Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 54

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

USA > Ohio > Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I > Part 54

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Early Events .- The first settlers of Hamil- ton suffered much from the fever and ague, and, being principally disbanded soldiers, without energy, and many of them dissipated, but little improvement was made for the first few years. In those early times horse-racing was a favorite amusement, and an affair of all-engrossing interest. On public days, in-

decd on almost every other Saturday, the streets and commons in the upper part of the town were converted into race-paths. The race-course comprehended the common from Second to Fourth street. At Second street, a short distance north of the site of the Cath- olic church, was an elevated scaffold, on which stood the judges of the race. On grand occasions the plain within the course and near it was occupied with booths erected with forks and covered with boughs. Here every- thing was said, done, eaten, sold, and drank. Here was Black Jack with his fiddle, and his votaries making the dust fly with a four- handed, or rather four-footed reel ; and every fifteen or twenty minutes was a rush to some part to see a "fisticuff." Among the bustling crowd of jockeys were assembled all classes. Even judges of the court mingled with the crowd, and sometimes presided at the contests of speed between the ponies of the neighborhood.

Soon after the formation of Butler county Hamilton was made the county-seat. The first sessions of the court were held in the tavern of Mr. Torrence, now the residence of Henry S. Earhart. The sessions of the court after this were held in the former mess-room of the fort. It was a rough one-story frame building, about forty by twenty feet, weather- boarded, without either filling or plastering, and stood about where the market now is. It was elevated from the ground about three feet by wooden blocks, affording a favorite shelter for the hogs and sheep of the village. The judge's seat was a rough platform of un- planed boards, and a long table in front, like a carpenter's work-bench, was used by the bar. In 1810 the court was removed to a room over the stone jail, and in 1817 trans- ferred to the present court-house.

The court, at their July term, in 1803, selected the old magazine within the fort as a county jail. It was a heavy-built log build- ing, about twelve feet square, with a hipped roof coming to a common centre, and sur- mounted by a ball. The door had a hole in the centre shaped like a half-moon, through which air, light, and food were conveyed, while on the outside it was secured by a pad- lock and hasp. It was very insecure, and escapes were almost as frequent as com- mittals. It was the only jail for Butler county from 1803 to 1809. A small log-house, formerly a sutler's store, was used as a clerk's office. It has since been altered into a pri- vate dwelling, at present occupied by Dutch Jacob. The house erected by Gen. Wilkin- son in 1792 for officers' quarters (see a plan of fort) was converted into a tavern kept by the county sheriff, William M'Clennan, while the barracks and artificers' shops were used as stables.

HAMILTON IN 1846 .- The large and flourishing town of Hamilton, the county- seat, is twenty-two miles north of Cincinnati, on the left bank of the Great Miami. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Episcopal, 1 Methodist, 1 German Lutheran, 1 Associate Reformed, 1 Baptist, and 1 Catholic church, a flourishing female academy,

THE BUTLER COUNTY COURT-HOUSE, HAMILTON

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BUTLER COUNTY.

2 newspaper printing-offices, 3 flouring-mills, 3 cotton-factories, 3 saw-mills, 2 foundries, 2 machine-shops, and about 16 mercantile stores. In 1840 its popula- tion was 1,409, since which it has considerably increased. Hamilton is destined to be an important manufacturing town. The hydraulic works lately built here rank among the best water-powers west of the Alleghenies. This work is formed

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846.

PUBLIC SQUARE, HAMILTON.

[The new and very elegant court-house occupies the site of the one shown above.]

by a canal, commencing at the Big Miami, four miles above the town, and empty ing into the river near the bridge at Hamilton. By it a very great amount of never-failing water-power has been created. It is durably constructed, and is adding much to the business of the community. Hamilton is neatly built, and ha: an elegant public square, on which stand the county buildings; it is enclosed by an iron fence, handsomely covered with green turf, and shaded by locusts and

WERY

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846.

VIEW OF ROSSVILLE FROM HAMILTON.

