Vinton Co, Oh

By Turner Publishing

(From the introduction) The material for Vinton County and Its Families was compiled over a period of many years. The information included is principally from 1850, the date of the establishment of the county, to the near present time (1996).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Jan 1, 1996
• ISBN: 9781681622514

Book preview

VINTON COUNTY

OHIO

HISTORY & FAMILIES

Compiled by

Family Heritage

Co-Published by Turner Publishing Company and Mark A. Thompson, Associate Publisher

Copyright © 1996

Family Heritage

This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Society and Publishers.

The materials were compiled and produced using available information; Turner Publishing Company, Mark A. Thompson and the Family Heritage regret they cannot assume liability for errors or omissions.

Designed by: Carol Sue Irick

Library of Congress Catalog

Card No. 96-060403

ISBN: 978-1-56311-295-9

Limited Edition of 500 copies of which this book is number:________

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

HISTORY

PATRONS

BIOGRAPHIES

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

The material for Vinton County and Its Families was compiled over a period of many years. The information included is principally from 1850, the date of the establishment of the county, to the near present time.

The participating families’ response has been most helpful and appreciated. Special thanks is extended to Claude Montgomery, Reverend Kathryn Puckett, Sharon Ogan, Virginia Reynolds, Mary Bay, L. Mary Perry, and Lawrence McWhorter.

Finally, those persons who contributed articles of historical interest are to be commended for their continuing efforts to preserve the history of the area.

Frances W. Hixon

Mary J. Queen

Founders of Family Heritage

FRANCES W. HIXON AND MARY J. QUEEN

Frances Welch Hixon

Frances Hixon was born 15 May 1925, in Vinton County, the third child of Seth A. and Emma P. Libby Welch, residing on Irish Ridge with a mailing address of Route 2, Alice, Ohio (later known as Ewington). She attended a one-room school, Cooney School, until 1937 when the family relocated to a farm house, once the home of James Blakeley, a Revolutionary War soldier, approximately two miles southeast of Wilkesville.

Frances was married to John Edwin Hixon on 4 September 1948 at Russell, Kentucky and they have two children: Barbara Lynne, born 16 July 1954 and Mary Jo, born 5 July 1955.

In 1969, Frances took the General Educational Development test and matriculated to Rio Grande College, graduating in 1975 cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in elementary education.

Mary Queen graduated from Jackson High School in 1973 and was the class valedictorian. She graduated cum laude in 1977 with a bachelor of science degree in zoology and medical technology after spending three years at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and one year of clinical internship at The Hawkes Hospital of Mount Carmel in Columbus, Ohio. Currently, she is pursuing a master’s degree in health services administration from Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine.

Mary was married to John Henry Queen, son of Jakey M. and Nancy Mae Robinson Queen, on 7 November 1990 in Greenup, Kentucky.

In 1993 Frances and Mary founded Family Heritage, a genealogical research organization dedicated to increasing the knowledge of the lives of the communities’ ancestors and to providing available materials in libraries for genealogical research purposes. Together they have published a number of reference books pertaining to Jackson and Vinton County, Ohio. These include: two volumes of Cemetery Inscriptions of Jackson County, Ohio; Wilkesville Township, Vinton County,Ohio; Clinton Township, Vinton County, Ohio; Naturalizations and Declaration of Intention for Jackson County, Ohio, 1860-1903; Soldiers Buried in Jackson County, Ohio; Soldiers Buried in Vinton County, Ohio; two volumes of Marriages in Jackson County, Ohio, 1816-1866, and 1866-1875; Marriages in Vinton County, Ohio, 1850-1870; Oak Hill, Ohio and Surrounding Areas; four volumes of Annals of Jackson County, Ohio; The Last Hangings in Jackson County, Ohio, 1883-1884; Wellston, Ohio, The Early Days; Index to the 1875 Atlas of Jackson County, Ohio; 1820 Census of Jackson County, Ohio; 1870 Census Index of Jackson County, Ohio; and seventeen volumes of the 1900 Federal Census for Jackson County, Ohio.

Mary J. Queen

TOWNSHIPS OF

VINTON COUNTY

HISTORY

Train Station at Radcliff, Ohio

EARLY VINTON COUNTY

The county has an area of approximately 402 square miles or 259,092 acres. It is irregular in shape with eleven miles of border on the west, and twenty-four miles on the east.

Vinton County was formed from various portions of Athens, Hocking, Jackson, Ross, and Gallia Counties in 1850. It originally was composed of eleven instead of thirteen townships as it is today. South and North Brown are now Brown, Madison, and Knox Townships. North Brown was a part of Hocking County, and South Brown a part of Lee Township in Athens County. North Brown, now plain Brown, was so designated from 1818 to 1850.

Five of Vinton’s townships are less than a congressional township with Richland having more. Madison and Knox each are two-thirds of a congressional township; Clinton is five-sixths; Eagle is minus four sections, and Harrison two sections, while Richland has more than six sections.

As previously mentioned, Vinton was organized from five adjoining counties: Elk, Vinton, and Brown from Athens County; Jackson, Swan, and Brown from Hocking County; Richland and Clinton from Jackson County; Harrison and Eagle from Ross County, and Wilkesville from Gallia County.

THE PIONEERS

The earliest pioneers had a number of occupations to support themselves and their families. Foremost was the making of burr stones for flour mills as there were several deposits of that mineral near McArthur. The soil was arable and suitable for the cultivation of grain and vegetables which soon gave rise to the making of corn liquor early on. Some time later coal and iron deposits attracted a sizeable immigration to the area and soon several charcoal furnaces were founded which increased the industrial prosperity and population.

THE FIRST SETTLERS

Two of the earliest settlers were Levi Kelsey, who came to Elk Township in 1802, and one Mr. Musselman, a miller and geologist who discovered the first burr-stone quarry about 1805-06.

