Athens Township (part 6 of 21)

neer church. At a very early day they built a meeting house at "Centre Stake," and the Presbyterians not long after built one near the site of the present Cumberland Presbyterian church. There are now in the township three Methodist churches, three Free Will Baptist, one Old School Presbyterian and one Cumberland Presbyterian. Near the latter church is located the principal cemetery in the township, which is being tastefully improved. Pleasanton, situated in the eastern part of the township, on the road between Athens and Pomeroy, is a thrifty settlement, containing about twenty-five families. Simon Pierce built the first house here about 18 17. Other settlers located here from time to time, and in 1851 a post pfiice was established and the place called Pleasanton.

The early records of the township were destroyed by fire in the house of John McKee in 1827 or 1828, but as nearly as can be ascertained the first trustees were Caleb Merritt, John Brppks, and Thomas Sharp, and Caleb Merritt the fir^t justice of the peace.

Thomas Armstrongs born April 2, i777> in Greene county, Pennsylvania, came to Athens county in 1799, and settled in Alexander township, where his son, Elmer Armstrong, now lives. Mrs. Alice Armstrong, wife of Thomas, was also a native of Greene county, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Col. Wm. Crawford,

In March, 1799, ^^" Armstrong and wife, with their first child, then three months old, accompanied by Charles Harper, wife and child, put their movable goods, consisting in part of furniture, live stock, etc., and forty young apple trees, into a flatboat at the mouth of Muddy creek, on the Monongahela river, and set out for the northwestern territory. Landing at the mouth of the Hockhocking, in April 1799, the women and children, and live stock, were sent forward from this point by land to Athens, while the goods, provisions, etc., were poled up the river by Messrs. Armstrong and Harper in a pirogue. There was no road from Athens to Alexander (their destination), but the woods being tolerably open, they made "a rig" from poles, to which a horse was hitched, and thus their goods were hauled out. Provisions were scarce, and the new settlers depended mainly on hunting for meat, and on the skins of the wild animals, which the men very generally used, for clothes. Mr. Armstrong himself was never much of a hunter, but frequently received a share of the meat and skins for packing the game home for the hunters on his horse. The manner of packing bears and deer was to take the entrails out, skin the nose of the animal for a crupper for the horse, place the skin on the back of the horse, tying the skin of the fore-legs around his breast; then put on a second one, with the two flesh sides together. Buflfalo skins were cut in strips and used for bed cords, and for harness "tugs" in hauling. On one occasion, Mrs. Armstrong saw the dogs pursue a deer on to the ice in the creek, near the house, when, there being no man at hand, she hastened down with an ax and butcher's knife, and, the deer being helpless on the ice, killed it with the ax and cut its throat with the knife. The skin of this deer was dressed, made into gloves by Mrs. A., and sent to her friends in Pennsylvania.

In her youth, Mrs. Armstrong spent some time in a fort, which was on her father's farm, near Carmichaeltown, Pennsylvania. During that period the Indians were peaceable, and, for a time, committed no hostilities. But, one Sabbath morning, the Reverend John Corbley, a Baptist minister, started to church, a short distance from the fort, and, when returning to the house for something which had been forgotten, he and the family were furiously set upon by Indians. The savages instantly killed the wife and babe, and scalped the two daughters. Mr. Corbley and two boys made their escape into the fort. Col. Crawford immediately went with a party in pursuit. He did not overtake the Indians, but found the woman and child dead, and the two girls yet alive. They were carried into the fort, their wounds dressed, and both recovered, married, and raised families, and a daughter of one of them is now living in St. Mary's, Ohio.

In the summer of 1799, Mr. Armstrong prepared to erect a substantial log house on his place. On such occasions, the settlers from far and near were expected to assemble and aid in the labor. It was also an occasion of much mirth and good feeling; the slender news of the settlement was discussed, and there was a general interchange of neighborly offices. Among others who came to assist Mr. Armstrong at his "raising" were John Thompson, then a prominent citizen of the township, but long since dead, and Wm. Gabriel, Matthew Haning, and Thomas Jones, who settled in Alexander in 1798 and 1799.

Mr. Armstrong was for several years lister of taxes in Alexander, and collector of college rents. He was also sheriff of the county, and held other positions of trust in the community. He died October 22, 1853.

Elmer Armstrong, youngest son of the preceding, was born in Alexander township, January 17, 18 12, and now lives on the farm which his father settled upon in 1799. ^^^ ^^ ^^^ apple trees, brought from Pennsylvania by his father in 1799, ^"^ planted on the place that year, is still living - measures seven feet seven and a half inches in circumference, and rarely fails to bear a good annual crop of apples. Mr. Armstrong married the daughter of Levi Booth, formerly of Alexander, and has one son and two daughters. He has for many years been well known as a prosperous farmer and successful dealer in live stock.

Samuel L. Blake^ born in Middletown, Middlesex county, Connecticut, in 1779, removed in 18 16 to Alexander township, where he lived the rest of his life. He was a thorough farmer, a man of excellent character and sound judgment, and assisted largely in molding the society of the township. He died March 16, 1859, leaving a large number of descendants, some of whom are well known in the county.

A large family of Hibbards^ originally from Vermont, came to Athens county at an early day. Elisha and John in 18 16, Alanson and Elias and their sister Pamela (afterwards Mrs. Sabinus Rice), in 1817, and Dr. James S. Hibbard in 1823. The Rev. Ebenezer Hibbard, eldest brother of this family, who was pastor of a church in Vermont forty years, came to Alexander township in 1831, and settled at Hebbardsville, giving his name, slightly altered, to the village. He preached in this neighborhood some time, and then removed to Amesville and preached there till his death in 1835,

Copt. Amos Northrop^ born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, December 19, 1796, came to this county in the autumn of 1 8 14, and ultimately settled in Alexander township, where he still resides in the town of Hebbardsville. In early life Capt. Northrop developed some military taste, He served in the war of 18 12, and, after coming to this county, was captain of the militia for several years. He is now deputy sheriff of the county, and also coroner, which last position he has held for a number of years. Though in his seventythird year he is an active and efficient man,

IVilliam Sickles y born in Pennsylvania, May ist, 1802, came to Athens county in 1 805, with his father's family, and settled on the Thomas Grim farm in Waterloo. After two years they removed to Alexander and settled on the Peter Long farm, where they lived about twentythree years, and afterwards several years again in Waterloo. When a young man Mr. Sickles has killed as many as five deer in one day. In one autumn he killed in the aggregate forty-nine deer. Joseph Bobo, of Lodi, and Abram Gabriel each killed in that season the same number - forty-nine. He remembers when there was but one house on the road between Alexander and the present town of Jackson, then called Scioto Salt Works. He has ground a great many bushels of corn in a hand mill made of two stones; the upper one revolved on the lower by means of a short handle let into the edge.

In the year 18 17 John M. Chase^ a native of Danville, Maine, moved to the county, and settled as a farmer in Alexander township, where he resided till his death in i860. Of his family two sons and four daughters are now living in this and the adjoining county of Meigs.

Gardiner F. Chase, his son, born in Danville, Maine, in 181 1, came to Alexander in 18 17, and now lives on the farm on which his father settled in that year.

ff^illiam Gorslinej born on Long Island, New York, in 1755, came to Athens county and settled in Alexander township in 18 17. He brought with him a family of three sons and three daughters, of whom only one (Mr. J. M. Gorsline, of Lee township) survives. Mr. Gorsline was a man of fine intelligence. He died July 7th, 1825.

Abram and Jacob McVey^ brothers, came to Athens from Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1832, and settled in Alexander township. Some of their descendants are still living in the county. About the same time a large emigration from Washington and Greene counties, Pennsylvania, came to Athens and settled mostly in Alexander. Among them were Joseph Post, Moses, William and John Patterson and their families, Jacob and David Cook, Dennis Drake, Peter Vorhes and family, of whom five sons are living in the county, John Gray, Elijah Brown and his sons Henry and Jerry, Lawrence Blakeway, Cephas and Zenas DeCamp, John Winget, Joseph Barmore, William Russell, David Pierce, John Cowan, John Brownlee, Ziba Lindley, Sen., and family, Elisha Jolly, William E. Bane, Absalom Conkey, John Clutter, Daniel Espy, Solomon Leighty, Amzi Axtell, Edward Fletcher, Samuel Lively, Wil-

Ham Hoaglan, Abram Enlow, Joseph Parker, Ludlow Squires, Hezekiah Topping, and Henry Carey. They formed a valuable class of citizens, distinguished for thrift and taste in the ni^nag^nient of f^rms, stock, etc.

Chapter Ix

THIS was one of the four original townships into which the county was divided on its organization in 1805. The county included then more than twice its present area, and Ames comprised the territory which now forms the townships of Marion and Homer in Morgan county ; Ward, Green, and Starr in Hocking county, and Trimble^ York, Dover, Bern, and Ames in Athens county. The settlement of Ames was begun about a year after that of Athene, and the first settlers were Judge Ephraim Cutler and George Ewing, with their families. In the summer gf 1797 Ephraim Cutler, one of the original associates of the Ohio Company, finding that a considerable portion of his lands lay on the waters of Federal creek, in the sixth township, of the thirteenth range, and being desirous to visit them and fix their location, explored a way and cut a horse path through the wilderness from Watcrford on the Muskingum, to what is now Ames township. He was accompanied and assisted by Mr. George Ewing, who, with his little family, had come from western Virginia to the Ohio Company's purchase in 1794, and had lived till the close of the Indian war in one of the block houses of the Waterford settlement. In the autumn of 1797 they made a second visit to and more thorough exploration of Mr. Cutler's lands. This time they were accompanied by Captain Benjamin Brown who had recently arrived in the colony from Massachusetts. Mr. Ewing and Capt. Brown each owned one hundred acres of land in the company's " donation " tract on the Muskingum, which they exchanged with Mr. Cutler for land on Federal creek, agreeing to assist him in forming a settlement. They found a fertile region, heavily timbered, well watered, and abounding in game. Traces of the buffalo and elk showed that they were not yet exterminated, and deer, bears, wild turkeys, and smaller game were found in great abundance. Wolves and panthers were very numerous, and continued for many years to be a source of annoyance and danger.

