Athens County Ohio Genealogy and History

In early times, and for many years after the organization of the county, the passage of the river was made by ferry boats-little scows which were poled and rowed across. In 1800 there was a ferry kept by old Arthur Coates (called Coates’s ferry) a few rods below where the south bridge now stands, and another one called Harper’s ferry, kept by William Harper, about 100 yards above where the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad crosses the Hockhocking, west of Athens just where the road turns. Mr. Harper lived a short distance the other side of the river, and Isaac Barker,…

Rome was formed from a portion of the township of Troy in 18 11. The first entry on the subject, in the records of the county commissioners, is as follows: “Thursday, April 4, 1811.-Ordered by the commissioners, That so much of the township of Troy as is contained in the original surveyed townships, numbered 5 and 6, in the 11th range, and 6 in the 12th range, be erected into a new township by the name of Rome. . “Ordered by the commissioners, That their clerk notify the inhabitants of the township of Rome to meet at the house of…

The first person who settled in what is now Rome township was David Dailey, a veteran soldier of the revolution, and decidedly ” a character.” Born in Vermont in 1750, he removed to western New York after his discharge from the army, and thence to Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, whence he migrated in the year 1797 to the northwestern territory. With his family, consisting of two daughters and five sons, of whom Benonah H. Dailey, of Carthage township (the youngest son), is now the sole survivor, he came down the Ohio river in a pirogue to the mouth of the Hockhocking, and…

Trimble township was originally a part of Ames, from which it was stricken off and separately organized in April, 1827, It lies at the extreme northern limit of the county, on the waters of Sunday creek, the main branch of which runs, somewhat centrally, from north to south, through the township. It was named after Governor Allen Trimble, one of the early governors of Ohio. The first settlement made in this township was by Solomon Tuttle, Sen., in 1802. He, with his son, Cyrus Tuttle, and his brother, Nial Tuttle, all from Vermont, settled on the main creek. Soon after…

Jonathan Watkins, Sen., came from Athens township in 1803, and settled in the lower part of Trimble, and soon after Eliphalet Wheeler settled near him. Mr. Watkins was a blacksmith, but, like most of the early settlers, occasionally engaged in hunting. He shot a buffalo soon after settling in Trimble, and broke its fore leg. He pursued the animal, thus crippled, from Green’s run in Trimble township, across Wolf plains, and over the Hockhocking some distance, but failed to capture it. Samuel Clark settled here about 1820. James Bosworth, from Fall River, Massachusetts, came here in 18 2 1, but,…

This township was settled under the auspices of the Ohio Company in the year 1798-about a year after the settlement of Athens and Ames. Some events connected with its history can, however, be traced back to a period nearly twenty-five years prior to that date. We have referred elsewhere to ” Dunmore’s war” and to the building of a fort at the mouth of the Hockhocking in 1774. When the first settlers came into Troy in 1798, the outlines of Dunmore’s camping ground were plainly discernible. Over a tract containing about twenty acres young saplings and underbrush had grown up,…