USA > Ohio > Miami County > The History of Miami County, Ohio > Part 1
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THE
HISTORY
OF
MIAMI COUNTY,
OHIO,
CONTAINING
A History of the County; its Cities, Towns, etc .; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men ; History of the Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Map of Miami County ; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, etc., etc.
ILLUSTRATED.
CHICAGO: W. H. BEERS & CO. 1880.
SEHL. SO
STATE HISTO shs
CAL . NISNO
1846 OF WISC
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The reproduction of this publication has been made possible through the sponsorship of the Miami County Historical and Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 305, Troy, Ohio 45373-0305.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by
W. H. BEERS & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
Windmill Publications, Inc. 6628 Uebelhack Rd., Mt. Vernon, IN 47620
Nineteen Hundred Ninety Five
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2 497 16 Hb 1995
PREFACE
THE THIRD EDITION (1995) THE HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY, OHIO
The original edition of W.H. Beers' History of Miami County, Ohio was written between April and September 1880. It was the first history of Miami County ever published. This original Miami County history along with an indexed 2nd edition printed by the Troy Historical Society in 1973 may well be considered the most authoritative and usable history of Miami County for this early period. The availability of the original and 2nd editions outside of public libraries, archives, or private collections is practically nil, certainly at reasonable prices. The Miami County Historical and Genealogical Society therefore believes that now is an appropriate time to make this excellent work available again to the public by reprinting the original Beers' including its preface, the every personal name index compiled by Virginia G. Boese, and Thomas B. Wheeler's synoptic preface in the 2nd edition. In this way the public nay benefit directly from the original edition and enhanced 2nd dition.
Readers should note that as in the original edition, some pages ppear to be missing. This was apparently not uncommon with these rly histories and most probably resulted from either pictures not bmitted or not paid for at the time of the original printing. No formation is missing and no references are made to those pages. e specific pages involved are: 205,206,295,296,475,476,493,494, 1,512,529,530,547, and 548.
Acknowledgment is given herein to the Herculean efforts of these ier providers and to the members of the Miami County Historical Genealogical Society for making it possible to print this 3rd ion (1995) of the 1880 Beers' History of Miami County, Ohio.
Publications Committee (1994-1995) Miami County Historical and Genealogical Society May 3, 1995
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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION (1973) OF BEERS' HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY, OHIO
The original Edition of W. H. Beers' History of Miami County, Ohio, writ- ten between April and September, 1880, was the first history of Miami County ever published. Later Miami County histories, to a large degree, merely re-hash the facts set forth in this volume. For this reason, the Troy Historical Society chose Beers' History of Miami County as the most authoritative work, the re- publication of which would be of most benefit to the public.
A representative of the W. H. Beers' Company, publishing house of Chicago, presided over a meeting March 27, 1880, in the former Miami County Court- house. Present from Bethel Township was Noah H. Albaugh (1834-1907) ; from Brown Township, Isaac Kiser (1810-1897) ; from Concord Township, Dr. Hor- ace Coleman (1824-1911), John W. DeFrees (1809-1882), and Charles W. Morris (1812-1893) ; from Elizabeth Township, Isaac N. Kyle (1832- ); from Lost Creek Township; John Webb (1793-1883) ; from Monroe Township, Jacob Rohrer (1815-1910) ; from Newberry Township, James L. Purdy (1816-1887) ; from Newton Township, Joseph C. Coppock (1812-1896) ; from Spring Creek Township, William J. Wiley (1829-1907) from Union Town- ship, John Haskett; and from Washington Township, Stephen Johnston Jr. (1812-1903) and William Scott (1801-1880).
In the Preface to this volume written by the publishers of the Original Edition, and reproduced herein, credit is given also to others who furnished information. Among those are Dr. G. Volney Dorsey (1812-1885), and Stephen Johnston Jr., for writing parts of the history of Piqua and Washington Township; Thom- as Harbough (1849-1924), of Lost Creek Township; David Jones (1815-1896), of Union Township; and J. L. Purdy of Newberry Township, for writing parts of the chapters about their respective townships.
