sisted of 300 effective men. Its first service was driving the rebel force out of Clay County. Here it remained skirmishing with the enemy until the 15th of June, when it, with nearly two thousand other troops, began the expedition which resulted in the capture of a strong rebel force at Pine Mountain Gap. The next morning, a severe skirmish with others of the enemy occurred, but the Gap-the objective point-was gained. It moved to Stanford, thence to Danville to check Gen. Morgan; thence to Wild Cat to watch and embarrass the rebel Gen. Scott, with whom they had a running fight of ten days, living during the time chiefly on blackberries, which grew by the roadside. On August the 9th, moved to Glasgow, where it, with other cavalry, was organized into a brigade to cross the Cumberland Mountains, which was done amid great hardships, and Knoxville was taken and the battalion assigned guard duty around the suburbs. In November and December of this year, the regiment was recruited to the extent of two other battalions. After careful drilling, the battalions proceeded in February, 1864, to Nashville, where they were ordered to report for field duty at Athens, Ala., and while here were joined by the First Battalion, and all began watching the enemy along the Tennessee River. After various expeditions, forty-one of the men were captured, the greater number of whom were consigned to Andersonville Prison, where, eight months later, twenty-five had died of starvation and exposure. Lieut. Knapp succeeded in making his escape after two unsuccessful trials. He was pursued by bloodhounds on the third trial, but, with the help of a sagacious negro, effected his escape, and afterward joined the regiment at Savannah, Ga. Another battalion had frequent skirmishes with the enemy near Decatur, Ala. Seven hundred men of the Ninth, with other troops, were sent to destroy the Atlanta & West Point Railroad. This was done amidst numerous skirmishes with the enemy, whereby the Ninth lost twenty-six men, mainly captured while foraging. Gen. Sherman's lines were reached at Marietta, July 22. In the movements around Atlanta, the regiment divided into battalions, found active service in scouting, guarding and skirmishing. After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment, about seven hundred strong, marched to the sea with Sherman, fighting almost daily with the enemy, and quite severely at Waynesboro. It destroyed large quantities of stores and railroad property. It moved North through the Carolinas. A brisk skirmish was had at Barnwell and at Aiken. So many of the horses failed on the march, that a portion of the cavalry was organized into the "dismounted" command. On the night of March 9, 1865, Gen. Kilpatrick went into camp with the Third Brigade and the dismounted men about three miles in advance of the remainder of his command. Early on the morning of the 10th, a large force of rebels dashed into camp, capturing the wagons, artillery and many of the officers and men. The excitement was intense, but the dismounted men rallied, opened a hot and destructive fire on the enemy, forcing them back, and recapturing all the stores, during which time twenty-five national and seventy-five rebel soldiers were killed. The man who accomplished this splendid result, who turned defeat into victory and won a Brigadier General star was none other than William Stough, of Bryan, Ohio. The Ninth fought at Averysboro, Bentonville, Raleigh and Chapel Hill. After some guard duty, the regiment was mustered out at Columbus, Ohio, August 2, 1865. "Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave, No traitor's footstep e'er shall tread For Honor mourns the hallowed spot TOWN OF BRYAN. BY II. S. KNAPP. ITS ESTABLISHMENT AS THE COUNTY SEAT. At the session of the Ohio General Assembly, which convened on the first Monday of December, 1839, three Commissioners were appointed, by a joint resolution, to review and permanently locate the seats of justice of Williams and Lucas Counties. These Commissioners were Joseph Burns, of Coshocton; James Culbertson, of Perry, and Joseph McCutchen, of Crawford. Since the organization of Williams County, the seat of justice had been at Defiance; but that place, geographically, was a border town, and difficult and expensive of approach to the growing population of the interior, and all the northern, and most of the eastern and western townships. The location chosen was a central one. Towns, however, several years previously, had commenced building up at Willliams Center and Pulaski, and both were strong competitors for the county seat. John A. Byran, of Columbus, then Auditor of State, had donated the ground to the county in consideration that the seat of justice be permanently established upon it; and the first business, after the site had been fixed, was to secure a civil engineer to survey and plat the town, and Miller Arrowsmith was employed for this work. The surveyor and assistants, with a foreknowledge that they would have no accommodation for bed and board at the place, appeared on the ground with a supply of tents and provisions, and entered upon their duties. After the completion of the survey, Mr. Arrowsmith named the town BYRAN, in honor of its founder. The following explanatory notes and references appear upon the margin of the plat: "Situated on the southwest quarter of Section 17, Town 6 north, Range 3 cast, in the county of Williams and State of Ohio. The lots are four rods wide, and eight roads long. A stone is planted on the northeastern corner of the public square. The streets cross at right angles, and Main and High streets are 100 feet wide, and all other streets sixty-six feet wide. The alleys are twenty feet