Hamilton Kerr. [Note.-The date of this road is not given,
but there were settlements on Leading creek and at Athens
as early as at Chester, and may have been opened as early by
way of these settlements from Gallipolis to Athens.] It should
be borne in mind that many roads were barely marked out for
horse or foot men that were never opened for teams. Mr.
Thomas Matthews settled in Chester in 1798 or 1799, and he
told me (Larkin) while we were in company passing over the
hill on the Rutland road to Middleport that there was where
he and Hamilton Kerr and some other men whose names are
forgotten located a road to Shade river, crossing Leading
creek where the K. & M. Railroad crosses that stream, run-
ning immediately up the point of that hill and following the
ridge all the way west of Middleport and Pomeroy, but that
road was never opened for teams. S.C.L.
Mr. Ervin stated that in 1814 the Ohio river was very high,
so that his father, Samuel Ervin and family, were compelled
to leave the cabin and take shelter in a cave, where they lived
seven days and nights, in much discomfort, as it was in the
month of February.
Rutland, Ohio, March 29th 1878
To the Teacher and Scholars of the School in Pleasant Val-
ley:
We propose to write a few items in relation to the early
history and settlement of the little spot of earth that appears
to be of so much importance and which in reality is so very
interesting to the inhabitants of what is now called Pleasant
Valley, the lawn where now stands the seat of learning and
capitol for this community, together with its surroundings up
and down the vale-
When wild turkeys and deer,
And old black bears that prowled,
Were sought by hunters here,
Though wolves as sentries howled.