These hardy settlers came to the county by walking or riding horseback along the creek valleys or by canoe if the streams had enough depth to allow canoeing. The majority of the settlers, however, walked or rode horseback on the Indian trails throughout the region. Initially, they settled on bottom land in the bordering counties but were so plagued by the mosquitoes in the late summer and by the chills and fever of ague (summer complaint) that many removed to the higher elevations in Vinton County.

Gradually, these Indian trails were improved by widening and filling boggy places by cutting trees and placing the trunks across the mire until they had a corduroy effect which allowed teams and wagons to cross easily. Travel was accomplished by horseback and stage until about the 1840s when it became possible to travel by railroad. The mineral wealth was the impetus for getting a rail line into the area. The location of the various deposits of iron ore were near Hamden (Hamden Furnace), Cincinnati (Richland Furnace), Hope Furnace near Zaleski, and Vinton Furnace. These were all charcoal furnaces and it was necessary to have large tracts of timber in the immediate area with which to operate the furnace. Richland Furnace, for example, owned 1900 acres in Vinton County.

THE CHARCOAL FURNACES

Hope Furnace was one of 69 iron furnaces in the Hanging Rock Iron Region. The area extended over one hundred miles from Logan, Ohio to Mt. Savage, Kentucky and contained all the material necessary to produce high grade iron. This industry flourished approximately fifty years and was a leading iron producing center which was responsible for the rapid development of Southern Ohio.

Hope Furnace was started in 1854 by a Colonel Putnam and others, and had a capacity of 14 tons daily, with a stack 36 feet high. The remnants of Hope is within the Lake Hope State Park.

Hamden Furnace probably was built about the same time period and went out of blast about 1900. The Puritan Brickyard acquired the property and made brick for some years then it, too, became insolvent and was abandoned. Today, the manager’s home and a large stack on the west side of State Route 160 marks the site.

Eagle Furnace likely had the same general characteristics but information on its operation or ruins cannot be found other than Eagle’s capacity was 15 tons.

Richland, or Cincinnati Furnace, was built in 1853 by a McClanborg and others. It had a capacity of 13 tons. The land around the ruins is part of a wild life area with no buildings or signs of civilization other than a railroad with a tunnel nearby and a country road.

Each furnace had a community of several hundred persons, where workers and families lived. There was the general store, church, school, and cemetery. The occupations involved were laborers, teamsters, ore-diggers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal burners, storekeepers, bookkeepers, and the furnace owner or manager.

Wages were low and life was primitive. The $10.00 to $20.00 per month was paid in script to be used at the company store. Homes were provided by the company - usually dirt-floored log cabins. The manager had a home of wood or brick.

The furnace had an inner wall lined with firebrick or fine grained refractory sandstone. The outer wall was to support and insulate the inner lining. The space between the two was filled with sandstone rubble and sand.

There were two levels to a furnace with the top of the stack level with the storage yard. Sheds housed the charcoal and other supplies used in the furnace.

Charcoal was made in huge pits to partially burn conical piles of wood which was covered with damp leaves and earth to exclude oxygen and insure charring rather than burning. These were called meilers and contained about 40 cords of wood or about an acre of virgin timber producing about 1600 bushels of charcoal worth 8 cents per bushel. Submitted by Mary J. Queen

This iron furnace was on Washington Keeton land not far from the lodge at Lake Hope, Ohio.

Charcoal Furnace

THE FOUNDINGS OF HAMDEN

The only house between the primitive settlements of Jackson and McArthur was occupied by David Paine. He, a few years before, had left his Massachusetts home and, in 1808, settled just south of the site of Hamden.

Several years later his son Lemuel moved within the bounds of the present day village. He had been preceded a short time by Charles Robbins, who a few years before had come to the new country from Orange County, New York. Almost simultaneous with their coming was that of Abraham Wilbur, also from Massachusetts. These men, with a few others, principally Hollingshead, Ward, and Tarr, comprised the little group of early pioneers of Hamden.

The coming of the post boy, as the mail carrier of this early date was called, was an event eagerly looked forward to. He brought them news of the outside world and missives from those left in the eastern homes when the hardy pioneers came to the western wilderness to carve out their homes and be the advance guard of civilization. Once a week the post boy made his trip from the thriving village of Athens to the Hamlet of Jackson, leaving his budget of mail at the little log postoffice which was then known as Reed’s Mills, so called from a mill just north of the present corporation belonging to Downey Reed.

After one hundred years, a portion of the dam remained, defying the destructive hand of time. What a sight it would be today to see our forefathers bringing their grist to the mill, some on foot, some on horseback, the hunter with his coonskin cap and long-barreled rifle, and perhaps occasionally a swarthy savage, or perchance the dusty miller with his ready wit and readier toll box.

Time passed on, and those settlers, determined to overcome obstacles and desirous of obtaining the advantages of a village, immediately began to make arrangements for one. After the town had been surveyed and mapped off, it was yet without a name. Many were suggested. The name of the postoffice (Reed’s Mills) did not seem of sufficient dignity for the new village, and at last, on account of the active part taken by Charles Robbins, it was agreed that in honor of him it should be called Charleston.

The village, as shown on the original survey, consisted of forty-eight lots, and was received by Justice of the Peace Richmond of Jackson County as the property of Charles Robbins and James K. Wilson on Christmas Day and recorded December 26th 1829.

The next thing to be provided for these industrious, farsighted folks was a school. Robbins, in his prompt and generous way, donated a piece of land and a log school house was erected where the United Brethren Church now stands. In this building a class of Methodists held services, and a few years later a United Brethren class was organized and shared the log school house with them. Then the crowds were too large to be accommodated in the little log school house, with the religious zeal of their Puritan ancestors, they held services in a large barn, belonging to Shepherd Paine, and if the songs of praise and supplications that went up from this barn were not as acceptable to the Deity, as those that ascend from the modern cathedral, we have no means of finding it out.

