The Town and Township of Athens, Athens County, Ohio

Personal and Biographical - A through F

A history of Athens County would be very incomplete without a biographical notice of the father and projector of the Ohio University – an institution that has done so much to shape and influence the history of this community. Though never a resident of the county, perhaps no one person has exerted a more deep and lasting influence on its welfare than Dr. Manasseh Cutler. He was the son of Hezekiah Cutler, who came from a thorough Puritan stock, and was born at Killingly, Connecticut, May 3, 1742. He graduated at Yale college, at the age of twenty-three, studied theology at Dedham, with the Rev. Thomas Balch, and having settled in the ministry at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1771, soon became known for ability and learning. A minister by profession, he was also an ardent votary of science, in some of whose walks he became very eminent. In 1766, he married Mary Balch, daughter of his preceptor in theology, and to them were born seven children, viz: Ephraim, Jervis, Mary, Charles, Lavinia, Elizabeth, and Temple. Of these only three, Ephraim, Jervis, and Charles ever came to Ohio. Dr. Cutler was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781, of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, in 1783; an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1784; received the degree of LLD from Yale college in 1789; was elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1792, and was a representative in congress in 1800, 1801 and 1802. He was also active as president of a bible society in Massachusetts, and was a member of various other scientific bodies than those above named. He was a chaplain in the American army during the revolutionary war, and in one engagement took such an active and gallant part, that the colonel of his regiment presented him with a fine horse captured from the enemy.

On the formation of the Ohio Company in 1787, Dr. Cutler soon became a controlling spirit in that enterprise. In an original memorandum of his, now before us, referring to the origin of the company, etc., he says:

“At this meeting[1] by ye desire of Major Sargent, I attended. I had suffered exceedingly in ye war, and after it was over, by paper money and ye high price of articles of living. My salary small and family large, for several years I thought ye people had not done me justice, and I meditated leaving them. Purchasing lands in a new country appeared to be ye only thing I could do to secure a living to myself, and family in that unsettled state of public affairs. I had long before entertained an [sic] high opinion of ye lands in ye western country, which was a particular inducement to attend this meeting. The representations and plans of ye country gave me a still more favorable idea, and I determined to join ye association, but without ye most distant thought of taking an active part.”

A few days later, he was chosen a director, and appointed as their agent to proceed to New York and negotiate with the congress then sitting there, for a purchase of western lands. From the very interesting journal kept by Dr. Cutler during this trip, we have quoted at some length. He conducted this negotiation with great skill and entire success. He insisted that there should be an appropriation of land in the company’s purchase for the endowment of a university, and this feature was part of the contract with congress. Thus, the Ohio University is undoubtedly indebted to Dr. Cutler for its existence, and he was in later years very active in furthering its sound organization. He also originated the idea of a donation of land in each township for educational and religious purposes, and made it a part of the contract with congress that two sections in each township should be reserved as school and ministerial lands.

In the summer of 1788, in order to attend a meeting of the directors of the Ohio Company, and to examine into the condition and prospects of the colony, Dr. Cutler made a trip to Marietta, where he spent a short time, and became thoroughly acquainted with the nature of the country and wants of the settlers. His versatile talents and unusual business qualifications made his services to the company of great value, and for many years he continued to exercise a controlling influence in this great enterprise. During all this time he did not cease his labors as a minister of the gospel, nor his scientific investigations, particularly his botanical pursuits, in which branch of science he was very eminent.

The latter years of his life were spent peacefully in Massachusetts. He officiated as pastor of one church at Hamilton in that state, for nearly fifty years, and died in 1820.

John Ballard was born in Charlemont, Massachusetts, October 1st, 1790, and came to Athens in February, 1839. During the greater part of his residence here he engaged successfully in the mercantile business; was also for several years president of the Athens branch of the State Bank, and a leading man in the local enterprises of the place. He has now retired from business. Four of his sons are living, viz: Otis, a banker in Circleville, Ohio; Charles, manufacturer of farm implements in Springfield, O.; James, merchant in Athens, and the Rev. Addison Ballard at Detroit, Michigan.