wide. The public square, together with the two lots incorporated within the square, are donated to the county for public buildings by the proprietors of the town—the numbers of the two lots being left blank on the plat. John A. Bryan, for himself, and as agent and attorney for the American Land Company." And on the right hand margin of the plat occurs the following record: February 14, 1840-I, Miller Arrowsmith, County Surveyor of the county and State aforesaid, do hereby certify the within plat and field notes to be correct of the town of Bryan, as set forth therein. MILLER ARROWSMITH, County Surveyor of Williams County, Ohio. I certify that on this 14th day of September, 1840, personally appeared before me John A. Bryan, to me personally known, and acknowledged the due execution of the within instrument or deed. E. D. POTTER, President Judge Williams County Common Pleas, in Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. The above town plat of Bryan was received for record September 24, 1840. C. L. NOBLE, Recorder. ADDITIONS TO ORIGINAL PLAT OF BRYAN. It may be well here to note the several additions which have been made to the town: March 9, 1851, the late Dr. John Paul platted an addition to Bryan on "a tract situated as follows: The south half of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Town 6 north of Range 3 east, Williams County," known as Paul's Addition. October 7, 1852, George W. Wilson added part of" the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 20, Town 6 north of Range 3 east," to Bryan, and known as Wilson's First Addition. October 14, 1852, David Fairfield laid out an addition on the southeast corner of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Town 6 north of Range 3 east. December 10, 1853, Joshua Dobbs made an addition to the town, "being the west half of east half of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Town 6 north, Range 3 east," known as Dobbs' First Addition. May 29, 1854, Joshua Dobbs had a second plat made adjoining Wilson's First Addition. July 17, 1854, A. P. Edgerton and William Trevitt made an addition to Bryan on a part of Section 17, Town 6 north of Range 3 east, adjoining the railway company's station grounds. July 21, 1854, John W. Evans, of Fort Wayne, Ind., laid out an addition to the town of Bryan, consisting of six lots. March 24, 1855, Richard H. McClelan's Addition was surveyed. It consisted of five lots. January 13, 1855, Leonard Naftzger made an addition to Bryan of lands situated on the east half of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 18. March 30, 1855, Jacob Miller made an addition of eight lots. August 21, 1855, Alexander Conning's Addition was surveyed by Seth B. Hyatt, Surveyor of Williams County, and same date, August 21, 1855, John W. Pollock made his addition. April 20, 1857, Joshua Dobbs made his third addition. June 3, 1859, Ezra Smith made his addi tion, and June 13, of the same year he made another addition. July 22, 1864, Dr. William Trevitt, of Columbus, made his first addition. October 20, 1865, Albert M. Pratt and John W. Nelson recorded their addition to Bryan. March 4, 1867, A. P. Edgerton's first division was recorded. May 13, 1867, Edgerton's Second Addition. April 11, 1868, Gen. William Stough's Addition. July 27, 1868, John A. Garver and Andrew W. Killits recorded their addition to the town. January 1, 1869, M. Harris' Addition was recorded. June 23, 1869, A. T. Bement's Addition was recorded. November 13, 1869, Trevitt's Second Addition appears on the record. March 17, 1870, was recorded "plat of John Will's Fountain Lawn Addition to Bryan, Ohio." April 18, 1870, Cooney & Lyder's. May 24, 1870, Bostater's, and September, 3, 1870, Garfield's Addition were recorded. February 27, 1874, Baker's Second Addition, and October 19, 1874, Trevitt's Third Addition were recorded. January 14. 1875, Myers' Addition, and August 12, 1875, Nancy A. Shouf's were recorded. May 31, 1877, Pratt & Nelson's Addition of outlots, and April 16, 1878, William H. Lockhart's Addition of outlots were recorded. In the clearing of the land of timber for public buildings and surroundings, and for street and alley uses, it may not be here out of place to recall the fact that there rested upon the new plat as grand a timber growth as covered any portion of the earth, and had this and a small per cent of other forest wealth been suffered to remain as nature had planted and nursed it, it would now be of inestimable value; but it was so abundant that a general war of extermination was begun and prosecuted against the large and small trees, and even the attrative ones, that bore the most beautiful foliage during spring, summer and autumn seasons, shared a common fate. Had a half dozen of these been permitted to remain, they would have possessed tenfold the value of all the evergreens and other ill-chosen trees that, through the power of man, have usurped the places of those of nobler birth and grace. 66 Volney Crocker, yet a resident of the county, had the contract for clearing" the public square grounds of this timber offense. He made no reservations, and every tree planted by nature was doomed to perish by the executioner's ax. Mr. A. J. Tressler was upon the ground when this clearing contract was in progress, and, during evenings, with other citizens, aided in burning timber and brush. The foregoing and following, from official records, will explain the origin of the title through which Bryan real estate owners hold their property. Having been originally purchased of the United States by Charles Butler, of New York, agent of the American Land Company, and by him and that corporation transferred directly to the original proprietor of the |