USA > Ohio > Noble County > History of Noble County, Ohio: With Portraits and Biographical Sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 14
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The earliest settlers of the county were from the neighboring States of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylva- nia, and from New England. About
1817 there began a settlement of Pro- testant Irish in the vicinity of Sum- merfield, which in due time became rich and prosperous. In 1836 the German settlement began, in a region hitherto little developed in the south- eastern part of the county. The number of settlers has steadily in- creased year by year, until now the greater part of Enoch and portions of Stock, Elk and Jefferson Town- ships are chiefly occupied by Ger- mans and their descendants. Among the first arrivals were several Pro- testant families, but the Catholics were and still are most numerous.
The older counties of Ohio, and in particular the counties of Washing- ton, Belmont and Guernsey, sent to Noble many of her sturdy pioneers and most excellent citizens.
In the chapters of township history which follow, the reader will find a detailed and minute account of the early settlement of every part of the county.
1
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FORMATION OF NOBLE COUNTY.
PRELIMINARY HISTORY - GUERNSEY COUNTY ERECTED IN 1810 - ITS BOUNDARIES AND Ex- TENT OF TERRITORY - ERECTION OF MONROE COUNTY IN 1813 - ITS ORGANIZATION IN 1815-MORGAN COUNTY FORMED, 1819 - EARLY JUSTICES OF THE PEACE - DISSAT- ISFACTION IN THE EASTERN PART OF MORGAN COUNTY - A NEW COUNTY PROPOSED - ORIGIN OF THE NAME - THE MATTER BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE - COPY OF A PETI- TION PRESENTED IN 1849 - NOBLE COUNTY ERECTED, MARCH 11, 1851 - THE ACT AS FINALLY PASSED -THE COMMISSION APPOINTED BY THE LEGISLATURE - SARAHSVILLE THE COUNTY SEAT - FIRST COUNTY ELECTION - DOINGS OF THE COUNTY COMMISSION- ERS - ERECTION OF A PUBLIC BUILDING - THE TEMPORARY COURT-ROOM.
A' S will be seen by anyone who takes the trouble to trace the boundaries, a large part of the present County of Noble, from 1810 until the organization of Morgan County in 1819, was included in the County of Guernsey. The boundaries of the latter, the territory of which was taken from Muskingum and Belmont Counties, were thus defined by the act establishing the county, which took effect March 1, 1810:
" Beginning at the center of the fourth range, on the line between the fourth and fifth tiers of townships in said range (of United States mili- tary lands); thence east with said line to the western boundary of the seventh range; thence south to the southeast corner of the county of Tuscarawas ; thence east through the center of the eleventh township of the seventh range of Congress lands to the line between the sixth and the seventh ranges; thence south with the said line to the northern boundary of the County of Washing- ton; thence west with the said
boundary line, through the center of the fifth township of the seventh range; thence north to the center of the sixth township of the eighth range; thence west with the northern boundary of Washington County, to the line between the tenth and eleventh ranges; thence north with said line to the southern boundary of the United States mili- tary lands; thence west with said line to the southwest corner of the first township in the fourth range; thence north to the northwest corner of the third township of the fourth range; thence east to the center of the fourth range; thence north to the place of beginning."
The formation of Monroe County took a large portion of eastern Guernsey. Monroe County was erected by an act of the legislature passed January 29, 1813, and organ- ized in accordance with the provi- sions of another act passed February 13, 1815. It originally included on its western border original townships number 5, 6 and 7 of the seventh
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THE FORMATION OF NOBLE COUNTY.
range, its western boundary being the line between the seventh and eighth ranges, and its southern boun- dary the line between townships 4 and 5 of range 7. By act of Decem- ber 24, 1819, original townships 6 and 7 of range 8 were attached to Monroe County. They were included in Monroe County from its erection until the above date.
The erection of Morgan County still further reduced the territory of Guernsey. The act erecting Morgan County * defined its southern and eastern boundaries as follows: East with the northern boundary of the donation tract to the southeast cor- ner of township 5, range 9; thence north to the northeast corner of said township; thence east to the western boundary line of Monroe County to the southeast corner of township 6, range 8; thence north to the north- east corner of township 7, range 8; thence west to the line of Muskingum County.