Nicholas Baker, senior, born in England in 1760, was brought to this country at seven years of age, for forty-four years followed the sea, as cabin boy and sailor, and in 1814, with his only son Isaiah Baker, came to Athens county where he lived in his son’s family, in the vicinity of Athens, till his death in 1829.

Isaiah Baker, son of the foregoing, born in Barn-stable, Massachusetts, in the year 1780, came to this county with his family in 1814, and settled three miles west of Athens, where he followed farming the rest of his life. He died in 1825, leaving seven sons and three daughters, all of whom are living, except one son, Matthias, who was killed by the kick of a horse in 1837. Mr. Baker was a worthy member of the Methodist church.

Nicholas Baker, son of Isaiah, born in Massachusetts in 1799, has lived in Athens (town and township) fifty-four years. Social and genial in his daily intercourse with friends, few men lead a more placid life than “Uncle Nick.” With a heart corresponding in capacity to his ponderous frame, with a healthy and happy temperament, he is one of those kind-hearted men whom dumb animals like and children make friends with. He fondly cherishes the remembrance of his once having lived in Judge Silvanus Ames’ family, in Ames township, in the summer of 1817. Edward R. Ames (Rev. Bishop Ames) at that time was eleven years old, and Mr. Baker, partial to him in boyhood, refers to their early acquaintance with lively pleasure. He relates with much gusto and laughter how “the bishop,” being naturally rather lazy, would lie on the grass in the shade and amuse young Baker with his talk, while the latter cheerfully performed an extra amount of work for his dreaming companion. Mr. Baker, formerly a farmer, has resided for many years past in the town of Athens. His son, George W. Baker, is now treasurer of Athens county.

Jacob L. Baker, another of the sons of Isaiah Baker, is an extensive farmer in Athens township. He has a family of seven sons and one daughter, most of whom are well settled on good farms in the neighborhood of their father, who manages to buy an additional farm as often as needed, for some of his family.

The five other sons of Isaiah Baker removed to the west and are-there settled—most of them in Illinois.

Capt. Isaac Barker, came from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the northwestern territory in the autumn of 1788. For several years he lived in the Belpre settlement on the Ohio river, about fifteen miles from Marietta, and his name is preserved as one of the heads of families who, in the year 1792, took refuge in the block house called “Farmers’ Castle,” where he and his family remained till the violence of the Indian war was spent. In 1798 he removed with his family of five sons and three daughters to Athens township, and settled near the village of Athens, where he passed the remainder of his life. Capt. Barker was a sea-faring man in early life, being supercargo and captain of an East India vessel) and, during the revolutionary war, took an active, part in the privateering service. His sons were Michael, Isaac, Joseph, William, and Timothy.

Michael Barker, son of Capt. Isaac Barker, born in 1776 at New Bedford, Massachusetts, came with his father’s family to Marietta in the autumn of 1788. During the Indian war, from 1792 to 1795, while they lived in Farmers’ Castle at Belpre, Michael served as a scout or spy against the Indians in a company raised under the authority of the Ohio Company. He came to Athens county and settled near the town of Athens in April, 1798, where he spent the rest of his life. He married a daughter of Win. Harper, who was county treasurer from 1809 to 1811. Mr. Barker was for many years a constable in Athens township, and held other local offices. He was a man of scrupulous exactness in his dealings, and of much firmness and decision of character. He died June 10th, 1857.

Isaac Barker, Jr. (son of Capt. Isaac Barker), long known in Athens county as Judge Barker, was born in Massachusetts, February 17th, 1779.

