History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 21

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123

USA > Indiana > Dearborn County > History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions > Part 21

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

ONE OF THE FIRST CHURCHES.

The Smiths and Crumes were Methodists and their neighborhood erected a hewed log meeting house about 1818. This church stood on the site of the present Mt. Tabor church, where there have been religious services held ever since that first church was built. In the burying ground adjacent lie many of the bodies of these old pioneers now crumbled into dust. Among those buried in early days were George Smith in 1828, Joseph Smith in 1832 and Elizabeth Wheeler in 1828. Among those buried there were the families of the Flem- ings, Gulletts, Abbotts, Millers and Becketts.

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BIRDSEYE VIEW OF GUILFORD

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Among the prominent families in the township who are well-known are the Tufts. Servetus Tufts was one of the early school teachers and is said to have taught at a school house that once stood near the Trester grave- yard. The Miller family is another of the well-known families in the town- ship. The present township trustee, Alvah G. Miller, is a descendant of the early pioneers by that name. Jacob Cooper, a former township trustee, has lived in the township for a number of years. Henry D. Tufts, one of the de- scendants of the pioneer family of that name, is one of the leading men of the township and a progressive, thrifty farmer who takes great pride in the busi- ness of the farm.

The farmers of Washington township have been good tillers of the soil and their lands have not grown poorer by cultivation; a ride over their fine roads and a view of their broad, fertile acres is a convincing proof that the soil is well cared for.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

YORK TOWNSHIP.

York township must have received the name on account of the number of English who came into the township from Yorkshire, in England. The tone and character of the entire township was in its early history dominated by these thrifty, high-class citizens. Guilford, at the forks of Tanners creek, and Yorkville, three miles out the ridge, between the two creeks, by their names indicate their English origin.

The township was laid out at the January session of the county com- missioners in 1841. It was created out of parts of Manchester, Kelso and Miller townships, and while not very large in area is perhaps as populous to the square mile, or more so than any township in the county with no city within its borders.

Being an interior township, its lands were not taken up from the govern- ment at quite as early a date as those nearer the river or father down the larger creeks. However, it is found that in 1810 Isaac Ferris, assignee for a Canadian volunteer, entered a part of section 23, in township 6, range 2 west; in 1813 Samuel Dowden entered a part of section 19, in township 6, range 1; and in 1814 Nathaniel Tucker and Micajah Dunn entered a part of the same section.

The township remains with pretty much the same territory it had when created with the exception of an addition of several sections added from Manchester township about 1896.

The Micajah Dunn mentioned as entering a part of section 19, town- ship 6, range I, is credited with being the first actual settler in the township. His father, Capt. Hugh Dunn, was one of the first settlers at Columbia, just above where the city of Cincinnati now stands, in 1788. His name appears among the list of those that landed there with the first colony. The Captain afterwards moved down the river to Fort Hill, and was with the little band that lived here during the perilous times of St. Clair's campaign and Wayne's victory at the Goose Pond stockade, with Joseph Hayes, the Millers and Guards. The family lived here until after Wayne's treaty when they moved to where the town of Elizabethtown, Ohio, now stands. This would be about 1796. Here Captain Dunn remained for a time and his son Micajah married and he then removed to the vicinity of Guilford, afterwards entering the land

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in section 19. Some ten years later, imbued with the genuine pioneer spirit, he moved to what is now Manchester township, and it is claimed was the first settler in that neighborhood.

Section 10 is the land on which the town of Guilford is laid out and it was taken up by Samuel H. Dowden, Nathaniel Tucker and Micajah Dunn : and in 1817 Joseph Hall took up the remainder.

George W. Lane says of the stockade near Guilford: "In the spring of 1812 the first steamboat of one hundred tons built at Pittsburgh, by Robert Fulton, made its first trip to New Orleans in fourteen days. The name of the boat was "Orleans." The Indian hostilities now began in earnest. Will- iam Crist had been wounded while discharging his duties as a mail carrier. The militia was organized under James Dill, colonel; Enoch Smith, lieutenant- colonel; Decker Crozier, major of the third regiment. James McGuire was captain of the first company, and Frederick Schultz was captain of the second company of rangers. These companies erected three blockhouses, one on Laughery creek about fifteen miles from Lawrenceburg, one on Tanners creek above Guilford, and one on the headwaters of Blue creek. In each of these blockhouses were stationed ten men. The two companies of mounted men patrolled the wilderness from blockhouse to blockhouse until the close of the war."

