| Notes |
"PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY " by Larkin
From the "Leader," by Mr. Charles Matthews, Washington,
D.C., February, 1908:
"Daniel and Timothy Smith, with their brother-in-law,
Bradbury Robinson, came from Vermont in 1805. With their fam-
ilies, household goods, wagons and stock, they floated down
the Ohio river, stopping at Belpre, Big Hocking and Leading
creek. The party, after looking at land and visiting the settle-
ments, concluded to separate. Timothy Smith and family
were landed at Silver run, while Daniel Smith and their
brother-in-law, having purchased their brother's share in the
boat, floated down the river to Cincinnati. Timothy Smith was
PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY 148
born in 1770, and married Polly Conner, who was born in 1772.
They had seven children, as follows: Charlotta Smith, born
May 24th, 1797, and married Elias Jones in October, 1814; she
died October 4th, 1871. John Adams Smith, born February
22nd, 1800, and married Deborah Paine, November 22nd, 1822;
he died January 10th, 1840. Elizabeth Smith, born January
9th, 1802, and married John S. Giles June 7th, 1818; she died
November 8th, 1842. Sarah Smith, born July 10th, 1804, and
married Obadiah Ralph, September 19th, 1822; she died Feb-
ruary 3rd, 1875. Anselin Smith, born in 1806, and died in
1816. Timothy Smith, Jr., born 1810, and died at the age of
nine months. Mary Smith, born December 19th, 1812, and
married Moses R. Matthews, April 10th, 1831; she died De-
cember 24th, 1893.
Timothy Smith erected one of the first grist mills in the
county. It was a tread mill, run by horse power, located on the
bank of Silver Run. He also mined the first coal, shipping to
Cincinnati on a raft. John Adams Smith, above mentioned,
was the man arrested by Virginia officials and confined in
Point Pleasant jail for running off slaves, and was rescued by
his Ohio friends in 1824, described in the paper by John S.
Giles, Jr., so ably for the Pioneer Society and published in the
"Telegraph" in 1875.
"In 1823 Hamilton Kerr, living at the mouth of Leading
creek, employed Adams Smith to act as guide for eight col-
ored men who were on their way to Canada, a not infrequent
occurrence for colored persons made free by their masters to
pass through the country on their way to Canada. So Mr.
Smith escorted the colored men to Columbus as hired by Mr.
Kerr, with no thought of wrong doing. The fact was that Kerr
had given aid to colored people, bond or free, to go north.
Slave owners on the Kanawha and on the Ohio river above
Point Pleasant had organized for protection and sent out de-
tectives on both sides of the river. They concluded that Smith
was guilty of aiding escaped slaves. In October, 1824, four
149 PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY
men from Virginia arrested Smith without authority of a war-
rant or law and took him by force into Virginia, and placed
him in close confinement in the jail at Point Pleasant, refusing
bail for him. This gross violation of the most sacred rights of
the citizens of Ohio, showing such contempt for the state's
jurisdiction that it excited universal indignation, and open vio-
lence was threatened to release Smith from his illegal confine-
ment. Many good citizens of Ohio, who had no disposition to
interfere with their Virginia neighbors in holding slaves, had
no doubt often unconsciously aided slaves many times in giv-
ing them food or answering questions as to the points of com-
pass when the traveling black man appeared at their doors, so
it was argued that if one man, like Smith, upon whom suspi-
cion had fallen, could be picked up without form of law and
carried beyond the jurisdiction of the state and there impris-
oned without the right of bail for a supposed criminal offense,
what security was there for others equally exposed? This
argument had its effect upon the excited people, and to the
formation of a vigilance committee, with regular station sig-
nals from Colonel Jones' landing, where the Grant's mill stood,
in Middleport, and from Smith's landing at the mouth of Sil-
ver run out to where John S. Giles lived in Rutland. So per-
fect was the arrangement that by the sound of horns trans-
mitted from station to station, an alarm would circulate over
the route in fifteen minutes if any suspicious person or com-
pany were seen at any of these points. Smith had been de-
tained at Point Pleasant jail six weeks, during which time a
plan had been matured to effect his release by force. John S.
Giles had visited him in jail, ostensibly to take him clothing,
but in fact to notify him of the arrangement and to be ready
at any moment. Information that was considered reliable
came from Point Pleasant of a plot to murder Smith in jail. It
was said that one of the Wagners had put one of his slaves in
the jail with Smith, who, in consideration of his freedom, was
to commit the murder. On receipt of this information hasty
PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY 150
preparations were made to carry into effect the plan for
Smith's release.
"It was secretly arranged that Martin Meeker, William
Hatch, John Woods, David Tyler, Obediah Ralph, William
Terry, Charles Giles and John S. Giles to meet on the bank of
the river at the mouth of Silver run on the evening of a day in
November, 1824. These men were noted among the early set-
tlers for their coolness, courage and great physical strength
and activity. They had taken the greatest precaution in with-
drawing from their homes without the knowledge of other
members of their families. All were armed to the teeth with
hunting rifles, pistols. One carried a flint lock musket loaded
with seven rifle bullets, another carried a dragoon or horse-
pistol loaded with three rifle bullets. They agreed on their
plan and chose John S. Giles as commander, and, having dis-
guised themselves by blacking their faces, they embarked in
an old pirogue and with muffled oars floated down the river on
their perilous adventure. It was known that the jail at Point
Pleasant was strongly guarded, but these men, smarting under
the outrage of their rights as citizens of Ohio, and aroused to
resentment by the frequent taunts of Yankee cowardice hurled
at them because they did not come and 'take Smith out,' as
they had threatened to do, with fears for the imminent danger
of the prinoner's life, had become desperate in their purposes.
