John and Lydia Spracklin settle on Solomon Goss Land in Knox Co., Ohio

John and Lydia settled on the land in Knox County, Ohio, purchased by Solomon Goss, Lydia’s father, from Zaccheus Biggs on 28 July 1802.

Mr. Biggs has a patent for land for Knox County at the BLM Land website as well as many others. On the patent it states that he obtained the land, “4000 acres, appropriated for satisfying Warrant for Military Service.”  The Biggs family was very busy in Ohio buying and selling land.  They were not the only ones.

The link below to the BLM will take you to the search page.  I used in my search, Ohio, Knox Co., and “Biggs.”  This search will get you to the patent Biggs had for Knox County.  It showed up at the bottom of the search page.  If you just search for Zaccheus Biggs you might not get the one you want.  Also be aware that they spell the name most creatively especially the first name in many abstracts and documents.

The Biggs Patent before Solomon Goss

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx#searchByTypeIndex=0&searchTabIndex=0

Title Transfer:  3/20/1800

Land Office:  Ohio,

Authority:  June 1, 1796 United Brethren Warrant (1 Stat.480)

Survey:  Ohio

Acres:  4000

Accession/Serial Nr.: OH2100

BLM Serial Nr.: OH No S/N

Sec. 2, Twp. 6-N, Range 14-W, US Military Survey, OH, Knox 2nd quarter of Township

There is a deed at the Washington County Historical Society in Marietta in the stacks in books. It is down the hall and around the corner.  This society was given a great many records from their county courthouse so you may have to check with them for older records.

Zaccheus Biggs is selling 450 acres of land to Solomon Goss in 1802.  The deed is very hard to read and of course the book contained only a copy of the original deed handwritten by the court clerk. It was very faint in certain parts of the document where the ink had faded.

Zacch* Biggs)

Deed)

Sol. Gofs) 

Know all men by these presents that I Zaccheus Biggs of Jefferson County in the Northwest Territory, Esquire. For and in consideration of the sum of Four hundred and fifty dollars to me paid in hand before the ensealing hereof, by Solomon Gofs of the County of Washington in said Territory, husbandmen, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge and myself therewith contented and satisfied, I do hereby give grant bargain sell and convey unto the said Solomon Gofs his heirs and asfsigns forever a certain tract or parcel of land lying and situate in the County of Fairfield in the Territory aforesaid containing four hundred and Fifty acres, bounded and butted as follows viz:  beginning at a post at the Northeast corner of Section Number Two in the Sixth Township of the fourteenth range of the United States, Military Lands ___ called, thence [west ] Seventy two chains [courfing a small branch of Owl Creek  thirty Links upside of a post, thence south sixty two chains & thirty links to a post Thence east Seventy two chains to a post thence North Sixty ___ chains __________to place of beginning.  To have and to hold the gr____and bargain premises with the privileges and appurtenances thereof to him the said Solomon Gofs, his heirs and asfigns forever as of Fee Simple and ____ said Zaccheus Biggs _____any heirs, executors and administrators.  Covenant with the said Solomon Gofs his heirs and asfigns that I ____lawfully Seized is free of the premises that they are free from all impediments _____ that I will so warrant and _____the same.  To the said Solomon Gofs his heirs and asfigns forever, against the lawful claims and _______of all persons claiming __________________.

In witnefs whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal the 28^th day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred & two.  Signed and sealed by Zac’hs Biggs

Singed Sealed & delivered in the present of ___Rufus Putnam and So____Putnam

Washington County __ Personally appeared this twenty eight day of July, Eighteen hundred & two Z___ Biggs signer and sealer to the witnessed Instrument and acknowledged it to be his act & deed Before me.

