The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1869-03-25
Personal RecOllectiOns...NO. 8.
By D. MAcKLEY.

add few recollections here.
Mr. Seel was the first permanent
white settler in Jefferson township.
He settled there in the year 1914. He
paid the first tax ever paid in the town
ship, being the sum of TWEEN ty-fiye
cents. When can fl st remember, he
resided in little cabin, few rods
west of where John Phillips now re-
sides. That was little over mile
from the place where my father resided,
and as he and my father were both
Germans, they were very intimately
acquainted. Mr.. Seel was wild and
frolicksome in his youth, but during
the last twenty years of his life he was
a strict member of the Church Of the
United Brethren. The first school |
ever taught, was in the winter of 1887
s, in a log cabin, on the bank immedi-
ateIy north Of Gallia Station. Several
Of Mr.. Seel's boys went to that school,
and ! was much about his house, Mr.
See was a good neighbor, and never
forgot his old friends. The last time |
ever saw him he came into my Office.
He appeared as bright and lively as he
had done forty years before.
When he thought he was wronged
be was relentless. He had lawsuit
with one David Morgan, a neighbor,
and he never forgaye Morgan. When
the trial ended, and Secl was beaten, he
said to Morgan, "Dave, there is hemp
growing foryou Justice will one day
overtake you" Soon after the lawsuit
Morgan moved west, and many years
afterwards he killed a man and was
hung for it. have heard Seel many
and many time speak of Morgan's
death with evident satisfaction. He
said Morgan had compelled his (Mor-
gan's) son, to swear lie on that trial,
and he always thought that justice
would overtake him,
This lawsuit was a big thing for our
neighborhood in that day. l was at
the original trial OF the case. / was a
small boy, and can just remember it.
The case was tried before my uncle,
Solomon Mackley, who was then a
justice of the peace in Jefferson town
ship. He resided just west Of Portland,
on the farm now owned by John
Thomas Seel gained the case before
the justice, and Morgan appealed !
went to-day and examined the record
Of the case in the Clerks office. The
case came to trial before a jury at
March Term, 1880. Judge Irwin was
the Circuit Judge, and David Paine,
James Stephenson and John James
Associate Judges. The Declaration
was drawn up by John T. Brasee, at
torney for David Morgan, and con-
tanned three counts. 1t set out that
Peter Seel had hired Thomas, minor
son Of David Morgan, to work for him
ono month, for which the said Peter
promised to pay the said David six
dollars, fifty cents of which was to be
paid in lawful money Of the United
States, and the balance to be paid in six
hundred fax linen and james, at the
market price, but that he had failed to
make said payments, Pug
Nathan X. Clough, attorney for Seel,
filed his plea, in which he set up that
the said Peter had paid thesaid David
in full, as follows; 't''
81 yds. fax linen at so cts.,,...Sl rs
"a yds. flax and toe linen,a ,at4l cts, OF
one jacket pattern OF striped james, 80
Cash, -, ,..,.'...., I5U
and that be had rendered to the said
David 3 yds, linsey at rs cents per
yard. The declaration stated that the
contract had been made May 5, 1898,
and the plea claimed that payment and
tender had been made the ensuing fall,
The action was termed, under the old
pleading, Action on tho Case. The
suit was commenced before tho justice
in 1929, and submitted at the March
term, 1880, to the following jury:
Robert Brown, Isaac Washburn, Tim
othy Radoli1f, Samuel Stephenson, John
Jacobs, John $. Stephenson, Thomas
Hartley, Charles Rose, John Miller,
John Grnyhom and John Elliott. who
brought in q verdict for plaintiff tor
SIS rs against Seel. whom they recom-
mended to mercy &e.l5 aa 1al ta
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DIseRAcEFuL,- I'VE saw a man, on
Sunday last, with two little children,
one scarcely able to walk, who was in