Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 127

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149

USA > Ohio > Butler County > Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio > Part 127

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was born at Crossland, county Derry: Ire+ land. May 17. 1807. He was the son of; William and Nancy ( Jamieson ) Henderson :) his paternal grandparents were Willianit and Nancy (Wells) Henderson : maternal grandparents, John and Jane (Browne) Ja-' mieson. The families were Scotch, having sought refuge in Ulster during the persecti -; tion of the Covenanters. One of Joseph! Henderson's ancestors in Scotland was Rev. Alexander Henderson, one of the greatest men in the history of Scotland, the man who wrote the "Covenant" which was signed in blood, on a tomb in Grey-Friars Church- vard. Edinboro, Scotland, where his remains now lie. Miss N. Henderson, daughter of the subject, saw this Covenant in 1888.

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Joseph Henderson was the second child in a family of nine, most of whom lived to old age. Only one survives, Elizabeth Hen- derson Jamieson, whose son, A. W. H. Ja- mieson, is a resident of Cincinnati. Joseph Henderson's father was a farmer, who gave his children the best educational advantages afforded in that day. As a boy he heard much of Napoleon Bonaparte, and distinctly remembered his downfall at Waterloo. The subject was given the name Joseph for a paternal uncle who came to this country in 1798, and located on what is now the Hen- derson place, near Middletown, Butler county, and built the brick house thereon, which has sheltered the fourth generation. It is one of the few farms which has never gone out of the same family in one hundred years. This uncle was quite prominent in Butler county affairs. Being childless, he wrote his nephew (the subject of this sketch) to come to this country, offering to make him his heir. He accepted the terms and arrived in this country in 1829. He remained in Pennsylvania, on the way, a few months, and when he arrived in Butler county found that his uncle had died a short time before his arrival. He made his home on the farm, and in 1835 he visited Ireland, bringing with him on his return his brother Archibald. His brother resided with him till 1852, when, returning to Ireland, he was lost on the ocean voyage.

Joseph Henderson was married March 23. 1839. to Sarepta Campbell Denham, daughter of Benyew and Elizabeth (Camp- bell) Denham. Benyew Denham was a son of Lewis and Randall (Bloomfield) Den- ham, of Loudoun county, Virginia. The Denham family came from London, Eng- land. to Salem, Massachusetts, in 1634. La- ter. the father and one of the sons were pro- Hamilton, Ohio.

prietors in Connecticut. Elizabeth Camp- bell was a daughter of Archibald and Mercy Ann (Dunn) Campbell, who were prominent citizens of Hampshire county, Virginia, but removed to Ohio in 1812 and located in Butler county.

Joseph Henderson and wife had eight children, five sons who died in infancy, and three daughters, Elizabeth,. wife of N. W. Evans, of Portsmouth, Ohio, Nancy, who resides in Washington, D. C., and Jane, who was the wife of S. Y. Wasson, Hamilton, Ohio, and who died July 1, 1899. Surviv- ing her are her husband, a daughter, Jennie L., wife of Joseph L. Blair, secretary of the Niles Tool Works, at Hamilton, and Clar- ence Clancy Wasson, a physician in Hamil- ton, whose wife was Elizabeth Ward. Jo- seph Henderson's wife died August 20, 1851 ; he never remarried, but devoted him- self to his daughters, whom he educated at Oxford College, Oxford, Ohio.

In 1863 Mr. Henderson became a stock- holder in the First National Bank of Hamil- ton and was a director of it for a number of years. He was a man of the most strict integrity. He believed in this motto, "Owe no man anything," and lived up to it. In his political views he was a Democrat, but was always for a sound currency based on gold. In his religious views he was a Pres- byterian, firm in the faith of his ancestors. He was a model American citizen, and be- lieved in and practiced obedience to law. He had the fullest confidence of all who knew him and his character was a tower of strength. His life was one of devotion to his children and they maintain the same sturdy Scotch character which was his own. He died November 3, 1889, and is interred on the family lot in Greenwood cemetery,

