Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 41

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 41

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Early in 1891 the propriety of celebrat- ing the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Hamilton was suggested. Later a public meeting of the citizens was called for July 10, at 7:30, to take steps to that end. Thomas Millikin, Esq., was elected chairman and F. D. Bristley, secre- tary. It was resolved that the chairman select five prominent citizens, and they, with the chairman, select a committee of twenty- five, to be known as the centennial committee and to have charge and management of the celebration. Mr. Millikin selected as that committee : Captain W. C. Margedant. Joseph J. Pater, Israel Williams, John F. Neilan and George T. Reiss. They selected the following named persons to constitute the centennial committee :

First Ward-W. C. Margedant, S. L. Beeler. Rev. E. W. Abbey. F. D. Bristly, H. C. Gray.

Second Ward-Thomas Millikin. Chris- tian Pabst. Rev. Francis F. Varelman, Peter Schwab, Lazard Kahn.

Third Ward-Israel Williams, Thomas V. Howell, Robert Allstatter, Charles I. Keely. William C. Frechtling.

Fourth Ward-John F. Neilan, L. M. Larsh, W. Z. Kumler. Joseph J. Pater. Fred C. Mayer.

Fifth Ward-George T. Reiss. R. C. Mckinney. Max Reutti. W. B. Carr.

Afterward. the following finance com- mittee was added : Charles E. McBeth. Rob- ert M. Elliott. Henry P. Deuscher, L. M. Larsh. George W. Stace and William Her- man.

The following committees were ap- pointed at various times :

Historical and Literary Committee- Thomas Millikin, Dr. Cyrus Falconer. Rev. E. W. Abbey. James W. See, Israel Wil- liams, chairman.

Committee on Transportation-Thomas V. Howell, chairman, William Beckett. Peter Schwab.

Committee on Invitation-L. M. Larsh, chairman. John F. Neilan, George T. Reiss.

Committee on Printing-John F. Nei- lan, chairman, Israel Williams, F. D. Brist- ley.

Committee on Music-Fred C. Mayer, John L. Gottschalk. William Huber, Henry Herrmann. Joseph J. Pater. Robert All- statter.

Captain W. C. Margedant was elected commander-in-chief of the parade, with power to select staff and appoint the com- manders of divisions, who were authorized to appoint their own aids.

The celebration was commenced at sun- rise, Thursday, September 17. by the firing of thirteen guns, in commemoration of the number of states in the union at the time of the location of Fort Hamilton by General Arthur St. Clair.

In the afternoon an address by Judge Joseph Cox. of Cincinnati, was delivered on the "History of Hamilton and the North - west Territory." Short addresses were made by the following gentlemen: Hon. Calvin S. Brice. United States senator of Ohio; Hon. William McKinley, candidate for governor of Ohio.

At sunrise, Friday, September 18th, forty-four guns were fired in commemo- ration of the number of states then in the union.

At 6:30 o'clock A. M. a grand band con-

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cert was held at the court house, under su- pervision of F. C. Mayer; George Schwein- fest, director.

After the concert a public meeting of citizens was organized with Hon. Thomas Millikin, chairman. Addresses were then made by the following distinguished gen- tlemen selected for that purpose :

Introduction-Historical, J. F. Neilan. Opening Address, Thomas Millikin.

"Hamilton, 1891," Hon. L. M. Larsh, mayor of Hamilton.

"The Miami Valley, 1891." Judge Samuel F. Hunt, Glendale, Ohio.

"The State of Ohio, 1891," Governor James E. Campbell, Hamilton, Ohio.

"The United States, 1891," Rev. W. O. Thompson, D. D., president of Miami Uni- versity, Oxford, Ohio.

"The World, 1891," General Samuel F. Carey, College Hill, Ohio.

"The Future, Prophetic," Rev. E. W. Abbey, Hamilton, Ohio.

"Hamilton in the Wars," H. L. Morey.

On Saturday, September 19th, the exer- cises were varied and magnificent in char- acter, commencing at sunrise by the firing of one hundred guns by Captain Moses Klein's gun squad, in commemoration of the illustrious progress made by this community during the past century.

In front of the court house, the grand- est parade ever witnessed in Hamilton was reviewed by Governor James E. Campbell, and the last grand pageant of the centennial had passed into history.