____Rufus Putnam Justice of the Peace.

412 Washington County __ January 15, 1803 __________is a true copy and text Dudley [Headbridge] Rec’d

Page 1 of the Zaccheus Biggs deed of Land to Solomon Goss 1802

In 2007, I was traveling in the northern part of Ohio.  I had attended the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) conference in Fort Wayne were the Allen County Library is located.  After that conference I headed east to Ohio which is about two hours to get to Kenton, Ohio and then another hour to Mt. Vernon, Ohio.  I couldn’t pass it up.  Knox County was part of Fairfield County till it broke off after this deed was written and recorded in March 1, 1808.

The Recorder of Deeds in Knox County is in the Records Center and they had this huge map of Knox County dated 1847.  Yes, before three of the townships were annexed to Morrow County which was established in 1848.  I purchased the large map for $5.00.  I do not know if they are still selling them?

The Knox County Genealogical Society is in the basement.  If you visit stop by.  Their hours are limited so check their website.

The deeds are on the main floor and the court records are in the basement of the Records Center near the genealogical society.

This website is for all government offices in Ohio so be careful if you start exploring, they do have a map to the location, I have identified Knox for you:   http://www.ohiorecorders.com/knox.html

Knox County Records Center, Ohio, Go here for the Records for Knox Co, Ohio

Lovely Courthouse but it is not where the records are!

Here is a portion of that map featuring the townships of Liberty and Bloomfield Twps. Remember South Bloomfield was part of Knox in 1847 but became part of Morrow County in 1848.  The area in yellow highlights the Spracklin land and a little more.

Knox County before Morrow is formed 1847

NOTE:  This map is not only important for Spracklin Research but for anyone who had family in Knox Co., Ohio in 1847.  This is also important to me for my John and Mary Keller research. The parents of Elizabeth Keller who married Daniel D. Spracklin a son of John and Lydia Spracklin.

Interesting stuff:  In the past I have mentioned Rufus Putnam and the deed above is signed by a Rufus Putnam. He was a Justice of the Peace in Washington County.  I visited his land in North Brookfield, Massachusetts where he lived before he left for Marietta, Ohio.  I visited Campus Martius and viewed the house that he lived in.  They had it indoors inside the museum to preserve it.  The land office building is outside this museum.  He knew the Goss family.  He knew Capt. Philip Goss and Judith and probably Philip Goss and Keziah Cooley.

Try this link to his papers at the Marietta College Library Special Collections.  Who knows you might get luckier than me and find something about your family.  Click on the finding aid to see all the people he interacted with in his life.  Does the name Timothy Pickering mean anything to Goss researchers.  Also try the search engine.  Enjoy.

http://drc.library.marietta.edu/handle/2374.MARIETTA/428

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Mound Cemetery, Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio

Mound Cemetery Entrance Gate

To find the grave site of Solomon Goss and his wife Olive, his son David and the two babies of Solomon Goss, Jr, I studied the cemeteries of Marietta and its surroundings.

Map of Mound Cemetery – also one in the book

Mound Cemetery is one of the oldest.  Was it possible that they transported Solomon’s body to Mound Cemetery from Fearing Twp.?

I was not finding Solomon, nor Olive and their family in any of the Fearing Twp. Cemeteries so I decided to explore Marietta closely and learn about the history of the cemeteries in the area.  I was disappointed to find out that they did not keep records till about 1858 and older burying grounds were opened for development and the bodies were moved at various times to either Mound or Oak Grove.

An Overview of Mound Cemetery

There is a very excellent book that I have already mentioned in the last post.  I suggest that you get a copy of it if you can and read the chapters that are about the history of the area they do mention names of deceased in these pages other chapters including a very carefully prepared listing of the plots and graves in the last couple of chapters.   This book is at the Ohio Genealogical Society in Bellville, Allen County and probably in a major genealogical society or library near you.

 ”Mound Cemetery, Marietta, Ohio” by Owen Hawley.  This is an excellent book published in 1996 by the Washington County Historical Society.