The result of their second visit to the valley of Federal creek was a determination to locate there. Mr. Ewing brought his family out in March, 1798, and settled on what is now known as the Thomas Gardner farm. It was nearly a year later that Judge Cutler and Capt. Brown brought their families over from Waterford. The domestic effects and portable property of the two femilies were loaded into large canoes and sent.

in charge of Capt. Brown, down the Muskingum and Ohio rivers to the mouth of the Hockhocking, and up that stream to Federal creek, a distance of about eighty miles. The women and children, on horse back, were escorted by Mr. Cutler through the pathless woods and over the hills to their new home. In a narrative written a few years later Mr. Cutler thus refers to this journey :

^^ I, with four horses, took Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cutler and all our children to go twenty miles through an entire wilderness to our new home. Night overtook us before we were able to cross Sharp's fork of Federal creek, and we were obliged to encamp. We experienced a very rainy night. The creek in the morning was rapidly rising. I hurried, got Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Cutler and the children, with the baggage and horses, over the creek, all except A. G. Brown,* then a child three or four years old, whom I took in my arms, and as I stepped on a drift of flood-wood, which reached across the creek, it broke away from the bank. We were in danger, but a gracious Providence preserved us and we got safely across. We arrived at our camp, near where we built our cabin. May 7th, 1799.*'

Mr. Cutler settled on lands now owned by his son, Mr. William P. Cutler, and Capt. Brown on the farm where Daniel Fleming now lives. In May, i8cx), Silvanus Ames, afterward known as Judge Ames, came from Belpre with his family and settled near Mr. Cutler on the farm which he occupied till his death in 1823.

Deacon Joshua Wyatt came with his family about the same time and settled on the farm in section i now owned by the heirs of George Wyatt. All of these men bore a large part in the early history of Amesville. Their wives, too, were persons of solid minds and superior culture. The writer remembers to have heard Mrs. Ames, who had been tenderly reared in the family of a New England clergyman, but whose energy and character were equal to any occasion, describe the hardships of her tedious journey from Massachusetts to Ohio, in the year 1799, which she made all the way on horseback, carrying an infant in her arms. Mrs. Cutler and Mrs. Wyatt were also women of great excellence; the former died in 1809, and the latter a few years later.

A pioneer settlement is fortunate if its founders cultivate at the beginning a respect for law and order, due regard for the ordinances of religion, and a healthy desire for literary culture. These early influences seem to be permanent, and the character of a community for generations is often fixed for good or evil by the forces dominant at its birth. Amesville, not less than the sister settlement at Athens, was favored in this regard.

"Schools of an elevated character," says Ephraim Cutler, "were soon established. Two gentlemen, graduates of Harvard college - Mr. Moses Everett, son of the Rev. Moses Everett, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and Mn Charles Cutler - taught successively several years.

For some time the youth enjoyed no other means of acquiring knowledge. Mr. Cutler took the United States Gazette, at that time the only newspaper taken in the settlement ; and that, except by fortunate accident, did not arrive much oftener than once in three months." Steps were taken, at an early day, to form a circulating library. In 1803 the inhabitants of Ames assembled in public meeting to consider the subject of roads, which, having been disposed of, the intellectual wants of the settlement became a topic of discussion. They were entirely isolated and remote from established schools and libraries, and felt keenly the necessity of providing some means for their own and their children's mental improvement. The establishment of a library was suggested, and all agreed that this was the readiest way to meet the case, provided funds could be raised and the books obtained. The scarcity of money seemed an almost insuperable obstacle. We can form little idea at this day of the almost total dearth of any medium of exchange which existed in our pioneer settlements. The little transactions of the colony were carried on almost wholly by barter and exchange in kind. Very little more produce was raised than each &mily needed, and, indeed, there was no market for any surplus. Judge A. G. Brown says that, soon after they settled in Ames, his older brother raised a little crop of hemp, which they took in a canoe down Federal creek and the Hockhocking, and up to Marietta, where they succeeded in disposing of it for a small sum ; and adds: "So scarce was money that I can hardly remember ever seeing a piece of coin till I was a well-grown boy. It was with difficulty we obtained enough to pay our taxes with and buy tea for mother - as for clothes and other things, we either depended on the forests for them, or bartered for them, or did without." In this great scarcity of money the purchase of books for a library seemed like an impossibility; but the subject was canvassed by the meeting, and it was resolved to attempt it. Before the end of the year, by dint of economy, and using every ingenious device to procure necessary funds, a sum of money was raised. Some of the settlers were good hunters, and, there being a ready cash market for furs and skins, which were bought by the agents of John Jacob Astor and others, these easily paid their subscriptions. At all events, the movement was successful, and the money was paid i^. Esquire Samuel Brown was just ready to make a business trip to New England. He was going in a light wagon, and took with him a quantity of bear-skins and other furs, which he designed exchanging in Boston for such goods as were needed in the settlement. The money was placed in his hands, and he was deputed to make the first purchase of books for the embryo library - the first in Ohio. He was furnished with letters to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris (a gentlenian of education and note, who had visited the western country a short time before), and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, who accompanied Mr. Brown to Boston and selected a valuable collection of books. This was the first public tibrary formed in the northwestern territory^ though not, as some have supposed, the first incorporated. The "Dayton library society" was incorporated February 21, 1805; a library "at Granville, in the county of Fairfield," January 26, 1 807 ; one at Newtown, Hamilton county, February 10, 1808, and the "Coon-skin library," as it has been familiarly called of late years, was incorporated, under the name of the "Western library association," by an act passed February 19, 18 10. But, that to ^Athens county belongs the honor of having given birth to the first library created in the territory of the northwest, does not admit of any doubt. The original record of the association is before us, entitled "Laws and regulations of the Western library association, founded at Ames, February 2, 1804." The preamble to the articles sets forth that, "considering the many beneficial eflfects which social libraries are calculated to produce in societies where they are established, as a source both of rational entertainment and instruction, we,, the subscribers, wishing to participate in those blessings, agree to form ourselves into a society for this purpose, under the title of the Western library association, in the town of Ames. Furthermore, at a meeting of the said association, at the house of Christopher Herrold, on Thursday, the 2d of February,

1804, agreed that the following articles be adopted as the rules of the society." The shares were $2.50 each, and each share paid a tax of twenty-five cents a year. Among the founders and original stockholders, whose names are subscribed to the articles, were the following, viz.: Ephraim Cutler, four shares; Jason Rice, two; Silvanus Ames, two; Benjamin L. Brown, one; Martin Boyles, one; Ezra Green, one; George Ewing, one; John Brown, Jun., one; Josiah True, one; Geoi^ Ewing, Jun., one; Daniel Weethee, two; Timothy Wilkins, two; Benjamin Brown, one; Samuel Brown, 2d, one; Samuel Brown, Sen., one; Simon Converse, one; Christopher Herrold, one; Edmund Dorr, one; George Wolf, one; Nathan Woodbury, one; Joshua Wyatt, one; George Walker, one ; Elijah Hatch, one; Zebulon Griffin, one; Jehiel Gregory, one; Geoi^ Castle, one; Samuel Brown, one, etc. Among the subscribers in later years appear the names of Dr. Ezra Walker, Othniel Nye, Sally Rice, Nehemiah Gregory, Thomas Ewing, Jason Rice, Lucy Ames, John M. Hibbard, Seth Child, Ebenezer Champlin, Elisha Lattimer, Cyrus Tuttle, Pearly Brown, Robert Fulton, R. S. Lovell, Michael Tippie, James Pugsley, and others among the early residents of Ames.

December 17th, 1804, a meeting of the shareholders was held at the house of Silvanus Ames, and Ephraim Cutler was elected librarian. It was also "voted to accept fifty-one books, purchased by Samuel Brown."

At the annual meeting held at the house of Ephraim Cutler, January 7th, 1805, the committee reported that they "have received pay for thirty-two shares, amounting to $82.50, of which they have laid out $73.50 for books." For this year Benjamin Brown, Ephraim Cutler and Daniel Weethee were elected the committee of managers, and Ephraim Cutler librarian. "Voted that the thanks of this association be transmitted, post paid, to the Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris, for his assistance rendered in the selection and purchase of the books which constitute our library." The list of this first purchase of books is before us. It contains " Robertson's North America;" "Harris' Encyclopedia," 4 volumes; "Morse's Geography," 2 volumes; "Adams' Truth of Religion;" "Goldsmith's Works," 4 volumes; "Evelina," 2 volumes; "Children of the Abbey," 2 volumes; "Blair's Lectures;" "Clark's Discourses;" "Ramsey's American Revolution," 2 volumes; "Goldsmith's Animated Nature," 4 volumes; "Playfair's History of Jacobinism," 2 volumes; "George Barnwell;" "Camilla," 3 volumes; "Beggar Girl," 3 volumes, &c. Later purchases included "Shakspeare;" "Don Quixote;" "Locke's Essays," "Scottish Chiefs," "Josephus," "Smith's Wealth of Nations," "Spectator," " Plutarch's Lives,";;." Arabian Nights," "Life of Washington," &c. In 1807 John Brown was elected librarian, and William Green,-3Thos. M. Hamilton and John Brown managers for one year.

