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Israel Donalson: Ohio’s Last Surviving Creator of Ohio’s Constitution

Israel Donalson: Ohio’s Last Surviving Creator of Ohio’s Constitution
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Israel Donalson: Ohio’s Last Surviving Creator of Ohio’s Constitution

“The venerable Israel Donaldson1, for so many years a citizen of Adams county, did on the 9th inst., at the residence of his son, near Russellville, Brown county, aged 95 years.”

“He was the last surviving member of the Convention that framed the Constitution of Ohio, preparatory to its becoming a State, in 1802.”

“We are not certain of the place of Mr. Donaldson’s birth, but we think it was New Jersey. He taught the first school in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1790- now seventy years ago.”

“When General Massie laid out the town of Manchester, Adams county- the first town in the ‘Virginia Military District’ -in the winter of 1790, Donaldson joined him, as one of the first settlers of Adams county, among whom were the Stouts, the Ledoms, the Ellisons, and the Edgingtons; the cabins were raised and the town enclosed with pickets by the middle of March, 1791, and Donaldson joined the company about two weeks later than this. On 22nd of April, 1791, while surveying with General Massie at a point about four miles above Manchester, Mr. Donaldson, was made a prisoner by the Indians, and taken to the Mad River country, but he escaped from them some ten days afterwards.”

“Through life, Mr. Donaldson bore the character of an honest and useful man.”2

  1. The name is correctly spelled as Israel Donalson, but has been left uncorrected for this story.
  2. (1860, February 25). Portsmouth Times, p. 2.
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