings, who died.  Mr. Ezekiel Custer, Sr., was the second husband, and John Warner, third.
     Mr. John Hall, Sr., died in middle age, but left a will that was the puzzle for lawyers for two generations.  Mrs. Sarah was the puzzle for lawyers for two generations.  Mrs. Sarah Hall died the early seventies, living and dying on their homestead farm.

     The SAYRES are a numerous people, residing in Letart, Ohio, and Letart, W. Va.  David Sayre entered land in Letart township in 1803.  There are several branches of the name, descendants in four and five generations, living in Meigs county.  Daniel Sayre, father of Moses E. Sayre and great-grandfather to the Hon. Edgar Ervin, were first settlers in Letart township.  As a people the Sayres were religious, good, prosperous citizens.  Mr. Ervin is a member of the Ohio Legislature, native of Meigs, and has reflected credit on his family and won popularity for his own public services in the Ohio Legislature for the years of 1907 and 1908.

     At the pioneer meeting in August, 1890, Mr. PHINEAS ROBINSON made a speech, in which he said that "in early times silver was the coin most in use by the common people, and that it was often cut into four or five parts to make change," in fact that the writer of this article well remembers.  Mr. Robinson also gave a history of the Keg Company of Chester, which was undoubtedly correct as he stated it, but not as published from report in the Telegraph.  Therefore this reviewer wishes to state the case as he understands it.

Pg. 173 -

     About 1825 or 1826, not sure as to date, a company was formed, it was said, of Nathan Newsom, a tanner, who lived in Chester; Moses Green, of Orange township, said to be a horse jockey, who had married into a very respectable family; Nicholas Lake, who also had a very respectable woman for a wife, and John Nolan, a batchelor, who lived about Chester at that time, not a bad man naturally, but so constituted that he could be made a cat's paw when needed.  The Keg Company made and sold counterfeit money, silver dollars, that could not be told from the genuine, and they would exchange two dollars for one good one.  So one man, having two or three hundred dollars, agreed to buy of the spurious coin, and, repairing to a secret room, his money was counted out on a table, when the lights were suddenly put out and all the money swept off from the table.  The man lost his money.  He went before the grand jury, and the four men were indicted.  They could not arrest Newsom and Green, they fleeing to parts unknown.  An officer tried to arrest Nolan, who stabbed the officer and was sent to the penitentiary for it.  As soon as he had served his time he left for New Orleans, where it was said that he became a wealthy and respectable citizen.
     Lake had stolen a horse in Athens county and was sent to the penitentiary for that act.  While in prison he, with others, was taken under guard outside to work.  Lake attempted to run away, the guard shot and wounded him so that he died.

     In 1818 DR. DAVID GARDNER, and his brother Charles came to Chester, Ohio.  They bought out Mr. Levi Stedman's store and filled it with goods purchased in the Eastern cities.  Charles Gardner went back to Long Island, New York, but Dr. Gardner remained in Chester many years and died there; also Mrs. Gardner, and both are buried in the Chester Cemetery.  Their daughter was married to Mr. Maples, an Episcopal clergyman, who was rector of Grace Church in Pomeroy, Ohio, and influential in the erection of the neat Gothic church in that place.

Pg. 174 -

     After a long and successful pastorate, winning high regard for his character, he unfortunately became insane and died in the Athens Hospital for the Insane.

     EDWARD WELDON was married to Mary Faris in Dublin, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States.  The precise date is not on record, but they located for a few years in Washington county, Pa., where Mr. Edward Weldon died; also two sons, each one named Edward.  The widow, Mrs. Weldon, moved first to the Lewis farm, above Point Pleasant, Va., and stayed one year, when she removed with her family to Chester, Ohio.  The children were: Frank Weldon, who was lost, fate unknown.  James Weldon married Lettie Stout.  William Weldon married Elinor Pullins; lived and died in Chester, Ohio.  John Weldon married Mary daughter of Dr. Fuller Elliott; settled in Letart township, later Sutton, and had a family of sons and daughters.  Richard Weldon, married Sally, daughter of Levi Stedman, of Chester.  They had two daughters - Emily, Mrs. Obadiah Walker, and Caroline, who was married to Mr. Heaton Richard Weldon and his wife died young.  Martha Weldon became Mrs. Samuel McKinley; lived in Kentucky.  Catherine, was married to John Van Kirk, in Chester township.  Margaret became the wife of Augustus Watkins.
     Mary Weldon
was the first wife of Andrew Donnelly, clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Meigs county during a long period of years.  Mrs. Donnelly died young, leaving two children, Charles Donnelly and Margaret.
     Francis Weldon
, son of James Weldon, married Rachel Cozad; parents of Mrs. Lucinda Williamson, widow of Captain James Williamson now of California.