The little log structure served as church and school house until 1892, when it was replaced by a more convenient frame building. This house today stands immediately back of the United Brethren Church. Nearly three score years ago from this date (1909), it was erected and today it stands a monument to the zeal in education and religious fervor of the men of that day.

The next important architectural work was the erection of the Methodist Church. In 1844 the deed for the lot was signed by Lemuel S. Paine and his wife Elizabeth, and shortly afterwards work was begun on it.

For twenty years the little village, Charleston, had been growing. New advantages had been added and the people for reasons unknown to us began to think it needed a new name. In 1848 it was agreed that it should be called Hamden, but the name of the postoffice remained Reed’s Mills. Thus at that early date the residents were handicapped with a double name, as their descendants are at present.

At the formation of Vinton County from the adjoining counties, Hamden was situated in that portion of Jackson County that helped form the new one, and consequently Hamden became a part of Vinton County March 23rd 1850.

One of the most interesting as well as profitable enterprises to the flourishing community was the extension of the two railroads, the Scioto and Hocking Valley and the Marietta and Cincinnati. In the early 1850s occurred the competition that terminated in the remarkable race that was to determine the right of continuation. The two companies undertook the task of building two separate roads to Hamden, one from Portsmouth and the other from the west and the one that first reached Hamden was to continue the road eastward. The result was that each road was completed on the same day, and the engine of the one came in but a few minutes ahead of the other. Since then the two roads merged together, and later adopted the name, Cincinnati, Washington, and Baltimore, and several years later its present title, Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern.

These conscientious folks who were doing all in their power to make their new village the best possible, were not so completely captivated by their own interests and undertakings as to make them turn a deaf ear to the voice of their country, but rather did they show they were equally willing and efficient to aid their nation in a time of need. When Lincoln’s call was echoed far and near, Hamden, out of her meager population, gladly gave about twenty-five of her bravest men, a number of whom have gone to that rest eternal where we no more on life’s parade shall meet the brave and fallen few, while the remaining number are today enjoying the freedom of the nation they fought to save.

But while these brave men were active in the world-renounced struggle, their brethren remaining at home were not at all indifferent to the needs of the time. Prominent among others of their good works was the erection of a brick school house where the present one now stands. They realized that the success and prosperity of the coming generation depended largely upon the means they provided for their education, and no pains or efforts were spared to provide the best advantages the times and conditions would permit.

For twenty-seven years our town had been known by its present name, while the name of the postoffice remained Reed’s Mills. Unavoidable confusion had occurred and it was at last agreed to rename the postoffice. Those concerned met at the school house and the question was ardently discussed. Prominent among these persons was Rev. Adams, a Presbyterian minister, who suggested that since the town had been called Hamden and was at the junction of the two railroads, it would be well to call it Hamden Junction. This was satisfactory to all and it was accordingly changed in 1875. We can scarcely see the advantage of this change, but it seemed to be the prevailing custom to give our village or post office a new name whenever some enterprising citizen deemed it necessary to add to his own or the town’s glory. One more change is yet necessary before our town becomes the metropolis we hope for it, and that is that village and post office shall bear the same name.

The citizens now desired that their village should become incorporated, and in 1876 the responsibilities of municipal government were assumed and the honor of being chosen first chief magistrate was conferred upon J. M. Thomas.

An intellectual citizenship demands a newspaper, and to comply with this, in 1874 the Hamden Leader, the first local newspaper, made its appearance. J. W. Bowen was the owner and A. M. Vaughn the first editor of this paper, which was issued regularly for about four years, when after a lapse of one year it was succeeded on 1 January 1880 by The Enterprise, which has been the mouthpiece of the village and the exponent of all causes of good for upbuilding the community and its various enterprises.

The schoolhouse had again been outgrown and to comply with this need work was begun in 1888 on the present building, which is a credit to the town and to those who had charge of its construction.

Time passed on, the Hocking Valley Railroad has been extended to our village, two churches have been added, new halls have been erected by the different orders, the electric cars make their hourly trips, the high school has been recognized by the state as one of the first grade, and prosperity is within our gates. Such has been the settlement and growth of Hamden. Twelve hundred and fifty people, imbued with patriotism and love of home and country, represent our village today.

THE COLLEGE TOWNSHIP ROAD

The highway which we now know as U. S. 50 in Vinton County is one of the oldest public highways in the state of Ohio, having been first laid out by Duncan McArthur in 1799, and called the College Township Road. It was designed to connect townships of land which had been reserved for the support of higher education by the U. S. Congress in 1787. This trace of road extended west from what is now Athens in Athens County, through McArthur, Chillicothe, Greenfield, Leesburg, and eventually on to Oxford in Butler County. One plot of this land, which consisted of two townships, was within the Ohio Company’s Purchase at the starting point of the road, and this was never in dispute. But the location of the reserve within the Symme’s Purchase where the road was to end could not be legally resolved until 1803, when one township was finally set aside on congress land west on the intended location. From these two widely separated reserves of land, was formed the first two land grant colleges in the nation. Ohio University was chartered by the state in 1804 and Miami University at Oxford in 1809.

Washington County, with its county seat at Marietta, was not only the first county formed from the territory, it was the first permanent settlement in what is now Ohio, formed in 1788. Ross County, with its county seat in Chillicothe, was formed ten years later and these two counties played a very important part in the early settlement of the entire area. The capital of the Northwest Territory was moved from Cincinnati to Chillicothe in 1800 and three years later when Ohio became a state, Chillicothe was made its capital. From this, one can readily see the importance of the College Township Road, between Chillicothe and Athens. It was not only one of the early post roads, but more importantly, it was the most direct link between these two centers of early population for travel and communications.

In the beginning the College Township Road east of the Scioto River, for the most part, was through unsettled congress land until a law passed by the U. S. Congress in May of 1800 made it possible to start selling this land. The boundaries were described as follows, East of the Scioto, south of land appropriate for satisfying military bounties of the war of the United States, and west of the fifteenth range of townships.

