A check of land records from 1801 to 1870 at the court house in Steubenville did not uncover any evidence of land ownership in Jefferson County, Ohio, for Martin and Margaret Harris Hall. More in-depth research may reveal relationships to other Jefferson County landowners. In the meantime, an examination of the couple's first known land purchase in Washington County, Ohio, where they eventually settled, connects them to some Jefferson County residents and communities that may eventually shed more light on their origins.
The Land Is Advertised
An advertisement for an administrator's sale was printed in the Marietta Intelligencer on April 8, 1847. The seller was Jackson Bartholomew of New Alexandria, Jefferson County, Ohio. The land he was offering was located in Washington County, Ohio. It is not yet known if this advertisement appeared in Jefferson County newspapers, or if it was published only in Marietta.
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| Marietta Intelligencer, April 8, 1847, p. 3, c. 5. |
Administrator's Sale.
The following tracts of Land (having been offered for sale on the 29th of March, on the premises, and the sale adjourned to the time and place stated below) will be offered for sale on the 22d day of April, between ten o'clock A.M., and two o'clock P.M., at the Court House in Marietta, viz: The west half of the north east quarter of Section twenty one, in Township four, Range seven in the District of Lands subject to sale at Marietta Ohio, containing eighty acres more or less.
Also - The south east quarter of the north west quarter of Sec. nineteen in Township three, of Range six, in the district of Lands subject to sale at Marietta, Ohio, containing forty acres more or less.
Also - The south west quarter of the south east quarter of Section twenty-two in Township four, of Range seven, in the District of Lands, subject to sale at Marietta, Ohio, containing forty acres, more or less.Sale to commence at ten o'clock A.M.
Terms made known on the day of sale.
JACKSON BARTHOLOMEW
Adm'r. of S. M. Bartholomew's Estate.
New Alexandria, Jefferson Co. O.
March 25, 1847.
The last date in the advertisement is March 25, 1847, presumably the date on which it was submitted to the newspaper. The first full sentence states, however, that the land had been offered for sale on March 29 on the premises, and that the sale then adjourned until April 22 at the court house in Marietta. Was there, indeed, a sale on the premises on March 29? Were any offers made at that time? The advertisement also tells us that the land is part of an estate, specifically that of S. M. Bartholomew, and that Jackson Bartholomew of Jefferson County is the administrator.
The Bartholomew Family of Jefferson County, Ohio
A brief history of the Bartholomew family of Jefferson County, Ohio, is provided in the book, Record of the Bartholomew Family, Volume 2, by George Wells Bartholomew, Jr., Austin, Texas (1885), pages 538-540. The information provided in this publication has not been verified.
Joseph Bartholomew (son of Henry) was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1780. On April 5, 1807, he married Margaret Merchant in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Margaret Merchant Bartholomew was born May 12, 1785, in Baltimore County, Maryland.
Joseph Bartholomew was drafted for the War of 1812 in 1813 at Annapolis, Maryland. He served in that area under Captain Barnes of Colonel Hood's regiment, and in 1814, he was "present at the death of Gen. Ross." (The latter probably refers to General Robert Ross, a British Army officer who led an attack that resulted in the burning of Washington, D.C. Ross was killed in a skirmish near Baltimore on September 12, 1814.)
Joseph Bartholomew died in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1834. His family moved to Ohio, then later to Iowa, where Margaret died after 1871. The children of Joseph and Margaret Merchant Bartholomew are listed as:
- Samuel Miller Bartholomew, born January 5, 1808; married first, December 27, 1836, Mary Dean, who died about 1840; married second, December 9, 1841, Mary Porter; died April 26, 1845, at Smithfield, [Jefferson County,] Ohio.
- A. Jackson Bartholomew, born in 1815; married March 29, 1838, Margaret Scott, who was born in 1819 and died January 5, 1871.
- Thomas Martin Bartholomew, born November 26, 1819; married July 30, 1840, Mary A. Linton, who was born January 30, 1819, and died October 28, 1880; died November 24, 1881.
Federal census records of 1840 list Jackson Bartholomew in Cross Creek Township, Jefferson County, Ohio. In his household there is one male, aged 20 to 29, and one female, aged 20 to 29, along with one child, a male under five years old. The name listed above Jackson Bartholomew is Thomas Hall, whose household also includes a male aged 20 to 29, a female aged 20 to 29, a male child under five, and a female child under five. This Hall family will be investigated at a later time.
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| 1840 Census, Cross Creek Township, Jefferson County, Ohio. (ancestry.com) |
In 1840 Samuel Miller Bartholomew is found in Wells Township, which borders Cross Creek Township on the south. Samuel is actually listed in the town of La Grange, located along the Ohio River. La Grange was originally called Phillipsburg, and today it is known as Brilliant. Martin and Margaret Harris Hall are listed in La Grange on the 1850 census.
Samuel Bartholomew's household in 1840 included one male who was 30 and under 40, four males who were 20 and under 30, and two males who were 15 and under 20. There also was one female of 50 and under 60, and one of 15 and under 20.
The George W. Bartholomew book indicates that Samuel M. Bartholomew's first wife, Mary Dean, died about 1840. This information is supported by a reading of the Barrett Cemetery by Opal Conn that was published in Jefferson County Lines, newsletter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, Jefferson County Chapter, Volume 10, Number 1, Spring 1996. The Barrett Cemetery is located on the east side of Brilliant. Among the people buried there are Thomas and Margaret Dean, along with their daughter Mary. Mary Dean was born October 16, 1813, married Samuel Bartholomew December 27, 1836 (see Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013, Jefferson, Marriage Records 1831-1838, Volume 4, Image 192, at familysearch.org), and died April 19, 1840. Samuel did not marry Mary Porter until December 9, 1841, so when the 1840 census was taken, he had no living wife.
Listed in 1840 on the same page as Samuel Bartholomew in La Grange, just 13 names below, is Sewell Hall. This is the only Hall family listed in La Grange in 1840, and Sewell Hall will be examined in the future. Also listed on the same page as Samuel and just seven names below Sewell Hall, is Thomas Dean, father of Samuel's first wife. The widow of Thomas Dean, Margaret, is listed two households below Martin Hall in La Grange, Wells Township, on the 1850 Census.
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| 1840 Census, La Grange, Wells Township, Jefferson County, Ohio. (ancestry.com) |
"Jack" Bartholomew, brother of Samuel, is also listed in Wells Township, Jefferson County, on the 1850 census. The locations of the Bartholomews' 1840 and 1850 residences in relation to Martin Hall's indicates that they probably knew each other, and Martin probably learned of the sale of Samuel's Washington County land through the news in his own Jefferson County neighborhood in 1847.
To be continued.