Vinton Co, Oh

Description

(From the introduction) The material for Vinton County and Its Families was compiled over a period of many years. The information included is principally from 1850, the date of the establishment of the county, to the near present time (1996).

Sujets

• Histoire
• State
• Vinton County, Ohio
• History of the United States
• Comté de Vinton
• United States
• History
• Local
• OH

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 1996
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681622514
• Langue: English

Extrait

VINTON COUNTY OHIO HISTORY FAMILIES
Compiled by Family Heritage
Co-Published by Turner Publishing Company and Mark A. Thompson, Associate Publisher
Copyright 1996 Family Heritage
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the Society and Publishers.
The materials were compiled and produced using available information; Turner Publishing Company, Mark A. Thompson and the Family Heritage regret they cannot assume liability for errors or omissions.
Designed by: Carol Sue Irick
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 96-060403
ISBN: 978-1-56311-295-9
Limited Edition of 500 copies of which this book is number:________
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
I NTRODUCTION
H ISTORY
P ATRONS
B IOGRAPHIES
I NDEX
INTRODUCTION
The material for Vinton County and Its Families was compiled over a period of many years. The information included is principally from 1850, the date of the establishment of the county, to the near present time.
The participating families response has been most helpful and appreciated. Special thanks is extended to Claude Montgomery, Reverend Kathryn Puckett, Sharon Ogan, Virginia Reynolds, Mary Bay, L. Mary Perry, and Lawrence McWhorter.
Finally, those persons who contributed articles of historical interest are to be commended for their continuing efforts to preserve the history of the area.
Frances W. Hixon
Mary J. Queen
Founders of Family Heritage
F RANCES W. H IXON A ND M ARY J. Q UEEN

Frances Welch Hixon
Frances Hixon was born 15 May 1925, in Vinton County, the third child of Seth A. and Emma P. Libby Welch, residing on Irish Ridge with a mailing address of Route 2, Alice, Ohio (later known as Ewington). She attended a one-room school, Cooney School, until 1937 when the family relocated to a farm house, once the home of James Blakeley, a Revolutionary War soldier, approximately two miles southeast of Wilkesville.
Frances was married to John Edwin Hixon on 4 September 1948 at Russell, Kentucky and they have two children: Barbara Lynne, born 16 July 1954 and Mary Jo, born 5 July 1955.
In 1969, Frances took the General Educational Development test and matriculated to Rio Grande College, graduating in 1975 cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in elementary education.
Mary Queen graduated from Jackson High School in 1973 and was the class valedictorian. She graduated cum laude in 1977 with a bachelor of science degree in zoology and medical technology after spending three years at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and one year of clinical internship at The Hawkes Hospital of Mount Carmel in Columbus, Ohio. Currently, she is pursuing a master s degree in health services administration from Saint Joseph s College in Standish, Maine.
Mary was married to John Henry Queen, son of Jakey M. and Nancy Mae Robinson Queen, on 7 November 1990 in Greenup, Kentucky.
In 1993 Frances and Mary founded Family Heritage, a genealogical research organization dedicated to increasing the knowledge of the lives of the communities ancestors and to providing available materials in libraries for genealogical research purposes. Together they have published a number of reference books pertaining to Jackson and Vinton County, Ohio. These include: two volumes of Cemetery Inscriptions of Jackson County, Ohio; Wilkesville Township, Vinton County,Ohio; Clinton Township, Vinton County, Ohio; Naturalizations and Declaration of Intention for Jackson County, Ohio, 1860-1903; Soldiers Buried in Jackson County, Ohio; Soldiers Buried in Vinton County, Ohio; two volumes of Marriages in Jackson County, Ohio, 1816-1866, and 1866-1875; Marriages in Vinton County, Ohio, 1850-1870; Oak Hill, Ohio and Surrounding Areas; four volumes of Annals of Jackson County, Ohio; The Last Hangings in Jackson County, Ohio, 1883-1884; Wellston, Ohio, The Early Days; Index to the 1875 Atlas of Jackson County, Ohio; 1820 Census of Jackson County, Ohio; 1870 Census Index of Jackson County, Ohio; and seventeen volumes of the 1900 Federal Census for Jackson County, Ohio.

