This deed made the Twenty second day of Sept. in the year 1863 between William C. Starr and Annie M. Starr wife of said William C. Starr and Lemuel Jarrott Witneseth: That in consideration of Five Hundred Dollars; the said William C. Starr and wife doth grant with general warranty, unto the said Lemuel Jarrott, all of a certain half Lot, in the Town of mason City, county of Mason, and State of West Virginia. Known and designated on the Plot of said Town which is duly recorded int he Clerks Office of the County Court of Mason County, as lot number (5) five on Center Street. It being the west half of said lot on Ally B: Eighty feet and running back from said ally one hundred feet.- Witness the following signatures and seals Wlliam C. Starr [seal] Anna M. Starr [seal] [Delivered to C. W. Bird for Lemuel Jarrott by request, Aug 25, 1865 is written on the side. 1863 is the year that Charles Wesley Bird married Mary Brown.]
Note: In 1830, at age 12, Lemuel moved to Kanawha County, Virginia - now West Virginia. He lived in Malden near Charleston after his marriage. In 1857 he moved to Mason City where he was a saltmaker. When the salt industry began to fail in the 1870s, the Jarrott House on the southeast corner of Brown and First Streets was a popular boarding house. The name is also spelled Jarrett in some records.
1850 Kanawha Co: Young Lemuel, 32, was a "mill borer." Martha J., 32, was looking after three little girls, Nancy E, 3, Mary S., 2, and Martha, 5 months. Living with the Jarrotts were Joseph Malone, 20, an engineer and Noah A. Malone, 15, an engineer.
1860 Mason Co: Lemuel 43 yrs is a "saltman," who has $700 in real estate and $300 in personal assets. Martha J. is looking after their five children: Mary E. 13, Martha L. 12, James W. 8 , Aurilla J. 6 and Sarah F 3. America Malone, Martha's younger brother, 25 yrs, an engineer, is living with them. He has $50 in personal assets.
1870 Mason Co: Lemuel, 52, is a salt maker with real estate worth $1,000 and personal assets worth $150. Martha is also 52 years old. They have Nancy 23, Mary 21, Martha 20, James 18, Aurilla 15 and Sarah 13 at home.
1880 Mason Co: Lemuel, still head of the household is now 63 and a widower. At home with him were Nannie 32, Mary 30, James W. 28 and "Sada" (Sadie or Sarah) 22. Nannie was a school teacher and Jimmy a laborer.
In the northern part of Mason county within the large bend of the Ohio River, Mason City was laid out opposite Pomeroy in 1852 by coal operators who found a market for coal principally at Cincinnati and Baton Rouge. They were succeeded by a company which long after the Civil War used its own coal for the manufacture of salt, which was sold to the Ohio River Salt Co. of Pomeroy. The town was incorporated in 1856, coincident with the opening of its first salt well and salt furnace by the Mason City Salt company. In 1891 The Ohio River Salt Company had eleven active furnaces, employed 500 men, and turned out 5,000,000 barrels of salt per year (Meigs & Gallia Cos. Ohio Commercial & Business Reviews for the year 1891). It also supplied the world's markets for bromine, which until the middle of the century had to be imported from Europe. The salt industry had become prominent in the upper Kanawha after 1808. Charleston was on the mail route extending from Lewisburg to Scioto Salt Works in 1804 and from Lewisburg to Chillicothe for several years after 1808. About 1811 a mail route was established between Kanawha Court House and Gallipolis. In Dr. Henry Ruffner's manuscript written in 1860 he said that the locality now included in Malden was in those days "the wickedest and most hopeless part of Kanawha." He was alluding to times past. In 1853-57 the salt industry on the Kanawha [Malden] was impoverished to satisfy the demands of the salt men of Meigs county, Ohio, and Mason county, Virginia, who formed the Ohio River Salt Company which was not dissolved until 1872. The transportation of salt was difficult. In early times it was carried overland by packhorses. It was sent down the river in tubs on rafts. The flat boats carried quantities of it to the western markets. For over 60 years Kanawha Valley on both sides of the river presented busy and most interesting scene, and...gave employment to a great number of men, and kept the river lively with its great transportation boats. The height of production was reached in 1840 when it exceeded 3,000,000 bushels per annum.
Lemuel Jarrott, the subject of this sketch was born in Henry County, Virginia, June 21, 1818, and died at Mason City. W. Va., September 26th, 1883, aged 70 years, 3 months and 4 days. When twelve years old he removed with his parents to Kanawha county, where he lived for twenty-seven years, and where he was married to Martha J. Malone of Botetourt county, Va., whom he survived eleven years. In 1857 he came to Mason City, where he resided at the time of his death. He leaves five daughters and one son who deeply mourn the loss of an affectionate and indulgent father. Two brothers and two sisters also keenly feel the loss of their eldest brother. A host of other friends not united by kindred ties sadly mourn his departure. Mr. Jarrott was a man of sterling principle and irreproachable honor. He was bold to maintain his principles, frank and fearless to express his views in whatever he conceived to be right. He imbibed in early a love for truth and honesty, which through subsequent life he practiced and taught with unswerving devotion. He was charitable and hospitable to a fault. As a parent he was affectionate and indulgent, as a friend generous and faithful, as a christian sincere and devoted, as a citizen loyal and upright. He designed evil to no one, he acted upon the principle that it is "better to be wronged than to wrong." Mr. Jarrott all his life but the last two years has been identified with the salt business. Wherever he has lived he has filled offices of trust and honor. Though his life measured the divine allotment to man, three-score years and ten, his death is universally regretted, and dying in the triumphs of a christian faith, his memory is revered as the memory of the just.
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BORN June 21, 1818 DIED Sept. 26, 1888 AGED 70 ys 3 ms 5 ds I go to prepare a place for thee [a Masonic symbol]
At the crystal rivers brink, We shall find each broken link, Then the star that fading here Will light our hearts and homes so dear We shall see more bright and clear Some sweet day by and by
MARTHA JANE Wife of Lemuel Jarrott Died Sept 1, 1877 Aged 59 y, 5 m 7 d "She hath done all she could"
Note: Lemuel Jarrott, died Mason WV Sept 26, 1888, buried Sept 28, 1888 Age 70y 3 m 4 d, occupation saltmaker, born Henrico Co., Virginia. 25 yrs in this state. widower, carcinoma of stomach - 2 yrs. Burial Adamsville, Undertaker, Benjamin Briggs, Pomeroy, physician & informant: A.S. Knight MD, West Columbia