He remembers his father setting out with his family for the northwestern territory, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1788. They had one wagon drawn by two oxen and a horse, and were accompanied on the journey by Capt. Dana and his family, also emigrating to the west. Their journey was not marked by any special incidents. At one stage Capt. Barker’s oxen having become footsore, he exchanged them with a Dutch tavern keeper where they stopped for a fresh yoke. The next morning the boys started on early with the team, the father remaining behind a little while. They had not gone far before they came to a very bad place in the road, over which the oxen refused to go. After working with them for some time the boys suddenly thought it was because the Dutch oxen could not understand English that they were so stubborn; one of them accordingly went back for the Dutchman, who soon arrived, and, by dint of considerable hard swearing at the oxen, in good Dutch, got the team over. The emigrants traveled by land to Sumrill’s ferry on the Youghiogheny, where they procured keel boats and continued their journey by water to Marietta. Captain Barker’s family spent several months in the family of Paul Fearing, at Marietta, and removed thence early in 1790 to Belpre, where he settled on a one-hundred-acre donation lot. They had hard work to get along here, especially for the first year or two. Mr. Barker says corn was four dollars a bushel and none to be had at that. They lived for one year almost solely on corn bread and wild meat. “One quart of cracked corn,” he says, “was the daily allowance for our family of eleven. The children used to stand by looking wistfully while their mother baked the daily loaf, and, having received their share, would hoard it carefully, nibbling it like mice during the day.” They lived in a blockhouse, or garrison, some four or five years, during the Indian war. At this time, says Mr. Barker, “I was a pretty smart boy and able to handle a gun, and while father and my older brother worked in the field I stood guard with the rifle. Every evening we barred up the door before sundown. In the morning we would open it an hour or so after sunrise, look carefully about, and, if no signs of Indians appeared, brother Michael would go out (the door being instantly barred behind him), and scout around a little Several men and one or two whole families were killed in that neighborhood by the Indians during these years. Mr. Barker recollects the massacre of the Armstrong family just across the river from where they lived, the killing of Benoni Hurlbut, the chase of Waldo Putnam and a man by the name of Bradford, by the Indians, and the killing of Jonas Davis. This Mr. Davis was engaged to be married to one of Mr. Barker’s sisters. One cold day during the war, seeing an old skiff lodged on the ice some distance up the river, he ventured out to get some nails out of her—they being very scarce. He never returned. Being missed, after several hours, and search made, he was found dead, stripped, and scalped on the ice. Though a mere boy during the war, Judge Barker received at its close one hundred acres of land as a bounty from the Ohio Company—Gen. Putnam saying that he had done a man s work and was entitled to a man’s pay. He used frequently to stand guard at the garrison. Capt. Barker’s family came to Athens in 1798, poling their goods up the Hockhocking in a light flat boat. These boats were built with a “running board” along each side; a man on each side, furnished with a long pole with a pointed iron socket at the end, would plant it firmly in the bottom at the bow, and then with the upper end against his shoulder would run to the other end of the boat, propelling her by that means. After coming to Athens’ they lived a year at the point close by Harper’s Ferry. ‘ Judge Barker tended this ferry for a while, and married Christiana, a daughter of Mr. Harper. At this time ‘they got their milling from Capt. Devol’s floating mill, some five miles up the Muskingum. It took four days to go and come, and Mr. Barker has himself more than once made this long trip to mill, going down the Hocking and up the Ohio in a pirogue and back by the same means, camping out over night.

