Robert Hamilton
Robert Hamilton was born November 28, 1795. at Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He was trained to the strictest belief and observances of the Westminster Confession, and it remained with him as the best part of himself all his life. He came to Adams County in 1817, in a flatboat. He landed at the mouth of Brush Creek and walked up the creek to Brush Creek Furnace, where he engaged as a clerk under Archibald Paul, who was then running the furnace. At that time the furnace only ran on Sundays. On week days the forge ran to make hollowware, pots, kettles, stoves, andirons and all kinds of castings. Then a ton of iron was 2268 pounds and twenty-eight pounds allowed for sandage. The furnace at that time was run by water alone. When the water was low, they had to tramp a wheel to blow off, and the best they could do was to make two or three tons of iron a day. On the twentieth of July, 1825, Mr. Hamilton was married to Nancy Ellison, daughter of John Ellison. She was the sister of the late William Ellison, of Manchester. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. William Williamson, who signed his name to the certificate, V. D. M., (Verbi Dei Minister), which was the fashion at that time, which translated is "Of the Word of God, Minister."
Robert Hamilton was a resident of Adams County until 1828. In that time he laid the foundation of a successful business career. He was diligent in business, and of the highest integrity.
At that time it was thought a furnace must run on Sundays or the entire charge would be ruined, but Mr. Hamilton induced Mr. Paul to try the experiment of a change. It was found the iron produced was just as good. Mr. Hamilton was the first furnaceman in the country who stopped his furnace on Sunday.
The old Brush Creek Furnace was owned by the Ellisons and the Meanses. In 1828, Robert Hamilton and Andrew Ellison, son of the Andrew Ellison who was captured by the Indians in 1793, under the name of Ellison & Hamilton, built Pine Grove Furnace in Lawrence County. Robert Hamilton fired it on January 1, 1829. Four tons a day was its capacity at starting.
After he located at Pine Grove Furnace, he became one of the founders of the church at Hanging Rock, and was a ruling elder in it from its organization to his death.
His first wife died June 23, 1838, and on February 20, 1839, he was married to Miss Rachel R. Peebles, a daughter of John Peebles and a sister of John G. Peebles, of Portsmouth.
Our subject's judgment was excellent and he was wonderfully successful in business. He amassed a large fortune of which his widow was largely the almoner. He was respected and esteemed by all who knew him as a man who lived right up to his standard, both in business and in religion.
He died September 11, 1856, in his sixty-first year, of a dysentery. His death was a great loss to the business community and to the church. It was almost a calamity, as his influence and methods were of an incalculable benefit to those about him. His ashes repose in the beautiful Greenlawn Cemetery, at Portsmouth, Ohio. His widow, Mrs. Rachel Hamilton, survived until August 27, 1883, when she died, aged eighty-seven years and one month. She was noted for her pious life and good deeds. Her gifts to charities were many, large and continuous, during her whole life, but her gifts by will were also many, large and praiseworthy. She stated in her will, she feared she had not given enough for charitable purposes and therefore she gave her executor, her brother, John G. Peebles, $10,000 for charitable objects to be bestowed in his discretion. Her memory is revered in the entire circle of her acquaintance. The Peebles-Hamilton Reading Rooms at Portsmouth, Ohio, are a monument to her memory.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900