Land Entry in Jackson Township

    The location of Jackson Township, remote from any considerablewater-course, delayed its settlement for a few years. The valleyof Indian Creek, however, was too rich a tract of country toremain long in its primitive state, and about the middle of thetwenties the settlers began to arrive, but not in considerablenumbers until the thirties, at which time the greater portion ofthe land was entered by actual residents. The first man, ifaccounts are correct, to locate permanently in the township wasJohn Hamilton. He came to the township in 1825, and the followingyear entered a tract of land where now stands the thriving littlevillage of Morgantown. He had a family of five or six children.He was scarcely in the township before he was joined by DanielTroxel, Thomas Teeter, Samuel Teeter, Robert Bowles, John Shrum,William Williams, Sampson Canatsey and a few others, all of whomlocated in the vicinity of Morgantown on Section 24 and 25. Itcannot be stated with any certainty that Mr. Hamilton was thefirst settler. Indeed there are evidences that he was not. Thefirst land entered from the Government in the township was onSection 1 in July, 1821, by William W. drew and Elisha Herndon,but if reports are reliable neither of these men resided in thetownship. William Harriman entered a tract on Section 26 in 1824,but it is stated that he did not reside there. He lived inWashington Township. William Knox came in 1828, locating onSection 25, on Section 13 in 1828, and Jesse Daugherty on Section21 the same year. Finney Courtney and Jonathan Hostetter enteredland on Section 26 in 1826, but no traces of their residence inthe township could be found. They probably soon sold out toactual residents. Thomas Hudiburgh entered a tract on Section 26in 1828, and another tract on Section 27 the same time. Thesewere about the only land owners who had entered their farms fromthe Government in the twenties, but there were other families inthe 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 familiesto locate near each other. Occasionally a man had the hardihoodto go out into the woods eight or ten miles from any otherresident, but circumstances of this kind usually only occurredwith the very earliest families, who were sure to be soon joinedby others and thus a small settlement or colony would be formedwith the said first settler as the founder thereof. Early in thethirties, families began to locate in all parts of the township,and the neighborhoods of unimproved land were soon a thing of thepast. Among those who bought land and settled in the townshipwere the following: James Blair, Robert Grant, ElijahVandergriff, John Gross, Benjamin Roberts, Francis Helton, ThomasBarnes, Abraham Cooper, John Francis, James Hamilton, JamesDillon, 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, SamuelTroxell, James B. Kelso, Avery Magee, Randolph Lawrence, PeterEpperson, 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, JamesLittle, Charles Leonard, Isaac Gross, Benjamin Reynolds, JohnLake, 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, JohnKenley, and many others in the thirties.

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