Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 64

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

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The first newspaper in Clermont, The Political Censor, was printed at Williams- burg, in 1813: it was edited by Thos. S. Foot, Esq. ; the second, called The Western American, was printed in the same town, in 1814 : David Morris, Esq., editor.

A considerable number of the early settlers in Clermont were from Kentucky. Of those before named the following were from that State :- R. W. Waring, Jasper Shotwell, Peter Light, Obed and James Denham, Houton Clark, John Boggess, Jeremiah Beck, Henry Willis and James South. Nicholas Sinks was from Virginia, David C. Bryan from New Jersey, and John and Thomas Morris and the Kain family (I believe) from Pennsylvania. After 1804 the county in- creased rapidly by settlers from New Jersey, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, with some from Maryland, New England, and a few from North Carolina.

Neville was laid out in 1811, Gen. Neville proprietor. Point Pleasant and New Rich- mond were laid out about 1814; Jacob Light proprietor of the latter. George Ely laid out Batavia afterwards. The early settlers about that place, as well as I remember, were George Ely, Ezekiel Dimmit, Lewis Duek- wall, Henry Miley, Robert and James Town- sley, Titus Everhart and Wm. Patterson. Before Milford was laid out, Philip Gatch, Ambrose Ransom and John Pollock settled in its vicinity. Philip Gatch was a member from Clermont of the convention which formed the State constitution, and for years after was associate judge. Ransom, as be- fore stated, was associate judge; and John Pollock, for many years speaker of the house of representatives, and later, associate judge.

Philip Gatch was a Virginian. He freed his slaves before emigrating, which circum- stance led to his being selected as a member of the convention to form the State constitu- tion.

The most prominent settlers in the south part of Clermont were the Sargeant, Pigman, Prather, Buchanan and Fee families. The oldest members of the Sargeant family were the brothers James, John and Elijah. They , were from Maryland. James, who had freed . his slaves there, was, in consequence, chosen a member of the convention which formed the State constitution. The Sargeants, who are now numerous in this part of the county, are uncompromising opponents of slavery. The Pigman family were Joshua, sen., Joshua, jr., and Levi. The Buchanan family were William, Alexander, Robert, Andrew, James, John, etc. James Buchanan, the son of John, was at one time speaker of the Ohio house of representatives. The Bu- chanans were from Pennsylvania, and the Pigmans from Maryland. There were sev- eral brothers of the Fee family, from Penn- sylvania. William, the most prominent, was the proprietor of Felicity, and a member of the legislature. His brothers were Thomas, Elisha and Elijah ; other early settlers were Samuel Waldren, James Daughters and Elijah Larkin, who has been postmaster at Neville for more than a quarter of a century. In the vicinity of Withamsville the early settlers were Nathaniel and Gideon Witham, James Ward, Shadrach, Robert and Samnel Lane. The Methodists were the most mi- merous in early times, and next the Baptists ; there were but a few Presbyterians among the first settlers.

When I first came into the county, the "wet land." of which there is such a large proportion in the middle and northern part, was considered almost worthless ; but a great change has taken place in public opinion in relation to its value. It is ascertained, that by judicious cultivation it rapidly improves in fertility. At that time, these lands were cov- ered by water more than half the summer, and we called them slashes : now the water leaves the surface in the woods, early in the spring. Forty years ago, the evenings were cool as soon as the sun went down. I have no recollections of warm nights, for many years after I came, and their coolness was a matter of general remark among the emi- grants from the old States. I believe it was owing to the immense forests that covered the country, and shut out the rays and heat of the sun from the surface of the ground, for after sunset there was no warm earth to impart heat to the atmosphere.

BATAVIA, the county-seat, is on the east fork of the Little Miami and on the C. & N. R. R., 24 miles easterly from Cincinnati and 103 southwest of Columbus. It was laid out in 1814 by Geo. Ely and David C. Bryan, and in 1824 became the county-seat. County officers in 1888 : Probate Judge, James B. Swing ; Clerk of Court, A. B. Shaw ; Sheriff, J. C. F. Tatman ; Prosecuting Attorney, Louis Hicks; Auditor, Wm. A. Page ; Treasurer, Nathan Anderson ; Recorder, Geo. W.