Mr. Lane says that the first settlers in York township were two families by the name of Payne and Bean respectively. John Ewbank took up a part of section 18 in 1815, and the same year Jane Bonte and Rucliff Bogent took up a portion of section 3, in the next range of townships; also the same year Aaron Payne entered a part of section II, of the second range of townships, and David Perine and John Borel entered a part of section 10, in the second row of townships. The English emigration commenced about 1818, and in time had taken up much of the land of the township, purchasing from others where government land was not to be found.

It is possible that the Aaron Payne mentioned as entering a part of sec- tion II is the same Payne spoken of by George W. Lane as being one of the first two to settle in the township. Many of the early immigrants waited a number of years before entering land.

THE FIRST CABIN.

Hugh McMullen and family emigrated from Pennsylvania, settling first on Wilson creek, and in 1818 moved to York Ridge, as the ridge between

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the forks of Tanners creek is called. The family is said to have remained on York ridge only one year, removing to Manchester township, where it is claimed he erected the first cabin on Pleasant View Ridge. He lived during the year near the present site of the village of Yorkville and had for neigh- bors a family by the name of Bonte and another by the name of Davison, both of whom had entered lands there. The Davisons soon after sold out to John Gidney. Land changed hands or owners in those days much more rapid- ly than now and a family by the name of Cherry at one time a little later is said to have been large landowners about Yorkville at an early date.

Among others who located along York ridge and in the township were the Rows, Philip and family; Richard and Leonard Spicknall, the Smiths, Bennetts, Thompsons, Snells, Halls. The two latter settling along the west fork of Tanners creek.

Most of the early settlers entering lands were from the vicinity of New York City. Among them were the Van Horns, Angevines, Snells and Wards. In 1818 James Angevine located in the township, coming from New York City, where he was born in 1777. Mr. Angevine was long-lived, dying in 1874, at the good old age of ninety-six years. The remarkable coincidence is that his son, James Angevine, died December 22, 1909, in his ninety-sixth year. The second James Angevine was born in New York City in 1814.

In 1822 William Ward and family settled in the township. They came from York state, locating at first in the northern part of the township, living on the lands of Peter Bonte, who about this time with his family removed to Cincinnati. It is claimed that Mr. Ward erected the first frame house on the ridge, it being an addition to the log house. John Smith came to the county in 1818, settling on the east branch of Tanners creek, entering land from the government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. He was the father of ten children, many of whose descendants yet reside within the town- ship and are well known citizens. The Van Horn family came to this county a year earlier than the Smiths, in 1817. Cornelius Van Horn entered a part of section II, where his descendants continued to reside until recent years.

It was not until some fifteen years later that the German emigration com- menced. Adam Broom and John Heimburger were credited with being the advance guard of the Teutons that have since taken over a considerable per cent. of the lands of the township.

In 1858 Judge Cotton says this concerning Mrs. Perine, her husband, David B. Perine, being then deceased: "When she first settled here in the forest some forty or fifty years ago, not only were there howling beasts of

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prey, but Indians too were numerous, and would often enter into her cabin at night, strike up a fire, treat themselves unceremoniously to anything and everything they could find, enjoy themselves thus for hours and then retire without offering her or hers any personal molestation or violence. And a Mr. Smith (I think that was his name), who raised the first cabin on the ridge, had it partly covered when he chanced to see two big Indians lurking about. Supposing them to be there for mischief he stole upon them and with a deadly aim made one of them 'bite the dust.' The other precipitately fled, paused at the distance of some forty rods and then turned back, unwilling to leave or forsake his friend. Meantime Smith had kept his eyes upon him and reloaded his gun, and when the Indian had come within shooting distance, he too was made to 'bite the dust' and share the fate of his friend. Smith dug a grave, put them both in and buried them right here within gunshot of the church."

THE OLD BURYING GROUND.

One mile east of Yorkville is located a public cemetery donated for that purpose by Philip Row, who then owned the land about it. It is said that the oldest grave in the cemetery that bears an inscription is dated 1838. Of the older persons buried there: Andrew Scott died in 1839, aged seventy-three; Robert Keightly died in 1856, aged eighty-eight; Philip Row died in 1838, aged seventy-two; Mary, wife of Philip Row, died in 1838, aged seventy- three; David C. Perine died in 1850, aged seventy-six; Catherine, wife of David Perine, died in 1863, aged seventy-three.