Moses Hewitt and his family lived a short distance up Margaret’s creek. In the year 1800 some thirty or forty Indians came in on Factory run, and three of them came over to Mr. Hewitt’s house. They were somewhat in liquor, and Mrs. Hewitt in alarm sent hastily for her husband, who was a short distance from the house. When Mr. Hewitt came he- ordered them in their own language (he had been a captive among them several years before), to “go away." ‘ They refused and were insulting) whereupon, Mr. Hewitt flew at the drunken ones and knocked one into the fireplace and another headlong out of the door. Mr. Barker was in the house and saw all this. A large athletic Indian, who seemed entirely sober, then grappled with Mr. Hewitt, and, after a violent struggle, threw him on the floor. Mrs. Hewitt and Mr. Barker, excited and alarmed, were about to pull the Indian off, when Hewitt, who was a noted fighter, told them to stand off and let him alone. The fight continued, and Hewitt very soon managed to get his thumb into the Indian’s eye, and the Indian’s thumb into his mouth, when the latter screamed lustily and begged till Mr. Hewitt released him. The moment he was on his feet, the Indian ran to the door) and, putting his hand to his mouth) gave a regular war whoop, loud and long continued, and then ran away. Mr. Hewitt himself was now alarmed, thinking that the Indians would come over in the night and kill his family. Accordingly he requested Garner Bobo, a man named Cutter, and Mr. Barker, to stay in the house over night while he took his wife and the children some distance across the river. Mr. Barker says, “We had but one gun among us— Bobo had that. I was armed with a heavy clothes-pounder, and Cutter had a conchshell which he was to blow for help in case of great danger. Thus accoutered we barred the door and prepared to pass the night. We took turns sleeping and watching, and the night passed without any alarm. About daylight I, being on watch, saw some three or four figures gliding about the house and thought the redskins were after us now, sure enough. I woke Bobo who had his gun ready in a minute, and we were preparing for a fight or a siege when we heard a loud laugh outside, and looking out saw Hewitt and two or three others coming up to the house. They had come over to scare us. We saw nothing more of the Indians, and I think this was the last considerable party of them seen in this part of the country.

About this time Mr. Barker and Martin Mansfield, both vigorous and athletic young men, boated a man by the name of King, with his family, from the mouth of the Hockhocking river to the falls near Logan, and then dragging their boat around the falls, continued to within eight miles of Lancaster, the place of destination.

The town plat of Athens was very heavily timbered at that time, and the few cabins that stood here were widely separated. Mr. Barker, though not a great hunter, killed great numbers of deer and turkeys hereabouts. He remembers the following incident:

Chris. Stevens, who lived back of the college green, and a German named Heck, were hunting one day and treed a bear in a large poplar not far from Stevens’ house. The bear climbed nearly to the top of the tree, which was very tall. They had but one gun between them and Stevens was to shoot. He had leveled his gun, taken aim, and sighted a long time; Heck stood a little off waiting for him to fire, when, his patience exhausted, he asked, “Why don’t you shoot?” Stevens, who was a kind-hearted man, deliberately lowered his gun and said, “I can’t bear to see the poor thing fall so far!”

“Gott in himmels,” cried the German, “gif me de gun den—I shoots him if he falls mit de ground till a tousand feet,” and bruin soon came tumbling down.

Old Capt. Barker’s first cabin stood about where Joseph Herrold’s house now stands. He afterward built a log house near the river, south of John White’s present residence. Judge Barker’s first cabin was about one hundred yards west of his father’s first house, and he afterward built a two story hewed log house on the river bank just at the turn of the road, which was standing’ a few years since and occupied by the Beveridge family. In 1815 Judge Barker moved to the town plat and took the “Dunbaugh House,” which stood where the “Brown House” now stands, and which had been kept for a few years by one Jacob Dunbaugh. Mr. Barker kept tavern here till 1818, when he bought the lot where he now resides. There was a hewed log house on this lot, and he kept tavern in this while his brick house was building, and till it was finished in 1823, and then in his present dwelling till about 1830.

During his residence here, Mr. Barker has held the offices of county sheriff, county treasurer, collector of rents for the university, and was judge of the court of common pleas for about ten years. He has lived for nearly three score years and ten in the town of Athens, where he is passing the evening of his days in quiet serenity. Though now eighty-nine years old, he devoted a part of every day during this season (1868), to working in his garden—his favorite employment—and is in possession of all his faculties.

