USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Historical Sketches and Eary Reminiscences of Hamilton County, Ohio > Part 1
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PART I. 134 6 parts, All published.
HISTORICAL SKETCHES e
AND
EARLY REMINISCENCES
OF
HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO
INCLUDING
A BRIEF HISTORY OF A FEW OF THE EARLY CHURCHES AND OF THE SETTLEMENT
OF THE TOWNS
READING, MONTGOMERY, CARTHAGE, SPRINGDALE, SHARON, MOUNT HEALTHY, AND LOCKLAND.
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE
MILLCREEK VALLEY.
BY
J. G. OLDEN.
STAT
1883
ENSIN CINCINNATI, O. H. WATKIN, PRINTER, 119 FIFTH STREET, BET. VINE AND RACE, 1882.
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PREFACE.
AT a meeting of the citizens of Lockland, held at the Town Hall, June 19, 1876, a committee was appointed to prepare an historical sketch of Lockland and its vicinity. At the request of that committee the writer consented to give such time and labor to the work as he could command in the course of his ordinary pursuits.
As the memories of the past are a source of pleasure to all, the preservation of the incidents around which they gather is a task that finds its best reward in its perfor-' mance. With this feeling the history of the neighborhood has been traced, and also other incidents connected with the subject mentioned, although not immediately occur- ing in the vicinity.
In listening to the story of the early settlements one could not fail to be deeply interested in them, and also in the Red Men who occupied the territory when the Whites made their appearance, nor less so in the race, "The Mound Builders," that preceded them. And as the early history of any portion of our country would seem incomplete without some reference to those who occupied
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PREFACE.
it before the first white man trod its soil, the writer has briefly referred to them.
More than ninety years have elapsed since the first white stations were established; the principal actors have long since passed into the tomb, and much of their event- ful lives, that would interest and instruct us, has perished with them. It is true that some of the sons and daughters of these old pioneers are still living, and were eye wit- nesses of those events; but even they are well advanced in years, and have but a faint and imperfect recollection of what transpired in their infancy.
Traditions are plentiful, but of public and private documents few are to be obtained, and from these sources mainly the writer has gleaned that which he deemed most reliable and worthy of record, and trusts that the errors to be found in the work may not detract from its merit as a true and faithful narrative.
The writer is under obligations to so many persons, that to name them would be impracticable, and therefore he here returns his sincere thanks for their assistance and words of encouragement.
September, 1879.
J. G. OLDEN.
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THE INDIANS.
CHAPTER I.
AT the time the white settlements were established in the Miami Valley, there were numerous bands of Indians roaming the country, belonging to the north- western tribes :-
The Twigtwees, or Miamis, were settled in what is now known as the Miami Valley, their territory embraced a part of the present States of Indiana and Illinois.
The Shawnees were located in the Scioto Valley ; the Delawares along the Muskingum; the Wyandots or Hurons, Chippeways, and Ottawas occupied the northern portion of the territory, bordering the Lakes; and the Iroquois, or Six Nations, the north- eastern part, including the Western Reserve, and ex- tending into Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada.
The boundaries between these different tribes were never well defined, each seemed to occupy their several portions more by common consent than by any stipulated or well defined right, the constant en-
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THE INDIANS.
croachments of their common enemy, the White man, being sufficient to keep down or settle disputes that might otherwise have arisen as to boundaries or territorial rights.
The Iroquois were a confederation of tribes or nations, each having a separate organization, with one chief or sachem, and being again sub-divided into classes, which were distinguished by symbolic names, such as the bear, wolf, tortoise, deer, plover, crane, etc. The tribes that formed this league were the Mohawks or Maquas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras. The chiefs and principal men of each tribe formed a grand council, which discussed, deliberated upon, and adopted measures for the control and interest of the league, and the several tribes composing it.
These councils were singularly grave and delib- erate, and resulted in great unanimity of sentiment. In fact, it is said, that no measure was adopted or acted upon that was not sanctioned by an over- whelming majority of the council.
