Clinton County, Ohio - Chapter 8, 1882

Chapter 8

THE list of Clerks and Commissioners and a large portion of the statistics found in this chapter, are from the Harlan notes. The first Commissioners for the county of Clinton were George McManis, James Birdsall and Henry Babb. The date of their first meeting is April 6, 1810, when all were present. The business transacted was the subdivision of the county into the three townships of Richland, Chester and Vernon, as elsewhere described. Nothing else seems to have been done at that meeting, and they next convened on the 19th of the following May, when the bonds of the following county officers were accepted: Jonathan Harlan, Sheriff; David McMillan, Coroner. Robert Eachuc was appointed County Treasurer, Samuel Cox, County Lister, and Warren Sabin, Clerk, for the Commissioners.

The third meeting was held June 4, 1810, at which time was read the petition of William Dakin and others, praying for an alteration of the State road, leading from Morgan Van Meter's through Waynesville. Commissioners were appointed to view said road and make a report at a subsequent meeting. The bond of Robert Eachus,. County Treasurer, was accepted.

At the fourth meeting, held July 24, 1810, Samuel Cox was appointed Collector of State Revenue and county levy for the county of Clinton. He agreed to collect the same for $28 (State revenue at 0 per cent and county levy for $3,537, making all together said first-named amount of $28). Clinton County at that time could hardly have been immensely wealthy. It was then in an embryo state, and developments were but just beginning to be made.

At a meeting held June 5, 1811, the following entry was made: ''Tavern licenses rated at $4.50 for the present year, anywhere within the county, commencing on the 3d day of June, 1811." The price of wolf scalps was fixed on the same date at $1 each for that year. In June of the previous year, it was agreed to payr $1.50 each for old panther or wolf scalps, and 75 cents each for the scalps of those animals under six months of age. The first order on record issued to pay for a wolf scalp was drawn September 8, 1810, in favor of David Hughes.

June 10, 1811, it was " Ordered by the Board of Commissioners, that the rates of personal property taxable be rated as follows: Horses, three years old and upward, 30 cents; neat cattle, three years old and upward, lO cents." The county levy for 1881, as received by Robert Eachus, Treasurer, amounted to $104.75. In 1816, it had*increased to $738.64, Samuel Harvey, Collector, James Montgomery, Clerk of the Board of Commissioners, resigned September 2, 1811, and Isaiah Morris was appointed in his place. The latter gentleman was an elegant penman, and the records kept by him appear to-day as clear and plain as copper-plate engraving. Dr. A. Jones, who subsequently discharged the duties of Deputy Auditor, patterned after- Mr. Morris in his style of writing, and his records are also most excellent. In many counties, it is an extreme rarity to find the earliest records properly or even neatly kept, but in Clinton there appears to have been a class of well-educated men among the pioneers, capable of filling all positions to which they may have been chosen. This being the case, thore is little wonder that her citizens of the present day, as a class, should possess all the attributes belonging to a refined and cultured people.

In 1812, tavern licenses were issued at $4.50 each for all in the county outside of Wilmington, while in the village $1 more was required, the amount being considerably increased in subsequent years.

Among the orders issued during the first years after the organization of the county were the following: June term, 1812, to Ferguson & Morris, $1.- 74|, which bill was mostly "for whisky furnished at sale of court house" - meaning the sale of the contract for building the first court house. February term, 1813, the sum of $11.12^ was allowed to Peter Burr for the use of his house for the term of the Court of Common Pleas for that month and for material furnished. To Nathaniel Cunningham, February term, 1814, I13.62J for the use of his house and for fire- wood for Court of Common Pleas for that term. About that time also there was a run on the county treasury to pay for large numbers of wolf scalps which were brought in, and it is safe to infer that many persons made a fair living from the proceeds of wolf -hunting. It finally became necessary to reduce the bounty, and prices were kept down until the animals became quite scarce throughout the county. The eye of the pioneer was true and keen, his nerve was excellent and his rifle was not known to fail; consequently, when he "drew a bead" on a wolf or any other specimen of the wild brute creation, of which "the woods were full," death leaped responsive to the crack of the weapon and sped on leaden wings to its victim. We have been aware in later years of a practice known as "wolf farming" in some localities in the West, but in the days when the forests of Clinton County had hardly become acquainted with the sound of the woodman's ax, it could not have been necessary to resort to that scheme in order to get scalps, for the dismal howl of the wolf was borne on the shuddering air of night in all localities, and it was scarcely necessary to seek the gaunt animal in order to find him. The settler's pigs were apt to be quickly discovered by the numerous creatures, and "eternal vigilance" was in those days the price of pork.