Henry Bartlett, the son of Captain William Bartlett, was born at Beverly, Massachusetts, February 3, 1771. His father was a seafaring man, and received, it is believed, the first commission that was issued to engage in privateering, during the revolutionary struggle, in which he rendered conspicuous service. In 1785, Captain Bartlett removed with his family to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and settled near the Forks of Yoh, where he lived till his death in While living in Westmoreland county, Henry Bartlett married Miss Betsey Corey, and in 1796, brought his young family to the northwestern territory and settled the next year at Athens. During his youth, Mr. Bartlett enjoyed pretty good educational advantages, and after his arrival at Athens was soon recognized as one of the readiest and most accurate clerks and businessmen in the community. Previous to the organization of the county, he taught school several quarters in the surrounding neighborhoods. Soon after the organization of the county in 1805 he was appointed by the county commissioners as clerk of the board and of the county courts, which position he held, discharging the duties with great fidelity for thirty years. He ceased to be clerk in 1836, and from that time till his death, acted as a justice of the peace in Athens. He was also for many years secretary and auditor of the Ohio university. He died September 9th, 1850. Esquire Bartlett was a man of great purity of character, thoroughly judicial mind and excellent capacity for business. During his early residence here, he adapted himself with admirable facility to pioneer life, and to the changing circumstances of the times, and was for many years almost indispensable in the management of county affairs. He possessed a fine quality of wit and humor, which he was fond of exercising, though always without offense to others, and which made him one of the most popular as he was one of the most highly respected men in the county. His family consisted of two sons and ten daughters, of whom nine daughters are living.

Francis Beardsley, born at Stratford, Hartford county, Connecticut, December 28, 1792, came to Athens in 1814, where he has lived ever since. Soon after coming here he married Miss Culver, sister of John Gillmore’s wife, who died in _____ . For his second wife he married Rebecca, daughter of Esquire Henry Bartlett. Of a retiring disposition and unobtrusive manners, Mr. Beardsley has led a quiet and useful life. A model of Christian rectitude under all circumstances, he is respected and esteemed by all who know him.

Dr. William Blackstone was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, in 1796, and came with his father’s family to Ohio in 1802, settling first in Pickaway and afterward in Ross county. He studied medicine at Circleville, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated at the Cincinnati Medical college in 1833, having engaged actively in the practice during several years before this. Dr. B. came to Athens in 1838, and has practiced here continuously since. He and Dr.. Carpenter have both partially retired from active practice.

Dr. Perkins, Dr. Jewett, Dr. Bierce (who left here about 1840), Dr. Carpenter, and Dr. Blackstone are the only resident physicians who remained for any length of time in the place during the first half of this century. There are now three practicing physicians here, viz: Dr. W. P. Johnson, Dr. C. L. Wilson, and Dr. George Carpenter.

James Brice was born in Maryland in the year 1750, and, removing to western Pennsylvania, settled near Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) in 1787. While living here he held various public stations, such as member of the state legislature, county commissioner, collector of internal revenue, trustee of Washington college, etc. In 1821 he removed further west, and settled in the town of Athens, where he passed the latter years of his life, living in the family of his son. He was a man of high character, and during his long life was an active and exemplary Christian. He died in Athens) December 22, 1832.

Barnet Brice, his son, and a native of Pennsylvania, preceded his father to Athens, having settled here in 1807. He kept public house many years (he built the Union hotel now occupied by 0. B. Potter), and was extensively acquainted through the country. He died about 1853.

Thomas Brice, another son of James, came to Athens in 1818. He was a successful merchant here for many years, and a large dealer in cattle from 1820 to 1830. He built the brick dwelling house on Court street, now owned and occupied by Dr. W. P. Johnson.

John Brown, well known in southern Ohio as “General Brown,” son of Captain Benjamin Brown, one of the pioneers of Ames, was born in- Rowe, Massachusetts, December 1, 1785. In 1787, his father’s family moved to Hartford, Washington county, New York, and in 1796, with several other families seeking homes in the west, came to the Forks of Yoh, on the Monongahela, three miles above Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Here they remained till February, 1797, building a boat during the winter, in which they completed their journey and arrived at Marietta, February 11, 1797. Of the twenty-three persons of various ages who descended the river in this boat, there are but four now living, viz: Samuel and John Brown, Mrs. Aphia Hamilton, and Mrs. Phebe Sprague. As elsewhere stated, Captain Brown’s family came out to Ames township in the spring of 1799, moving their household effects by canoes down the Ohio, and up the Hockhocking and Federal creek—the members of the family not required to work the canoes, coming across the country.

