Fayette County History & Genealogy

History of Fayette County

From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County

EARLY SETTLERS

The following names, after having been submitted to old settlers now living, revised and corrected, are taken from Putnam.

Edward Smith, sr., immigrated to Fayette County, in 1810, the same year it was organized. He entered his land on the waters of Paint Creek, since called the East Fork. The land was a dense forest, inhabited by Indians and beasts of prey. He erected his wigwam, and commenced clearing and improving his land, when, on a sudden, the war broke in on his arrangements, and he, with his neighbors, volunteered and served in the defense of his adopted state. At the close of the war he returned home and recommenced the improving of his land. On returning one night from Washington, during high water, he attempted to cross the creek, was thrown from his horse and drowned. He was the father of ten children; Sarah, Caselman, Mary, Susan, Kachel, Eliza, Selina, Edward, July and Maggie, all married. Mrs. Smith died, aged eighty-four. Edward Smith's family, Mary C. Caselman, Lewis, James, Len., John R., Noah, Rachel, and William, are all living. Mrs. Smith, wife of Edward Smith, jr., is living, and looks fresh and young, and is enjoying herself in her neat, tasty, and splendid mansion, where she entertains her numerous relatives and friends, in social chat, when they visit her.

Jacob Casselman, was a noted hunter and farmer. John Thomas, farmer, was in the war of 1812. Jacob Judy, a large farmer, was in the war of 1812, and was a man of note and influence. His old pioneer house is now occupied by his daughter. Colonel Joseph Bell represented the fourth district in congress several terms. Colonel Joseph Vance, sr., served in the French and Revolutionary wars. John King, farmer, Robert Irion, first surveyor, William Cockerall, first school teacher, John Irion, trustee, William Boggs, shoemaker, J. and S. Coffin, tailors, were in the war of 1812. James Pollock and Reuben Purcell, carpenters, also served in the war of 1812. William Brannon, sr., William Brannon, jr., James Brannon, C. Coffman, Hiram Rush, and N. Rush, were farmers. Dr. L. Rush, and Dr. B. Rush, are sons of the late William Rush.

Ananias Allen, Madison Allen, James Allen, Joseph Allen, Jesse Allen, Benjamin Allen, and Eben Allen, all lived on Allen Run, sometimes called Big Run. They were men of large hearts, business qualifications, extensive farmers, stock dealers and useful citizens. General Ethan Allen, of revolutionary fame, and all the Allens in America, are descended from Major Benjamin Allen, who fell in General Braddock's defeat, near Fort Pitt, in 1755. Robert Smith emigrated from Virginia at an early day and settled in Ross County, near Bainbridge. From Ross he went to Fayette. When the war broke out in 1812, he served as a soldier, (his father was in the revolution). He was a farmer. His family consisted of Isaac, Alfred, James, David, William H., Henry C, Jerome, Charles W., Eliza, Emma and Mary.

Edward Taylor was born in Pennsylvania, February 3, 1772. His father, William Taylor, was a soldier in the revolution. After the close of the war, he emigrated to Kentucky, and then to the northwest in 1793. During the Indian war he served as a spy. He located in now Ross, and purchased a tract of land of Joseph Carr, of Kentucky. He was the father of ten children, Edward Taylor, the subject of this record, was his sixth son. Edward emigrated from Kentucky, to Ross County, in 1808, and to Fayette County, in 1815. His first wife was Nancy Roach, by whom he had three children; she died in Kentucky, in 1807. He purchased two hundred acres of Nathaniel Massie, on Main Paint and Taylor Run, in 1815, and married Mary Smith, daughter of Edward Smith, by whom he had ten children: Rachel, Elizabeth, Edward, Nancy, Emily, Maggie and Washington. Edward Taylor is the patriarch of Fayette. In his one hundreth year, his mind unimpaired, health and general appetite good, he still, with the energetic aid of his wife, carries on the agricultural business on the old pioneer farm, which they have occupied and successfully cultivated sixty-two years, and raised a large family, all married and doing well—some in Fayette, some in adjacent counties, and some in the west.