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HENRY WEAVER

was born in the city of New York, in April, 1761. His father, William Weaver, was respectably connected, though not in afflu- ent circumstances. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His son, Henry, when quite a youth, not more than eighteen years of age, fired by ardent patriotism and love of adventure, joined a crew of privateers- men, and was among the first that ventured upon the ocean under the American flag. When cruising in the West India seas they fell in with a British vessel, and after a des- perate fight captured her. In the act of boarding the vessel, Mr. Weaver had three of the fingers of his left hand cut off by the stroke of a cutlass, aimed at his head, which he was fortunate enough to parry. After the capture of the ship, they continued cruis- ing in the same seas for a considerable time, when they met with a British man-of-war, of a very superior force, and were them- selves captured in turn. Henry Weaver and the survivors of the crew were made prisoners and carried to England, where he was confined in prison for upward of eight- In 1794 Governor Arthur St. Clair ap- peace, under the territorial government for the county of Hamilton, which, at that time, embraced a large portion of the western sec- tion of what now forms the state of Ohio. Some time after General Wayne's treaty with the Indians, at Greenville, in the year 1795, and the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Weaver was among the first to leave the protection of the station, and pursue his for- tune still farther in the forests of the fron- tier, settling on a tract of land near Middle- town, in what is now Butler county, where he cleared a farm. The public lands belong- een months, until the ratification of the pointed Henry Weaver a justice of the treaty between the United States and Eng- land, by which the independence of the United States was acknowledged. When Mr. Weaver was released from prison he returned to his home in New York. His family hailed him as one arisen from the dead, as they had long since considered him lost forever. His father died during his absence. Some years after his return he married Miss Meeker, of New Jersey, by whom he had one child, a daughter. He afterward, for his second wife, married Susan Crane, daughter of Joseph Crane, of

Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and a sister of the late Major John Crane, of Hamilton, Ohio. About this time the settlement of the Miami country had commenced, and Mr. Weaver, stimulated by the spirit of en- terprise and the glowing accounts received of the beauty and fertility of the western country, determined to seek his fortune in the West. Accordingly, in 1790, he left his liome, accompanied by his wife, and came to Columbia, a settlement six miles above Cincinnati, in the then Northwest Territory, where he lived until 1792. In that year Henry Tucker, of the state of New Jersey, came to Columbia, where he was joined by Henry Weaver and a few other enterprising spirits, who determined to push further into the wilderness. They established and built a station, which received the name of Tuck- er's Station. It was situated on the then trace leading from Cincinnati to Fort Ham- ilton, about midway between these two places, in the valley below Glendale. Here Mr. Weaver located a tract of land on the west branch of Mill creek, where he cleared away the forest and built him a cabin.

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ing to the United States came into market in the year 1801. Mr. Weaver became the purchaser of a tract of land on Elk creek, in what is now Madison township. Here he commenced another farm, on which he re- sided until his death.

The state of Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802, and Butler county was es- tablished and organized in 1803, and sub- divided into townships. Lemon township, as originally organized, comprehended, in addition to its present boundaries, all of what now forms the township of Madison, which was laid off and organized in the year 1810.

On the organization of Lemon township, in 1803, Henry Weaver was elected justice of the peace, which office he held until 1805, when the state legislature elected him asso- ciate judge of the court of common pleas for Butler county, in which office he served under successive reappointments until July 20, 1829, when he resigned. Judge Weaver also filled many minor offices, and appoint- ments of trust and responsibility, in the neighborhood where he lived. He was a land surveyor, and executed nearly all the surveys in his neighborhood during his time. He drew deeds, contracts, and agreements for his neighbors. He was, in fact, what may be called a useful man. Mr. Weaver was much attached to agriculture and hor- ticulture, and took great pains to introduce the choicest varieties of fruits. He was a man of unbounded hospitality, and was gen- erous to the poor. His virtues and name are worthy of respect and preservation among the pioneers and defenders of the Miami valley.

Mr. Weaver died at his residence, in Madison township, on August 17. 1829, in

the sixty-eighth year of his age, leaving a Hamilton, in the ninety-first year of his age. widow and a numerous family of children surviving him. His remains were interred in the burying ground at Trenton, adjoin- ing the Baptist church, of which congrega- tion he was a member. His widow, Susan, died on January 22, 1851, aged seventy-five years, and was buried beside her husband at Trenton.

PIERSON SAYRE

was born September 12, 1761, in the state of New Jersey, in a small village then called Turkey, now known as Providence. When seventeen years of age he entered the Con- tinental army, as a private soldier in the New Jersey division, then under the com- mand of General Lord Sterling. He re- mained in the army two years and a half, during which time he participated in most of the battles fought in the state of New Jersey during that period, among several others, the battle of Springfield, fought June 23, 1780, under the command of Ma- jor General Nathaniel Greene. During his service in the army he consequently suffered all the privations and hardships to which the Revolutionary soldiers were subjected.