According to some accounts the Mohawks were the oldest, or at least originally the most powerful of the tribes forming the confederacy ; whether this be true or not, they were held in such esteem that a sachem of that tribe was usually chosen as the commanding chief of the united forces while in active service.
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THE INDIANS.
According to some other writers the Onondagas was the original tribe, from which all the others were derived, and for this reason the civil ruler of the confederacy was always selected from among the Onondagas.
None of the tribes of American Indians present such an array of distinguished and able chieftians and orators, Hiadeoni, Black-Cattle, Decanisora, Can- ajoharia, Hendric, Logan, Joseph Brant, Corn Planter, Garangula, Pollard, Black Snake, and Red Jacket, were all Iroquois chieftians.
Beside the tribes heretofore mentioned there were several other minor ones that seemed merged or mingled with them. The Mingoes were a frag- mentory part of the Iroquois, or regarded as be- longing to the six nations. The Kickapoos and Potawatamies were tribes that mostly occupied the territory along the Wabash, and extending into the present State of Indiana. These tribes occupied the territory now embraced within the boundaries of Ohio, at the time when judge Symmes, Benjamin Stites, Mathias Denman, and others effected settle- ments at Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend.
While it is no part of the design of this work to enter upon an extended history of these native tribes, or examine into their origin, it appears nevertheless proper, if not necessary, to thus briefly refer to them, and also to that pre-historic race, known as
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THE INDIANS.
the "Mound Builders," and to some of the numer- ous monuments and works of antiquity that are found, not only in this vicinity, but also over a large portion of Ohio, of which they were the authors.
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
CHAPTER II.
IT is said that the American Indian had no tradi- tions of a prior race of people, nor any transmitted account, that is at all authentic, of the many curious, ancient mounds, forts, pyramids, etc., that are found throughout the country, and which give evi- dence that their authors were a people of different habits, and were far in advance of the modern race that succeeded them.
From the number and magnitude of these works
1 it is supposed that the people who constructed them were very numerous; and from the character of the impliments of husbandry, and of the ornaments found buried with their remains, the inference is drawn that they cultivated the soil, had fixed habi- tations, and possessed considerable mechanical skill. But beyond what these relics reveal, their history is lost in obscurity. Their origin has been made a matter of great speculation, however. Were they of the lost tribes of Israel, or were they wander-
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
ers from the old world, or from south-eastern Asia ? Had they their origin from among the tribes of Tartary, or must we locate the Garden of Eden somewhere upon the western continent, and assume that the first pair, from whom it is supposed the world was peopled, were Americans, and that the eastern nations were the wanders and exiles. These are theories maintained with equal earnestness and gravity by different writers, but are nevertheless mere conjectures, each made plausible, it is true, but each refuting all the others, and leaving the question, if possible, more deeply involved in mystery.
As to the antiquity of this mysterious race, their great forts, mounds, and other relics, afford con- vincing proof that they were a very ancient people, perhaps the contemporaries of the builders of the Egyptian pyramids.
While it is the prevailing opinion among histor- ians and archaeologists that the Mound Builders were a distinct race from the modern Indians, and were either driven from the country by northern bar- barous tribes, or swept away by pestilence or famine, nevertheless there are so many characteristics, cus- toms, and habits which are common to both races, that make it appear more probable that the latter, though greatly degenerated, were the descendants of the former.
The Mound Builders of North America were by
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
no means far advanced in civilization, if indeed the term could at all be justly applied to a people without a written language, or the faintest conception of a literature.
Even the Aztecs, or aborigines of Mexico, though advanced in the arts and sciences far beyond the Mound Builders of the North East, were quite low in the scale of civilization. Even they followed the custom of human sacrifice, and Montezuma himself feasted on human flesh.