Charles R. Allen, K. and Josiah Campbell laid out the village of Guil- ford, in May 29, 1850. The surveying was done by an engineer by the name of William Rock. An addition was made in 1859 by Joel F. Richard & Son, and another in 1870 by Jonathan L. Blasdel. The place has grown in a business way and in population in the last two decades, and now has a post- office with two rural routes, three stores and a blacksmith shop. Quite a good deal of country produce such as hay, corn and wheat is shipped from this point over the Big Four Railway Company's line, which has been a factor of the life of the place for many years past. The population of Guilford in 1910 was given at two hundred and fifty.

The village of Yorkville was laid out by David C. Perine, March 24, 1841. The engineer that surveyed and platted the village was S. W. Math. It is a point of some business and had a population in 1910 of one hundred and fifty.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

CITY OF LAWRENCEBURG.

Capt. Samuel C. Vance, a soldier under Washington, an aid to Gen. Anthony Wayne and by marriage a grandson to Gen. Arthur St. Clair, being familiar with the nature of the ground at all the prominent points along the Ohio river in the Wayne Purchase, conceived the idea that the location just below the mouth of the Great Miami called for the site of a city. On July 23, 1801, shortly after the land office at Cincinnati was opened, he entered the land on which the city of Lawrenceburg is located; which is fractional sections 13 and 14 and section 15 in congressional township 5, range I west of the Miami river.

In April, 1802, bringing James Hamilton and Benjamin Chambers with him, he came down from Cincinnati and proceeded to survey and plat the town site of the city of Lawrenceburg. The plat comprised one hundred and ninety-six lots and lies facing the Ohio river, which runs in a southwesterly course at that place. The streets on that account parallel the river and run northeast and southwest, while the cross streets run northwest and southeast. The town site was bounded on the northeast by Elm street and on the southwest by Mulberry street, to the northwest by Partition lane, since about 1882 called Center street, and on the southeast by the Ohio river.

The town site was originally on a rather level bottom with one or two sloughs or indentations where during the spring months water would stand. At the time it was laid out, it was thought to be above floods from the Ohio river. The years have, however, shown the citizens of this fair city that the Ohio, when it reaches high flood, inundates every foot of the original plat.

In addition to the tract of land on which the town site was laid out, Cap- tain Vance entered fractional section 13 and section 15, but it was said that he was unable to pay for them, so on December 3 of the same year Benjamin Chambers re-entered the three tracts and received the patents for them. On the river front the plat called for a street called Front between which and the river there was at one time a common. Vance provided for a public square which is the present site of the court house. A cemetery was provided just outside the town at the foot of High street.

Samuel Morrison is authority for the saying that Dr. Jabez Percival

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erected the first house in the autumn of the same year, 1802. Vance having great confidence in the future of the place reserved for himself the very desirable location for a residence where the Tousey house is now located,. and here he made his home until his death years later. Early additions were made to the infant city as desirable lands were called for, for building purposes. Captain Vance married a granddaughter of Gen. Arthur St. Clair, a lady by the name of Lawrence, and he gave the newly platted location the name of Lawrenceburg, after the family name of his wife.

Like the western country generally at that time the infant town grew very slowly. In the year 1806 it is said that the principal buildings were the ferry house, on the bank of the river above Walnut street, and a warehouse below Walnut street. The residences were those of Benjamin Chambers and Gen. James Dill on the bank of the river. James Hamilton and Michael Jones lived on the alley by the Fitch livery and undertaking establishment. New street at that time went by the name of Second street and on it lived Dr. Jabez Percival, Jesse B. Thomas, Captain Vance and Elijah Sparks. Below Maple street, on High, lived Rev. Baldridge. William Cook was jailer and the jail was a log building on the public square. On the northeast corner of Vine and High streets lived James Foster, who was a chair manufacturer. John Gray kept a store on the corner of Short and High streets and Jacob Horner a tavern in a log house on the corner where the Grand Hotel now stands. On the Parry corner William Morgan lived, and on the opposite corner where the Gordon store now is he carried on a blacksmith shop. Judge Isaac Dunn lived on the corner of Elm and High streets near where he died in 1866. The houses were then, six years after the town had been laid out, built almost altogether of logs. A newcomer would land at the river front, locate a lot and in a few days have a log hut erected, where in a short time he would be found confortably at home. Buckeye was very plentiful, and it is claimed that on account of the ease with which it was cut with the axe most of the houses were erected out of this material. If this was true it would only be a few years until they would decay, for this timber was short-lived. If cut in the spring they would sprout and the first summer would make quite a pictur- esque appearance.