The magnificent display of fire-works began promptly at 7:30 that evening. Every vantage ground in the city and on the sur- rounding hill tops was crowded with peo- ple. The base of the pyrotechnic display was located on part of the site of old Fort Ham- ilton at the foot of High street, while the late Capt. William C. Margedant was omnipresent and gave much personal super- vision to the exhibition. The program as carried out was one of bewildering beauty and effect.

MIDDLETOWN.

BY W. H. TODHUNTER.

LOCATION AND LAYING OUT OF TOWN.

The now city of Middletown had its beginning in the center part of fractional section 28, town 2, range 4, between the Miami rivers. This section has become one of the most important in the county by rea- son of the many small subdivisions and mul- titudinous transfers of title. Steven Vail entered upon and obtained a patent from the federal government for the whole of the north half of said section 28, save and except

sixty-one acres, to come evenly off the north side of said section, which was patented by his son Shobal. Richard Watts was granted a patent for one hundred acres in the south- west corner of the section. Daniel Doty se- cured title to one hundred and twenty acres in the center part, and Moses Vail, a son of Steven, was made the original owner of one hundred acres in the southeast corner of sec- tion 28. The south line of Steven Vail's entry was the half section line, which passes east and west near the Lutheran church, in

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front of what is called the "old wax string factory," corner of Fifth and Canal streets and along the north line of the Central school grounds.

On the west side of this entry and along the line of the river Steven Vail laid out the original town plat, containing fifty-two lots and extending from the north line of the section to Fourth street, and from Water street on the west (now used for the hy- draulic) to East alley-the alley be- tween Main and Broad streets. This tract so platted contained about one hundred acres, which acreage included lands lying between Water street and the river, which were not platted, numbered or surveyed. On this irregular and river-in- dented tract of land the mills of the city largely stand. F. V. Doty, a great-grand- son of Steven Vail and now city engineer. has the original writing and plat of the first plan of the city. It is probably the oldest paper, in date, connected with the history of Middletown. Today the city extends over the whole of section 28, parts of sec- tions 22, 27, 29, 33 and 34. The corporate limits include some fifteen hundred acres and the numbered lots run up to 3.954. The last lots are found in Wilmac addition, just laid out by Robert Wilson and Daniel Mc- Calley.

Middletown stood as an unincorporated hamlet or village until 1833, when the legis- lature, on the 11th day of February, passed an act of incorporation, and on the Ist day of April of that year an election for council- men and village officers was held, resulting in the choice of the following persons : Mayor, I. T. Gibson; recorder, F. J. Tytus ; trustees, D. Leibee, H. Vail, J. R. Russell, S. Vail and George L. Wrenn. The follow- ing are the men who have served as mayors

of Middletown : I. T. Gibson, Hugh Alex- ander, Newton Thompson, James Cook, N. H. Chenoworth, J. G. W. Leadman, Isaac Robison, David Wolverton, H. P. K. Peck, James H. McCurry, H. P. Clough, L. D. Doty, P. M. Russell, Samuel B. Holmes, Charles Richardson, S. E. Bowman, P. P. LaTourett, R. D. Booth, W. B. Hedding. James Johnston, William Armstrong, N. R. Bennett, Daniel Bowman, S. W. Margerum. John McClellan, F. S. Tansey and L. P. Smith.

Middletown grew and waxed strong, but did not move to be advanced from the rank of a village to the position of a city under the statutes of the state from 1833 to 1886. On February 12th of the last-named year. the preliminary steps having been taken, an election was held, at which the people were asked to vote on the question of advancing from the rank of village to that of a city. The vote cast was small and resulted as fol- lows: Total vote, 1.275; against the propo- sition, 465: majority in favor, 810. On April 6, 1886, the action of the electors was confirmed by the county and city boards, as was required by law. As early as pos- sible the ordinances of the city were made to conform to the needs of this change in legal status. In the spring of 1888 the city published in book form, for the first time in its history, all the ordinances governing the municipality. John McClellan was city solicitor and attended to the legal part of this work. In the spring of 1887 steps were taken to divide the new city into wards. Four such divisions were then made and a city board of equalization was named for the first time, the duty of which board was to equalize tax values and to seek out property not revealed on the tax duplicate.

In June, 1879, the legislature authorized

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the city to issue bonds and erect a city building; in August of that year the people voted on the proposition of issuing nine thousand dollars in bonds to erect such a building. This the people, by their votes, sustained and the building was soon erected on a lot situated on the east side of Broad- way, between Second and Third streets. It is a good, substantial, two-story brick house, in which are accommodated all the depart- ments of the city government. It is now too small and a new and more modern building is needed and must soon come.

