A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 16

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 16

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

cember 2nd, 1895, to January 27th, 1806, Phillip Lewis, Daniel Col- lier and Abraham Shepherd were representatives from Adams and Scioto Counties. He was commissioned Colonel of the Third Reg- iment, First Brigade, Second Division, of Militia, by Governor Sam- uel Huntington, December 29th, 1809. He served in the war of 1812, and was in the engagement at Sandusky. On May 2nd, 1814, Acting Governor Othniel Looker, endorsed Colonel Collier's resig- nation as follows : "The resignation of this commission is accepted on account of long service, advanced age and bodily infirmities." Among Colonel Collier's old tax receipts in possession of one of his grand children, is one dated September 8th, 1801, for one hundred and seventy-five cents, his land tax for that year and subscribed by John Lodwick, Collector for Adams County. In 1811, the tax on the same land was nine dollars, as shown by the receipt of Thomas Mas- sie, Collector. His wife was Elizabeth Prather, born December 9th, 1768, and died August 4th, 1835. He had twelve children : James, John, Thomas, Daniel, Joseph, Richard, Isaac, Sarah, Elizabeth, Kath- erine, Luther and Harriet.

Abraham Shepherd

came from Virginia's best blood. His grandfather was Captain Thomas Shepherd; and his grandmother was Elizabeth Van Meter, daughter of John Van Meter. His father John Shepherd was born in 1749 ; and in 1773 he was married to Martha Nelson, born in 1750. They had seven children, six of whom were born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, and one at Wheeling Creek, Ohio. Captain Thomas Shep- herd, his grandfather, died in 1776; and among other property he left a mill, which fell to his son, John, ( father of our subject), who was a soldier. He was a private in Captain William Cherry's Company, 4th Virginia Infantry, from April, 1777, to March, 1778. The regi- ment was commanded by Colonel Thomas Elliott and Major Isaac Beall. His brother, Abraham, was a Captain of the IIth Virginia Regulars. Captain Abraham Shepherd on August 13th, 1787, entered 1,000 acres of land, Entry No. 1,060, at Red Oak, Brown County, Ohio on Virginia Military Warrant, 290, for his own services. This was surveyed November 3rd, 1791, by Nathaniel Massie, deputy surveyor ; Duncan Mckenzie and Robert Smith being chain carriers and Thom- as Stout, marker. Our subject was born August 13th, 1776, at Shepherdstown, now Jefferson County, Virginia. Next year his father was in the service and so continued most of the time during the war. Fraom 1781 to 1787, his father operated a flour mill; and his son Abraham learned something of the business. It is said Abraham received a liberal education, for his time and surroundings. The de- tails of that education we do not know; but we do know that he learned the operations of his father's mill, and the art of land survey- ing. In 1793, John Shepherd removed to Limestone, Kentucky, where he remained two years. In 1795, he removed to what was then

MOSES HAYWARD. [PAGE 733.]

WILLIAM GILRUTH. [PAGE 716.]

JOHN W. MILLAR. [PAGE 1236.]

WILLIAM JACKSON. [PAGE 743.]

PIONEERS OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Adams County, Ohio, but what is now Red Oak, in Brown County, located on the tract entered by his brother, Captain Abraham Shep- herd. In 1799, our subject married Margaret Moore. He was at that time living at Red Oak. Soon after this he bought a part of Cap- tain Phillip Slaughter's survey No. 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. In Octo- ber, 1803, he was elected one of the three representatives of Adams County in the Lower House, and took his seat December 5th, 1803. He continued to represent Adams County in the House by successive re-elections until February 4th, 1807. He remained out till Decem- ber 4th, 1809, when he again represented Adams County and contin- ued to do so till January 30th, 1811. In December, 1809, he received two votes for U. S. Senator, but Alexander Campbell was elected. From December Ist, 1806, to February 4th, 1807, he was Speaker of the House. At the same time Thomas Kirker, also from Adams County, was Speaker of the Senate. He seems to have dropped out of the Legislature from January 30th, 1811, to December 4th, 1815. He was then in the War of 1812, as Captain of a Company, and had two of his men shot by Indians, as they were returning home in 1812. In 1813, he was Captain of a Company in Major Edward's Battal- ion, Ist Regiment, Ist Brigade, 2nd Division, Ohio Militia. From December 4th, 1815, to February 27th, 1816, he was a member of the Senate from Adams County. He was a member of the Senate from Adams County in the fifteenth legislative session ; and was Speaker at the same time Ex-Gov. Kirker was speaker in 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 27th, 1817; and Abraham Shepherd procured the passage of the act in the Senate. In 1818, the first court was held in Brown County; and he was ap- pointed Clerk and served for seven years. In 1825, he was sent back to the Senate from Adams and Brown. During this twenty- fourth legislative session, from December 8th, 1825, to February, 3rd, 1826, he was appointed a member of the State Board of Equiliza- tion for the sixth district, the first State Board appointed. From De- cember 4th, 1826, to January 31st, 1827, he was again in the Senate for Adams and Brown, and was again its Speaker. He was a Presbyterian in faith and practice ; and was a ruling elder in that church. The rec- ords of the Chillicothe Presbytery show that he attended, as a dele-