In 1808 George Walker, Benjamin Brown and Samuel Beaumont were elected managers, and George Walker librarian. In 1809 John Brown, Benjamin Brown and Seth Fuller were elected managers, and John Brown librarian. In 181 1 (under the incorporating act) Silvanus Ames, Ezra Green and George Ewing were chosen directors, Seth Fuller, treasurer, and Benjamin Brown, librarian. In 181 2, '13 and '14 the same officers were re-elected. In 18 15 Seth Fuller, Geo. Walker and Ezra Green were chosen directors, John Brown, 2d, treasurer, and Benjamin Brown, librarian. From 1 816 to 1820 the directors were Seth Fuller, Josiah True and Ezra Green. Benjamin Brown was librarian during 18 16 and 18 17, and Dr. Ezra Walker during 1818 and 1819.*

*A somewhat ^nciful account of the formation of this library his heretofore appeared in print styling it the "Coon-skin library," and stating that the first purchase of books was made wholly with the fiirs and skins of wild animals. Some hunting adventures supposed to have occurred in the pursuit of skins are given, and the founders of the library appear rather in the light of literary Nimrods, with whom the chase was an intellectual pastime, and every crack of whose rifles brought down a volume of poems or history. The account we have given is the correct one, our facts having been obtained from one of the surviving founders, and from the records. Certainly some coon skins were sold to raise money by some of the subscribers; and doubtless some hemp, grain, deer or bear-skins, and whatever else would fetch a price; but the sobriquet of "Coon-skin library" was only invented comparatively a few years since. The literal truth about this event is sufficiently interesting, and that we have given.

the formation and early history of this, the first public library formed in the state of Ohio, because of the interesting nature of the event, and because nearly all of the founders of the library have descendants still living in the county, who will read with pride of the part their ancestors took in establishing an institution which worked such great and lasting good. The library received additions from time to time, until there were finally accumulated several hundred volumes - a considerable library for the place and period. Many years later it was divided, and part taken to Dover township (where some of the original stockholders lived), where it formed the nucleus of another library, which was incorporated by an act of the legislature, passed December 21, 1830. The portion retained in Ames township was sold by the shareholders in the year i860 or 1861 to Messrs. J. H. Glazier, A. W. Glazier and £. H. Brawley, and they afterwards sold it to Mr. William P. Cutler, of Washington county (son of Judge Ephraim Cutler), who still has it in his possession.

In the year 1798 Samuel, John and Thos. McCune, three brothers, and David, Jacob and Peter Boyles, came from Pennsylvania and settled temporarily on the Hockhocking, on what is now N. O. Warren's farm, where they remained till 1802, when they removed to the township of Ames and settled within half a mile of the present village of Amesville. George Ewing, Jun,, brother of Thomas Ewing, married a daughter of this David Boyles. The three McCune brothers, as also two of the Boyles brothers, were strong, athletic men, and great hunters, sometimes killing, it is said, twelve or fourteen deer and three or four bears in a day. John McCune was something of a mechanic, and used to repair the guns of his neighbors. On one occasion a man brought his gun to be mended and borrowed McCune's gun to use in the meantime. Before repairing the gun McCune went out with it to kill some game. Coming unexpectedly on a bear, he tried to shoot it, but the gun failed to go off, when the bear, as if seeing his advantage, made for the hunter. McCune, unlike his gun, went off. He ran as fast as he could for some distance, the bear closely pursuing, and Mc- Cune trying every few rods to fire his gun, which, however seemed to like the situation, and refused to be discharged. After running about half a mile, a neighbor's dogs came to his assistance, and Bruin was driven off but not killed. Wolves were, of course, very abundant at that time, and killing a wolf was a common occurrence. The wife of John McCune seeing something pass the door of their cabin one evening which she took for a dog, set their own dog upon it, and, at the same time stepping out of the door, found it was a large black wolf. Arming herself with a pitchfork that stood within reach, she and the dog kept up a running fight of several rods and finally killed the wolf.

John Boyles and John McCune, while hunting one day, came upon a mother bear and two cubs. Boyles fired at and wounded the old bear, and then, wishing to see his dog kill one of the cubs, laid down his gun and hissed his dog on to attack the cub - the old bear and other cub beating a retreat. Boyles, becoming interested in the fight between his dog and the cub, had approached near them, when he was disagreeably startled by seeing the old bear return, brought by the cries of the cub, and place herself between him and his gun. He was preparing to make the best battle he could with his hunting knife, when McCune, hearing his call for help, hastened to the spot and dispatched the bear by a bullet from his rifle. The sons of the McCune brothers still live in the county, and, like their fathers before them, have been famous hunters and contributed much toward ridding the settlement and eastern part of the county of the wild game and "vermin" that so annoyed the early settlers. Jacob McCune, one of the sons of John McCune, a few years since, on the occasion of a squirrel hunt, killed in one day one hundred and three grey squirrels, and Samuel McCune, his brother, killed eighty-three.

The year 1 805 was a year of unexampled drought, and a scarcity almost amounting to a famine prevailed through all the settlements of this region. The inhabitants of Ames and Athens townships lived almost exclusively during the winter of 1805-6 on the meat of

In 1806 or 1807 Joab Hoisington settled in the township, and in 1807 Azor Nash, an eccentric character, well known here in early times. Elijah Latimer and Obediah Clark came about the same time. The latter, who married a sister of Thomas Ewing, had been a fifer in the army, and used to play the violin at the country dances in Ames.

The iirst school taught in the township was in a cabin oh the old Cutler place, in 1802, by Charles Cutler, a graduate of Harvard college, and eminently qualified for teaching. At an exhibition given at the close of the term, when the children recited dialogues or other pieces committed for the occasion, Thomas Ewing and John Brown, two of the pupils, spoke the dialogue of Brutus and Cassius, from Shakspeare. In 1804 a log school house was built on Silas Dean's place, near the present village of Amesville, and close by the site of the late George Walker's store. Moses Everett, a graduate of Harvard, taught the first quarter in this house. General John Brown taught here in 1807. The next school house was built in 181 1, on Silvanus Ames' farm, and for several years served as a meeting house and school house for the settlement. Sophia Walker, then recently from Vermont, taught the first quarter in this house, and Dr. Ezra Walker, her father, taught here in the winter of 1811-12.

An incident connected with early preaching among the pioneer settlements may be mentioned. A neighborhood in the lower settlement in Ames township, in which ' Squire John Brown lived, secured the services of Elder Asa Stearns, a Free Will Baptist, to preach for them once a month during the year, to be paid with three barrels of whisky. Mr. Stearns had an arrangement with Ebenezer Currier, at Athens, to take the whisky and allow him therefor twenty-four dollars, to be credited to him toward the farm he had bought of Judge Currier. The contract was faithfully carried out on all hands. Elder Stearns visiting his little congregation every third Saturday of each month during the year, at the end of which he received his salary in whisky and made the transfer of it as agreed to Judge Currier.

The Rev. J. H. Hopkins, an early resident of Ames, says: "Among the pioneers of Methodism here were Gulliver Dean and wife, Mr. Haight, Judge Walker's family, the McCunes, &c. The class formed at Ames, early in this century, was ministered to at first by Mr. Austin Thompson and Mr. Dickson, local preachers, and the Rev. Messrs. Ferree, Baker, R. O. Spencer, Henry Fernandez, and Abraham Lippett, Athens circuit, preached to them. A great many years ago, when William Miller first published his lectures on the prophecies concerning the second coming of Christ, some of our people became very much alarmed to think the end of all things was so near. There was one old sister.

quite a good woman too, no doubt, but possessed of a large share of credulousness, and consequently ready to gulp down almost anything that came from the mouth of Mr. Miller touching the signs of Christ's coming and the end of the world. She awoke one winter night, the weather extremely cold; quite a deep snow had fallen, and the roads and sledding were fine. The wind was blowing hard, and a lot of old clap-boards that had been loosely thrown down near the house, were flapping and making quite a noise. She shook the old man and told him to arise, for the day of judgment had come, or at least that Gabriel and his angels were at hand. The old man raised himself pp a little and said: *01d woman, what put this into your head? you are always anticipating some wonderful event.' *It must be so,' was the reply^ 'for I have been listening for some time to the rumbling of Gabriel's chariot wheels.' The old man told her just to lie down and be quiet, for said he, * Gabriel is too wise a creature ever to come to our world on wheels, while the sledding continues as good as it is now.'"