In October, 1902. the general assembly passed a new municipal code, made neces- sary by the sweeping decisions of the su- preme court issued in June of that year and prior thereto, which wiped out all classifica- tion of cities and led up to an entire re- adjustment of municipal administration. In the spring of 1903 Middletown held her first election under the new code and she now en- joys her boards of public service. public safety, sinking fund and tax commissions, and common council. all. arranged and car- ried out on the "federal plan" as nearly as possible. The first election under the new code resulted in the selection of the fol- lowing named officers: Mayor, S. F. Tansy ; auditor, N. G. Oglesby ; treasurer. W. T. Harrison: solicitor. Ben Harwitz. The councilmen are seven in number, one from cach of the four wards and three "at large." James V. Bonnell was chosen presi- dent of the council. V. C. Hatfield. Wendle Butterfield and W. H. Davis were elected as members of the board of public service. The new government went into place easily, but with some misgivings: the result has been satisfactory, but it will entail increased cost and expense.

Middletown has steadily and safely ad- vanced during the past century, but at no time rapidly or with boom-like strides. Today she rejoices in her population of twelve thousand honest. enterprising, in- dustrious people, and shows at this writing a tax duplicate of five million five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with a tax rate of two dollars and ninety cents on the hundred dollars valuation, with several miles of paved streets, an ample system of sanitary sewerage and a complete water supply.

EARLY DAYS.

The history of the first days of the Mid- dletown settlement invites the careful and painstaking student and the ready pen of one having a wide knowledge of the pio- neers, their families and of the early times in which they lived and acted. Amid ma- terial so full of interest, it is very difficult to select salient facts and about these con- dense a narrative which will be at once in- teresting, attractive and reasonable. Much of such a story must come from the tradi- tions of men and families in some way con- nected with the men and women who first made settlement in this part of the Miami country. The written records are few, and the pioneers are all dead; it is no easy task to sift. revise and compare the oral state- ments of the survivors and descendants of these early settlers, and then deduce a nar- rative that clearly presents the facts as they existed more than a century ago.

The statements now given and the story now told may be somewhat disconnected and wanting in chronological sequence, yet the whole is drawn from the best and most re- liable sources, and the story is written after a careful survey of the field and it is be-

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lieved to be as accurate as the history of the first days of the Middletown colony can be made.

Middletown is situated in the valley of the Great Miami, in the populous county of Butler, which was at the time of this nar- rative a part of Hamilton county, with Cin- cinnati as its county seat.

Middletown is about two or three miles north of the north line of the famous Sym- mes Purchase, the north line of which meets the Great Miami river at the mouth of Dick's creek, just south from the famous Excello Paper Mills. This town is said to have been so named by Mr. Steven Vail be- cause he believed the location midway be- tween the mouth of the river and its most northerly limit of navigation.

Middletown is found in the midst of a very rich part of the valley, devoted to varied agriculture and tilled by intelligent and suc- cessful farmers who now live on farms as well improved as are any in the great Buck- eye state.

The first white man to visit the Middle- town county was Daniel Doty, of Essex county, New Jersey, who journeyed to these western wilds by way of Pittsburg and the Ohio river. in 1790. He touched the several military posts on the Ohio, arriving at Co- lumbia, near the mouth of the Little Miami, and not far from Fort Washington, in the latter part of that year. After a short stay at this fort he traveled north along the Little Miami to Warren county, having read of the great Miami country in his eastern home. He started west toward this county alone, fired by an earnest desire to found a new home, to which he might soon bring his wife and family. Mr. Doty reached the Great Miami at this point, some time in 1791 and put up a small cabin close

to its east bank in what is now fractional section 34, on a tract of land now owned by Wilson and McCallay. He remained here for some little time, exploring the county in the vicinity, which he found to be level and fertile and largely a prairie country, covered with smaller timber, and but little plagued with Indians and their bloody massacres. His visit and examin- ation caused him to decide that here he would make his home and to this point re- move his family.

