Welcome
to the Monroe County History
and Genealogy Website
Click
here for more about this website
Click here to go to the MCHS
website
Click here to go to the MCC
of OGS website
CDs of important Monroe County
record books are now available. Each page
of dozens of Monroe
County record books
have been photographed and made into CDs.
For a current list of available CDs click here.
|
TIME-LINE
of HISTORICAL EVENTS
A study of history seldom provides insight
into the daily life of the common man of the period. Recorded history is frequently
the compilation of facts and events that have occurred. However, these facts
and events frequently are the things that guide and bound the lives of the
people of the period. Having knowledge of the history of an area and a period
provides a stage on which we can better view and understand the people.
The time-line that follows is an attempt to
provide the stage for viewing our ancestors and their lives over the past 250
or so years. Use it as a 'yardstick' of time to understand what important historical
events were taking place.
Pre-Ice Age - Evidence
of the existence of man in Ohio
prior to the glacial period is abundant. Earthworks built by the "Mound
Building Indians" are found in many parts of Ohio. These earthworks are remnants of three
early mound building groups: (1) the Fort
Ancients, (2) the Adenas and (3) the Hopewells.
Serpent Mound in Adams County; Fort
Ancient in Warren
County; Fort Hill in Highland County;
and the Newark Earthworks in Licking
County are major examples
of these mound builder's existence. The largest mound
in the State, at Miamisburg,
is 68 feet in height and 800 feet in circumference.
The mound builders had vanished long before
European traders entered the territory. The Indians claiming the land had no
knowledge of the mound builders or their culture.
1492 - Columbus >discovered the Americas= by landing in the Caribbean Islands.
1502 - First African slaves arrive in Americas (in the Caribbean Islands)
1570 - Shakespeare began to write
1590 - First microscope built
About 1600 - The principal Ohio Indian Tribes were: the Miami, the Shawnee, the Delaware, the Wyandot (Huron), the Ottawa of the Algonquin tribe, and the Mingo
(Seneca) of the Iroquois Nation. The Miami tribe
was the first of these tribes to actually reside in Ohio, coming in the late 1660's.
The Indians' claim to Ohio lands rested upon conquest and
possession. They did not claim ownership of the land, as the white men did.
Rather, they claimed the right to use the land for various purposes. Therefore,
different boundaries existed for hunting, fishing, farming and villages. These
overlaps of claims often led to wars among the various tribes.
1608 - First successful French settlement by Samuel de
Champlain at Quebec
1619 - First African slaves arrive in Virginia
1620 - Pilgrims landed near Cape Cod.
1621 - First Thanksgiving Day
1624 - Dutch found New Amsterdam (now New
York City) and buy Manhattan
Island
1633 - Galileo, an Italian professor and scientist claimed
that the Earth and planets circled around the Sun. He was sentenced by the
Catholic Church to imprisonment for life for his beliefs.
1633 - A mass trial of witches in Lancashire, England
1670 - The first
exploration by Europeans, in what is now Ohio,
was made by the French. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the lake area in late 1669 or
early 1670, thus claiming all of Ohio for France.
1691 - Witchcraft trials
take place in Salem, Massachusetts.
1763 - The French assigned the "Great West" to the
English on February 10, 1763 at the Treaty of Paris, was the result of the French losing the French and
Indian War, 1755-1763.
1778 - A Congressional Committee proposed that states cede
its Western lands to the New Central Government. The states of Virginia, New
York, Connecticut and Massachusetts all claimed portions of the territory
northwest of the Ohio River, based upon charters granted by the kings of
England. After much controversy and compromise, these states relinquished their
claims. The dates of these cessions were: New York,
1781;Virginia, 1784; Massachusetts, 1785; and Connecticut, 1786 and 1800.
1783 - Great Britain
formally relinquished its right and interest in the Northwest
Territory by the Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783.
1785 - Title to land claimed by the various Indian tribes was
extinguished or conveyed by treaty. The Treaty of Fort McIntosh, January 21,
1785, between the Sachems and warriors of the Wyandot, Delaware,
Chippewa and Ottawa nations and the United States, gave the United States title to Ohio lands except the northern quarter.