In early times much attention was given to militia organizations. The first organization in the eastern part of the county was made at the house of Judge Ames, in 1803, when Silvanus Ames was elected captain, Josiah True, of Dover township, lieutenant, and Samuel Brown, of Ames, ensign. The first company muster in the same neighborhood was in 1804. At the next dec- tion of officers, in 1808, John Brown was made captain and George Ewing lieutenant. John Brown was subsequently advanced to major, colonel and brigadier general, to which last position he was elected in 18 17, the brigade being composed of Athens, Morgan, Washington, Meigs, Gallia, and Vinton counties. The first battalion muster was held at Athens in 1805. Another was held a short time afterward on Esquire Daniel Stewart's place in Rome township, and a third on Wm. Henry's place in Canaan. Regimental musters were held annually for many years at Athens, and Colonel Jehiel Gregory, of Athens, was the first colonel; after him came Silvanus Ames, Edmund Dorr, John Brown, Charles Shipman, Calvary Morris, Absalom Boyles, Nathan Dean, Ziba Lindley, Jun., Charles Cutler, Jonas Rice, and Amos Thompson.

General John Brown was lister of lands for Ames township in 1807, in connection with which he recalls the following anecdote. As his quaint style can not be improved, we give his own words: **In 1807 ^ was elected lister (an office somewhat like the present assessor) of Ames township, which at that time was about thirty miles east and west, and twelve or fourteen miles north and south, while the inhabitants were few and far between. In discharging that duty I learned how hard it is to levy taxes so as to give satisfaction to all. At that time the tax on all horses three years old, in April preceding^ was forty cents per head; on all cattle three years old ten cents. The great difficulty was to settle as to age. Some would not tell, some would prevaricate, sometimes the man of the family was not at home, and the woman did not know, &c. One old lady I found fully posted. I had looked about the place and found they did work with two yoke of cattle; but the woman said these were Mate calves' - would be three years old during the summer. There were several cows evidently giving milk, but, somehow, none but the bell cow was old enough for me. Out of a lot of three or four horses only one was three years old. I quizzed the old lady about the singularity of nearly all the colts and calves in the settlement coming after April. ^Ah/ said she, *you are a single man and young yet, but you will learn that Providence arranges these things.' That was a clincher, and I left."

The same year the county commissioners appointed him collector of the resident land tax, and the following is a copy of the land tax duplicate as levied by him that year for the whole township :

The first election for township officers in Ames was held June i, 1802 (nearly three years before the organization of the county), at the house of Silvanus Ames, and resulted as follows:

Nathan Woodbury, George Ewing and Samuel Brown, trustees ; Daniel Weethee, clerk ; Josiah True and Samuel Brown, overseers of the poor ; Nathan Woodbury, Joseph Pugsley and John Swett, fence viewers; George Wolf and Christopher Herrold, house appraisers ; Daniel Converse, lister \ Samuel Brown and Benjamin Brown, supervisors ; Daniel Converse and Silvanus Ames, constables.

Benjamin Brown, Silvanus Ames and Daniel Weethee, trustees; George Ewing, clerk; Nathan Woodbury and Joshua Wyatt, overseers of the poor ; Benjamin Brown, John Brown and Samuel Brown, fence viewers ; Jacob Boyles and Edmund Dorr, house appraisers; Josiah True, lister; William Brown, John Brown and Josiah True, supervisors ; William Brown and Josiah True, constables.

The original township qf Ames contained three hundred and sixty square miles - more than one fourth of the territorial area of Rhode Island. By the formation of new townships and counties at intervals during forty years, her extensive domain has been reduced to six miles square - :the limits of a regular surveyed township. Ames has nqt kept pace with some other parts of the county in population, being now ninth in that regard; but in respect of the character of her population, business enterprise, moral and educational movements, etc., she is second to none.

Amesville, handsomely located and well built, is a thriving and interesting village. One of the best academies in the county is located here. It originated in a meeting of the citizens held in November, 1852, to consider their educational wants, when George Wyatt, Robert Henry, J. T. Glazier, James Patterson, and A. S. Dickey, were appointed a committee to report a plan for organizing a seminary. They reported on the ri^tYi of that month, and this action was followed in due time by the incorporation of "The Amesville Academy."

The school has been exceedingly well sustained, and is one of marked usefulness. Its teachers have been Mr. J. P. Weethee, from 1854 to 1856; P, B. Davis, from 1856 to 1857; A. C. Kelly, from 1857 to 1858; Mr. McGonagle, from 1858 to i860; E. P. Henry, from i860 to 1 861; J. H. Doan, from 1861 to 1862; J. M. Goodspeed, from 1862 to 1864; Miss L. M. Dowling, from 1864 to 1866. The present teachers are the Rev. H. C. Cheadle, principal, and Miss M. G. Keyes, assistant, under whose management the school is growing in popularity and usefulness.

Ephraim Cutler^ known in the early history of Athens county as Judge Cutler, was the oldest son of Dr. Manasseh Cutler, and was born at Edgartown, Duke's county, Massachusetts, April 12th, 1767. He did not receive a collegiate education, but, being an industrious reader, he acquired during youth considerable mental culture, and a large store of useful knowledge. From the age of three years he lived with his grandparents, at Killingly, Connecticut, both of whom he was wont to mention in after life with great respect and affection. His grandfather was a pure and pious nian, and an ardent patriot. In a sketch written long afterward. Judge Cutler says:

^^ I well remember that the express with the news of the battle of Lexington, which was the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, came directly to my grandfather's house in the night after the battle. He was in bed, and I slept with him. He arose immediately and fired his gun three times, which was, doubtless, the agreefl signal, as it was universally expected chat there would be an attack from the British. Before sunrise he, with fifteen others, had started for the battlefield. Before leavii^be gave a particular charge to his housekeeper to provide carefullj for the wants of any soldier who might call during his absence.'*

In 1787 Mr. Cutler married Miss Leah Atwood, of Killingly, a lady whose great worth and excellence of character were for many years well known in Athens county. After his marriage he engaged for a few years in mercantile pursuits at Killingly. In 1795 he accepted the agency of the Ohio Company, in which he had been a shareholder from the beginning, and, on the 15th of June in that year, set out with his wife and four children for the company's purchase in the northwestern territory. The journey was made in the usual way of that time - in wagons across the mountains to the headwaters of the Ohio, and thence down the river in i small flat boat. While descending the river they lost two of their children, Hezekiah, the youngest, and Mary, the eldest, whose remains were buried in the fo^ est on the banks of the beautiful river. They arrived at Marietta, September 18, 1795, having been mott than three months on the way, and thirty-one days on the river. At Marietta Mr. Cutler lay sick for several weeks in the block house. As soon as he was able they proceeded to the garrison at Waterford, where they remained till the spring of 1799. The circumstances of his removal to and settlement in Ames, in 1799, art narrated elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Cutler brought with them to their new home four children - Nancy and Charles, born in New England, and Mary and Daniel, born in Waterford. All of these, except Charles, are still living. Nancy, now Mrs. Carter, lives in Franklin county, Ohio. Mary, Mrs. Gulliver Dean, lives in Ames township, near the old Cutler homestead. Daniel lives in Kansas and is an intelligent and prosperous farmer.

For the next few years Mr. Cutler devoted himself with great energy to developing the interests of the Ohio Company, and of the Amesville settlement in particular, taking a leading part in all the social, political and educational movements of the day. During the first year of his residence in the territory he had been commissioned by Governor St. Clair captain of the militia, justice of the peace, judge of the court of quarter sessions and of the court of common pleas. He was appointed by the territorial legislature, at its first session, one of the seven commissioners to lease the school and ministerial lands in each township of the Ohio Company's purchase. In September, 1801, while living in Ames, Judge Cutler was elected to represent Washington county in the territorial legislature. At this legislature, which sat at Chillicothe, the question of the formation of a state government came up, and Judge Cutler and his colleague, William R. Putnam, were the only two who voted against the measure. In doing this they represented the wishes of their constituents, who were opposed to forming a state government so soon. This vote made them for a short time very unpopular in Chillicothe, and for two nights a mob threatened to attack the house where they boarded. In September, 1802, still living in Ames, Judge Cutler was chosen as one of the four delegates from Washington county to the convention to form a state constitution. In this convention, and in the framing of the first constitution of Ohio, he exercised a large influence. Article III, establishing the judicial system of the state, was almost wholly shaped and drafted by him. But the greatest service rendered by Judge Cutler in this convention was his determined opposition to the introduction of slavery into the state of Ohio; for, strange as it may seem, a strong effort was made to fasten this system on the state, notwithstanding the positive language and the solemn compact of the ordinance of 1787. There were delegates in the convention who, representing the sentiments of settlers from sliveholding states, ckimed that the ordinance was in the nature of a contract, and was not binding till its terills had been accepted by the new state; and. Consequently, that if she chose to reject any portion of the proposed terms, it Was competent for her to do so, while adopting her fundamental law and becoming a state. We have not space to describe the contest in detail. A determined effort was made by the party referred to to plant slavery on the soil of Ohio, and the great name and influence of Thomas Jefferson were used to further the attempt.* Judge Cutler stood in the breach, and with all his power and great persistency battled against this movement. His friends rallied around him; he was finally successful, and to Ephraim Cutler more than to any other man posterity is indebted for shutting and barring the doors against the introduction into Qhio of the monstrous system of African slavery.

Mr. Cutler also took a leading part in framing and securing the passage of sees. 3, 25 and 26 of article VIII of the constitution, relating to religion and education.