This land was offered for sale at a land office in Chillicothe starting on the first Monday of May 1801. For the first three weeks it was offered to the highest bidder with a minimum bid of $2.00 per acre. Earlier laws had provided that section sixteen in each township be set aside for the support of common school education, and that it be sold in sections of 640 acres and one half sections of 320 acres only. Land not sold during the initial three week sale could then be sold from the same office, private sales. Terms were one twentieth down on the day of sale, one half within thirty days, and the remainder within one year. The Surveyor General had been earlier directed to have this land surveyed at a cost not to exceed $3.00 per mile of lines run and marked. Subsequent laws were to alter the conditions of later sales. In 1803 three percent of sale proceeds were to be set aside for public roads; the 1805 minimum sale was decreased to 160 acres, in 1817 to 80 acres. In 1820 the purchase price was lowered to $1.25 per acre, but required that the land be paid for in full on the day of the sale. Finally in 1832, the minimum sale was decreased to 40 acres.

Jackson County was officially formed in March of 1816, and was carved from the surrounding counties of Athens, Ross, Gallia, and Scioto. Then as an afterthought, the state legislature in January of 1818, added Harrison and Richland Townships.

At this time we would like to narrow the scope of our story considerably and deal primarily with our own Harrison Township. In the following a few of the earliest land owners are included along with the date of land purchases: Joseph Dixon 1813, William Barbee 1814, Timothy Ratcliff 1815, Robert Brown 1816, George Will 1818, and John Boblitt and Phillip Arganbright 1820. It is quite obvious this list is not complete as the 1820 census for Harrison Township lists 37 families. Only the heads of households were listed with no middle name or initial. There were six families of Dixons: Jesse, Enoch, Nathan, John, Joseph, and William. Other heads of households included Phillip Arganbright; William Barbee; Hazel Barbee; Enoch Brewer; Willis Brewer; Christopher Bickle; James Brady; Edward Cating; Abraham Cox; Thomas Cox; Jonathan Graves; William Gregg; Joel Hicks; Merrit Hubble; William Jordan; Abraham Moats; John Moats; John Murily (?); Simon Reed; Timothy Radcliffe; Thomas Rhea; Lawrence Raines; John Raines; Henry Smith; Solomon Seymour; John Salts; Mary Salts; Gershum Silliman; Eli Vanderford; Alva Wilkinson; and William Wilkinson. The Clark family was well represented as early land owners in Harrison Township. The records show that Noah Clark purchased land in 1831, followed by John and Levi Clark in 1837.

The Dixons were among the first settlers in what is now Liberty Township, Ross County. One of the early histories of Ross County states that three Dixon brothers, Jesse, Joseph, and Samuel, arrived in Ross County from Chatham County, North Carolina, and settled in the eastern part of the county. It was this Joseph Dixon who constructed the early grist and sawmill on Salt Creek, which was first operated in 1807, and well documented in history.

Historians devoted very little time and space to early history of our immediate area. It is the official record keepers we have to thank for the amount of information that is available. Some of these records show the election official for Harrison Township in 1824. Judges: Samuel Reed, Ed Cating, and William Dixon. Clerks: Lawrence Raines and Thomas Reed. Another bit of history shows that the Jackson County Commissioners in 1825 proposed that section 16 in each township of that county be sold, this being the sections reserved for the support of common school education. We note, section 16 in Harrison Township at that time was valued at fifty cents per acre.

In January of 1830 the College Township Road east of Chillicothe became a part of the Marietta, Athens, McArthurstown, and Chillicothe Turnpike, and soon after was widened and improved. The village of Londonderry, in Ross County, on the road was laid out in 1831, and a post office was established there two years later. This office was officially named Gillespieville for the Postmaster James Gillespie. It was through this office that the early settlers of Harrison Township received their mail. The village was one of their centers of trade. Soon after this time (about 1835) a stage route was established between Chillicothe and Athens. We assume this stage ran twice each week, as an early history states in 1835, McArthur started receiving mail deliveries twice each week, instead of once.

When Vinton County was formed in 1850 from the five surrounding counties, again Harrison and Richland Townships were shuffled to become part of the newly formed county. The residents of Harrison Township found their new county seat at McArthur more convenient than Jackson, but otherwise could see very little advantage, as they had maintained close economic ties with Chillicothe and Ross County.

The next event which was to alter drastically the lives of the early residents was the coming of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad which passed through the extreme southern part of the township in 1855. This was to play a very important role in both the social and economic lives of everyone. But for those residing along the state road, or the big road as some called it, this proved to be a mixed blessing. Instead of being on the main artery of travel which had attracted them in the first place, they now found themselves in the back country, as all emphasis on business and travel shifted toward the railroad. The stage which had provided service for twenty years ceased operations the same year when the mail contract was given to the railroad. For the next seventy years the state road, at least in Harrison Township, remained barely passible, and then only when the weather cooperated.

The railroad made valuable the timber which grew in abundance on slopes not yet cleared or best suitable for agriculture. Cross-ties were in great demand and a men with a few basic hand tools (depending on skill) could make a good living hewing these ties. These ties could then be quickly exchanged for cash at stations which had sprung up along the railroad. These stations included Ellsworth (Byer), Raysville (Ray), West Junction, and Londonderry Station (Vigo).

A system of roadways, generally north and south, was constructed so as to converge on one of the above locations. These roads were used by the many teamsters who transported the forest and farm products to market. The portable steam engine made it possible to locate sawmills in the forests and move when the crop was depleted. These mills produced quality lumber which found a ready market. Charcoal for the iron furnaces and tanbark for the leather industry were other forest products that were in great demand.

The timber crop, when it was depleted adversely, affected the prosperity of the entire township. Timber, a renewable resource, requires many years between seedling and harvest, but many of the early residents did not have time to wait while the Lord did his work, as the following census totals reveal. Harrison Township, 1840-378, 1850-580, 1860-780, 1870-782, 1880-1173, 1890-1250, 1900-1178, 1910-890, 1920-917, 1930-633. During this one hundred year period the township made a steady gain until it reached a population peak in 1890, then during the next forty years this decreased by nearly one half. The effects of this decline is evident on nearly every hill and hollow both north and south of the valley floor where U. S. 50 is located. When one visits these abandoned farms, you can see the plow-marks plainly visible on hillsides where the forest has long since claimed its own.