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Goodwin ; Surveyor, Geo. H. Hill ; Coroner, Elijah V. Downs; Commissioners, O. H. Hardin, Alfred Haywood and Francis M. Lindsey. Batavia has 1 Metho- dist Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, 1 German United Brethren Churches. One bank, First National, president, M. Jameson ; cashier, J. F. Dial. Newspapers : Cler- mont Advance, Prohibitionist, J. S. Robinson, proprietor and editor ; Clermont Sun, Democratic, E. A. Lockwood, S. Cramer, editors ; Clermont Courier, Republican, R. W. C. Gregg, J. S. Hulick, editors.

Manufactures .- Stirling & Moore, carriage and buggy works; J. F. Smith & Co., shoe factory. In 1840 Batavia had 537, and, in 1880, 1,015 inhabitants.

The First Cabin .- Ezekiel Dimmit, a Virginian by birth, in the fall of 1797

Brawn by Henry Howe, 1846; standing in 1887.

COUNTY BUILDINGS, BATAVIA.

erected the first cabin in the township. The following spring he made a little maple sugar and planted a few acres of corn on leased land at Columbia, fifteen miles away, where he went by following blazed paths through the dense woods. A little corn, flax and potatoes were also planted around the cabin on partly cleared ground. His nearest neighbor lived in a cabin seven miles distant.

Soon other settlers came in, and Ezekiel Dimmit's cabin afforded a friendly shelter to many a pioneer on the lookout for a new home. Among these was the family of Charles Robinson, from Maryland, who having heard of the wonderful fertility of the Ohio country came to Clermont in 1806 and lived near the Dim- mits with his family until the next spring in a cabin put up for them near by, when he moved on to a farm of his own on Lucy's run.

A Thrilling Adventure befell Mary Robinson in the succeeding winter ; the oldest daughter, a robust young lady. Mounting a spirited horse one afternoon, she started on an errand for Mrs. Mitchell's, some twelve miles dis- tant. A deep snow covered the ground, which delayed her, when night overtook her in the woods and the snow beginning to fall, it grew so dark that she could with difficulty sec the blazed trees which indicated the bridle- path which she expected to follow.

Losing the trace, she alighted and tied her horse to a tree until she could investigate. While thus engaged she heard the howling of a pack of wolves, when she hastened back to her horse, but he was so frightened that he would not allow her to approach him. A few moments later the wolves were around her and she began to suffer from the intense cold. To ward them off and keep from

freezing, she decided to keep moving in a path far enough from the horse to avoid being kicked and yet near enough to keep the wolves from approaching her ; so she walked to and fro the entire night, the wolves con- tinuing their fiendish bowls and the horse his stamping and kicking. At dawn the wolves disappeared, when with difficulty she mounted her horse and reached the home of John Mitchell. On seeing her, he exclaimed : " Why, Mary, have you been in the wilder- ness all night ?" She said "Yes," and had hardly been assisted from her horse when she fell into a swoon. Her family becoming alarmed at her absence sent a messenger on her tracks. He found the place where she had passed the terrible night, and then pro- ceeding on to Mr. Mitchell's saw Mary, who for several days was too weak to be moved.

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The name of Cornelius Washburn, or Neil Washburn as he was commonly called, is lastingly identified with the carly history of this region. This famous Indian hunter, so noted for his sagacity and courage from 1815 to 1833, lived near Williamsburg. He was born in New Jersey in the year before the outbreak of the American Revolution. He died "in his boots," as the frontiersmen express it, being killed by the Indians in 1834 while acting as a hunter and seout for a fur- trading and trapping company on the Yellowstone. This account of him we derived in 1846 from the lips of Thos. McDonald, the brother of the author of the sketches and the first person, as he stated to us, who erected a cabin in Scioto county.

THE EXPLOITS OF NEIL WASHBURN.

In the year '90, I first became acquainted with Neil Washburn, then a lad of sixteen, living on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, six miles below Maysville. From his early years, he showed a disposition to follow the woods. When only nine or ten, he passed his time in setting snares for pheasants and wild animals. Shortly after, his father purchased for him a shot-gun, in the use of which he soon became unexcelled. In the summer of '90, his father being out of fresh provisions, crossed the Ohio with him in a canoe, to shoot deer, at a lick near the mouth of Eagle creek. On entering the creek, their attention was ar- rested by a singular hacking noise, some dis- tance up the bank. Neil landed, and with gun in hand, cautiously crawling up the river bank, discovered an Indian, about twenty feet up a hickory tree, busily engaged in cutting around the bark, to make a canoe, in which he probably anticipated the gratification of crossing the river and committing depreda- tions upon the Kentuckians. However this may have been, his meditations and work were soon brought to a close, for the intrepid boy no sooner saw the dusky form of the savage, than he brought his gun to a level with his eye, and fired : the Indian fell dead to the earth, with a heavy sound. He hastily retreated to the canoe, from fear of the pres- ence of other Indians, and recrossed the Ohio. Early the next morning a party of men, guided by Neil, visited the spot, and found the body of the Indian at the foot of the tree. Neil secured the scalp, and the same day showed it, much elated, to myself and others, in the town of Washington, in Mason. Several persons in the village made him presents, as testimonials of their opinion of his bravery.

