The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 22

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2 > Part 22

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In the spring of 1807, William removed his family and his mother's fam- ily, and settled on 200 acres of land they had purchased of James and Lydia Dakin Birdsall.

The same year, Elizabeth Harvey, a sister of Edith Harlan, came out from North Carolina with her sons, Eli, Isaac, Caleb and Joshua, and settled in Sur- vey 2,372 (now in Adams). Soon after, Jacob Hale, her son-in-law, Nathan Mendenhall, son-in-law of Edith Harlan, Eli Maden, Nathaniel Carter, George Carter, Jonathan Harlan and David Harlan left North Carolina and came to Ohio. Of these, Eli Maden married Hannah, a daughter of Edith Harlan, and (in 1810) having purchased of Isaac Harvey 100 acres of land for a consideration of $300, moved to and settled upon it. This upon lands now owned by George and John Madon (in Adams).

Jacob Hale purchased lands with the Harveys, and settled where School- house No. 1 stands (in Adams Township). His son, Armonia Hale, still owns the land. Jonathan Harlan married Hannah Morrison, and settled in Survey 1,994, on lands purchased of his brother, Nathan Harlan. David Harlan pur- chased lands and settled in 2,371. The farm is now owned by John and George Maden. Large families descended from these pioneers, and are to-day scat- tered throughout the United States, and what Chester County, Penn., was at one day, and Guilford County, N. C., was at a later one, Clinton is to-day, the birthplace of a large number of the Harlan family. John C. Harlan, in 1816, married Lydia, a daughter of Jacob Hale, and settled in Chester Township. Enoch married Betsy Harvey, and removed to Warren County. Rebecca, the youngest, married 18th, 12th, 1818, Abram Hampton, and many years ago em- igrated to Iowa.

William and Deborah McMillan were residents of York County, Penn., the former a native of Scotland, the latter from Wales. They were the par- ents of eight children, namely: Thomas, William, Henry, Samuel, David and Jonathan (twins), Mary and Lydia. These children grew to manhood and womanhood in that State, and married there. Jonathan married Ann Hussey; David married Hannah Hussey; Mary married Joseph Baxter; Lydia married William Jay. Jonathan McMillan came to Ohio first about 1805, accompanied by David, his brother. They settled in this township, on 206 acres of land now owned by Newton McMillan, in Survey No. 2,266. The next year Jonathan returned to Pennsylvania, and brought out his father, accompanied by his two sisters and their families. They came by wagon to Pittsburgh, and from there to Cincinnati in a flat-boat. David settled where Thomas McMillan now owns, and Jonathan remained on the 206 acres. Joseph Baxter settled on sixty-two and a half acres of land in 2,232, being the east half of lands lately owned by Jonathan Rockhill. Lydia removed to Miami County. Some years after, Thomas, William and Henry came out and settled in 2,232, with the exception of Henry, who settled in Preble County. Thomas, where John Hawkins now owns and resides. William settled on sixty acres, where Duane B. Smith now owns and resides.

William and Enoch Wickersham came from Centre County, Penn., in 1806, and settled on 300 acres of land in 2,232. The former married, after coming to Ohio, Rachel Mills; the latter, Margaret, daughter of John Stout, in 1808.

Job Jeffries was a son of William and Hannah Darlington Jeffries. His wife, Elizabeth, a daughter of Andrew and Ellen Elliott Nicholson, natives

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of Bucks County, Penn. Jeffries came to Ohio about 1806 or 1807, and pur- chased 205 acres of land in 2,266 of James Murray,* a physician living in Ann Arundel County, Md. The consideration was $410. He put up the log house now standing near the substantial two-story frame that graces the lands sur- rounding, and returned for his family. He came all the way in a wagon, and arrived here in 1808. His piece of land adjoined the McMillans, who were his neighbors on the north. They were the parents of three children-Han- nah, born in 1809, and yet living, and Joab and Job, twins, born in 1811, both of whom are deceased.

