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P. B. Johnson DR. PERLEY BROWN JOHNSON* was among the first physicians who permanently located in the county, and for many years was an influential and honored citizen.  He was well educated, courteous and agreeable, and made friends among all classes.  He was born in the block-house at Marietta, that memorable relic of pioneer days, Sept. 18, 1798, and died at the residence of his son-in-law, the Hon. F. W. Wood, in McConnelsville, in February, 1870.  He read medicine under Dr. John Cotton in Marietta, and began practice with him in 1822.  In 1823 he located in McConnelsville, where he practiced his profession and rose to great prominence as a political leader.  December 6, 1825, he married Miss Mary Manchester Dodge.  Of this union five children were born, four of whom survived him.  A son, Perley B. Johnson, Jr., lost  his life at the charge on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863.  Dr. Johnson was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas in 1825, and soon after became the acknowledged leader of the whig party in the county.  He served as a member of the State legislature in 1833-34 an 1834-35, and in 1840 was one of the presidential electors who cast their votes for President Harrison.  In 1842 he was elected representative to congress over Dr. Samuel A. Barker, the democratic nominee.  At the expiration of his term he was re-nominated but defeated by Isaac Parrish, also of Morgan County.  In 1847 he was attacked with paralysis, which rendered the remaining years of his life almost a blank.  He had five of these attacks, and from 1849 until the end of his life was so incapacitated, both mentally and physically, as to be unable to transact any business.  Until impaired by disease he was regarded as the ablest exponent of whig principles in the county.  Even his political opponents were constrained to acknowledge his ability and influence.  He had an enviable reputation as a public speaker, and "old-line whigs" were accustomed to sound his praises, ranking him with Thomas Corwin and other great men of a former generation.  The secret of his popularity was his agreeable manners and his frank, polite ways.  His name deserves a high place upon the roll of worthy and distinguished citizens of Morgan County. Source:  Chapter XVI - History of Morgan County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of some of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. By Charles Robertson, M. D.  - Published Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co. 1886 - Page 272 * Dr. Johnson has more namesakes in Morgan County than any other man and perhaps more than all others who ever lived here.  In copying any list of names it is surprising how often the name "Perley B." occurs.   HIRAM L. JONES, son of James K. and Mary Jones, was born in Deerfield Township, Morgan County, Mary 2, 1845.  He was educated at home until sixteen years of age, when he entered the Ohio University at Athens, where he remained three years.  He next entered the law department of Yale College, Connecticut, where he graduated in June, 1866, at the age of twenty-one years and two months.  In September of the same year he was admitted to the bar of the Ohio in McConnelsville, where he entered upon the practice of law.  Apr. 2, 1868, he was married to Miss Nelia E. Woodruff, daughter of Dr. Curtis and Mary A. Woodruff, of Morgan County.  Two daughters, Georgia and Mabel, were bor of this union.  He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1868, and held the office one term.  In Nov., 1874, Mr. Jones removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he resided until his death, July 9, 1882. Source:  Chapter XV - History of Morgan County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of some of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. By Charles Robertson, M. D.  - Published Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co. 1886 - Page 267   JAMES K. JONES.   James Kelly Jones was born at Marietta, Ohio, Aug. 28, 1812.  He was named for his maternal grandfather, James Kelly, who was killed by the Indians at Belleville, at the outbreak of the Indian war in the spring of 1791.  At the same time the father was killed the little son Joseph was captured and we have the following account of his captivity and recovery in Dr. S. P. Hildreth’s “Memoirs of the Early settlers of Ohio.”      “Amongst those known to have been captured was Joseph Kelly, a lad taken from Belleville, Va., in 1791, and whose widowed mother lived in Marietta, her husband having been killed at the time of the capture of Joseph.  In the autumn of 1795 the Indians had brought in and given up all their prisoners, as provided in the treaty made that year.  Yet no account could be had of young Kelly, and it was quite uncertain whether he was dead or alive.  But the Indians seldom put boys to death after they were prisoners.  Although nearly all hope had ceased of his recovery, Colonel R. J. Meigs, one of the officers who negotiated and carried out the settlement with the Indians, continued to inquire of every new Indian face he saw.  At length two Indians said they knew of two white boys on the headwaters of the Auglaize River who were kept back by their masters.  Hoping that one of these boys might be the widow’s son he immediately applied to General Wayne for a messenger to be sent for them.  One of these Indians as a guide and a white man were sent out.      Joseph had been adopted into the family of an old Indian warrior, named Mishalena, who had lost live sons in the war with the whites and had now no child left but one daughter, and yet he adopted this boy as his own, although the son of his enemies.  Mr. Kelly said that the old warrior was one of the most kind and benevolent men he ever knew and had a noble and commanding appearance; he was now too old for war, but was in great favor with his tribe as an able counselor.  His adopted mother’s name was Patepsa.  She never accepted him with the hearty good will of Mishalena, but always gave him plenty to eat when she had it.  