gate, in 1823, 1830 and 1832. He was a prominent Mason and Mas- ter of the lodge at Ripley in 1818. In 1815, he built and operated Pil- son'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

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

operated it with steam as early as 1825. While engaged in this he was a pork packer. He had a pleasing appearance, and was large and portly. No picture of him was preserved or can be obtained. He was popular with all sorts and conditions of his fellow men. He was pos- sessed of unbounded energy and wonderful perseverance; and natur- ally became a man of influence and importance in his community. 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 farming, he excelled his neighbors ; and he made more mprovements on his farm, and did it more rapidly than any of them. As a miller, he did more business than his competitors; and the same is true of his pork packing. In 1834 he met with financial reverses, and in consequence removed to Putnam County, Illinois where he lived until his death, on January 16th, 1847. When the slavery question came to be agitated, he became strongly anti-slavery. While he acted with the Democratic party in his earlier career, he abandoned it later on account of slavery and became an Abolitionist. His influence was always on the side of justice and right.

Daniel Mckinney, Sr.

was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1744. He served in the early part of the Revolutionary War, the first two years in the Pennsylvania Militia. He was a locksmith and gunsmith by trade, and as such, his services were in great demand. About 1778, while he was burning a coal pit near his home, he was captured by the Indians. He had left his coal pit to go past some brush and tim- ber to his potato patch to gather potatoes. He gathered the pota- toes and was returning to his coal pit when a party of fifteen Indians, secreted behind a fallen tree top, took him a prisoner. They took him down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Wabash River, and up that river some distance. They kept him with them about a year, and then took him to Detroit and sold him to the British. He was kept a prisoner about Detroit for some time, and one day some man wanted a gun lock repaired. There was a person at Detroit who pretended to do that work but was not able to do it, well. Mckinney saw him at work and offered to help. It was then discovered that Mckinney was a gunsmith ; and the British then required him to make guns for the Indians, their allies in fighting the Americans. They gave him $2.50 a day to make gun barrels and to finish the guns; but he was shut up in prison every night. He made the guns ; but he spoiled every gun barrel so that they could not be relied upon to shoot his countrymen. It is supposed that he made about 250 guns and spoiled them all but one. There was one Indian who knew what a good gun was, and he got on to Mckinney's scheme; he told him he would not betray him if he would make him a perfect gun ,which Mckinney did. It is said, that the Indians used one of Mckinney's guns and shot seventeen

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BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVES.

times at Gen. Washington, but could not hit him once. Mckinney remained a prisoner at Detroit until about 1783 when he was re- leased. He went back to Pennsylvania and was married to Millie Doutheet. They had the following children: Theodore born 1785; Daniel, jr., born 1787; and Cynthia born 1789, who married Nathan- iel Skinner. The second wife of Daniel Mckinney, Sr., was Mary Hodnett. She had the following children, Solomon, James, Thomas. Charles and Willam. Daniel Mckinney. Sr., was a member of the Legislature from Scioto County from December 4th, 1809, until Feb- ruary 2Ist, 1812. He was a very active, energetic man and citizen. He died June 17th, 1816. Daniel Mckinney, jr., his son, was the father of Lorenzo Dow Mckinney, who has a separate sketch herein. Daniel Mckinney, jr., was married June 25th, 1808. to Kate Samp- son by Thomas Waller, Justice of the Peace. They had the follow- ing children : Cynthia, married Jacob Bennett ; Randolph, Benjamin Franklin, Lorenzo Dow, born June 17th, 1816, and Susannah, his twin sister, who married David Hahn, a famous stage driver.

