ROBERT NEWELL A native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, is believed to have located in the east part of Montgomery Township in 1811. He had resided for two or three years on White Eyes plains, near the present site of Newcomerstown, in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He is believed to have erected the first cabin in Montgomery Township. It was situated on what has since been known as the Hugh McGuire farm, some five miles southeast of Ashland. In the fall of 1812, after the Ruffner-Zimmer-Copus tragedies on the Black fork, the cabins of Mr. Newell, Mr. Cuppy, and Mr. Fry, further up a branch of the same stream, were burned by the Indians, while the families of the above-mentioned pioneers sought safety at the fort or Jerome's place, now the village of Jeromeville. After peace had been declared, Mr. Newell re-erected a cabin and continued to improve his farm, which he finally sold to the late Hugh McGuire, and located one mile north of Olivesburgh, in Richland county, where he deceased in 1848, at an advanced age. When Montgomery Township was associated with Vermillion Township for civil purposes, from 1814 to 1816, Mr. Newell, from Montgomery, and James Wallace, from Vermillion, were elected justices of the peace. Upon the organization of Montgomery in 1816, Mr. Newell lost his office. He is represented as having been a clever, whole-souled pioneer, but in point of education quite illiterate. He could not write, and consequently kept no docket. There was but little litigation in those days, and it was the habit of squire Newell to appoint a day and cite the plaintiff and defendant to appear before him. When the parties had assembled, he required them to state, under oath, the nature of their claims, and having partially heard both sides, required an equitable and peaceable adjust of the dispute. It is related, that on some occasions, money being exceedingly scarce, and whisky being a legal tender it was decided that a gallon of that article should be provided by the winning party for the crowd, and the case be dismissed, with the injunction that in the future the litigants should be neighbors and friends. Mr. Newell was a very liberal officer. He rarely charged for his services. Constable Kline, who served under him, being a poor man, had to exact his fees. The sons of Mr. Newell were; Absalom, Franklin, Samuel, Zacharicah, and Jesse. The daughters were two, Mrs. Jonathan Eby and Mrs. Lloyd Eby, of Richland County. The sons all moved west, most of them to Iowa, where some of them yet reside. Like Robert Newell, their father, they were all large, rugged men, and preferred the rough and tumble of a new country. Like the Lattas. The Mackleys, the Uries, and hundreds of others of the early settlers, they were formidable men at a military muster, a cabin raising, a political meeting or any other gathering where physical force was brought into question. The days of the giants are no more! The race of backwoodsmen has departed. Feebler men occupy their places. contributed by
 Russ Shopbell |
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