“Of the cholera in Chester in the year 1834 an account of the scourge was published in the Meigs County Telegraph of January 20th, 1893, and copied from that paper into this manuscript the same year by S. C. Larkin. ‘Fifty-nine years ago since Meigs county had that awful experience with cholera. Chester was then the county seat and the chief village in the county, with a population of 200 souls. Of those who lived in Chester in 1834 but three persons remain as residents of the old village with clear remembrance of that event, …  Next in order of time was the family of John Ware, a saddler. He had a large family, but the father, mother and four children fell victims to the cholera. First the daughter Polly, a young woman, returned from church in the evening, apparently well, but that night she died. The next day two of her brothers were snatched away, and the second day the father and mother joined the dead children. Relatives of the Ware family came up from Gallipolis to help care for them, and took the survivors home, one boy dying on the way. Five children remained, who lived, married and settled in Meigs county, Gallia and Mason, W. Va. William Ware never married; lived in his sister’s home and died there at Miller McGlothlin’s, near Ravenswood, W. Va.’ ”

Reference Data:

The Pioneer History of Meigs County, by Stillman Carter Larkin, 1908, page 177