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the other townships of this range are consequently only of that width.
     Prior to the organization of the county in 1819 Morgan Township was included in Deerfield, being that part taken from Washington County in which James Young officiated as magistrate.  The only record of the transaction is the following order:
     "Ordered by the trustees that Jacob R. Price be and is hereby authorized to adjust and settle with the trustees of Deerfield Township all accounts etween said Deerfield and Morgan Townships.

                                                          "JOHN SEAMAN.

     "April 20, 1820."

     The accounts were adjusted and the following report dated Sept. 2, 1820 submitted:
     "We, the undersigned, being, appointed to adjust the accounts between Deerfield and Morgan Townships, after a thorough investigation, do find seventy-nine dollars and twenty-one cents due to both townships at the time Morgan was set off, which was on the 10th of August, 1818, of which Morgan Township's share is twenty-five dollars and forty cents, as witness our hands.
                                              "JACOB R. PRICE.
                                              "JOSIAH WRIGHT
                                              "MARTIN PRICE."

     When the "set off" was made, Morgan comprised the original surveyed Township 11 of Range 12.  In 1819, when Penn Township was organized, the commissioners struck off a row of sections from the south side of Morgan and attached a like number to Morgan from the south side of Bloom, thus equalizing the territorial limits of the three townships.
     On the formation of Malta Township, in 1839, the river was made the line with the addition to Morgan of half of Sections 6 and 19, and all that part of Section 30 east of the river to Meigsville, and a little nook in Section 27, adjoining the sections previously detached from Bloom.
     In shape Morgan Township might now be called an irregular triangle, the longer line or southwest border being on the river.  It has a smaller area than any other in the county— 11¾ sections, 7,520 acres.  Two miles north of McConnelsville, coal, of what is called the Cumberland seam, of the average thickness of three feet, has been mined and used for over fifty years; it is in two stratus, divided by about an inch of carbonaceous slate.  The lower stratum of this coal is equal to any other in the county.  One mile east of town coal is found, and was formerly the chief dependence for the people in the vicinity.  In this same vicinity iron ore of the kidney variety is said to lie in abundance.
     Judge Gaylord, in his reminiscences, says: “In the early part of 1819 we find only a partial organization existing.  James Young was the only acting justice of the peace in the township.  He was commissioned Nov. 17, 1818, and resigned Feb. 11, 1820.  He had his office in an old, dilapidated shed attached to his dwelling on Lot 64, corner of Maine and Union streets, McConnelsville, where he dispensed justice and attended to the legal wants of his neighbors with dignity and dispatch unsurpassed by any of his numerous successors.  ’Squire Young was a brickmolder and mason, and built the first brick dwelling in the county, the Adams House.  He also made the brick and put up the first courthouse in the county. Young being almost constantly occupied in his mechanical pursuits, besides at

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tending strictly to his duties as tavern-keeper, was obliged to make Saturdays his court-days, from necessity, on which occasion much legal business was disposed of in a way peculiar to the times.
     “Legal business accumulating in the township, it was deemed necessary to have another justice’s court opened; thereupon the trustees of the township, in the absence of any action of the common pleas court, ordered an election to be held on July 31, 1819, to elect an additional justice of the peace.  This election was the first political demonstration we have any account of among the early settlers of the township, and was held in McConnelsville at the time ordered, Alexander McConnel, Daniel Chandler and John Pettit judges; Jesse L. Paschal and Simeon Pool, Jr., clerks of election.  By reference to the pollbook of that election a pretty complete list of the pioneers is obtained as follows:  Lewis Ramey, Gilbert Olney, Nathaniel Sprague, W. M. Dawes, Amasa Piper, Simeon Pool, John Bell, Alexander McConnel, Simeon Pool, Jr., Jacob Adams, Joseph Wyatt, William Lewis, Sylvanus Piper, Jacob R. Price, John Pettit, Robert Aikens, Jr., John Smith, William Hughes, John Williams, Philip Kahler, John Seaman, Abraham Hughes, Benjamin T. Johnson, Isaac Walbridge, Timothy M. Gates, W. C. Johnson, Israel Redman, Jonathan McMullen, William Murphy, James Larrison, Nathaniel Shepard, James Young, Samuel A Barker, Jonas Fox, Charley Brian, Henry Awmiller.  Daniel Chandler, a judge, and Jesse L. Paschal, a clerk, did not vote, making the number thirty-eight.  Eleven of this list resided within the present corporate limits of McConnellsville; all others resided resided in the township, and most of them
on the Malta side.  Timothy M. Gates was elected, receiving fifteen of the thirty-six votes.”
     In October, 1820, a general election was held, and from the records are obtained the following election certificates:
     “We do hereby certify that Andrew Wharton had 46 votes, David Fulton had 33 votes for commissioner; Jeremiah Morrow had 69 votes, Ethan A. Brown had 7 votes, William M. Dawes had 2 votes for governor; Timothy Buel had 44 votes, Alexander McConnel had 53 votes, Ephraim Cutler had 15 votes, William M. Dawes had 28 votes, Joseph Barker had 5 votes, Amzi Stanley had 4 votes for State representative.