The Mound Builders are only known through the monuments they have left behind, and from these it is fair to infer they were quite a numerous people, living in large communities or towns, and were too populous to have subsisted upon game and the spon- taneous production of the earth, and must therefore have been tillers of the soil. They had regular forms of government; possessed some knowledge of the use of the metals, gold, silver, copper, and lead; had rude ideas of sculpture; skilled to a certain degree in the art of pottery and brick making; and under- stood the art of war and fortification. They were decidedly a religious people; having a regular sys- tem of mythology; were idolaters, and perhaps made human sacrifices. These traits of character are fairly deducible from the antiquities of the country. In what then do they differ, except in degree, from the race that succeeded them ? They, too, tilled the
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
soil, cultivated corn, squashes, beans, and other vegetables, lived in large communities and towns, and had fixed and prescribed territory. The Iro- quois, Shawnees, Delawares, Creeks, and other tribes, had regular forms of government, some of which were but little inferior to many of modern Europe.
The Indian had also a knowledge of the precious metals, and, to some extent, the art of working them. Especially was this the case among some of the southern nations. The Spaniards, in their early expeditions into Florida, (a term applied at that time to a region of country extending indefinitely north-east of Mexico,) found the Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other tribes, in possession of gold, wrought into ornaments, some of which displayed considerable ingenuity and skill. The first of these expeditions, made under the command of Juan Ponce de Leon, in 1512, was made in search of a supposed rejuvinating fountain, or waters that bestow per- petual youth, but, failing in this object, and finding the natives in possession of large quantities of gold, he returned home and fitted out a second expedition, this time in search of the gold mines, of which the Indians had made frequent mention.
The expedition, in 1518, by Valasquez de Ayllon, was made also in search of gold, and, though he failed also in discovering the great treasure, he found the natives residing in large towns, cultivating
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THE MOUND BUILDERS.
the soil, and exhibiting a desperate valor in defend- ing their homes.
The most important of these expeditions, however, was made, in 1538-9, by Hernando de Soto. He also found the Indians living in large towns, in "thrift and abundance." Far up to the Chatahoochee river, he found a tribe governed by a female, whose "dig- nity and refinement " greatly astonished the Span- iards. In proceeding northward he discovered a marked change in the character and style of the buildings. Instead of the grass-covered huts, which served well enough in the genial climate of the Pe- ninsula, the roofs of the houses were made of small cane, placed together like tile, and made very neat and warm. Some of these houses were so artfully constructed as to give them the appearance of being. made of stone and lime. The dwellings of the chiefs and principal men were large and commodious, and were sometimes built upon the summit of truncated mounds. They manufactured a certain kind of cloth from grass and the fibre of bark; and the skins from which they made their leggings, moccasins, and other wearing apparel, were tastefully dressed and dyed.
In 1540 De Soto pushed his expedition still further to the north and east, in a country then called Yupaha. Here a young native prisoner told him that he had come from the gold country; that it was of great extent and richness, and minutely described how it.
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was dug and refined, "insomuch," says the writer, "that all who understood the manner of working in the mines averred that it was impossible for him to speak so exactly of it without having seen the same."
The Cherokees, Shawnees, and other tribes, are known to have manufactured pottery quite similar to that found beneath the ruins of their predecessors.
Says a writer, "The retrograde process to which certain forms of incomplete civilization appear doomed, has perhaps been most strikingly exemplified in the difference to be discovered between the feeble and scattered tribes of the red race, and those power- ful and populous communities who occupied the soil before them. The relics of the former people, usually discovered on or slightly beneath the surface of the ground, are of a rude and simple character, differing little from the specimens common among their de- scendants of the present day. The flint arrow-heads, chipped painfully into shape; the stone tomahawk, knife, and chisel ; the pipe, the rude pottery, and the savage ornaments, are their only relics, and these differ but little from the same articles still fabricated by their successors."
The Indians had a system of religion, too, that corresponded closely to that supposed to have be- longed to the Mound Builders. They worshiped Meneto, or spirits; and some tribes offered sacri- fices to appease a multiplicity of angry gods.
