Notes
Note N01670
Index
Sent by Leland Ruse Smith of Tabor, IA.
Notes
Note N01671
Index
Sent by Ruhama Shannon from the History of the Hiatt Family in the
Westchester Journal- Herald Saturday Dec 28, 1946. Page 6.
Notes
Note N01672
Index
Sent by Ruhama Shannon and Howard Hiatt
Liberty Township page 1049
Under the name of Isaac Hiatt. The Hiatt family were among the worthy
pioneers, who are of English estraction, and to whom we are please to allot a
space in the columns of the Clinton County history. Isaac is a son of Hezehiah
Hiatt, who was born in Guilford County, N.C., 22 March, 1786. When he was but
a child of four years, his father, Soloman, died, leaving him fatherless, and
many responsibilities resting upon his widowed mother, who bore the task well
and reared Hezekiah with honor and respect to both. In the year 1809, he
emigrated West, locating in the present limits of Clinton County, Union
Township, when he purchased fifty acres of land, to which he added during life
until he became one of the prominent land-owners of the county. Soon after his
settlerment, the war of 1812 naturally threw in his way many difficulites and
unpleasantness, and enar the close of that struggle he was drafted, but never
entered upon service. He was one of the hardy pioneers and adventurous
settlers, to whose courage and calm endurance must be attributed the after
prosperity of the county. The marks of those early settlers and finely
developed country should regarded by after generations as monuments to their
lives. He married, in the year the county was organized, 1810, Ann Perkins,
who was born in the same State, county, and the same year as he. She came to
Ohio in 1806, and first settled near Waynesville, but at the date of her
marriage lived in the present limits of Union Township, Clinton County, where
her father and step-mother both died her mother having died in her native
State. Hezekiah and wife trod the path of united life for over three score
years, when her death in June, 1872, severed them; but two weeks later he, too,
entered his final rest. After having been long and useful members of the
church of their choice, "the Friends," they spent a long and an evenful life in
this county, such as in worthy of the imitation and admiration of furture
posterity. They were the parents of ten children, nine of whom grew to
majority, and seven are now living, Isaac being the second eldest...
Sent by Howard Hiatt Wilmington, Ohio
Hezekiah Hiatt was born the 27th of March 1786 in LIberty Township in
Guilford Co., N.C. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Hunt, the daughter of
Thomas and Anne Beale Hunt. She was thirty-nine years of age at the time of
his birth. Before she married Solomon Hiatt she had been the widow of John
Unthank who left her with a family of small children. Four uears after the
birth of Hezekiah Hiatt her husband, Solmon Hiatt died at the age of
thirty-one, leaving two sons and a baby daughter one year of age.
Sarah Hiatt assumed the responsibility for the two sets of fatherless
children and kept them together. It was natural that as the boys grew older
John Unthank Junior and Hezekiah Hiatt should seek to take care of themselves.
When Hezekiah was 21 years of age he came to Ohio to join his half-brother,
John Unthank who had gone to Ohio in 1807. In 1808 John Unthank had built a
grist mill on Anderson's Fork where the Port William Mill now stands. The need
of a mill was so great that people came for miles to it and the trails over
which they came eventually became roads. The road from the county seat,
Wilmington, to Port William, was opened at an early day so that the settlers
could get to Unthank's Mill. It was a place of resort on Saturday evening
where the settlers would wrestle, jump, race and otherwise disport themselves.
The first township elections were held in the mill and, whether throught the
suggestion of John Unthank or Hezekiah Hiatt or otherwise, the township was
called Liberty which was the name of the township in which they had been born
in North Carolina.
Hezekiah Hiatt did not stay at the mill but bought fifty acres of land
which he cleared in 1809. The next year on August 8, 1810, when he had built a
cabin he married Ann Perkins who was born in the same county and yar as
Hezekiah. However, she had come to Ohio three years before he came. Ann's
mother, Ann Perkins, daughter of Isaac and Ann Leonard Perkins had died and her
father had married again.
Isaac Perkins, the father of Ann, was born in England on June 30th 1762
and came to American prior to 1800 and had married Ann Leonard in Guilford
County, North Carolina. He came to Clinton County, Ohio in 1806 and died here
Oct 31, 1828.
Hezekiah and Ann were married in a log house and then built the brick
house on the sam location one mile south-wet of Buck Run Creek across from what
is now know as the Cammack Farm. This brick house had 18 inch walls and was one
of the stations on the Underground Railroad, along which slaves were helped to
freedom before the Civil War. The wooden interior of the house which was built
in 1808 was destroyed by fire on Friday December 28th 1945. This house had a
fireplace in each room and also in the cellar.
On Sept. 3, 1949, the brick house was torn down and the date of April 2,
1848 was found by Charles Howell of Gurneyville. This is the date of
construction of the brick house by Hezekiah Hiatt.
