USA > Ohio > Adams County > A history of Adams County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, including character sketches of the prominent persons identified with the first century of the country's growth > Part 30
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"to prepare for that better country out of sight." *He served as re- corder of Adams County from 1803 to 1810 and again from September, 1813, to 1834. Any one examining the old records in the recorder's office and clerk's office of Adams County will find whole volumes written out in his old-fashioned copper plate style. He never used any- thing but a quill pen and used a soft piece of buckskin for a pen wiper.
On February 20, 1810, he was appointed a member of the commis- sion to locate the capital of the state. No doubt the General held many other important offices and appointments, but as the writer has no time to read over the entire records of the state kept during the Gen- eral's life, he is unable to give them, but the people interested and the appointing powers wanted him to have these various offices and he discharged the duties of every one of them, with the utmost fidelity.
While he was the incumbent of the clerk's office, there was no law as to the disposition of unclaimed costs. Whenever any costs were paid in, he would put it in a package by itself, and label it with the name of the party to whom it belonged and never disturb it until called for by the party entitled to it. These packages he kept loose among his court papers and with his office door only secured by an ordinary lock. In all the years he kept the office it was never burglarized, and his suc- cessor, Col. J. R. Cockerill, found the unclaimed costs in the very money in which it was paid in and much of it was worthless because the banks which issued it had failed years before.
In 1805, he became an elder in the Presbyterian church at West Union, and felt more proud and honored in that office than any he ever held. He reared a family of eight: the two sons have been already mentioned: John Meredith was married three times, while his second son, George, who has a separate sketch herein, never married at all. His third son, Gabriel Doddridge, well known to all the citizens of West Union, was born February 1. 1796, and married Sarah Edwards, his full cousin, October 2, 1823. His fourth son, Carey A., was born October 2, 1797, and married Eliza Holmes, May 5, 1829. His daughter. Sarah was born January 26, 1802, married the Rev. Henry Van Deman, November 2, 1824, and two of her sons, John D. and Joseph H. have sketches herein. She died July 23, 1888. The General's daughter Eliza, born January 22, 1804, and died April 2, 1844, never married. She was a woman of lovely character and was much esteemed in the society of her time.
The eighth and youngest child of Gen. Darlinton was David N., born on December 10, 1806, and died in 1853, without issue.
On May 17, 1804, in the allotment of lots in West Union, he took lot No. 84 at $17. This was just north of lot 57, which he afterwards acquired, and on which he built his home. Just west of the home he built a log office, which was afterwards weatherboarded. It was in this log office he kept the postoffice in West Union from July 1, 1804, until October 1, 1811. His old residence is still standing, but its chief fea- tures, three immense stone chimneys, havelong since beentakenaway. In this home, made pleasant and happy by the daily observance of all the Christian virtues, General Darlinton dispensed a generous and bounte- ous hospitality. No stranger of consequence and no public officer ever
"He was the only clerk of the Supreme Court of Adams County from its organization till his death.
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came to West Union without being his guest. In the first place, he entertained all the Presbyterian ministers who came there; in the second place, all the statesmen who traveled that way, and many of them did, and were not permitted to be entertained elsewhere. The associate judges and prominent citizens of the county were entertained at his home on the occasion of their visits to the county seat. In fact, in his day, the General's home had as many guests as the hotels, or taverns as they were called then, and but for the name of it, he might as well have had a tavern license.
His personal appearance would have attracted notice anywhere. He was about average height, somewhat corpulent, of full and slightly elongated visage, fine regular features, clean shaven, dark brown eyes with heavy brows, and a large head and forehead with his white hair combed back from his forehead and behind his ears. He was quick of movement and to the last walked with the firm step of youth. He had a manly bearing which impressed all who knew him. The business of his office was admirably systematized and all his habits of daily life were regular and methodical. In the routine of life, it is said he did the same thing every day and at the same hour and moment for fifty years. His going to his office from his home in West Union and his returning were with such exactness as to time that his neighbors along the route, used him as a living town clock and did actually set their clocks by the time of his passing. Among other instances of his regularity in all things was the winding of his watch. While writing in the clerk's office, he would lay it down beside him, and when the hands pointed to a certain hour, he would take it up and wind it. The offices he held and his associations with the lawyers and judges, gave him such a knowledge of the princi- ples of the common law of the state, and his familiarity with the statute law, having grown up with it, together with his excellent judgment, qualified him for a local oracle, which he was, and grave matters of domestic and legal concern were constantly referred to him, and when he decided the matters, his disposition was acquiesced in as satisfactory to all sides. In politics, in his last years, he was a Whig. He believed in the state promoting religion, education and internal improvements. While not anti-slavery in his views, he thought the war with Mexico was un- righteous.