Mary J. Queen

TOWNSHIPS OF VINTON COUNTY
H ISTORY


Train Station at Radcliff, Ohio
E ARLY V INTON C OUNTY
The county has an area of approximately 402 square miles or 259,092 acres. It is irregular in shape with eleven miles of border on the west, and twenty-four miles on the east.
Vinton County was formed from various portions of Athens, Hocking, Jackson, Ross, and Gallia Counties in 1850. It originally was composed of eleven instead of thirteen townships as it is today. South and North Brown are now Brown, Madison, and Knox Townships. North Brown was a part of Hocking County, and South Brown a part of Lee Township in Athens County. North Brown, now plain Brown, was so designated from 1818 to 1850.
Five of Vinton s townships are less than a congressional township with Richland having more. Madison and Knox each are two-thirds of a congressional township; Clinton is five-sixths; Eagle is minus four sections, and Harrison two sections, while Richland has more than six sections.
As previously mentioned, Vinton was organized from five adjoining counties: Elk, Vinton, and Brown from Athens County; Jackson, Swan, and Brown from Hocking County; Richland and Clinton from Jackson County; Harrison and Eagle from Ross County, and Wilkesville from Gallia County.
T HE P IONEERS
The earliest pioneers had a number of occupations to support themselves and their families. Foremost was the making of burr stones for flour mills as there were several deposits of that mineral near McArthur. The soil was arable and suitable for the cultivation of grain and vegetables which soon gave rise to the making of corn liquor early on. Some time later coal and iron deposits attracted a sizeable immigration to the area and soon several charcoal furnaces were founded which increased the industrial prosperity and population.
T HE F IRST S ETTLERS
Two of the earliest settlers were Levi Kelsey, who came to Elk Township in 1802, and one Mr. Musselman, a miller and geologist who discovered the first burr-stone quarry about 1805-06.
These hardy settlers came to the county by walking or riding horseback along the creek valleys or by canoe if the streams had enough depth to allow canoeing. The majority of the settlers, however, walked or rode horseback on the Indian trails throughout the region. Initially, they settled on bottom land in the bordering counties but were so plagued by the mosquitoes in the late summer and by the chills and fever of ague (summer complaint) that many removed to the higher elevations in Vinton County.
Gradually, these Indian trails were improved by widening and filling boggy places by cutting trees and placing the trunks across the mire until they had a corduroy effect which allowed teams and wagons to cross easily. Travel was accomplished by horseback and stage until about the 1840s when it became possible to travel by railroad. The mineral wealth was the impetus for getting a rail line into the area. The location of the various deposits of iron ore were near Hamden (Hamden Furnace), Cincinnati (Richland Furnace), Hope Furnace near Zaleski, and Vinton Furnace. These were all charcoal furnaces and it was necessary to have large tracts of timber in the immediate area with which to operate the furnace. Richland Furnace, for example, owned 1900 acres in Vinton County.
T HE C HARCOAL F URNACES
Hope Furnace was one of 69 iron furnaces in the Hanging Rock Iron Region. The area extended over one hundred miles from Logan, Ohio to Mt. Savage, Kentucky and contained all the material necessary to produce high grade iron. This industry flourished approximately fifty years and was a leading iron producing center which was responsible for the rapid development of Southern Ohio.
Hope Furnace was started in 1854 by a Colonel Putnam and others, and had a capacity of 14 tons daily, with a stack 36 feet high. The remnants of Hope is within the Lake Hope State Park.
Hamden Furnace probably was built about the same time period and went out of blast about 1900. The Puritan Brickyard acquired the property and made brick for some years then it, too, became insolvent and was abandoned. Today, the manager s home and a large stack on the west side of State Route 160 marks the site.
Eagle Furnace likely had the same general characteristics but information on its operation or ruins cannot be found other than Eagle s capacity was 15 tons.
Richland, or Cincinnati Furnace, was built in 1853 by a McClanborg and others. It had a capacity of 13 tons. The land around the ruins is part of a wild life area with no buildings or signs of civilization other than a railroad with a tunnel nearby and a country road.
Each furnace had a community of several hundred persons, where workers and families lived. There was the general store, church, school, and cemetery. The occupations involved were laborers, teamsters, ore-diggers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal burners, storekeepers, bookkeepers, and the furnace owner or manager.
Wages were low and life was primitive. The 10.00 to 20.00 per month was paid in script to be used at the company store. Homes were provided by the company - usually dirt-floored log cabins. The manager had a home of wood or brick.
The furnace had an inner wall lined with firebrick or fine grained refractory sandstone. The outer wall was to support and insulate the inner lining. The space between the two was filled with sandstone rubble and sand.
There were two levels to a furnace with the top of the stack level with the storage yard. Sheds housed the charcoal and other supplies used in the furnace.
Charcoal was made in huge pits to partially burn conical piles of wood which was covered with damp leaves and earth to ex clude oxygen and insure charring rather than burning. These were called meilers and contained about 40 cords of wood or about an acre of virgin timber producing about 1600 bushels of charcoal worth 8 cents per bushel. Submitted