| Notes |
- The most important early settlement in what is now Paris Township was made in 1817, by Abraham Amrine and his sons, in what is still known as the Amrine settlement, about two miles northwest of Marysville. So far as known, it was the first settlement made; assuredly the first permanent settlement. A few squatters may have preceded the Amrines, in the occupancy of the soil of this township, but if so, all traces of them are lost. The Amrine family still has in its possession a considerable quantity of the survey upon which the original settler of this name settled sixty-six years ago.
Abraham Amrine was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1761. His ancestors had emigrated to America from Switzerland about the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1785, Mr. Amrine married Mary Wolford, and in 1801 removed from Pennsylvania. to near St. Clairsville, Belmont Co., Ohio. In 1817, he purchased from Samuel Davis, of Franklin County, the John Overton survey, of 750 2/3 acres, No. 4,066, which, however, contained nearly 1,000 acres, paying for if. $2 an acre. This was at that time a high price for wild land, but the survey was located on a bend of Mill Creek, and the rich bottom lands it contained enhanced its value above that of land less favorably situated. The same year he removed to it from Belmont County, with his Six sons - John, Andrew, Moses, Frederick, Jeremiah and Abraham, Jr.- four of whom were married, and brought their families with them. Mr. Amrine's family consisted of seven sons and one daughter, the eldest of, the family. The other son-Henry- -subsequently removed to Paris Township; the daughter married Joseph Worley, and lived near Wheeling, W. Va.
Mr. Amrine built his log cabin on the hill west of the Newton pike, where the bend is made in the road. To each of his boys he gave 100 acres of land, and the work of clearing the farms was at once commenced in earnest. They had few-if any-neighbors at first, but formed quite a colony among themselves. They-were a rugged, hardy people, fully fitted to cope with the difficulties and endure the hardships of their wilderness homes. They were religious, frugal and industrious, and soon had fruitful farms, while on all sides, for miles, was yet one deep, dense forest. Abraham Amrine, Sr., died November 14, 1849, at the ripe old age of eighty-eight years. His wife, Mary, had preceded him to the grave many years. She died in September, 1823, only six years after their removal here, at the age of sixty-three years.
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1761 - 1849 (88 years)
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