His day, as compared with ours, was that of beginnings, and of small things. Everything was primitive but human character. That then had its highest development. In his day, there were no steam rail- roads, no macademized common roads, no luxurious vehicles, no tele- graphs, or telephones, no typewriters and but few newspapers and books. All services were then compensated in sums of money which would seem insignificant to us in these days, and trade was largely carried on by bar- ter, and exchange of goods and services.
General Darlinton always alluded to Winchester, Virginia, in af- fectionate terms, and loved to converse about it, particularly with his neighbors, Abraham Hollingsworth and Nicholas Burwell, who were also natives of that place. He owned the site of Winchester in this county, laid it out and named it in honor of his own loved Winchester, Virginia, but strange to say, he never re-visited the latter, though he had an interest in his father's estate until as late as 1817. But he never
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visited much in or traveled over Adams county, yet he knew every one in it and their circumstances. In his day, the clerk's office was the most important in the county, for every one's property rights were registered there.
What distinguished General Darlinton among men and above his fellows was his unusual amount of good, hard, common sense, which after all, is the most uncommon kind of sense. He was an entertaining talker, and always had something useful and entertaining to say. He had a wonderful natural dignity of which he seemed unconscious, and which impressed itself on those with whom he came in contact. His life was on a plane above the ordinary and the people who knew him well felt they were looking up to it.
But what distinguished his life above everything else, what shone out above all things, and what will be remembered of him when all else is forgotten, was his remarkable Christian life and character. His re- ligion was of the very highest and best type of the Puritanic. With him, religion was not as now in many cases, a fashionable sentiment, but it was a living, essential realitv, controlling every thought and action of his life. His whole soul. conscience, principles, opinions, worldly in- terests and everything in his life was made subservient to his religion. His life made all who knew him feel that there was truth and reality in the Christian religion, and he lived it every day. In his judgment, his crowning earthly honor was that he had served nearly fifty years as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at West Union.
Four years before his death, he had retired from all public business and was simply waiting the final summons. All his life he had had a dread of the Asiatic cholera. When that pestilence visited West Union in the summer of 1851, the first victim died June 26. By some irony of fate, he was the last and died of the dread disease on the last day it prevailed, August 2. He died in the morning about 7 o'clock after a sickness of but a few hours and was buried before noon that day, and there were but four persons present at his interment, when, had he died of any ordinary disease, the whole county would have attended. Geo. M. and William V. Lafferty, his son, Gabriel Darlinton and Rev. John P. Van Dyke were the only persons to attend his funeral rites. Rev. Van Dyke repeated a prayer at the grave.
The writer, at nine years, knew him at eighty-five. He was in his sitting room. 'He had a wood fire in an old-fashioned fire place. The floor was uncarpeted and a plain deal table stood out in the middle of the room, at which the General sat and wrote. The table had a single drawer with a wooden knob. On that was tied a piece of buckskin, which he used to wipe his pen. A rocking chair was at each corner of the fire place, and common split-bottomed chairs in the room. Grandmother Edwards, his sister, with cap and spectacles, sat in one of the rocking chairs. The Gen- eral's hair was then as white as snow, long and combed behind his ears. He'arose to meet and welcome me, only a child, and a more grave and dignified man I never met. To me, a boy, his presence was awe-inspiring.
General Darlinton was and is a fair example of the good and true men, who built well the foundations of the great State of Ohio. His good works in church and state have borne and will bear fruit to many generations of posterity. From the day West Union was laid out,
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for forty-seven years his figure was a familiar one, seen daily on its streets, but for forty-eight years, it has been missed, but his memory is as fresh and green as that summer day, forty-eight years past, when he closed his books at the clerk's office for the last time and walked to his home. The memory of his lovely and lovable Christian character is the richest legacy he left his children, but they can give it to posterity, and be none the poorer.
