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Grandview Township's First Trustees Journal | Our Annual Calendar
Grandview Township's First Trustees Journal
1803 - 1843
The year 1803 was a great year! In 1803, Ohio became a state and Grandview Township, Washington County, Ohio was created. When Grandview Township was cut off from Newport Township in 1803, interested settlers met on June 21 at the home of Judge Henry Jolly, south of Grandview Village, and elected the first officers for the new township. They carefully recorded their meeting and election in a brand new leather-bound book which had been purchased for that purpose.
For 40 years, until 1843, Grandview Township officials recorded their activities in that book. Listed are the records of Township Trustees, Township Clerks, Treasurers, Fence Viewers, Overseers of the Poor, Road Supervisors, Justices of the Peace, and School Directors. Details were recorded for elections, officers being sworn in, road districts and their boundaries, school districts and their boundaries, and all registered earmarks of livestock.
Names of residents are listed here that cannot be found in any tax list, census, or any other source. There are lists of people who are "warned out of the township." Every head of household living on each Road District is named. Other lists contain the families in each School District.
The Matamoras Area Historical Society, Inc.has had this original Grandview Township Journal printed. Originally 169 pages measuring 8 x 12 1/2 inches, the paper has frayed and darkened, the ink (some of it pokeberry) has faded. Transcribing the book has been a task of four years. The book is printed in its original text; explanations and comments have been made in extensive footnotes to each page. The book is printed on acid free paper. There are four indexes: biogaphical, chronological, geographical and topical.
A few of the many surnames found inthe Journal are: Aplin, Ankrom, Barnes, Barnhart, Brown, Burns, Cline, Clutter, Cochran, Collins, Dailey, Dickerson, Dye, Ellis, Eoff, Ewart, Flack, Flint, Gooseman, Haught, Heddleston, Hensel, Hill, Holdren, Hubbard, Jolly, Knowlton, Linn, Lisk, Little, McKenzie, McMahan, McVey, Mc-Williams, Mason, Meeks, Mernick, Oliver, Parr, Pinney, Pool, Proctor, Ridgeway, Riggs, Rinard, Scott, Sheets, Stewart, Talbott, Wells, Williamson, Wingett, Witten, Young.
There are 400 names of early settlers mentioned in the Journal. Grandview Township was geographically located so that it was on the direct route from Redstone Fort (Brownsville, PA), Fort Henry (Wheeling, WV), and Pittsburgh, PA, to the important settlement at Marietta, Ohio. Many of the names are permanent, some are transient, but all are a genealogical record of proof that the individual was on the Ohio frontier sometime between 1803 and 1843.
One special election of importance was when officers were, chosen for the upper part of the township-the creation of Monroe County. Sample pages from the Journal have been reproduced in the book, as well as a map of Grandview Township at that time, a page of frontier autographs, and the census when Grandview was cut off from Newport.
The cost on the Grandview Township's First Trustees Journal is $46.45, shipping is $3.50 per book, and Ohio residents please add $3.02 for state tax.
Your copy of the Journal may be ordered now. Mail your order and check to:
The Matamoras Area Historical Society, Inc.
P.O. Box 1846
New Matamoras, Ohio 45767-1846