In December, 1806, Judge Cutler removed from Athens to Washington county, settling on the Ohio river about six miles below Marietta. Here his first wife died in 1807. In 1808 he married Sarah Parker, a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Four of the childfen by this marriage are still Jiving, the only son, William P. Cutler, being esteemed among the first men in th? state.f

* It was then a theory of Jefferson's that the extension of slavery diluted and weakened it. He desired, or at least professed to desire, its extinction.

f He was born near Marietta, July 12, 1 81 3; was a member of the Ohio legislature from i ^44 to 1 846, officiating as speaker of the house during his last term; was a member of the constitutional convention of 1850; afterwards was for some years president of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad Company; was elected in i860 a representative to the 37th congress, and has been for a few years past again officially connected with the above mentioned railroad.

In 1818 Judge Cutler again appeared in public life as a member of the Ohio legislature from Washington county. We regret that we can not exhibit in detail his noble services at this period of his life; we can only state the results. He succeeded in changing the land tax system from a direct tax to an ad valorem basis. Prior to 1824 the whole burden of state taxes was laid on the lands as a direct tax, levied by the acre and without reference to value. Consequently thinly populated counties like Athens and Washington actually paid more into the treasury than wealthy and populous counties like Hamilton and Butler. The system was grossly unequal and oppressive. Judge Cutler's clear vision enabled him to perceive this, and he labored long and successfully to change it, so that taxes should be assessed on the whole property of the people according to value.

His other great achievement at this time was the establishment of an excellent common school system. The first public allusion to education in Ohio is found in an oration by Solomon Drown, delivered at Marietta, April 7th, 1789. The first memorial on behalf of the general interest of public schools read in the Ohio legislature was offered in 18 16, by the Rev. Samuel P. Robbins, of Marietta, but prior to 1820 there was no organized sentiment in the state on the subject of common schools, and no general l^slation. In 1 82 1 the legislature passed an act for the regulation and support of common schools, but it did not provide any adequate revenue for their maintenance, and was by no means an efficient system. The common school question was an issue in the elections of 1824. Several ardent advocates of a thorough system were elected, among them Judge Cutler, as senator from Washington county. We do not aver that he alone deserves the credit for the success of the measure in the legislature of 1824-5, but he was the acknowledged leader of the friends of common schools, and his experience in public affairs and as a legislator rendered his services of the greatest value. On the 5th of February, 1825, an excellent school bill, providing a thorough system and liberal support therefor by taxation, was passed by the legislature. When the vote in the senate was taken. Judge Cutler and Mr. Nathan Guilford (senator from Cincinnati, who was an ardent and able friend of the cause, and who drafted the bill), were standing side by side. When the result was announced, a majority for the bill of twenty-two votes. Judge Cutler turned to Mr. Guilford, and, with great solemnity and earnestness, said: "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

The latter years of Judge Cutler's life were spent quietly at his place in Washington county, amid the enjoyments of home and the affectionate attention of relatives and friends. He died July 8th, 1853.

George Kwingy commonly called during his residence in the county Lieut. Ewing, was, it is believed, the first white settler within the bounds of what is now Ames township. A native of Salem, New Jersey, he entered the continental army at the beginning of the revolutionary war, and served with credit during its whole course. For his bravery and good conduct he received, soon after entering the service, a commission as first lieutenant of the Jersey Line, which position he held till the return of peace. Shortly after the conclusion of the war he emigrated to what is now Ohio county. West Virginia, which then constituted the very frontier of civilization, and was, with the surrounding region, the scene of many a bloody conflict between the "Long- Knives" and the red men. After a few years' residence here he removed with his wife and young family, in 1793, to the Waterford settlement, on the Muskingum river, where he passed a year or two in the block house, until the danger from Indian attacks, then imminent, had passed. In the spring of 1798, Lieutenant Ewing, encouraged and assisted by Judge Cutler, removed his family to a place seventeen miles northwest of the frontier settlements, in what is now Ames township, and became the pioneer of that section of country. He settled on what is now known as the Thomas Gardiner farm. During the period of his residence here he was an active supporter of schools and every means of developing and improving the commu- nity. He was chosen township trustee at the first election, in 1802, and in^ after years filled that position and the office of township clerk. He was fond of reading, possessed a bright and active mind, and a fund of sterling sense, combined with lively wit and good humor. In 18 1 8 he removed to Perry county, Indiana, where he died about the year 1830.

Thomas Ewing, son of the last named, was born in Ohio county. West Virginia, December 28th, 1789. The following autobiographical sketch, kindly furnished for these pages by this now great and venerable man, will be read with especial interest:

My father settled in what is now Ames township, Athens county, early in April, 1798. He removed from the mouth of Olive Green creek, on the Muskingum river, and the nearest neighbor with whom he had association, was, in that direction, distant about eighteen miles. There were a few families settled, about the same time, on or near the present site of the town of Athens, but no road or even pathway led to them ; the distance was about twelve miles. There was also an old pioneer hunter encamped at the mouth of Federal creek, distant about ten miles. This, as far as I know, comprised the population statistics of what is now Athens county. I do not know the date of the settlement in what was called No. 5 - Coolcy's settlement - it was early.

At the time of my father's removal, I was with my aunt, Mrs. Morgan, near West Liberty, Virginia, going to school. I was a few months in my ninth year. Early in the year 1798, I think in May, my uncle brought me home. Wc descended the Ohio river in a flat boat to the mouth of Little Hocking, and crossed a bottom and a pine hill along a dim foot path, some ten or fifteen miles, and took quarters for the night at Dailey's camp. I was tired and slept well on the bear-skin bed which the rough old dame spread for me, and in the morning my uncle engaged a son of our host, a boy of eighteen, who had seen my father's cabin, to pilot us.

I was now at home, and fairly an inceptive citizen of the future Athens county. The young savage, our pilot, was much struck with some of the rude implements of civilization which he saw my brother using, especially the auger, and expressed the opinion that with an axe and an auger a man could make everything he wanted except a gun and bullet molds. My brother was engaged in making some bedsteads. He had already finished a table, in the. manufacture of which he had used also an adze to smooth the plank, which he split in good width from straight grained trees. Transportation was exceedingly difficult, and our furniture, of the rudest kind, composed of articles of the first necessity. Our kitchen utensils were "the big kettle," " the little kettle," the bake oven, frying pan, and pot ; the latter had a small hole in the bottom which was mended with a button, keyed with a nail through the eye on the outside of the pot. We had no table furniture that would break - little of any kind. Our meat - bear meat, or raccoon, with venison or turkey, cooked together and seasoned to the taste (a most savory dish) - was cut up in morsels and placed in the centre of the table, and the younger members of the family, armed with sharpened sticks, helped themselves about as well as with fourtined forks ; great care was taken in selecting wholesome sticks, as sassafras, spice-bush, hazel, or hickory. Sometimes the children were allowed, .by way of pic-nic, to cut with the butcherknife from the fresh bear meat and venison their slices and stick them, alternately, on a sharpened spit and roast before a fine hickory fire; this made a most royal dish. Bears, deer, and raccoons remained in abundance, until replaced by herds of swine. The great west would have settled slowly without corn and hogs, A bushel of seed wheat will produce, at the end of ten months, fifteen or twenty bushels ; a bushel of corn, at the end of five months, four hundred bushels, and it is used to much advantage for the last two months. Our horned cattle do not double in a year ; hogs, in the same time, increase twenty fold. It was deemed almost sacrilege to kill a sheep, and I remember well the first beef I tasted. I thought it coarse and stringy compared with venison. We had wild fruits of several varieties, very abundant, and some of them exceedingly fine. There was a sharp ridge quite near my father's house, on which I had selected four or five service or juneberry bushes, that I could easily climb, and kept an eye on them till they should get fully ripe. At the proper time, I went with one of my sisters to gather them, but a bear had been in advance of me. The limbs of all the bushes were brought down to the trunk like a folded umbrella, and the berries all gone ; there were plenty still in the woods for children and bears, but few so choice or easy of access as these. We had a great variety of wild plums, some exceedingly fine - better, to my taste, than the best tame varieties. I have not seen any of the choice varieties within the last thirty years.

We, of course, had no mills. The nearest was on Wolf creek, about fourteen miles distant]; from this we brought our first summer's supply of breadstufFs. After we gathered our first crop of corn my father instituted a hand mill which, as a kind of common property, supplied the neighborhood, after we had neighbors, for several years, until Christopher Herrold set up a horse mill on the ridge, and Henry Barrows a water mill near the mouth of Federal creek-

For the first year I was a lonely boy. My brother George, eleven years older than I, was too much a man to be my companion, and my sisters could not be with me, generally, in the woods and among the rocks and caves ; but a small spaniel dog^ almost as intelligent as a boy, was always with me. I was the reader of the family, but we had few books. I remember but but one beside " Watts' Psalms and Hymns " that a child

Our first neighbor was Capt. Benjamin Brown, who had been an officer in the Revolutionary war. He was a man of strong intellect, without much culture. He told me many anecdotes of the war which interested me, and, among other things that I remember, gave me an account of Doctor Jenner's then recent discovery of the kine pox as a preventive of the small pox, better than I have ever yet read in any written treatise, and I remember it better than any account which I have sinc^ read. He lent me a book - one number of a periodical called the " Athenian Oracle" - something like our modern " Notes and Queries," from which, however, I learned but little. I found, toO) a companion in his son, John, four years my senior, still enjoying sound health in his ripe oM age.