                                              "JONATHAN PORTER,
                                              "JOHN SEAMAN,
                                              "WILLIAM PALMER,
                                                                      "Judges."

     This is followed by another certificate “that Levi Barber had 13 votes, Henry Brush had 62 votes, and Thomas Scott had one vote for representative in congress.”
     The following bears the same date:
     “We do hereby certify that Joseph Barker had 20 votes for State representative and Timothy Buell had 17 votes for State representative.

                                              "WILLIAM SUMMERS,
                                              "JONATHAN PORTER
                                              "JAMES YOUNG,
                                                               "Judges.

                                              "JACOB R. PRICE,
                                              "FRANCIS A BARKER,
                                                                "Clerks.

     “December 19, 1820.”
At that time Morgan County elected, with Washington County, two representatives; and that there was some dis-

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satisfaction in one or the other of the elections is indicated by the following “official notice” for holding the first political convention in the county, which is copied verbatim from pages 17 and 18 of the record:
     “Notice to the electors of Morgan Township to meet at the schoolhouse in McConnelsville on Saturday, the 1st of September next, to elect two delegates to meet in general delegation in McConnelsville on the 4th of September next, for the purpose of forming an annual ticket to be supported at the next annual election for Morgan County.  Also to choose a committee to correspond with a committee of Washington County.
     “By order of the trustees,

                                              "JACOB R. PRICE, T. C.

     "August 24 ,1821."
     "Ordered by the trustees that an election be held at the schoolhouse in McConnelsville to elect two delegates for the township of Morgan to meet with delegates from the other different townships of Morgan County to form a ticket to be supported at the ensuing election.  Also to choose a corresponding committee to correspond with Washington County and the different townships of Morgan County.

                                              "WM. C. JOHNSON,
                                              "JONATHAN PORTER,
                                                                      "Trustees.

     "August 24, 1821.
     "Attest:  Jacob R. Price.
     "The above is misplaced; it ought to be before the advertisement."
     At the annual election, Oct. 9, 1821, subsequent to the call for the "general delegation" there were 95 votes cast; and it is apparent that the effect of the "general delegation" was the formation of two regular tickets, with probably the first “Brimstone and Junto” battle at the poles.
     The candidates for the State senate were Sardina Stone and Ephraim Cutler.
     For representatives: Timothy Buell, Alexander McConnel, Wm. M. Dawes and James Whitney.
     In those days it was the fashion everywhere at elections for candidates to treat their friends, and to their enemies to extend merely a “smell.”  Liberally and frequently the voters indulged the generosity of the candidates during the day.  It was common at the election to find the “big-bellied bottle ” exhibited and set out with the name of the candidate inscribed thereon.
     It was the order of the day to first vote and then drink the success of the favorite candidate from his bottle.  If any candidate should have conscientious scruples about furnishing his demijohn well tilled, his chances for success were very slim.
     On the 22d of January, 1820, an election was held for a justice of the peace, at which Timothy M. Gates, Gilbert Olney and Alexander McConnel acted as judges; John Seaman and Jacob R. Price, as clerks.  The following pioneers appear for the first time upon the record:

     Isaac Walbridge was elected, receiving twenty-four out of thirty-one votes cast.  The larger portion of these pioneers were residents of the village and

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township in 1819. In this list of pioneers will be found the name of Isaac Miles.  He was peculiar in his ways, blunt and determined.  Among his numerous friends he was known as Deacon Miles, not that he possessed any of the particular Christian virtues appertaining to that kind of a church officer, or had he connection with any of the theological organizations extant among the people at that time, hut from his peculiarities displayed on all occasions.  For some years he was one of the contables, and the law during his administration made it his duty to visit every newcomer settling in the township, and notify him or her to depart the same, so that he or she should not in any event become a public charge upon the township.  This was called “ warning out,” and the notice in the hands of Constable Miles was given to everyone; no matter what might be their circumstances in life, the rich and the poor were sure to receive a call from Constable Miles.  On one occasion Constable (or Deacon) Miles, in his rounds of “ arning out,” came to the domicile of a lone widow, and without notice of his approach, he bolted across the threshold of her cabin, and in no smooth or pleasant vein blurted out, “Madam, I warn you out of this township and off the face of God’s earth!”  The woman, surprised at the sudden intrusion of the officer of the law and his peremptory commands, raising her hands toward heaven, cried out, “My God, Mr. Miles, off the face of God’s earth!  Where shall I go to'” “Go to” said the deacon ; “go to the Kanawaha saltworks.”  The Kenawaha saltworks, at that time, was a sort of asylum for the lame, halt, blind and unfortunate, and also a refuge for those who were compelled to leave the country for the country’s good.  In continuation of the pioneer list, we again quote from Judge Gaylord’s reminiscences:  June 3, 1820, an election was held in which the following additional pioneers first make their appearance upon the records

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election for a justice of the peace was held on the 6th day of August, 1821, at which election sixty-one votes were cast.  Francis A. Barker received twenty-six votes, and Timothy Gates thirty.  The election of Gates, who was the head center of the Brimstone faction, was chronicled as a great victory for the Brimstones.  The following pioneers for the first time appeared, and had their names registered, viz.:

     Of the above several were residents before 1820. Why their names do not appear on the records earlier is at this time unexplainable.  On the first day of April, 1822, an election was held, at which seventy votes were cast.  The result was claimed as a Junto victory.  The following pioneers put in an appearance for the first time, viz.:

     Some of them were residents of the township in 1818.  The last exciting contest between the Juntos and the Brimstones was held on the 14th day of October, 1823.  The election was for a justice of the peace.  Alexander McConnel and Timothy Gaylord were the asptirants for magisterial honors.  Alexander McConnel received forty-eight votes, and Timothy Gaylord forty.  This was a decisive triumph for the Juntos.  The presidential contest coming on in the next year, 1824, the “Brimstone and Junto” partisans were to some extent lost in that memorable contest.  Breaking loose from former political associations, “Brimstones” and “Juntos” were found working harmoniously together for some one of the presidential candidates.  Politics then, as now, made “strange bedfellows.”  McConnel and Gaylord, who twelve months before were engaged in a bitter strife over the insignificant office of a justice of the peace upon the “Junto” and “ Brimstone ” platforms, were found working harmoniously together for the election of Clay, and four years later both were prominent Jacksonians; while others, formerly equally as hostile and bitter toward each other in the local political strifes of the day, would embrace each other in a friendly hug in 1824, and then throw up their hats and strive for the election of Jackson or Adams.  Then it was that the Brimstone and Junto factions commenced to die out, and most of their bitter partisans were lost in the national contest of 1824 and that immediately succeeding it.  In 1828 the following pioneers were enrolled upon the record:

     The list of pioneers of Morgan Township on the 14th day of October, 1823, and prior thereto, is here given, numbering 144.  Several of these pioneers