When the territory now compris- ing the County of Noble was first settled, for some years the scattered inhabitants were practically without judicial or civil organization. As late as 1812 the organization of town- ships in this section of the country had not progressed very far. A large section of the northern part of the county was then under the jurisdic- tion of Guernsey County, in which 'Squire Lewis, who lived in the vicin- ity of Cumberland, was commissioned to act as justice of the peace. In the early settlement about Carlisle, Elisha
Enochs was the earliest justice of the peace of whom we have account, and his district was an extensive one, em- bracing all of the southeastern part of the county. 'Squire Porter, of Washington County, was the magis- trate for the territory now included in the southern and southwestern parts of the County of Noble.
The inhabitants of the eastern part of Morgan County were never en- tirely satisfied with the location of the county seat at McConnelsville. An attempt was made to secure the passage of a bill providing for a re-lo- cation of the seat of justice shortly after the first election was held, but the movement was frustrated by the promptness and alertness of the citi- zens of the Muskingum Valley, who forwarded to the State capital a vo- luminous remonstrance, containing - not only the names of all the inhabit- ants of McConnelsville and vicinity, but also the names borne on all the rolls of the militia captains of the neighborhood ! It was doubtless to prevent a re-opening of the question by the inhabitants of the eastern portion of the county that influential friends of McConnelsville secured the passage in December, 1819, of an act taking the two most eastern town- ships from Morgan and attaching them to Monroe, as already men- tioned.
Of course a new county was out of the question until the territory from which it was to be formed should be- come more thickly populated. But the people dwelling in the valleys of the several tributaries of Duck Creek, lived in hopes of such a consumma-
* Passed December 29, 1817; but the county was not organized until April, 1819.
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HISTORY OF NOBLE COUNTY, OHIO.
tion, and only awaited a favorable opportunity for pressing their claims. March 11, 1845, the Whigs, then in the majority in the State legislature, passed an act annexing two rich and populous townships of Athens County (Homer and Marion) to Morgan. Both of these townships were strongly Whig, and the result of the annexation was that that party tri- umphed in Morgan County almost for the first time in its history. About this time. no doubt encouraged in their hopes by the recent action of the legislature in increasing the ter- ritory of Morgan County, the inhab- itants of the eastern part of the county, together with some influ- ential neighbors in Monroe and Guernsey Counties began to agitate the formation of a new county. The project was favored by many Whigs, as, if carried out, it would reduce the Democratic strength of the county. An amusing incident in this connec- tion is thus related in the " His- "tory of Morgan County." "While this scheme was being zealously dis- cussed, David Ball, of Malta Town- ship, was nominated by the Whigs to represent the county in the legis- lature. The 'east-enders ' favorable to the new county were desirous of knowing how the candidates stood on this question, and one of them in- terrogated Ball as to his position. Mr. Ball replied in the following terse, Quaker language :
"' Malta, Ohio, -, 1848.
"' Friend McGarry : - I am with thee in all thy new county projects. "'I am, thine affectionately,
". DAVID BALL.'"
" This was a comforting assurance to the friends of the measure, but the other side received it with deris- ion."
When the petition for the erection of the new county was first intro- duced in the legislature, Warren P. Noble, of Seneca County (a rep- resentative in the years 1846-7 and 1847-8), was chairman of the com- mittee on new counties. The friends of the measure, thinking it the part of good policy to secure his influence, therefore named the proposed county Noble. This statement, from a relia- ble source, establishes a fact over which there has been some local con- troversy. It may have been true also that the prominence of the Noble family in the county (where already there was a township named No- ble) had its influence in bestowing the name ; at any rate the matter was so managed as to give the repre- sentative named the impression that the name was given solely as a com- pliment to him.
Daniel Pettay, of Sarahsville, a lawyer and preacher, was the first man sent before the legislature with a petition. The petition gave no name to the proposed county, and Mr. Pettay was asked to supply the deficiency. Accordingly he gave the county the name which it now bears.
The matter was first brought to the attention of the legislature of 1846-7, and the friends of the mea- sure devoted their time. and interest to the question during that and every subsequent legislative session until March, 1851, when Noble
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THE FORMATION OF NOBLE COUNTY.