The first major improvement to what is now Route 50, within the memory of anyone then living, was done in 1921 and 1922. There were two private contractors who did the work in Harrison Township and the dividing point between them was Ratcliffsburg. One steam powered shovel was used, the remainder of the work was done with teams (horses and mules) and horse drawn equipment. Most of the labor was hired locally, Jesse Huff remembers obtaining employment with one of the contractors when yet in his early teens. His first job was clearing right of way, but was soon promoted to director over two very independent company mules. These mules, according to Jesse, could not easily be persuaded to do anything not felt to be in their own best interest. When trying to change the direction of travel by use of the lines, they would merely turn their heads in the direction indicated by the driver, but would otherwise keep moving in the direction they had started. As the three became better acquainted, so did their understanding, and eventually work was performed to everyone’s satisfaction. For a young man who had just entered the labor market, $2.00 a day was no small incentive.

During this period concrete bridges were constructed over streams where before it was necessary for the traveler to pass through them. These bridges and the highway were designed for two way travel. The one exception was a narrow covered bridge over the stream which flows from Beech Grove Hollow. The surface of the highway was sandstone gravel obtained from the local streams bed. This pulverized easily to form dust, a serious problem as the volume of motorized traffic increased. This ended the cattle drives as trucks replaced the drovers. The surface was macadamized in about 1926, making it truly an all weather highway. With this the motor vehicle was soon able to compete with the railroad, and again U. S. 50 became Main Street through Harrison Township.

This highway served during World War II, when large convoys of troops and equipment passed through the area. This is well within the memory span of people today.

In 1946 and 1947 lines were extended and electricity became available in Harrison Township. This was not only responsible for light, but in a broader sense we might describe it as illumination.

U.S. 50; ICH (Inter County Highway) 365; Marietta, Athens, McArthurstown, and Chillicothe Turnpike; or College Township Road; with the exception of a few miles to the west, follows much the same course planned by Duncan McArthur 182 years ago through Harrison and Richland Townships

The first automobile was remembered to have passed through Harrison Township on the state road in either 1902 or 1903. The machine, as they were then called, approached from the west and the unfamiliar sound which it produced could be heard well in the advance of the vehicle, giving all within hearing ample time to stop what they were doing and rush to the highway and watch while the strange contraption passed. It must have been the expression and surprise and wonderment on the faces of his audience which caused the driver and only occupant to display a broad smile and a fast wave of the right hand (indicating that both hands were needed on the steering wheel) as he went on his way.

By 1912 the automobile had become sight on the state road, but it was still enough of a curiosity that when one passed the Boblitt School it caused so much distraction the teacher would permit the entire student body to stand so they could get a better view of the vehicle. In 1908 when Ohio issued its first license plate there were a total of 10,649 sold. By 1915 this number had risen to 181,332, 1920 to 614,897, and in 1921 to 1,091,062. It was quite obvious that the automobile was here to stay and road conditions were becoming a strong political issue.

Improvements to the state road in Harrison Township was started in 1921. For the citizens of that township the future of the automobile had not yet been decided, at least in the winter months. In December of that year Dr. C. D. Leggett was called from Chillicothe to assist with the birth of a child at the home of the expectant mother’s parents on the state road. The good doctor was able to travel only a short distance into Vinton County before his automobile broke through the frozen crust and sank hopelessly into the mud. He walked the two miles to his destination only to find that the baby had already arrived, possibly hastened by a three mile ride in a horse and buggy over frozen and rough roads.

After the necessary tasks were performed, the doctor deducted $5.00 from his usual fee of $25.00 because of his late arrival, and was then accompanied back to his car by the new father and a team of horses. There they found a rather irate farmer who had been unable to pass with his horses and wagon because the stalled automobile had the highway blocked. Before anything could be done to clear the roadway the farmer tried to pass and in so doing the back of his wagon slid into the automobile, and it was necessary for the doctor and his rescuer to manually lift the back of the wagon to prevent damage. When the farmer was safely beyond the obstruction, he apparently decided his trip was less urgent and stopped to watch the removal. The sound of the motor starting frightened the farmer’s team, which ran out of control after the driver was tumbled backward into the bed of his wagon, and bounced like a rubber ball until the horses ran off the highway and was stopped by a farm fence. The poor victim did not appear to be seriously injured and, because of his earlier behavior, received very little sympathy from those who witnessed the incident. The doctor’s automobile was finally removed and escorted back into Ross County. Discounting one farmer, all were now happy. Especially Dr. Leggett who had been extricated from the mire without charge, was safely back in Ross County where the highways were in much better condition, and had been paid in cash for his services.

Meantime, back to the state road. One occupation of activity which did not suffer from competition by the railroad was the marketing of cattle by way of the trail drive. The farmers of Harrison and Richland Townships relied on buyers from Chillicothe as a market for their cattle. In order to reach that market the cattle were collected in various sized herds and driven west over the state road to their destination. For information on how these drives were conducted and other aspects of life along that road starting around the turn of the century, we have relied on the vivid memories of a few in our ranks who have gained a considerable amount of seniority.

