OLD TIMES
Gilruth on Early Settlers in Lawrence County
From the Ironton Register
1 Feb, 1872, to 18 Jul, 1872
Transcribed by Mary Ann St. Louis
11 Oct, 1998
The following interesting letter, written by Reverend James GILRUTH, over 80 years old and who has been in the Methodist ministry for over 50 years, was furnished by General W. H. KELLY, to whom it was written. It treats the early settlers in the lower part of the country and the upper end of the Scioto. We are promised more of this valuable correspondence and will be pleased to give it to our readers.
In undertaking to give a statistical history of the lower end of Lawrence, the upper end of Scioto, and the central part of Greenup Counties, I am not stimulated thereto by any hope of gain, either of fame or that of pecuniary nature. Nor is it my aim to enter into those pioneer settlers’ political or moral character, nor extensively into their social practices.
I desire to make you and those who may feel interested acquainted with some facts regarding persons, times, and places, which I am satisfied no other living mortal can. These facts I give entirely from memory, having kept no written records of any of them; that there may be errors in dates and names is altogether probable.
Beginning at the mouth of Storms Creek, from what it obtained, this name I never knew. Amaziah DAVIDSON made the first settlement on the lower point of the creek, on a fraction of some eighteen acres. He sold it to Jacob SUITOR and moved to the first farm above the French Grant. Jacob SUITOR lived here for several years, then sold it to Reverend John LEE, bought a tract of land in the Narrows above Ice Creek, moved to it, and opened a farm.
LEE added to the tract he bought from SUITOR approximately 400 to 500 acres of Congress land (which had been entered by Amaziah DAVIDSON but forfeited and reverted to the Government). It opened a fine farm, proving himself to be an intelligent farmer. I never knew his wife’s maiden name. His children were all daughters: Mrs. James HENRY, Mrs. Samuel HENRY, Mrs. Christian YINGLING, Mrs. Joshua KELLY, and Peninah. Mr. LEE, for an illiterate man, was an able and successful minister in the regular Baptist Church, extensively and favorably known. He was instrumental in forming a respectable church and building the first meeting house at the bottom. It stood on the brow of the creek bank, a few rods from his home.
Josiah LAMBERT (I think was the old man’s name) formed the next settlement below. I never knew his wife’s name. His children’s names were: Job, Jonathan, Richard, Susannah, Abigail, and Pricilla. Job settled above Ice Creek at the foot of the hill. Richard occupied the homestead farm. Jonathan LAMBERT farmed the farm below Richard. I have forgotten his wife’s name—their children, the oldest of whom is a girl, whose name I have also forgotten. Next, a son, whose name I believe was Thomas. The LAMBERTS owned good farms and were all respectable farmers and citizens.
Below the LAMBERTS lived an old Englishman named SHOOT [Shute]. His name I have forgotten, and that of his wife I never knew. He had a son named Richard, who, after his father’s death, lived with Thomas GILRUTH in the French Grant until he came of age. Mr. SHOOT was a regularly bred wagonmaker, the first and only one of the trade in this, or either of the bottoms next above or below. But as wagons were very little used among these early settlers, he found little or no employment as a wagonmaker. Still, being a strong, industrious, and energetic man, and having also learned how to handle the spade, he did a great deal of ditching of ponds and swales, a thing as much needed for health as for profit.
In this vicinity, below, lived old Mr. Carpenter, a Baptist, and the first preacher of any kind in this area. He preached occasionally but made no attempts to form a church or administer the ordinances. I think it is probable that he was not ordained. He had one son named William. He became an ensign in Captain John KELLY’s company of militia, learned to survey, and kept the first store between Storms Creek and the French Grant. He was one of the most intellectual men raised in those times in this vicinity: he married Hannah Clarke, sold out, and moved to Missouri.
Below CARPENTER’S settled Tilman SHORT (*) [see end for more on Tilman Short family], a tall, raw-boned, active man. After the SHORT family, who lived in the same place as the landowner, came Samuel CLARK. I never knew his wife’s name or that of her parents; (she died before CLARK moved into this place). Their children were Samuel, Cornelius, Joel, Hannah, James, Rebecca, and Amos. Mr. CLARK was a house carpenter and wrought at that business, there being no other in those days in that bottom. He also worked on building horse mills in connection with Peter LIONBARGER, Sr., and Samuel, Jr., who left and went to Letart Falls, where he married Miss DARBY and settled. Hannah married Mr. CARPENTER; I lost track of the rest.
James SPERRY, on a fraction of 60 acres above Osborne’s Run. This farm is overgrown except for a small building site. His wife’s maiden name was Sarah FERGUSON. SPERRY farmed a little and wrought a little occasionally as a stonemason at building chimneys; he also made some grinding stones, etc. SPERRY had no competition, yet his charges were reasonable. In those days, almost every settler raised a little batch of cotton, about equal to what the family could manufacture. One great difficulty consisted in picking out the seed. Then came a man named Barlow, who built a small cotton gin, set it up in this place, and picked the people’s cotton on shares or for a certain amount of cash per pound.
John KELLY bought this gin, I think, for $60. At about this time, the seasons became so unfavorable for cotton growing that this business failed in these parts, and Kelly’s gin investment proved a failure. SPERRY lived here for a few years and then sold out to a German by the name of Frederick BOTTLES [sic], whose wife’s maiden name was ABRIGHT. After a few years, BOTTLES [sic] sold out and moved west.
Between Osborne’s Run and Norman’s Run, the first settler was an old German named NORMAN (*), from whom Norman’s Run took its name. I never knew his given name or that of his wife. They had one daughter, the wife of Gabriel NEFF, who came to these two parts at the same time. Between these two has since grown a small village, named Hanging Rock, which has done considerable business in manufacturing bar iron and shipping pot metal.
The settlements mentioned earlier were all made between 1800 and 1805, as I recall. But some of the persons named came on at a later date, viz.: LEE, CLARK, MORRISON, BARLOW, and BOTTLES. Those marked thus did not own the land.
Below, the Carpenters settled Tilman Short (landowner), whose wife’s name is forgotten, along with their children, Elizabeth, Payton, and Sally. Elizabeth married Phillip Kouns; Sally married Wm—Davidson (near Burlington).
Tilman Short —. Wife Unknown
Children:
- Elizabeth Short was born 22 Jun 1789, Maryland; died 28 Jul 1861, Gallia Co., OH. married Phillip Kouns
- Payton Short
- Sarah Sally Short married William Davidson; [I need to verify this as William Davidson, who married Sarah Short, as mentioned in the Ironton Register on 11 Oct 1883, Rev.Wm. Davidson, one of the veterans of this county, d. South Point last week; his son, Commodore W.F. Davidson of St. Paul, Minnesota, was at the funeral.]
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