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became residents of the township long before they made their appearance at the elections in which their names are chronicled, and no doubt some few names are omitted from the list who should have a place in the same for the reason that they did not attend these several elections and have themselves registered.  To a great extent we have depended upon the poll-books consulted for a full list, but we find the names of Rev. George Russel, Joseph Barrow, John Collison, James Clemens and some others, unnaturalized foreigners, whose names are ommitted from the records.  Of this list of 144 names only nine could answer to the roll call in 1873.  Many of their descendents still reside in the township and county.
     In the pioneer days there was a class of men who could not be placed under any common description of mankind:  their like will never perhaps be known again.  They frequented the courts and were about on public days, and they practiced, more or less, at the bars of the village taverns.  At that day, besides the judges, lawyers, suitors, jurors and witnesses, a goodly number of spectators were in attendance to witness the proceedings of the courts.  Not only were they present to witness the doings of the court, but in those days, when the newspapers were not so prodigal of their circulation as now, a class of persons would come out on such occasions to learn the current news of the period and indulge themselves in the discussion and investigation of the events going on in the outside world, and have their friendly chats with one another upon various local subjects and questions then and there suggested.  Sixty-seven years ago but few newspapers found their way within the bounds of Morgan county; perhaps the Zanesville papers and one or two weeklies from east of the mountains would be the extent of the circulation through two or three postoffices in the whole county, and they delivered by a weekly horseback mail.
     All inquiring and wide-awake men residing away from the county seat, contentedly living in their rude log cabins, upon new farms, generally depended for the news of the day on the now-and-then traveler passing through the country, who, for his supposed fund of news and gossip, was always a welcome guest and hospitably entertained and kept out of bed until a late hour in the night, answering the many questions of his inquisitive host, and also upon those neighbors who now and then emerged from the woods into the outside world, who on their return would impart much information of what was going on.  For these and other purposes might be found congregated at the county seat at court-days all kinds of characters.  Among this motley and somewhat promiscuous throng of visitors might be seen Joseph D., residing close upon the borders of Bristol Township.
     Old Joe was one of those men possessing a rough and unseemly exterior, but a good heart within, he was a great hunter, of unquestioned skill and bravery, who had in many contests vanquished the beasts of the forest, lie was admirably well skilled in all the expedients and customs of the pioneers, and was truly a hardy, active and expert backwoodsman.  His native abilities were superior, and without the advantages of school and book education he was looked upon as a prodigy, he could therefore accommodate him

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self without inconvenience or perplexity to all kinds of company he might meet with.  When in a promiscuous gathering, Old Joe shone out in all his native dignity and equanimity of mind.  It is remembered that on one occasion Old Joe was hard-up for lodgings.  All the taverns in the village were crowded and no accommodations could be found for Old Joe.  He had no place to rest his weary and befuddled head.  At that day McConnelsville presented rather an unsightly appearance.  Brush and log-heaps were numerous.  Old Joe settled himself for a night's lodging at a large log-heap, fired up the pile and after the custom of the hunter made his bed and sweetly reposed all night.
     At early dawn Old Joe made his appearance at the bar of one of the village taverns, extremely thirsty but somewhat refreshed in body.  He called for his gill of “ Moxahala.”  At that day liquor was dealt out indiscriminately to all callers in measures of gallons, quarts, pints, gills and half-gills.  On this occassion it seems that a gill was sufficient to quench Old Joe's thirst.  With expedition he turned it off and took his place among the village throng who had been indulging in their early morning drams.  One of these present seemed to know something about Old Joe’s whereabouts the previous night, and thinking to have some fun at his expense began, “Well, Mr. D____ , if it’s not impertinent on my part, I should like to know where you lodged last night.” “ Well, sir,” replied Old Joe, “I do not take it as impertinent for one neighbor to interrogate another as to his whereabouts in this neck of the woods, particularly if his absence should be in the night season, for you know, Captain McQuaide, I am not much concerned about where I shall sleep, what I shall eat, or how much I shall drink.  I sojourned last night, sir, at the tavern with the sign of ‘God help us.’  This inn has neither roof, sideboard, bed nor bar.”  Well, Mr. D____, whereabouts in McConnelsville is that tavern located?”  Old Joe, stretching himself up to his full length, over six feet, and with a sonorous and deliberate pronunciation, said, “Sir, that place of accommodation for the wayfarer is to be found on the corner of Poplar, Beech, Hickory and Walnut streets.