Cattle were conducted only during the warmer months of the year, and during this period would average about one each month. The fall drives were usually the largest as it was then the farmers adjusted the size of their herds to correspond with the amount of winter forage available. These herds would consist of up to 150 head of cattle. One buyer by the name of Haynes is best remembered for his special ability to move cattle with the least amount of effort, and was the trail boss on two of these drives each year, spring and fall. Mr. Haynes would contact farmers in Harrison and Richland Townships, purchase the cattle which were formed in small herds and driven to convenient locations on the state road where earlier arrangements had been made for space and feed. On the designated day for the main drive, he and his three drovers on horseback would start collecting these cattle and build the size of the herd as they traveled west. One man would lead the main herd by about 100 feet with a few managed cattle. Another would follow in the rear to prevent straggling, while the other two would work either side of the herd to keep them moving and block open driveways and intersections. Most of the property along the road was fenced, but many of these were not sufficient to turn a hungry herd of cattle without persuasion. So each land owner shared in the responsibility of protecting their property and crops while the cattle passed. This was accomplished by calling out the entire family and stationing them at locations that were considered the most vulnerable. Warning of the advancing herd was done as a community service over the Anderson Telephone Service (this system was in operation before the turn of the century) as neighbors kept each other informed along the route of travel.

There was some conflict with other users of the highway but this appeared to be kept to a minimum as it was a general opinion that the cattle had the right of way. One minor conflict which we might mention involved a pedestrian. Grandmother Swaney was walking from her garden carrying a basket of vegetables, when suddenly without warning she was confronted by a large herd of cattle traveling in the opposite direction. Mr. Haynes, who was known for his sense of humor, spotted her and yelled, Get out of the way! There is a mean bull in this herd. His warning was enough for grandmother who dropped her basket and without hesitation scaled a steep embankment on the north side of the road, tenaciously clinging to a sassafras sapling in a rather unladylike manner while the cattle passed below, pausing only long enough to sample some of the lost vegetables. Grandmother found very little amusement in this incident, but as time passed she could look back and see a certain amount of humor there. She was never quite sure whether Mr. Haynes was the hero who had possibly saved her life, or the heel who had made her the subject of a cruel joke. Of one thing she was sure, without the element of fright, her rheumatism would not have permitted her to climb that embankment. Submitted by Myron C. Benson

HAMDEN HOUSE

Hamden’s historic hotel, the Hamden House, underwent changes in 1960 that converted the century-old structure into a restaurant. Located on the west side of South Main Street, the building was purchased from the Charles Keeney estate by Andrew Cottrill.

Andrew and Raymond Cottrill and Steve Tripp converted the south side of the structure into a restaurant, which was operated by Woodrow Zinn and called the Village Inn. The other side of the building was converted into apartments. The target date set for opening of the restaurant was 4 Jul 1960.

No one in Hamden knew exactly when the hotel was built, but Floyd Copeland, veteran Hamden barber knew from recollections of his father, Thomas Copeland, that it had been more than 100 years. As far back as Mr. Copeland could recall, and many years before that, the hotel was operated first by Mrs. Dana Sherrod, who kept transient guests and served meals. Mr. Copeland’s father boarded at the Hamden house in 1875.

Mrs. Sherrod had a son, Elmer who later married Anna Ankrom, an aunt of Probate Judge Howard Ankrom.

While in his teens, Elmer had a cart and met the B.& O. trains to carry baggage from the depot to the hotel. There were no hotels in Wellston at the time. Traveling men would come to Hamden, stay overnight, then go down the Portsmouth branch on the morning Accommodation train to Wellston, Jackson, or Portsmouth.

In that day three hotels operated in Hamden. The American House was located on Railroad Street and it is recalled that Harvey Wells laid out the plans for Wellston in Room No. 5 at this old hotel.

The other hotel was operated by George Jackson on the Stanton corner, and was called the Jackson House.

Elmer Sherrod and his wife took over the hotel after the death of his mother, operating it for a period. It was then taken over for about four years by R. M. Buck, who was also Hamden’s Mayor, and he had his offices in the Hamden Hotel, but the operation again reverted to the Sherrods.

Later Mrs. Sherrod remarried to Charles Triplett, and they remained with the hotel until they died. Mrs. Triplett’s death occurred about 1948. Until her death Mrs. Triplett took in occasional roomers. The property went to George Sherman, who sold it to Charles Keeney.

Around 1960 the building was used as apartments.

The brick structure on the north side was the original building, the frame building being added a few years later, but long before the memory of any living Hamden resident.

The workmen uncovered old handsawn beams, cut from solid logs. One particular corner beam was one solid piece, hewn from a log. The beams were mortised by hand to allow for the wall studs. Where plaster was removed it disclosed hand-split lath. The Wellston Sentinel, 20 Jul 1960

CHARLES ROBBINS

The Memorial weekend of 1989 is one that will long be remembered by the Robbins family. It was a weekend of family reunions, family picnics, attending church together, and remembering days gone by and family members who have gone on to their rewards. But the climax of the whole thing was the service held for g-g-g-grandfather Charles Robbins at the cemetery on the outskirts of Hamden.

The burial plot for Charles Robbins and his second wife Nancy had been discovered only three years before, located on the original Robbins farm, purchased by Charles and Sarah Nevill Robbins in 1816. At the time of the discovery it was decided that by 1989 they would have the graves cleaned off, the plot fenced, and have a family memorial service. Largely through the efforts of Dr. Phillip Robbins of Jackson, Ohio and Laura and Bob Walters of Wichita, Kansas this was accomplished.

Charles Robbins, Sr. was born February 13, 1787 at Goshen, Wallkill Township, Orange County, New York. At the age of eighteen years he came to Ohio with his older brother Matthias, seeking homes for themselves. At this time the Ohio country was mostly a wilderness, having attained statehood just two years previously. Charles settled in the Darby Plains area of Pickaway County, near Circleville, and in 1809 he was married to Sarah Nevill. Five children were born to them: John, James, Job, Jonas, Henry Nevill and Sarah.

In 1816 Charles moved to what was at that time Jackson County. The record says he bought valley land, paying for it mostly in orange colored bills from his native Orange County, New York. It is most probable that this was the four hundred and fifty dollars he received as an inheritance from his father, as Job Robbins died in Orange County, New York.

There were no churches nor schools in this area of Charles’ new home. The Robbins family home became the center of holding all religious services in the neighborhood. It was also the stopping off place for the itinerant preachers traveling through the country.

