Nogletown: The Earliest Settlement

The city of Marietta, about eight miles above Constitution, was settled in 1788, and Belpre, about four miles below, was established in 1789, but the area along the Ohio River between the two settlements remained a wilderness for many years. This was due in part to hostilities between the white settlers and the Native Americans. Until the Treaty of Greenville ended the Indian Wars in 1795, it was unsafe for pioneers to live anywhere but inside the protected confines of stockades in the major settlements.

The Ohio Company's methods of distributing land among its proprietors also slowed settlement in the area. Much of the land along the river in what later became Warren and Dunham townships had been divided into eight-acre lots and was owned by land speculators who lived in New England. Locating all the distant owners and purchasing enough adjoining lots to create a sizable farm was a difficult and time consuming process.

The earliest settlers on the rich bottom lands between Belpre and Marietta were "squatters," people who did not own the land, thus had little incentive to cultivate it. According to one account, "These people, with a few exceptions, were afflicted with a roving disposition and an aversion to the labor necessary to the making of more than a temporary improvement."

By 1799 the squatters had constructed a row of crude cabins along the riverbank on Congress Reserved Section Number Eight, calling their community "Nogletown" in honor of one of the residents. Among the earliest inhabitants were Isaac Nogle, George Nogle, John Chevington, Thomas Dickey, Samuel Friend, Isaac Hardin, Dr. Morse, Thomas Patten, William Patten, and John Rardin.

Warren Township map with the location of Nogletown identified on Congress Reserved Section No. 8.  Washington County, Ohio, by William D. Emerson, 1845.

Few references can be found for Nogletown or the people who lived there, and even the spelling of its name is uncertain, sometimes appearing as "Noggletown," or "Noggel Town." An  1800 census for Washington County lists several of the Nogletown pioneers who were free white males, age twenty-one or older, including Thomas Patten, Isaac Harden, James Harden, James Harden, Jr., James Kirkpatrick (living at the home of "Widow Broadley"), George Noggle, Isaac Noggle, Richard Patten, Timothy Patten, Thomas Patten, Jr., and Thomas Dickey. They appear under the heading of Marietta Township, as Warren Township had not yet been formed.

The Nogle/Noggle and Patten families are further noted in the marriage records of Washington County, which show that Isaac Nogle married Nancy Patten on August 12, 1800. The manuscript daybook of Wing Devol, Marietta, contains an entry for May of 1803, "Mr. Dickey of Nogletown, Creedit By fish 37," indicating that Dickey was using fish as payment for a debt.

Nogletown was later described in the Cutler family's papers in rather unflattering terms: "In intelligence, property, and morals this neighborhood did not rank high. They were without school or church and were addicted to those habits which grow up in new countries where the gospel is not preached."

Such a portrayal of these early settlers seems harsh, but the appearance of their homes and persons was likely as rough as their characters. Many pioneers lacked the skills and resources that were necessary to prosper and flourish in the wilderness. Mere survival consumed all their physical, mental, and financial strength.

A dissolute community such as Nogletown was fertile ground for the leagues of religious missionaries who worked in the Western Country. An itinerant Methodist minister, Jacob Young, mentioned in his memoirs that he and his colleague, George C. Light, preached at "Noggel Town" in 1805. In 1806 the Reverend Thomas Robbins of New England, cousin of Marietta's Congregational pastor Samuel P. Robbins, visited the area and recorded it in his journal: "Rode to Noggeltown and preached from Matt. ix:9. Very muddy riding."

The infamous community of Nogletown was a topic of conversation as late as 1816, when Benjamin Ives Gilman, who owned a large farm in the vicinity, complained in a letter to his wife, "I have had one visit from Fulcher & I hope it will not be repeated. He entertained me with Nogle Town anecdotes for three long hours, & I should not have escaped then, had not the Dinner hour arrived."

About 1803, the owners of the land began to move onto their property, and the squatters were forced to relocate. A few remained in the area and became respected citizens, but the majority "did not bear an enviable reputation among the more solid settlers who followed them, and their departure was not regretted."

SOURCES:

Autobiography of a Pioneer, by Jacob Young, 1857.

Census of Washington County, Ohio, 1800, transcription at Marietta College Special Collections, original at Campus Martius Museum.

Cutler Family Collection, Marietta College Special Collections.

Diary of Thomas Robbins, D.D., 1796-1854, Vol. 1, ed. by Increase N. Tarbox, 1886.

A Family History in Letters and Documents, 1667-1837, Vol. 1, by Emily Gilman Noyes, 1919.

History of Washington County, Ohio, pub. by H. Z. Williams & Bro., 1881.

Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler, by Julia Perkins Cutler, 1890.

Washington County, Ohio, by William D. Emerson, 1845.

Washington County, Ohio, Probate Court, Marriage Records, 1789-1803.

Wing Devol daybook extract, courtesy Dr. Ray Swick.