Hon. J. S. Bereman was an early settler in the forests of Fayette. He has the credit of establishing and printing the first newspaper in the county. He has served his county in several important trusts county clerk, judge, representative, and clerk of that august body.

Hon. Daniel McLean, an early settler and a merchant, has held the oflice of judge, and is now president of the national bank. He is a man of wealth and influence, proverbial for his honesty and benevolence.

Joseph McLean, by occupation a farmer. He was one of our early immigrants. A man of integrity and a useful citizen.

William R. Millikan, editor and owner of the Fayette County Herald, was born in Ross County, and when of age emigrated to the west, and then back to Fayette. He is a nephew of Jesse Millikan, an early pioneer.

William Rush was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, on the 20th of October, 1783, and moved from there at ten years of age with his parents to Kentucky, where he resided five or six years, and from there they came to High Bank Prairie, in Ross County, Ohio, in about 1798 or 1799, and from there they came and settled in the Pickaway Plains, on the Scioto, in about 1800, where his father, John Rush, died in 1806.

His father, John Rush, was originally from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and settled in Hampshire County, Virginia, in the time of the revolutionary war.

William Rush married Eleanor Graves, about 1802, by whom he raised seven children, four sons and three daughters. She died in August, 1834, and he was again married, to his present wife, in 1835.

He removed from Pickaway County, Ohio, in December, 1816, and settled on the banks of Sugar Creek, Union Township, where he remained a period of nearly fifty-two years until his death, which occurred on Sunday night at ten minutes before nine o'clock of August 16, 1868.

At an early day he was a member of what was then called the Christian Church, but joined the Methodist Church about forty years ago, in the time of Quinn, Findley, Colbins, Eddy, and those contemporaries in this part of the country, and remained a member of that church until his death.

Mr. Rush was the last one of the pioneer settlers in that section of this county. A few years more and the pioneers of the county will all be gone; there is now but here and there one left.

Lieutenant John Millikan was one of the first permanent pioneers to the Scioto Valley, and was a man of prominence and influence. During the war of 1812, he served as a lieutenant, and was the father of William R. Millikan, present editor of the Fayette County Herald. Lieutenant Millikan died in 1813, lamented and respected by all who knew him. His -father served in the revolution.

Judge James Beatty emigrated to Fayette County, in 1818. Washington had but few log cabins, the county but seven townships sparsely settled. Deer and game of smaller species were in abundance. His grandfather, George Beatty, served as a minute man during the protracted war of the revolution. His father was Charles Beatty, who died in 1850, aged eighty-five. Judge Beatty was in the war of 1812 under Captain Isaac Heiskell, brother of the late John Heiskell of Clarke County, and uncle to D. 0. Heiskell of South Charleston, a brave Virginian, who was the son of a veteran of the revolution, Adam Heiskeil. About the time the enemy were preparing to attack Fort Stevenson, the frontiers were in great danger, and General Harrison wrote to the governor of Virginia to send to his aid the volunteer riflemen, organized under the state laws. Captain Heiskell, on getting the news, was soon on the war path. This was named the general call. Judge Beatty was then but eighteen years old. He belonged to the company, and was one of the first to volunteer in the defense of the frontiers, exposed to the British and Indians. The march was tedious and long. No roads nor public conveyances, but wild traces and trails made by the savages. They suffered untold privations and hardships, until they arrived at headquarters at Upper Sandusky, where were collected eight thousand militia, under General Mc- Arthur. The troops having arrived at Upper Sandusky, formed the grand army of the northwest. Judge Beatty helped to erect Fort Meigs.

Judge Beatty was elected and commissioned an associate judge, in 1847, and served with great acceptance until the new constitution was adopted. Judge Beatty is a strong minded enterprising man, possessed of an iron will; a man of sense and sound judgment, and every way qualified for the honor conferred upon him. He is an honorable man, strict and close to business, but honest and benevolent, kind to the poor. He was born in Virginia, in 1793, and is now seventy-eight years old. He holds his age remarkably well. His family record is, Newton, Milton, James, Mary, Henry Ferman, son-in-law. Newton is a farmer and stock dealer, Milton farmer and preacher, James, farmer, Mary married Henry Ferman. They occupy the old homestead, and the judge makes his home with them. In religion, the judge is a Presbyterian.