In 1811, Mr. Brown married Sophia Walker, daughter of Dr. Ezra Walker, and continued to live in Ames township till 1817, when he removed to the town of Athens, where he still resides. On coming to Athens, he kept a public house one year at the Zadoc Foster house (on the south end of the lot now owned and occupied by Judge Barker), when he bought the corner property in front of the university, and built and kept the "Brown House,” so long known to the public, and so kindly remembered by his hosts of friends. He kept this house till December, 1865, a period of forty-seven years.

In 1808 Mr. Brown was elected captain in the militia, and was subsequently made major and colonel, and in 1817 was elected brigadier general. He was county auditor from 1822 to 1827, and has been treasurer of the Ohio university from 1 824 to the present time. He was also mayor of Athens for several years, and coroner for two terms He is, in every good sense, one of the village fathers who has “come down to us from a former generation.” Possessed of sound judgment, a kind heart, sterling integrity, and unfailing humor, General Brown has for fifty years had the respect and affectionate regard of this community. His genial wit still oft enlivens the social circle, and his venerable form is recognized with pleasure by all, on the streets of the town where he has lived so long and where, without an enemy in the world, he is cheerfully approaching the end of his journey. He reared here a family of six sons and two daughters; four of the sons graduated at the Ohio university, and three survive, viz: Oscar W., Win. Loring, and Archibald Douglas; the latter is cashier of a bank in Pomeroy, Ohio. One of the daughters, Mrs. Hannah Pratt, lives in Illinois, and the other, Mrs. Lucy Hey, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A. G. Brown, son of Captain Benjamin Brown, was born April 16th, 1798, near Waterford, in Washington County, Ohio, and has lived in Athens County since he was one year old. His youth was passed in working on his father’s farm (in Ames township), and in assiduous study and preparation for college. In due time he became a student at the Ohio university, and graduated there in 1822. From 1824 to 1825, he was preceptor in the academical department of the university. In 1825 he began the publication of the Athens Mirror, the first paper printed in the county, and continued as its editor and publisher for five years. From 1827 to 1833, he was county recorder, which office he again filled from 1836 to 1841, when he began the practice of law in Athens. In 1841 he became a member of the board of trustees of the university, which position he still holds. He was a delegate to the convention, which formed the present constitution of Ohio, and was for two years president judge of the Athens district. For many years past he has practiced law in Athens. Judge Brown came to Athens County when nearly the whole of its area was an unbroken forest and to the town of Athens when it was a mere cluster of log cabins. The personal friend and associate of the leading men of the community who assisted in building up society here, most of whom have passed away, he has witnessed the steady development of the county during considerably more than half a century. Looking back over its whole history to a period before it was organized, he may very truthfully say:

“Quae ipse vidi,
Et quorum pars magna fui.”

Judge Brown's sons, Henry T. Brown, an active lawyer and businessman, and Louis W. Brown, for many years clerk of the county, are natives of Athens, and well known in the community.

Dr. Eben G. Carpenter was born at Aistead, New Hampshire, in 1808. His father was a physician, and, of eight brothers, five studied medicine. Dr. C. graduated at the Berkshire Medical college at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1831, practiced in New Hampshire a year or so, came to Ohio in 1833 and settled at Chester, Meigs county (then the county seat). In 1836 he came to Athens, where he has lived ever since, engaging very actively in the practice of his profession. Dr. C. has been notably successful as an operative surgeon.