After Mr. Sayre left the army he went to the city of New York, where he learned the carpenter's trade. On June 29, 1786, he was married to Miss Catherine Lewis, of that city, with whom he lived happily for upward of fifty-two years, until December 25, 1838, when she died at Hamilton, Ohio, aged seventy-five years. Mr. Sayre resided in New York city, and worked at his trade until 1790, when he removed to Uniontown. Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he re- sided until 1809, when he removed to the

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state of Ohio, and purchased a farm and tavern-stand in Butler county, seven miles from Hamilton, on the road leading to Mid- dletown. It was then known by the sign of the "Cross Keys." It had formerly been a celebrated tavern-stand and place of public meetings during the early settlement of the Miami valley, and had previously been kept by Andrew Christy. It was subsequently known as the Cummins' stand. Here Mr. Sayre resided and kept a house of entertain- ment for a few years, when he sold out to Abraham Miley, and removed to Cincin- nati, where he kept a tavern near the corner of Front and Walnut streets, at a sign of the "Green Tree." The property then be- longed to Isaac Anderson, a pioneer resident of Butler county. Afterward Mr. Sayre purchased a tract of land from Colonel James Clark, in Lemon township, Butler county, where he resided until 1814, when he sold out to John H. Piatt, of Cincinnati, who subsequently laid out the town of Mon- roe on the same premises.

In 1814 Mr. Sayre purchased of Jolin Sutherland lot No. 120 on Front street, be- tween Dayton and Stable streets, in the town of Hamilton, with the house thereon, and in the same year settled in Hamilton. He. however, resided but a few months in this house, when he removed to the old Tor- rence tavern-stand, situated on the corner of Dayton and Water streets. This house is still standing, and until recently was occupied as a residence by Henry S. Earhart. Here Mr. Sayre lived and kept a tavern for several years. In October, 1817, he was elected sheriff of Butler county for two years, and was re-elected two years later for a second term. He was succeeded in office by Samuel Millikin, who served four years, after which, in October, 1825, Mr. Sayre

was again a candidate for sheriff and was elected by a large majority. He served the further term of two years, making his whole term of office six years. Mr. Sayre was ap- pointed first collecter of tolls on the Miami canal. The office was then kept at the east end of the Hamilton basin. He held the office from March 1, 1828, until April 1, 1830. In 1835 he was appointed toll- gatherer for the bridge across the Miami river at Hamilton. He attended faithfully to the duties of that office from April I, 1835, until April 1, 1839. In 1820 Mr. Sayre contracted with the county commis- sioners to furnish the materials and build two public offices on the public square, one on the east and the other on the west side of the court house, which he completed the ensuing year, according to contract. They were at first built only one story high. An additional story was added some years after- ward, and the buildings continued to fulfill the requirements of the county for many years, or until the completion of the present court house in 1890, when they were torn away. Mr. Sayre was also the contractor for building the Female Academy situated on Water street, erected in 1834, and which is now employed by the city of Hamilton as the city building. The father of Pierson Sayre was Ezekiel Sayre. In the year 1788 he lived at Stony Hill, New Jersey. In Oc- tober, 1790, Ezekiel Sayre removed to Cin- cinnati. He afterward lived near Reading, Hamilton county, Ohio. His family con- sisted of himself and wife, with four sons and two daughters, viz. : Levi, John, Hulda, Pierson (the subject of this sketch), Benja- min (who was afterward a sheriff of War- ren county, Ohio), and Rachel. Pierson Sayre died April 4, 1852, at his home in Hamilton, in the ninety-first year of his age.

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JEREMIAH BUTTERFIELD

was born in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, March 4, 1776. When he was twelve years old his father removed to the state of New York. In 1797, young Butterfield, then twenty-one, left his home to seek his for- tune in the Far West. He traveled to Pitts- burgh, where he embarked on a flatboat and descended the Ohio river to Marietta. Here he remained during the winter in the fam- ily of Doctor Spencer. The next spring he started on board a flathoat down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, which was then but an inconsiderable village. He then proceeded on his voyage to Louisville and thence to Fort Massac, on the north bank of the Ohio river thirty-six miles above its mouth, in what is now the state of Illinois. Mr. But- terfield remained at Fort Massac only a short time; he purchased a piroque and, in com- pany with a Kentuckian, set out for St. Louis. They descended the Ohio to its mouth, and thence paddled their way up the Mississippi to the place of their destination. From St. Louis Mr. Butterfield went to St. Charles, a small village on the north side of the Missouri river, eighteen miles above its mouth, where he remained one year. Mr. Butterfield returned to St. Louis and from thence crossed the country, which is now the state of Illinois, to Vincennes, on the Wabash river. In passing the extensive prairies he encountered vast herds of buf- faloes. From Vincennes he went into the interior of Kentucky, where he remained three months, and there set out for the East. He went by the way of Philadelphia and ar- rived at his father's house in New York in the winter of 1799, having traveled nearly the whole of the several routes men-