Jabez Percival was the first doctor to serve the sick in the new town and Jesse B. Thomas, Elijah Sparks, James Noble and Michael Jones were the first attorneys. The first school house was built on the public square, and the early teachers were Rev. Baldridge and a Mr. Fulton. The courts of that day were held in the house of William Morgan, on the Parry corner, and

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were presided over by Benjamin Parke, district judge, who lived at Vincennes. Benjamin Chambers was the associate judge, Samuel C. Vance, clerk of the court, and David Lamphere, sheriff.

SOME EARLY CITIZENS.

The Dearborn county history says that the principal citizens of the town in the year .1813 were: Samuel C. Vance, Benjamin Chambers, James Dill, Stephen Ludlow, Isaac Dunn, Benjamin Piatt, Dr. Jabez Percival, Jacob Horner, hotel proprietor; John Horner, blacksmith; Walter Armstrong, inn- keeper; Samuel Fancher, constable; Timothy Davis, James McLeaster, shoe- maker; Charles Lee Brashear, hatter; William Cook, jailor; Mr. Kimball, wheelwright; John Cox, William Chamberlain, horse mill proprietor; Dr. Ezra Ferris, Chambers Foster, Zenas Hill, school teacher; Mr. Shaw, Mr. Thornbury, James Hamilton, William Caldwell, justice of the peace; and David Gerard. At that time there were two brick houses, one of stone and five frame houses. Samuel C. Vance, Benjamin Chambers, James Dill, Stephen Ludlow and Isaac Dunn were the owners of frame houses. The court house, which burned in March, 1826, was built in 1810. Dr. Percival had a brick house on the corner of New and Vine streets back of the present Methodist Episcopal church. It was torn down about thirty years ago. Of the young men prominent at that time Walter Hayes, Andrew Morgan, Davis and John Weaver and Samuel H. Dowden are all that can be recalled in the reminiscences of Samuel Morrison.

In Daniel Drake's picture of Cincinnati and the Miami country, published in 1815, it is stated "Lawrenceburg, having occasionally suffered inundation, has grown but little, and a new village called Edinboro has been lately laid out on higher ground, about one-half mile from the river, but it is not a place of much promise. The inhabitants of the counties of Dearborn, Franklin and Wayne received their supplies of foreign goods almost exclusively from Cincinnati, but little mercantile capital being employed at Lawrenceburg, and there being on the Miami no depot of merchandise for the region." Two years later, 1817, the author of an emigrant's directory says, "In traveling seven miles through the woods of Dearborn county I counted two bears, three deer and upwards of one hundred turkeys. In the course of the day I missed my way and wandered several miles in the wilderness."

Real estate, about the time of the War of 1812. was not moving very rapidly. Neither was it bringing very high prices. May 5. 1812, Samuel C.

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OLD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. LAWRENCEBURG, HENRY WARD BEECHER'S FIRST CHARGE

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Vance sold to William Remy lot 84, on the corner of Mary and William, just opposite the Baltimore & Ohio depot for $50. January 3, 1811, Samuel C. Vance sold to Stephen Ludlow for the sum of $300, lots 161, 162, 163 and 164. These are the lots on the south side of High street between Short and Elm-the Fitch corner to the residence of Clarence Hunter. March 5, 1812, Samuel C. Vance sold to Stephen Ludlow for the sum of $100, lot 43 in the original plat, which is the lot which the residence of George Volkert and the office of Givan & Givan now occupy. January 4, 1811, Samuel C. Vance sold to Stephen Ludlow for the sum of $200, ten acres just above and join- ing Elm street and extending to the river. March 14, 1810, Samuel"C. Vance sold to Stephen Ludlow for $10, lot I, at the foot of Walnut street, on the west side. The Big Four occupies the ground at present. June 29, 1812, Samuel McHenry, of Hamilton county, Ohio, sold to Stephen Ludlow for $200, lots 41 and 42, which are the lots on the corner of Walnut and High, from Walnut street to the alley, known as the Parry corner and extending tc the alley at John F. Hornberger's. McHenry purchased the lots in 1810 from Thomas O'Brien at sheriff's sale. June 6, 1813, Jonathan W. Lyon sold to Stephen Ludlow lots 167 and 168 for the sum of $150. These are the lots extending from Stockman's corner to the alley at W. S. Fagaly's. October 10, 1808, Samuel C. Vance sold to James Smith, Jr., & Sons, of Philadelphia, to satisfy a claim the parties had against him, four hundred and forty-nine and one-half acres in section 15, and thirty-nine acres just east of the cor- poration. It was sold for the sum of $4,339. Zebulon Pike and James Findlay were appointed commissioners to view the personal property and they allowed Vance the corn that was grown on the property that year. February 1, 1811, Samuel C. Vance sold to James Hamilton for the sum of $150, lots 71 and 72 of the original plat, being lots on William street between Vine and the Baltimore & Ohio depot, where George H. Wood resides, to the alley.