Joseph was only six years old when captured, and was now eleven.  He parted with his Indian parents and the boys of the tribe with great regret.  He had lived with them so long in the wild freedom of the forest that he had forgotten his native language and almost his former name.  His Indian parents had given him the name Lalaque.  They accompanied him to Greenville, parting with him very reluctantly.  As a parting gift, Mishalena presented him with a beautiful bow and arrow made with his own hands.      “On the arrival of the boy at the Fort, Colonel Meigs sent for the tailor and had him fitted out with warm woolen dresses after the fashion of the whites and the blanket and leggins were laid aside.  Joseph’s mother had described the boy’s hair, eyes and looks so accurately that at the first glimpse Colonel Meigs picked him out.  The Indian interpreter soon confirmed his opinion by talking with him in the Shawanoe dialect.  On being questioned he remembered the names of his brothers and his own name.  Colonel Meigs was satisfied that he was the lost son of the sorrowing widow, who for the whole period of his absence never omitted him in her daily prayers or sat down to the table with her children without mentioning his name.  So anxious was Colonel Meigs to restore the boy to his bereaved mother that he started in February across the swamps and pathless forest for Marietta.  A young, active Shawanoe Indian named ‘Throm’ guided the party, which consisted of six soldiers, Colonel Meigs and the boy, with six horses, and they passed through the wilderness without deviation and struck the Muskingum River at Big Rock, a noted Indian land mark.      “The party reached Marietta early in March, and the fervent and oft repeated prayer of the widow for the restoration of her lost son was at length answered, to the great joy and thankfulness of Colonel Meigs, by whose unwearied exertions it had been accomplished.”      Mr. Jones removed with his parents to Wolf Creek in Deerfield Township in 1816 and started life in the wilderness upon the farm known in later years as the “John Trainer farm.” lie was the oldest son, and many of the hardships and privations of pioneer life fell upon him.  His father was a carpenter by trade, knew but little about farming, and besides had purchased his land on payments; and it required the greatest care and industry to provide for the family and meet his payments.  Mr. Jones' father brought the first sheep that came to the neighborhood, and it became a part of the daily routine duties of James to guard them from the wolves through the day and pen them at night m a pen prepared so high and tight that wolves could not get at them.      Mills at that time were poor and far apart, and young Jones was mill-boy for the family.  The first few years his father had no team except oxen, and the roads were only paths through the forests.  Young Jones would often take a bag of corn, tie it on the yoke and mount the near ox and go several miles to mill.  On one occassion he went to a horse-mill near Porterville, and after waiting all day got his bag of meal and started for home.  When near the place afterward known as the Stone House, a pack of wolves followed him quite a distance, barking and howling like demons; but mounted upon his ox with a good whip he bravely made the trip home in the night.  On another occasion, a few years latter, he took a bag of wheat upon a horse and went to the White Mills near Windsor.  On his return just at night, being hungry he stopped at the orchard of Colonel Stone, below Malta, and when out of sight some mischievous person concealed his horse.  Supposing the horse had got loose, he ran to Malta and there found the horse had not passed through town.  He returned and found his horse tied where he had left him.  Col. Stone had made the mischievous person, who proved to be his daughter, return the horse.  This trip involved a ride of over thirty miles, a good part of the way through the forest and along mere paths.  There were no free schools in that day and Mr. Jones only had an opportunity to learn reading, writing and spelling in the schools he did attend.  His eldest sister taught one of the first schools in the neighborhood on the subscription plan, for which she was to have fifty cents per week and “board among the scholars.”  A few years later, when she got one dollar per week she was considered very fortunate.  The first money Mr. Jones earned after he became of age was in chopping wood at Thomas Stone’s salt works at eight dollars per month.  Afterward he took the place of kettle tender at ten dollars per month and put in regularly eighteen hours per day.      In 1836 he fitted out a small trading boat and loaded it with flour, potatoes, dried apples and peaches, beans and other products.  He ran it down the Ohio, and after selling out, went on to New Orleans.  This trip paid him very well and gave him a start in business He made a second trip in 1837, and after his return, bought the farm in Deerfield Township now owned by George Martin.  In 1842 he married Mary Whitaker and continued to live on the farm until 1866.  He has been industrious, temperate and frugal, and as a consequence has been successful in business.  In the last named year he moved to McConnelsville, where he still resides, he had two daughters and one son, a promising lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, who died in 1882.  The daughters reside in McConnelsville, one the wife of John L. Cochran and the other with her parents.  Mr. Jones was admitted to the practice of the law in 1870, but his principal business since 1866 has been the loaning of money.  At present he is the president of the First National Bank of McConnelsville and one of the heaviest taxpayers of the county. Source:  Chapter XVII - History of Morgan County, Ohio with Portraits and Biographical Sketches of some of its Pioneers and Prominent Men. By Charles Robertson, M. D.  - Published Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co. 1886 - Page 328

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