Mound Cemetery, Marietta, Ohio

This book describes the really old cemeteries/burying grounds and what happened to them and the bodies – Here is the Table of Contents:

• Prologue:  Requiem
• East Marietta Burial Sites Before Mound Cemetery

a. Emerson Hill (Old Burying Grounds) “The earliest cemetery was east of the Muskingum in Marietta was the “Ten Acres lying between City Square number thirty-three and the tree acre Lots…which is to be kept as a burying ground forecver (Archer Butler Hulbert, Records of the Ohio Company, Marietta, 1917, II 208) This covers City Square 33 which is the entire block bordered by Sixth, Seventh, Tupper and Wooster streets….Location of this earliest burial ground appears on the “Plan of the Town of Marietta” signed by Rufus Putnam, Superintendent of the Ohio Company’s Surveys, 20 April 1802. ” Names are listed that were buried there but no Solomon Goss. page 5. “…26 others whose remains were exhumed in 1871 and reinterred in the Pioneer Lot in Sect. 19 Oak Grove Cemetery.”  Only two could be identified positively.

“The hill-hugging Pioneer Lot in Sect. 19 in Oak Gove Cemetery is marked by a white monument bearing only the legend “To the Memory of the Unknown Pioneers who Rest Here.  This stone is erected by the Washington Co. Pioneers Association, A.D. 1875.  Names pass away but deeds live on.” In front of this onument are two bronze DAR and SAR gravemarkers for James Michell Varnum…Englehard Hopper.”

Note: The Washington Co. Pioneers Association is defunct and is now the Washington Co. Historical Society.

b. Warren Street at Third Street “This burial ground was opposite City square 11…only one Warren Street burial was recorded: that of Brig. Gen Benjamin Tupper…remains were removed to Mound cemetery.

c. Wooster Street at Third Street…the site of another early East Marietta cemetery.”  It is unclear as to whether the burials were removed to Mound Cemetery?

• Burial Records and Reading of Mound Cemetery
  • “Strange as it may seem, with certain exceptions, Marietta did not always keep a careful record of where it planted its dead.  This is true even of Mound Cemetery for a  considerable part of the 19th century…Rufus Putnam to whom that land had been leased in March 1791 gave the Square to the town for use as  a public burying ground.  It was not, however, until 3 May 1803 that trustees of the Ministerial Land officially set aside a portion of Mound Square as a burial ground; since the ground lay within Section 29 (Ministerial Land), only its trustees could make such official designation.”

“Although no written record of interments was kept before August 1858 it is possible to determine that by May 1803 there and been four burials in Mound…”

It goes on for pages about the history of the Mound Cemetery.

• Marietta’s Ancient Earthworks
  

  The Mound in Mound Cemetery

• Cemetery Fence, Gate and DAR Memorial Plot
• The Receiving Tomb (Ward Stone Vault)
• Tombstones, Stonecutters and Gravestone Designs
• African Americans in Mound Cemetery
• Other Happenings in Mound Cemetery
• Funerals, Funerary Customs and Memorial Verse
  • “…The burial of one early Mound Cemetery couple attests to this.  Caleb Thorniley Sr. died 26 August 1807; his wife Mary (Alcock) Thorniley died within 48 hours on 27 August 1807.  John Holt, Joseph Lincoln and Nathaniel Saltonstall also died during this time.  Writing to his brother Dudley Woodbridge Jr. from Marietta on 5 September 1807, William Woodbridge began: “I am sorry the truth will warrant me in saying that our little town has been and continues to be unhealthy, not withstanding its well merited character of healthiness, a fever has raged among us almost as fatal as the yellow fever. Majr. Lincoln is dead & his wife is at the point of death.  Nott is dead.  Old Thorniley & his wife are dead…There is scarcely a family at the point up and down the Ohio for many miles which has not one or more sick in it.”
  • Conditions during the summer epidemic of 1822-1823…were even more grisly than they had been in the epidemic of 1807.  Since the mortality rate was higher, an even larger number of people were given unceremonious burials. ”
    • There is much more description in this chapter than I have written here.  I was interested in the epidemics.
• Abbreviations, Symbols and Sources
• Burials and Plot Owners – lists in detail the burials they know about and other research done like newspapers
• Index to Buried Names – a quick index to the names throughout the book
• Epiloque: Passage from Shakespeare

Mound Cemetery’s Dedication to the Pioneers of the area.