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They, too, like their predecessors, erected over the remains of their departed friends monuments or mounds of earth, and often subjected them to the funeral pyre as a religious rite. These and many other traits and customs of the Indian race so much resemble those generally ascribed to the Mound Builders, that we are almost compelled, on com- parison, to regard them as one and the same race of people. That the Indian has lost much of the art and genius of his ancestors is true, but cannot the same be said of the Egyptians, the Moors, the Arabs, the Greeks, and of other nations, who once occupied a higher place in the scale of civilization?
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ANTIQUITIES.
CHAPTER III.
A NUMBER of mounds and other ancient relics have been discovered in Springfield and Sycamore Townships. There is a small mound on the Read- inbo farm (now belonging to the estate of Dr. Wright). It is of the ordinary conical shape, at present seventy-five feet in diameter, and seven to eight feet high; having been plowed over for many years, its height is greatly reduced. Another of more singular construction is situated on the lands formerly belonging to Price Thompson. It consists of a circular excavation, 500 feet in circumference, with an embankment on the outer circle, which ori- ginally must have been twelve to fifteen feet high, measuring from the bottom of the excavation. In the center of this circle is a conical shaped mound, raised as high, or perhaps to a greater height, than the outer embankment. The many centuries of rains and the recent cultivation of the lands have greatly marred the shape and former appearance of
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ANTIQUITIES.
this work. The writer remembers it fifty years ago, then much more distinct and prominent. Its out- lines, however, are still plainly traceable.
On the farm of Mr. James Shepherd, adjoining Lockland, is a small mound, forty feet in diameter at the base, five feet high, and of oval shape. About two hundred yards east, and on the lands of Mr. Francis Pentland, is an excavation from which there is little doubt the earth was taken that forms the mound. A few years ago Mr. Shepherd dug into it and found at its center base a heap of ashes and charcoal, but nothing more.
Another small mound, about the same dimensions as the last described, except that it is one foot higher, is situated in section 4, Springfield Township, on the lands of Noah Babs.
One, larger than either of the two last men- tioned, is on the farm now owned by Manard French, in section 11, Springfield Township, south of Glendale. It is seventy-three feet in diameter north and south, and sixty-three feet east and west, at the base, with an altitude of eight feet. It is covered with forest trees, oak and ash, some of which are more than twenty inches in diameter. Some persons, in digging into it years ago, left two uneven and ill-looking depressions, which mar the appearance of this otherwise beautiful little mound.
About a half mile south-east of this there was
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ANTIQUITIES.
another mound, of near the same dimensions. It stood near Station Spring, on the Foster farm, but was entirely obliterated in grading for the construc- tion of the Springfield turnpike. In cutting through it the earth presented the appearance of having been deposited from vessels but little larger than a peck measure, as small heaps of that size, and of entirely different kinds of earth, were found deposited or thrown promiscuously together, showing that the builders of the work had no knowledge of the domes- tication or use of the lower animals, and that all their great works were constructed entirely by human hands.
These Indian mounds, as they are termed, are still numerous in the neighborhood, although, from neglect and other causes, many have been de- faced, and some entirely obliterated. One in the Sharon cemetery was demolished to give a burial place for the white man. Another on the hill east of Mr. Lloyd S. Brown's residence, in Reading, was dug away about fifty years ago by Dr. Asahel Smith, who found beneath it one or two human skeletons, some spears, arrow heads, etc. On the McLane farm, in section 16, and on the lands of John Riddle, in Springfield Township, there are several. A great many others may still be seen throughout the two Townships, but as they all present very much the same appearance, and do not differ essentially from
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ANTIQUITIES.
those already described, it is not deemed necessary to further enumerate them.
Throughout Hamilton County a great number of these ancient earth works have been found, and though not so large as some discovered in other . parts of the country, many are sufficiently formida- ble and intricate to be interesting and worthy of mention.
The site upon which Cincinnati is built presented a series of earth works, comprising embankments and excavations, that were spread over the greater portion of the second bottom or plane, extending from Broadway to Mound street, and from Third street to the foot of the hills.