tioned on foot, through a country then nearly destitute of roads, and inhabited prin- cipally by wild beasts and savages. Mr. Butterfield was now twenty-three years of age, old enough, as he thought, to take to himself a wife as a "helpmeet," or, at least, a sharer in his privations. He returned to the place of his nativity, in Massachusetts, and married Miss Polly Campbell, in the year 1800. Intending now to select-a place as a permanent residence for life, the fol- lowing winter he and his brother-in-law started on an exploring expedition into the Genesee country, in the western part of New York. After exploring the country he was not pleased with it, but told his com- panion that he would show them a "much superior country, a little further over the hills," meaning the Alleghany mountains; consequently they left their sleighs and pro- ceeded to Pittsburg, where they embarked on board of a flatboat and descended the Ohio river. They landed at Columbia, whence they went to Cincinnati, and went into the country to Colonel John Riddle's, two miles north of town, on the Hamilton road, where they engaged with him in har- vesting. Later Mr. Butterfield engaged with Israel Ludlow, as a chain carrier. Mr. Ludlow had accepted a contract to survey the boundary line between the United States and the Indian nations. as established by the treaty of Greenville, and he employed young Butterfield among others to assist him. They concluded the survey on August 3, 1795. The ensuing spring he visited and explored the valley of the Great Miami river, the bottom lands of which pleased him better than any he had before seen in the West. He, with five others, old Esquire Shaw. Knoles Shaw and Albin Shaw, his

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sons, Asa Harvey and Noah Willy, formed a company for the purpose of purchasing lands. The first sales of public lands west of the Great Miami river was at public ven- due in the town of Cincinnati, commencing on the first Monday in April, 1801. At this sale Mr. Butterfield and his company pur- chased two entire sections and two large fractional sections of land, containing nearly two thousand acres, on the west bank of the Great Miami river, beginning in Butler county, a short distance below the mouth of Indian creek, and extending about three miles down the river into Hamilton county. Nearly the whole of this tract of land is perfectly level, and all very rich and mel- low, capable of producing fine crops. It is situated near where the town of Venice has since been laid out in Butler county, and about eighteen miles from Cincinnati. This tract of land was divided among the six proprietors, according to the amount they had respectively paid, by lines extending back from the Miami river, so that each tract had a front on the river. The survey of the division of the land was made by Emanuel Vantrees. The portion which was assigned to Mr. Butterfield, and of which he became the owner, comprised about eight hundred acres, which constituted his farm. This tract of land, which he purchased of the gov- ernment in 1801 at two dollars and ten cents per acre, would probably now sell for more than eighty thousand dollars. It is yet in part in the possession of his de- scendants.

About the year 1805 or 1806 the neighborhood where Mr. Butterfield resided became infested with a band of outlaws, marauders and horsethieves, by whose dep- redations Mr. Butterfield suffered as well as

his neighbors. There was then no law that could easily reach them but lynch law. Mr. Butterfield associated himself with several others and formed a company for putting that law in force, and after considerable ex- ertion succeeded in exterminating them, or driving them from the country. Several of them were shot.

In the winter of 1819 Mr. Butterfield drove a large number of hogs through the woods from the neighborhood where he re- sided to Detroit, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles. After days of toil and hardship he arrived safely at Detroit, sold his hogs to an advantage and returned home with his saddle-bags full of money. Three times he shipped live hogs from his own door, on board of flatboats, down the Miami, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and from there shipped them to the island of Cuba. He always went with them himself. In the year 1828 he was shipwrecked on the coast of Cuba. Before he would leave the sinking vessel Mr. But- terfield cut open the pens containing the hogs, which were on deck, and let them into the sea. They nearly all swam to the shore, so that he lost but few. He sold his hogs at twelve dollars per hundred weight, weigh- ing them alive, so that notwithstanding he was shipwrecked and had to pay three dol- lars and a half duty on each hog he made a profitable voyage.