In the next year, he was employed as a spy between Maysville and the mouth of the Little Miami, to watch for Indians, who were accustomed to cross the Ohio into Ken- tucky, to steal and murder. While so en- gaged, he had some encounters with them, in which his unerring rifle dealt death to

several of their number. One of these was at the mouth of Bullskin, on the Ohio side.

In '92, the Indians committed such great depredations upon the Ohio, between the Great Kanawha and Maysville, that Gen. Lee, the government agent, in employing spies endeavored to get some of them to go up the Ohio, above the Kanawha, and warn all single boats not to descend the river. None were found sufficiently daring to go, but Neil. Furnished with an elegant horse, and well armed, he started on his perilous mission. He met with no adventures until after crossing the Big Sandy. This he swam ' on his horse, and had reached about a half a mile beyond, when he was suddenly fired upon by a party of Indians, in ambush. His horse fell dead, and the Indians gave a yell of triumph ; but Neil was unhurt. Springing to his feet, he bounded back like a deer, and swam across the Big Sandy, holding his rifle and ammunition above his head. Pant- ing from exertion, he rested upon the op- posite bank to regain his strength, when the Indians, whooping and yelling, appeared on the other side, in full pursuit. Neil drew up, shot one of their number, and then continued his retreat down the Ohio, but meeting and exchanging shots with others, he saw it was impossible to keep the river valley in safety, and striking his course more inland to evade his enemies, arrived safely at Maysville.

In the fall of the same year, he was in the action with Kenton and others against Te- cumseh, in what is now Brown county. Wash- burn continued as a spy throughout the war, adding the " sagacity of the lion to the cun- ning of the fox." He was with Wayne in his campaign, and at the battle of the Fallen Timbers manifested his usual prowess.

Neil Washburn was in person nearly six feet in height, with broad shoulders, small feet, and tapered beautifully from his chest down. He was both powerful and active. His eyes were blue, his hair light, and com- plexion fair. A prominent Roman nose alone marred the symmetry of his personal appear- ance.

MILFORD is in a picturesqe location on the Little Miami eighteen miles above Cincinnati, and is connected with the Little Miami railroad by a bridge. Popu- lation in 1880, 1,047. School census in 1886, 315; S. T. Dial, superintendent.

, Oldest Methodist Church in Ohio .- This place was early settled, being a milling centre. In the summer of 1797 Francis McCormick, the pioneer Methodist

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preacher, organized a church here in his cabin, which is the oldest Methodist society in Ohio, and supposed to be the first church organized in the great North- west. He had left Kentucky in 1795 through his hatred of slavery, and settled just north of the site of the village. This founder of Methodism north of the Ohio was a giant in stature, with a well-developed head, florid face and benevolent ex- pression. Early in life he had been a soldier in the American Revolution and served under Lafayette at Yorktown. Prominent among his small congregation were Ezekiel Dimmit and wife and John and Phoebe Mitchell, four pioneers resid- ing near where Batavia now stands, who went to Parson McCormick's, a distance of twelve miles through dense woods, to hear him preach. Uncle Zeke Dimmit was the first class-leader, and at his old log-eabin the earliest prayer and speaking meetings were held, beginning in the fall of 1797. A few years later he with others organized a church now known as the Methodist church in Batavia.

In 1799 the very eminent Rev. Philip Gatch settled alongside of McCormick. He was born near Baltimore in 1751 ; in 1774 he and William Walters took appointments as Methodist ministers and were the first native preachers in America to serve a circuit. He was very zealous, and as Methodism was not favorably received became subject to violent abuse. He was tarred by a mob, his eyesight injured permanently, and he narrowly escaped death at their hands. On account of his position on slavery he was selected as a member of the first Constitutional Convention, and for twenty-two years was an associate judge of Clermont.

