built their first cabins in what afterwards became the town
of Chester, but they did not remove their families until a year
later. Mrs. Grow died before the cabins were ready for occu-
pancy, but the father, with six motherless children, came to
the place of their future home. Mrs. Stedman shared with
her husband all the privation of those primitive times. She,
too, had a 'bear story,' for one time when Mr. Stedman was
away from home she heard something disturbing the pigs in
the pen and discovered a bear. She resorted to firebrands,
throwing them vigorously. The bear retreated, not getting
fresh pork for supper. Many families who came from Ver-
mont and Massachusetts and located on Shade river, in and
about Chester, in the first years of 1800 ought to be included
in pioneer history. Thomas L. Halsey, 1792, bought land of
the Ohio company's purchase; Jacob and Joel Cowdery in
1807 and 1808, and the Branch, the Rice and Walker families
and others. Those families from the New England states
brought their ideas of education with them, and until they
could have a common school they would work hard by day
and in the evening teach their children. They succeeded in
bringing up some intelligent sons and daughters. Their books
were few, but well chosen and carefully read. After Meigs
county was made and organized, with the county seat located
at Chester, the principal lawyers to attend the sessions of
Common Pleas court were Samuel F. Vinton and Thomas
Ewing."
In various communications that have been submitted to us
there has been much of the same character related by Mrs.
Knight, so we have taken the liberty of making extracts from
her excellent paper instead of using the entire history.-S.C.L.
It is a serious fact that among the first early settlers in
what is now Meigs county and who bought land, that no sub-
sequent account of their lives or families has been obtained,
an omission which at this late day it is almost impossible to