In 1792 he returned to his home in New Jersey, by way of New Orleans, and in 1795 he returned to the Ohio county with his family and belongings. Leaving his family with settlers on the Little Miami, he and his older son came to the place of his first cabin, which had been washed away by the floods. .A second cabin was at once constructed on higher ground and back further from the line of the river, but not far from the site of the first cabin. The well dug near this cabin home is extant today. To this cabin he moved his wife and family in 1796 and here he was joined in the spring of 1797 by Moses Potter and his wife Rhoda, Abner Enoch, Garrett Vanness and probably Aaron and Shobal Vail, all of whom were New Jersey people.

Moses Potter and his associates speedily erected a cabin north of Mr. Doty's, at a point near where Tenth street now inter- sects Main street. This cabin was hurried forward so as to receive an expected stranger, who came as a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Potter on April 2. 1797. She was the first white child born in this new settle- ment. She was named Jane Potter and was destined, as we shall see, to take a potential part in the destinies of this new colony.

From this little group of settlers Middle-

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town had its beginnings. Hosts of their de- scendants are here unto this day. The early settlers at this point were annoyed but little by the savage Indians, and were not spec- tators of the awful tortures inflicted in other parts not far away.

Mr. Doty soon moved his home to a still more elevated site in section 27, near where his grandson, Joseph C. Doty, now resides at the intersection of Yankee road and Wood- side avenue. In this section and in sections 28 and 33 he made large entries of land and began his useful, industrious and courageous career. His family scattered, some going to homes of their own at other points. His son, Daniel C. Doty, was born here in 1799 and was here married to Catherine Crane. to whom was born a large family, members of which still reside near Middletown. Daniel C. Doty became a brickmaker and had much to do with the upbuilding of Mid- dletown. Both he and his wife lived to an advanced age and lie buried in the Middle- town cemetery.

Moses Potter moved from his first cabin and made his entries in section 21, a little to the east of Mr. Doty's home-here he established himself as a farmer and brought up his family. members of which have been and are yet a part of Middletown.

Jane Potter, born in the first cabin of Moses Potter, became the wife of John Sutphin, a keen, bright New Jersey boy, who came to this county in 1811, a weaver by trade, but with such powers and pur- poses as to be able to adapt himself to new situations and take hold of new things, which promised more material returns than weaving. In 1825 and 1827 he became in- terested in the opening and construction of the Miami canal, and was for more than

twenty years superintendent of the southern end of this canal. Farming, business and other interests engaged his attention and led to the accumulation of a handsome es- tate. Mr. and Mrs. Sutphin reared nine children, four of whom are now living and are in Middletown.

At the times of which mention is now made this Miami county was not surveyed or mapped. Israel Ludlow, a famous en- gineer, made an accurate and full survey and divided it into sections in 1802. This immediate territory was in the great pur- chase as made by Mr. Symmes, but which contract he was not able to consummate in full with the general government.

Among the first settlers was Steven Vail and his large family of sons and daughters. These were all New Jersey people. Mr. Vail was born October 19, 1739, and was married three times, his first wife living but a short while after the marriage. Her name was Rebecca Jackson. To Mr. Vail were born ten children, who grew to maturity and were a part of this new settlement. These were Samuel and Moses, whose mother was Sarah Smith Vail, and Rebecca, Shobal, Aaron, Sarah, Rachael, Hugh. Mary and Catherine, children of Mary Fitz- gerald Vail. These were all potential in the social, industrial, educational and moral de- velopment of Middletown. Mr. Vail was reared in the Quaker faith and his children drank in this pure faith in their father's home and its influence was noticed in the bearing and conduct of all during their lives. No family connected with the early days of this settlement made a more kindly im- pression on men and measures than did these Quaker folks.

It is probable that in the plans made in

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the New Jersey home of the Vails, it was decided that the sons, Shobal and Aaron, should come to this place a little in advance of the father. Steven, and that they were actually here before he arrived, for it may be noted that Shobal was married to Miss Mary Bonnell, of Warren county. in 1799, a year before Steven Vail arrived, accord- ing to best authority. Mrs. Shobal Vail was a sister of Samuel Bonnell, an early set- tler in this new county, and was a very lively lady, full of jokes and fun, an ex- actly opposite of her Quaker husband. They lived and reared their family in a home situ- ated on the sixty-one acres patented by Mr. Vail and coming off the north side of sec- tion 28. The house was located where the Catholic Sisters now have their home, on Clark and Crane streets.

