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     FREDERIC MERRILL and ARTHUR MERRILL, were brothers, who were born in Newburyport, Mass., and moved with their father to Cincinnati in 1823.  The family came to Meigs county in 1830.  Frederic Merrill was a merchant in Rutland Village.  He was a township trustee several years, but returned to Cincinnati, where he died in 1844.

     SAMUEL POMEROY owned the valuable coal lands first developed in and near the town of Pomeroy, at the first quarter of the nineteenth century.  Much territory of the Ohio Company's Purchase is seen on the records of Gallia county and of Washington county as entered by Abigail Dabney, and later was transferred to other parties, Mr. Samuel Pomeroy, a relative, a Boston man, who lived in Cincinnati in 1833, at the time that his daughter, Clara Alsop Pomeroy, because the wife of Valentine B. Horton, a young lawyer from Pittsburgh, Pa.  Mr. Horton was born Jan. 29th, 1802, in Windsor, Vt., having taken a military training and also a regular course in law, and after his marriage came directly to Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1833, where he opened up the coal industry that gave Meigs county its greatest commercial importance and laid out the town of Pomeroy.
     Mr. Samuel Pomeroy built a fine residence just back of the present Court House, but died soon afterwards.  The history of V. B. Horton, cannot receive adequate notice in these brief articles, and belongs in fact to a later time than the real pioneer period of the early settlers.  Mr. Horton died in Pomeroy, Jan. 13th, 1888, at the age of 86 years.
     Mrs. Clara Alsop Horton was born in Boston, Oct. 7th, 1804, and with her husband made their home in Pomeroy

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during fifty-four years of their wedded life.  Her courteous manners and fine intellectual equipment made her the peer of any lady in any land.  Her gracious charity and broad views of life gave her influence with the best class of people in social, civil or religious life.  She was a devout Episcopalian, and her husband built and donated to the town of Pomeroy the elegant stone church of that denomination.  She was a wise, exemplary wife and mother.  They had a family of five children:  Clara Pomeroy Horton was married to Gen. John Pope.  Francis Dabney Horton was married to Gen. M. F. Force of Cincinnati.  Edwin Johnson Horton married a daughter of Dr. Estes Howe of Boston.  Annie Alsop Horton  died in childhood.
     Samuel Dana Horton became noted as a writer of prominence in monetary affairs, lived on the Continent of Europe and married a daughter of a retired British officer in Switzerland.
     Catharine Alsop Horton was the wife of John May of Boston.
     Mrs. Clara A. Horton died Sept. 28th, 1894, nearly ninety years of age, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Force, in Sandusky, Ohio.

     MARTIN HECKARD, a lawyer, came to Meigs county about 1838 or 1839, not certain as to date.  He located in Pomeroy and married Miss Catharine P. Horton, a sister of the hon V. B. Horton.  Mr. Heckard was the first Probate Judge of Meigs county; and served three years.  They had a family of three children.  George Heckard, Lucy Heckard died in young womanhood.  Mary Heckard went to school on the Hudson, and became the wife of Mr. Huntington of Long Island.  Judge Heckard died in Pomeroy.  Mrs. Heckard died at her daughter's, Mrs. Huntington, Jan. 9th, 1890, aged seventy-nine years.

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     JACOB RICE, born at Murrayville, Pa., Jan. 2nd, 1790.  He married Hannah Plummer, who died leaving one child, Henry Rice of Rutland.  Mr. Jacob Rice died Nov. 3d, 1888, aged 98 years, 10 months, 1 day, in Salisbury township.

     IRA McCUMBER was born July 5th, 1805, in Gallia county, and married Mary Boyer, who was born Apr. 29th, 1807, in Pennsylvania.  They lived in Salem township, and Mr. McCumber died Apr. 14th, 1882, aged 77 years.
     Mrs. McCumber died May 5th 1895, aged 88 years.  She was a member of the Pioneer Association, and died in Salem.
     The  slave law was brought to notice by two men who had captured a slave belonging to one of the party, and had taken him before a justice of the peace in Gallia county, O.  They requested a trial, and certificate for the removal of  the slave from the State.  The justice appointed the trial to be made the next day at 10 o'clock a.m.  An anti-slavery man who learned when the suit was to held, started at once to Rutland for Nathan Simpson, a lawyer of local fame.  The following morning Mr. Simpson and his friend started for that magistrate's office to watch proceedings.  What could be done?  Evidently the master had all the proof that the law required.  When the lawyer's party got within a few miles of the place, they began announcing their mission and inviting people, every man they saw or could send word to, "to come and see the fun."
     At the hour, 10 o'clock, Mr. Simpson went into the courtroom and talked with the owner; also with the slave, and offered to see that he had a fair trial.  At first, he opened the case very mildly, but as the house filled up, the crowd looking through the doors and windows and every place where they could see or hear, Simpson's voice became louder and increased in pathos and energy with little thought about correctness of language or logic.  The slave owner became