     A remarkable meteoric shower was displayed in November of the year 1831.  It was called "the stars falling," and created great alarm in some localities.  Some people averred that the judgment day had come, while others opened their Bibles to read of "stars falling and men's hearts failing," while in many homes in sparsely settled places the inhabitants slept soundly

Pg. 175 -

and knew nothing of the wonderful sight in the heavens reported by witnesses.

     REV. ISAAC REYNOLDS lived in Letart village and mingled with the frightened ones, allaying their fears.  He said "the meteors fell thickly at one time, and that strange, fantastic shapes were assumed by many of those lurid bodies in their descent to the earth."  The history of meteoric showers or the aerolites had not been taught in the schools.  This event was generally concluded to foretell some great calamity to befall the world.
     Another natural phenomena was considered as an omen of calamity- the aurora borealis, or northern light.  The beauty of the sky was not so impressive as the smothered belief that some disaster was impending, as of war or pestilence.
     A comet with a luminous following gave certain warning to a class of credulous folks that the end of this world was near, and a few believers in the Miller Prophecy resided in Lebanon township.  time has gone on with great regularity; spring and summer, autumn and winter, have banished such fears.
     A flood in the Ohio river in 1832 was a real and disastrous event.  The inhabitants were living in houses on the river bank, and farmers especially had no buildings on the bluff or second bank to shelter themselves.  In Lebanon several families sought shelter in a two story log house, but the water continued rising so that at nightfall they were removed in flatboats to the hillside, making beds on the ground in the open field, although snow was falling in scattering flakes.  One man made a pen on is flatboat for his four fat hogs and for his chickens, with corn for feeding them.  Stock and horses were taken to the hills before the water had wholly covered the bottom lands.  Houses, barns, haystacks, as well as uprooted trees, went hurrying by on the swollen river.
     Of the cholera in Chester in the year 1834 an account of the scourge was published in the Meigs County

Pg. 176 -

Telegraph of January 20th, 1893, and copied from that paper into this manuscript the same year by S. C. Larkin.  "Fifty-nine years ago since Meigs county had that awful experience with cholera.  Chester was then the county seat and the chief village in the county, with a population of 200 souls.  Of those who lived in Chester in 1834 but three persons remain as residents of the old village with clear remembrance of that event Mrs. Dolly A. Knight, Mr. Harold Wells and E. Sardine Weldon, then a child of six years.  Reports were in circulation of the ravages of Asiatic cholera in maritime cities, New York and New Orleans, and of its deadly prevalence in foreign countries.  Mrs. Dolly Knight and her husband, Benjamin Knight, moved from the Ohio river, where Pomeroy was located later, to Chester, where Mr. Knight took charge of a flour mill.  they were congratulated by their friends for getting off from the river and going to the interior, where they would be comparatively safe from the contagion.  Human foresight was a failure.  In Chester they took a house situated on the lot where the postoffice stands at present.  On the west end of the lot was a small brick schoolhouse, used also for religious or church assemblies.  The first case of cholera was Dr. James S. Hibbard, who had been called to Syracuse to prescribe for a man who was sick, a steamboat man just returned from a trip on the river.  Dr. Hibbard pronounced the case cholera and prescribed accordingly.  On his way back to Chester he was attacked with the malady and, getting off from his horse, took a dose of calomel, lay down by the roadside and fell asleep in the woods.  As soon as he was able to remount his horse he proceeded homeward.  He finally recovered.  This occurred in July.  Soon afterwards a son of Jasper Branch, about fourteen years of age, came to his work in the mill from his dinner, was taken violently ill and was assisted to an upper room, but grew rapidly worse, and before nightfall he was dead.  That night a sister, older than he, took sick and died before morning.  Two deaths in Mr.

