Thomas Colwell

Thomas Colwell, one of the first settlers of what is now Stark county, located in what is now Essex township, on the southeast quarter section eight, in the fall of 1837, purchasing a small tract of land there. He was born in Virginia and was a son of Thomas, Sr., and Elizabeth Colwell, who were married in Kentucky, from which state they removed to Ross county, Ohio, where his parents resided until their decease. Of their children Thomas alone removed to this county. He came here a married man — having married, in Kentucky, Sallie Ogden. Their family comprised eight children, namely: Washington, of Chillicothe, Ill., deceased; George Pressley, deceased; Henry, of Essex; Robert of Salt Lake; David, deceased; Emily, wife of John Berfield, Toulon, and Sarah, married, of Toulon township. Mr. Colwell lived in this county after his settlement. He served a short time in the war of 1812. He died in 1857, in his eighty-fourth year. Mrs. Colwell died in June of the same year, in the seventy-eighth year of her age.