Athens County

Athens County, Ohio Cemeteries

For considerably more than half a century after Athens Township was settled, the dead were buried in the old grave yard northwest of town, which was set apart for that use by the trustees of the university in 1806. The place never was ornamented to any extent, and for many years past only a few forest trees have given it their grateful shade. Here, a little apart from their surviving friends, rest the fathers of the village. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock’s shrill clarion or the echoing horn No more … Read more

Athens County, Ohio Census Records

Free Athens County, Ohio Census Records Census Records at Access Genealogy Ohio Tax Lists Athens County, Ohio 1810 Tax List 1820 Census Index Alexander, Ohio 1820 Census Index Ames Ohio 1820 Census Index Athens Ohio 1820 Census Index Canaan Ohio 1820 Census Index Carthage Ohio 1820 Census Index Dover Ohio 1820 Census Index Elk Ohio 1820 Census Index Homer Ohio 1820 Census Index Lee Ohio 1820 Census Index Rome Ohio 1820 Census Index Troy Ohio 1820 Census Index York Ohio 1820 Census Index Census records at RootsWeb’s USGenWeb Archives List of Adult Males 1800 and 1803 – Residents of the … Read more

Dover, Athens County, Ohio History

The township of Dover originally formed a part of Ames, and as such was settled as early as 1799. It was not, however, separately organized as a township till 1811. On the 4th of April, 1811, the county commissioners ordered: “That so much of the township of Ames as lies west of the thirteenth range, be erected into a separate township by the name of Dover. 1 Ordered, further, That the clerk of the board notify the inhabitants of the township of Dover to meet at the house of Othniel Tuttle in said township, on Saturday, the 20th of April, … Read more

Dover, Athens County, Ohio Genealogy

Dover, Athens County, Ohio Genealogy Daniel Weethee was born in New Hampshire in 1779. He was a cooper by trade, and saved money enough, during his youth, to buy a tract of land in what is now Dover township. At the age of nineteen he set out for the northwestern territory, made the tedious journey on foot and alone, and reached Marietta about the middle of December, 1798. The next spring he and another young man, Josiah True, came out to Dover, traveling through the woods by the aid of a compass. Arrived here they built a log cabin for … Read more

Dunmore’s War

Dunmore’s War Probably but few of the present inhabitants of Athens county are aware that a fort was established within its limits, and an army marched across its borders, led by an English earl, before the Revolutionary war. The building of Fort Gower at the mouth of the Hockhocking river, in what is now Troy township, and the march of Lord Dunmore’s army across the county, thirty years before its erection as a county, forms an interesting passage in our remote history before the earliest settlement by the whites. “Dunmore’s war” was the designation applied to a series of bloody … Read more

Athens County, Ohio History

Athens County, Ohio History The county of Athens was established by the following act: “An act establishing the County of Athens. SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc., That so much of the county of Washington as is contained in the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, which shall be known by the name of Athens, viz : beginning at the southwest corner of township number ten, range seventeen; thence easterly with the line between Gallia and Washington counties, to the Ohio river; thence up said river to the mouth of Big Hockhocking river; … Read more

Athens Methodist Church, Athens County, Ohio

The establishment of the Methodist church, here, antedates that of any other religious society. Three quarters of a century ago, this denomination had already developed that spirit of energy and religious enterprise, which has not only made it the pioneer church, and forerunner of other denominations, but has caused it to become the most powerful church organization in America. We have quoted elsewhere, from the Rev. Mr. Quinn, an account of a missionary tour, which he made up the Hockhocking valley in 1800, when he preached at Athens. The Methodists have had a society here from that time, and during … Read more

Athens Newspapers, Athens County, Ohio

The first newspaper published in Athens, was The Athens Mirror and Literary Register, commenced in 1825, by A. G. Brown. The Mirror was political and literary in its character, printed once a week on paper of super-royal size (sixteen pages about nine by five inches to each number), and continued through five years. It was printed on a wooden press with a stone bed, and required four pulls to each sheet. Several copies of the old Mirror, running from January to May, 1829, are before us, and furnish some interesting bits of local history. Each number contains the advertisements of … Read more

Athens Presbyterian Church, Athens County, Ohio

The First Presbyterian Society of Athens was organized in the autumn of 180y by the Rev. Jacob Lindley. The original members of the organization were but nine in number, viz: Joshua Wyatt and wife, Josiah Coe, Arthur Coates, Dr. Eliphaz Perkins, Alvan Bingham, Mrs. Sally Foster and the Rev. Jacob Lindley and wife. Public service was held for a time in the little brick school house which stood just east of the present site of the Presbyterian church, and afterward in the court house until the year 1828, when the present brick church was built. In 1815, the church numbered … Read more

Athens Township Schools, Athens County, Ohio

The first school established in Athens was in 1801, and was taught by John Goldthwaite. The school house (a log one) was situated on Joseph Higgins’s place, about three miles south of Athens. Henry Bartlett taught in this house several quarters, between 1802 and 1806. Michael Higgins, now seventy-four years old, attended Esquire Bartlett’s school, and relates that, on one occasion, when the scholars undertook, according to a custom then prevalent, to bar the master out, on a certain day, and had made all very fast, Mr. Bartlett procured a roll of brimstone from the nearest house, climbed to the … Read more