County was formed. At that time Hon. Ezra McKee, who lived in that part of Morgan County which now belongs to Noble, was the represen- tative from Morgan County, and a most earnest advocate of the pro- posed measure. Samuel McGarry, Esq., of Sarahsville, afterwards pro bate judge, was prominent as a lob- byist before every legislature from 1846 until the passage of the bill. Within the county there had been little opposition except from a few of the townships upon the borders of the territory of the proposed county.
Among the many petitions circu- lated for the purpose of influencing legislation respecting the formation of the county was a memorial chiefly signed by the old inhabitants of the eastern part of Morgan County. This paper has been preserved and is given in full below. As is stated in the petition, all the signers resided here in 1817, consequently they were all among the early settlers of the present County of Noble.
" NEW COUNTY OF NOBLE.
" Memorial to the General Assembly of the State of Ohio at its Forty-eighth Session.
"The subscribers respectfully rep- resent that they are residents within the territory that is sought to be erected into the new County of Noble; that they resided in the ter- ritory, as they now do, at the time the County of Morgan was erected in 1817 ; that by reference to the law creating the county (see vol. 16, p. 42) and the map of the county, as described in the law, township 14 in range 14, now a part of York Town- ship, was divided, and a bend in the
Muskingum River in township 9 of range 11, now Windsor Township, embraced within the limits of Mor- gan County, forming irregular lines and extreme points south and west, against the ranges of entire townships on the east where the heaviest por- tion of the territory, population and tax-paying at that time existed. This was not necessary to form the lines or obtain the territory for the county. Without these extreme points and irregular lines, your peti- tioners being included in the afore- said territory; there was a large sur- plus beyond the constitutional area. That when the general assembly ap- pointed commissioners to fix the seat of justice (see same vol. 16, p. 198). Your petitioners, with many others of the citizens who were tax-payers, believed that the seat of justice should be located near the center of the territory then forming the coun- ty, or towards the eastern boundary, to concentrate the greatest portion of the territory and population. A site in township 6 of range 9 was fixed upon for that purpose.
"After viewing the site where McConnelsville now is, and the one in section 6, now Olive Township, a majority of the commissioners de- cided upon townships, and established the county seat at McConnelsville. To justify this and reconcile the east- ern portion of the county, it was urged and held out as an inducement, that the territory which is now sought, and which should be erected into Noble County, was sufficient to create a new county, and that it would be done at no very distant
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HISTORY OF NOBLE COUNTY, OHIO.
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day ; and your memorialists, with re- spect, but positively, allege that the ·idea of creating a new county in this territory not only materially influ- enced the determination to fix the seat of justice at McConnelsville, but was still more material in reconciling your memorialists and others to the location of the seat of justice so far from the center of the territory and population. That after the county was organized and taxes levied, of which your memorialists paid their proportion, to defray the expenses of organization and the erection of the public buildings, in .1819 (see vol. 18, p. 4.), a portion of the eastern part, including two entire townships on the eastern side of Morgan, were by your honorable body attached to Monroe County. At the time of this annexation, as well as at the erection of Morgan County and locating the seat of justice at McConnelsville, General Robt. McConnel was the proprietor of the tract of land ad- joining and on which the town of McConnelsville was located, residing in the County of Muskingum; and adding the aforesaid townships to Monroe County, already large in ter- ritory, was to more effectually divide the territory that should be included in the County of Noble between the Counties of Morgan and Monroe, and weaken the claims and increase op- position to the new county. And although it is most apparent that in forming the original boundaries of Morgan County, the location of the seat of justice, and in transferring a part of the territory of Morgan County to Monroe, there was much
forecast and sagacity, yet it operated unequally and unjustly on the popu- lation of that territory, and still con- tinues to do so. The subject of the new county to be formed of this ter- ritory, from that time to this, has never been lost sight of by its inhab- itants. It has continued to increase in wealth and population ; embracing a small part of the south side of Guernsey County, the eastern part of Morgan County, the western part of Monroe County, and a small part of the most northern part of Wash- ington County.