THE BIRDSALL FAMILY.

Three brothers, the ancestors of the Birdsalls, who were among the pio- neers of Clinton County, came from Wales with William Penn and settled on Long Island. One became an officer in the Revolution and went South. The second went to Canada during the same war, and some of his descendants after- ward settled in the State of New York, and were the ancestors of James Bird- sall (a son-in-law of Preserved Dakin) and Daniel Birdsall, who came to Ohio in 1800 and settled in (what is now) Chester Township. James first settled south of Preserved Dakin, but sold in 1807, to William and Edith Har- lan. In 1807, he burnt brick and built the first brick house in what is now Clinton County. This is the house known for many years as the Hazard house, just east of Oakland. James Birdsall was an active man in the early settle- ment of the county, and bought and sold many tracts of land. He left the county prior to 1836, and settled on what is now Walnut Hill (Cincinnati), and is since deceased.

Daniel Birdsall settled and built just west of the village of Oakland, where Archibald Haynes owned and lived for many years. He left there prior to 1836 and settled in Lebanon, Ohio, and died in 1839. These settlements were in Survey 2,230.

Robert Reese, a North Carolinian, purchased of James Murray 211 acres of land in 2,266, and settled upon it in 1804. These lands were west of those owned by Job Jeffries, south of lands owned by Jonathan McMillan, and all in the same survey. He was a very early settler, and the present citizens of the township know nothing of him or his descendants. Survey No. 777 was made for William Moosley, a Major, June 27, 1796, under Warrant No. 105. It was patented June 6, 1798, in the name of William Mocher. This survey was settled in the same year by Carolinians mostly.

Caleb Easterling and his wife Martha were from Union District, S. C. They were members of the Society of Friends, and belonged to Cane Creek Monthly Meeting. In 1811, they came to Ohio and purchased of Abijah O'Neal fifty acres of land, in the extreme northwest corner of 777. They were the parents of five children-Enoch, Mary, Thomas, Martha and Caleb. . Harry Bray was from the same place, and settled here the same year. He was born 29th, 8th, 1755; his wife, Kezia, 19th, 3d, 1761. They were married in the year 1778, he at the age of twenty-two, she seventeen years. A family of eight children was born to them, all in South Carolina. He purchased 130 acres adjoining Caleb Easterling on the east, in the same survey. He sold in a few years to Jonathan Garwood, a New Jerseyman. Tradition says Bray went to Indiana with his family prior to 1816.

John Mills, Sr., of whom mention has been made in these pages, as a brother to Rachel, wife of George Arnold, and father of the wife of Layton Jay, came here the same year and settled on lands south of Easterling and Bray. He was a native of Newberry District, S. C., and a member of Bush

Dr. Murray was a son-in-law of Gen. Horatio Gates.

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River Monthly Meeting of Friends. He purchased 100 acres of land. His son, John Mills, Jr., ninety acres.

Daniel Nicholson, if I am rightly informed, was an Eastern man-a New Yorker. He came here about 1811 and purchased lands now owned by Mont- gomery Nunion, on the lands owned at this time by Anselm Antram and others. Richard Batton settled on seventy acres. Henry Fletcher, in a very early day, purchased a large body of land in the eastern half of Survey 777, and built the brick house now on the lands of Manly Oglesbee. His lands embraced a part of those now owned by John Buckley, John H. Hurley, Isaiah Ellis, Israel Hollingsworth and Manly Oglesbee. Nathan Haines, a Virginian, pur- chased about the year 1816 all the lands of Survey 569 in the township. He settled on a large body of land in Warren just across the line.

Joseph Mills, about the year 1811, purchased 130 acres of land in 770. He was a native of Ireland, and by trade a weaver. This was where the widow of William Bailey, Jr., now lives. William Bailey, Sr., came here about the samo time from Virginia, and settled whore his widow now residos. His wife was a daughter of Josoph Mills. Frank Bailey, a brother of William, pur- chased ninoty-four acres of land where Robert Stewart and Susan Arnold now own. James Brown settled on fifty-one acres, where the old fulling and card- ing mill stood, on Trace Branch. William Gaddis on 131 acres, where Nathan Tucker owns and lives. Thomas Gaddis on lands now owned by Elihu Un- derwood. These men were Pennsylvanians.