[Rossville no longer exists as a separate town, and is now a part of Hamilton. An elegant wire sus- pension bridge has taken the place of the old wood structure.]

other ornamental trees. A noble bridge, erected at the expense of about $25,000, connects this town with its neighbor, Rossville, on the opposite bank of the Miami, which the engraving shows as it appears from the market in Hamilton. Rossville is also a flourishing place, superior to Hamilton as a mercantile town as that is as a manufacturing one. This arises from the circumstance that it is more convenient to the greater proportion of the farmers of the county who reside on that side of

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BUTLER COUNTY.

the Miami. It contains 1 Presbyterian and 1 Baptist church, 1 flouring-mill, about 18 mercantile stores, and had in 1840 1,140 inhabitants. Its population has since increased .- Old Edition.

HAMILTON in a bee-line is about twenty miles north of Cincinnati, but by rail- road the distance is twenty-five miles. It is situated on both sides of the Great Miami river, and is in the line of the C. H. & D., C. R. & C., and C. H. & I. railroads. The Miami and Erie canal passes through here. Hamilton is the county-seat, and has one of the most magnificent court-houses in the State. It stands on the site of the old court-house shown in the engraving. -

The county officers in 1888 : Probate Ludge, W. H. Harr ; Clerk of Court, A. J. Welliver; Sheriff, Isaac Rogers; Prosecuting Attorney, C. J. Smith ; Auditor, Richard Brown ; Treasurer, W. M. Boyd ; Recorder, Robert M. Elliott; Sur- veyor, John C. Weaver ; Coroner, Thomas B. Talbott ; Commissioners, Frederick Berk, William Murphy, M. B. Hatch.

Newspapers : News, non-partisan, C. M. Campbell, publisher ; Herald, Demo- cratie, daily, J. H. Lang, publisher ; Butler County Democrat, Democratic, J. K. Aydelotte, publisher ; National Zeitung, German Democratic, L. B. De Le Court ; Telegraph, Republican, C. M. Campbell, publisher. Churches : 2 Methodist, 1 Baptist, 1 Universalist, 1 Episcopalian, 1 Presbyterian, 1 United Presbyterian, 1 Congregational, 1 Lutheran, 1 Irish and 2 German Catholic. Banks: First National, Philip Hughes, president, John B. Cornell, cashier ; Second National, William E. Brown, president, Charles E. Heiser, cashier.

Manufactures and Employees .- The A. Fisher Manufacturing Co., canned goods, etc., 255 hands ; Gordon & Maxwell Steam Pump Co., 156 ; The Niles Tool Co., machine tools, 475 ; Louis Snider's Sons Co., paper, 149; Hamilton Tile Works, art tile, 31 ; The Ritchie & Dyer Co., engines and saw mills, 28 ; Martin Bare, agricultural implements, 48; C. H. Zwick & Co., hosiery, 127; Anderson & Shaffer, flour barrels, 11; W. B. Brown & Co., corn meal, 5; Sohn & Rentschler, iron castings, 75 ; The Phoenix Caster Co., casters, 44 ; The Black & Clawson Co., paper mill machinery, 123 ; The Long & Allstatter Co., agricultural implements, 210; Beckett, Laurie & Co., paper, 71; H. P. Denscher, iron castings, 77; Carr & Brown, flour, etc., 25 ; The Sohn Ridge Implement Co., agricultural implements, 39 ; Davidson & Doellmann, steam boilers, 14; The Hoover, Owens & Rentschler Co., engines, etc., 170 ; Bentel, Margedant & Co., wood-working machinery, 78 ; J. F. Bender Bros. & Co., builders' wood-work, 33; Schuler & Benninghof- fen, paper felts, blankets, etc., 68 ; The Sortman & Bulen Co., furniture, 34 ; J. H. Stephan & Son, hubs, spokes, etc. ; Semler & Co., flour, etc. ; The Stephan-Hughes Manufacturing Co., flour-mill machinery ; P. Burns & Co., plows, wagons, etc., 15 ; John Donges & Co., bent wood, spokes, etc., 17 ; Anderson & Shaffer, flour, etc., 13 ; Charles F. Eisel, builders' wood-work, 11 ; L. Deinzer & Son, bent wood-work, 9; L. & F. Kahn & Bros., stoves, etc., 160 .- State Report 1887. Population in 1880, 12,122. School census in 1886, 4,777 ; Lonis R. Klemm, superintendent.