He laid out the best part of the farm, the flat land, into town lots, calling the land Charleston. This area had been previously known as Reed’s Mill for the grist mill that Downey Reed operated about a mile north of the present village. With the advent of the railroad the town became known as Hamden Junction and later was shortened to Hamden.

The comer lots were sold for $4.00 and inside lots for $2.00 each and Charles donated a site for a school house. Later a United Brethren Church was built on this original school site.

In 1826 Charles married Nancy Pratt, daughter of Ephriam Pratt, veteran of the Revolutionary War and founder of Prattsville in Athens County. In 1850 both Hamden and Prattsville would be in the newly formed Vinton County.

Charles and Nancy had four children: Ephriam, Charles Jr., Alanson, and Lura Jane. Lura Jane married into the McKinnis family, who were also early pioneers of Charleston.

Charles died April 25, 1867 on his farm in Hamden and is buried on the hilltop above his original home. The farm is now owned by Willis Dixon.

To restore and secure the tiny cemetery containing the two graves, Dr. Phillip Robbins has built a five foot chain link fence around it. Both grave stones had been literally removed from the ground that covered them and returned to their proper bases. Charles’ stone which is marble was broken into three pieces and a lot of Yankee ingenuity was required to get the three pieces placed properly on the base. Nancy’s was of granite and was unbroken except from the base. Inside the fence are two benches with decorative stone placed between the graves and flowers planted strategically for effect; an inspiring sight on the top of a windy hill in the middle of a pasture field on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Getting from State Route 160 to the top of the hill requires a certain amount of walking. Two 4-wheel drive vehicles were provided to transport the persons assembled for the service as well as the benches for seating during the service, although some of the older members preferred to walk through the waist high grass to the top of the hill.

The service was opened by Debbie Robbins and Cheryl Karn who are sisters, singing Amazing Grace acappella, followed by a prayer. The will of Job Robbins of Orange County, New York and father of Charles was read as well as the will of Charles Sr. A genealogy of the Robbins family was read and statements made by various family members.

Thirteen representative families were present. Altogether 37 people, traveling from Kansas, New York, and Jackson County, Ohio, to spend Sunday afternoon of the 1989 Memorial Day weekend in Vinton County paying their respects to their common ancestor, Charles Robbins, Sr., founder of the village of Hamden, Ohio.

DAVID PAINE

In Wellston’s lovely Ridgewood Cemetery, bedecked with flags and flowers, and well-kept for the Memorial Day rites, is the headstone of David Paine, the first settler of Hamden.

Son of a Revolutionary War veteran, Paine, a New Englander, came from Massachusetts in the spring of 1808 to what was then Jackson County, and built a log cabin. It was the first dwelling between McArthur and Jackson.

It is doubtful if David Paine’s bones are actually interred in Ridgewood Cemetery, since the headstone was moved from the old Bundy Cemetery to Ridgewood Cemetery where it is now located in the Bundy lot, along with the graves of many pioneers of this area.

But David Paine was one of the early settlers of this area. He built his log cabin on what is now North Buffalo Street in Hamden. It was the forerunner of Hamden, first called Charleston in honor of Charles Robbins, who laid out the part of the village east of Main Street.

Life in the primitive region was so lonely that Paine wanted to leave. He resolved to stay a year so he remained.

Paine was a descendant of Henry Adams, one of the New England founders of the famous Adams family, and married Abigail Jones. He got the property which ran from Buffalo Street in Hamden south to what is now Second Street in Wellston, in a land grant with the parchment deed signed by President James Madison.

Paine’s granddaughter, Julia Bundy Foraker, daughter of H. S. Bundy, one of Wellston’s founders, said the house was located in a magnificent beech woods and between it and civilization stretched miles and miles of wolf-haunted timber.

H. S. Bundy, whose grave in Wellston’s Ridgewood Cemetery is near that of David Paine’s, married Paine’s daughter, Carolyn Paine, and acquired the property known as the Bundy property in what is now Northern Wellston, in that manner. He later became Wellston’s first and only Congressman.

Paine became known as Judge Paine, probably because of his position of authority in the community.

Because of the connection between Paine and H. S. Bundy and subsequently the latter’s connection with Harvey Wells, David Paine might also be considered the grandfather, if not the father, of Wellston, in addition to the father of Hamden.

BOOM PERIOD

Memories of the village of Hamden as it was early in the 20th century are recalled by Floyd Copeland. He had been a barber for 64 years, and who cut hair daily at his shop in the Hamden Post office building on Main Street.

Hamden was one of the best little towns in Southeastern Ohio sixty years ago, bigger than Wellston, and more progressive than McArthur, Mr. Copeland recalled.

I’m the oldest living male native of Hamden still living here, and I can recall when our population was 850 people, when the railroad shops and roundhouse were here, and all the area mines working. Hamden was a busy place, a place with lots of employment opportunities.

We had two undertakers, seven groceries, six barber shops, 12 saloons, two drug stores, two hotels, a rooming house, and two banks.

We had three doctors, Dr. Ray, Dr. Monahan, and Dr. Walmsley, and a dentist, Dr. King. Hal Bratton, our shoe cobbler, was an excellent boot maker and made boots for a number of prominent men including McArthur’s Dan Will.

Hamden’s lack of water prevented her from growing. If our city fathers had foresight, we could have provided for an ample water supply, and Hamden and Wellston would be one big city now, Mr. Copeland asserted.

Back in the early days of Hamden, it had railroad shops, which later burned down, and a round house with space for seven locomotives. Hamden had more than eight passenger trains daily and numerous freight trains dispatched daily.

