West Rushville, Ohio

But the immediate descendants of the pioneer fathers of Fairfield County, many of them, are with us, and many who came at an early day, but after the settlements had made con siderable progress. Prom them we glean much that pertains to the early history of the county. The times of the log-cabin era of the Hocking Valley have not faded from their memories, but the realization is lost.

Passage source: A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877.

To one familiar with the present population of the county, traces of many of the pioneer families are recognized in all the townships and original settlements, by the names and families of their descendants, but the largest number of the families of the tax-payers are extinct in the county. Most of the names are entirely lost ; moving away, intermarriage, and death, accounts for this. Many of the oldest inhabitants at present residing in the county came early, but subsequent to 1806. In personal notes, elsewhere, will be found notices of such prominent early settlers, both before and after 1806, as facilities have enabled me to secure. These older citizens still cherish the memory of the log-cabin age of the county. The houseraising, the log-rolling, the corn-husking, the quilting, the country wedding, country dance; "Sister Phebe;" "Marching to^ Quebec;" "Thus the farmer sows his seed;" "As oats, peas, beans and barley grows ;" " Kilimacranky ;" and other plays then so universal. The hominy block, lie hominy, the Johnny cake, hoe cake, corn dodger, the tinkling cow bell, sound of the woodman's ax, the dinner horn, drumming pheasant, and the thousand things peculiar to frontier life sixty years ago and more ; all have passed away forever, but the recollection of them is precious to the aged yet living - hallowed, priceless. The writer has passed through all the phases of frontier life in another part of the State. There is nothing so dear to the aged as the remembrances of the past, the long ago, of life's first young dreams, its loves, and joys, and dear associations. It is a thrilling comfort to the aged Christian man or woman, when recollection falls back to the humble cabin with its slab benches, rude corner cupboard, and wide fire-place, and dwells upon the sincere, simple and true worship of other days, days that were before the carking cares of the world, and the follies and absurdities of fashionable life were brought in to ornament the simplicity of the religion of the great founder of the church. Reader, did you ever let your thoughts go back to your young days, where, unbidden, the scenes of the past, with all that was precious to memory, came grouping around yOu ? Is there anything this world can afford that you would be willing to exchange for that hour of elysium, that bliss that is all your own, and that cannot be taken from you, nor marred by enemies? These good old days are all gone, never to return, and the old mourn unavailingly their departure. There is really nothing now that was sixty years ago, or nothing as it was then; grey heads and bent forms remain, and tender emotions come up, but the loves and endearments of other years have drifted back into the dim vista of the past. Regarding the pioneers ofFairfield County during the first fifteen or twenty years of the present century, with all they were and what they did, they appear to the contemplative mind as a wave of humanity that laved the shores of time for a brief season, only to ebb away into the vast ocean of what, to mortals in this mundane sphere of existence, seems oblivion. They were here and did the work of their day, but they are gone, and that is all we can say. No visible work of their hands stands out in relief. And what has their lives and deeds availed? Much ; but the present age fails in due appreciation. To the busy throng of to-day, in their irrational race for riches and fame and enjoyment, the former age is oblivious. We rush almost frantically, at best heedlessly, over their sleeping dust to grasp the baubles that even our own experiences tell us will dissolve in our grasp. And for what? A few more brief decades of years, and we will be as the pioneers are now - gone - forgotten. We do not even pause an hour to remember, and possibly appreciate how much we owe to that noble and sturdy race. By their hands the forests and jungle have been cleared away, by which the pestilential fogs and fens have been disarmed of mischief, mostly. They did the hard work and gave us a clear soil to till. Can we say we , are carrying forward their virtues, their practical common sense, their good manners, humanity and worship ? Have we inherited their patriotism ? We have grown wiser, possibly, and gained wealth, material wealth. Have we grown in goodness ?

Passage source: A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877.

At this first term of the Court of Common Pleas for Fairfield County, which commenced on the second Tuesday of May, 1803, the record stands : "Before Wyllys Sillman, Esquire, President, and his associates." The following are the names of the Grand Jurors who were sworn in at that term : David" Resse, foreman ; Joseph Hunter, Henry Mesner, Jacob Lamb, John McMean, Thomas Cisna, Frederick Leather, Thomas McCall, Joseph Work, James Black, John Shepler,<John Mills and David Shellenberger. "And after being duly sworn, retired to their room, and after some time returned into Court, and having made no presentments, nor found any bills of indictment, were discharged."

Passage source: A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Richland Township - it names this place 7 more 7 times.