FIRST CATHOLIC
CHURCH IN OHIO.
[The question is often asked, When did
the Catholic Church first
make a permanent settlement in Ohio? We
have diligently sought the
desired information. From Hon. W. B.
Archer, member of the Senate
of the 81st General Assembly, we
recently received the following com-
munication, which seems to settle the
question of the first Ohio Catholic
Church. - EDITOR.]
In compliance with your request I give a
brief statement of
what is known as the "East Fork Settlement"
in what is now
Noble County, Ohio, the location of the
first Ohio Catholic
Church.
I do not think that I could introduce
this subject better,
than to quote a passage from a letter
written many years ago,
by one of the immediate descendants of
one of the first pioneer
families.
"About the year 1803 or 1804 a
colony of five families,
named Archer, Enochs, Crow, Forshire and
Morris, in Marshall
County, Virginia (now West Virginia),
crossed the Ohio river
and made their way westward through
dense forests, till they
reached the East Fork of Duck Creek, in
what is now Noble
County. This settlement was known as the
'Archer settlement',
now the present site of East
Union". * * * James Archer
(the older of the Archers) married a
Miss Lincicome in Vir-
ginia-he was a Roman Catholic, the
remaining families of
the colony were Protestants."
James Archer came to Virginia from
Ireland, some time
prior to the year 1800. He brought with him his three
daughters (his wife having died prior to
this). A short time
after he settled in Virginia (on the
waters of Wheeling Creek)
his two oldest daughters were killed by
Indians and the third
(Jane by name) was thought to be, and
was scalped. She,
however, recovered and lived to bring up
a family.
Archer married again and there were born
to him of this
marriage, six sons and four daughters.
They were quite grown
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