Thomas H. Powell

As printed in 1881

POWELL THOMAS H., Adams township; farmer; born in 1809, in Herefordshire, England; son of Thomas J. Powell and Henrietta (Howell) Powell, who were natives of England, and emigrated to the United States in 1817. The father of Thomas J. Powell was steward to Lord Oxford, and 'his father-in-law was engaged extensively in the manufacture of woolen goods, and was induced to come to the United States by Genera! Washington, and establish a factory in New England. Thomas J. followed the mercantile business for a few years and brought a part of his stock of goods with him when he came to this country.

He landed with his family at Richmond, Virginia, where he sold his goods and rented a farm of Mrs. Haganbottom, on the James river, seven miles below Richmond. Work on the farm was performed by slave labor, he having rented a number of slaves with the farm. One of the Randolphs, who belonged to the Randolph family of revolutionary fame, was Mrs. Haganbottom's sonic-law, and mason terms of social intimacy with the Powell family. In 1818, after living there thirteen months, he moved to Steubenville, Ohio. His treatment of the slaves was the same he had given his white servants in England, and when he left for Ohio, the slaves bid their old master and mistress a very affectionate farewell, and said, “God bless you master and mistress, we shall never forget you.” He brought with him from the old country about 130,000, but lived extravagantly while in Virginia, and had but little when he came to Steubenville.

He rented a farm on the Mingo bottoms, in Jefferson county, and hired a man to teach him to farm. While there a disastrous fire consumed nearly everything they had. After this misfortune he thought of going to Canada, but Campbell induced him to take a seven-years lease on his farm in Adams township. He visited his prospective home in Adams township during the winter, and on his return to his family, reported that the people in Coshocton would not make very desirable neighbors; that they were rough, and some were half naked and ran wild in the woods.

In the spring of 1820 he brought his family out, and stopped for a while with Judge Evans, of Oxford township, nho treated them very kindly, and the judge and his boys helped them get their cattle and things across the river, which was swollen. They reached the Campbell farm in safety and in time for the spring work. The cabin on the Campbell farm, put up by Colwell, was the first cabin built in Adams township. The door was so low that they had to stoop to enter it. Pie being unused to manual labor, without money, on a farm nearly all in woods, with neighbors few and far between, his newmade friends in Coshocton county expressed years that the English folks would starve. His fine library that he had brought with him to Steubenville, he traded for a flock of sheep.

Mrs. Powell exchanged her chinaware for necessaries, and gave a neighbor woman a fine silk shall to learn her how to milk. At the expiration of his lease of the Campbell farm, Mr. Powell was in still more straightened circumstances than when he came to the county. He next took a contract on the Ohio canal, and engaged a farm ill Jefferson county, and desired to go there where his family could enjoy better educational facilities, but his family prevailed on him to stay here. He went to England that summer and sold a life estate his oldest son, Thomas H., had in some land there, returned and purchased 1,080 acres in Adams, where his sons, Thomas H. and Washington now reside. He met with better success on his own land, become wealthy and retired to Bakersville, where he died.

Thomas H.Powell married Mary Ann Starker, a daughter of one of the earliest settlers, whose parents were natives of New Jersey. He was in partnership with Watkins in the mercantile business at Evansburgh for three years, then moved on to a farm, where he how resides. In 1849 he joined the M. E. church and imbibed Abolition principles. His home was a, depot on the " underground railroad," and he and his family assisted hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of slaves tofreedom. He continued in the good work for twenty-five years or more, notwithstanding the censure and threats of the opposing political party. Some of his enemies charged that he built his store-house with the profits derived from his connection with the underground railroad, but instead of being profitable it was a great expense. Jlinisters thought he was doing very ' wrong, and endeavored to persuade him to abandon it, but he met them with the abolition arguments, and told them that he was willing to eridure abuse and hatred, for he felt confident that he was doing right, and that future events would justify him in the minds of all men.

His children are Edwin, David, Wellington, Charles, Theodore, Louisa and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is dead, and all are married but Edwin and Charles. Enwin was a. soldier in the late war; enlisted in 1861, in his eighteenth year, in Company G, One Hundred and Twenty-second 0. V. I, and served till the close of the war. He was taken prisoner at Winchester, got sick, and his mother visited him, and took care of him for a while; but, while there, the enemy took Winchester, carried off Mrs. IPowell and her companion, Leah Brown, and imprisoned them in Castle Thunder. Mrs. Powell was not heard from for nine weeks, and her husband and friends in the North feared that she had declared her union and abolition principles, and that she had been summarily dealt with by the enemy.

As printed in History of Coshocton County, Ohio: its past and present, 1740-1881. Containing a comprehensive history of Ohio; a complete history of Coshocton County ... a history of its soldiers in the late war ... (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.