"By the formation and its geo- graphical position, this territory should be united, in justice to its in- habitants, as well as fully and prop- erly to develop its resources. The new county, properly formed, would soon stand forward among the best in the eastern part of the State of Ohio. As the lines of the respective counties now exist, the inhabitants within the territory are placed at great, and from the formation of the country, at most inconvenient dis- tances from the respective county seats. The new county, properly formed, would leave sufficient terri- tory in the respective counties of Guernsey, Monroe, Washington and Morgan, and their respective lines and boundaries more regular and less de- formed than at present, and their re- spective seats of justice equally and more central than they now are. The new county would present regular lines,* conforming to the country, and
*The petitioners probably intended no joke ; but a glance at the " regular(?) lines " as finally estab- lisbed, almost carries the idea that they did.
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THE FORMATION OF NOBLE COUNTY.
leave no one extreme point more than fifteen miles from the center. Your memorialists believe that the cost of organizing the new county and erect- ing the public buildings would not be onerous to the tax-payers ; but they are satisfied from the experience of the past, that the amount of money paid by the inhabitants of this terri- tory in attending at their respective county seats, including money paid for bills and loss of time, exceeds the amount of tax now paid, or that would have to be paid if the new county were formed. The amount of debt owing by Monroe County, and the public property and public buildings lately obtained and com- menced in Morgan County, and the contemplated direction of further public buildings in Morgan County, would and will inflict greater and more increased taxation on the inhabitants of the largest portion of this territory than would be necessary to raise if the new county were erected. But aside from all other considerations, if there are any advantages arising from the civil organization of coun- ties, as they believe there are, your memorialists are entitled to them in the County of Noble, and most re- spectfully entreat a careful regard to the subject, and its erection at your present session."
Signed by
James Kyle,
Samuel A. Long, David McGarry, John Wiley, John McKee,
Joseph Caldwell,
John McGarry,
Robert McKee,
Charles Harwood, Gilman Dudley, Alfred L. Morrison, Joseph Archer, Ambrose Merry,
James Archer, Joseph Archer, John Lanam,
Samuel Caldwell, Lewis Smoot, Sen., Jas. Archibald, Sen., Thomas Wiley, Samuel Sailor, John Brown, David Wilson, Dennis Gibbs, William Tilton, James Ogle, Sherebiah Clark,
Boneyparty Stretch- Isaac Bates, [bury,
Samuel Anderson,
Daniel Bates,
Andrew Nicholson,
G. W. Morrison, James Watson, John Clowser,
Royal Fowler,
Lemuel Fowler, Sen.,
Ezekiel Bates,
James Noble, James Barry, John Caldwell, Lambert Newton,
Matthew Garvin,
Jonas Bell,
William Bell, Sen.,
James Garvin,
Josiah Burlingame, Richard Duvall,
December, 1849.
The act erecting the County of Noble was passed March 11, 1851, and signed by . John F. Morse, speaker of the Ilouse of Representa- tives, and Charles C. Convers, speaker of the Senate. The full text of the law is as follows :
"AN ACT to erect the County of Noble.
"SEC 1. Be it enacted by the Gen- eral Assembly of the State of Ohio, That so much of the counties of Washington, Morgan, Guernsey and Monroe as is included in the bound- aries hereinafter described be and the same is hereby enacted into a sepa- rate and distinct county, to be known and designated by the name of Noble, to-wit : Beginning at the southwest corner of township number 5, in range number 9 in Morgan County ; thence north to the northwest corner of said township 5; thence west to the south west corner of section num- ber 34 in township number 7, in range number 10; thence north on section lines to the north line of said town- ship 7; thence west to the northwest corner of said township 7; thence
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HISTORY OF NOBLE COUNTY, OHIO.