Neil Courtney was an Englishman by birth, and was, for a time, in the British navy during the revolutionary war. Near the close of the war, while the vessel on which he was serving lay off Long Island, he deserted the service into which he had been impressed, swam half a mile to shore, and assumed allegiance to the new government. He came to Athens. county in 1806, and settled one mile north of Athens, on what was afterward known as the “Courtney farm.” The following entries appear in the old records, of the county commissioners:

“April 8, 1809. The petitions of William Dorr and Neil Courtney, praying for an alteration in. the road leading from the Horse mill to the mouth of Sunday creek, and from Athens to Coc’s mill, read the first time. Petition granted. Jehiel Gregory, Samuel Moore, and Robert. Linzee appointed viewers, to meet at Neil Courtney’s on Monday, the 12th instant, at 9 o’clock A.

“December 6, 1810. The commissioners agreed, on condition that Neil Courtney produce to them satisfactory proof that he has worked, or expended on the alteration in the road leading from the Horse mill, near Esquire Bingham’s, to the mouth of Sunday creek, the sum of five dollars, that then said road shall be established. Proof filed in office of commissioners, February —, 1811."

Mr. Courtney died January 22, 1826, in his sixty-eighth year. Numerous descendants of his are living in this county.

Ebenezer Currier, born at Hempstead, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, December 15, 1772, came to Ohio in 1804, and to the town of Athens in 1806, where he lived nearly fifty years. He was one of the pioneer merchants of Athens. In 1811, having to transport a small supply of goods from Baltimore, he hired Archelaus Stewart to fetch them. The latter made the trip to and from Baltimore, all the way in a light wagon, and delivered the goods safely in Athens, after a journey of about two months. During Mr. Currier’s long residence here he filled several town and township offices, was justice of the peace, county commissioner, and county treasurer; was four times a member of the state legislature as senator and representative, and for about twenty-one years was associate judge of the court of common pleas. For more than forty years he engaged here in mercantile pursuits, in which he was quite successful, amassing a considerable fortune. Judge Currier died March 2, 1851. Many of his descendants live in the county.

Joseph Dana, born at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1768, was educated at Dartmouth college and graduated in 1788. He intended to pursue the ministry, but owing to delicate health did not carry out this purpose; he subsequently studied ‘and qualified himself for the practice of the law. He served some time in the Massachusetts legislature, but his health continuing frail, he resolved to leave New England. In 1817 he removed west and settled at Athens, where he at first engaged in the practice of law. Though never a ready speaker, Mr. Dana was a thorough lawyer and fine special pleader—a branch of the practice necessarily more cultivated in those days than now. About two years after coming here he was elected professor of languages in the university—a position for which he was admirably qualified by his fine scholarship and intellectual habits. His connection with the university continued till 1835 when the infirmities of age led him to resign his position.

Professor Dana was an accomplished scholar -and cultivated gentleman. He was, for many years, an elder in the Presbyterian church here, and a lofty intellectuality pervaded his religion and all his modes of thought. He died November 18th, 1849. His sons, Joseph M. Dana, Daniel S. Dana, Capt. William Henry Dana, U. S. N., and others of his descendants are well known in this community.

In 1815 Nathan Dean, with his family, mostly grown, of six sons and three daughters, came to this county from Norton, Bristol county, Massachusetts. The young people all settled here, and raised respectable families in subsequent life. Three of them, William, Gulliver, and John N. Dean, made the brick, in the summer of 1816, for the central building of the Ohio university in Athens, and later, in 1835, one of them, John N. Dean, made the brick for the two additional or wing buildings of the university. The eldest of the family, afterward Colonel Nathan Dean, settled near Amesville, in the eastern part of the county, and died much respected in the year 1839. At the time this family left Massachusetts, in 1815, the manufactures of the country were only so far advanced, that, in making nails, their heads were made singly by hand, and these brothers had worked considerably at heading nails by hand before coming to Ohio. One of their ancestors, James Leonard, is believed to have been the first man that manufactured iron in America, and a son of his, Jonathan Leonard, the first to manufacture, steel. Jonathan went to England and feigned to be simple in order to get work in an establishment manufacturing steel, and thus gained the knowledge which the English were studiously endeavoring to conceal from the artisans of other countries. Upon his return the firm of “Leonard & Kinsley” successfully engaged in the production of steel in this country.

