USA > Ohio > Brown County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 33
USA > Ohio > Clermont County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 1 > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Between Arnold's treason and the fall of Sumter no other event caused such consternation to the people of America as Hull's surrender. Before the slowly carried news of that day could be answered the season was gone. Yet, a winter cam- paign was undertaken, which met a terrible defeat, on Jan- uary 22, 1813, just a few miles beyond the Ohio line on the river Raisin in the Territory of Michigan, where Kentuck- ians and some from Ohio suffered the most terrible massacre in their history. When the tidings went back and forth, it was known that Ohio had offered fifteen thousand troops and that Kentucky was ready to go in a body. . Then arms and sup- plies became the problem, for it was impossible to equip one- fourth of the volunteers. Two armies had been wiped out. Then the soldiers clamored for General Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. With the broken battalions still left, and while awaiting the long weary march of the re-enforcements, he built Fort Meigs, on the Maumee, just above the present town of Perrysburg. At the same time another fort was built about thirty miles to the east, where it now stands restored to per-
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fect condition in the center of the city of Fremont. The pur- pose ·was to hinder the British, who commanded the Lake. from ascending the Sandusky and thus be able to strike the re- enforcing columns on the flank, the strategic importance of the position was vital to the Americans. The construction was entrusted to Colonel Mills Stephenson, the pioneer of Eagle Creek, and so was named for him. The fine restoration en- nobled by the memory of Croghan's brilliant victory, on Au- gust 2, 1813, and adorned with a splendid soldiers' monument and a beautiful library building is in all respects a most re- markable memorial of one whose name confers honor upon the story of the old county of which he was a part. The at- tack on Fort Stephenson occurred as a part of the campaign against General Harrison's Army that has come to be called "The Siege of Fort Meigs." For the relief of Fort Meigs a call was made for a mounted force to move forward with all speed. That call was answered by a company of forty-nine mounted volunteers, of whom Captain Robert Haines was the commander. That company recruited from Southern Cler- mont and was mustered in July 27, and were discharged Au- gust 13, when the need for which they were called had passed. After their defeat at Fort Stephenson, the British retreated to- wards Detroit, to await the result of the impending naval bat- tle for the control of Lake Erie. After Perry's victory, on September 10, 1813, the British army having no support by water, retreated into Canada closely followed by Harrison's re-enforced army. Among those re-enforcements was an- other company from Clermont, commanded by Captain Ste- phen Smith. After Perry's victory Captain Smith's company was ordered to march the prisoners under guard to Newport Barracks, at the mouth of the Licking. In that exacting march, because of the sickness of the officers of higher rank, the command fell to Sergeant William H. Raper, then just twenty years old; yet, in spite of a serious mutiny among the prisoners, they were safely brought according to orders. Two of his brothers, Sergeant Holly and Corporal Samuel were in Captain Boerstler's company and so was the old British soldier of the Revolution, John Naylor, which for- ever answered any criticism of their British service. Daniel Kain, the eldest brother of Captain Thomas Kain, went with
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his neighbors as major of the battalion to which they be- longed. Both of them were subsequently honored with the rank of colonel in the militia establishment, but Daniel pre- ferred the title borne in the war, and was therefore always designated as "The Major." Henry Zumatt, pioneer in the New Hope section, because of much training in the Indian wars and fine soldierly quality, was commissioned as a colonel and served in the Fourth Ohio brigade until his death, in 1814, at the age of forty-three, was greatly lamented. Captain Wil- liam McMains, of Miami township, with Lieutenant William Glancy, of Stonelick township, recruited a company that rep- resented that portion of the county, but no account of their service was put on record. Captain John Shaw, with Lieu- tenant Elijah Nichols, and Ensign Hugh Ferguson, went with a fine company from the riverside that started out too late to overtake an enemy. Captain Abraham Shepherd, on the edge of Adams county, raised a company that probably marched north by- the Scioto to General Harrison's head- quarters at Franklinton, by the mouth of the Olentangy. A personal appeal to the office of the adjutant-general of the State obtained explicit confirmation of the deplorable state- ments of former historians that Ohio has, properly speaking, no record of her soldiers in the second war for independence. No adequate expression of contempt for the neglect that wrought this condition is appropriate for this page. The sug- gestion that the record was suppressed in order to lessen the responsibility for bounty or pension claims is simply infamous.