north to the southwest corner of Guernsey County ; thence east to the southwest corner of township num- ber 8, in range number 9 in said county ; thence north to the north- west corner of _section number 18 in said township 8; thence east on section lines to the east line of said township eight; thence north . to the northeast corner of said township 8; thence east to the south- west corner of section number 22 in township number 1, of range num- ber 1 of the military lands; thence north to the northwest corner of section number 19 in said town- ship 1; thence east on section lines to the east line of said township 1; thence north to the northwest corner of township number 8, in range num- ber 7 in said Guernsey County ; thence east to the west line of Bel- mont County ; thence south to the southwest corner of Belmont County ; thence west to the southwest corner of section number 19 in said town- ship 8, in range 7; thence south on section lines to the northwest corner of section number 19, in township number 6, in range number 7 in Mon- roe County ; thence east to the north- east corner of section number 13 in said township number 6; thence south on section lines to the south- east corner of section number 18, in township number 4, in range number 7 in Washington County ; thence west to the east line of township number 5, in range number 8 in said county ; thence north to the northeast corner of section number 25 in said town- ship 5 ; thence west to the southwest corner of section number 23; thence
north to the northwest corner of said section 23; thence west to the south- west corner of [section] number 15; thence north to the southwest corner of section number 10; thence west to the southwest corner of section num- ber 8; thence north to the northwest corner of section number 8; thence west to the west line of said township number 5, in said range number 8; thence south to the southeast corner of Morgan County ; thence west to the place of beginning .*
"SEC. 3. That all suits, whether of a civil or criminal nature, which shall be pending in those parts of Washington, Morgan, Guernsey and Monroe Counties so set off and erect- ed into a new county, and within those parts of Washington County hereby attached to and made a part of the County of Monroe, previous to the first Monday in April, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, shall be pros- ecuted to final judgment and execu- tion within the counties from which such parts shall be taken, the same as if this act had not been passed ; and the offices of said counties re- spectively shall execute all such pro- cess as shall be necessary to carry into effect such suits, prosecutions and judgments : and the collectors of taxes of said counties respectively shall collect all taxes that shall have been levied and remain unpaid in the said several portions of said counties, at the time of the passage of this act, the same as if the same had not been passed.
*Section 2 is omitted as it merely annexes por- tions of Liberty, Ludlow and Jolly Townships, Washington County to Monroe County.
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THE FORMATION OF NOBLE COUNTY.
"SEC. 4. That all justices of the peace and other township officers within those parts of the counties of Washington, Morgan, Guernsey and Monroe which are hereby erected into the new County of Noble, and within that part of Washington County hereby attached to and made a part of the County of Monroe, shall continue to exercise the functions and discharge the duties of their re- spective offices until their respective terms of service shall expire, and un- til their successors shall be duly elected and qualified, in the same manner as if they had been commis- sioned or elected for said new County of Noble or for the county to which they may be attached; and all writs and other process within the terri- tory hereby erected into the said new County of Noble, shall be styled as of said County of Noble, on and after the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
"SEC. 5. That the legal voters re- siding within the limits of the County of Noble shall, on the first Monday in April, in the year eighteen hun- dred and fifty-one, assemble in their respective townships, at the usual places of holding elections therein,. and proceed to elect the county offi- cers for said county, as prescribed in the act to regulate elections, who shall hold their offices until the next annual election, and until their suc- cessors shall be duly elected and qualified. And at said first election all the voters residing in fractional townships included in said County of Noble shall vote as follows: Those residing in fractional townships taken
from Monroe County shall vote in the townships immediately west thereof ; those residing in fractional townships taken from Washington County shall vote in the townships immediately north thereof ; those re- siding in fractional townships taken from Morgan County shall vote in the townships immediately east thereof ; and those residing in frac tional townships taken from Guern- sey County shall vote in the town- ships immediately east and south thereof ; and the clerks of the several townships included in the County of Noble shall give twenty days' notice of said election, which notices shall be in writing and posted up at the usual places of holding elections in their several townships.
"SEC. 6. The Commissioners of the Counties of Washington, Morgan, Monroe and Guernsey shall have power, immediately on the passage of this act, to attach the fractional townships made so by this act to the other townships, or to organize such fractional townships into separate townships in their respective coun- ties ; and this power shall extend to the commissioners of the County of Noble to dispose of the fractional townships included within its limits made by this act.
"SEC. 7. The said County of Noble is hereby attached to and made a part of the eighth judicial circuit of the State of Ohio; and the court of common pleas and supreme court of the said County of Noble shall be holden at some convenient house therein, to be designated by the asso- ciate judges thereof, until the per-
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