Zadoc Foster, a native of Massachusetts, moved with his family to the northwestern territory in 1796. He came, like many others of that time, with an ox team as far as Olean point, on the Allegheny river, ‘and thence proceeded by raft down the Ohio to Marietta, in the autumn of 1796. Remaining that, winter in the stockade, he made a settlement in the spring at Belpre, and remained there till he came to Athens in 1809. During his residence at the Belpre settlement Indians were frequently seen, but had ceased to be considered dangerous, while the game was so abundant that deers and turkeys were sometimes shot, from the door of the cabin in which he lived.

Mr. Foster kept public house in Athens till his death, by the “cold plague,” in 1814, first in the McNichol house, on the lot now occupied by Mr. E. C. Crippen, and afterwards across the street, on the lot now occupied by Judge Barker. His widow, Mrs. Sarah Foster, continued to keep the tavern a few years after his death. She then began to teach a school for young children, in which vocation she was eminently useful and beloved during the remainder of her life. She continued to teach within four days of her death, which occurred in 1849.

Hull Foster, only surviving son of Zadoc Foster, was born in Sudbury, Rutland county, Vermont, January 23, 1796, and came to the northwestern territory, with his father’s family, when a few months old. His first visit to Athens was in 1804 or 1805. He came to visit Dr. Leonard Jewett’s family, and traveled on horseback from Belpre, there being no visible road, but only a horse path which crossed the river at the present site of Coolville. There was a sort of ferry at this point. At that time one Strickland kept public house in a log building, on the lot now occupied by Judge Barker, and Joseph B. Miles had a small lot of goods in a room of the same house. Timothy Wilkins had a cabin near where General John Brown now lives, and ran a little distillery in the hollow close by. Esquire Henry Bartlett lived in a cabin back of the college green, near the present site of Mr. J. L. Kessinger’s house. There was a horse mill on the point of the hill, a short distance northeast of town, on the Bingham farm. Mr. Foster, when a boy, drove the horse at this mill; the usual terms of grinding were, that parties should bring their own horse and pay one fourth of the corn as toll. In 1809 his father removed with his family to Athens. In the interval a few brick houses had been built; Dr. Eliphaz Perkins had built on the Ballard corner, and Esquire Henry Bartlett on Congress street, nearly opposite Dr. Wilson’s present residence; these, with Abbott’s tavern, the academy building, near Nelson Van Vorhes’ present residence, and a school house just east of where the Presbyterian church now stands, were, it is thought, all the brick buildings here in 1809. When about seventeen, Mr. Foster took up the trade of shoemaking—to use his own expression, “just as a cow does kicking—in her own head.” Between 1816 and 1820 he traveled with his kit on his back, through the west and southwest, visiting the present states of Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc. In 1821 he returned to Athens, resumed his trade, and built the house where Mr. Abner Cooley now lives. Soon after he married his first wife, a daughter of Mr. Ira Carpenter. Since then he has steadily adhered to his trade, at which he has worked for more than fifty years, and still works some, though under no necessity to do so. There is one family in the county for whom he has made shoes for five generations. He has been twice married—his second wife was a daughter of Mr. William Brown, of Lee township— and is now a widower. A man of strong sense, strict integrity, and marked force of character, his life and virtues are known and read of all his neighbors.

Natalie Cottrill, “An Annotated Biographical History of Athens County, Ohio” ProGenealogists (Online: ProGenealogists, Inc., 2004) [some original text by Charles M. Walker, published in Cincinnati, Ohio by Robert Clarke & Co., 1869, History of Athens County, Ohio and Incidentally of the Ohio Land Company and the First Settlement of the State at Marietta with personal and biographical sketches of the early Settlers, narratives of pioneer adventures, etc.], <http://www.progenealogists.com/athens/athenstownship.htm>.