Nogletown, Washington County, Ohio

Cutler, 1890

The first settlement of this place, afterward organized as Warren Township, was made as early as 1799, and was called Nogletown, for one of the original settlers [IsaacNogle]. It was located on Reserved Congress Section No. 8, and consisted of a row of log cabins on the bank of the river, and did not present an inviting appearance, as those who occupied them were not owners of the soil, and made only temporary improvements.

Except Section No. 8, the good bottom lands were nearly all surveyed into eight-acre lots, and belonged to shares in the Ohio Company, and were owned by persons living at a distance, some even in Europe. It was very difficult to obtain enough of these small lots lying together to make a farm of convenient size, and on this account, although they comprised some of the finest land in the township, men of property were not inclined to settle on them. Much of the land back from the river was owned by non-resident proprietors, and long continued uncultivated.

From these circumstances, settlement progressed slowly. In the years 1804 and 1805, Mr. Elias Newton, Mr. Seth Bailey, Mr. William Smith, Mr. John Cole, and his sons, purchased land, and commenced improvements. Most of them erected neat frame houses on their farms; the frames and lumber for these were brought in rafts from the headwaters of the Ohio. In 1806, Mr. John Henry came with his family, and in the same year Congress Section No. 8, which makes perhaps the best farm in the township, was bought and taken possession of by Isaac Humphrey, Esq. About one year later Isaac Humphreys, Ezekial Finch and Judge Ephraim Cutler purchased land and made improvements. These old families were not only the pioneers of the township, but the leading characters in its history for more than thirty years. They were men of culture and energy, who were ambitious to build up the community as well as their private fortunes.

Thomas Dickey was one of the earliest residents of the township. He came from Pennsylvania to Washington County in 1798. About 1810 he was employed by Timothy Cone to carry the mail. After working two years for Mr. Cone, he took the mail contract for himself, and remained in the employ of the Government till 1816. In 1818 he was married to Betsy G. Brown, and in 1820 moved to Athens County, afterwards removing to Morgan County, where he died in 1863. He had four boys and three girls. His eldest son, Charles, was born in Athens County, in 1823. He is now a resident of this township. He has had three sons, two of whom are living. Cutler, 1890:86-86^[5]

Williams, 1881

Seventy some years after Cutler made his journal entries, Williams wrote an account of the history of Washington County. Williams, of course, had no personal first hand knowledge of Nogletown, but wrote a brief account of it, probably drawing on the original manuscript version of Cutlers Journal, and "old-timers" recollections. There were probably few, if any living "old-timers" who were adults when Nogletown was active, and what Williams got from his source, was probably distant recollections what others had said. Williams wrote;

The plan adopted by the Ohio Company for allotting lands to its members retarded for several years the settlement of Warren Township. Many of the eight-acre lots were owned by non-residents, who held them for speculative purposes. This made it difficult for any one desiring to make an improvement to procure a sufficiently large and connected tract of land for a suitable farm. Settlers naturally preferred to go further back, where large tracts could be purchased from a single individual.

Soon after the close of the Indian War, squatters began to make improvements on Congress section Number Eight. These people, with a few exceptions, were afflicted with a roving disposition and an aversion to the labor necessary to the making of more than a temporary improvement. On Section Eight a community of these people had gathered previous to the permanent settlement of the township. A few of them were industrious and frugal, and afterwards became good citizens, but by far the greater number sought dwelling places elsewhere, when driven from the land they occupied by actual owners. The first of this class of improvements were made in Warren Township by Isaac Nogle, George Nogle, Thomas Dickey and Isaac Hardin. These were soon followed by Thomas Patton, William Patton, Dr. Morse, Samuel Friend, John Rardin, John Chevington and others. This collection of uninviting cabins was called Nogletown. These transient inhabitants did not bear an enviable reputation among the more solid settlers who followed them, and their departure was not regretted. Williams, 1881 ^[6]

Williams statement that:

...the greater number sought dwelling places elsewhere, when driven from the land they occupied by actual owners.

is somewhat misleading. Until 1806 the Noglestown residents were not living on someone else's land, but on land that had not been sold by the The Ohio Company. Most of the original settlers of Nogletown had already left the property when it was sold in 1806. We have found no original source evidence to confirm (or deny) that they had to be actively driven from the land.