The  plaque below reads: To the Memory of the Soldiers of the American Revolution buried in Washington County, Ohio Whose Graves are Unknown, erected by the Marietta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution 1927.  In front of this memorial are rows and rows of the DAR emblem with the names of some of the soldiers on them.  No Solomon Goss was listed.   On my visit I did not go to the DAR house which, I believe, was across the street from the Oak Grove Cemetery.

The DAR Plaque for the Revolutionary War Soldiers

Abraham Whipple’s Monument

Ebenezer Sproat’s Tombstone

On my trip to Massachusetts in the Spring of 2011, I took a drive up to the home of Rufus Putnam’s when he was living in North Brookfield.  In my post dated April 13, 2011 “Monday, April 11, 2011: The Brookfields, At Last.”  This was described in my blog about my trip to Massachusetts and Connecticut in 2011.  I wrote about this visit to Horseshoe Lake.  You will have to scroll to just after the North Brookfield Library to find the part about Rufus Putnam. http://massmeanderings.blogspot.com/

You cannot study the history of Marietta without seeing or hearing about Rufus.  I even visited the Campus Martius and toured his house.  I believe he knew my Goss family.  See the post dated September 13, 2011 “Marietta and Washington County – A Dream Come True!” written for this blog where I discuss visiting Rufus’ house in Marietta.

The tombstone of Rufus Putnam a very important man in the history of Marietta and more

This is a very interesting cemetery and well worth exploring:  Find A Grave has this cemetery listed but I do not know if they have all the tombstones included so you might want to consult the book above and also talk to the cemetery office.

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Daniel Goss a Man of Conviction, Belpre, Ohio!

Belpre Water Towers

Daniel Goss was another son of Solomon Goss and Olive (Scott) Goss. He migrated to Belpre, Ohio to live.  Belpre is about 14 miles south of Marietta.  You follow the highway as it curves south along the Ohio river.  Belpre is tucked in along the north edge of the river as it turns west and then curves south.      

Daniel is often confused with a possible younger brother David Goss. Daniel was 10 years older than his younger brother.   

Daniel was born 23 September 1790.  The census indicates that he was born in Virginia, which is very interesting. 

West Virginia was not established till June 20, 1863 when it seceded from Virginia during the Civil War long after the death of Solomon Goss, the father.  One of the goals I have had is to track Solomon Goss and determine the route he took to get to Ohio from Eastern Pennsylvania. If Daniel was born in Virginia, this means that a search of Virginia records is in order.  I have done some research into deeds in Williamstown, West Virginia looking for his brother-in-law John Andrews Spracklin.  I didn’t have much luck. This is another item for the ToDo list. 

Daniel died 18 November 1868 in Belpre, Washington Co., Ohio according to his tombstone (see below).  He is not listed in the death records at the courthouse, which is very curious? He is buried in Rockland Cemetery, Belpre, Washington Co., Ohio.

Daniel Goss 1890 to 1868

It reads:  Daniel Goss, Born Sept 23, 1790, Died Nov. 18, 1868, Ae 75 yrs, 1 mos. and 25 days. There is more wording on the tombstone and so far it escapes me what is written there?  

The publication I consulted didn’t give any more detail about what was written on the tombstone.  (Click the photo and it will open to a bigger picture but don’t forget to click the back button to return to this post.)

Source:  Rockland Cemetery Inscriptions, Belpre Twp., Washington Co., Ohio FHL#977.198 V3r, pg. 92, 1982, by the Washington County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. 

