My wife, Cynthia Johnette (Merritt) Thompson, is the daughter of John and Betty Merritt of Lucasville, Ohio. Many of Cindy's great-grandfathers back, Hezekiah Merritt was one of the pioneers of the Scioto River Valley. Accounts of Hezekiah appear in the early history of Lucasville, Ohio, and Piketon, Ohio.
The Merritt family has researched their past and genealogy themselves. Also, various reports online verify family names and exploits. I decided to share Cindy's family history with you today. Those familiar with the area associate the Merritts with the long and storied history of Lucasville and Scioto County. Many descendants of Hezekiah Merritt live there today.
Imagine paddling up the Scioto River long ago when, as an early settler, you ran the risk of running into hostile natives or being eaten by a roving bear. Maybe you can get a little taste of the frontier spirit in this read. Once more, thanks for caring for local history. Please, investigate your homeland yourself and pass it on. The rewards are great.
Hezekiah Merritt
(The spelling variations for Merritt include Marat, Maratt, Marrat, Marratt, Maret, Marett, Marret, Marrett, Meret, Merett, Merret, Merrett, Meryett, Meryet, Merryet, Merryett, Meriot,Meriott, Merriot, Merriott, Merit, Meritt, Merrit, and Merioth.)
Birth
Date of birth: 1766
Son of John Merritt (April 6, 1736; Massachusetts – June 28, 1818; Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts) and Mary Goodwin (circa 1726 – July 1812; Pennsylvania)
Place of birth: Washington County, Pennsylvania
Rachel Anderson Merritt (1765-1827)
Date of marriage: 1776 (Washington County, Penn.)
Margaret Reed Givens Groves Merritt (?-1874)
Date of marriage: 13 Apr 1828 (Pike County, Ohio)
(Find A Grave: Memorial #143331948.)
(Find A Grave: Memorial #9785495 Row 5 Howard Cemetery.)
("Ohio Marriages, 1800-1958", database, FamilySearch.)
(https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XDH9-42D : 19 June 2020), Hezekiah Merritt, 1828.)
("Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XD4X-TVW: 26 August 2019), Hazekiah Merrit and Peggy Groves, Apr 1828; citing Marriage, Pike, Ohio, United States, 52-93, Franklin County Genealogical & Historical Society, Columbus; FHL microfilm.)
("Marriage 2.” Family Tree of April Warner, Ohio. genealogy.com.)
Children of Hezekiah Merritt and Rachel Anderson Merritt are:
Son: John Merritt (January 9, 1786; Washington County, PA – September 7, 1871; Pike County, OH.)
Daughter: Elizabeth Merritt Glaze (1789; Washington County, PA –1840)
Daughter: Ruth Merritt Glaze (1792; Washington County, PA. –1886)
Son: Daniel Merritt (1795; Bond County, Illinois – ?)
Daughter: Fanny Merritt Goodin (1798- ?)
Daughter: Rebecca Merritt Delay (1800; Scioto County, OH. – ?)
Son: Anderson Merritt (1807 –1879; Marion County, Illinois)
Son: Moses Merritt (March 24,1810; Scioto County, OH. – May 20, 1888; Pike County, OH.)
("Death". Moses Merritt. FamilySearch.org.)
Son: Edward Merritt (1813- ?)
Son: Hezekiah Merritt
Children of Hezekiah Merritt and Margaret Reed Givens Groves are:
Daughter: Matilda Merritt (of Groves)
Son: Andrew Jackson Merritt (of Groves)
The first settler of Valley Township was Hezekiah Merritt, who planted the first corn in the township, and one of the three corn crops which were raised in the summer of 1796. Mr. Merritt, several years after, removed to Ross County, but he was the first Justice of the Peace in that section of the county in 1804-6.
("Page 398. Old Settlers. Hezekiah Merritt.” History of Lower Scioto Valley, Ohio. Chicago. Inter-State Publishing Company. 1884. archive.org.)
