James Grubb

James Grubb was a delegate to the convention that wrote the first constitution for the U.S. state of Ohio in 1802. He was a Democratic-Republican, who opposed allowing slavery in the new state. Biography James Grubb was born in 1771 at Little Britain in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His great grandfather had emigrated from England about a century before, and his father was a veteran of the French and Indian War. Grubb settled in Ross County in the Northwest Territory, and was named a Justice of the Peace in 1799 by Governor Arthur St. Clair. He was prominent among those Democratic-Republicans who pushed for statehood and for the removal of St. Clair. In 1802, elections were held in each county of the territory that would become Ohio for delegates to a constitutional convention to write a constitution for the new state, which would be submitted to the US Congress. Grubb ran for a seat on this commission, and submitted a letter to the Chillicothe newspaper on September 6, 1802, which stated: "As to the introduction of slavery, I must confess that I am not so great a Federalist or Aristocrat as to wish its admission. Such a pernicious scheme ought to be guarded against in a particular manner, as I conceive it bad policy and the principle cannot be advocated by any person of humane or republican sentiments."