FindAGrave has a listing for this cemetery but no Daniel nor Lydia is mentioned. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&GSln=McCualsky&GSiman=1&GScnty=2123&CRid=42977&pt=Rockland%20Cemetery& 

The USGenweb Archives Ohio has more information and photographs and no Daniel or Lydia Goss:   http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/washington/photos1-index.html

I was so happy to find his tombstone and view it.  There was no stone for his wife Lydia and actually no stones close around him.  It is possible she is there but not identified? 

The Belpre Historical Society is updating the cemetery transcriptions and trying to make it easier to find the stones.  I called them before I went to Ohio and they were very helpful.  They gave me the section and lot number so I could find him easily. Rockland is not a small cemetery. 

Belpre Historical Society, Belpre, OH

Rockland Cemetery is south of Hwy 32/7 and best reached via Hwy 618 or the James A. Rhodes Appalachian Hwy/Washington Blvd.  The cross street is Victor St. 

On July 1, 1815 Daniel Goss applies for a license for the purpose of manufacturing or making leather.  A bond is made for $300.00.  This was signed by Daniel Goss.  Followed by a James Whitney and Wm. Skinner as securities. This document was in the Special Collections at the Marietta College.  It is several pages and very fragile.

License to Make Leather!

Daniel acquires land in a deed on  2 October 1815 from his father Solomon Goss for the land in Knox Co., Ohio.  In this deed Solomon refers to Daniel as his “third son of the Town of Bell-Pree.”  There are two pages for this deed.  Here only one page is featured.

Daniel Goss was very active in Belpre. 

pg. 506 Belpre Twp. – Prior to 1815 Daniel Goss, a native of New England, settled near Miles mill. Thos. Burt Hibbard owned the place in 1858 and in 1875 according to maps of those dates. He (Daniel) had a tan-yard. He was a leader in the Methodist Church, and helped organize its first society.”

pg. 519: Belpre Twp. – During the fall and winter of 1820-21 a soc. was organized (Meth Episcopal), there being the first class books thirteen names, as follows: Daniel GOSS and his wife Lydia, Samuel Hooper, Clarissa Ackley, William P. Howe, A. Gridley, Eliz. Howe, Leroy Gridley, Susan Oaks, Susan O’Brien, Chester and Caroline Gridley and Louis Bradford. Daniel Goss, who was one of the most energetic of the early Methodists, was appointed class leader. Among his papers there were found the old subscription paper for the building of the church: – in this list Daniel gave $40.00 in a long list and Solomon Goss gave $2.00.

A log church was built near the forks of the Little Hocking north of Centre Belpre (or Porterfield), of which church there is now (1881) no vestige. The quarterage paid in 1821 and 22 was twelve dollars and 13 1/4 cents, and was subscribed in the following sums: Daniel Goss, cash $2.50 etc.

The Cedarville Church – By the year 1832 the Methodists in Belpre decided to build a house of worship at Cedarville, on the Ohio. Daniel Goss and Daniel Ellenwood were among the first trustees and members of the building committee.

Source:  1788-1881 History of Washington County, Ohio with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, published by H.O. Williams & Bros in 1881 and reprinted in 1976.  Sponsored by the Washington Co. Historical Society. Please note that there are several history books on Washington Co., Ohio and it can get confusing.  Porterville and Cedarville do not show on current maps having become part of Belpre.   Historic Map Works has a great Belpre Township map for 1875.  You can find Cedarville on the Ohio just as it turns west and across from Blennerhassett’s Island.  Further west by the “Belpre Middle Settlment” is the name T. Hibbard.  This was the former land own by Daniel Goss. Apparently the use of Porterville was gone by 1875 and it was known as Centre Belpre. 