“ With much hickory bark to light your way,
Hut nothing’ to landlord or hostler pay.”

     “Well, Mr. D____, if your tavern occupies all of those four corners it must be an extensive structure.  Landlord, set out the drinks.”  On another occasion, when in a sober circle of neighbors some one was boasting of his recent religious conversion and under whose ministry the event had taken place, Old Joe patiently listened to the tale of the new convert, and being somewhat skeptical in such serious matters bluntly broke out, “ Yes, my young friend, we read in the good book that in old times one Balaam was; converted by the braying of an ass.  I see nothing to prevent such a miracle taking place at this time and right here on Meigs Creek.”

     Roswell Whipple, a native of New York, came from Pennsylvania and first settled in Bloom on the farm now owned by Jesse Ryan.  From this farm he removed to the farm owned by his son William, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1861.  He was a worthy citizen and a prominent farmer.

     Samuel Farra came from Lancas-

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ter County, Pa., in 1819, and located in Bloom Township.  He was a farmer and stonemason by occupation, and the progenitor of the Farra family in this county.  He died in Bloom Township.  His family consisted of five boys and three girls.  William, one of the sons, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1804.  He married Miss Francis, daughter of Wilkes Bozman, one of the pioneers of Bristol Township.  He settled on the farm now owned by Joseph Parmiter.  He was a successful farmer and accumulated a tine competency.  He died in Meigsville in 1879.  He reared a family of nine children - six boys and three girls.

     John Sharp was born in Pennsylvania, and when a young man emigrated to Ohio and settled in Washington County, where he married Miss Mary Mitchell.  But little is known of his history further than that he was a man of considerable prominence.  During the war of 1812 he recruited a company, which he commanded; he was taken a prisoner, and was not released until the close of the war, when he returned to his home near Marietta, where he died in 1820, aged 47 years.  His wife died in 1818, aged 35 years.

     R. J. M. Sharp, son of John Sharp, was born in Washington County, Ohio, Dec. 31, 1806.  In March, 1830, he came to McConnelsville, and in September following married Miss Fanny, daughter of Andrew J. McAllister. She was horn in Essex County, Vermont, Nov. 9, 1807, and came to Morgan County with her parents in 1819.  Her father was born in New Hampshire and married Miss Abbie Rodgers.  She died in Iowa in 1862, he in McConnelsville in 1847, aged 76 years.  Mr. and Mrs. Sharp reared a family of eight children; Edgar B., one of the prominent business men of McConnelsville, is the only one residing in the State.

     Among the early settlers of Meigsville Township were Charles and Sarah (Holbrook) McCarty, the former a native of Virginia, the latter horn in Maine.  They were staid and thrifty people and reared a family of seven children, Charles W. being next the eldest.  He was born in Meigsville, May 29, 1831, and was reared on his father’s farm, he received a good common-school education and at the age of twenty-two married Miss Margaret A. Triblett.  She died in February, 1867.  Six years after her death he was again married to Miss Sarah J. Wagner, of Meigsville, and the year following moved to where he now resides.  Mr. McCarty is a thrifty and prosperous farmer, as his well-tilled fields attest.  In his religious and political affiliations he is a Methodist and a republican.

     James C. Loughridge was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, near Zanesville, Jan. 29, 1836.  He removed to where he now resides in 1853.

     Samuel Koons was horn in Frederick County, Md., Dec. 7, 1899.  In 1821 the family came to Perry County, this State, and from thence in 1844 to Malta village.  He is the present proprietor of the Koons Hotel, in McConnelsville.

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