Morgan Township was first settled about 1804, although a portion of the valley bottoms undoubtedly found tenants a year or two earlier. Hezekiah Merritt settled on the east side as early as 1796, just above Lucasville, but he was a pioneer, and claims to have raised the first crop of corn in the county.
("Page 408. Morgan Township. Hezekiah Merritt.” History of Lower Scioto Valley, Ohio. Chicago. Inter-State Publishing Company. 1884. archive.org.)
The following is an interview with John Merritt, son of Hezekiah, in 1870, in relation to his father's family:
“In 1795 they left Pennsylvania to seek a home for themselves and little ones in the great and unexplored West, and came to Manchester, Adams County, Ohio, bringing with them five children, of whom I was the eldest. It was immediately after Wayne's Treaty with the Indians. They came via the Ohio River.
“On arriving at Manchester, my father met two of his brothers, who told him that he had passed as good land as he could find below. Colonel Nathaniel Massie was then organizing a party to go to Chillicothe to lay out that town, and the three brothers went with it.
“When they had reached Paint Creek they were attacked by a party of unfriendly Indians, who killed one of the men. One Sticklett, who was a prisoner with the Indians, came over to the Massie Party, which turned back to Manchester.
“After a while, my father, in company with two other men, went up the Ohio and Scioto Rivers, on an exploring expedition, and were so well pleased with the lay of the land in and about where Lucasville now is, that they were induced to make a lodgement there.
“My father came back to Manchester and took his family up to where Lucasville is, and landed on the twenty-fourth day of December, 1795, the day before Christmas. I claim that my father was the first white man who settled on the Scioto River, along its whole length.
“My father made a camp, and the next spring erected a log cabin. He put in several acres of corn, for which he had to go to Limestone (now Maysville? The village of Limestone was later incorporated as the City of Maysville, Kentucky, in 1787) for the seed. My mother was a good gardener, and our family fared better than most of the early settlers on this account. We had to grind our corn in a hand-mill. The only food raised by most settlers at first was corn, and for the remainder of the subsistence, they depended upon wild game, of which there was an abundance. Sometimes this was their only dependence.
“(Their cow) died on the way to our new home on the Scioto.
“My father was a millwright, and had built a horse-mill at Manchester, and went back to dispose of it, which he did for a cow, which gave us milk for a couple a years, when my father was forced to kill her to keep his family from starving. She produced sixty pounds of tallow, though she had had but two feedings of corn, and she stole them.
“Then we were without a cow, but families had begun to come in pretty thickly, and my father built a floating mill for grinding corn. It was a rude structure, but answered a purpose. This mill gave him some advantage, as the settlers brought their corn to be ground, and with the toll he was enabled to buy another cow, after which we never suffered for want of one.
“My father's family, in the meantime, was increasing, and I was growing up to manhood. Six children my mother bore him in Ohio. Andrew, Moses and myself still live, certainly; and Hezekiah, who was in the late war, my possibly be alive, though I am not able to say, for we never knew what became of him. I lived with and labored for my father til I married and obeyed him as I did when a child, for I felt it to be my duty to do so. My father lived seven years on the land near Lucasville.”
("Page 690. Early settlers. Hezekiah Merritt.” History of Lower Scioto Valley, Ohio. Chicago. Inter-State Publishing Company. 1884. archive.org.,)
Historical Note:
The story of Nathaniel Massie was
presented at the University of Dundee in July 2009.
“Surveying
the lands of the Scioto Valley may have been legal under American law
in the spring of 1795, but the Shawnee and others, at the time, did
not recognize American surveying rights to these lands. The
pan-Indian alliance of Ohio Indians that had recently been defeated
at the Battle of Fallen Timbers had yet to sign a peace and land
cession treaty. Leaders of the Indian nations, however, were in
council with American Indian commissioners at Ft. Greenville. General
Anthony Wayne had proclaimed a truce for the purposes of negotiating
a treaty, allowing the representatives of the different parties to
travel unmolested to and from Ft. Greenville, the location of the
council.