In 1 80 1, some one of my father's family being ill, Dr. Baker, who lived at Waterford, eighteen miles distant, was called in. He took notice of me as a reading boy, and told me he had a book he would lend me if I would come for it. I got leave of my father and went, the little spaniel being my traveling companion. The book was a translation of Virgil, the Bucolics and Georgics torn out, but the iEneid perfect. I have not happened to meet with the translation since, and do not know whose it was. The opening lines, as I remember them, were -

'* Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy, Came to the Italian and Lavinian shores, Exiled by fate, much tossed by land and sea, By power divine and cruel Juno*s fag6 ; Much, too, in war, he suffered, till h^ reared A city, and to Latium brought his gods - Hence sprung his Latin progeny, the kings Or Alb I, jnd the walls of towering Rome.'*

When I returned home with my book, and for some weeks after, my father had hands employed in clearing a new field. On Sundays, and at leisure hours I read to them, and never had a more attentive audience. At that point in the narrative, where iEneas discloses to Dido his purpose of leaving her, and tells her of the vision of Mercury bearing the mandate of Jove, one of the men sprang to his feet, declared he did not believe a word of that - he had got tired of her, and it was all a made up story

Our next neighbors were Ephraim - Cutler, Silvanus Ames, William Brown, a married son of the Captain ; and, four or five miles distant, Nathan Woodbury, George Wolf, and Chris* topher Herrold - and about the same time, or a little later, Silas Dean, a rich old bachelor, Martin Boyles, and John and Samuel McCun^. Mr. Cutler and my father purchased " Mprse's Geography," the first edition, about 1800, for his oldest son, Charles, and myself - it ill effect became my book, as Charles never used it, and I studied it most intently. By this, with such explanations as my father gave me, I acquired quite a com* petent knowledge of geography, and something of general history.

About this time the neighbors in our and the surrounding set* tlements, met and agreed to purchase books and to make a com* mon library. They were all poor, and subscriptions small, but they raised in all about one hundred dollars. All my accumulated wealth, ten coon-skins, went into the fund, and Squire Sam, Brown, of Sunday creek, who was going to Boston, was charged with the purchase. After an absence of many weeks, he brought the books to Capt. Ben. Brown's in a sack on a pack horse. I was present at the untying of the sack and pouring out of the treasure. There were about sixty volumes, I think, and well selected ; the library of the Vatican was nothing to it, and there never was a library better read. This, with occasional addition^, furnished me with reading while I remained at home.

We were quite fortunate in ovir schools. Moses Everett, a graduate of Yale, but an intemperate young man, who had been banished by his friends, was our fir^t teacher ; after him.

Charles Cutler, a brother of Ephraitn, and also a graduate of Yale. They were learned young men and faithful to their vocation. They boarded alternate weeks with their scholars, and made the winter evenings pleasant and instructive. After Barrows' mill was built at the mouth of Federal creek, I being the mill boy, used to take my two-horse loads of grain in the evening, have my grist ground, and take it home in the morning. There was an eccentric person living near the mill whose name was Jones (we called him Doctor); he was always dressed in deer-skin, his principal vocation being hunting, and I always found him in the evening, in cool weather, lying with his feet to the fire. He was a scholar, banished no doubt for intemperance ; he had books, and finding my fancy for them, had me read to him, while he lay drying his feet. He was fond of poetry, and did something to correct my pronunciation and prosody. Thus, the excessive use of alcohol was the indirect means of furnishing me with school teachers.

My father entertained the impression that I would one day be a scholar, though quite unable to lend me any pecuniary aid. I grew up with the same impression until, in my nineteenth year, I almost abandoned hope. On reflection, however, I determined to make one effort to earn the means to procure an education. Having got the summer's work well disposed of, I asked of my father leave to go for a few months and try my fortune. He consented, and I set out on foot next morning, made my way through the woods to the Ohio river, got on a keel boat as a hand at small wages, and in about a week landed at Kanawha salines. I engaged and went to work at once, and in three months satisfied myself that I could earn money slowly but surely, and on my return home in December, 1809, I went to Athens and spent three months there as a student, by way of testing my capacity. I left the academy in the spring with a sufficiently high opinion of myself, and returned to Kanawha to earn money to complete my education. This year I was successful, paid off some debts which troubled my father, and returned home and spent the winter with the new books which had accumulated in the library, which, with my father's aid, I read to much advantage. I went to Kanawha the third year, and after a severe summer's labor I returned home with about six hundred dollars in money, but sick and exhausted. Instead, however, of sending for a physician, I got Don Quixote, a recent purchase, from the library, and laughed myself well in about ten days. I then went to Athens, entered as a regular student, and continued my studies there till the spring of 181 5, when I left, a pretty good though an irregular scholar. During my academic term I went to Gallipolis and taught school a quarter and studied French.* I found my funds likely to fall short,

* While pursuing his studies, Mr. Ewing was also occasionally employed by the commissioners of Athens county as a surveyor, to run country roads, and such entries as the following appear in the records of that period :

'* March jtb^ 1814. A petition signed by George Ewing and others^ praying for a road, beginning at the Thirty-One mile tree in Ames township, on the state road ; thence passing through the west part of Amos Linscott's improvement, to the mouth of Ewing's run ; thence to intersect the Lancaster road near Abel Glazier's. Read in open meeting. Order issued."

" March %th. The commissioners appoint Thomas Ewing surveyor, and Jehiel Gregory, Jr., John White, and Stephen Pilchcr viewers of said road, to meet at the house of Jno. Brown, Esq., in Ames township, on Monday, March 21, at 10 o'clock, a. m."

** June 6tJb, 181 5. The Board appointed George Walker, John 3rown 2d, and Ezra Green viewers, and Thomas Ewing surveyor of '^he road petitioned for by Elisha Alderman and others, in Ames townsship."

and went a fourth time to Kanawha, where, in six weeks, I earned one hundred and fifty dollars, which I thought would suffice, and returned to my studies ; after two years' rest the severe labor in the salines this time went hard with me.

After finishing my studies at Athens, I read Blackstone's Commentaries at home, and in July, 1815, went to Lancaster to study law. A. B. Walker, then a boy of about fifteen years, accompanied me to Lancaster to bring back my horse, and I remained and studied law with Gen. Beecher. I was admitted to the bar in August, 1816, after fourteen months' very diligent study - the first six months about sixteen hours a day.

Mr. Ewing says he was, on leaving college, "a pretty good, though an irregular scholar." The extent of his education is somewhat shown by the following extract from the records of the Ohio university :

*'May 3^, 1815. The committee appointed by the board of trustees to examine Thomas Ewing and John Hunter, condidates for a degree of bachelor of arts and sciences, beg leave to report :

That they have examined the applicants aforesaid in the different branchct of literature, viz: in grammar, rhetoric, the languages, natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy, geography, and the various branches of mathematics, and that they have witnessed with much gratification the proficiency made by the before named students. They therefore report the following resolutions :

1. Resolvedy That the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter merit the approbation of the board of trustees, and that they are each entitled to a degree of bachelor of arts and sciences.

2. That the president be authorized and required to inform the said Thomas Ewing and John Hunter that they are each so entitled to such degree in this seminary, and your committee recommend that the same be confierred.

I made my first speech at Circleville, the November following. Gen. Beecher first gave me slander case to study and prepare. I spent much time with it, but time wasted, as the cause was continued the first day of the court. He then gave me a case of contract, chiefly in depositions, which I studied diligently, but that also was continued \ a few minutes afterward a case was called, and Gen. Beecher told me that was ready - the jury was sworn, witnesses called, and the cause went on. In the examination of one of the witnesses, I thought I discovered an important fact not noticed by either counsel, and I asked leave to cross-examine further. I elicited the fact which was decisive of the case. This gave me confidence. I argued the cause closely and well, and was abundantly congratulated by the members of the bar who were present.

My next attempt was in Lancaster. Mr. Sherman, father of the general, asked me to argue a cause of his, which gave room for some discussion. I had short notice, but was quite successful, and, the cause being appealed, Mr. Sherman sent his client to employ me with him. I had as yet got no fees, and my funds were very low. This November I attended the Athens court. I had nothing to do there, but met an old neighbor, Elisha Alderman, who wanted me to go to Marietta, to defend his brother, a boy, who was to be tried for larceny. It was out of my intended beat, but I wanted business and fees, and agreed to go for $25, of which I received $10 in hand. I have had several fees since of $10,000 and upwards, but never one of which I felt the value, or in truth as valuable to me as this. I went, tried my boy, and he was convicted, but the court granted a new trial. On my way to Marietta at the next term I thought of a ground of excluding the evidence, which had escaped me on the first trial. It was not obvious, but sound. I took it, excluded the evidence and acquitted my client. This caused a sensation. I was employed at once in twelve penitentiary cases, under indictment at that term, for making and passing counterfeit money, horse stealing and perjury. As a professional man my fortune was thus briefly made.

Mr. Ewing's professional career thus begun, was destined to be one of uninterrupted success. In 18 16 he was appointed by the commissioners prosecutor for Athens county, and continued for many years to attend the courts of Athens regularly. His eminent abilities soon gave him a commanding position among the lawyers of Ohio, and in 1830 he was elected to the United States senate, where he remained till 1837. He was a member of President Harrison^'s cabinet, as secretary of the treasury, in 1841. On the accession of President Taylor, in 1849, ^^ ^^^ invited into the cabinet, and became secretary of the interior. In 1850 he was appointed United States senator from Ohio, holding the position till 1851, when he retired from public life and resumed the practice of law. As a lawyer, orator, publicist and statesman, Thomas Ewing ranks among the greatest the United States has produced, and Athens county may well be proud to have nourished, during his childhood and youth, so noble a citizen.