. The manufacture of malt, distilling and brewing are great industries here ; the malt aggregates during the season about half a million of bushels ; the Hamilton Distilling Company has a daily capacity of 2,500 bushels of corn and pays an annual tax of nearly a million. l'eter Schawb's famous brewery turns out annu- ally 30,000 barrels of beer.

JOHN CLEVES SYMMES, the author of the "Theory of Concentric Spheres, demonstrating that the Earth is hollow, habitable within, and widely open about the Poles," died at Hamilton, May 28, 1829. He was born in New Jersey, 1780. His father, Timothy Symmes, was the brother of John Cleves Symmes, well known as the founder of the first settlements of the Miami valley. In the early part of his life he received a common-school education, and in 1802 was commis- sioned an ensign in the army. In 1813 he was promoted to a captaincy, in which capacity he served until the close of the war with honor. He was in the hard- fought battle of Bridgewater, and at the sortie of Fort Erie, where with his com-

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mand he captured a battery, and personally spiked the cannon. At the close of the war he retired from the army and for about three years was engaged in fur- nishing supplies to the troops stationed on the upper Mississippi. After this, he resided for a number of years at Newport Ky., and devoted himself to philo- sophical researches connected with his favorite theory. In a short circular, dated at St. Louis, in 1818, Capt. Mr. Glaces Pycuret Symmes first promulgated the funda- mental principles of his theory to the world. In this he said, " I ask for J. C. SYMMES' SIGNATURE. 100 brave companions, well equipped, to start from Siberia in the fall with reindeer and sleighs, on the ice of the frozen sea; I engage we find a warm and rich land stocked with thrifty vegeta- bles and animals, if not men, on reaching one degree north of the latitude of eighty-two degrees. We will return in the succeeding spring."

From time to time, he published various articles in the public prints upon the subject. He also delivered lectures, first at Cincinnati in 1820, and afterwards in various places in Kentucky and Ohio, and also in all the Eastern cities.

In the year 1822 Capt. Symmes petitioned Congress, setting forth, in the first place, his belief of the existence of a habitable and accessible concave to this globe; his desire to embark on a voyage of discovery to one or other of the polar regions ; his belief in the great profit and honor his country would derive from such a dis- covery ; and prayed that Congress would equip and fit out for the expedition two vessels of 250 or 300 tons burthen; and grant such other aid as government might deem necessary to promote the object.

This petition was presented in the Senate by Col. Richard M. Johnson, a member from Kentucky, on the 7th day of March, 1822, when (a motion to refer it to the Committee of Foreign Relations having failed), after a few remarks, it was laid on the table-Ayes, 25. In December, 1823, he forwarded similar petitions to both houses of Congress, which met with a similar fate. In January, 1824, he peti- tioned the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, praying that body to pass a resolution approbatory of his theory, and to recommend him to Congress for an outfit suitable to the enterprise. This memorial was presented by Micajah T. Williams, and, on motion, the further consideration thereof was indefinitely postponed.

J. C. SYMMES' MONUMENT.

He advanced many plausible and ingenious arguments, and won quite a number of converts among those who attended his lectures, one of whom, Mr. James McBride, wrote a work , in its support, published in Cincinnati in 1826, in which he stated his readiness to em- bark on a voyage of discovery, for the pur- pose of testing its truth.