Robert Robinson, attorney, and an early representative of Fayette County; Honorable Wade Loofborough, attorney and an early representative of Fayette County. Colonel S. F. Carr, attorney, a man of sense, a military man, has held several important trusts, has represented the county in the legislature. His oration, delivered July 4, 1871, should be printed on satin, preserved, and handed down to the latest posterity. He was at the late pioneer fair and greatly enjoyed himself. Brice Webster, Robert Harrison, Joseph Orr, and James Harrison farmers. Thomas Walker, J. Walker and C. Walker died, aged ninety; James Timraons died, aged ninety-nine. Patrick Pendergrass, Thomas Pendergrass, James Allen, Samuel Webster, Moses Rowe, Daniel McLain, John Hues, B. Ball, (aged 98,) John Weeks, John Dehaven, (aged 101,) William Highland, Robert Geno, Abram Ware, David Thompson, Daniel Shiry, John Rankin, N. Evans, John Allen and David Morrisson. The above are all farmers and honest men.

Seth Dunn, hunter and farmer; Elisha Taylor and Colonel Jewett were all in the war of 1812; occupations, farmers. Nathan Loofborrow, Jerome Drais, and James McCoy were all noted stock dealers. Isaac Templeton, a day laborer, was father of eighteen children, (three sets of twins). Abel Wright and John Myers, tanner and farmer; Joseph Blackburn was ninety-nine, a tanner; Stephen Grubb, carpenter ; Judge Gillespie, a man of influence; Noah Devualt and George Hinkle carpenters; Zebedee Heagler and John Grady were the first butchers.

John Thomas settled at the mouth of the east fork of Paint Creek, about 1810, and was known all over the country as "chin" Thomas, on account of the remarkable extension of his chin.

Robert Harrison and William Downing, about 1808, came from Kentucky and located on Sugar Creek. They were industrious, energetic men, and good citizens.

Samuel and Frank Waddle came from Kentucky, in 1810, and settled on Sugar Creek.

Henry and Jacob Snyder came from Virginia, first to Ross County then to Fayette, locating on Sugar Creek, in 1809.

David and John Wright settled on Sugar Creek, in 1808. The former had a remarkable memory, and could, after once reading, repeat fifty or more pages of matter.

Leonard Bush came with a large family from Virginia, in 1808, and settled on Sugar Creek.

Fielding Figgins, with four or five sons, came from Kentucky and began farming on Sugar Creek in 1809.

The Millers came from Virginia, in 1810, and settled between Washington and Sugar Creek.

The Coils located near Bloomingburg, in 1809.

Jacob Judy came from Virginia and located on the east fork of Paint Creek, in 1809.

A Mr. Smith settled on Paint Creek, in which he was subsequently drowned.

It appears that for a long time uo settlements were made in the immediate vicinity of the present site of Wasliington.

John Orr settled on Paint Creek, about two miles southeast of Washington, in 1808.

Valentine ("Felty") Coil was one of the early settlers of Union Township and Washington Court House. During the early Indian wars he was captured at Ruddle's Station by the Indians and Cana- dians under Colonel Byrd when about two years of age, and with his sister carried across the Ohio, at Cincinnati, to Niagara Falls, thence to Canada, where he was adopted by a squaw who had lost a son, with whom he lived until his marriage. It is said that the notorious Simon Gerty, who captured him, met him at a public house in Canada, and after inviting him to drink, and when under the influence of fire water bantered him for a fight, which being refused he grew very loquacious, and revealed to him where all his friends were. On the strength of this. Coil went to Kentucky and found an uncle, who went with him to Virginia and found his mother, who had married a man by the name of Hendricks. When he saw her, she did not recognize him. He asked her if she had lost a son. She replied that she had and would know him by a peculiar mark. On examination the mark was found, and the son reclaimed. He returned to Canada. His wife dying, his sister Polly went to Canada, and together they came first to Chillicothe, then to Fayette County, and set up a distillery near Washington; finally abandoned it and came to Washington. It is said he made whisky in Canada for the English Fur Company. He was sold by the Indians to a British ofiicer, whose wife imposed on him. and made a slave of him.