Daniel appears in another history that covers Belpre:

pg. 112: The Temperance Reform – Daniel Goss, Perley and Wm. P. Howe, Geo. Dana Sen. and O.R. Loring…prompt in this work. It was the custom in earlier years when neighbors gathered for a “Raising Bee’ to lubricate them freely with whiskey, but the sentiment of the Christian men in Belpre was so far advanced that when the frame of the Methodist Meeting House in Rockland was raised in 1832, no ardent spirits were provided. This is said to have been the first frame so raised in Washington County…”

 http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/The-American-Temperance-Society.html

pg. 121: Chapter XII, Slavery and the Underground Railroad: “There were in Belpre — people gloried in the name of “Abolitionists’ though it was given to them by both Whigs and Loco Focos, as a term of reproach. Among these were Capt. John and Mr. Jonathan Stone, Perley Howe, Daniel GOSS, Joseph Smith, T. B. Hibbard and others in different parts of the town.”

Underground Railroad in Belpre, OH

More on the underground railroad in Southeastern Ohio http://henryburke1010.tripod.com/id60.html

I can’t help myself but Wikipedia gives this explanation for the term Loco Focos:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locofocos 

Pages 183-185 – Methodist Churches – there were occasional services held by itinerating Methodist ministers from Virginia in various homes in the township but the commencement of this part of the history was in 1820 when a class of thirteen members was organized with Daniel GOSS as leader. Of this number two soon withdrew and two were expelled leaving nine. About this time a log meeting house was erected near the Little Hocking about one mile north of Porterfield Station, and in the vicinity of the home of Daniel Goss. All traces of this building have disappeared….

About April 1st, 1832 work was commenced on the proposed meeting house and the 9th of June following, the third quarterly meeting was held in the building. The work was greatly facilitated by the memorable flood of 1832 on which the lumber was floated by Daniel Ellenwood from the mill on Little Hocking. This is memorable as being the first building in Belpre Twp. that was raised without liquor and at which there was neither accident nor want of help. In 1842, Daniel Goss was leader of Class No. 2 which met in the church.”

Source:  A History of Belpre, Washington Co., by C.E. Dickinson D.D., Ohio, Globe Printing & Binding Co., 1920. This book is online at the Internet Archive. 

In still another history book:  History of Marietta and Washington Co., Ohio

pg. 390 – Barlow Methodist Episcopal Church…

pg. 391: The Barlow Methodist Episcopal Church. The site of the present (1902) church was selected and deeded by Jesse Lawton and John M. Proctor to John Houghland, Luman Richards, David Ormiston, Daniel Goss, and Jacob Bridges, trustees (1836).”

Source:  History of Marietta and Washington Co., Ohio and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by Martin R. Andrews, M.A., Biographical Publishing Co., 1902.

I was unable to locate an estate file for Daniel but I did find a deed. This deed was dated July 10, 1867 and recorded a year later July 13, 1868.  It is in FHL#935960 Vol. 68 pg. 343 of Washington Co., deeds.  Daniel Goss, Gilbert O’Neal, Samuel Barkley, Thomas McFarland and Jesse Pride are the Grantors and they are selling land to Grantee John Edswick for $5.00, in Cedarville, Ohio.  This is a quit claim deed. The men listed as Grantors are the Trustees of the ME Church. The description is very detailed regarding the land being sold. It is interesting that this was recorded just months before Daniel’s death. 

Daniel was listed as an heir in the estate file of his sister Mary Goss.  See the post on this blog dated:  December 18, 2011 “Mary Follows Her Brother Solomon Goss to Iowa!” 

Daniel Goss was apparently a man of conviction and faith.  In the next post Daniel’s marriage to Lydia Ackley will be discussed.

******

Notes:  I was surprised to find the sign (see above) regarding the Underground Railroad in Southeastern Ohio outside the Belpre Historical Society.  Later we were returning to Columbus to fly home, my husband and I drove up Hwy 77 and turned west on Hwy 70 and we stopped in Zanesville. 

We went to the Pioneer & Historical Society of Muskingum County, Ohio and learned about the town being divided in half on the issue of slavery and that if was very dangerous to assist runaway slaves.  In the house was a hiding place for the runaway slaves under the floor.  It looked very small and cramped.  If you click the link to this society you will find another name mentioned.  Does the name Rufus Putnam mean anything to you?

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