The Argo Families Revisited
L. Wesley Argo
Gateway Press, Inc.
Baltimore 1987

Page 97

Jeremiah Argo

The first son of Reverend William Argo, Jeremiah (21-AY), was born in Luzerne Township, Fayette Co., PA. On the 21^st day of January in 1791. As a child he moved with his family across the Ohio River into Jefferson Co., Ohio. When Jeremiah was about 18 years of age he went to Colerain Township in the adjacent county of Belmont and located on Wheeling Creek. In September of 1811, Jeremiah attended a camp meeting conducted by Bishop Asbury on Short Creek, 18 miles northwest of Steubenville. During the service he was converted by the powerful preaching of the Bishop, an associate of his father. Near the conclusion of the meeting, in the midst of one of the Bishop’s discourses, Jeremiah’s mother arrived on the grounds, having ridden 12 miles on horseback, to inform him that he had been drafted for six month’s service in the Army. He went to camp at Hiram, Ohio, not far from Lake Erie, under the command of General William Henry Harrison and assisted in the construction of Fort Meigs. Jeremiah was a corporal in Alexander’s Co. of the Ohio Volunteer Militia. In November of 1811 word came that the Indians of the West, under the leadership of their Chief Tecumseh, were plotting an attack upon the settlers of Ohio who were destroying their hunting grounds. Before they were ready to strike, they were defeated by an overwhelming force commanded by General W. H. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe. Jeremiah was a part of a detachment that was sent on an arduous trip down the ice-clogged river in pursuit of a band of Indians. His health suffered as a result of exposure and he was discharged 20 days before his term of service expired. It was with extreme difficulty that Jeremiah reached his home, where after a feverish illness he finally regained his health.

On August 26, 1813, Jeremiah was united in marriage to Ann Oxley, the daughter of Britton Oxley. They resided on a farm in Warren Township of Jefferson County in the same state. Their first child, John Wesley (211-AY), was born on their fifth wedding anniversary and their first daughter, Permelia, on December 10, 1820, shortly after their relocation in Belmont Co. On October 1, 1824, Jeremiah and his brother-in-law, Everett Oxley, received a U. S. land grant signed by President James Monroe for 158 acres located in Muskingum Co., Ohio. Muskingum Co. had been formed in 1804 and Zanesville named its county seat. The latter was named after Ebenezer Zane who had been licensed to open and operate a road from Wheeling, then in Virginia, to Maysville, to Kentucky. Undoubtedly, Jeremiah followed this route when he moved his young family westward to the banks of Muskingum River where they arrived on Christmas eve in 1825. By that time they were the parents of a second daughter, Sina, who had been born six months earlier. During the Following three months they lived in a log schoolhouse near the Henry Onstott residence on Meigs Creek while Jeremiah erected a dwelling on his own land, one mile to the northwest in Blue Rock Township. He at last got his home in readiness, moved into it and commenced clearing away the dense forest to establish the farm on which he was destined to spend the next 32 years. In this modern age it is difficult to image the tremendous commitment and expenditure of time, care and toil that was required to carve such a homestead out of a wilderness. Their fourth child, a daughter Linia, was born to them in 1827. In that same year Jeremiah became a teacher in a small school which was connected with the Blue Rock Church. The Bethelem Methodist-Episcopal Church was located on land given by George Stewart. In 1828 the graveyard was dedicated before the members of the church of which Jeremiah was a member. He was also a licensed class leader and exhorter, a station in life he held for more than 20 years. Everett Oxley and his wife Rachel of Belmont Co. gave a quit-claim deed to Jeremiah in 1828 for their share of the 1824 land grant. Jeremiah and Anna’s last three children were born to them in the next three years. In 1829 William (211-B0 was born on the homestead and Jeremiah Everett’s (211-CY) birth occurred on June 30 of the following year. Marinda was born in 1832. In the following years Jeremiah not only expended his boundless talents and energies on his farm, but also for the good of his neighbors and community. For seven years he filled the office of Township Clerk and was chosen six times to serve on the county jury.