Capt. Symmes met with the usual fate of projectors, in living and dying in great pe- cuniary embarrassment. In person, he was of the medium stature and simple in his manners. He bore the character of an honest, exemplary man, and was much respected. He was buried with military honors in the old burying ground at Hamilton. His son Americus put up there a monument to his memory surmounted with a hollow globe open at the poles, and with suitable inscriptions. It is standing to this day in the public square. Thirty years later Americus be- lieved in his father's theory and lectured upon it. A convert to Symmes' theory, J. N. Reynolds, a graduate of Miami, after his death started an expedition for the South Pole to test its truth, an account of which is under the head of Clinton county.

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BUTLER COUNTY.

The theory of Symmes met at the time with great ridicule and "Symmes' Hole" was a phrase more or less for a term of years on everybody's tongue; the papers in the decade between 1820 and 1830 were more or less full of Symmes' Hole. If one suddenly disappeared, the reply often was, and with a grin : "Oh, he's gone, I expect, down into Symmes' Hole !"

BUTLER COUNTY MEN.

Rich as is this county in its productions it has been equally rich in its production of. useful, strong men. JOHN REILY was born in Pennsylvania in 1763; in 1791 went to Cincinnati, and in 1803 settled in Hamil- ton. On our first tour he was one of the five surviving members of the Constitutional Con- vention of Ohio. His friend Judge Burnet, in his Notes, gave an eloquent tribute to his character and services. He was clerk of the Supreme Court of Butler county from 1803 to 1842. He died at the age of eighty-seven years. He was a man of clock-work regu- larity of habits and system ; could in a few moments find a paper he had not seen in twenty years. In every respect he was a first- class man.

The governor of Ohio during the Mexican war, 1846-1848, was WILLIAM BEBB. He was born of Welsh stock in 1802 on the Dry Fork of Whitewater, in Morgan township. He had been elected by the Whigs. We met him here, a well-formed man, rather tall, with a dark complexion, and at the time noted for his easy + loquence. He was especially strong as a jury lawyer ; it was said his appeals to a jury were very touching ; he could weep at any time. His old home is yet standing in the southern part of the county. He removed to the Rock river, Illinois, early in the fifties, where he had a large farm. He later went to Europe and led a colony of Welsh colonists from Wales to the wilderness of Scott co., Tenn. The colony was broken up by the Civil War. Bebb lived to be a pension ex- aminer under Lincoln and help in the election of Grant ; he died at his home in Rockford, Ill., in 1873.

Middletown, in this county, early in this century was the birthplace of a sculptor of great promise who, dying young, was written about as "the gifted and lamented CLEV- ENGER. "

JOHN B. WELLER, born in Hamilton county in 1812, had a high career. When but twenty- two years of age was elected to Congress and so on for three successive terms; led the Second Ohio, as lieutenant-colonel, in the Mexican war, and returning thence led the Democratic party in the bitter gubernatorial fight of 1848, and was defeated by Seabury Ford, of Geauga county, the Whig candidate. In 1849 was commissioned to run the boun- dary line between California and Mexico. From 1852 to 1857 he was United States Senator from California and then was elected governor. In 1860 he was appointed by Bu- chanan Minister to Mexico. He died in New Orleans in 1875, where he was practising law. "Nature," it was said, " had gifted him with

an easy, declamatory eloquence," but his bent was politics rather than law.

JOHN WOODS was born in Pennsylvania in 1794, of north Irish stock ; came when a mere child with his parents to Warren county ; served in Congress from 1825 to 1829 ; then edited and published the Hamilton Intelli- gencer ; from 1845 to 1851 was auditor of the State, in which office he brought order out of confusion and "left indelible marks on the policy and history of Ohio." Later was in- terested in railroad development, and from bis habits of industry and restless energy proved a great power. He died in 1855, aged sixty-one years. It seems that from early boy- hood he determined to get an education and be- come a lawyer. The country all around was a wilderness and he contracted to clear a piece of land for a certain compensation. In this clearing he erected a hut, where he studied nights when others slept, and this after having chopped and hauled heavy timber all day Then regularly every week he went over to Lebanon to recite and receive instructions from Hon. John McLean, later Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In this Woods was, however, but a fair sample of Ohio youth of that day, to whom obsta- cles served as lures to tempt them to fight their way. The history of Ohio is profusely dotted all over with them. On their brows is stamped "invincibility ;" over them flies a banner bearing just two words, "will and work."