“In late May of 1795 towards the
end of the council, Virginia land speculator Nathaniel Massie led an
expedition aimed at surveying lands on Paint Creek, a major tributary
of the Scioto River. Massie planned to locate the site for a new
town, which would become known as Chillicothe. Massie and his men,
however, ran into a band of Shawnee who were camping on Paint Creek,
an area that had long been a popular Indian hunting ground.
“Massie
and the other leaders of their party decided to attack in a surprise
and pre-emptive manner. In their attack, Massie’s party killed a
handful of Indians and then pillaged their camp grounds. Massie and
his men quickly looted all the Shawnee possessions they could carry
and then began a rapid retreat back to Manchester.
“Once safely back in their stronghold, Massie and others piled their treasure into boats and floated down to Maysville, Kentucky, where they auctioned off $500 worth of booty to the highest bidders in broad daylight. In retaliation for the fight on Paint Creek, the leader of the Shawnee who had been attacked, a man named Pucksekaw – known in English as the Jumper – led warriors into the mountains of western Virginia, where they carried out raids on new settlements, ultimately taking four Americans captive.
“Massie’s attack on Paint Creek and Pucksekaw’s retaliatory raids threatened to derail the peace negotiations that were then underway at Ft. Greenville. Chief Blue Jacket, himself, and a handful of other prominent Shawnee leaders agreed to temporarily leave the negotiations in order to track down Pucksekaw and return him and his captives to Ft. Greenville.
“Blue Jacket’s efforts were successful; Pucksekaw agreed to bury the hatchet and return his newly acquired captives. Massie, however, had earned the wrath of Arthur St. Clair, who served as the Governor of the North-West Territory. St. Clair considered prosecuting Massie for his actions, but the matter was soon dropped, when St. Clair found it difficult to secure witnesses willing to testify against Massie.
“With the peace finally secured, Massie’s speculation ultimately paid off; the lands at the confluence of Paint Creek and the Scioto would end up in his hands; his major town speculations would now involve Manchester in the southern region of the Virginia Military District and Chillicothe in the eastern section of the District.
(“Nathaniel Massie and the Paint Creek Fight of 1795.” Lower Scioto Blog.October 1, 2009.)
Date of death: 01 Jan 1859
Place of death: Camp Creek, Pike County, Ohio
Name of cemetery: Merrit (Merritt Family Cemetery)
Location: Pike County, Ohio
Marker inscription:
-
Hezekiah Merret (sic)
Died Jan. 1, 1859
Aged 93 years
Date: 1859
Will of Hezekiah Merritt. Volume 99, Issue 239 Ohio Statewide Files, Footsteps Digest. Pike County, Ohio Will Book Volume 1. (Accessed 09 Jan 2018)
"United States Census, 1820," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHLS-M5N : accessed 18 December 2020), Hezekiah Merritt, Pike, Ohio, United States; citing p. 420, NARA microfilm publication M33, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 89; FHL microfilm 181,395.
"United States Census, 1830," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH56-H52 : 19 November 2020), Hezekiah Merit, Camp Creek, Pike, Ohio, United States; citing 157, NARA microfilm publication M19, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 138; FHL microfilm 337,949.
"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXQB-VNP : 13 December 2020), Harkiel Maust, Camp Creek Township, Pike, Ohio, United States; citing family 1330, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
Other Historical Notes
Hezekiah Merret found a horse which was appraised by David Murphy and John Hannaman. It was reported by John Guthery and it happened in Seal Township of Scioto County, OH. Source: Scioto Gazette and Chillicothe Advertiser 8-23-1808
John and Sarah Beasley for $200.00 from Hezekiah Merritt on waters of Camp Creek, 100 acres, 10 June 1805, page 63.
Hezekiah Merritt to John Merret-agreement-everything to John to keep Hezekiah land and farming utensils - 8 head horses, 10 head cattle, 100 head hogs, 1810. pg. 313
Hezekiah Merritt is given credit with planting the first crop of corn in the area. He came to what is now Pike County in December 1795, constructing a crude log cabin near the present location of Wetmore in the extreme southern portion of the county. After government surveyors entered Southern Ohio after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Mr. Merritt was forced to move, he having no title of ownership to the Congress Lands. He and his family purchased lands across the river from an owner of Virginia Military District property and settled in present Camp Creek, where the Merritt Family Cemetery can still be visited today.
