Page 938
PAUL COLBURN, one of the first permanent settlers of Loami, was born about 1761, in Hillsboro county, New Hampshire. He subsequently moved to Massachusetts, where he was united in marriage with Mehitable Ball. In 1809, the family moved to Grafton county, New Hampshire, where they remained until September, 1815; went from there to Ohio.
In March, 1821, Paul Colburn, his daughter Isabel, William Colburn, wife and three children, the four orphan children of Isaac Colburn, and a Mr. Harris, started in a wagon drawn by four oxen for Morgan county. They traveled through rain, mud and unbridged streams for about five weeks, which brought them to the south side of Lick creek, on what is now Loami township, where they found an empty cabin. From sheer weariness, they decided to stop, and Mr. Harris, the owner of the wagon and oxen, went on to Morgan county.
Soon after their arrival, Wm. Colburn gave a rifle gun for a crop of corn just planted, and in that way began to provide food. He secured a team and went after his brother Ebenezer, and brought him and his wife to the settlement, arriving in October, 1821.
Having succeeded in bringing so many of his descendants to the new country, and witnessed their struggles to gain a foothold and provide themselves with homes, Paul Colburn died February 27, 1825, near the present town of Loami. The other members of the family lived for many years.