JOHN M. MILLIKIN was one of the numer- ous and intellectual Millikin family of Hamil- ton, who died about 1882 in advanced life. He was a large portly gentleman of " tremen- dous push and go;" was by education a lawyer ; had a most excellent large stock farm near Hamilton ; was at one time State treasurer and long president of the State Board of Agriculture ; wrote a great deal for the material interest of the State and espe- cially upon its farm animals and agriculture.' One of his sons was a professor in Ohio State University, and another was Colonel Minor Millikin, killed at Stone river. Whitelaw Reid characterized John M. Millikin-Major Millikin, as he was usually called-as "one of the foremost among that body of retired . professional men who adorn the vocation of Ohio farmers," etc.

THOMAS MILLIKIN, of Hamilton, born in 1819, stands pre-eminent among the lawyers of Ohio ; is especially strong in will cases ; so wide liis fame that another word here is use- less.

LEWIS D. CAMPBELL, born in 1811, died in 1882, was early known to the entire coun-

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try. He began life as an apprentice by pick- ing up type on the Cincinnati Gazette; was sent by the Whig party to Congress in 1849 ; became chairman of the ways and means committee. In the civil war was for a time a colonel of an Ohio regiment ; minister to Mexico 1866 to 1868, and from 1871 to 1873 again in Congress.

GENERAL FERDINAND VAN DERVEER is a resident of Hamilton. He was born in this county in 1823, a lawyer by profession, and made a fine record in the war for the Union. He was one of the most earnest of war Demo- crats, and his was the first Union regiment to enter Kentucky. In the great campaign be- tween Brough and Vallandigham the latter did not receive a single vote in his regiment.

JOHN W. IRWIN, of Hamilton, is the most aged and experienced engineer of Ohio. He was born in Delaware in 1808 and early came to Ohio and engaged in public works, first upon turnpikes, then upon canals and rail- roads. In 1842 he was appointed resident engineer of the Ohio & Erie Canal, and had full charge of the system between Cincinnati and Toledo. He spent nearly forty years in that capacity, locating all the works, passed over every foot of the ground many times, enduring many hardships. The Hamilton and Rossville and many other hydraulics were constructed by him, and in 1838, by draining the "Big Pond " in Fairfield township, he brought into cultivation some of the richest farming land known anywhere. No man can be more respected than he most deservedly is by his fellow-citizens.

The manufacturing development of Hamil- ton has been advanced by MR. WILLIAM BECKETT, a man of large public spirit and a general public operator. If any project is thought of for the good of the community the first inquiry is: "Where is Beckett ?" He came into Ohio at an early date, 1821- came into it in the best possible shape, being born into it-the precise spot Hanover town- ship, Butler county. With an enterprise on foot to enthuse him he is probably the most easy persuasive talker in Ohio, and no one can well be more liked by fellow-citizens.

J. P. MACLEAN, the archaeologist, is also a resident of Hamilton. With the exception of Ross, Butler county has more antiquities than any other in the State ; the most known of these in Butler county is Fortified Hill in Ross township. Mr. MacLean has been an indefatigable explorer. His published works are "Archaeology of Butler County, " "A Manual of the Antiquity of Man," and "Mastodon, Mammoth and Man."

