The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1947-05-29

away, and a small cooperative
library was installed there. To
relieve the monotony of the long
winter evenings the Dunhams bought
a membership in the library and
Dunham walked back and forth with
books.
These he and his wife read by the
light of pine knot torches. 1t ruined
his eyes, Dunham related, but many
nights he sat up and read to his
wife while she was hatchelling,
carding or spinning until IL or one
o'clock.
AS time rolled on the payments on
Dunham's land became due. Money
was scarce in Ohio then but the
hardy pioneer did not despair Since
his credit had improved since the
calico incident some of the steers
other settlers were raising were sold
to Dunham on credit. Others he
bartered for.
Taking only a knapsack the forest
settler started alone with his cattle
to Romney on the Potomac. There
he sold them and went to Litchfeld,
Connecticut, and paid for his land.
He had just 81 left to pay his ex-
penses back home-siz hundred miles
away.
Sells Hair Combs
So Dunham worked awhile and
made so cents. With that and his
dollar he started back to the Ohio
forest. He spent the dollar for
cheap hair combs, which with
Yankee pleasantly" kept him very
comfortably at the private homes
where he stopped on his return
journey.
The farm where the Dunhams
honeymooned in the forest now is
just over the Washington County
line in Meigs County. When Return
Jonathon Meigs formed Meig'
County from parts of Gallia ant
Adams Counties in 1919 he ran tn,
county line just north of the Dun
ham place.
Belpre, Waterford and Duck Creel
were settled in 1889 by pioneer
from Marietta. Some of those a
Belpre were Peregrine Foster, Sam
uel Cushing, of the 48 on the frs
: boatload to Marietta, and JOIN
Roose, Irsael Stone, Aaron VALID
Putnam, George and Israel Putnam
Israel Loring and Ichabod Nys, wh'
came a few weeks later.
Nye sold his Belpre lot to Aarol
N. Clough, who with Stephel
Guthrie, Joel Oakes, Joe Leavins
Elmer Curtis, J. Littleton and Davi
Brown came just in time to be hem
med in there during the first India
war. Brown had moved over fror
Waterford. A William Browning
also was there.
FirSt Onlo Library
The Belpre library, from whic
Aaron Dunham borrowed books, wa
part of the Israel Putnam librar
and was taken to Belpre in 179(
The books were kept at the hom
of Isaac Pierce, the librarian an
shares in the library We're valued a
so each. Among the books wer
''Loeke's Essays on Human Under
standing: Lives of the Englis
Poets," by Johnson; history o
England" by Robertson; and Gold
smiths Animated Nature" 1t wa
the first library in Ohio, antedatin
the "Coonskin Library" Anne
Athens County, and the Cincinnati
Library, organized at Yeatman'
Tavern in 1902, several years.
At Waterford in 1889 were Benja
min Convers, Gilbert Dwell, Phinea
Coburn, William Gray, Haffiel
White, Samuel Gushing, John Dodge
Allen and Gideon Dwell, George
William and David Wilson, DAME
Davis and Daniel Convera, of tn
families who first came on tn
Adventure Galley. !
White and John Dodge built girls
mills on Wolf Greek which di
much to tighten the work of grind
ing grain by hand among the SET
tiers. At Duck Greek, three mile
from Marietta, mills were put II
by Ebenezer Sprout and Enoe
Shepherd but were driven away fror
them by the Indian war. Highe
up, near the Duck Greek settlement
a mill was built by Thomas Stanle
but it also was put out of busines
by the Indian war.