Daniel Mckinney, jr., was a Commissioner of Scioto County, from 1824 to 1827. He died at the age of 44, but his wife survived until 1875. He was a farmer all his life. He was buried in the Squires graveyard in Madison Township.

Ezra Osborn.

The date of his arrival in Portsmouth is not precisely known, but it was probably about 1810. He was a native of Vermont and came to Portsmouth. already married. He never had any children. His wife Abigail, died in advanced life. February 6th, 1838, as the papers stated, after a lingering illness. His first official appearance in Ports- mouth was in 1813, when he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Wayne Township.

In 1816, he was elected to the Legislature and re-elected in 1818 and 1819. On August 5th, 1819, he was appointed President Judge of the Common Pleas and served until February 6th, 1820, when he was elected by the Legislature. February 9th, 1826, he retired and in March, 1826, he was elected a Justice of the Peace of Wayne Town- ship, and was re-elected, and served continuously until his death in 1840. In the fall of 1826, he was a candidate for the Legislature, but did not reach the office.

He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and a leader in it. He was a faithful Sunday school teacher. He must have been a man of property and substance, since he was often received as surety on Treasurers' bonds. His home was on the south side of Second street, where the Adams Express office stands. When elected Jus- tice of the Peace in 1826, he had 71 votes and John Brown had 48. In 1829, when re-elected, he had 27 votes, all that were cast. In 1830 he was an Overseer of the Poor in Wayne Township. On February

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY,

28th, 1830, he presided at the meeting when the Scioto County Bible Society was organized.

In 1830, he was a fence viewer of Wayne Township. In 1831, he was Deputy Auditor of Scioto County and President of the Coun- cil.

In 1837, he was Deputy Treasurer. In 1816, he was allowed $4.00 for listing the property in Portsmouth. He was a short fleshy man, of an easy temperament, and, in his personal appearance, he much resembled Judge Towne.

In politics, he was a Whig. He was born about 1773 and conse- quently, was about 37 years of age when he came to Portsmouth.

As a lawyer he had no particular ability ; but he was a good citi- zen, and a consistent Christian. His tastes and inclinations were all for the humbler duties of the profession. He was probably better suited for the office of Justice of the Peace, than that of President Judge of the Common Pleas.

He had a stroke of paralysis in the fall of 1839, which disabled him. He survived till April 18th, 1840, when he died. His burial place is unknown. William Hall was his administrator and settled his estate.

William Collings

was born in Maryland, on December 1Ith, 1780. He was the eldest son of James Collings, a Revolutionary soldier, whose record, as such, is given herein. His mother's name was Christian Davis, of the same family as the Honorable Henry Winter Davis. They were mar-' ried February 20th, 1780. His father emigrated to Ohio and bought 100 acres of land just south of West Union. O., where he died in 1802 at the early age of forty-eight : He is interred in the Collings Ceme- tery just south of the village. William moved to Scioto County, soon after his father's death and located in that part afterwards set off to Pike. He at once took a prominent position in Pike County ; and was its first Sheriff, 1815 to 1818. In 1824, he was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives to represent the Distrct compos- ed of Lawrence, Scioto and Pike Counties. During his membership, William Henry Harrison was elected United State Senator. Mr. Collings was in the war of 1812 with a horse company under Col. Barnes. He was well informed and was a thorough business man. He was a Federalist and later a Whig. His home was on a farm three miles south of Piketon. It is still known as the Collings farm. William Vulgamore resides on it. Our subject was married to Pris- cilla Guthery, a daughter of one of the early settlers of Pike County. He had three daughters and one son. His daughter, Lydia married John Chestnut and left issue, William Chestnut, who resides in Cleve- land. His daughter, Louisa, married William Sargeant and left no issue. His daughter, Minerva married Charles Sargeant, and left no

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BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVES.

issue. His son, James Collings, was born in 1815 and married Ada Jane Cole, daughter of James Cole. He died in 1856, and she resides in Piketon. They had children, Guthery, and William Cole; a son died in infancy, a daughter, Kate Ellen, married J. W. Lang and resides in Waverly ; a daughter, Nancy, married Lorenzo Dow Philips and resides in Piketon. William Collings died, March 11th, 1826, aged forty-five years and three months. His wife was born July 16th. 1777, and died October 21st, 1878, aged ninety-five years, nine months and five days.