1788 - The Ohio Company (a land company) established the
first permanent settlement in Ohio
on April 7, 1788.
1789 - French Revolution
1790 - Philip Witten bought 220 acres of land in 1790 in
what is now Jackson Township, Monroe
County, Ohio. Other
settlers followed: Earl Sproat bought 690 acres;
Robert McEldowney settled Buckhill
Bottom around 1794; James Henthorn and Charles
Atkinson around 1798; and Jacob Ollom and Samuel
McBride in 1800.
1795 - The Treaty of Fort McIntosh
was not kept by the Indians, but was reaffirmed by the Treaty of Greenville in
1795.
1796 - On May 17, 1796,
Colonel Zane began construction of
a trail that would be called Zane Trace that began across the river from
Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) and travel to Limestone (now Maysville),
Kentucky. The trail was completed in the fall of 1797.
1803 - On March 1, 1803 Ohio
became the 17th state in the Union with the capitol located at Chillicothe, Ohio
(1803 - 1810). Edward
Tiffin was elected the first Governor of Ohio on January 11, 1803, and took the
oath of office March 3, 1803. The first legislature met on March 1, 1803.
1804 - Ohio University was established February 18, 1804 and became the recipient
of a Federal Land Grant. The
university was opened in 1809. The first class, consisting of John Hunter and
Thomas Ewing, graduated in 1815.
1804 - Napoleon became emperor
1809 - Miami
University was
established on February 17, 1809. The legislature named the town Oxford in 1810, and
directed that it be platted. The academy opened in 1818, became a college in
1824, and graduated the first class in 1826.
1810 - Ohio capitol was
moved from Chillicothe to Zanesville (1810 - 1812)
1810 - Ohio capitol was
moved from Zanesville to Chillicothe (1812 - Oct. 1816)
1812 - War of 1812 between
the United States and England
1813 - Napoleon defeated.
1813 - Monroe County, Ohio was organized in 1813 and in 1814 Woodsfield, Ohio
was selected as the county seat.
1815 - The first Quakers arrived in Monroe County
1815 - Benjamin Lundy of Belmont County
formed the first anti-slavery society called the Union Humane Society
1816 - Ohio capitol was moved
to Columbus, Ohio. When Columbus was designated
the permanent State Capitol on February 14, 1812 the area was still a
wilderness.
1817 - The earliest record of a slave escaping across the Ohio River to freedom.
1819 - The migration of Swiss settlers to Monroe County, Ohio
began.
1825 - Begun on July 4,
1825, the Ohio Canal System ultimately consisted of over 795 miles of canals
and feeders, five reservoirs (32,903 acres); 29 stream dams, 294 lift locks,
and 44 aqueducts, which cost the state $15,967,652. Cost of maintenance and
operations to November 15, 1901, was $12,464,130. Gross receipts from 1827 to
1901 were $17,556,722.
Ohio=s major canals and
their length in miles were: Ohio Canal (309); Walhonding Canal
(25); Hocking Canal
(56); Sandy and Beaver
Canal (6); Muskingum Improvement (91);
Miami and Erie Canal (248); Wabash and Erie Canal (18), and eight feeders (42 miles).
1826 - The Aiding Abolition Society was formed in Monroe County, Ohio.
1839 - Abolitionists organized the town of Stafford and it became an
important site on the Underground Railroad.
1845 - Irish potato famine.
1851 - Noble County, Ohio
was organized. The townships of Elk, Enoch, Union, Stock and parts of Seneca
and Franklin were detached from Monroe
County to create Noble. A
strip of territory two miles wide and thirteen miles long (26 sections) were
taken from Washington County and added to Monroe.
1861 - American Civil War
(1861 - 1865)
1869 - The Suez Canal was
opened.1873 - The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College
opened for students in 1873. The first class graduated in 1878, the year the
university changed its name to Ohio
State University.
1914 - World War I
1939 - World War II
Use the
“Back-arrow” at the top of this web-page to return to the “Previous
Page.”
CDs of important
Monroe County record books are now
available. Each page of dozens of Monroe County record books have been
photographed and made into CDs. For a
current list of available CDs click
here.
|