1814 Preble County Voters

While going back thru my notes for William Sellers, I re-looked at the book, History of Preble County, Ohio: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches. That’s when I found (or refound) list of voters from 1814 that includes several people on my FAN club list, including TWO men named James Crawford.

The number of voters at the first election in Washington township is not recorded, but the poll book of the election of 1814 if given, and it may be a matter of interest to some readers to know who and how many were the electors at that time in the township, or at least how many cast votes. just forty votes were cast this year, and the names which appear upon the record are the following:
Thomas Ramsey
George Hardy
Alexander Mitchell
John Day
Richard Leeson
John Stevens
Andrew Frick
Abner Dooley
Nathan Sellers
James Crawford
Robert Rhea
Moses Dooley
Elisha Sutton
David Stevens
George Crous
George Maxwell
James White
William Custer
Phillip Largue
Thomas Harris
James C. McCamey
Walter Buell
Charles Hand
Daniel Washam
John Spacht
William Crane
William Sellers
Alexander C. Lanier
James Crawford
Daniel McCoy
William Salle
James Cuttler
John Hawkins
Jonathan Lyons
Samuel Ward
Jonathan Deniston
John Ward

History of Preble County, Ohio: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (N.p.: H. Z. Williams & Bro., Publishers, 1881), page 135; digital images, Archive.org, http://www.archive.org viewed online 7 November 2022.

This list of 1814 voters was followed by information about the early settlement of Washington township in Preble County, Ohio. This information places several members of my Crawford FAN club in Preble county around 1806.

Early Settlement of Washington Township
The first settlement in what is now Washington township was made in the year 1805. Several entries of land were made the year previous, but no permanent settlements were made until that year. In 1804 there were no buildings standing within the limits of the township. Entries had been made, but the owners of these had not yet arrived. In 1805 several settlers arrived and proceeded to erect cabins.

In the following year, 1806, as many as twenty cabins were built in different parts of the township. Several entries had been made in the year previous, and their owners came in 1806. A few of those whose names can be ascertained are given below.
George and Andrew Dooley emigrated form Kentucky in 1806, and came to Ohio. George entered land in section eight, of township seven.
Joseph, William and Nathan Sellers, Kentuckyans settled either in section nine or ten, of township seven.

Henry Duggins was born in 1787, and in 1806 he moved to Ohio. In 1811 he married Jane Sellers, born in 1781. He first settled in Gasper township, and afterwards came to Washington township, where he settled in 1811, the same year as his marriage. His brother, William A., came to Ohio in the same year that he did. Mr. Henry Duggins had six children — Cornelius V., John F., Nathan, William, W. P. and Caroline (Miller), who lives in Eaton. The first four of these are deceased. Cornelius V. was born in Preble county in 1812. In 1834 he married Elizabeth daughter of Henry M. Monfort of Eaton, born in 1814. Five children were born to them, four of whom are still living. Mr. Duggins died in 1849 on the old homestead where his wife now resides. He left a farm of one hundred and sixteen acres. During his lifetime he had a printing office in Eaton, where the Register office is now located. His son, John F., was in the war, in the Seventy-fifth Ohio volunteer infantry, and while in Florida was taken prisoner and sent to Andersonville, where he stayed for six months. W. P. Duggins was born in 1820, and in 1844 married Mary, daughter of Alexander Lugar, born about 1826. He has nine children. His farm contains about sixty-five acres.
Benjamin Neal and wife, Mary (Sellers) cam from Bourbon county, Kentucky, to this township in the year 1806, and settled in section two of township seven. After residing here for a few years, he moved to New Lexington where he died in the year 1818. His wife survived him for more than forty years, dying in 1858 at the age of eighty-seven. They had four children born tot hem in Kentucky, vix: Sarah, Nathan, James and Jane. Of these only Nathan and James survive. After

page 137
their arrival in this county, their family further was increased by the births of Benjamin, John and Mary Ann. Benjamin married Ann Kerlin, now living. He has been associate judge, and has held the office of postmaster at Eaton since the year 1871

History of Preble County, Ohio: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (N.p.: H. Z. Williams & Bro., Publishers, 1881), page 135-137; digital images, Archive.org, http://www.archive.org viewed online 7 November 2022.