Ohio Counties

Historical Collections of Ohio

By Henry Howe

Vol. II

©1888

MEIGS COUNTY

Page 213

MEIGS COUNTY, named from Return J. MEIGS, elected Governor of Ohio in 1810, was formed from Gallia and Athens, April 1, 1819, and the courts were directed “to be temporarily held at the meeting-house in Salisbury township.” The surface is broken and hilly. In the west, a portion of the soil is a dark, sandy loam, but the general character of the soil is clayey.

Area bout 400 square miles. In 1887 the acres cultivated were 59,039; in pasture, 95,062; woodland, 44,112; lying wasted, 2,825; produced in wheat, 165,436 bushels; rye, 1,298; buckwheat, 260; oats, 73,338; barley, 1,032; corn, 313,447; broom-corn, 2,000 lbs. brush; meadow hay, 15,986 tons; clover hay, 821; potatoes, 66,966 bushels; butter, 407,854 lbs.; cheese, 7,410; sorghum, 4,050 gallons; maple syrup, 740; honey, 6,366 lbs.; eggs, 365,060 dozen; grapes, 9,360 lbs.; wine, 90 gallons; sweet potatoes, 1,384 bushels; apples, 31,659; peaches, 11,584; pears, 501; wool, 273,023 lbs.; milch cows owned, 4,255. Ohio mining statistics, 1888: Coal mined, 242,483 tons; employing 501 miners and 144 outside employees. School census, 1888, 10,157; teachers, 274. Miles of railroad track, 30.

Township And Census	1840.	1880.	Township And Census	1840.	1880.
Bedford,	566	1,720	Orange,	836	922
Chester,	1,479	1.752	Rutland,	1,412	2,340
Columbia,	674	1,116	Salem,	940	1,668
Lebanon,	621	2,020	Salisbury,	1,507	10,992
Letart,	640	1,365	Scipio,	941	1,720
Olive,	746	2,244	Sutton,	1,099	4,466

Population of Meigs in 1820, 4,480; 1830, 6,159; 1840, 11,455; 1860, 26,534; 1880, 32,325, of whom 24,481 were born in Ohio; 1,554, Virginia; 1,101, Pennsylvania; 230, New York; 118, Kentucky; 88, Indiana; 1,148 German Empire; 780, England and Wales; 178, Ireland; 69, Scotland; 30, France; and 26, British America. Census, 1890, 29,813.

The mouth of the Shade river, which empties into the Ohio in the upper part of the county, is a gloomy, rocky place, formerly called the “Devil’s Hole.” The Indians, returning from their murderous incursions into Western Virginia, were accustomed to cross the Ohio at that point with their prisoners and plunder, and follow up the valley of Shade river on their way to their towns on the Scioto.

The first settlers of the county were principally of New England origin, and emigrated from Washington county, which lies above. From one of these, now (1846) residing in the county, we have received a communication illustrating pioneer life:

People who have spent their lives in an old settled country can form but a faint idea of the privations and hardships endured by the pioneers of our new, flourishing and prosperous State. When I look on Ohio as it is, and think what it was in 1802, when I first settled here, I am struck with astonishment and can hardly credit my own senses. When I emigrated I was a young man, without any property, trade or profession, entirely dependent on my industry for a living. I purchased sixty acres of new land on credit, two-and-a-half miles from any house or road, and built a camp of poles seven by four feet, and five high, with three sides, and a fire in front. I furnished myself with a loaf of bread, a piece of pickled pork, some potatoes, borrowed a frying-pan and commenced housekeeping. I was not hindered from my work by company; for the first week I did not see a living soul, but, to make amends for the want of it, I had every night a most glorious concert of wolves and owls. I soon (like Adam) saw the necessity of a helpmate and persuaded a young woman to tie her destiny to mine. I built a log-house twenty feet

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square—quite aristocratic in those days—and moved into it. I was fortunate enough to possess a jack-knife; with that I made a wooden knife and two wooden forks, which answered admirably for us to eat with. A bedstead was wanted; I took two round poles for the posts, inserted a pole in them for a side-rail, and two other poles were inserted for the end