General Wayne examined these works in 1793, and expressed the opinion that they were not in- tended for military or defensive purposes; while Gen- eral Harrison, it is said, pronounced them such. Thomas Ashe, an English tourest, who examined them in 1806, thought they were the ruins of an ancient town. Dr. Drake, while giving a minute description of them, has carefully avoided an opinion as to their object or purpose.
The principle enclosure or embankment was eight hundred feet in diameter east and west, and six hundred and sixty feet north and south. The south line resting on Third street, and extending from Walnut to near Race. The walls were not over
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ANTIQUITIES.
three feet high, but were near thirty feet wide at the base; on the east there was an opening ninety feet wide. Another enclosure was near Fifth and Plum streets, a complete circle sixty feet in diameter, with walls about two feet high. An embankment between Sycamore and Broadway was in form of a semi-circle, the walls about the same height as the former described enclosure, and extended from Sixth to Third streets. Other curiously constructed em- bankments, enclosures, and excavations are described by Dr. Drake and others, the whole covering almost the entire plane or second bottom.
Upon this plateau there were four mounds, the largest of which stood near Fifth and Mound streets. It was originally forty-one feet high, having a base circumference of four hundred and forty feet. The surface, for thirty or forty yards around the base, was much lower than the surrounding plane, from which it is supposed the earth was taken that formed the mound. In digging away this mound, says Dr. Drake, only a few decayed human bones were found, a section of a deer's horn and a small piece of earthen ware, containing broken muscle shell. Gen- eral Wayne, while recruting his army at Camp Hobson's Choice, near the site of the present gas works, in 1793, had six feet of the top of this mound removed for the purpose of mounting a cannon and planting a sentinal to overlook the country.
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About five hundred feet north of this mound was another, about nine feet high, flat on top, and about sixty-five feet in diameter at the base. In digging into it some human remains and a handful of copper beads, strung upon a cord of lint, were found.
A few hundred yards still further north was a third mound, about three feet high, which, upon being opened, revealed nothing but a few unfinished spear and arrow heads made of flint stone.
The mound at Third and Main streets was about eight feet high, one hundred feet long, and sixty feet broad, of an oval shape. It was entirely de- molished in grading Main street. Beneath it, and a few feet below the surface of the plane, were found pieces of rock crystal, jasper, granite, and some other stones, dressed cylindrical at each ex- tremity and swelled in the middle, with an angular groove near the ends; a circular piece of cannel coal, with a large opening in the center, as if for an axis, and a deep groove in the circumference suitable for a band. It had a number of small perforations, disposed in four equi-distant lines, which ran from the circumference toward the center; a bone, ornamented with several curved lines, supposed to be hierogly- phical; a sculptured representation of the head and beak of a rapacious bird, perhaps the eagle; a small ovate piece of sheet copper, with perforations; a large oblong piece of the same metal, with longitudi-
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nal grooves and ridges; several copper articles, curiously wrought, all of which have been fully described by Mr. Sargent, Judge Turner, and Doctor Drake. Besides these relics Thomas Ashe discov- ered a number of human remains, or rather skele- tons, "far advanced in a state of decay;" some enclosed in rude stone coffins, but more often blended with the earth. These bones were generally sur- rounded by ashes and charcoal.
On the Great Miami river, a short distance above its confluence with the Ohio, there was traced ex- tensive and complicated embankments, the base of the walls were formed with stone thrown rudely together, and the upper portion of earth.
On the east bank of the Little Miami river, a short distance above and opposite Round Bottom, there were extensive walls of earth, similarly con- structed to those already described. Also near Mil- ford were ancient works of like character, still more elaborate and extensive. And on the east bank of the Great Miami, at the site where Dunlap's station and block house was located, were traces of ancient works, supposed to have been of a military character.
On the west side of the Little Miami river, near Redbank station, in Columbia township, has re- cently been discovered what appears to be an an- cient burying ground, and near it the ruins of an extensive fortification.
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