In fact, there is more satisfactory information obtainable about a greater number of people in Old Clermont who served in the first war for independence than can be easily found about those who were in the second war. While regretting the oblivion that should have been avoided, candor suggests that no chance should be omitted that will help to perpetuate the little still known about our patriot sires. Amid their life of unutterable seclusion, the innate ideality that belongs alike to the untutored child and the lettered sage found expression in forms that made the pioneers intensely patriotic, or deeply re- ligious and generally both. A reader, intent upon amusement, may tire of frequent allusion to their Revolutionary recollec- tions or pious aspirations. Both those happy in reviewing and
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revering the memory of thrice honorable forefathers should be pleased with the results of much inquiry that has taken many days of my life, and which should be treasured by many of their descendants. The results of that inquiry were con- densed for the pages of Mitchell and Thirey's work on Cler- mont, published in 1902. After ten years little or no change has been found. No claim was made then or now for abso- lute accuracy in giving or omitting names obtained from va- rious sources. That more can be added by others is probable, and that a search for the official record of a few will be disap- pointing is also probable; for the Revolutionary archives have suffered some devastation. Acknowledgment was then made to the late Royal J. Bancroft for aid, found in his "Sketches of Revolutionary Service," published in The Clermont Sun during May, June, and July, 1901, in which he mentioned one hun- dred and twelve Clermont families having Revolutionary an- tecedents. A division is made between modern Brown and Clermont and some from Adams county may be found in this
LIST OF REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
In Clermont County.
John Aldridge
Benajah Hill
Lieut. Joseph Alexander
John Hulick
Adam Bricker
James Johnson
David Brannen
Ignatius Knott
Ramoth Bunting
Barton Lowe
Lawrence Byrn
Robert Leeds
James Carter
Hezekiah Lindsey
Andrew Chalmers
Mordecai Love
James Chambers
Absalom Smith
Edward Coen
John Smith
Lieut. William Cowen
Obadiah Smith
Benjamin Davis
Serg. John Stewart
Jeremiah Day John Denine
Philip Stoner
Jesse Swem
Robert Dickey
Richard Taliafero
Robert English
John Thomas
Christopher Hartman
Okey Vanosdol
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Samuel Walburn
Dory Malott
Nehemiah Ward
John Malott
Serg. Samuel Webster
Thomas Manning
John Wheeler
John Miles
Solomon Whidden
John Mitchell
Samuel Wilson
Lieut. Hugh Molloy
Maj. Joseph Shaylor
James Murphy
Stephen Fennell
Neal Murry
James Arthur
John Nelson
Peter Harden Andrew Apple
Christian Plackard
Gov. Othniel Looker
Eli Porter
Rev. Francis McCormick
Josiah Prickett
Col. Thomas Paxton
William Reddick
Andrew McGrew
Nathaniel Reeves
Maj. William Riggs
Joshua Richardson
Enoch Buckingham
Gideon Riggs
Jacob Stroup
Reuben Rose
Daniel Morgan
Elijah Sargent
David Mock
Elnathan Sherwin
- Adam Hoy
Ephraim Simpkins
John Logston Edward Salt
William Slye
John Day
Capt. John Ramsey William Fitzwater Nathaniel Barber
John Conrey
John Conrad
James Sargent John Sargent
Adam Snider John Niles
Reece Carter
William L. Jones
George Hunter William Harris
Thomas Davis
Judge James Clarke
Jacob Fox
Rev. John Corbly
William Huling
Zebulon Applegate
John Dennis David Colglazer
James Shaw Ensign Cornelius McCollumNathan Nichols James McKay John McKnight
Jacob Ulrey Levi Tingley
... Joseph Utter
William McKnight
Bugler William Sloan Jacob Slye
William Malott
Daniel Durham
William Owen
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Jesse Justice
Robert Wells
Gen. Presley Neville Alexander Buchanan
Mordecai Winters
Thomas Jones
Col. Isaac Ferguson
John Trees
Nathaniel Donham
Benjamin Penn
Capt. James John
John Hare
Daniel Roudebush
Samuel Harlow
Lewis Frybarger
Hughey Dickey
James Kain
Edward Morin
Surg .- Gen. Richard Allison John Light Jesse Glancy
Jacob Light
Lemuel Perin
Daniel Light
Captain Richard Hall
Charles Waits
Captain Dennis Smith
John Payne
and - Elstum, grandparent of Pioneer Moses Elstum, were both killed in the Revolution. Colonel John Cooley, of the Third New York, was the father of Mary Cooley, wife of Zebina Williams. Abraham Clark, of New Jersey, was a sign- er of the Declaration of Independence. His grandchildren in- clude the Clarks of Williamsburg.
In Brown County Part. .
