Michael Danford, Farmer. He was born in Wayne township, Belmont county, in 1803. In 1831 he married Miss Mercy Danford. Their union resulted in nine children - six boys and three girls, only three of whom are living. In 1870 his wife died at the age of fifty years. She was a member of the Christian church at Hunter. In 1873 he was married again. His second wife was Catherine Berry. She was born in 1828. They are both member of the Christian church. In 1854, he was elected to the office of County Commissioner. Was followed farming all his life.

 Washington township belong to the lower or southern tier of townships. I was erected from York and Wayne in 1831. In its erection twenty-four sections were detached from the former and twelve from the latter township. Its boundary is as follows:

 On the north by Smith township, east by Mead and York, south by Monroe county and west by Wayne township.

 This township is watered by Captina creek and its numerous tributaries, which have their origin from the many clear and limpid springs that find their way to the surface along the indentations of the land.

 The surface of Washington township is very undulating, with here and there bluffs abruptly rising to various altitudes. The soil along the water course is rich and productive. Like the other townships in the country, bituminous coal-beds underlie its entire surface. Lime is also abundant. In the first settling these minerals were not utilized, and are not yet regarded by many at least, as a source of wealth. Iron ore has not yet been developed.

 Washington was the last township erected in Belmont county. It is about six miles square and is considered a fine farming district. It contributes largely to the cereal products of the country.

 The population of this township is about fifteen hundred. The total number of votes polled at the elections for Governor in 1879 was 321. The total vote during the centennial year was 314.

 The first settlements made in this, now Washington township began in the year 1797, along Captina creek. It was then a dense wilderness - the home and rendezvous of the bear, wolf, deer, reptiles, wild turkeys and various game. Soon after the introductory settlement of a few pioneers was made, emigrants from Pennsylvania and Maryland Chiefly came in pretty rapidly, and erected their smoky little cabins, and commenced clearing, away the forests and planting their small crops. The pioneers were very neighborly and agreeable, and often turned out to a man when any new settlers arrived, to help them cut logs and build cabins. They would never stop either until it was made ready to move in. They needed no laws or justice - made their own laws and lived up to them. Peace and tranquillity abounded then. Times were hard, extremely hard. Game and fish of course, were very plentiful, but they had no mills, stores, or even roads; had to go beyond Wheeling to buy corn, and gave on dollar per bushel for it. It was packed home and pounded in a mortar. These were made of a log of gum wood about three feet long and eighteen inched in diameter, with one end burnt out in a funnel shape, and then cleaned out with an inshave, so as to hold a half bushel or more of corn. In these nortars were made their meal. Genius soon contrived the hand-mills, "and they got along a little better."

 The bottom lands were first settled . The clearing was very heavy. The sycamore, sugar, walnut, buckeyes and such like had to be cut down, rolled up and burnt, on account of the shade .

The first settlers thought nothing of frequently doing with but one meal a day. Sometimes they went a long time without food, and could eat a large quantity when they did eat. A large turkey roasted was eaten in one meal by small families. As a remedy for their privations, they practiced economy. For trace chains ropes were used; for collars they used corn husk' for log chains hickory withes. Their wearing apparel consisted of buckskins of their own tanning - shirts, pants moccasins and all. They manufactured their own plows, which were rude implements indeed. The mould board was split out of a block of wood that had the right twist in it; the share and coulter were made of wrought iron, laid with steel. This was an excellent plow for rooty ground. The principal diet of the pioneers was hog, honey and johnny cake.

 Among the first settlers were the Danfords, Perkinses, Beans, Reads, &c. Some of the emigrants who moved here in real early days, remained but a short time, and then "pulled tip stakes" and removed elsewhere. Others located permanently, and awaited the opening of the land office at Steubenville and other places, when they entered what land they wanted. The Danfords, perhaps, were the earliest permanent settlers.