Such is a brief outline of the history and character of this early settler of the Miami - country. He was every way fitted for pioneer life and the toil and hardships which he had to encounter. What would have been the situation of our country had it not been for such men as Mr. Butterfield, who prepared it for the rising generations!

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God forbid that their names should be for- gotten.

Jeremiah Butterfield died at his resi- dence near Venice on June 27, 1853, aged seventy-seven years. He raised a family of eight children, who all arrived at ma- turity and all of them but one, who was pre- viously deceased, were present at the funeral of their father. A large circle of neighbors and friends were also in attendance to testify by their presence their respect for the aged man. He was buried on his own land, on the left-hand side of the road leading from Venice to New Haven, about half a mile be- low Venice, where a plain, upright marble slab marks the resting place of the remains of the aged pioneer.

ISAAC PAXTON

was born in Essex county, New Jersey, Feb- ruary 21, 1770. His parents were poor, but respectable people. At an early age he went to learn the trade of a silversmith, at which he continued till he was twenty-one years of age. Hearing reports of the fine country of Kentucky and the far West, he set out in 1791, by way of Pennsylvania, intending to go west, but the accounts of the Indian hostilities caused him to change his course, and he went to Staunton. Virginia, where he worked at his trade for about a year.

In the summer of 1792 Isaac Paxton took the bounty, and enlisted as a private soldier in the rifle company of Captain Al- exander Gibson. of General Anthony Wayne's command, organized to operate against the Indians, and to retrieve the dis- astrous defeat suffered by St. Clair's army in 1791. The troops composing the new or- ganization of the army were denominated "The Legion of the United States." The

winter of 1792-3 was passed in camp at a point on the north side of the Ohio river, nineteen miles below Pittsburg, and was strongly fortified and named Legionville. On April 30, 1793. General Wayne broke up his garrison at Legionville, embarked on board their boats, with the troops in good order, and set off for Fort Washington. The voyage was made without any accident, and the army arrived at Cincinnati on the 5th of May, and an encampment was made on the north bank of the Ohio river, below the then village of Cincinnati, between that and the mouth of Mill creek. Fort Wash- ington stood on the bank of the river im- mediately above the village. Both situations are now included within the bounds of the city of Cincinnati. To that encampment Wayne gave the name of "Hobson's Choice," it being the only place in that vi- cinity suited for the object intended.

On October 7. 1793, General Wayne broke up his encampment at "Hobson's Choice," and took up his line of march for the Indian country. The first day they marched about ten miles and encamped. The second day. October 8th, they reached Fort Hamilton, and encamped in the upper part of a prairie, about half a mile below where High street in Hamilton is now lo- cated. All the level bottom between the pond and the Miami river was then a beauti- ful natural prairie covered with a luxuriant growth of grass. Here they threw up an em- bankment of earth to protect the encamp- ment from surprise. the remains of which could be traced a few years ago, at the point where the road from Front street, in Ham- ilton. leading down the Miami river. ap- proaches the river. The army remained but one night at Hamilton, and the next day,

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October 9th, moved forward into the heart of the Indian country. General Wayne, it seems, was determined not to tread in the footsteps of General St. Clair, but opened a new road for the march of his army. They crossed the Miami river above where the city of Hamilton now is, and some distance above the mouth of Four-Mile creek, which was then at the junction of Old and New rivers. (The channel of New river had not then been formed.) They pursued their march up the bottom, on the north side of the creek, to the Five-Mile spring, five miles in advance of Fort Hamilton. The spring is on the east side of the Hamilton and Seven-Mile turnpike, and the place was aft- erward known as the spring and residence of Captain John Hamilton. In recent years the place has been owned by the Walker heirs and until lately was occupied by the late 'Squire James W. Walker. The army fortified their camp every night, and were very vigilant. The 10th of October (their fourth day) the march continued; they crossed Nine-Mile creek near where the late Samuel Davis, Esq., formerly lived, and passed where the north line of Butler county now is, about three miles east of the present site of Somerville, and encamped at what they called the Seventeen-Mile tree-seven- teen miles in advance of Fort Hamilton. Here Captain Alexander Gibson's company, to which Isaac Paxton belonged, was de- tailed as part of a guard, under the com- mand of Colonel Strong, to proceed in ad- vance and protect the road cutters. On Oc- tober IIth the army moved forward, and each day made tolerable quick progress un- til on the 14th they came to a beautiful situ- ation on the bank of Greenville creek. Here they strongly fortified their encampment.

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 127

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1149

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149