Moses Collett, Sr., was a native of Maryland, and was born prior to 1730 and diod in 1783. He was the father of Daniel Collett. Sr., who was born February 10, 1752, in that State, twenty miles west of Baltimore. Daniel was the youngest child, and remained at home until 1772, when, at the age of twenty years, he left Maryland and settled in Jefferson County, Va, on the road leading from Charlestown to Harper's Ferry. He married about the year 1780, Mary, a daughter of Joshua Haines, who died December 11, 1754, and by her he had eight sons and a daughter, born as follows: Joshua, November 20, 1781; Moses, March 28, 1783; Moses, March 6, 1784; Isaac, August 28, 1785; Jonathan, April 25, 1787; Aaron, January 21, 1789; Mercy, September 19, 1790; Benjamin, June 11, 1793, and Daniel, October 1, 1795. Daniel Collett resided there forty years, and was for many years a Justice of the Peace in that State, appointed, as they were in those days in Virginia, for life or during good behavior. It was not until after his appointment that he learned to write, his instructor being - ---- Hibben, the father of Thomas and William Hibben, who, many years ago, were among the leading merchants of Wilmington, Ohio. He held his courts monthly, and it is said that more dignity and decorum attended a Justice's Court in Virginia in those days than are to be seen in the higher courts of Ohio at this day. On one occasion, the Judge of the courts of Jefferson assessed a fine upon each of the Justices of that county for the neglect to provide and erect suitable steps to the jail at Charlestown. Justice Collett paid his fine, and then took the contract for the erection of the stone steps that now grace the front of that historic edifice. His son, Jonathan Collett, hauled the stone and also a part of the lumber and timber used in the construction of the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry.

Daniel Muse, the patentee of Survey 1,994, had two children, Daniel and

Ann The latter married James Smith, and died after giving birth to a son. who was called James Muse Smith. Daniel Muse, Sr., died, and at his death the lands mentioned went by will to Daniel Muse, Jr., and James Muse Smith. On the 10th day of February, A. D. 1806, Daniel Muse, Jr., sold his undi- vided one-half to James Smith, Sr., the consideration being $1 per acre.

Daniel Collett remained in Jefferson County until 1812, or until sixty

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years of age, when he sold out his lands and came to Ohio and settled tempo- rarily in Warren County. In the carly part of 1814, he returned to Virginia and purchased of James Smith, Sr., the undivided one-half of Survey 1,994, the consideration being $5,895, current funds of the United States, the actual number of acres at the sale being 2,358. While Mr. Collett was in Northum- berland County, Va., effecting this purchase, the British passed up the Chesa- peake to attack Fortress Monroe. Mr. Collett returned and the same year set- tled upon his purchase.

Andrew Mckay was a native of Scotland. History, however, makes no record of him other than that he was a member of the Society of Friends, and further, that prior to 1766, he married Jane Ridgeway and had settled in Frederick County, Va. Five children were born to them, viz., Moses, Enos, Jacob, Margaret and Patience. Of these, Moses, born September 17, 1766, at the age of twenty-seven years, or in 1793, married, according to the discipline of the Friends, Abigail Shinn, a daughter of George and Rachel (Wright) Shinn, born May 3, 1776, "late" of Stafford County, Va. The fact of their marriage in this form is sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion that she, too, was a member of the Friends. The children born to this union were: Rachel, 1st month, 19th, 1794; Robert, 12th, 17, 1795; Sarah, 11th, 11th, 1797; George, 3d, 11th, 1800; Francis, 1st, 9th, 1802; Margaret, 1st, 16th, 1804; Jonas, 9th, 9th, 1806; Virginia, 8th, 22d, 1808; Maria, 5th, 23d, 1811; Jonas T., 5th, 10th, 1813; Levi D., 2d, 29th, 1816; Jacob F., 6th, 3d, 1819; Mary E., 7th, 27th, 1822. About the year 1814, accompanied by his wife and children, he emigrated by way of Pittsburgh, and thence by flat-boat to Cincinnati, stopping a short time at Lebanon. He then came to Waynesville, and soon after pur -. chased a large tract of land east of the Little Miami River and but a short distance west of Cæsar's Creek, in what is now Massie Township, Warren County.