In 1817 Dimmit and his associates began the erection of a stone meeting house at Batavia, and which was used by the society until Sunday evening, May 15, 1887, when the old bell rang out its notes for the last time for a farewell meeting within its venerable walls; a very interesting occasion, it being the most historic landmark in this region. It had been largely used for public meetings. Here the " Clermont boys" on their return from the Mexican war were given a warm wel- come, and here was rallied the first Clermont company for the Union in the war of the rebellion. The old building now altered is used for a shoe factory.

The First Camp Meeting in Clermont and possibly in Ohio was held near Zeke Dimmit's in October, 1815, at which a great crowd was present and many were converted. The meet- ing was chiefly conducted by that celebrated and eccentrie itinerant Lorenzo Dow. He trav- elled through the United States from fifteen to twenty times visiting the wilderness parts, often preaching where a sermon was never heard before. Occasionally he went to Canada, and made three voyages to England and Ireland, where as elsewhere he drew crowds around him, attracted by his long flowing beard and hair, singularly wild de- meanor and pungency of speech. During the thirty years of his publie life he must have travelled nearly two hundred thousand miles.

So great a factor was he in the religious history of Ohio and the " new countries " generally that the pioneers about the year 1830 largely named their boy babes " Lorenzo Dow," as in 1824, the period of General Lafayette's visit to the United States, boy babes were named after him. Those then named, the "Lorenzo Dows" and " Lafay- ettes," are now, when living, old men.

Pickett, in his "History of Alabama," avers that he was the earliest Protestant preacher in that State ; says he : "Down to this period-in 1803-no Protestant preacher had ever raised his voice to remind the Tom-

bigbee and Tensaw settlers of their duty to the Most High. Hundreds, born and bred in the wilderness, and now adult men and women, had never seen a preacher. The mysterious and eccentric Lorenzo Dow one day suddenly appeared at the boat yard. He came from Georgia, across the Creek nation, encountering its dangers almost alone. He proclaimed the truths of the gospel here to a large audience, crossed over the Alabama and preached two sermons to the 'Bigbee set- tlers,' and went from thenee to the Natchez settlements, where he also exhorted the peo- ple to turn from the error of their ways. He then visited the Cumberland region 'and Kentucky, and came back to the Tombigbee, filling his appointments to the very day. Again plunging into the Creek nation this holy man of God once more appeared among the people of Georgia."

When Dow was in Indiana Judge O. H. Smith had the pleasure of listening to a dis- course from him, some items of which he has thus preserved among his sketches. "In the year 1819," states the judge, "I was one of a congregation assembled in the woods baek of Rising Sun, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lorenzo Dow. Time passed away, we had all become impatient, when in the distance we saw him approaching at a rapid rate through the trees on his pacing pony. He rode up to the log on which I was sitting,

LORENZO DOW, Itimerant Preacher, in the United States, Canada, England & Ireland.

FROM AN ORIGINAL PORTRAIT formerly in possession of J.W.Barber. - Engraved by AWillard. Hartford. Conn Painted by Lucius Munson in South Carolina in 1821

Borm im Coventry Connecticut Oct.15 th. 1777.

One of the first Protestant Pioneer Preachers. in the West & South West States and Territories. Distinguished for his Labors & Eccentricities.

Died in Georgetown D.T. Feb. 2d.1834. Æ 56. Buried at Washington, D.C.

Lorenzo Dow.preaciung on the steps of the South Portico of the State House New Haven, Conn. June 300 1832.

[So important a person was Lorenzo Dow in the religious history of Ohio and the " new countries" generally that the pioneers largely named their boy babes from him. We saw him when on June 30, 1832, the drawing in the lower picture was made by our old friend, Mr. John W. Barber, and it agrees with our memory as to his swaying attitude. He was in truth a wild-looking creature.]

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threw the reins over the neck of the pony and stepped upon the log, took off his hat, his hair parted in the middle of his head, and flowing on either side to his shoulders, his beard resting on his breast. In a minute at the top of his voice he said : '"Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me." My subject is repentance. We sing, " While the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner

may return." That idea has done much harm, and should be received with many grains of allowance. There are cases where it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man to repent unto salvation. Let me illustrate. Do you suppose that the man among you who went out last fall to kill his deer and bear for winter meat, and instead killed his neighbors' hogs, saited them down, and is now living on the meat, can repent while it is unpaid for ? I tell you nay. Except he restores a just compensation his attempt at repentance will

be the basest hypocrisy. Except ye repent truly, ye shall all likewise perish.' He . preached some thirty minutes. Down he stepped, mounted his pony, and in a few minutes was moving on through the woods at a rapid pace to meet another appoint- ment.'