Capt. Benjamin Brown^ father of General John, and of Judge A. G. Brown, and one of the most prominent among the early settlers of Ames, was born October 17, 1745, at Leicester, Massachusetts. His grandfather, William Brown, came from England to America while a youth, was the first settler in the town of Hatfield, on the Connecticut river, and was often engaged in the Indian wars of that period. Capt. John Brown, father of Benjamin, served with credit in the colonial army during the French war, and represented the town of Leicester in the Massachusetts legislature during, and for many years after, the revolutionary war. In February, 1775, Benjamin Brown, then thirty years old, joined a regiment of minute men, and two months later was engaged in active hostilities. In May he was commissioned a lieutenant in Colonel Prescott's regiment of the Massachusetts line, and in June participated in the battle of Bunker's Hill. Two of his brothers. Pearly and John Brown, were also engaged in this battle, the latter being dangerously wounded in two places, and borne off the field during the engagement. This brother Pearly was subsequently killed at the battle of White Plains, and another brother, William, died in hospital. In January, 1777, Lieut. Brown was commissioned a captain in the eighth regiment Massachusetts line. His regiment took a very active part in the operations directed against Burgoyne during the summer of 1777, and Capt. Brown was engaged in nearly all of the battles that preceded Burgoyne's surrender, in some of which he particularly distinguished himself by his gallantry and daring. A short time after this he was offered the position of aide-de-camp on Baron Steuben's staff, but declined it, fearing that his military knowledge was inadequate. In 1779, compelled by the necessities of his family and other personal reasons, he resigned his commission and returned home to provide for their support. About the year 1789 he removed with his family to Hartford, Washington county. New York, then a new settlement, whence he again migrated in the fall 0/ 1796, and sought a home in the northwestern territory. He reached Marietta in the spring of 1797, and in 1799 came to Ames township, in company with Judge Cutler, as elsewhere stated. He was one of the prominent citizens during the time he resided in Ames, holding various township offices, and contributing largely to the advancement of the settlement. In 1 8 17, his health becoming feeble, he went to live with his son. Gen. John Brown, in Athens, and here he died in October, 1821.

His wife, whom he married in Massachusetts in 1772, and who bore him a large family of children, died at Athens in 1840, aged eighty-six years.

John Brown (nephew of Capt. Brown), born February 10, 1774, at Leicester, Massachusetts, married Miss Polly Green, of Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1797, and set out for the Ohio Company's purchase in the autumn of 1 801. He brought his young family and few effects over the mountains, with one horse, in a little wagon, and, when descending difficult places in the road, attached a small tree to the rear end of his wagon, to act as a break, or lock. When he reached Wheeling, on the Ohio river, after a most toilsome journey, he "swapped" his wagon for a canoe and two heifers, and proceeded down the river toward his destination. His second son, Lemuel Green Brown, was born the day after their landing, near Marietta, and the head of the family found himself in these rather difficult circumstances, with but fifty cents in his pocket. As soon as practicable he resumed travel, and reached Ames township in March, 1802. He first settled on the farm now owned and occupied by the heirs of Stephen Green, where he lived for a short time, and thence moved to where John D. Brown now lives. He was soon elected a justice of the peace, and was frequently re-elected, holding the position, altogether, twenty-seven years. He was also at one time one of the appraisers of the college lands in this county, and of the same in Miami county. In 181 1 he built a brick house on his farm in Ames (one of the first brick houses, if not the first, erected in this part of the county), where for many years he kept public house. Being situated on the principal thoroughfare from Marietta westward, it was, during fifteen or twenty years, much resorted to by travelers. The building was standing till within a few years. Of excellent business capacity, and of a kind and genial nature, Mr. Brown was always able and willing to relieve the poor and help the distressed. His house was at all times open for religious services, and a list 'was made of seventy-two preachers, who, at different times, had held meetings there. He was twice married.

Pearly Browriy oldest son of the preceding, was born in Massachusetts, July 24, 1798, and was four years old when brought to this county. In the year 18 19 he married Eliza Hulbert (who is still living), and settled in Ames township, on a new farm, given him by his father. A hard-working and energetic man, he soon improved his circumstances, and laid the foundation for a competence. To afford some idea of the prices that prevailed when he was a young man, Mr. Brown states that he worked a week for Judge Currier, in Athens, in 1823, at 3ii cents a day, and at Saturday night was paid in two tin cups at 25 cents each; a quarter of a pound of tea, 50 cents; one pound of coffee, 50 cents, and 37i cents in money - making %i.%']h - ^with which valuables he walked home - ten miles. While yet living with his father, in 18 14 or 181 5, he was hired to carry the mail, with two other riders, between Marietta and Chillicothe, the distance being about one hundred miles, and to make three trips a week, or two hundred miles a week for each rider ; for which service he received $6 a month. He cultivated his farm in Ames till 1829 or 1830, when he removed to McArthurstown (then in Athens county), and engaged for many years in selling goods and dealing in live stock. In 1839 ^^ ^^^ ^^^ partners drove across the mountains to the eastern markets 2,100 cattle, 1,300 hogs, 1,800 sheep and 20 horses. He was at the same time quite extensively engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, Samuel H. Brown, well known in the county for many years, and till his death in 1854, as an untiring business man. Pearly Brown has held the positions of county commissioner and justice of the peace, and is widely known in this and adjoining counties as a man of unswerving integrity. He has reared a family of three sons and six daughters. His oldest son, Pinckney Brown, is an extensive dealer in live stock.

John B. Browny another son of John, was born in the year 1803, in Ames township, where he has lived ever since. He has been successful in life, and is respected as one of the solid men of the community.

Samuel H. Brown, youngest son of John, was born in Ames township, October 8th, 1807. ^^ became an active business man, and well known in southern Ohio and in the eastern markets as an extensive and successful cattle dealer, in which business he engaged, with little intermission, for over twenty-two years. He served as justice of the peace and associate judge in this county. He removed to Meigs county about 1850, and died there October 2d, 1854. He was an honest and capable man.

Samuel BrowHy brother of John and nephew of Capt. Benjamin Brown, a native of Massachusetts, came to the northwestern territory in 1797, and settled with his family on "Round Bottom," on the Muskingum river. In the year 1 800 he bought a piece of land on Sunday creek, within the limits of Ames township as soon after defined, but in the present township of Dover. In 1805 ^^ returned to Washington county (having sold his farm on Sunday creek), and opened a new farm about eight miles west of Marietta. He lived here till 1835, when he took up his residence with his son-in-law, Mr. James Dickey, at whose house he died January 15, 1841.

William Browtiy son of Capt. Benjamin Brown, settled in Ames township in the year 1800, and lived here till about 1 8*17, when he removed to the Moses Hewitt farm, in Waterloo. In 1820 he moved to Lee township, where he lived until a short time before his death, which took place at his son, Leonard Brown's, in Athens. His son, Austin, still lives in Lee township, on a part of the old homestead. Another son, Leonard, who served one term as sheriff and two terms as treasurer of the county, now lives in the town of Albany. He is engaged in the mercantile business, and is a leading citizen.

John Browny son of Samuel, was born in Ames township, December 23, 1801, but lived the greater part of the time, until 1 840, in Washington county, about eight miles from Marietta. In that year he bought property in Albany, Athens county, where he located and engaged successfully for many years in the mercantile business. In 1867 he associated with him his son, J. D. Brown, and engaged in the banking business. During the present year they have removed from Albany to Athens, which is Mr. Brown's present residence. He is a gentleman of fine business capacity, and a public spirited citizen.

Sihanus AmeSy long known in this county as Judge Ames, was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, March 26, 1 77 1. His father, whose ancestor, William Ames, came from England in 1643, ^^^ ^ graduate of Harvard college, and an Episcopalian clergyman. He preached several years at Trinity church, in Taunton, Massachusetts, was afterwards a chaplain in the revolutionary army, and died in the camp at Valley Forge, during the hard winter of 1777-78. Silvanus An]es married Nabby Lee Johnson in 1795, and moved to the northwestern territory in 1798. They settled temporarily in Belpre, whence they removed to Ames township, in May, 1 800, and settled on the farm now owned by the Henrys, and still familiarly called the **Ames form." Mr. Ames' strong sense and solid judgment gave him a commanding influence among the early settlers, and he was soon brought into the public life of that day. He was the second sherifF of the county, colonel of militia, trustee of the Ohio university for many years, and associate judge from 1813 to 1823. He was also several times elected representative to the state legislature, and in all of these positions evinced a capacity for public affairs, and gained the approbation of the community. Intimately connected, as he was, with the political movements of the day. Judge Ames' house became the resort of the political leaders in southern Ohio, and a favorite stopping place of public men, when making their long trips between the east and west. He was an active and liberal supporter of all educational and religious movements, and an acknowledged leader in the community for several years. He died September 23, 1823. At the time of his death his family consisted of five sons and four daughters, of whom four sons and two daughters arc now living, viz: the Rev. Bishop E. R. Ames, John, in Kansas, Charles B., in the state of Mississippi, and George W., at Greencastle, Indiana. One of the daughters, Mrs. Eliza Dawes, lives at Ripon, Wisconsin, and the other, Mrs. A. B. Walker, at Athens. Another daughter, Mrs. de Steiguer, died at Athens, July 29, 1 851; a son of her's, Rodolph de Steiguer, a native of the county, is a leading lawyer at Athens.

