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Pennsville Attic Gold
Pennsville, Ohio, was founded in 1828 by Nathan Sidwell, on land from his original land grant of 1817. This we know, and his descendants were part of the first and earliest residents.
My great-grandparents, Christopher and Melissa Heskett and James and Anna DeWees, were all born in the area and settled in Pennsville between 1865 and 1870. My grandparents, James and Edith Heskett, were born in 1873 and 1887. They were married in 1913 and my mother, Mildred Heskett Porter Calendine, was born in Pennsville in 1914. She died in Canton, Ohio, in November 2004, at age 90.
While cleaning out her attic I found a very old cigar box simply marked "old deeds." I am still in awe at what was inside. There were more than 40 original, hand-written deeds for land in and around Pennsville, dating from 1831 to 1917. They basically represent a "who's who" of the founders of Pennsville. What interested me the most was the fact that not only were their names there, but also their signatures.
With the help of the 1875 and 1902 Morgan County Atlas, I have been able to identify more than 30 lots in the town limits and many surrounding farms, including such names as:
Gabriel and Elizabeth Sidwell, Jesse and Hanna Sidwell, William and Elizabeth Lent, Parry and Rebecca Llewelyn, Robert and Sarah Todd, John Sidwell, Elijah and Ann Bain, Joseph and Rachel Strahl, Nathan (probaby the son of the founder, Nathan Sidwell) and Julia Sidwell.All are family or heirs of Nathan and Rebecca Sidwell. Other early names on the deeds and agreements were:
- Lewis Bernhard to Joseph Thompson, 1834
- William and Rachel Harmer to Elizabeth Harmer - 1835
- David Metcalf - 1838
- Jacob Shaffer - 1838
- John and Sarah Chamberlain - 1843
- Robert and Liddy Kinly to Joshua Wood, three lots in Pennsville in 1845.
To most people, an old deed is simply that - an old deed. But to me it was a treasure and a golden opportunity to dig into the past. There is no way I can describe the feeling I had while simply unfolding a document that had been folded up one hundred years before I was born. I have sat for hours just reading, re-reading, and putting them in order by year. Through this whole thing I have felt as though I were in some kind of "time warp."
I have always been interested in history, buried treasure, sunken ships and such. I was fascinated with the 1857 sinking and 1980 recovery of the SS Central America and the 1865 sinking of the SS Republic with Civil War gold on board. Now, here in my hands, were all these documents from the same time period - which was another reason why I was so thrilled with this find.
The main reason, of course, was because it is Pennsville and many of the deeds involved members of my own family. My great-grandpa Christopher Heskett, fought in the Civil War, was injured at Shiloh, discharged in 1862, and came back and settled in the area. I found the deed to property he purchased from Alexander and Melissa Lightner in 1886.
Most of the deeds are hand-written with pen and ink and some in the most beautiful penmanship you can imagine. But the most interesting one was also the oldest. It was typed by Justice of the Peace George Worrable on September 2, 1834, for a land sale from William and Elizabeth Lent to William Gaddis. Of course they all start out:
Know all men by these presentsand ends with ...
in witness whereof we do here unto set our hands and seals.This one also reads:
and the Fifty-Sixth year of the Independence of the United States.I thought that was great. I don't think I had ever seen that statement before.
My best guess as to how Mother got them is this: Grandpa DeWees lived for years in Pennsville in the "Doc Davis" house across from the "upper store." He sold insurance and therefore had a safe. Great-Grandpa DeWees also was Penn Township Treasurer for a time and must have been entrusted with all these documents. When he died in 1920, no one knew they were there. When great-grandma died in 1925, everything was moved into Grandma Heskett's attic in the house where I was born in 1933. (I was delivered by Doc Davis). That house was on Lot #5 on the Columbus Street Hill, the second house back from the cemetery, on the north side of the street - and was called the "old creamery." It was later moved up from the flat by Manly and Wilson Thompson and this move was described on pages 97 and 98 in the book High on a Hill by Ernest G. Yocum.
When Grandpa Heskett died in 1956, everything was moved to Canton and lay untouched for 48 more years in Mother's attic. She was still living when I found them and said she had no idea they were there. So I did find my own "buried treasure" and it was much better than finding something far away, for it was of my own family.
Hopefully they will one day be on display at the Morgan County Historical Society Museum, along with the picture of Nathan Sidwell, so others may enjoy seeing them as much as I have. I will gladly furnish a complete list of names to any interested person. I can be contacted at: porterbm33sc@prtcnet.com or at:
Bernard W. Porter
377 Cain Rd.
Laurens, S.C. 29360
Pennsville Attic Gold was originally published in the Morgan County Historical Society newsletter, Elk Eye, by member (and Silverheels writer), Bernie Porter.
Latest page update: made by LeilaN
, Apr 21 2008, 11:05 PM EDT
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About This Update
Moved from: Morgan County History in words and Pictures
- LeilaN
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Moved from: Morgan County History in words and Pictures
- LeilaN
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- complete history)
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deeds
Heskett
Morgan County
Penn Township
Pennsville
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