Pg. 177 -

Branch's family was a shock to the community.  Two or three weeks elapsed, and then a show came to Tupper's Plains, which Lewis Nye, a youth, attended and remained over night.  He was stricken with the cholera next morning and died in a few hours.  Next in order of time was the family of John Ware, a saddler.  He had a large family, but the father, mother and four children fell victims to the cholera.  First the daughter Polly, a young woman, returned from church in the evening, apparently well, but that night she died.  The next day two of her brothers were snatched away, and  the second day the father and mother joined the dead children.  Relatives of the Ware family came up from Gallipolis to help care for them, and took the survivors home, one boy dying on the way.  Five children remained, who lived, married and settled in Meigs County, Gallia and Mason, W. Va.  William Ware never married; lived in his sister's home and died there at Miller McGlothlin's, near Ravenswood, W. Va.

     CHARLES DOANE, a tanner, was suddenly attached after a talk with Dr. Carpenter in a light vein, "that after the people all died, he and the doctor would open a hotel."  After parting, in fifteen minutes the message was sent to the doctor of his sickness, and in one hour Charles Doane was dead.

     WILLIAM TORRENCE, was stricken by the epidemic, but rallied for a time, then relapsed and died after an illness of fourteen days.  Mr. Harold Wells nursed William Torrence fourteen nights in succession without taking off his clothes to go to bed.  Later, Myron Wells, Baza Wells, their mother and a sister were each prostrated with the disease, while Harold, the brother and son, attended them, and they all recovered.

     A son MARCUS BOSWORTH, about ten years of age, went to bed as usual, but later called his mother, "so very sick," and, although medicine was administered at once, by 10 o'clock the child was dead.  A Mr. Horton, aged about forty-five years, was one of the fatal victims.  Harold Wells, Otis Hardy and Van Weldon were busy all the time ministering to the sick

Pg. 178 -

and burying the dead.  Mr. Weldon was a cabinet maker and made the coffins for those who died.  This history of the cholera in 1834 in Chester we believe correct and authentic.  S. C. L.
     An incident occurred in 1833 in Lebanon township, below Sandy, when the cholera was epidemic in New Orleans and many cities, that a steamboat landed on the Ohio side of the river near a small graveyard on the bank and sent a messenger to a house not far away for permission to bury a man, then dead on the boat.  The request was denied with rudeness, so frightened was the householder at the approach of cholera.  The man was buried by the roadside.  No case of the disease appeared in the neighborhood until the next summer, when the man who refused the stranger a grave was stricken with cholera and died, the only death from cholera ever known in the place.
     The second visitation of cholera at Middleport, in 1839, resulted in the deaths of four persons in the Baily family - Mr. David Baily and his wife, his daughter and son-in-law; also Mrs. Hudson, a sister of Mr. BaileyOren Jones was their nurse.  He was a young man and claimed that by his strong will he was able to resist the contagion.  There were a few cases of cholera in Pomeroy in 1849, but we are not in possession of details.  In the first seasons of the epidemic there were fatalities of some persons about Letart.  Balser Roush and family, living above Racine, in Letart township, were victims; several of them died.  Dr. J. B. Ackley gave medical attention and secured assistance for care of such as needed.

     JOB STORY, of Bedford township, was one of the early settlers of that township and a pioneer abolitionist, who ever dared to vote his sentiments even in old Bedford.  He died March 18th, 1883, aged ninety-one years.
 

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >

.

CLICK HERE to RETURN to
MEIGS COUNTY, OHIO

CLICK HERE to RETURN to
OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

FREE GENEALOGY RESEARCH is My MISSION
GENEALOGY EXPRESS
This Webpage has been created by Sharon Wick exclusively for Genealogy Express  ©2008
Submitters retain all copyrights