 Danford, as the name implies, is undoubtedly of English origin, thought it would be difficult, if not impossible, at present to trace out their connections with the Danfords or Danforths of the old world. The first member of the family, of whom it is now possible to get any account, was Peter Danford, who was born in the state of New Jersey, about the year 1739. Little is known of his early life. He was a farmer. Was married (at what date it is not known) to Sarah Morrison, by which marriage he had four children: Samuel, William, Sarah and Rebecca. After the death of his first wife, he married a Mercy Ewing, they whom he had one son - Ambrose. His second wife died in 1793. At an early day, some time between 1785 and 1796, Peter Danford moved with his family to Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he settled on Patterson creek. From this point his sons, Samuel, William and Ambrose, came to Belmont county, Ohio, about 1797, and located in section 4, Washington township, where they cleared a piece of ground, built a cabin, and planted some corn, after which Samuel and William returned to Patterson creek for the family, leaving Ambrose to take care of the crop and look after the interest of the new home i n the woods. After an absence of several weeks, the boys returned to their frontier home bringing with them their father and sister Sarah, the younger sister Rebecca having been left at Patterson creek. She was brought over perhaps the following year. The family remained at this place for several years, till the father entered land on Benfork in section 23, now owned by the heirs of his daughter Nancy Grove. In 1803 Peter Danford married his third wife, a widow, Margaret DeLancy, by whom he had two children, twin daughters. He died in 1827. His wife Margaret died in 1835.

 Samuel, a son of Peter Danford, was born in New Jersey, perhaps about the year 1776. He was married to Nancy Mathew about the year 1798. He settled on the land now owned by Mrs. Emma Danford and family, on section 22, Washington township, on Captina creek which he owned until his death. He reared a family of fourteen children, six sons and eight daughters, nine of whom are still living.

 William, the second son of Peter Danford, was born in New Jersey, perhaps about the year 1778. He married Elizabeth Moore, daughter of Michael Moore in 1799. in 1807 he entered the east half of section 22, now Washington township, at present owned by John Sidebottom. The War of 1812 having broken out, he joined a company raised in Belmont County, and marched to Lower Sandusky, where he died in November 1813. He left seven children - Hiram, Michael, Samuel, Abraham, Peter, John and Borsheba all of whom are living except Peter. Two, Michael and Samuel, are citizens of Belmont county. Michael married Mercy, second daughter of Ambrose Danford, by whom he had three sons - Alexander, William and John and two daughters Virginia and Emily. The latter wife of John Sidebottom, Esq., now lives at the old homestead. Samuel, third son of William Danford, lives on Crabapple creek, in Washington township. His two sons, Hon. Lorenzo ( of who a sketch is given elsewhere) and De Witt are both practicing at the Belmont county bar.

 Ambrose, the youngest son of Peter Danford, was born in New Jersey on the 9th of July 1784. He moved, with the rest of his father's family, to Washington county, Pennsylvania, where they lived till he was thirteen years of age, at which age he was sent with his elder brother, Samuel and William to locate a home for the family in the northwest territory. Young as he was, "Little Ambrose" as his brothers called him, endured the hardships ot a tedious journey through an unknown and pathless forest, with courage and manliness. Whatever he lacked in age and strength, his brothers, who were warmly attached to him, endeavored to make up for by kind treatment. It is related that when provisions were scarce and those to be had were not of the best order, consisting of musty bread and tainted bear's meat, the elder brothers would make their meals of whatever was left after "Little Ambrose" had been served with the best. These acts of kindness he never forgot, and often spoke of them in relating the incidents of his early life. When the boys arrived in Ohio, they located a piece of land on Captina creek, cleared a patch of ground, erected a cabin and planted some corn. In this lonesome place, in the midst of an almost unexplored forest, a wild woodland, pathless, save only by the trail of the Indian or the trace of the wolf and the bear, in a lonely little cabin by the banks of the winding stream, shut in by hills, 'Little Ambrose" was left to "take care of things" while his two brothers returned to Pennsylvania to bring the rest of the family. How he spent the long, lonely weeks till  the return of his brothers with the family, can only be imagined. But he was a plucky little fellow, with a cool judgment, and would be likely to prove equal to any emergency, so that his brothers perhaps acted wisely in leaving him as they did. Many incidents might be related, showing the hardships of this pioneer family; but readers of this history will find elsewhere enough to enable them to understand the energy and endurance which the conquerors of the forest must have possessed and the trials and hardships through which they wrought out the basis of our civilization. It was a rule of this family that every summer two of the boys should provide the family with salt. They would travel by horseback to Winchester, Va., where they would help to harvest until they had procured enough money- an article practically unknown in the new settlements to buy a bushel of salts with which they would return to their home in the forest. Upon these tours they were, of course, compelled to sleep out at night. They would put bells upon their horses, and turn them loose to feed, after which they would build a circle of dry brush, get in the middle of it and then set fire to it to keep the wolves away.