The little craft was urged forward by the long, dull strokes of
the oars and landed eleven miles below at Point Pleasant. The
jail was a two-story frame building, standing about fifty yards
from the river bank, with two rooms below and two rooms
above. The front entrance opened into the jailer's room on the
lower floor, from which therewas a passage into the other
lower room, occupied as the jail. An outside stairs led to the
rooms on the second floor, at the top of which was a platform,
surrounded by bannisters and was used as a guard stand. The
room at the head of the stairs was called the 'debtor's room.'
On this occasion it was occupied by the guards, whose num-
151 PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY
ber had been increased to four men after the visit Of Mr. John
S. Giles. Without a word the attacking party divided, to make
a simultaneous assault on the jailer's room and upon the upper
room occupied by the guards. Meeker and Lyles reached the
guards' room, where they succeeded so as to find an entrance
for the muzzles of their guns, but the four guards inside held
the door, but the action in placing the guns was menacing
enough to restrain for a few minutes the guardmen, while the
work in the lower room was in progress. First into the jail-
or's room, who was in bed, and just wakened, he was kept
quiet by the presence of guns pointing close to him, while
with an ax the prison door was broken down, and Smith
jerked out of bed half asleep, and pushed through the door. The
object of the raid having been effected so far, and no one hurt,
they made haste to retreat and reach the boat as soon as pos-
sible. But the guards were out on the platform. Woods,
with his dragoon's pistol, fired; the gun failed, but his au-
dacity kept the guard back, thus enabling the party to gain
time in advance of their pursuers, for the jailer, as well as the
guard, were bold, brave men, and followed with such deter-
mined steps that the order was, given to fire on the pursuing
force. Terry fired with his musket and hit one of the guard,
who fell, the ball having marked his ear and cut through his
whiskers. Thus hindered, but while the Giles men were get-
ting into their boat, the guardsmen stood on the top of the
bank not more than forty yards away and began to fire. Dis-
regarding the firing they pulled for the opposite shore until
near the middle of the river when balls began to strike the
boat with precision. The boat was turned broadside to the
shore and the men lay close down in the side of the vessel un-
til out of range of the firing, all but Tyler, who refused to
obey this command to shelter himself, and received a ball
across the lower part of his breast that made a scar four or
five inches long. While holding the boat in this position and
floating down stream, out of the range of guns, the jailer had
PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY 152
taken a position behind a sycamore on the edge of the bank,
and his shots were very annoying. His head looked like a
knot on the side of the tree. And Hatch, the marksman of the
company, was ordered to fire at the knot. He shot, and the
ball, striking the side of the tree, filled the jailer's eyes with
splinters. When reaching the Ohio shore, the boat was aban-
doned, and the men walked home, and before daylight crept
to their beds so quietly that the members of their several
households were not aware of their having been away or ab-
sent. The Virginians suspicioned John Woods, John S. Giles
and Elisha Ayers, as three of the party that had broken the
jail in Point Pleasant, and threats were heard of taking these
men to Virginia, as they did Smith, and lynching them. This
was not done. A more peaceful and lawful way was adopted,
by seeking redress for their wrongs in the power of the law.
Indictments were found at Point Pleasant against Woods,
Ayers and Giles, and the Governor of Virginia made requisi-
tion on the Governor of Ohio for the surrender of the parties
to the Virginia authorities. The Governor of Ohio issued his
warrant and deputized Col. Lewis, of Virginia, to serve it.
When Col. Lewis crossed the river to make the arrests, the
people unaware of his authority, prepared to make a defense.
Col. Lewis went directly to Chester, the county seat of Meigs
county, and called to his assistance Thomas Rairdon, of Long
Bottom, Deputy Sheriff Newsom and Constable Dickey, of
Chester township. They went to make the first arrest of John
S. Giles in Rutland and satisfied him of their authority, and
he went without resistance, but they had not proceeded half a
mile, when twelve men in disguise stepped out of the woods
on Sargent's hill and demanded Giles' release. After some
parlaying, Giles convinced them of the authority from the
Governor of the State that this was a legal transaction, and he
was willing to let the law take its course, and they concluded
to acquiesce. Among the men who were about to interfere
were John Sylvester, Sr., Joshua Gardner, David Tyler and
153 PIONEER HISTORY OF MEIGS COUNTY
Burrell Peck. Giles, Woods and Ayres were taken to Point
Pleasant and lodged in jail, where they remained two months
before they were tried.
Giles and Ayres were found "not guilty," but Woods was
pronounced guilty and fined thirty dollars, which he refused
to pay, or allow his friends to pay, and boarded it out in jail,
refusing to leave until they would keep him no longer. Judge
Summers, of Charleston, presided at the trial, which was a
perfectly fair one. Judie Clough, of Portsmouth, and Judge
Fisher, of Point Pleasant, were attorneys for the defendants.
There was no evidence whatever against Ayres, and none
against Giles except the testimony of the jailer's wife, who
swore positively to his being one of the party that broke into
the room, but the jury was led to distrust her statement by
the strong evidence of an alibi proven by the defendant. Polly
Smith, a sister to Adams Smith, and afterwards the wife of
Moses Matthews, a girl then of twelve years, and Col. Everett
also gave strong evidence for the defendants which was all
owing to the sly movements of the party in coming and going.
After the conviction of Woods, the defendants made a
point that it was only a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and
imprisonment in the county jail, and the court concurred in
that opinion. A number of persons were presented to the
grand jury of Meigs county for interfering with Col. Lewis
when making arrests. Some were indicted but the evidence
was not strong enough to warrant a conviction.
John S. Giles, Sr., was born in Maine, February 28th, 1795,
and died in Rutland, O., May 18th, 1889, aged 86 years, 2
months and 20 days."
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West Virginia Pioneers
Abt 1770 - 1846 (~ 76 years)
[1]