These men were, for the most part, sons of pioneers who came to Miami Coun- ty from 1800 to 1820. Stephen Johnston Jr., a nephew of Colonel John Johnston, the Indian Agent and builder of the Johnston Farm Complex, now a part of the Piqua Historical Area (operated for the benefit of the public by the Ohio His- torical Society), was born just one month after his father was killed by Indians in the War of 1812. Dr. G. Volney Dorsey was Treasurer of the State of Ohic during the Civil War. Dr. Horace Coleman was the son of Dr. Asa Colemar. (1788-1870), Miami County's first doctor. John W. DeFrees was the Editor of the Miami Union, Troy's weekly newspaper. Thomas-Harbaugh, then thirty-one years old, was on the threshold of a literary career which would make him nation- ally known.
The Author-Editor of Beers' History of Miami County drew heavily from Historical Reminiscenses which appeared in Troy newspapers from 1839 through 1870. These were first-hand accounts from such men as Abraham Thomas (1755- 1843), who fought the Indians under General George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War; John T. Tullis (1794-1877), Editor of the Troy Times (1830-1839) ; Alexander Mccullough (1770-1857) ; and Dr. Asa Coleman. The Author-Editor transposed entire paragraphs, and in some cases, entire pages, from the published Reminiscences of these men.
Thus most of the material in this History is from first-hand accounts of people who were actually there, or from people who learned of events from those who were on the scene.
An employee of the W. H. Beers Publishing Company, a Mr. L. A. Marshall, delivered the books to Miami County purchasers the first week in October, 1880.
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PREFACE.
A SINGLE county in the great State of Ohio occupies but an insignificant place upon the chart of the world, and its history and people are com- paratively unknown. The grand river of national history is formed by the union of many small streams of record and tradition, flowing from hundreds of counties all over the globe. Tracing one of the rills to its source, and the gathering of a blossom from its bank, or a shining pebble from its bed, is the purpose of this volume.
Had the pioneers of Miami County kept a chronological journal of events, the writing of a history wow would have been comparatively easy. In the absence of such records, the magnitude of the undertaking is rendered more intricate and difficult, by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers who first came to gladden the prairie and forest wilds with their presence, and scatter the seeds of that better intelligence, which, growing and spreading as year was added to year, until the county of their choice ranks second to none in modern accomplishments. The seeds they scattered ripened into the fullness of a plentiful harvest, and schoolhouses, churches, cities, towns, canals, telegraphs, railroads and palatial-like residences occupy the old "camping- grounds" of the red men who have long since passed away.
In this history we have labored to record only facts gleaned from the most authentic sources, and have been aided by efficient historians and those asso- ciated with the earlier rise and progress of the county to the present time.
The history of Washington Township and city of Piqua is from the pen of Dr. G. VOLNEY DORSEY. The Hon. STEPHEN JOHNSTON has contributed valu- able material for the history. The history of Lost Creek is by the " Poet of the Miami," Mr. THOMAS HARBAUGH. DAVID JONES, of West Milton, furnished the notes of Union Township history. J. L. PURDY, of Covington, wrote the his- tory of Newberry Township. To the officials of the county, the city officials, township officers, and citizens of Miami County generally, we are indebted for interesting and authentic information, which we have carefully compiled, and now present to our readers, trusting that the volume will meet the approval of an intelligent people, and add to their libraries a valuable book for future reference.
THE PUBLISHERS.
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CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGK.
Geographical Position ..
19
History of Ohio .. 03
Governors of Ohio.
.160
Early Explorations 20 French History 96
Discovery of the Ohio 32 Ordinance of 1787, No. 32 .105
The War of 1812.
122
Outline Geology of Ohio ...
179
Ohio's Rank During the War ........ 182
A Brief Mention of Prominent
Division of the Northwest Terri-
tory.
65
Improvements
132
Some Discussed Subjects
196
Tecumseh and the War of 1812 ......
69
Boundary Lines
136
Conclusion
.200
Organization of Counties and Early
Black Hawk and the Black Hawk
War
73
Events
137
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Source of the Mississippi.
22
High Bridge ...
33
Lake Bluff.
02
La Salle Landing on the Shores of Green Bay. 24
Indians Attacking Frontiersmen ... 55
71
Indians Attacking a Stockade.
...
Black Hawk, the Sac Chieftain .....
74
Buffalo Hunt. 26 Present Site Lake Street Bridge, Trapping. 28 Chicago, 1833 .. 58
Mouth of the Mississippi.
31
A Pioneer Dwelling ..
HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.
PAOR.