Showalter, 2016

More recently, Linda Showalter ^[7] would write about Nogletown in her excellent blog:

A dissolute community such as Nogletown was fertile ground for the leagues of religious missionaries who worked in the Western Country. An itinerant Methodist minister, Jacob Young, mentioned in his memoirs that he and his colleague, George C. Light, preached at "Noggel Town" in 1805. In 1806 the Reverend Thomas Robbins of New England, cousin of Marietta's Congregational pastor Samuel P. Robbins, visited the area and recorded it in his journal: "Rode to Noggeltown and preached from Matt. ix:9. Very muddy riding ^[8]

The infamous community of Nogletown was a topic of conversation as late as 1816, when Benjamin Ives Gilman, who owned a large farm in the vicinity, complained in a letter to his wife, "I have had one visit from Fulcher & I hope it will not be repeated. He entertained me with Nogle Town anecdotes for three long hours, & I should not have escaped then, had not the dinner hour arrived."

Robbins, 1886

Robbins does not tell us much about Nogletown, other than the fact that the roads were muddy. He had more to say about other locations, in particular about Salem Township. His comments about the residents there, is more informative:^[8]

21 [January, 1806]. Received from the people here four dollars and a half. Rode to Nogglestown and preached from Matt ix:9. Very muddy riding. Rode to Marietta. Quite tired.

22 [January, 1806]. Wrote. Walked out and visited. Was applied to for a copy of my sermon preached at the ordination here for publication. Had an application to come to this place and take the charge of an academy, with a pretty large salary. I hope for divine direction, but conclude I cannot comply. Quite wet. Roads very muddy. At evening preached from Matt, .xvii:5. Tarried at Gen. Putnam's.

23 [January, 1806]. Rode with my cousin to Salem. Preached to a few people from Matt. X:32. The people here are very stupid and loose, and greatly in want of gospel instruction. Robins:1886'^[8]

Assessment

The forgoing accounts paint a rather dim view of the settlers of Nogletown. It was certainly true that they were squatting on the land where Noglestown was located. Direct evidence of that is found in the Estate Inventory for Richard Patten The Elder, 1802 , which shows that one of Richard's possessions was a "cabin on Federal land" worth $30. In other words, he was squatting. That sounds a bit worse than what it was, given that this was still effectively wilderness land. Some well connected settlers, such as Ephraim Cutler, could afford to stay a short while at an inn in Marietta, but but most would simply stop on any unoccupied land and camp while they decided where to buy their land. The reason for coming to the Northwest Territory in the first place was to take advantage of cheap land, and it would take some time to explore their options. Even the wealthy would require time to navigate the possibilities. Ephraim Cutler was relatively wealthy, and armed with a host of social connections. Nonetheless, it would take two years, with at least two false starts, before he settled on a parcel a few miles south of Nogletown.

The contemporary accounts accounts of Nogletown available to us (Williams, 1880; Cutler, 1890) are largely based on observations from the 1805 to 1806 period. Ephraim Cutler, whose observation trickle into both Williams, 1881, and Showalter, 2016, did not arrive in the immediate area of Nogletown until Decmeber of 1806. By this time the land on which Nogletown was built had been purchased by Isaac Humphrey, and its original inhabitants had moved on. We do not know who was still living in Nogletown in 1806, but it is safe to say that conditions then may have been far different from those prevailing in 1799. Still, there are suggestions that even in 1806 conditions in Nogletown were not quite so bleak as suggested by Cutler, Williams and Showalter. As a case in point when the Reverend Robbins passed through the community in January of 1806, his only comment was that the roads were very muddy. He had nothing adverse to say about the community itself, a point which stands in stark contrast with his visit the next day to the Township of Salem, of which he wrote:

Preached to a few people from Matt. X:32. The people here
are very stupid and loose, and greatly in want of gospel instruction.