Capt. Sabinus RicCy son of Jason and Sarah Hibbard Rice, was born in Poultney, Vermont, December 18, 1795, and came with his father's family to Ohio in the year 1800. The journey from New England was made in the usual way at that time - by wagon to Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio river by flat boat. His parents lived for about three years at the White Oak settlement, on the Muskingum river, a few miles north of Marietta, whence, in 1803, they removed to Ames township, where they bought and settled on an eighty acre farm. By hard work and good management they acquired a comfortable competency, and the later years of the old people were passed in ease. The Rice family will long be remembered in the community where they lived, for their hospitality, refinement and intelligence.

Jason Rice died in 1843, in his eighty-eighth year. His wife died in 1824, aged sixty-two years. Their children were Reuben, Ambrose, Jonas, Sabinus, Sally, Jason and Melona, of whom the two last only are living. Jason is a farmer in Ames township and highly respected, and the sister, now Mrs. William Corner, lives in Malta, Ohio. Jonas Rice died on the Mississippi river, near Natchez, in 1829, of yellow fever. A grandson of his, Thomas H. Sheldon, is now cashier of the National Bank at Athens. Ambrose, who possessed great mathematical talent, removed to the northern part of Ohio, where he became very wealthy, and died many years since. Sabinus Rice, a man of excellent judgm^ent and most amiable character, was one of the leading citizens of Ames. He died July 23, 1852. His only son, Sabinus Jason Rice, died in Ames township, in April, 1857, leaving a wife and two children. Of the daughters of Capt. Rice, Mrs. Esther Richardson lives in Spring Hill, Ohio; Mrs. Rebecca R. Hibbard in Wauseon, Fulton county, Ohio, and Mrs. Eunice M. Mower in Springfield, Ohio.

Isaac Linscotty a native of Maine, and of English extraction, came to Ames township in the year 1800, and settled with his large family on the farm now owned by George Linscott, Jun., where he lived till 1824. His descendants, mostly farmers, are very numerous, being scattered through Ames, Bern and Dover townships, and inherit the energy, thrift and strict honesty of their ancestor. The children of Isaac Linscott were Noah, Lydia, Joseph, Isaac, Miriam, Eleanor, Olive, Israel, Amos, John, Mary and Jonathan. Linscott's run, a branch of Ewing s run, received its name from this family.

Joshua fVyatty known during his residence in Athens county as " Deacon Wyatt," was a native of Beverly, Massachusetts, whence he came out as far west as Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1790, and from thence to Marietta, in 1799. He settled with his family in Ames township in 1801, having the year before opened a few acres of land, and got a house under way, which was finished after the family moved in. His family and goods came up the Hockhocking, in a boat, to Warren's station, in Canaan township, whence they were taken in teams across to his place in Ames. His effects made seventeen wagon loads, and were mostly hauled by Peter Mansfield, through the woods, without as yet any road. From the date of his settlement in the township till his death, in 1822, he was a leading citizen. He was a man of distinguished piety, and his life, both in public and in private, was singularly devout. Upon the organization of the first Presbyterian church in Athens - he was chosen one of the elders, and, with Deacon Ackley and Judge Alvan Bingham, continued to act as such for several years. Soon after settling in Ames, as early as 1805, ^^ appointed and himself conducted religious reading and prayer meetings at the school house. These meetings were kept up as long as he lived. His eldest daughter, Betsy Wyatt, married William Parker, May 13, 1802. This was the first wedding in Ames township, and supposed to be the second marriage in the county.

John McDougaiy born in Schenectady county. New York, August 26, 1776, came to Athens county in July, 1 8 17, and settled in Ames township, on the creek

Gilbert McDougaly his youngest son, was born in Ames township, June 30, 1819, and now resides on the old place owned by his late father. He is a successful farmer, has taught the district school in his vicinity seventeen quarters, held the office of justice of the peace six years, and county commissioner seven years.

Col. Absalom BoyleSy born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1797, came with his father's family to the northwestern territory in 1799, and to Ames township in 180K He grew up with the community, and was largely identified with the development of the township and county during a long and active life. With fine intelligence, high sense of honor and ardent desire to benefit others, he was always one of the first and most active supporters of social reform, and of every mov^ ment that tended to the common welfare. He held various civil positions in the township and county, and, in connection with the early militia organization of the county, was commissioned, by Governor Ethan A. Brown, ensign in 18 19; lieutenant in 1820; captain in 1821; by Governor Trimble, lieutenant colonel in 1822, and by Governor Morrow, colond in 1823.

Abel Glazier was born in Massachusetts, in 1769. During early life he lived for a time in Washington county, New York, whence he removed to Athens county, and settled in Ames township in 1804. He bought of Capt. Benj. Brown the farm on which Daniel Fleming now lives, and afterward married a daughter of Capt. Brown. He lived in the township over thirty years, during which time he was one of its most prominent and useful citizens. He died in January, 1837. Numerous descendants of his are living in the county, and are highly and justly esteemed in the communities where they dwell, for their intelligence, energy, and sterling qualities. Two of his grandsons, J. H. Glazier and A. W. Glazier, are among the first citizens of Ames township.

George Walker (known during his residence in the county as Judge Walker) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1774. His father, John Walker, came of an old family in Leicestershire, England, was a graduate of the university of Edinburgh, and a barrister at law, removed to America in 1753, carried in Boston, and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. George received a good business education, and engaged in mercantile business in Cooperstown, New York. For several years he was highly successful, but, through the dishonesty of a partner, he became deeply involved, and was compelled to close business at a great sacrifice. Disheartened by his losses, and soured by the meanness and dishonesty of his late associates, he determined to seek his fortune in a newer country, and came to Athens county in 1804. Here he purchased and settled on a farm near the present town of Amesville, where he remained all his life. The country was almost a wilderness, and the farm uncultivated, nor had the owner any practical knowledge of the work before him. Mrs. L. W. Ryors, to whom we are indebted for the substance of this sketch, says: "I have heard my mother say that, had it not been for the aid of the man who accompanied them in their long journey as a driver of a wagqn, they would have suffered. His name was William Hassey, and he continued to live with the family, a faithful friend and helper, for nearly fifty years. In this wild pioneer life this man was invaluable in every respect, assisting my mother in her new and trying duties, and instructing my father in the art of felling trees and removing brush - not greatly to the credit of his pupil, as the family tradition testifies that he never learned to perform, with skill, that first and necessary part of pioneer life."

held, continuously, for about twenty-four years. He also acted as county commissioner for sixteen years, and was elected by the legislature, an associate judge of the court of common pleas, which office he held for fourteen years. He was one of the founders and principal supporters of the Western library association, of which Mrs. Ryors recalls some reminiscences. She says: "As long as I can remember this library was kept at my father's house, and it was most highly prized by the whole family. Books, now a necessity, were then, in that isolated place, a rare luxury. The books were selected with good judgment, and comprised a little of everything - poetry, history, romance, law, medicine, and some scientific and religious works. Poems and novels were the first attraction, I am sorry to say, for the female portion of the family, but they were soon exhausted, and we were glad to turn to more substantial reading. It was no uncommon thing to find a child reading eagerly from the heavy volumes of Rollin or Hume. I was not more than ten or eleven years old, when, in the absence of any ^juvenile books,' I read, with delight, Milton's * Paradise Lost' and the translation of Homer's * Iliad.'"

An active supporter of schools and of every movement calculated to promote the welfare of the community. Judge Walker exercised during his whole life a large and healthful influence. He died in 1856. His wife, who is still remembered by some of her contem-

Judge Walker had one son - George Walker, Jun., who was, for many years, a successful business man in Amesville. He is deceased. Of his seven daughters, the eldest was married to Col. Charles Cutler; the second to Edgar Jewett, of Athens; two of the others married physicians; one a banker, and one a merchant. Another daughter, Mrs. Ryors, relict of the Rev. Alfred Ryors, minister of the Presbyterian church, is well known in Athens. Her accomplished husband, for many years connected with the Ohio university, and subsequently president of the Indiana state university, was one of the choicest among the many rare and scholarly men, who, during its history, have been associated with the university at Athens. He died at Danville, Kentucky, May 8, 1858.

Edward R. Ames, third son of Silvanus Ames, was born in Ames township. May 20, 1806, on the farm now owned by James and George Henry. His early education, though limited, was healthful and solid, and, while still a youth, having access to the local library in Amesville, he formed a taste for reading that has largely influenced the conduct of his life. At the age of twenty he left his father's ^m to attend the Ohio university at Athens, where he remained some two or three years, mainly supporting himself, meanwhile, by

In the autumn of 1828 the late Bishop Roberts presided over the Ohio conference of the Methodist church, which was held at Chillicothe. To see their manner of doing business, and to obtain some knowledge as to the growth of the church, the young collegian attended the session. Bishop Roberts, who had a rare discernment of men, saw the youth and that there was something more than ordinary in him. The result of their acquaintance was, that, acting on the advice of the bishop to "go west," young Ames accompanied him a few weeks later to the Illinois conference, held that vear in Madison, Indiana. Here he made further acquaintance with active Methodists from the western states, and, at their suggestion, he proceeded to Illinois and opened a high school at Lebanon, in the present county of St. Clair. He had fine success as a teacher, and remained here, making friends and influence, till 1830. In the autumn of this year he was licensed to preach by the Illinois conference, and was admitted and appointed to Shoal Creek circuit, embracing an indefinite extent of country.