Aaron and Randal Vail began their careers on the west side of the Miami. Aaron subsequently went to Warren county. Others of the children after marriage drifted to nearby points, but Hugh, the youngest, remained in Middletown and out of lands bought and inherited added important ad- ditions and improvements to the town and was more a part of the new and advancing community than any other of the children. This new town had no better citizen. He was twice married. Miss Lydia Webster, of Monroe, Ohio, came to his home first and latter Mrs. Jane Porter, of South Carolina, became his wife. His daughter, Lydia J., married L. D. Doty and still lives in this city, while the daughter Ida lives in or near Chicago with her daughter, Lulu Flenner. Ida became the wife of C. F. Gunckel, who is now dead.

Garrett Vanness, another of the group of pioneers who came in 1797, made his en-

tries of land in section 18, and of which en- tries the farm of A. M. Jewell forms a part. These lands were located in the neighbor- hood of the Abner Enoch titles, and are near the present state dam. Here Mr. Vaness opened up valuable land holdings, which. descending to his children, John. Isaac and Lucy, made them all well-to-do. He was a man of a high type of manhood. His son Isaac married Harriet, a daughter of Shobal Vail, and in his business career became a contractor, interested in the con- struction of the canal. Isaac Vanness and two daughters, Lucy and Mary. The first is now living in this city and is known to all as Mrs. Lucy Hinkel, while her sister, Mrs. Heaton, is dead.

This brief mention of the earliest settlers is due them and their families, for to them must be accorded much praise, as to their courage, thought and thrift much is due.

Almost contemporaneous with the above named persons came Ezekiel Ball and An- thony Noble, who stood in the community as worthy citizens and gave much good ad- vice as magistrates, and made transfers of real estate and advised with administrators and like trustees. We learn early .in the nineteenth century of John Freeman, Mark Dixon, Jonathan Martin, Jonathan Tullis, David Enyart, James Heaton, civil engineer and who had to do with early surveys, John P. Reynolds, a cultured, scholarly man, Dr. Vanderveer, Dr. Campbell, and Dr. Carlton Waldo, the first regular physician to locate here. All these were men of sterling worth and their energies and good sense had much to do in the early formation period of Mid- dletown's history.

Still later came Dr. Samuel Hyndman, R. H. Hendrickson. John L. Martin, F. J.

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Tytus, W. B. Oglesby, George W. Wrenn, Smith Wrenn, George C. Barnitz, Dr. C. S. Barnitz, Jacob Deardorff, A. E. Harding, Joseph Sutphin, Gardner Phipps, A. Hill, William More, William Sebald, John R. Shafor, James P. Cecil, Edward Jones, Joseph L. Kelly, C. F. Gunkle. L. D. Doty. Jacob Leibe, Thomas Wilson and others now deceased who were giants, nay Titans, in the days in which they lived and acted. They were men who thought, planned and executed and the town is largely what these men made it. The foregoing names are a guarantee that the foundations of the early and middle life of the city were laid on principles representative of the future and of the interests of their posterity. It would be a pleasure and be profitable to speak in- dividually of each person and their work, but this is forbidden in a sketch like this.

But with rapid transportation, quick in- terchange by mail, wire and telephone came a new era, with new demands, new energies, new problems; new men were needed in the city's growth; they came from city and farm, from the schools and colleges; and new Middletown fell into the hands of such mas- ter spirits as Simon Goldman, C. H. Ward- low, J. K. Thomas, Daniel McCallay, Rob- ert Wilson, John Auer, T. C. Simpson, C. B. Johnson, W. L. Dechant, William Caldwell, Joseph Isaminger, Frank Forster, Colin Gardner, C. B. Oglesby, M. W. Rennick, V. C. Hatfield, George Shaffor, G. A. Wilmer, George W. Verity, Paul J. Sorg and others. These with the exception of one or two of the number, recently deceased, are all now active and potential in the affairs of Middle- town, directing her forces on industrial, economic, educational and public lines.

Associated with all these generations of

men have been some of the grandest women known in the history of Ohio, who have al- ways courageously and faithfully sustained the fathers and husbands in the development of the new country, and in their progress through the century now passed away, these noble women have guided the home, led in school and church life and, when needed, stood beside the sturdy pioneer with the rifle and with their hands wrought in field and mill for the family growing up in the home. Without these splendid women the whole fabric must have gone down in failure. It would be a pleasant task to make mention of these mothers in Israel but the limits of this sketch forbids.

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 41

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