The Township of Troy, Athens County, Ohio

Personal and Biographical

Among the earliest settlers in Troy were Benajah Hoyt, Xerxes Paulk, Joseph Guthrie, Daniel Stewart, the Barrows family, William Pilcher, Asahel Cooley, John Torrence, Oliver Rice, Cummins Porter, Stephen Buckingham, Abram Richardson, Truman Hickox, and the Frost family. Some of these are noticed in connection with Rome and Carthage. Benajah Hoyt was probably the first white settler in Troy. He came from Nova Scotia to the mouth of the Hockhocking with his family in 1797. E. H. Williams, a grandson of his, owns and resides on the lot in Hockingport, on which Hoyt first built a cabin. One of Mr. Hoyt’s daughters, Sarah, married Captain Charles Devol, of Washington county. They had two sons and two daughters. Frank Devol, the oldest son, is a wealthy farmer in one of the western states. The youngest son, Prescott H. Devol, is noticed elsewhere. The eldest daughter of Mrs. Devol married Benjamin Dana of Washington county (both now deceased) ; and the youngest, Henrietta, is the wife of Mr. Samuel S. Knowles, late member of the state senate, and a well known lawyer of Marietta. Mrs. Devol is still living in Mr. Knowles’ family. Among the early settlers at Coolville were the Cooleys, Jacob S. Miller and Alfred Hobby.

Mr. John Frame settled here in 1833, and in 1840 commenced merchandizing and dealing in wool, grain, and country produce. Though over sixty years of age he still engages actively in business, having associated his sons with him.

Dr. John Pratt, a native of Schuyler county, New York, settled in Coolville in 1835. He is now sixty-eight years of age, hale and healthy, and has practiced his profession in this community for a third of a century.

Natalie Cottrill, “An Annotated Biographical History of Athens County, Ohio” ProGenealogists (Online: ProGenealogists, Inc., 2004) [some original text by Charles M. Walker, published in Cincinnati, Ohio by Robert Clarke & Co., 1869, History of Athens County, Ohio and Incidentally of the Ohio Land Company and the First Settlement of the State at Marietta with personal and biographical sketches of the early Settlers, narratives of pioneer adventures, etc.], <http://www.progenealogists.com/athens/troytownship.htm>.