Survey 3,908 was made August 15, 1800, for Robort Pollard, in virtue of part of Warrant No. 4,494, for 6, 222 acres due Moore Fountleroy, a Major, and contained 4,222 acres of land. It was patented September 29, 1802, in the . name of George Pickett.

Tesse Mckay was a grandson of Andrew Mckay, but whether a son of Enos or Jacob the records do not say. He came to Ohio in a very early day, and settled in Chillicothe, Ross County. He was a man of considerable wealth and dealt largely in land. On the 4th day of October, 1816, he purchased of George Pickett the 4,222 acres, as embraced in Survey 3,908, lying partly in Greene County, and the townships of Chester and Liberty, in Clinton, the consideration being $18,000. This also included 1,000 acres wholly in Groene and a part of Pollard and Pickett 2,234. On the 29th day of August, 1818, Jesse Mckay sold to Moses Mckay (his first cousin) 1,460 acres of the lands in 3,908, the consideration being $8,090.

Survey No. 2,280 was made February 12, 1794, for 1,000 acres, in favor of W. H. Sargeant, in virtue of Warrants No. 394, for 100 acres, issued to Nathan Hughes (soldier); 2,691, for 100 acres, issued to Benjamin Head (soldier); 2,699, for 100 acres, issued to George Frey (soldier); 2,692, for 100 acres, issued to William Sexton (soldier); 2,693, for 200 acres, issued to Thomas Coleman (Sergeant); 2,690, for 100 acres, to Thomas Lloyd (soldier); 2,694, William Landwick (Corporal), 100 acres; 2,696, for 100 acres, to Robert Armstead (soldier) and patented to Richard Sergeant July 1, 1846. The 1,000 acres embraced in this survey was purchased by Moses Collett, May 27, 1806, for $133.33}, of Nathaniel Massie, and forty years after, in 1846, a dispute arose as to title, and was settled in United States Chancery Court in

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favor of Mckay's heirs, they paying the costs of the suit and retaining the lands.

Moses Mckay never settled on these lands, 3,908 and 2,280, but gave them to his children. Rachel, his eldest child, married before coming to Ohio, in 1814, Nathan Haines, and came afterward to this State with her husband and settled on a large body of land in Survey 567 (Biddle), in Warren County, which extended into Chester Township. Their place of settlement is now owned by their son, Noah Haines; the land in Chester by another son, Amos Haines. Robert never came to Ohio but remained in Frederick County, Va., where his descendants remain "to this day." Sarah, in April, 1823, married Jonathan, a son of Daniel Collett, Sr., and settled with her husband on lands given him by his father in Survey 1,994. George married, in March, 1823, Mary Ferguson, of Frederick County, Va., and settled on 423 acres given him by his father (Moses Mckay), in Survey 3,008, now owned in part by his sons George, Sam- uel and two of his daughters.