There died in December, 1887, in his seventy-fourth year, in this county, a literary character of unusual eccentricity, especially so in his selection of topics for his muse. His name was JAMES WOODMANSEE, who called himself the "Bard of Sugar Valley." The county history thus notices him : He was a son of Daniel Woodmansee of New Jersey, who settled in Butler county in 1809. The poet was born in 1814, and early developed a fondness for verse. He received a good education and was brought up to agricultural pursuits, but this life did not have any attractions for him. James Woodmansee has written two epic poems, "The Closing Scene, a Poem in Twelve Books," and "Re- ligion, a Poem in Twelve Books." The sub- ject of the first named is the great war be- tween Gog and Magog, ending with the "Wreck of Matter and the Crash of Worlds." The second shows religion from the time the "Spirit travelled over the water's face" to the millennium. Besides these he has writ- ten "Wrinkles from the Brow of Experi- ence," "Poetry of the Lessons," and "The Prodigal Son," a drama in five acts. "The Closing Scene " and "Wrinkles," published some years ago, received much praise both in America and Europe. Thomas N. Talfourds, a great critic and judge of Westminster, said : "The Closing Scene" rivals the "Divine Commedia " of Dante, and Samuel Rogers, author, called it the "Paradise Lost of America." Mr. Woodmansee had travelled considerably in Europe and all over America.

DANIEL W. VOORHEES, U. S. Senator from Indiana, was born in Butler county in 1827. His speech in the defence of Cook, one of the comrades of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, gave him a wide reputation for eloquence, being published alike in our country and Europe.

JOSEPH EWING MCDONALD, an eminent Indiana lawyer and statesman, is also a native of this county. He is of Scotch extraction and was born in Fairfield township August 29, 1819. When he was seven years of age his widow mother removed to the wilderness of Montgomery county, Indiana. He was educated at Wabash College, supporting him- self by intervals of work at the saddler's trade, which he had learned. In 1856 and 1858 he was elected attorney-general of Indiana. In 1864 was defeated for governor by Oliver P. Morton. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1875. His reputation as a lawyer is very high, and as a man he has largely the respec" of the public irrespective of political creeds.

MIDDLETOWN IN 1846 .- Middletown is twelve miles northeast of Hamilton, and twenty below Dayton, in a rich and beautiful country. The Miami canal runs cast of the central part of the town, and the Miami river bounds it on the west. It is connected with Dayton and Cincinnati, and with West Alexandria, in Preble county, by turnpikes. The Warren County canal enters the main canal at this town. Two or three miles above a dam is thrown across the Miami, from which a connecting feeder supplies the Miami canal. This work furnishes much water power, which, with a little expense, can be increased and used to great advantage.

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BUTLER COUNTY.

There are within three miles of Middletown eight flouring mills on the river and canal. Middletown was laid out in 1802 by Stephen Vail and James Sutton. Calvin Morrell, James Brady, Cyrus Osbourn, Daniel Doty, Elisha Wade and Richard Watts were among its early settlers. It contains 1 Presbyterian, 1 Bap- tist and 1 Methodist church, a classical academy, 16 mercantile stores, 2 forward-

Drawn by Heury Howe, 1846

LEBANON STREET, MIDDLETOWN.

ing houses, 1 grist mill and 1 woollen factory, and, in 1840, had 809 inhabitants. The view of Lebanon street was taken at its intersection with Broadway. Liebee's block is shown on the right, Deardorf's mill and the bridge over the Miami partly appear in the distance .- Old Edition.

MERCHARTS

Frank Henry Howe, Photo., 1887.

STREET VIEW IN MIDDLETOWN.

Middletown is on the Miami river and canal thirty-seven miles north of Cin- einnati on the C. H. & D., C. C. C. & I., N. Y. P. & O. and L. C. & D. Railroads.

Newspapers : Signal, Democrat, J. Q. Baker, editor; Journal, Republican. Churches : 1 Baptist, 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Methodist Protest- ant, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 1 African Baptist, 1 Episcopal, 1 German Catholic and 1 German Lutheran. Banks: First National, D. MeCalley, presi- dent, J. R. Allen, cashier ; Merehants' National, Chas. F. Gunckel, president. G. F. Stevens, cashier ; Oglesby and Barnitz.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 54

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006