Hezekiah and Ann Hiatt purchased by Warranty deed on Sept 13, 1816 part
of survey 523 from George and James Haworth - 50 acres - $125.00
Hezekiah and Ann Hiatt purchased by Warranty deed on Sept. 9, 1837 part
of survey 1734 from David Davis for the sum of $1200.00 - 50 acres.
Nortary Public - Samuel Miller
Hezekiah and Ann Hiatt purchased by Warranty deed on Sept. 9, 1858 part
of survey 2248 for $20.00 from Samuel Miars, Nicholas W. Harlan and Absalom
Mendenhall.
Notary - A.C. Hiatt, J.P.
Nineteenth in a series by Burritt M. Hiatt as told to Bob Bowman
Possibly the highlighting event in all Clinton County in 1833 was the visit
paid here that August by Helen McGregor, a trained elephant, a real lady, and
show stopped of the Green and Brown Menagerie Circus.
Helen was snared while a baby in India and landed on Yankee shores in
1831. While in passage on the Atlantic, a hurricane lashed the ship, pitching
terrified Helen into the briny deep. But the crew was not to be denied. They
rose to the occasion and the squealing pachyderm was hauled back aboard, wet
but breathing. But young Helen suffered a shoulder fracture in the process.
Once in the states, Helen was put in the care of a keeper named Bert H.
Clark. The shoulder mended and Helen hit the road with Green and Brown.
The morning after the Wilmington show, the troupe headed for Xenia but
misfortune was due to dog Helen's hugh footsteps. She came down too hard in a
chuckhole near the Greene County line (yes, they had them too,) and the
shoulder fracture was reopened. In true stage tradition, poor Helen tried to
make it on three legs, but the pain was too much.
This state of affairs continued along the road until a farmer name
Hezekiah Hiatt took pity on the beast and gave it shelter in a shed with Clark
staying on as nurse. Helen was allowed to roam about the shed but one night,
while Clark was sleeping, she opened the door and made her way through Hiatt's
fence.
Helen was retrieved and Clark thought it best to chain her by the right leg
to a stake. In this position, Helen became a local celebrity with the
countryside gathering to gawk at her for seven days.
But such captivity affected Helen. On awaking on the eighth morning,
Clark found her lying down. He tried to raise her but to no avail. Hiatt's
son Isaac, volunteered a trip to Xenia to get a derrick and some stout rope.
With this, Helen was restored to a standing position but in the struggle,
her hind leg was broken. She sank back to the ground and died seven days
later.
As Helen was a queen in her own right, it was decided to give her a proper
burial. An enormous hole was dug a hundred yards from the barn and two yoke of
oxen tried to drag Helen to her tomb but they were not able. Young Hiatt added
his ox team and six oxen pulled Helen to her grave, a few feet at a time.
Two years later, young Hiatt was in Cincinnati with a load of produce for
sale. He met a man named Doorfield who kept a museum at the corner of Third
and Main Sts. there and offered the youth $200 if he would deliver Helen's
bones to the museum door. Isaac went home and began digging at once.
When he delived the skelton, Doorfield was amazed at its size and decided
to keep just the skull and lower jaw bones. For these, he gave Isaac $50 and
Helen a final resting place.
Will of Hezekiah Hiatt
The will was written on the twelfth day of September, 1852. He bequeathed
to his wife, Ann Hiatt, the farm on which he lived for her natural life and
three hundred dollars worth of household good and personal property of her
choice. After her death all the estate is to be equally divided amoung his
four daughter, Sarah Whinery, Mary Ann Birdsall, Susan Leonard and Phenia
Oglesbee, share and share alike.
He said that he had given his tow sons, Isaac and Allen Hiatt, their
portion of his estate. He felt that his son, Amos, had not had as much as
either of the other two, so he gave him three hundred dollars out of the
proceeds of the sale of personal property to make his share equal to that of
Isaac and Allen.
At the death of his wife, Ann Hiatt, the residure of the estate is to go
to his four daughters. He appointed Allen Hiatt and Joseph Hiatt as executors.
The Witnesses were Bebee Truedell and William Crumley. C.M Bosworth
identified the signature of Hezekiah Hiatt.
Clintons Co. Oh. Obituaries 1867-1875 and Selected Geneologocal Rates By
Larry D. Mart 1976.
Biography, Hezetiah HIATT living near the Center Meeting House. Born in
Guilford County, N.C. on March 23, 1786. Came to Clinton County, Oh. in 1808.
His mother Sarah (HUNT) HIATT , died at the age of 98 years.
Died on July 2, 1872 Hezekiah HIATT at residence of son-in-law, Joseph
WHINERY in Liberty Twp. Age 87 years.
TYPE Disowned
DATE 12 NOV 1828
PLACE Joined another society