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1765 - 1813 (47 years)
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Name |
Morgan Van Meter |
Born |
Oct 1765 |
Opequon Creek, Frederick County, Virginia, United States |
Gender |
Male |
Died |
31 Mar 1813 |
Union Township, Highland County, Ohio, United States |
History / Bio |
1902 [1] |
The County of Highland (Madison, Wisconsin: Northwestern Historical Association, 1902), p97 |
Morgan Van Meter came to Ohio from Kentucky in 1803. He was a true type of the backwoodsman a hunter by profession, who hoped to find a locality where game would be plentiful and not many settlers to mar the range of his hunting expeditions. He had a wife and a large family whose support depended upon his skill with the rifle. Van Meter followed the trace from Maysville through New market on to the head waters of the East fork of the Little Miami, some fifteen miles north of New Market, which was his nearest trading place. On this spot he built his cabin home, having located his land warrant upon the land of his own selection, where years before he passed over the country with a party of soldiers in pursuit of some Indians who had visited Kentucky, stolen horses and taken prisoners and plunder northward. The location selected by Van Meter proved to be a good one, upon Kenton's trace, or the Old Mead river road, as named afterward, which was then the main line of travel north. As emigration increased rapidly from Kentucky in that direction, his home became known as a good stopping place for the tired travelers on their journey north. After the trace was cut from Chillicothe to Lebanon, the crossing of the two traces was at the house or home of Van Meter, which increased largely the number of travelers, and compelled the lucky owner to put up an additional building. Van Meter's tavern was a delightful place to stop, where venison and hominy, if they had no corn bread, constituted the bill of fare. Not satisfied with his success as hotel keeper, he concluded to build a town, and soon had all future city platted in squares and lots, with the high hope that at no distant day it would be the capital of a new county. This town was given the name of Morgantown. For a while its growth and prosperity seemed assured. People purchased lots and erected cabins. But alas! when Highland county was organized, Morgantown was found in the wrong place for a county seat. Its improvement was no longer a passion in the mind of the disappointed landlord, and a slow decline set in, from which it finally wasted away until nothing remained to mark the original site, and its name was blotted out in the history of the county.
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History / Bio |
1915 [2] |
History of Clinton County, Ohio (Indianapolis, Indiana: B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., 1915), p84 |
p84
Morgan Van Meter came to Clinton County as early as 1798 or 1781. It is believed that he was settled at Deerfield, Warren county, with his brothers, Joseph and Isaac, as early as 1796, or at least 1797, having come here from Harrison county, Kentucky. Joseph could not have remained long at Deerfield if he came there in 1797, for in that year there is the most satisfactory evidence that he was located at the mouth of i___ creek, on the south side of the East fork of the Little Miami, a mile or so below Lynchburg, in what is now Highland county. Morgan Van Meter did not leave Deerfield, as is claimed, for a year or two after his brother did, William Van Meter, a very intelligent gentleman, a distant relative of the Van Meter brothers, who settled, when a boy, on the East fork, near Isaac and Joseph, is of the opinion that Morgan settled near where Snow Hill now is, in 1798. But Mrs. Leggett said he made his settlement in the year which she was married. Her family record, being produced, show that her marriage occurred in 1799. Mrs Leggett was a Shawhan, a sister of the late John Shawhan, Esg., long a resident near Deerfield, and of Amos Shawhan, of Morrow, and knew the three Van Meter brothers when she was a young woman and they were residing at Deerfield. Deerfield at that time was simply a cluster of houses. It was not laid off as a town until several years after. The houses were of a very rule construction, being designed for temporary shelter more than for permanent abode. On the arrival of any new emigrant, if he found an empty house, he took possession of it. If there was no vacant house, one was put up for him. Deerfield was simply a place to stop and stay until a selection for a permanent settlement could be made.
p85
Morgan Van Meter has now lain in his grave more than eighty years. The son of a frontiersman, he had but little, if any, education. So far as we know, he never held an office or aspired to one, civil or military. The house he lived in has disappeared, and his grave is covered by a stable, or is in the public highway with no stone to mark it. But his name is perhaps more frequently spoken of by our people than that of any citizen of Clinton county who has been dead twenty-five years, with perhaps a few exceptions.
Morgan Van Meter made his will during his last sickness. It bears date of March 28, 1813, and was admitted to record June 21, 1813.
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Person ID |
I5488 |
TangledRoots |
Last Modified |
6 Jul 2021 |
Family |
Mary Pierce, b. 11 Feb 1770, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America , d. 9 Aug 1855, Clinton County, Ohio, United States (Age 85 years) |
Married |
17 Jan 1785 |
Penn Township, Highland County, Ohio, United States |
Children |
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Last Modified |
16 Jan 2022 |
Family ID |
F2002 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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Sources |
- [S2023] Book: The County of Highland, p97 Morgan Van Meter.
Morgan Van Meter came to Ohio from Kentucky in 1803. He was a true type of the backwoodsman a hunter by profession, who hoped to find a locality where game would be plentiful and not many settlers to mar the range of his hunting expeditions. He had a wife and a large family whose support depended upon his skill with the rifle
- [S2022] Book: History of Clinton County Ohio - 1915, p84 and 85 Morgan Van Meter.
The house he lived in has disappeared, and his grave is covered by a stable, or is in the public highway with no stone to mark it.
Morgan Van Meter made his will during his last sickness. It bears date of March 28, 1813, and was admitted to record June 21, 1813.
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