Francis, October 2, 1830, married Mary, a daughter of Moses and Rebecca Haines Collett, and grand-daughter of Daniel and Mary Haines Collett, and settled on 500 acres of land, in 1832, given him by his father, in Survey 3,908. Margaret married Henry Goode, a physician, in 1824, and settled on 157 acres in 3,908, and 147 in 2,280, the place of res- idence being in the latter. Virginia, in 1826, married Daniel, a son of Daniel and Mary Haines Collett, and settled with her husband on lands given him in Survey 1,994 by his father. She received as her share of her father's estate 350 acres in Survey No. 2,280, lands now owned by her son, Daniel M. Col- lett. Maria married, in 1830, Daniel Haines Collett, a son of Moses and Re- becca Haines Collett, and grandson of Daniel and Mary Haines Collett, and settled on 350 acres given her by her father in Survey 2,280. Jonas T. Mc- Kay married Matilda Furguson, in 1833, and settled and remained in Warren County. Levi D. Mckay married, in 1836, Mary A., a daughter of William Gaddis, and received 150 acres in Survey 2,280. Sarah, who married Jona- than Collett, received 150 acres in 2,280, lands now owned by John S. Lemar and Thomas B. Conklin, and Jacob F. Mckay, who married in Virginia, in 1854, Lucy Spangler, 400 acres in 3,908, lands now owned by Joel Compton, Moses C. and Jonathan Mckay. Jacob moved to and settled in Iowa, never settling on his lands in this township. Mary E. married Bond Hackney and settled on 100 acres in 1,557. Moses Mckay, Sr., died January 28, 1818, at the age of sixty-two years, and was' buried near Mt. Holly, in Warren County, Ohio; his wife died July 28, 1828, at the age of fifty-two years, and was bur- ied at the same place. The deaths of the sons and daughters of Moses and Abigail Shinn Mckay occurred as follows: Jonas died November 17, 1810, in infancy; Rachel Haines, April 1, 1850, aged fifty-six years; George, June 10, 1850, aged fifty years; Virginia Collett, January 15, 1827, aged nineteen years.

John Buckley, in a conversation with the writer regarding the early his- tory of the township, said: "I was born in Dutchess County, in the State of New York. April 16, 1807. In 1816, my parents, accompanied by my grand- father and grandmother on my mother's side, and two of their children, then grown, together with myself, then nine years old, and my four brothers and sisters, started for Ohio in wagons, landing in Clinton County in the latter part of December of that year. We stopped in the street of Oakland (then but three houses), and my father inquired for an empty cabin. He was told that Thomas Luddington had one, and my father went to see him, about two miles southeast of that village, we remaining with the wagons. He returned with the privilege of occupying it until spring. The cabin was a round pole affair and stood exactly where Sharon Meeting-House does to-day. Ludding- ton owned at that time about 100 acres in that neighborhood. We remained

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there until the spring of 1817, when my father purchased of Jonathan Warton, in Survey 777, 130 acres of land. These lands were originally settled by Henry Bray. The consideration was $800. Caleb Easterling (where Milton Mills now owns and resides) was our nearest neighbor. Our first visitors after we came to the State were Jonah Farquhar and his wife, who came to see us in a pole sled, or 'jumpor,' and brought us, among other necessaries, a sack of dried beans. They were indeed made welcome, and the little articles they brought were treats indeed, for we had about consumed everything of an odi- ble character that we started with. The first school I attended after coming here was on lands now owned by the heirs of Moses N. Collett. Old man Mc- Kibben owned the place. The schoolmaster (for he was indeed the master) was an old Yankee by the name of Wilcox, a regular 'down-easter.' It was a sub- scription school and the price per head was $2 'a quarter.' He would 'board round' among the parents, and was at my father's a part of the time. When we came to the Stato, in 1816, James Brown had a carding and fulling mill on Trace Branch. He afterward joined a saw-mill to it. John Kennedy was the last man that ran the carding and fulling mill, and left the township in 1828. Brown was for several years a Justice of the Peace. My father was a cooper by trade, having served his time in Bridgeport, Conn. In time, I be- came one, also, and in the early days made many barrels for Clark Nickerson, who filled them with lard and pork and then hauled them by wagon to Cincin- nati, and sent them by flat-boat to. New Orleans. The road now leading from Clarksville (then not exceeding a dozen houses) to where it intersected the Bullskin road, near the now village of New Burlington, had but just been cut out of the woods, and was yet filled with green stumps and logs, and the road (if such it might be called) wound in and out around them. The Bullskin