Merritt Name: English:1. habitational name from Merriott in Somerset, named in Old English as ‘boundary gate’ or ‘mare gate’, from (ge)mǣre ‘boundary’ or miere ‘mare’ + geat ‘gate’. 2. variant (as a result of hypercorrection) of Marriott, or of Marryat, which is from a Middle English personal name, Meryet, Old English Mǣrgēat, composed of the element mǣr ‘boundary’ + the tribal name Gēat (see Joslin).
(Dictionary
of American Family Names © Patrick
Hanks 2003, 2006.)
Some of Hezekiah's
Ancestors
When John Merritt
(Hezekiah's father) was born on April 6, 1736, in Marblehead, Essex,
Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, his father, Henry
Merritt, was 36 and his mother, Margaret Dwelley, was 39. He married
Elizabeth Stevens on November 13. 1764, in Marblehead, Essex,
Massachusetts, United States. He registered for military service in
1775. He died on 28 June 1818, in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts,
United States, at the age of 82.
Captain John Merritt found in U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900
Captain John Merritt found in U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
Is this the same Capt. John Merritt? I'm not sure.
“List Of 8000 Men Who Were Prisoners On Board The Old Jersey.” List compiled by 'The Society Of Old Brooklynites' in 1888.
"This list of names was copied from the papers of the British War Department. There is nothing to indicate what became of any of these prisoners, whether they died, escaped, or were exchanged. The list seems to have been carelessly kept, and is full of obvious mistakes in spelling the names. Yet it shall be given just as it is, except that the names are arranged differently, for easier reference. This list of prisoners is the only one that could be found in the British War Department. What became of the lists of prisoners on the many other prison ships, and prisons, used by the English in America, we do not know."
Again, is this the same Capt. Merritt from Marblehead? Taken from The Journals of Ashley Bowen …
“'We pass’d on over a Stony Road to Marblehead,' yet another traveler remarked in 1776,which is a dirty disagreeable Place at present they are here in great Distress as the Town is built amongst Rocks & Stones, where is no land to cultivate.
“Marblehead and the people in general are Fishermen or concern’d in that Way, which Source of Support is now at an end many of the men are in the army & the Rest are out of Employ and almost every house swarms with Children of these hardy, temporate Men.
“Their situation is miserable the Streets & Roads are fill’d the poor little Boys and Girls who are forc’d beg of all they see the Women are lazy & of Consequence dirty Creatures—there are about 400 houses here & 4 or 5 of them large neat houses—they have a small Battery in a Point near to try to keep of [f] the men of War.
“One remarkable object of Charity here was a little Boy whose left arm was shriveled up & dead and his Legs were contracted and folded up like a Taylor’s, and of no strength this emaciated creature would move in an odd manner with the assistance of his Right hand into the middle of the Road before your horse and would beg in a most moving manner and you must give him something or drive over him—I do not want ever to see such another Place.”
(Volume 45: The Journals of Ashley Bowen (1728–1813) of Marblehead. “Chapter XV 1776.” Colonial Society of Massachusetts.)
Bowen entries for 1776:
“This day moderate. Wind S-easterly. Captain Hill’s boat got on the Town Wharf. Great talk of the King’s troops are about moving off for somewhere. Sailed Merritt’s sloop for the Eastward. This night much firing above.”
“July 25, 1776. This day fair weather. A muster this forenoon. Captain [John] Selman and [John] Merritt’s commissions and Leftenant Homan, Nathaniel Pearce, George Wills and Mason Harris commissions all were received.The prize ship that the letter-a-marque schooner, Lander, had taken was retaken by one of His Majesty’s.”
Historical Note:
Few regiments in the Continental Army have been given such attention as
that of the 14th Continental Regiment, a short-lived band of brothers
that history remembered for their grizzled, hard-nosed ruggedness and
willingness to assist in some of the war’s earliest, most dire moments.
