a re-election. In 1823 he was elected a justice of the peace for Lemon township, Butler county, and at the expiration of his term of office was successively reelected until the year 1842, thus filling that office for nineteen years. In the discharge of his duties he was remarkable for his love of peace; always preferring, if possible, to settle the difficulties of those appearing before him without hard feelings and without costs.

In all the official stations which Mr. Irwin was called to fill, he discharged the duties with credit to himself, and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. His successive elections to different offices proves his popularity with the people. The warm affection of a numerous and highly respectable family for their deceased father amply testify to his exemplary conduct as a parent. While the fact that he lived upward of fifty years in one place without enemies and surrounded by warm friends, is sufficient evidence of his irreproachable and praiseworthy conduct as a private citizen and a neighbor. As a christian, we can pronounce no higher praise upon him than to say that for fifty years he was a consistent follower of the meek and lowly Jesus. He was a member of the Associate Reformed church, and filled the office of elder in that church from the year 1805 until his death.

Colonel Thomas Irwin died at his late residence in Lemon township, Butler county, Ohio, on Sunday evening, October 3, 1847, aged 81 years. During his

last sickness he seemed perfectly composed and resigned. He died in the full enjoyment of the christian faith, resting his hope of salvation on the merits of a crucified Savior. On the succeeding Tuesday, his remains were nterred with military honors by the Monroe Guards, in the burying-ground of Mount Pleasant meetinghouse, north of Monroe, followed to the grave by a large train of mourning relatives, and the largest concourse of citizens ever assembled in that vicinity on a similar occasion. Thus ended the long and useful career of another of the PIONEERS OF THE WEST.

III.

Joel Collins.

HE subject of this sketch was born in Halifax

THE

county, Va., on the 16th day of September, 1772. His father, Stephen Collins, with his wife and four children (Joel being the eldest), removed from Virginia in the year 1779, to seek a home in the then wild regions of Kentucky.

In the times of which I am writing, deerskins formed an important article of trade. They were purchased of the hunters chiefly by a class of men called the Scotch merchants, by whom they were shipped to Scotland, where they went through a process of dressing that gave them the appearance of the finest kind of buff cloth. There were also in this country at the time, skin-dressers who prepared the deerskins in the same manner for use. The skins were neatly and even fancifully made up into garments, and worn by men of all classes. These useful and durable garments have long since been superseded, and with them. have disappeared the mechanical arts of the skindresser and leather-breeches maker. The demand for deerskins induced certain men, called long-hunters, to

penetrate in their hunting excursions as far westward as the waters of the Kentucky and Licking rivers. These excursions gave them an opportunity of exploring the delightful country watered by those streams, and their description of it, on their return to the settlements in Virginia, induced many persons from Virginia and the Carolinas (some as early as 1776) to visit this newlydiscovered region. These persons confirmed the accounts previously given by the hunters of the great fertility of the soil, the lofty canebrakes interspersed with natural groves of stately timber, consisting chiefly of the red and honey locust, black and white walnut, cherry, ash, and other species of timber. Among the timber there was a luxuriant growth of what was called wild rye and buffalo clover. The cane, rye, and clover afforded an ample supply of pasture at all seasons of the year, for the numerous herds of buffalo and other wild game which then ranged through that portion of the country. By these flattering reports an excitement prevailed in the settlements of Virginia somewhat similar to that which we have lately witnessed in relation to Oregon and California.

In the fall of 1779, a considerable number of those pioneers removed from Virginia with their families, with the view of making settlements in Kentucky. In this undertaking a journey of some five hundred miles was to be performed, chiefly through an uninhabited country, along a way called the Wilderness Trace, on which there

was neither the habitation of man nor a military post, from Powel's Valley in Virginia to English's station in Kentucky. This station was on the waters of Dick's river, a branch of the Kentucky river, and afterward became better known by the name of "Crab Orchard." These enterprises were generally undertaken by men with families, voluntarily formed into small emigrating companies, without the authority of, or any aid from, the government. When they arrived at the place of their destination a suitable site was selected, and in building their cabins for the accommodation of their families, they were so arranged as to form a kind of fort for their protection and defense. These places were called stations, and generally received their names from, the leader of the party. The names of some of those stations were Boone's, English's, Logan's, Harrod's, Crow's, and Bowman's stations, on the south side of the Kentucky river; and on the north side were Lexington, Bryant's, Ruddle's, Martin's, McConnel's, Morgan's, Todd's, Stroud's, Hinkston's, and Holder's stations.

In the month of October, 1779, Stephen Collins, with four of his brothers and a brother-in-law, each with their families, and also one brother without a family, who was an excellent hunter, constituted one of those emigrating parties. The horse, on those occasions, was compelled to carry on his back what, with much more ease and convenience to himself and owner, can now be conveyed by means of wagons, but the