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alarmed, fearing the mob had collected to lynch him, and with his party slipped out of a back door, saying, "He would never follow another slave onto Ohio, for when they get there they are beyond our reach."  It is claimed that this case was the last capture of a slave in Ohio. 1850.

     JAMES PETTY was born in old Virginia in 1819, and came when quite young with his parents to Pagetown, Meigs county.  His father Hugh Petty moved to Gallia county subsequently, and died there.  James Petty married in that county, but lost his wife soon afterwards, when with his widowed mother, he came to Rutland, and remained there the rest of his life.  He held many responsible local offices, justice of the peace, for many years.  He made a home for his aged mother and invalid sister with filial and brotherly devotion.  His death occurred in Rutland, Ohio, Jan. 26th, 1891, aged seventy-two years.

     MRS. A. HOFF - neé MORE - was in Parkersburg, W. Va., on Nov. 1st, 1819, and was married to J. D. Hoff, Jan. 29th, 1839.  They came to Letart, Ohio, in 1845, and to Middleport, Ohio in 1849.  She united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in her fourteenth year, and lived a consistent and useful life.  She died in Middleport, July 18th, 1883.

     LUCINDA H. DUNHAM, wife of Hiram B. Smith, was born in Washington county, Ohio, Nov. 20th, 1808.  She was the daughter of Amos Dunham and wife - neé Laura M. Guthrie, from whom she inherited a liberal share of physical and mental qualities.  She obtained a fair English education at Marrietta, Ohio.  The family came to Pomeroy in 1837, where she became the wife of Mr. H. B. Smith, a lawyer and prominent man in business and social circles in Pomeroy, Ohio.  He was an active member and president of the Meigs County Pioneer Association for several years.  They had one son, who died

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in early manhood.  Mrs. Smith died in Pomeroy, Ohio, Mar. 17th, 1881

     CATHARINE DAWSON was born July 17th, 1820, in Beaver county, Pa., and was married to Dr. Joseph Dickson, Oct. 19th, 1841.  They moved to Athens county the same year.  They had five children, three of whom died in childhood.  Dr. Dickson went with a company overland to California in 1849, and was killed by the accidental discharge of his own revolver soon after reaching California.  Dec. 11th, 1864, Mrs. Dickson was married to Mr. Josiah Simpson, of Rutland, Ohio, and removed to his home with her two daughters.  She died June 4th, 1895.  She had been a faithful member of the Free Will Baptist Church, a most excellent woman.

     The BRADBURY FAMILY.  Contributed by Judge Samuel Bradbury in 1895, to the Meigs County Pioneer Association.
     "Seventy-nine years ago, Dec. 1816, the parents of Judge Samuel Bradbury floated down the Ohio river in a little boat and tied up at the mouth of Leading creek, where they entered a small log cabin, and with their seven children became citizens of the great State of Ohio.  The father had but one dollar and fifty-cents in his pocket when he landed.  The family came from Maine, having made their way through the wilderness as best they could.  Samuel was seven years old at that time.  One son was born after the arrival in Ohio, who died at the age of thirty-eight years.  The family were reared to honorable lives, and the sons achieved merited distinction in positions of honor and trust.  The seven children lived to an average age of eighty-three years."
     Judge Samuel Bradbury was born in Maine, Aug. 4th, 1809, and died in Middleport, Ohio, Mar. 1st, 1897, aged eighty-seven and one-half years.  He had been one of the most active and efficient men in the organization of the Meigs County Pioneer Association in 1876.

