Ohio History Journal

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LUCAS SULLIVANT--HIS PERSONALITY AND

LUCAS SULLIVANT--HIS PERSONALITY AND

ADVENTURES

BY MISS JANE D. SULLIVANT.*

 

Aside from court records and a few lingering oral

traditions, the principal source of information concern-

ing the life and personality of Lucas Sullivant, is to be

found in the Family Memorial, written and published

for private distribution by his youngest son, Mr. Joseph

Sullivant, in 1873. Upon this source all subsequent his-

tories of Franklinton, and even of Columbus and Frank-

lin County have drawn freely, though in many cases

without crediting the author.

In view of this fact, and since Mr. Andrew D.

Rodgers, in the address published on the foregoing

pages, has very properly confined himself largely to the

legal aspects of his subject, it may not be amiss to give

here a more personal view of Lucas Sullivant, from

his own son's account, and to relate some of the adven-

tures and experiences which he endured in the hazard-

ous undertaking of surveying in the wilderness; as well

as to give a glimpse of what it meant a hundred years

ago to live here on the very borders of civilization.

LUCAS SULLIVANT.

Lucas Sullivant was born in September, 1765, in Mecklen-

burg County, Virginia, and, when about sixteen years of age.

volunteered to accompany an expedition destined for Augusta

and other then western counties, which were threatened with an

Indian invasion. His courage and good conduct during that ex-

* Selections from Genealogy and Family Memorial, compiled by Miss

Jane D. Sullivant, granddaughter of Lucas Sullivant.

(177)

Vol. XXXVII-12.