Stephen Ludlow seemed to be the principal purchaser of real estate about Lawrenceburg at that time. There was little business going on and no demand for produce. August 4, 1815, Jesse Hunt, of Cincinnati, sold to Stephen Ludlow, four hundred and forty and one-half acres adjoining Law- renceburg, it being the Ludlow grounds just north of the corporation, much of it still belonging to Mr. Ludlow's son, Omar T. Ludlow.

As it became evident, in the year 1815, that the war was not going to be carried into the Ohio Valley, real estate commenced slowly to improve in price and the demand grew proportionately: January 4, 1820, James McLeas-

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ter sold the lot where the Carnegie library now stands, being the west half of lot 47, for $500. Farm lands about Dearborn county began to sell on account of emigrants pouring in from the East and transfers of real estate were plentiful.

A number of substantial buildings were erected about this time. Among the principal business people of the town in the period from 1815 to 1820 were David P. Shook & Company. Samuel C. Vance, John Gray. John H. and Benjamin Piatt, David Guard. Isaac Dunn, John Eads & Company, Will- iam Pyne, Stephen Ludlow, John Gibson, Israel J. Canby, Andrew Morgan, Frederic Lucas, James W. Weaver, David Rees, William Ewing, Joseph H. Coburen, Jacob Brashear, Collins Fitch. Ephraim Hollister, James Hallo- well, Harris Fitch, Jesse Hunt, William Tate. Benjamin Stockman, Walter Armstrong, Thomas Shaw, John Bates, Noah Noble & Company, Mary Brooks, milliner ; Jared Evans, justice of the peace; and David Bruner, barber.

STRINGENT BOAT REGULATIONS.

In 1817 it is claimed that a paper was published by a man named Brown. The Dearborn county history telling of those times says, "Dennis Duskey ran a trading boat from here to Cincinnati, leaving every Monday morning." Duskey was a peculiar character and the history narrates. "Every attention was given to goods committed to his care, and every accommodation possible afforded to passengers. There was no bar on this boat. and smoking was positively forbidden, and the first person caught playing cards was at once set ashore." It continued facetiously to say, "The captain reserved the right to indulge in profanity whenever the occasion required it." It was probably a keel boat.

This first paper published in Dearborn county was published by B. Brown and was called the Dearborn Gazette. The office was located in a building on the west side of the alley where the residence of Edward Hayes now stands. The motto of the paper was "Equal and exact justice." During Mr. Brown's editorial career the following incident occurred. Mr. John Jackson was the mail carrier. His route was from Cincinnati to Madison. He lived at Georgetown and made Lawrenceburg a way station and would bring the mail matter, tied in his red cotton handerchief, from Cincinnati and George- town. Brown took him to task for his seeming carlessness, which irritated the courageous carrier, who was a man of great physical strength, and as brave as he was powerful, and he determined to chastise the impertinent

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editor. Brown was a small man, but did not lack courage. When Jackson entered the office to inflict the punishment he was engaged busily with his ink balls in hand, printing his paper, and as soon as Jackson had come within striking distance, Brown struck him in the eye with the ink balls and suc- ceeded in making a "good impression." Jackson was so astonished at the mode of defense and the weapons used by the Yankee printer. that he retired from the contest blinded and blackened, proclaiming he could whip his weight in "wild cats" but always preferred to pass by the small odoriferous animal whose defense was more effectual than a Chinese stink pot.

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History of Dearborn County, Indiana : her people, industries and institutions, Part 21

Author: Archibald Shaw Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1123

Author: Archibald Shaw
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1123