KNOX COUNTY OHIO - Norton's History of Knox County [Chapter V] ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Dave Ketterer Ketterer@empireone.net September 1, 2002 ************************************************ A History of Knox County, Ohio, From 1779 to 1862 Inclusive: Comprising Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes and incidents of men connected with the county from its first settlement: Together with complete lists of the senators, representatives, sherriffs, auditors, commissioners, treasurers, judges, justices of the peace, and other officers of the county, also of those who have served in a military capacity from its first organization to the present time, and also a sketch of Kenyon College, and other institutions of learning and religion within the county. By A. Banning Norton. Columbus: Richard Nevins, Printer. 1862 Entered according to the act of Congress in the year 1862 by A. Banning Norton, In the Clerk’s office of the Southern District of Ohio. ____________________________________________ CHAPTER V. RESUME OF THE COUNTY SEAT QUESTION.-- THE GRAPES WERE SOUR AND MOUNT VERNON IS DISCOVERED BY THE CLINTONIANS TO BE INELIGIBLE AND UEALTHYY. --THE LEGISLATURE OF 1808-9 WERE IN SOME DOUBT. --THE ANTI- VERNONITES THINK THE COUNTY SHOULD BE ENLARGED.-- THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF OHIO THINK NOT.--AGITATION CONTINUES 1810-11 AND 1811-12.--THE DREAM IS OVER--THE INHABITANTS BEG FOE ROADS--THE GREAT CLINTON LIBRARY STRUGGLES FOR LEGISLATIVE RECOGNITION, AND THE LIGHT EXPIRES! THE indomitable will of Samuel H. Smith and his associates from New England, among whom we may mention the Nyes, Ichabod, captain of the troop of horse, and his brother Samuel, Henry Smith, Samuel's nephew, Dr. Timothy Burr, the Barneys, Alexander Enos and others, kept the country in commotion about the seat of justice. No stone was left unturned, no effort untried, to bring about its transfer to Clinton. Petitions were drawn up and runners traversed the country for signers. From the official record we give the following exhibit of the disposition made of them: December 26th, 1808, Mr. Holden presented to the House sundry petitions from a number of the inhabitants of Knox county, setting forth that they feel much aggrieved in consequence of the ineligible and very unhealthy situation of the present seat of justice of said county, and for various other reasons therein stated, praying that commissioners may be appointed to fix the seat of justice for the said county of Knox in some more eligible and healthy situation; which said petitions were read and referred to a committee of Mr. Holden, Mr. Owings, of Fairfield, and Mr. Blair, of Franklin and Delaware, to report their opinion thereupon by bill or otherwise. Mr. Merwin, (Elijah B.) of Fairfield, presented, on the next day, a remonstrance from sundry citizens of Knox county against action as prayed for in above named petitions. The cunning old fox managing the Clinton claim devised an additional scheme whereby to bring about such increase of territory northward as would throw Mount Vernon farther from the centre than Clinton, and accordingly we find that— Mr. Holden presented to the House petitions signed by sundry inhabitants of Knox county, setting forth that it will be greatly to their advantage, and to the advantage of the public in general, to have the county extended so far north as to take in one tier of townships, as it will be perceived, by the map of the State, that the county lying north of them, known by the name of Richland, is much larger than Knox, and by attaching one tier of townships to said county of Knox it will be giving a more equal number of square miles to each county than there is at present; which was received and read, and referred to the same committee to whom was committed, on the 26th inst., the petitions, remonstrances, &c., on the subject of the seat of justice of Knox county.--House Journal, page 93, Dcc. 30th, 1808. On the 30th of December, on motion of Mr. Thomas Morris, of Clermont, and seconded, Ordered, that Mr. George Clark, of Columbiana and Stark, be added to the committee appointed on the 26th inst., on the subject of the seat of justice of Knox county, and the matters from time to time to them referred. On the 12th of January, 1809, on motion, and leave being granted, Mr. Holden presented at the clerk's table two remonstrances, of the same purport, from sundry inhabitants of Knox county, remonstrating against petitions presented to this House, praying for a review of the scat of justice of said county, and a removal of it from Mount Vernon to some more eligible and healthy situation. The rem onstrants therein set forth that they are fully of opinion that, unless a fraud or neglect be made to appear against the first viewers appointed by the Legislature at the last session for the purpose of permanently fixing the seat of justice of said county, that your honorable body wiII not grant a view barely for the purpose of gratifying self- interest; that, in consequence of the seat of justice being established at Mount Vernon, a number of lots have been purchased and improved, and also that upwards of $400 have been appropriated for the building of a jail, and for other reasons, by the aforesaid remonstrants set forth niore particularly, praying that the said petition praying for the removal of the seat of justice aforesaid may be rejected; and the same being received and read, were referred to the committee upon that subject appointed on the 26th ult. On page 115, House Journal, January 14th, 1809, the following entry stands: "On motion, and by leave of the house, Mr. Holden, from the committee appointed on the 26th ult., presented at the clerk's table a report, as follows: 'he committee to whom was referred the petition of sundry inhabitants of the county of Knox, praying that one tier of townships lying south of Richland county be attached to the said county of Knox; also sundry petitions from the inhabitants of said county, praying that commissioners be appointed to review and fix the seat of justice of said county in some more healthy and eligible situation than Mount Vernon; have, according to order, had under their consider- ation the said petitions, and are of opinion that the prayer of the said petitions is unreasonable, and ought not to be