You could go anywhere, any time you wanted, from Hamden. Traveling men would come here with their big sample cases, stay overnight in Hamden, then take the Accommodation Train out of here in the morning for Wellston, Jackson or Portsmouth, then return the same evening.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS

Hamden is an exciting geological area… I know for I have explored it extensively, said Dr. Jane Forsyth, a geologist with the Ohio Geological Survey, to 83 members of the Hamden PTA. Introduced by Supt. William Kuhner, Dr. Forsyth was a visiting scientist under a program sponsored by the Ohio Academy of Science. She also addressed Hamden school science classes. Her talk followed a musical program presented by pupils of Mrs. Leoma Straight and a PTA business meeting presided by PTA president Mrs. Jake Dobbins.

The Hamden-Wellston area is a flat plain because the ice age never got closer than Chillicothe, although the glaciers changed the course of a river that originally flowed down a valley south from McArthur through Hamden and Wellston to Jackson, Dr. Forsyth said.

Showing fossil samples, and illustrating her short talk with colored slides, Dr. Forsyth said that the bedrock in the Hamden area belongs to the Pennsylvania geologic period of the Paleozoic Era. Marine shellfish she discovered near Hamden show that at one time it was all ocean, but the sea was never very deep, and later disappeared.

She said the Teays River tributary created the McArthur-Hamden-Wellston-Jackson valley, and was blocked by the glacier.

Dr. Forsyth’s slides were of photos she took in the immediate area and in some highway cuts near McArthur. The various geological deposits, including coal and various stones and rock, were clearly visible.

PURITAN BRICK PLANT

East of Hamden on SR 160 is the remains of the Puritan Brick Company, a once thriving brick manufacturing plant in Vinton County. The buff building brick with the imprint PURITAN in the finished product was manufactured in the biggest brick manufacturing plant in southeastern Ohio. The plant, completed in 1909, was a casualty of World War I.

Business men from Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, and Massachusetts inspected the grounds in 1908 and contemplated a brick works, an iron furnace, and a cement plant, with a railroad leading from the Puritan site to the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad. The inspection team included Porter McMillan of Detroit, representing the iron interests; S. J. Henreid of Columbus, representing the brick investors, and William L. Holmes of Detroit, representing the cement investors.

William L. Holmes, president of the Puritan companies, turned the first shovelful of dirt for the Puritan Railway within a year from the acquisition of more than a mile of land that was needed for the project. The fall of 1909 saw the completion of the modem railway and brick yard with everything being run by electricity.

Plant capacity was 100,000 fine face bricks in a day. After two coal mines were opened to supply the fuel it was found that just below the thirty-two foot vein of coal deposits of white shale for the brick and cement were found. The mile long railroad connected the coal mines and crusher house to the brick plant. The material was conveyed in steel cars drawn by an electric locomotive. Puritan Lake, a dam across the valley that formed a storage reservoir, was the source for water used in the manufacturing operation.

The Puritan Brick Company owned 980 acres of land free and clear as well as standard gauge and industrial railroads and the plant. At that time the plant, equipped to build both paving and facing bricks, could produce a run wholly on paving brick at about 66,000 bricks per day, or a run of facing bricks would have been about 100,000 per day. At that time as the market and financial conditions warranted the company planned to expand. There were large quantities of iron ore deposits on the property, coal for manufacturing use and the possibility of expanding coal production for the domestic market. In addition to almost limitless supplies of shale to produce the highest grade paving and facing bricks on the property, there were huge deposits of high grade materials for manufacturing Portland cement.

When the Puritan Brick Company ceased operations the company was leased to the McArthur Brick Company. McArthur Brick Company operated the plant for fifteen years with T. E. Sharp from McArthur as plant superintendent. Eva Sharp Swaim remembers well the big house that sat on top of the hill across from the remains of the Puritan Brick Company. The lovely big home next to Huston’s Nursing Home was owned by John and Mary Martin.

Since the McArthur Brick Company leased the Puritan Brick Company and operated it for a time it might be well to mention that the McArthur plant was locally owned and managed. In the late forties the plant employed about a hundred men. Production capacity was 66,000 bricks per day.

From A Brief History of Vinton County by Louise Ogan Biggs written in 1950: Herbert S. Hamilton is president of the brick company. Until his recent death, Leroy W. Pilcher was secretary-treasurer, a position his father held for many years. The Board of Directors recently elected Mrs. Cynthis Hamilton and Mrs. Mary Pilcher to the Board. Mrs. Pilcher was elected secretary-treasurer to fill the vacancy. Arthur Sharp has charge of procuring and the reduction of clay. Ernest L. Sprague manages sales and shipment of the finished products of the McArthur Brick Company.

The McArthur Brick Company ceased operations in the early 1960s.

OLD FASHIONED GENERAL STORE

From the Hamden Enterprise of January 2, 1904 we find an advertisement with the caption: Four months ago we began business in Hamden. Since then the wonderful increase of our trade has exceeded our expectations, new customers have been added to our lists weekly.

We do not claim to have the largest store in Hamden but we have a nice line of goods and can sell them as low as the lowest.

Hamden General Store

In the last week we have added a fine line of togues, fascinators, skirts, blankets, waistings, etc., which were bought from one of the largest wholesale houses in the state.

Also we have a good line of mens felts, rubbers, gumboots, and arctic overshoes.

In all kinds of produce we are the acknowledged leader. W. S. Martindale, Hamden Junction, Ohio

Mr. W. Scott Martindale opened the general store which was later owned by his son Earnest Martindale. In 1910 Orson Ogier opened a General Insurance Agency selling fire, life, and accident insurance. The office was at the W. S. Martindale store.

William Doxie Walters, current owner of store.

When the Hamden bank closed around 1930 the Martindale store (now the Hamden General Store) was sold at auction. Leland Webb and Earl Webb bought the store. The Webbs also carried a general merchandise line, dry goods, shoes, etc.

Sometime around 1942 George Camick rented the building from the Webbs. He carried a grocery line as well as dry goods.

At one time Ed Wilbur had a grocery in this building.

Paul and Grace Ward bought the building from the Webbs and operated the store for some time. Later Grace Ward’s mother and father, Hazel and Elijah Burns, operated the store.

In