fore Ohio was admitted into the Union. They became im-
pressed with a sense of duty toward those forefathers, and to
retrieve as far as possible the neglect of previous years, they
organized the Meigs County Pioneer Association-H. B.
Smith, President; Aaron Stivers, Secretary; later Stillman C.
Larkin, President. Mr. Larkin as a son of a pioneer, Abel
Larkin, who had been active in the organization and develop-
ment of the civil and moral interests of the new country,
began collecting and placing in manuscript, everything
available of the acts and actors of all legislative affairs in the
new country. First, the sparsely settled lands were incor-
porated in Washington county, and Marietta people were
wise enough to keep a running account with Time, but Gallia
county was taken out from Washington, and until 1819 all
civil records were kept in Gallipolis, when Meigs county was
taken out from Gallia county.
Mr. Larkin began at the beginning, and wrote the Declara-
tion of Independence, declared in 1776, which made the Cen-
tennial of 1876 possible-he wrote out the Ordinance of 1787,
that proclaimed freedom of the whole Northwest Territory of
the Ohio river, from involuntary servitude of man for man.
The first emigrants to Ohio-Washington, Gallia and Meigs,
opened up the wilderness for cultivation, or the present gen-
eration would not have broad acres in meadows, or hillsides in
wheat, or blooming fruit-laden orchards. These first settlers
built their cabins and schoolhouses, had teachers for their
children; they organized townships, elected township officers
and kept records of local affairs.
For these men and these records Mr. Larkin had respect.
It was no easy matter to collect and place in order the history
of the first ten years of the settlements included later in the
boundaries of Meigs county; for from 1798 to 1808, is an
almost forgotten page, but the men who wrought for the
good of coming generations-wrought wisely, intelligently,
with broad views, and persistent effort to establish homes,