 The  following record taken from a fly-leaf of a copy of "Lock's Essay on the Human Understanding," gives the most important event in the life of Ambrose, who had by this tine lost all claim to the pet title, by having arrived at the age of 23 years, and to the considerate height of 6 feet 4 inches. "Married by Isaac Moore (J.P.) of Wayne township, on line 18th day of November, 1807, Ambrose Danford of Belmont county, to Mary Delancy." Great changes had occurred since the time when the three brothers had come to the new cogently. and great changes were still taking place. Ohio had been organized and admitted into the Union as a state. The forests were rapidly disappearing, and cozy homes, surrounded by well tilled farms, with their rude log barns and their stacks of hay and grain were taking their places. The indian had disappeared, and the bear, the wolf, and the panther, though by no means strangers to the inhabitants of Belmont county, had reason to regard themselves as only tenants by sufferance. The local divisions of counties and townships had been established.

 Young Danfords wife, Mary was a daughter of his father's third wife, Margaret Delancy. Thc marriage appears to have been a wise and happy one. The young couple through careful management found themselves the possessors of sufficient wealth to enter a considerable tract of land. By good judgment and economy, they continued to prosper, till at length they were proprietors of over a thousand acres of land, the richest quality of personal property. including quite an amount of money for that day. Mr. Danford, though exceptionally attentive to his personal concerns, took a deep interest in the affairs of society. He was an earnest worker in politics and was a strong advocate in the cause of temperance, upon both of which subjects he frequently delivered public speeches and lectures. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1813 and served one year.

 The following record, from the fly-leaf of the copy of "Lock's Essay" before cited, tells in brief form the remaining portion of the story of his life. I was the family record, kept by himself: Milton, born September 18, 1808; Mercy, born May 25, 1810; Margaret, born December 12, 1812; Anna, born October 30, 1815; Maria, born January 15, 1819; Charles Hanmmond, born September 23, 1821; Jane, born June 19, 1823; Sarah and Nancy, born September 30, 1825; Died January 18, 1829, Mary Danford.

 In the early part of his married life, Ambrose Danford had entered several hundred acres of land in section 26, of Washington township, and in the adjoining section, No. 5 in Wayne township. Near the middle of this tract on the Wayne township side of the line, between the two townships he afterward built the brick house now occupied by the Mills family, where he spent the rest of his life. He died November 21, 1850. In personal appearance Mr. Danford was not pre possessing. He was tall, strongly built, with angular features. In character he was an excellent type of the plain, unpretentious, common sense man, with clear perceptions and calm, sure-footed judgment. In estimates of men and affairs he rarely made a mistake. Like all self-made men, he had gained a large store of practical knowledge, which under the influence of his strong common sense, had crystallized into maxims. His conversation consequently abounded with laconic sayings and shrewd proverbs. He had a strong sense of humor and delighted to tell a good story; particularly when his own personal appearance was the subject of the joke. He had good command of language and was counted a good pubic speaker. Of his family, only three are living; Milton, in Iowa; Sarah (Mrs. Wm. Daniels) in Beallsville, Monroe county, Ohio and Nancy (Mrs. Alexander Caldwell) in Washington township, at the mouth of Crabapple creek.