John Reily

John Reily (1763-1850)[1] was a soldier in the American Revolution who later held a number of civic positions including helping draft the Ohio State Constitution. Reily Township in Butler County, Ohio is named for him.

John Reily
Hamilton County delegate to the 1802 Ohio Constitutional Convention
In office
November 1, 1802 – November 29, 1802
Serving with nine others
Personal details
Born(1763-04-10)April 10, 1763
Chester County, Pennsylvania
DiedJune 7, 1850(1850-06-07) (aged 87)
Hamilton, Ohio
Political partyFederalist
Spouse(s)Nancy Hunter
Childrenfive
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1780-1782
UnitVirginia Militia
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War

Biography

John Reily was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania on April 10, 1763, and moved with his parents to Augusta County, Virginia when young.[2][3][4]

From the age of 17, Reily served in the Revolutionary War, including the Battle of Camden, the Battle of Guilford Court House, and the Battle of Eutaw Springs.[5]

After the War, Reily moved to Kentucky. In 1790 he moved to Columbia, (now a neighborhood of Cincinnati)[2][6] to build John Reily's Classical School and became its first school teacher.[7] It was one of the first schools in the territory.[7] The school grew and he soon hired a second teacher, Francis Dunlavy.[8][9]

In 1799, he was elected clerk of the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, and re-elected to that position in 1800 and 1801.[10] In 1802 he was elected as one of the seven trustees of the new town of Cincinnati.[10] Later that year he was a representative at the Constitutional Convention that drafted Ohio's first Constitution.[10] In 1802 he was also one of the first subscribers who purchased shares to start the Cincinnati Library, one of the first libraries in the state.[11]

He moved to Hamilton, Ohio, and was elected the first Clerk of Court for Butler County by the associate judges of the court of common pleas, a position to which he was re-elected for 37 years.[10] He was concurrently appointed as clerk for the supreme court of Butler County, a position which he also maintained until 1842.[10] He was also a long time Postmaster of Hamilton, and he served as County Recorder from 1803-1811.[10] At first he worked from a small building outside the old fort at Hamilton, before moving the offices to his home, and in 1824 to the newly built court house.[5]

Reily was appointed as one of the first trustees of Miami University, and was president of the board of trustees until 1824.[10]

In 1808 he married Nancy Hunter.[10] The Reilys had two daughters and three sons,[10] one of whom, Robert, founded the town of Wyoming, Ohio.[12]

Reily died in Hamilton June 7, 1850.[2][13][14]

Legacy

In 1807, a new township was formed by in Butler County by splitting the existing St. Clair Township. The new township was named Reily Township after John Reily.[10]>

In his positions as clerk, Reily used high quality materials. The materials, combined with his "bold" character strokes meant that his hand-written records from the early 1800s were still clearly legible in the early 1900s.[15]

Notes
  1. Piland, Richard N. (2013). Legendary Locals of Hamilton, Ohio. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 12–. ISBN 9781467100694. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  2. Fess, p. 23.
  3. Milligan, p. 65.
  4. McBride, p. 1.
  5. McClung, David Waddle (1892). The Centennial Anniversary of the City of Hamilton, Ohio, September 17-19, 1891. Cincinnati, The Lawrence Publishing Company. pp. 209–. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  6. McBride, p. 30.
  7. Schools, Ohio. Office of the State Commissioner of Common (1887). Annual Report of the State Commissioner of Common Schools, to the Governor of the State of Ohio, for the Year ... Statesman Steam Press. pp. 374–. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  8. Goss, p. 377.
  9. Nelson & Runk, p. 96-97.
  10. Bartlow & 5.
  11. Venable, William Henry (1891). Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley: Historical and Biographical Sketches. O. Robert Clarke & Company. p. 139. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  12. Staff, Editorial; LLC, State History Publications (2008). Ohio Historic Places Dictionary. North American Book Dist LLC. p. 681. ISBN 9781878592705. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  13. McBride, p. 60.
  14. Milligan, p. 66.
  15. Bartlow 352.
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References
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