The Entry of Land

Jackson Township

            The location of Jackson Township, remote from any considerable water-course, delayed its settlement for a few years. The valley of Indian Creek, however, was too rich a tract of country to remain long in its primitive state, and about the middle of the twenties the settlers began to arrive, but not in considerable numbers until the thirties, at which time the greater portion of the land was entered by actual residents. The first man, if accounts are correct, to locate permanently in the township was John Hamilton. He came to the township in 1825, and the following year entered a tract of land where now stands the thriving little village of Morgantown. He had a family of five or six children. He was scarcely in the township before he was joined by Daniel Troxel, Thomas Teeter, Samuel Teeter, Robert Bowles, John Shrum, William Williams, Sampson Canatsey and a few others, all of whom located in the vicinity of Morgantown on Section 24 and 25. It cannot be stated with any certainty that Mr. Hamilton was the first settler. Indeed there are evidences that he was not. The first land entered from the Government in the township was on Section 1 in July, 1821, by William W. drew and Elisha Herndon, but if reports are reliable neither of these men resided in the township. William Harriman entered a tract on Section 26 in 1824, but it is stated that he did not reside there. He lived in Washington Township. William Knox came in 1828, locating on Section 25, on Section 13 in 1828, and Jesse Daugherty on Section 21 the same year. Finney Courtney and Jonathan Hostetter entered land on Section 26 in 1826, but no traces of their residence in the township could be found. They probably soon sold out to actual residents. Thomas Hudiburgh entered a tract on Section 26 in 1828, and another tract on Section 27 the same time. These were about the only land owners who had entered their farms from the Government in the twenties, but there were other families in the township who were too poor to purchase land, and then again, there were other families who had bought their farms second-hand. The names of such cannot be given.

            The settlement received great accessions early in the thirties. It was the custom in that day and naturally enough, for families to locate near each other. Occasionally a man had the hardihood to go out into the woods eight or ten miles from any other resident, but circumstances of this kind usually only occurred with the very earliest families, who were sure to be soon joined by others and thus a small settlement or colony would be formed with the said first settler as the founder thereof. Early in the thirties, families began to locate in all parts of the township, and the neighborhoods of unimproved land were soon a thing of the past. Among those who bought land and settled in the township were the following: James Blair, Robert Grant, Elijah Vandergriff, John Gross, Benjamin Roberts, Francis Helton, Thomas Barnes, Abraham Cooper, John Francis, James Hamilton, James Dillon, Robert Bowles, Edward Choat, Jacob Haase, Samuel Kemp, Henry Kephart, James T. Hickman, Emory Norman, Alexander B. Kelso, Charles B. Kelso, William Norman, John Whittington, William Kent, John Kemp, Jacob Adams, Josiah Clendenen, Samuel T4roxell, James B. Kelso, Avery Magee, Randolph Lawrence, Peter Epperson, Daniel Shireman, David Haase, Daniel Avery, Hugh Adams, Milton Hickson, Daniel Adams, Henry Hamilton, William Kemp, Wilbur Kemp, Peter Dill, Abraham Kephart, Samuel H. Voils, Stephen Howell, William Howell, Thomas Ross, Mitchell Rose, James Little, Charles Leonard, Isaac Gross, Benjamin Reynolds, John Lake, James Kemp, W.W. Helton, Joshua Bowles, Evan Reynolds, Samuel Hudiburgh, Abraham Mull, Jacob Sipes, Joseph Reeder, Talmon Groves, William Williams, William Norman, J.M. Coonfield, Peter Reeder, Anthony Bowles, Thomas Owen, Henry Lawrence, John Kenley, and many others in the thirties.

Source: Historical and Biographical. Charles Blanchard, Editor. F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers, 1884.