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     SIMEON ELLIOTT was a brother of Judge Fuller Elliott, and came to Meigs, rather Washington county, in 1797, and bought land, situated back from the Ohio river, in what was later included in Sutton township.  He married Lucy Putnam, a distant relative of George W. Putnam.  They had a large family, reared to honorable positions in the community, in a home of refinement not common in those days.  The sons were: Rev. Madison Elliott, a graduate of Marietta College and of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio.  He was the principal of the academy at Chester in 1844-45, a flourishing institution at that time.  Miss Clarissa Cutler, a daughter of Hon. Ephraim Cutler, was the vice-principal.  Two other sons were Putnam Elliott, who died in early manhood, and Sumner Elliott, who emigrated to some Western state years ago.  The daughters were: Nancy Elliott, Maria, Mrs. William Torrence; he died of Cholera; then she married Mrs. Phineas Robinson.  Lucy, Mrs. Josiah Branch; Lury Ann, Mrs. Orin Branch; Adaline, Mrs. Elihu Stedman; Fidelia, and Lydia died unmarried.
     Mr. Simeon Elliott was called "Squire" Elliott, in distinction from Judge Fuller Elliott, M. D.  He built a tread mill run by horse-power, and attached to the machinery a carding machine.  Mrs. Elliott, after being a widow many years, married Abel Chase, Sr., of Rutland.

     SAMUEL BRANCH settled in Chester township in 1807.  He married Miss Tryphena Stedman, a sister of Levi Stedman, so long prominent in public affairs.
     Mr. Branch was a Free Will Baptist preacher, and opened his own house for preaching; also built a schoolhouse on his own land for the education of the children of the neighborhood.  Mr. Branch was ready to assist in any enterprise for the benefit in morals or education in the community.  They had a large family of sons and daughters.
     Samuel Branch, Jr., was a Baptist preacher.  Harry and William were farmers.  Josiah Branch married Lucy Elliott,

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and kept a store in Chester.  Orin Branch married Lury Ann Branch died early.  Orin Branch moved to Pomeroy, and was county treasurer several years.  His second wife was Miss Josephine Paige, an excellent woman.  Hosmer Branch married and settled in Pomeroy, engaged in mercantile business.  They had several children.
     Mary Branch was married three times - Wallace and Spicer were two of them.  Lucy Branch was the wife of James Madison Cooper.  Miranda Branch was married to Mr. Cline; lived in Pagetown.  Rev. Samuel Branch, Sr., was a pioneer of the type to be honored and remembered.

     Some old, yellow papers, found among the Levi Stedman's documents, have been furnished for notice in the Revised Pioneer History of Meigs County by Miss Eva L. Walker, of Chester, Ohio, as belonging to the estate of Mr. Levi Stedman, her great-grandfather, and we take pleasure in copying several of them, while all of them are interesting specimens of the writing and transactions of the pioneer period.  We copy first a parchment deed, a land warrant, signed by James Monroe, President, with official seal of the United States of America attached.
     I, James Monroe, President of the United States of America, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:
     Know ye, that in pursuance of the acts of Congress, appropriating and granting land to the late army of the United States, passed on and since the sixth of May, 1812, Dinah Byram, only heir at law of Adam Ball, having deposited in the General Land Office a warrant in her favor, numbered 24689, there is granted unto the said Dinah Byram, only heir at law of Adam Ball, late a private in Holt's Company of the Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry, a certain tract of land containing one hundred and sixty acres, being the northwest quarter of Section 6, of Township 1 south, Range 5 east, in the tract appropriated

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(by the act aforesaid) for military bounties, in the territory of Arkansas, to have and to hold, the said quarter section of land, with the appurtenances thereof, unto the said Dinah Byram, only heir at law of Adam Ball, December 9th, and to her heirs and assigns forever.
     In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed.  Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, this sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one, and of the independence of the United States of America the forty-sixth.
{  Seal of the               }                    By the President,
{ General Land Office }                                          JAMES MONROE
{  U. S. A.                  }                    JOSIAH MEIGS,
                                                                         Commissioner of General Land Office, Exd.
    Recorded, Vol. 6, 7255.  J. Wheaton

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                                                                                                                          General Post Office
                                                                                                              Washington City, July 1st, 1819
     Sir - At sight, pay to Skinner & Barber, or order, One Hundred and thirty dollars, and charge to account of this Office.

                                                                ABRAM BRADBURY,
                                                           Assistant Post-Master General

To Levi Stedman, Esq.                        }
Post Master, at Steadman's Mills,        }

Order from M. Segrist, to Mr. Levi Stedman, Shade river, Ohio
     Let GThomas Haywalt have three galls. of Whiskey, in exchange for Rye, to be delivered at the Ferry, and oblige,
Yours Resp'y,
                                                                                MICHAEL SEGRIST

Mason, Va.