The ‘men of Marblehead’ have earned the mythical treatment of our
respect and pause, but most have only heard of the town that brought
these soldiers into combat.
As British taxation and isolation intensified in Massachusetts in the 1770s, the men of Marblehead began to actively take part in undermining Royal authority. Among these rousers was John Glover, a successful merchant with a slew of ships at his disposal.
A noticeable mention of Glover’s men is probably their most famous, as they were the hands at the oars that rowed Washington and the army across the Delaware River on Christmas night in their approach to take Trenton.
Marblehead is said to be the Birthplace of the American Navy, and without question John Glover is the father of the American Navy.
("John Glover and the Marblehead Men of Massachusetts." American Battlefield Trust.)
Note on Joshua Prentiss:
Joshua Prentiss (1744-1837) was pensioned for service, 1775, as lieutenant in Capt. John Merritt's company of militia (same ancestor?), Col. John Glover's regiment of infantry. He was born in Holliston; died in Marblehead, Mass. Database: Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, 17 Vols. Volume 12, page 746 Prentiss, Joshua, Marblchead.Lieutenant, Capt. John Merrett's (7th) co., Col. John Glover's (21st) regt.; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; engaged April 24, 1775; service, 3 mos. 16 days; company marched to Cambridge; also, company return [probably Oct., 1775].
By a fire in the woods, his hair was completely burned off. It never grew back. He ordered a $100 wig from England, a present from friends.
Oldest inhabitant of Marblehead
Sources
Binney, Charles J. F. (Charles James Fox), 1806-1888. The history and genealogy of the Prentice, or Prentiss family, in New England, from 1631 to 1852. Collected by C. J. F. Binney. Boston, The author, 1852
DAR Ancestor #: A092697
Notes on General Orders, September 15, 1775:
Head Quarters, Cambridge, Sept. 15th 1775
Parole, Pittsburgh.Countersign, Ulster.Moses Pickett, Soldier in Capt. Merrits Company,2 Col. Glovers regiment, tried at a General Court Martial for “Disobedience of orders, and damning his Officers,” is found guilty, and sentenced to receive thirty Lashes upon his bare back, and afterwards drum’d out of the regiment—The General orders the punishment to be inflicted at the head of the regiment, to morrow morning at troop beating.
As Col. Frys Brigade is to be mustered to morrow Morning, Genl Heath’s brigade will furnish the Guards in, and about Cambridge, for to morrow.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. For the appointment and sitting of Mansfield’s court-martial, see General Orders, 13 and 17 Aug. 1775.
2. Capt. John Merritt of Marblehead commanded a company in Col. John Glover’s Massachusetts regiment.
And, More Ancestors – Tracing Roots
When Henry Merritt (Capt. John's father) was born in May 1699, in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, his father, John Merritt, was 38 and his mother, Elizabeth, was 35. He married Margaret Dwelley on 13 April 1726, in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 3 daughters.
John Merritt (Henry's father) was born on February 17, 1661, in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America as the son of John Merritt (yep – lots of John's huh?) and Elizabeth Weyborn. He married Elizabeth in 1686, in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. They were the parents of at least 8 sons and 6 daughters. He died on June 5, 1740, in his hometown, at the age of 79, and was buried in Men Of Kent Cemetery, Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States.
And, finally, to the Old Country …
When John Merritt (John's father – confused yet?) was born on July 1, 1623, in Tenterden, Kent, England, his father, Henry Merritt, was 33 and his mother, Deborah Buck, was 23. He married Elizabeth Weyborn on March 2, 1655, in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 3 daughters. He died on November 6, 1676, in Scituate, Plymouth Colony, British Colonial America, at the age of 53.
If you are confused by all the John Merritts, don't feel alone. I tried to be very careful setting up this tree line. I'm pretty sure it's in order. If you are an ancestor and you find an error, please let me know.
No wonder Cindy's father was named “John.” It must have been a family trait. I wish he were alive, I could ask him about some more stories and get the lowdown on all the John's. I'm sorry he passed in 2001. I miss him very much. I hope he is pleased with this brief history.
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