attracted the tide of immigration in that direction.

The settlers in that region wrote home of "a soil richer in appearance than can possibly be made by art;" of "plains and meadows without the labor of hands, sufficient to support millions of cattle summer and winter;" of "wheat lands that would vie with the Island of Sicily;" while a lawyer, whose name is not given, but who was probably the first of the long line of eminent legal lights who have helped make Ohio famous, wrote that as he "rode the circuit,

second only to their regard for religion, should from the beginning plan for the education of their children even before the existence of their settlement was assured, is not a very surprising fact when the records of that organization are read.

Dr. Cutler, a leading spirit in the enterprise, in negotiating with Congress for the purchase of the Ohio Company's land, insisted there should be an appropriation in it for the endowment of a university, and in accordance with his wishes, Congress agreed that "Two complete townships should be

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given perpetually to the uses of a university, to be applied to the intended object by the legislature of the State." With prophetic foresight, he

"Looked into the future, far as eye may see,

Saw a vision of the world, and what would be," and thus early laid plans for the maintenance of a university of learning in that as yet unbroken wilderness, teeming with painted savages.

A considerable number of immigrants assembled at Marietta in 1797, anxious to obtain land on the best terms, and the Ohio Company wishing to encourage early settlement of the college lands in order to make

the first white woman to reach the new settlement.

For a long time Athens was but a scattered settlement along both banks of the Hockhocking River, bearing but little resemblance to a town. The passage of the river was made by ferry boats, little scows which were poled or rowed across from one bank to the other.

Athens, however, formed another link in the chain of settlements stretching across southern Ohio between Marietta and Cincinnati, and as "coming events cast their shadows before," the second postal route west of the Alleghenies (the first being from Zanesville to Marietta) was soon

them productive and lay the foundation of a fund for the institution, induced them to locate in these townships, which in accordance with the terms of purchase from Congress, were located near the center of the Ohio Company's purchase, traversed by winding and crooked Hockhocking River.

Early in the year 1797, therefore, a little company made their way down the Ohio and up the Hockhocking River, until they reached the attractive bluff where the town of Athens now stands. Here they landed and sought various locations. Early the next year more settlers came, some bringing their families, and Margaret Creek was so named in honor of Mrs. Margaret Snowden,

established from Marietta to Cincinnati, via Athens and Chillicothe, and the lonely post rider on his scrubby pony, jogging slowly along through miles of unbroken forest, bearing a single not very heavy mail bag, taking days for the journey, was the forerunner (if anything so slow could be called a runner) of the modern "U. S. Railway Mail Post Office" in one of the Baltimore & Ohio South-Western Royal Blue trains, in which Uncle Sam's agents work, with all the equipments of a well-appointed office at their service, and in place of weary days of monotonous jogging, all is hurry and bustle to assort the enormous stack of mail before its destination is reached.

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The mineral wealth of Athens County was early discovered, but utilized to a very limited extent until the opening of the M. & C. (now the B. & O. S.-W. R. R.) permitted its development. Now Athens County coal is known all over the country, and the long dingy carloads of "black diamonds" dragged daily from the grimy mines, contribute not a little to the wealth and importance of the county.

The corner stone of the first university in the Northwest Territory, so carefully planned by the first settlers of Ohio, was

state, and not only of the state, but of the nation, and must always be regarded as one of the factors in Ohio's progress.

In a previous number we referred to the settlement, in 1796, of Chillicothe. Marietta, Athens, Chillicothe and Cincinnati now being almost within a direct line of one another, the need for better facilities of communication between the settlements became felt, and in 1799, the "College Township Road" was ordered surveyed. This road led from Athens, through Chillicothe westward toward Cincinnati, widening the

laid at Athens, in 1815, and the modern namesake of Grecian Athens (the seat of the highest culture the world has ever known) naturally came to be the seat of learning and culture in the new West.

Intelligent and intellectual people were early attracted to the town, which has retained its refined and cultured atmosphere, although later and larger colleges and universities throughout the West have taken away much of the patronage and prestige of the early college town.

The Ohio University, however, was the alma mater of the older generation of men who helped mould the character of the

trail made by the hunter, pioneer and post rider, opening up a thoroughfare which became half a century later the route of the first railroad to cross the mountains and bring East and West in closer touch.

Among the men appointed for this work was a Mr. Duncan McArthur, a surveyor, who being greatly pleased with the site now occupied by the town of Greenfield, conceived the idea of laying out a town on this spot, which idea he carried into effect about a year later.

In the year 1800, quite a band of settlers moved in and commenced building houses and making other improvements, so Greenfield

may be entitled to call herself a "Nineteenth Century Town," as her real history dates from the beginning of the last century.

At this time the Indians had camps on both sides of Paint Creek, but they and the white settlers seem to have gotten along very well together, as we have no record of any Indian troubles in Greenfield.

The greatest inconvenience the early settlers seemed to have suffered was from lack of grist mills, as they had to go from thirty to fifty miles to have their grain ground, over terribly bad roads which were

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considered a remarkably fine piece of workmanship in its day, and the facts would seem to warrant this judgment, as although somewhat remodeled, the house is still standing, to all appearances as staunch as if recently built.

The early merchants of the Ohio towns had to go to Philadelphia for their stock of goods, the trip taking six or seven weeks, as all goods had to be transported by wagon to the Ohio River, flat-boated down to a point opposite the inland town to which they were destined, then again wagoned to destination.

not free from the dangers of the wilderness, and their relief must have been great, when in 1802, a grist mill was built on the site of the present "Greenfield Mills." The mill stones of the original mill were made from native boulders, and are still on the premises. One of these stones which are now nearly 100 years old, may be seen in the accompanying cut of the present building, leaning against the side of it. The other lies near by.

In 1811 the first stone house was built in Greenfield. It was used as a hotel and named the "Traveler's Rest." It was

With the energy which characterized their forefathers in breaking a path through the wilderness, the second generation exerted themselves in improving this path to accommodate their growing necessities.

On the second of May, 1851, a festival of great rejoicing was held in Greenfield. Greenfield was to have a railroad, and the

people of the county turned out en masse to

witness the preliminary ceremonies attendant upon the triumphal progress of the "iron horse" whose coming presaged development and prosperity for the whole community. On this date, Chas. White, a Revolutionary