     The deed of land from Dinah Byram, to Dorothy Stedman and Joel Cowdery, executors of the will of Levi Stedman, deceased, executed and acknowledged before Randall Stivers, justice of the peace, signed Dinah Her +, and recorded by Recorder of Meigs county, 1824.  David Barber, Clerk.

     Receipts for money for different purposes.
     A deed of ten acres of land from Josiah Vining to Dorothy Stedman to satisfy a judgment for eighteen dollars and sixty cents, with the costs accruing thereto.
     Recorded in Volume 2nd, page 80 and 81.  Chas. Gardiner, Recorder.

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     Gallia County.
                                                                          FRANCIES LE CLERQ, EX (torn out).

     Received of Levi Stedman $4.20 cts. for his tax on 420 acres of land - 12 Range, 3, T. 24 S.

     The PILCHARD and ELLIS FAMILIES came from the eastern shore of Maryland to Ohio, about the year 1810, and settled in Letart, Ohio.  Peter Pilchard's wife was a Miss Roloff.  They had several children, Lewis, Lybrand and others.  Lewis Pilchard married Esther Hayman, a daughter of Josiah Hayman, and located in Letart Falls, W. Va.  Lybrand Pilchard married and made his home in East Letart, and brought up a family.  He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, an active, loyal adherent to its usages, serving as steward, class leader or Sunday school superintendent, and brought up a highly respectable family.
     John Ellis, Sr., lived in Letart  many years.  He had two sons, John R. Ellis and Henry Ellis.  John R. Ellis married Elizabeth Ford, and had a family of sons and daughters.  Milton Ellis served in the war for the Union, and was promoted to the rank of major.  Willis A. Ellis was a soldier, also, in the cavalry service, and was distinction for courage.  Esther Ellis  was married to Hiram L. Sibley, a soldier in the army, but was held a prisoner in the Libby prison, Richmond, Va., for several months.  After the close of the war he opened a law office in Marietta, Ohio, and became distinguished for his legal talents.  He served as circuit judge in this district,

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and as a delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in each capacity repeatedly.
     Regina Ellis remained ministering to the need of her parents in their last years with filial devotion.  John R. Ellis was elected as a county commissioner several terms, and was a Sunday school superintendent for more than forty years.  Mrs. Elizabeth Ellis died in her ninety-eighty year.
     Henry Ellis married Adaline Johnson, daughter of an old resident of Chester township.  They lived in Racine, Ohio; had two children, Jeremiah A. Ellis, who married and moved to Kansas.  Mary E. Ellis was married to Dorr DeWolf, one of a family of steamboat men.  Their home has been in Racine.  Mrs. Mary E. DeWolf is a loyal Methodist.
     In the earlier days, the schoolboy's equipment was scant, with the father's desire to give some "book learning" to his children.  Money was was hard to obtain, and the necessities of life were secured by traffic.  For writing purposes, an ink was made by an infusion of oak gall nuts, mixed with beef's gall and vinegar, in proportions learned by experiments.  Another kind of ink in use made from a decoction of maple bark, carefully poured off, and a lump of copperas and a little sugar added to the liquid.  The sugar gave a gloss to the writing, and this ink was a good black, but if too much sugar was put in, the written pages would stick together.
     For schools and ordinary purposes, a thick, unruled paper, called foolscap, was in use, and the ruling was made with lead pencils cut off in strips from the lead of which bullets were made, and hammered into shape, flat and narrow, about three inches in length.  These lead pencils were drawn across the paper by a straight-edged ferule.  Pens were made from

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quills taken from the wings of geese.  The schoolmaster called the children into school by rapping loudly on the door - never had a bell.  The sessions were from 8 or 9 o'clock a.m. to 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, six days in the week for a three months' term in winter.  Some teachers had a watch, but, if lacking that, a good look at the sun was a common way of reckoning time.  E. L. B.
     April 12th, 1819, the first Court of Common Pleas for Meigs county, on petition of Thomas Ridding, of Sutton, for a license to keep a license to keep a house of entertainment in his dwelling house, in was ordered that license be given him on his complying with the requisitions of the law.  Thomas Ridding had a license, previously granted, to keep a ferry at Graham's Station, Meigs county, Ohio.
     The hotel, as described by Mr. Ridding's daughter, "was a double log cabin - two log houses with a space of ten feet between them, but all included under one roof - and having a spacious attic for common sleeping rooms.  The patrons of this hostelry were men who carried on trade up and down the Ohio river in pirogues, or large canoes, laden with flour, salt and groceries, for sale to the people on shore, and who did a good business in exchanging commodities for skins, furs and ginseng.  These boatmen and make their stopping place at night at the Ridding house at Graham's Station.  Sometimes two or three boat crews would land at the same time.  They were sure of a bountiful meal of substantial food, and when the beds were all filled, if necessary and landlady would make field beds on the floor.  There was no grumbling at the lack of washbowl and pitcher, nor any scrambling for a looking-glass.  They were glad to sleep after the hard day of poling canoes.  This tavern had a sad closing up.  Mr. Ridding was accidentally drowned and his widow went back to her old home in the Shenandoah valley.  Narrative by Mrs. Cynthia Philson, Racine, Ohio.