AVarren Sabin was the first Clerk of the Board of Commissioners, serving from April 6, 1810, to October of the same year. He was succeeded by James Montgomery, November 10 following; the latter resigned September 2, 1811, and Isaiah Morris was appointed in his place; re-appointed May 9, 1816, and resigned March 25, 1817. On the latter date, Dr. Loammi Rigdon was appointed, and held through successive re-appointments until 1820, in which an act was passed providing for County Auditors in the State, and the latter offices have since been ex officio clerks to the Commissioners.

During his early residence in Wilmington, Dr. A Jones, then a youth yet in his teens, had an experience which does not often fall to the lot of a person so young. For two or three years, he had been employed as clerk, or deputy, in the Auditor's office, and, during a protracted absence of his chief, was called upon to perform the entire duties of the office. New matters came up, and he at first was considerably puzzled, but finally came from the trial with colors flying. John McManis, the Auditor, resigned his position on the 4th of March, 1826, and young Jones, as the person best fitted to discharge the duties of the office in the emergency, was appointed to fill up the vacancy until the next en. suing election, when Bebee Treusdell was chosen. The latter gentleman served for many years in the office, being its occupant at two different periods. [See list of Auditors elsewhere; this information is furnished by Dr. JoneB himself.]

The records of the proceedings of the Commissioners are complete from the date of their first meeting, in April, 1810, the first volume being a small one of something over eighty pages, in which the writing is as plain as when it was placed there nearly three-quarters of a ceDtury ago. AVhen Isaiah Morris took the books, he, with not an unwarrantable pride, indulgod in numerous flourishes with his pen, and, though there was no particular arrangement in the manner of keeping the records then, they were made exceedingly neat and legible. The pages were not ruled, and it appeared difficult for the clerk to at all times write to the line; and occasionally the lines are in a form of a body of the "c irnstalk militia" of the early days - somewhat wavy.

Upon turning to the records for the years in*which the great rebellion existed, we find that the county of Clinton was lavish with her bounty in aid of the cause of freedom, and provided magnificently for those to whom the fortunes of war had brought sorrow and affliction. Beginning with September, 1801, and continuing through a period of six years, the Commissioners appropriated nearly or quite $60,000 in the way of relief funds, which was a remarkably large sum for a county with no greater population than had Clinton at that time, when a great number of her sons were risking their lives in defense of the principles of liberty and right.

State Tax

The annexed table is from the duplicate for 1881, and we give it by townships. It does not include the delinquent and dog taxes. It will be seen that the county has increased largely in wealth in the eighteen years which have elapsed since the above taxes were levied:

In 1855, the product of 18,701 acres of wheat was 282,585 bushels, while 1,965,069 bushels of corn were raised on 40,982 acres. For the latter year, the following shows the personal property, moneys and credits of the county :

The following figures show the votes for Governor as cast in the county of Clinton at the various elections. The first Gubernatorial campaign in which the county took part was in October, 1810. She had no Representative in Congress until 1812. The votes are as follows:

1836 - Yote for President: William Henry Harrison, 1,448, Martin Van Buren, 807. Van Buren elected. Whig majority in the county, 641. Joseph Vance (Whig) was elected Governor over Eli Baldwin (Democrat).

1853 - William Medill, 688; Nelson Barrier, 784; Samuel Lewis, 839; Medill electod. Abolition majority in the county, 55. The vote in the entire State that year was: Medill (Democrat), 147,663; Barrier (Whig), 85,857; Lewis (Abolitionist), 50,346.

1877 - William H. West (Republican), 2,766; Richard M. Bishop (Democrat), 1,709; Henry A. Thompson, 88; Stephen Johnston, 18. Bishop elected. Republican majority in the county, 1,057.

1879 - Charles Foster (Republican), 3,589; Thomas Ewing (Democrat), 2,051; Gideon T. Stewart, 68; A. Sanders Piatt, 4. Foster elected. Republican majority in the county, 1,538.

1881 - Charles Foster (Republican), 3,179; John W. Bookwalter (Democrat), 1,762; Abraham R. Ludlow, 274; John Seitz, 3. Foster elected. Republican majority in the county, 1,417.

Population

In 1810, the total population of Clinton County, according to the figures of the United States census for that year, was 2,674. In 1820, it had increased to 8,085, including forty-six free colored persons, and, in 1830, the following shows the population by townships:

This includes 110 free colored persons, of whom twenty-four were in Wilmington, twenty-five in the rest of Union Township, twenty-eight in Liberty, four in Richland, eight in Vernon and twenty-one in Clark.