Owners of the Soil
207
Ladies' Industrial Department
... 236
Miami County in the Obio Legisla-
Log-Rolling
.. 230
An Old-Time Schoolhouse
236
ture.
283
Miami in the Great Rebellion
285
Temperance Talk
.237 | Geology, Ancient Mounds, Relics, etc .. 290
Corn Husking
.238
Game and Hunters
.238
Prairies
301
Pigron Roosts
.240 Old Fortification of Piqua. 302
Mails
243
Capture of the Moffitt Boys.
243
Statistics
307
County Sent
246
Miami in the War of 1812 .. 247 | Brown Township .309
Killing of Dilbone and Wife .251 | Spring Creek Township
The Old Muster
258 | Union Township.
334
Newton Township.
358
Concord Township
372
Staunton Township
.385
Lont Creek Township.
393
Elizabeth Township ..
.400
Bethel Township
.410
Singing Schools.
234
Miami County Agricultural Socl- ety .269
Monroe Township ...
420
Wives for the Settlers
235
Judicial and Official ..
.274
Washington Township.
433
.281 Newberry Township .459
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE.
Brown Township ..
.471
Elizabeth Township ....... .558
Concord Townsbfp.
672
spring Creek Township. ..... .. 502 Washington Township,. ............ 577
Newberry Township ..
724
Lost Creek Township ... .. 520
Bethel Township ..
.. 627
Newton Township
757
3taunton Township.
.. 543 | Monroe Township ....
.. 642
Union Township.
.. 799
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PAGE.
Extinction of the Indian Title .... ... 208
Settlement of the Oblo Valley .... 209
Institution and Boundary of Miami County ... 210
Expedition of Gen. G. R. Clarke ... 210 Earliest Settlement 213 Early Settlement. 215
Hindrances to Eurly Settlement. .216
Little Copper Distillery .2'8
Relics
.. 307
Drees
218
Food and Cooking. .219
Biographical Reminiscences .. .. 220 Scalping of Mrs. Martin .. 221 Caleb Mendenhall .226
Old Settlers up to 1807 .231 Effects of the War. 263
Sociability .. .. 233 Hospitality .233
Improvements, Customs, etc 264 Miami County Infirmary .... 266
First Preaching. .234 Exbibit ... .. 268
Rival Lovers .. 274
Whisky, Conscience and Mud.
... 235 | County Officers
PAGE.
PAGE.
Friends' Church at West Branch .... 847
322
Cut Money or Sharp-Shins. .. 262
.240 | Plum Thickets 302
Squirrels and Squirrel Hunts
Ancient Works
.174
Some General Characteristics
.177
English Explorations and Settle- ments. 34 Banking .126
American Settlements.
59
The Canal System
.128
Ohio Land Tracts
.129
Ohio Generals.
.191
Pontiac, the Ottawa Chieftain ..... 42 Tecumseh, the Shawnoe Chieftain, 68
Perry's Monument, Cleveland ..
91
60 | Niagara Falls 92
PAGE.
CONTENTS.
LITHOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS.
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Joseph G. Young, deceased. .. 115
J. H. Ramsey ..... 259 Mrs. Sarah A. Schindler 385
Dr. M. W. Hayu 133 Mrs. Dorothy Ramsey 277
William J. Wiley 421
Dr. Horace Coleman. .. 151 Charles Voorbis 313
James M. Dye, deceased. .. 439
Col. A. H. Coleman, deceased .. 169
Mrs. Emma Voorhis 331 B. F. Brown. 457
Mrs. Mary Mitchell, deceased .. .187
Mrs. Malinda C. Voorhis, deceased,349
N. H. Allsugh ...... .241
Gen. John Webb.
223 | John Schindler.
.367 | Knoop Children's Home 404
MISCELLANEOUS.
PAGE.
PAGE
PAGE.
Map of Miami County. .. Front.
Area of the Principal Countries in
Miles of Railroad in Operation 203
Constitution of the United States ... 79
the World ... ... 203 Population of Obio ...... 202
Population of the United States ..... 203
Population of the Principal Coun-
Population of Miami County ...
Area of the United States. .. 203
tries in the world .203
Business References. 671
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States. of Ohio, Indiana,' Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Pacific Ocean. , The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
(19)
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims " moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in 1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result ; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who carnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant " chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them . across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. "Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, "did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing. the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
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