Gov. Thomas Kirker
was a native of Ireland. His father lived in Tyrone County, and was a man of small means, but good standing. Thomas was one of a large family, and was born in 1760. Until he was nineteen years old, he lived with his parents in Ireland and endeavored with them to make a living out of the poor soil and against the exactions of oppressive landlords. His father concluded that was too much of an undertaking, and moved to America, settling in Lancaster County, Penn. After a few years of hard work in that county, the father died, leaving behind him a fragrant memory and a wife and five or six children. By constant toil and good management the family made a living and the children acquired some education. From the death of his father in Lancaster County, until 1790 Thomas Kirker left no account of himself. At that time, being thirty years of age and having acquired some little money and seeing a hope for the future, he was married to Sarah Smith, a young woman of ex- cellent family and great worth, eleven years his junior. They remained in Pennsylvania for a short time when stories of great wealth to be made in Kentucky came to them across the mountains, and the perilous jour- ney of moving to the Blue Grass State was undertaken. Indians were on the way, and they kept the small company in constant fear by oc- casional arrow practice with them as targets. Kentucky proved a fail- ure so far as they were concerned, and in 1794, Mr. Kirker and his wife crossed the Ohio and settled in Manchester, this county. This marked the beginning of his public career, and of his financial success.
In 1796, our subject changed his residence from Manchester to Liberty township in the same county, and settled on a farm, which has ever since been known as the Kirker farm, and on which he died in 1837, and in the cemetery there the ashes of him and his wife now repose. When he moved to Liberty township, his family consisted of himself, wife and two children. They were the first settlers to locate in the county outside the stockade in Manchester, but the county was speedily covered with settlements. The site selected proved a happy choice and soon blossomed with crops that yielded an abundant harvest. Within
the next few years, Liberty township was dotted with cabins and the sturdy settlers were tilling the soil. He was a member of the first Court of Quarter Sessions held in the county under the Territorial Government at Manchester, in September, 1797. He was also a county commis- sioner under the Territorial Government, but the record of his service is lost. Mr. Kirker was the leading man in that settlement, and was usually the foremost in all public matters. By common consent he set- led quarrels among his neighbors and acted in the capacity of judge and jury. All his neighbors respected him and looked to him for counsel. His reputation for good judgment in his township spread throughout
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the county, and when delegates were elected to the first Constitutional Convention in 1802, he was sent as one of them, and at, once, on the open- ing of the convention, Mr. Kirker took a prominent part in its deliber- ations.
Thomas Kirker was a member of the lower house of the Legis- lature from Adams County at the first legislative session March 1, 1803, to April 16, 1803, He entered the Ohio senate at the second legisla- tive session, December 5, 1803, and served in that body continuously until the thirteenth legislative session, closing February 16, 1815. In that time he was Speaker in the Senate in the fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh and thirteenth sessions. From November 4, 1807, to December 12, 1808, he was acting Governor of the State by reason of a vacancy in the office of governor and his then being speaker of the senate. At the fifteenth legislative session, December 15, 1816, to Jan- uary 28, 1817, he was a member of the House and its speaker. Then he took a rest from legislative honors for four years. At the twentieth legislative session beginning December 3, 1821, he was again in the senate from Adams and served in it continuously until February 8, 1825. On January 17, 1821, he was appointed an associate judge from Adams county, and served until October 30, 1821, when he resigned. In 1824, he was presidential elector, and voted for Clay. From 1808 until his death, he was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church at West Union, and his son William was also an elder in the same church from 1826, during his father's lifetime.
Mr. Kirker was not a brilliant man, but he was honest, conscien- tious and possessed of sound judgment and integrity that was unselfish and incorruptible. He was respected, esteemed, and exerted an in- fluence that was felt in the entire circle of his acquaintance. No man served his state better or with more credit than he. Called to high places, he filled them well and went out of office carrying with him the respect of all who knew him. His wife died August 20, 1824. He died February 20, 1837. He reared a family of thirteen children, and has a host of descendants, who are scattered in different parts of the United States. A number of them are residing in Adams County, but most of them are in other localities.