granted.'" Monday, January 16th, said report came up, and it was Ordered, that it be committed to a. committee of the whole House, and made the order of the day for Saturday next. On the 25th of January, House Journal, page 181, Mr. Merwin moved for the order of the day, whereupon the House, according to order, resolved itself into committee of the whole House, and, after some time spent therein, Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. .Jewett reported that the committee, according to order, had under their consideration a report of the select committee, made on the. 14th inst., on the petitions from sundry inhabitants of Knox county, and had agreed to the said report; and the same being read was agreed to by the House, viz: that the petitions aforesaid are unreasonable, and ought not to be granted. At the 9th session of the General Assembly, held ai Zanesville, December 3d, 1810, the subject of removal of the county seat from Mount Vernon was again agitated. By the Senate Journal, page 163, we find that Mr. Trimble presented a batch of petitions, praying a review, which was referred to a committee. On page 166, we find Mr. Trimble, from committee, reported that, in their opinion, commissioners ought to be appointed to examine and make report to the next Legislature the place they think proper for the seat of justice of Knox county. The said report was read. A motion was made that said report be committed to a committee of the whole Senate, and made the order of this day; and on the question thereon it was decided in the negative. On motion, Ordered, that the further consideration of said report be postponed till the first Monday in December next. At the next session it received its final quietus. Mount Vernon had improved in the intermediate time very much, and thenceforth its star has been in the ascendant. Clinton continues but a few years longer as a business place, and aftcr the departure of its chief worker to other parts, its people moved to Mount Vernon, Fredericktown, and else- where, and not one of the old inhabitants there remains to tell that Clinton has been an important town in the history of Knox county. On the 23d of January, 1809, Mr. Holden presented at the clerk's table a petition from sundry inhabitants of the county of Licking, also a petition from sundry inhabitants of the counties of Licking, Knox and Richland, setting forth their remote situ- ation from water carriage, and the necessity of having good roads; that they have no road whereby they can receive letters or any kind of intelligence, or any property from any part of the United States, or this State, except by chance or private conveyance, nearer than Newark or Zanesyille, and praying for the establishment of a road from Newark, in Hocking county; thence to Mount Vernon, in Knox county; thence to Mansfield, in Richland county; and thence to the mouth of the river Huron, Lake Erie, &c.; which were read. On motion, and on leave being granted by the House, Mr. Merwin presented at the clerk's table a petition from sundry inhabitants of Fairfield county, of a similar nature to the before mentioned petitions, praying for the establishment of a road from Lang- caster, in said county, through Mount Vernon, in Knox county to the Portage, in Cuyahoga.--House Journal, page 177 Among the questions of great moment at this time to time people of the State was, whether the Clinton Library Society should be incorporated or not. It appears that Samuel H. Smith and other live Yankees of Clinton had conceived the idea of founding a vast and comprehensive library at that point, amid at the session of the General Assembly of 1807 Mr. Dillon laid before the Senate a petition of Samuel H. Smith and others of the town of Clinton and its vicinity, in Fairfield county, for the in- corporation of the "Clinton Library amid School or Academy Society." After its reference to a committee, and about two months travail, it finally got through the Senate on the 6th of February, 1808. In the House it had a perilous trip, was attacked upon several sides, discussed elaborately, and at length went down before the storm.--House Journal, page 171. At the next session our literary friends at Clinton again pressed their favorite measure; they petitioned, implored, entreated, supplicated and prayed, they had lobbies on the ground to leg for it, and triumphantly they carried it through the House into the Senate, with an amendment to it, that was not very acceptable; but this thue the grave and rever- end Senators were obdurate and flint-hearted, and page 114 of the Senate Journal of the Seventh General Assembly shows how they "killed it." "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!" With a pluck worthy of a noble cause, the Clintonians beseeched and beset and besieged the next General Assembly for an act that would enable them to preserve their fine library from destruction by those literary Goths and Vandals--the moths and vampires; but all their efforts were unavailing, and posterity have been thus deprived of an accumulation of books that might in time have eclipsed the far-famed library of Alexandria. One of the oldest inhabitants has kindly placed in our hands one of the books, bearing the Clintonian mark, which he bought at the winding up of the concern for the just sum of 18 3/4 cents lawful money. Indignant at the conduct of the illiterate General Assembly, the stock-holders withdrew from the enterprise, and sold at auction the library for $7.50 and the book-case for $10; and thus terminated a great measure which agitated three sessions of the General Assembly of our State costing the people in time consumed upon it by their Representatives, Senators, etc., from eight to ten thousand dollars, and illustrating fully the character of the greater part of special and local legislation which, like much of a general character, may be termed all "cry and no wool," and show no substance, all ending in smoke. At the time, however, the natives of Mount Vernon regarded it as a seven horned monster that would drive them out of existence, and they looked with holy horror at having such an incorporated body at Clinton, which might accomplish their overthrow and cause them to lose the county seat. The sons of some who shook in their breeches with dread, may now shake in their boots, convulsed by laughter at this reminiscence.