Colonel Isaac Bonser

was born in 1767. In his childhood he was on the frontier in Pennsyl- vania and was accustomed to assist the men who were protecting the mills against the Indians, during the Revolutionary War He had a taste for hunting and back woods life, and became a very expert hun- ter and woodsman. At the age of sixteen he was employed as a guide and hunter for a surveying party in the back woods of Penn- sylvania. He became such an expert hunter and woodsman that he could no more be lost in the forest than an Indian. In the spring of 1795, he was selected by a party of would be emigrants to visit the Northwest Territory and select a location for settlement. He went alone, on foot, with nothing but his rifle, blanket and such equipment as he could carry. He crossed the Ohio river and wandered along the north bank of the river, until he reached the east bank of the Little Scioto river. He had marked out a piece of ground with his tomahawk, supposing that he would be entitled to it by priority of discovery and locality, and by marking it out. At that time there was no settlement on the north side of the river between Gallipolis and Manchester. Bonser camped out alone on this trip. When he was ready to start back, he met the surveying party under Mr. Martin who had just finished surveying the French Grant lots. They were returning to Marietta in a canoe. Mr. Bonser found them in a bad predicament. They had exhausted their stock of provisions, their powder had become damp, and they were in danger of starving. Mr. Bonser took in the situation at a glance. He proposed to them that as he was going up into Pennsylvania, if they would take his baggage into their canoe, he would travel on shore, with nothing but his rifle to carry, and supply them with all the game they needed. He would kill a deer or turkey, bear or buffalo as occasion offered, and they could carry the game in the canoe The first night they were together Bonser examined their powder, and showed them how to dry it out. He dried it out by sticking a forked stick in the ground a safe distance from the fire, on which he hung the powder horn, after taking out the stopper, and let the steam from the powder pass out slowly. He left the powder horn in that postion until morning, when the heat of the fire had completely dried it out.

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

The party traveled in this manner to Marietta where Mr. Martin reported to General Putnam; and Bonser continued his trip to Penn- sylvania. Isaac Bonser was the first white man to visit Scioto County with the view of settlement. He saw the whole country before the banks of the river had been disturbed, or any timber cut down by white men. The next year the five families, for whom he had made the trip, set out to locate in Scioto County. They went to the Mo- nongahela river, and built a boat large enough for them and their families. They arrived at the mouth of the Scioto, August 10th, 1796. and took possession of the ground Bonser had staked out the year before. The men in the party were Isaac Bonser, Uriah Barber, John Beaty, William Ward, and Ephriam Adams. They found two families ahead of them, Samuel Marshall and John Lindsey, who had moved up from Manchester a few months before. Isaac Bonser lo- cated above the mouth of the creek and built the third cabin in Scioto County. He cleared a field and fenced it, preparatory to raising a erop the following season. He had a field of eight or ten acres prepared in which he planted corn and such other vegetables as were needed. This was the first attempt to cultivate the soil in Scioto County. He built a water-mill one mile from the mouth of the Little Scioto, in 1798, at the mouth of Bonser's Run. In the summer of 1798, when the Ohio River was very low and he was engaged in building his mill, having all the men from the settlement helping him, five bears came to the settlement where the women were at work. They made it so hot for the bears that they took to the trees, and Barney Monroe came along and shot all five of them. As soon as the land office was opened in Chillicothe in 1801, Isaac Bonser secured the land on which his mill was built and kept a mill there until his death.

The land was said to have sold for $2.00 per acre, being congress lands, and sold for cash only.