He succeeded Gov. Tiffin, March 4, 1807, when he resigned to enter the U. S. Senate and served to the end of his term. In December, 1807, the election of governor having failed by reason of Return J. Meigs not being qualified and N. Massie declining, he served as Governor one year or to December 12, 1808, when Samuel Huntington succeeded him. The vote stood Huntington 7,293 ; Worthington, 5,601 ; Kirker, 3,397.
Abraham Shepherd.
It is a pleasure to study the subject of this sketch, and the more we study the more we find to admire. He came from Virginia's best blood. His grandfather was Captain Thomas Shepherd, a title probably coming from the French and Indian War, and his grandmother was Elizabeth Van Meter, daughter of John Van Meter. His father, John Shepherd, was born in 1749 and in 1773 was married to Martha Nelson, born in
17a
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1750. To them were born seven children, six of whom were born in Shepherdstown, Va., and one at Wheeling Creek, Ohio. Capt. Thomas Shepherd died in 1776, and among other property, left a new mill, which fell to his son, John, father of our subject. John, however, was a Rev- olutionary soldier. He was a private in Capt. Wm. Cherry's Company, 4th Virginia Infantry, from April, 1777, to March, 1778. The regiment was commanded by Col. Thomas Elliott and Major Isaac Beall. John's brother, Abraham, was a captain in the 11th Virginia Regulars. Cap- tain Abraham Shepherd, on August 13, 1787, entered 1000 acres of land, Entry No. 1060, on Virginia Military Warrant, 290, for his own services, at Red Oak, in Brown county. This was surveyed November 3, 1791,
by Nathaniel Massie deputy surveyor; Duncan McKenzie and Robert Smith, being chain carriers and Thomas Stout, marker. He had an uncle, David, who was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and so came of good fighting stock. The subject of our sketch was born August 13, 1776, at Shepherdstown, now Jefferson county, Va. He must have drank in patriotism with his mother's milk. Next year his father was in the service and so continued most of the time during the war. It seems his father operated a flour mill from 1781 to 1787, and his son Abraham learned something of the business. It is said Abraham received a
liberal education for his time and surroundings. The details of that
education we do not know, but do know that he learned the operations of his father's mill and the art of land surveying. In 1787, John Shepherd, with his family, moved to Wheeling Creek, Ohio, about eight miles from Wheeling, W. V. Here were already located two brothers and a mar- ried sister of John Shepherd. In 1793 he removed to Limestone, Ky.,
where he remained two years. In 1795 he removed to what was then 'Adams County, Ohio, but what is now Red Oak, in Brown County, locating on the tract entered by his brother, Captain Abraham Shepherd. In 1799, he married Margaret Moore and was at that time living at Red Oak. Soon after this he bought a part of Capt. Phillip Slaughter's survey 588 on Eagle Creek and built a brick house on it, now owned by Baker Woods. Here he also built and operated the mill afterwards known as Pilson's Mill. He also laid out and dedicated the cemetery on his lands now known as Baird's cemetery. In October, 1803, he was elected one of the three representatives of Adams County in the lower house, and took his seat December 5, 1803. He continued to represent Adams County in the house by successive re-elections till February 4, 1807. He remained out till December 4, 1809, when he again repre- sented Adams County in the house and continued to do so until January 30, 1811. At the session in December, 1809, he received two votes for
senator, but Alexander Campbell was elected.
In the fifth legislative
session, December 1, 1806, to February 4, 1807, he was speaker of the house, while at the same session Thomas Kirker, also from Adams County, was speaker of the senate. He seems to have dropped out of the legislature from January 30, 1811, until December 4, 1815, but in the meantime he was not idle. He was in the war of 1812 as captain of a company and had two of his men shot by Indians as they were re- turning home in 1812. In 1813 he was out in the war again as captain of a company in Major Edward's Battalion, Ist Regiment, Ist Brigade, 2d Division, Ohio Militia. In the fourteenth legislative session,
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December 4, 1815, to February 27, 1816, he was a member of the senate from Adams. In the fifteenth legislative session, December 2, 1816, to January 28, 1817, he represented Adams County in the senate and was speaker at the same time Ex-Gov. Kirker was speaker of the house, he and Shepherd having exchanged offices from the fifth legislative session. In 1816, he was one of the eight presidential electors of Ohio and cast his vote for James Monroe. Brown County was set off from Adams and Clermont by the legislature December 27, 1817, and Abraham Shep- herd procured the passage of the act in the senate.