Clearly The Reverend Robbins was willing to comment on the moral standings of his would be congregants, yet all he has to say about Nogletown was that the "roads were quite muddy".

We can, perhaps, gain some insight into conditions at Nogletown about 1800 from the inventory of the estate of one of its residents, Richard Patten the Elder who died there in 1801. Looking over his inventory we are struck by his extensive list of farm related entries. In addition to the tools of the trade, his estate includes 4 hogs, 4 sheep, a yoke of oxen, 3 sows, 12 shoats, 3 cows, 1 calf, 1 steer, and 1 bull. His household furnishing are also extensive, including two beds, numerous pewter and earthward plates, a spinning wheel, etc. Significantly, his possessions include four books, a bible, a hymnal, and a sermon book. Missing from the inventory is any reference to alcohol. His inventory contains no references, for example, to "jugs" for holding whiskey. Whatever conditions were likely when Cutler first came across Nogletown in 1806, nothing in this inventory suggests a "dissolute life style" in the early 1800's.

The End of Nogletown

We suspect that the composition of the Nogletown population varied substantially from month to month with many coming, staying a short while, figuring out what to do next, and then leaving when they decided their course of action. It is doubtful that any of them intended to remain for long in the "row of cabins on the bank of the Ohio River." For example, Isaac Nogle, for whom Nogletown was named, left the settlement by 1804, purchasing two eight acre town lots in Marietta.

The Patten's however, appear to have remained in Nogletown until Isaac Humphrey purchased Section Eight. That, however, was probably not their original intent. We know that Richard Patten the Elder, died soon after the 1800 census. His son Timothy probably died about the same time, as did several other Nogletown residents (e.g., George Nogle andThomas Patten The Elder) for whom we have we have no further records for them after about 1804. Given their location on the banks of the Ohio River, It is seems likely that they died in an epidemic related to a mosquito borne disease such as malaria. Cutler, 1890 briefly describes such an event as occurring in 1807:

The winter of 1806-7 was very cold, followed by a rainy, late spring, and the river overflowed the low bottom lands two or three times.
The succeeding summer, the whole region was visitedby a general sickness— agues and remittent fevers — and we suffered with others^[9]

Cutlers Journal is filled with references to epidemic like outbreaks including measles, small pox, malaria, and other mosquito born illnesses.

Adjusting to a new reality may have delayed the departure of the Nogletown residents . In general, the survivors had three main choices available to them, and different families made different choices.

• Stay. Some of the Nogletown residents stayed in the immediate vicinity. Some, such as Isaac Nogle purchased Marietta Town lots. Others, such as Thomas Patten the Younger, acquired land in the what would become Warren Township.

• Go West. We believe that most of the children of Richard The Elder left Washington County altogether, traveling westward to settle in Warren County, Ohio. This includes sons Richard the Patriarch, James Patten, and John Patten. We also suspect that Ruth Owings also went with them, though the evidence for that is indirect at best. Richard the Elder's eldest son William took a different route. In his case he travelled west with his in-laws, the family of Isaac Harden, to settle in Delaware County, Ohio.

• Go Home. It seems likely that at least some of the early settlers of Washington County, and residents of Nogletown choose to return back east, once they understood the difficulties of settling in the Wilderness of Ohio. That does not seem to be the case with the Pattens, but it may explain why we have found no further evidence for other settlers in Washington County in general, and Nogletown in particular.
  

In anycase, by 1807 of the original settlers of Nogletown, by 1808 none but Thomas Patten the Younger can be found in the records of the area.

The Fate of Nogletown Residents

The Table B summarizes what we know of the fate of the Nogletown settlers present in the 1800 Territorial census, and a few others identified by Williams.

Footnotes