On another occasion, it has been said, hav- ing been informed that the people thereabouts had suffered from the depredations of a hog thief, he took occasion to state to an assem- blage whom he was addressing, that he felt certain that the thief was among them. Then stooping down he picked up a stone, and said : "Now I am going to throw this stone at him," at the same time making a motion as if to throw it, whereupon an individual in the crowd dodged. "That's him," exclaimed Dow, pointing to the conscience-stricken indi- vidual. The people called him Crazy Dow ; his wife Peggy accompanied him in his travels. He introduced camp meetings in England.

BETHEL, on the line of the C. G. & P. R. R. and Ohio turnpike, in a fine country. It has 2 Methodist, 1 Christian, and 1 Baptist church, and in 1880 582 inhabitants. The place was settled in 1797 by Obed Denham, a Virginian, on account of his abhorrence of slavery.

A Witch Story .- In the early settlement a family by the name of Hildebrand accused one of their neighbors, Nancy Evans, of being a witch. Although the statutes of Ohio made no provision for cases of this kind, they per- suaded a justice of the peace to take the mat- ter in hand. A tradition prevailed that if a witch was weighed against the Bible she would be compelled to tip the beam. A rude scale was made, and in the presence of the neighbors, with the Bible at one end and Nancy Evans at the other, she was thus ad- jured : "Nancy Evans, thou art weighed against the Bible to try thee against witch- craftry and diabolical practices.""This being done in the name of the law, and with a pro- found respect for the word of God, had a solemn and conclusive effect. Nancy was of course too heavy for the Bible ; an excellent woman, who willingly submitted to this novel process to bring peace of mind to her igno- rant, deluded neighbors, whom she pitied.

Bethel is noted for the number of promi- nent characters who have dwelt there. SAM- UEL MEDARY, from Pennsylvania, came to Bethel almost destitute; with twenty-five cents capital opened a school, and in 1828 started a newspaper, the Ohio Sun, now the Clermont County Sun, at Batavia. Medary was no printer, but he edited it, delivered it personally to the subscribers, and taught school at the same time. He eventually moved to Columbus, and as editor of the Statesman and Crisis, became the most in-

fluential editor of the Democratic party in the State. Late in life he was territorial governor of Kansas and Nebraska. He was genial, possessed business tact and force of character. Prof. DAVID SWING, D. D., the eminent divine, was born near the village. Two eminent Methodist divines are identified with the history of the county : Rev. Dr. RANDOLPH SWING FOSTER, who was born here, and Rev. STEPHEN M. MERRILL, who passed his youth here. The noted Gen. THOMAS L. HAMER, in 1818, came to Bethel a poor, friendless boy, and found a home in the family of Thomas Morris, with whom he studied law.

JESSE R. GRANT, the father of Gen. Grant, hought a home at Bethel about 1845, where he lived ten or tweve years. While he was there the general, at that time just from the Academy at West Point, and later from the Mexican campaign, visited his father, and passed a number of months in the quiet vil- lage. The general's father carried on a tan- nery, and in 1852 was elected mayor. His duties were partly magisterial, and one of his first was to try some of the village roughs for fighting, on which occasion he used the finish- ing-room of his tannery for a court-room. The place was crowded, and the better to see some of the small boys mounted a pile of hides. The pile was totlish, and the leather slid, and one urchin landed precipitately into a tub of Father Grant's oil, which afforded as much diversion as the fight itself.

In the village graveyard at Bethel is the grave of THOMAS MORRIS ; a marble monument with the annexed inscription marks the spot. Said Salmon P. Chase : "Senator Morris first led me to sce the character of the slave power as an aris- tocracy, and the need of an earnest organization to counteract its pretensions. He

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was far beyond the time in which he lived." In 1637, Thomas Morris, the first representative of the family, a name prominent in English history and patriotism, settled in Massachusetts. Isaac, the father of Thomas Morris, was born in Berks county, Pa., in 1740, and his mother, Ruth Henton, in 1750, being the daughter of a Virginia planter. Nine sons and three daughters were born to them. Thomas, John, and Benjamin came to Ohio, finally settling in Clermont county. Thomas was the fifth child, and was born January 3, 1776; soon after his birth his parents moved to Western Virginia, and settled near Clarksburg. The father was a faithful minister of the Baptist church, preaching without failing in a single appointment for over sixty years, never taking a dose of medicine. He died in 1830, aged ninety-one. The mother of Thomas Morris refused her in- heritance of four slaves.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 64

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