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     The first newspaper published in Meigs county was dated Nov. 1st, 1843, called "The Weekly Times," edited and printed by L. Beatty.  In a year or two the paper was edited by O. B. Chapman, with Mr. Beatty.  In 1845 and 1846, R. T. Van Horn was associated with Mr. Chapman, and the name was changed to "The Meigs County Telegraph."  Later, Mr. Van Horn withdrew, and the paper was under the management of T. A. Plants, Esq.  The paper had a changed of names and editors until 1860 - O. B. Chapman editor and E. S. Trussell business manager.  Mr. Chapman was a good editor and practical printer, and o slovenly typesetting was ever seen while he was editor.  He held the place longer than any one before or afterwards.  Mr. E. S. Trussell succeeded Mr. Chapman, and continued to publish a good, influential paper.  Mr. O. B. Chapman family, after many vicissitudes in fortune, died in Colorado Springs, at the advanced age of eighty years, a true, noble-hearted man, steadfast in this principles of righteousness in civil or religious matters.
     The next paper was "The People's Fountain," a temperance paper, printed by Hoy and Rundle,  in 1854.  It failed after a few years for lack of patronage.  The first paper printed in Middleport was "The Meigs County News," in 1871, by E. S. Branch.  S. C. L.

     "The Buckeye Rovers." - An article in the Cincinnati Enquirer by Arthur B. Harding, and copied into this manuscript by S. C. Larkin:
     "The Buckeye Rovers crossed the continent to the California gold fields in 1849.  There were twenty-two men in the party, from Athens and Meigs counties exclusively.  From Athens county:  Elza Armstrong, W. S. Stedman, Hugh Dickson, Dennis Drake, Elijah Terrill, Solomon Townsend, James Shepherd, William Logan, W. T. Wilson, Joseph Dickson, M. D., R. P. Barnes, John Banks, George Reeves, Asa Condee, M. D., H. L. Graham.  From Meigs county: Seth Paine, L. D.

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Stevens, J. C. Rathburn, M. D., Joshua Gardner, Charles Giles, John S. Giles.  Fifteen Athenians and seven Meigs countians.
     The party left Albany April 9th, 1849, and, going to Middleport, Meigs county, embarked on a steamboat and, further on, by boats until reaching Lexington, Mo.  Here they organized, choosing Dr. Joseph Dickson captain.  Cattle were brought that never had seen a yoke, and a week was spent in breaking then.  The party drove one hundred miles to St. Joseph, where, if they had waited to cross the ferry in their turn, they would have been delayed six weeks, so great was the rush westward.  Luckily, some of them were old river men, and who constructed a rude craft, that carried them over the river in four days.  They proceeded up the Platte river by Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie, and to the north of the Great Salt Lake, eighty miles.  Cholera infested the plains at this time, and for more than a thousand miles west of Fort Kearney, if there had been no trail, they could easily have kept their course by then new made graves.  They had many thrilling experiences and narrow escapes from the Indians.  At the sink of the Humboldt river the Indians stole all of their cattle.  Then the company disbanded, and each one had to get to Sacramento the best way he could.  Judge Wilson fell in with an Illinois party going to Oregon, and he was the first white man at Downieville, on the Yuba river, where he subsequently took up the largest nugget any of them secured.  In was about the size of a goose egg and was valued at $1285.  On September 20th, 1849, the first of the Buckeye Rovers reached Sacramento, then consisting of only one wooden structure and used for a postoffice.  The tent population was about 5000, which increased as by magic, so that in less than one year if was estimated at 80,000 souls.  When they reached the golden land, labor was worth $16 a day, but dropped to $10 the next season.  Provisions of all kinds were brought from the Sacramento valley on mules and sold at enormous prices.  Everything sold by the pound, at $1, except butter, which was $4.  Once they paid $8 for a pound of soda to make slapsjacks.
 

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