road, laid out in 1807, was but little, if any, better than the former, and in the wet season these roads were in many places almost (if not) impassable, and the occurrence was not infrequent when a teamster's loaded wagon would stick fast in the mud and remain until a neighbor would come to his relief. We of the East could tell a South Carolinian when we saw him in nearly every in- stance. He rode his near horse and discarded check lines. I have seen them thus equipped go to meeting, and, in a few instances, to burials. Again, the Eastern teamster carried his whip in his right hand, but suspended over his left arm. The South Carolinian shouldered his. But I suppose we did many things that caused him to smile, even as his actions afforded pleasure for us. At this time (1816), there were but seven dwelling-houses from Dakin's corner to Xenia, that is, a distance of fifteen miles, and they were as follows: Judge Dakin, at the corner; William Dakin, where James Mussetter lives; Henry Fletcher, where Manly Oglesby owns; John Kenworthy, where Henry Spray lives; Thomas Lewis, George Arnold, John Furnas, and a settler north of Caesar's Creek, near where Elijah Spar lives."

Mr. Buckley has spent the largest part of his life in Chester Township; has voted in it at every election since 1828; has never been absent from the township three months at any one time, nor lived out of sight of the settlement of his father in 1817. Mr. Buckley is now an old man upon whose head seventy-five winters have left their marks of time. He will soon have com- pleted his life-work, and when that day shall have arrived it will find him ready, and the township will have lost one of its most upright and honorable citizens.

THE TOWNSHIP. -

As I have before remarked in these pages, Chester was one of three into which the county was subdivided at its organization, in 1810. From that date until 1829, and from 1845 to 1864, all records thereof are gone-destroyed --

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.

which does not speak well, surely, for those who wore annually elected and givon in trust for the poople the records of our corporation. In 1829, the township had reached the nineteenth year of its existence as a part of our great commonwealth, the State of Ohio; therefore, if I may so speak, its childhood history will forever romain untold, so far as any record will show, and I can only begin at a time when it was verging into early manhood. If we look at the matter seriously, as indoed wo should, a great loss has been sustained by our people in the destruction of these (now) valuable records. Beginning, then, with the township after it had reached very nearly twenty-one years of age, the first record boars date March 29, 1829, and was an adjourned meeting of the Trustees. The next was a record of the spring election of 1829, and reads as follows:

"At an oloction held at the house of Jamos Dakin, Esq., in Chester Town- ship, on the 6th day of April, A. D. 1829, at which Samuel Haynes, Elias Da. kin and Joseph Conger woro Judges, and Morgan L. Van Tross and Isaac Col- lett, Clorks, there were rocoived 133 votes. The number indorsed for the sale of county jail was 127, and six electors did not voto on the question; and fur- ther, the officers olocted at this election are as follows, to wit: Township Trusteos, Henry Harvey, Joseph Congor and Jacob Potorson; Treasurer, Clay- ton Rockhill; Clerk, Beebe Treusdell; Coustablo, Zebulon Dakin; Overseors of Poor, Thomas Craig, William Ogborn; Fence Viewers, Thomas Craig, John Ellis; Supervisors of Road Districts-1, John Abernathy; 2, George Buckley ; 3, William Ogborn; 4, Jonah Farquhar; 5, Jesse Arnold; 6, Samuel Hollings- worth; 7, Jonathan Mauker; 8, Hiram Dakin; 9, Simeon Hadley; 10, Bent Rockhill; 11, John McIntire; 12, George Herbert."

The following is a list of township officers from 1828 to 1846, inclusive:

1828-Trustees, Elias Dakin, John D. Hendley, Jacob Peterson; Treas- urer, Clayton Rockhill.

1829-Trustees, Henry Harvey, Joseph Conger, Jacob Peterson; Treas- urer, Clayton Rockhill; Clerk, Beebe Treusdell.

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The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 22

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410