Bonser built a house and planted an orchard. Some of the ap- ple trees he planted out are still living. In 1803, Bonser and Uriah Barber and another party took a contract to make a wagon road to Gallipolis from Portsmouth. In June, 1804, he was a grand juror. On July 4th, 1808, there was a great celebration on the farm of Major Bonser. It had been announced before hand and parties came from Gallipolis, West Union, and other points. For want of a cannon, they bored out a log and banded it with iron but it burst during the firing. Robert Lucas read the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Bonser took an active part in organizing the militia of this county. There were ten companies and he was elected a Major of the Militia. In 1813, he went out in the general call as Major of the Militia and went as far as Sandusky. He was County Commissioner from 1814 to 1820. In 1817, he built an overshot mill, the only one of the kind ever built in Scioto County. He was a member of the Legislature from 1826 to 1828. He was very fond of tinkering with

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BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVES.

mills. This mill he kept until his death. He had some peculiar ideas. He thought the price of wheat and corn should never vary, and corn should sell at twenty-five cents and wheat at fifty cents per bushel. He was a very industrious man, and worked diligently, no matter what the condition of the weather was, whether cold or warm. He worked at his mill until he was upwards of eighty years of age, and his last sickness lasted but a week. He died in Scioto County in 1849, aged eighty-three years. While he'was fond of hunting, he would not kill game for sport. He would only do so when it was required for meat ; and it was a common thing for him, on account of his being such an expert hunter, to hunt for other families as well as his own. In his politics he was always a Democrat. He voted for Jackson, in 1824, when there were few men of his kind in the county. He was never a member of any church, but his wife was a Baptist. Her name was Abigail Burt. She was born in New Jersey in 1770. They had four children before they came to Ohio. Their oldest son, Jos- eph, was killed by the premature discharge of a cannon, in 1836, when he was attempting to fire a salute in honor of General Jackson. She died in 1853, near Sciotoville, in her eighty-third year.

The four children born in Pennsylvania were: Joseph, Jane, Hannah and Samuel. The six born in Ohio were : Isaac, Sally, Jacob, Uriah; John and Nathaniel.

James Rogers

was born in Cumberland County, Pa., Dec. 7th, 1787, the only son of Andrew and Mary Duncan Rogers: His father emigrated from County Tyrone, Ireland, at the close of the Revolution. When James was a child, his father removed to Washington Co., Pa. At sixteen our subject was apprenticed to John Rhodes to learn the trade of a millwright; and he served his time till the age of twenty-one. He then took a flat boat of merchandise to Nashville, Tenn., in the fall of 1799, and wintered there. He returned to Pennsylvania and work- ed at his trade with the Pittsburg Steam Engine Co. In May 1813, that Company sent him to attach steam power to the Brush Creek Furnace in Adams County, which he did; and that was the first at- tempt to blow a blast furnace by steam in this country. His next work was to put up a steam engine, for a saw and grist mill, at New Albany, Ind. He built Steam Furnace in Adams County, in 1816, and with Andrew Ellison and the Pittsburg Steam Engine Co., as partners under the name of James Rogers & Co., he run it until 1826. In that year he went prospecting in Lawrence County, and as a result, on the 4th of July of that year, he began the erection of Union Fur- nace, the firm again being James Rogers & Co., but composed of him- self. John Sparks and Valentine Fear. This was the first blast fur- nace in Lawrence County. He represented Adams County in the Leg- islature, in 1825, and 1826, with Col. John Means as his colleague.

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HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

From 1830 and 1832, he represented Scioto and Lawrence Coun- ties in the House. In 1837 to 1839, he represented Athens, Meigs, Gallia and Lawrence in the Senate. In 1849, and 1850, he again rep- resented Scioto and Lawrence in the House.

He was married three times. He was a Presbyterian in his religious faith. His funeral was June 9th, 1860, conducted by Rev. Dan Young. He was buried first at Hanging Rock and afterwards at Spring Grove, Cincinnati. He was a son of Oliver Rogers, who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Gen. Edward Hamilton

was the Chevalier Bayard of Portsmouth. He was a gentleman by instinct and by culture, and was always self-possessed. As a lawyer, he was not eminent, but as a citizen and a patriot, he was pre-eminent. He was a citizen of Portsmouth from June, 1826 to October, 1849, a period of twenty-three years. The date or place of his birth is not known; but he came from Wheeling to Portsmouth, and was married after coming here. He first published his card June 18th, 1826, in the Western Times. In his day, Justices of the Peace were usually elected at special elections. On December 20th, 1826, he was elected a Justice of the Peace for Wayne Township. 112 votes were cast. He had 59, while John Noel had 51. January Ist, 1831, he became the editor of the Portsmouth Courier. Elijah Glover being the publisher. He remained the editor one year. July 4th, 1831, at the famous cele- bration of the day, he delivered the oration. In 1833 and 1834, he represented Scioto County in the legislature.

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 16

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612