Joseph Lucas
Joseph Lucas was born in Virginia in 1771. His father, William Lucas, was born in 1742 and served throughout the Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of captain. He belonged to one of the proud families Virginia. He owned extensive lands and negroes. His son, Joseph, was married in Virginia in 1792, to Hannah Humphreys. He and his brother William came to the Northwest Territory in 1797 to locate their father's land warrants. They located at the mouth of Pond Creek in what is now Rush Township, Scioto County, then Adams County. In 1800, Capt. William Lucas, father of our subject, sold his possessions in Virginia, and came to the Northwest Territory, and joined his sons. He had a son, John, who laid out the town of Lucasville in Scioto County, and his son, Robert, was representative and senator in the Ohio legislature for nineteen years; Governor of the State, 1832 to 1834, and Territorial Governor of Iowa from 1838 to 1841.
Our subject was one of the three representatives from Adams County in the first legislature of Ohio, which met in Chillicothe, March 1, 1803, and continued its sessions until April 15, 1803. This is the legislature which met under a sycamore tree on the bank of the Scioto River.
Our subject was well educated and took a prominent part in public affairs. His colleagues from Adams County in the house were William Russell and Thomas Kirker; in the senate, Gen. Joseph Darlinton At this session Scioto County was organized and Joseph Lucas was made one of its associate judges, in which office he continued until his death in 1808. In politics he was a follower of Thomas Jefferson, and in religion he was a Presbyterian. Dying at the early age of thirty-seven, a most promising career was cut short. He left three sons and three daughters. His daughter, Rebecca, married Jacob Hibbs, Sr., and was the mother of Gen. Joseph L. Hibbs and Jacob Hibbs, of Porstmouth, Ohio. His daughter, Levisa married Jacob Brown, of Pike County, and became the mother of several well known citizens of that county. His sons, Joseph and Samuel, located in Muscatine, Iowa, and died there.
Harry Hibbs, of the firm of J. C. Hibbs and Company, of Portsmouth, Ohio, is a great-grandson.
The Honorable S. L. Patterson, of Waverly, senator for the seventh district, is his great-grandson.
Judge Joseph Lucas was one of the active characters in Adams County, but fell a victim to the untried climate which the pioneers found in their first settlement.
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