In 1818 the first court was held in Brown County, at Ripley, by Josiah Collett, presiding Judge, with James Moore, William Anderson and James Campbell, associate judges. At this term, Abraham Shep- herd, was appointed clerk for a term of seven years, and served a full term. In this period he was an active politician and practically con- trolled affairs in Brown County.
In 1825, he was sent back to the senate from Adams County and Brown. During this twenty-fourth legislative session, from December 8, 1825, to February 3, 1826. he was appointed a member of the state board of equalization for the sixth district, the first state board appointed. In the twenty-fifth legislative session, December 4, 1826, to January 31, 1827, he was again in the senate for Adams and Brown counties, and again its speaker. This closed his active career in public office.
He was a Presbyterian in faith and practice, and long a ruling elder in that church. The records of the Chillicothe Presbytery show that he attended it as a delegate in 1823, 1830 and 1832. He was master of a Masonic lodge at Ripley in 1818 and appears to have taken a great interest in the order for a period of years. In private life Abraham Shepherd was quite an energetic character. In 1815, he built and operated Pilson's mills on Eagle Creek then in Adams County, now in Jefferson township, Brown County. He held this until about 1817 when he sold it and went to Ripley. He built the Buckeye mill on Red Oak and operated it with steam as early as 1825. While engaged in this he was a pork packer.
He was of pleasing address, large and portly. No picture of him was preserved or can be obtained. He was always courteous and gentlemanly in his intercourse with others, and was pop- ular with all sorts and conditions of his fellow men in his county. He was possessed of unbounded energy and wonderful perseverance, and naturally became a man of influence and importance in the community in which he dwelt. As a legislator and as presiding officer of the two houses, his services commanded the respect and commendation of his constituents and his fellow members. In his farming, he excelled his neighbors and made more improvements on his farm than any of them, and did it more rapidly. As a miller, he did more business than his competitors and the same is true of his pork packing. In 1834 it is said he met with financial reverses, and in consequence removed to Putnam County, Illinois, with his family. In that county he lived as a farmer, a quiet retired life, until his death on January 16, 1847.
He was the father of ten children by his first wife, who died in 1818. All his children by his first wife are deceased. . He married Miss Har- riet Kincaid on October 19, 1819, and by her he had two children,
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Andrew K., born November 18, 1820, and Martha Ann, March 1, 1823, and both of whom are now living at Crete, Neb. His second wife died November 10, 1884, at the residence of her two children.
When the slavery question came to be agitated, he became strongly anti-slavery. While acting with the Democratic party in his earlier career on account of slavery he abandoned it and became an Abolitionist. His convictions on every subject were positive and strong. His influence on his community, either in politics or religion was great and it was always on the side of humanity, right and justice.
John Fisher
was born in Pennsylvania, May 4, 1789. He moved to Cincinnati. Ohio, in 1807. He was married there at Fort Washington, July 12, 1810. He went to Hillsboro and from there to Manchester. On June 13, 1815, he was made post master at Manchester, and served until 1822. He resided at Manchester until 1836. He was a commissioner of Adams County from 1819 to 1822. During his residence at Man- chester he carried on the commission business most of the time. In 1822 and 1823 he was a member of the house of representatives. In 1827 and 1828 he was in the senate, representing Adams and Brown counties, and also in the winter of 1828 and 1829. He was a Whig at all times. In 1836, he purchased the Brush Creek Forge Furnace and moved to Cedar Mills, where he spent the remainder of his life. When the Whig party ceased its organization, he became a Republican. He was a justice of the peace in Sprigg and Jefferson townships seventeen years. He was devoted to his party and very fond of contributing political articles to the newspapers. He was an interesting writer and his articles were terse and to the point. He was more a philosopher than a politician. A number of his letters are in existence and they give much insight into his life and thoughts.
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