History of Fayette County, Ohio

All life and achievement is evolution; present wisdom comes from past experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past exertion and suffering. The deeds and motives of the men that have gone before have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privilege. It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present conditions of the people of Fayette County, Ohio, with what they were one hundred years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin land, it has come to be a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid industries and immense agricultural and mineral productions. Can any think- ing person be insensible to the fascination of the study which discloses the aspirations and efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the foundation upon which has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days ? To perpetuate the story of these people and to trace and record the social, political and industrial progress of the community from its first inception is the function of the local historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are deserving of perpetuation, and which unite the present to the past, is the motive for the present publication. A specially valuable and interesting department is that one devoted to the sketches of representative citizens of these counties whose records deserve preservation because of their worth, effort and accomplishment. The publishers desire to extend their thanks to the gentlemen who have so faithfully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Fayette county for the uniform kind- ness with which they have regarded this undertaking, and for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information.

In placing the "History of Fayette County, Ohio," before the citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that they have carried out the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the work has been submitted to the party interested, for correction, and therefore any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the person for whom the sketch was prepared. Confident that our effort to please will fully meet the approbation of the public, we are.

 

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I — RELATED STATE HISTORY 25
CHAPTER II — GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY 73
CHAPTER III — COUNTY ORGANIZATION 77
CHAPTER IV — EARLY SETTLEMENT 82
CHAPTER V — COUNTY GOVERNMENT 106
CHAPTER VI — OFFICIAL REPRESENTATION 117
CHAPTER VII — TRANSPORTATION 127
CHAPTER VIII — EVOLUTION OF AGRICULTURE AND STOCK RA1SING 130
CHAPTER IX — BANKS AND BANKING 135
CHAPTER X — NEWSPAPERS OF FAYETTE COUNTY 142
CHAPTER XI — THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 150
CHAPTER XII — THE BENCH AND BAR 160
CHAPTER XIII — MILITARY HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY 172
CHAPTER XIV — EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 201
CHAPTER XV — SECRET AND FRATERNAL ORDERS 213
CHAPTER XVI — HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES 220
CHAPTER XVII — MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS OF INTEREST 245
CHAPTER XVIII — REMINISCENCES AND MEMOIRS 274
CHAPTER XIX — UNION TOWNSHIP 282
CHAPTER XX — JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP 283
CHAPTER XXI — JASPER TOWNSHIP 293
CHAPTER XXII — CONCORD TOWNSHIP 299
CHAPTER XXIII — GREEN TOWNSHIP 304
CHAPTER XXIV — PERRY TOWNSHIP 310
CHAPTER XXV — WAYNE TOWNSHIP 317
CHAPTER XXVI — MARION TOWNSHIP 324
CHAPTER XXVII — PAINT TOWNSHIP 328
CHAPTER XXVIII — MADISON TOWNSHIP 337
CHAPTER XXIX — CITY OF WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE 344

 

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The first white men to set foot upon the Northwest Territory were French traders and missionaries under the leadership of La Salle. This was about the year 1670 and subsequent discoveries and explorations in this region by the French gave that nation practically undisputed possession of all the territory organized in 1787 as the Northwest Territory. It is true that the English colonies of Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts claimed that their charters extended their grants westward to the Mississippi river. However, France claimed this territory and successfully maintained posses- sion of it until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763. At that time the treaty of Paris transferred all of the French claims east of the Mississippi river to England, as well as all claims of France to territory on the mainland of North America. For the next twenty years the Northwest Territory was under the undisputed control of England, but became a part of the United States by the treaty which terminated the Revolutionary War in 1783. Thus the flags of three nations have floated over the territory now comprehended within the present state of Ohio — the tri-color of France, the union jack of England and the stars and stripes of the United States.