Jesse Bales
Samuel Ellis
Sergt. Barr
Lieut. James Erwin
Benjamin Beasley
Valentine Fritts
John Blair James Bonwell
Joseph Gould
James Cahill
Patrick Grogan John Gunsauld
Ensign John Cooper
Sergt. Richard Harden
Thomas Cotterill
Thomas Hetherly
Michael Cowley
William Crosby Thomas Cunningham
Archibald Hopkins Richard Spyers Robert Stephenson
Ensign Joshua Davidson
Benjamin Sutton John Thompson
William Dixon John Dye James Waits Benjamin Wells
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Gabriel Eakins
Benjamin Gardner
John Clark
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William White
Drummer Samuel Pickerill
Nicholas Wood
Joseph Potter
Thomas Wood
William Rains
Fogus McClain
Lawrence Rainey
Nicholas Devore
Thomas Rattan
Samuel Jones John Laney
Joab Reid James Rice
Benjamin Leeton
James Rounds
Patrick Lemrick
Lemuel Rounds
James Leonard
Joseph Liming
Alexander McCoy
Valentine McDaniel
Capt. Daniel Feagins Richard Rollison Jacob Metzger
Charles McManis
Charles Canary
George Marshall
Christian Shinkle
Jacob Middleswart
Christopher Barr
Elijah Moore
Samuel Adkins
Daniel Morford
Moses Leonard
William Newberry
Col. Robert Higgins
. John Parke
Any one attempting to compile a similar list of the War of 1812 will be much helped by the following privately preserved and published roll of the companies commanded by Captain Jacob Boerstler, in 1812, and by Captain Robert Haines in 1813.
Captain Jacob Boerstler, killed at Brownstown, Lieutenant Thomas Kain, promoted to captain, August 13; Ensign Thomas Foster, promoted to lieutenant, August 13; Sergeants Daniel Campbell, Edward Brown, Holly Raper, John Conrey ; Corporals, Samuel Raper, John Hankins, Jasper Shotwell (pro- moted ensign, August 13), Cornelius Treble ; Musicians Augus- tine Munson, Oliver Hays.
Isaac Colthar
John Feight
James Denham
Peter Smith
Daniel McCollum
John W. Feight
Hugh Wardlow
James McCann
James Colthar George McMillen
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Walter McDaniel
William Reeves
Job Lecroy
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William Compton
Jonathan Little
Thomas Williams
Joseph . Wood
Richard Dennis
William Davis
Hiram Harris
Simon Kenton
John Davis
William Wardlow (killed)
William Digley
Peter Waits
George Neff
Lewis Davis
James Chambers
George Hunt
Daniel Gould
Charles Waits
John Oakman
John Buchanan
John Frazee
Joseph Brunk
John Reed
Reuben Waits
Michael Ellsberry
John Naylor
Jonas Tolliver
Richard Smallwood
Abner Arthur (killed)
Archibald Gibson
Watson Stephens (killed)
John Losh
Samuel Malott
Joseph Martin
John D. Walker
Captain Robert Haines, Mounted Volunteers ; Captain Rob- ert Haines; Lieutenant Hugh Ferguson; Ensign Jonathan Donham; Sergeants James Robb, Hezekiah Lindsey, Isaac Ferguson, James Arthur ; Corporals Thomas Littleton, Nathan Sutton, William Donham, Thomas Welch.
John Whitaker
Philip Nichols
Daniel Snider
John Behymer
Aquilla McCord
Levi Behymer
Nicholas Pritchet
Martin Behymer
Peter Bolander
Jacob Kinsey
John Mattox
James Fitzpatrick
Elijah Malott
Henry Cuppy
Daniel Apple
Francis Ferguson
George Lewis
Reuben Lord
John Morin Edward Chapman
Samuel Long
Robert Chapman
Hamilton Miller
Edward Roberts
David Rardin William Nichols
Josiah Bettle
John Dillman
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Michael Lane
Horatio G. Cleft
David White
William Laycock
William Bell
Levi Pinkham
Benj. Morin
John C. Dial
Jacob Short
Among all of his time in the county he founded, the high- est military rank was reached by William Lytle. On August IO, 1804, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel; and on February 20, 1808, he was made a major general of the Ohio militia. As a promoter of settlements his life was full of men- tal activity. He rode here, there and everywhere within the sphere of his influence to show his own lands or tracts that were entrusted to his management, and that meant nearly every tract that was for sale. His critic has stated that he sold anything a purchaser fancied. In one sense the assertion is truthful; but the inference that he acted without authority, or that he was not particular and surveyed with wanton dis- regard to future trouble is an insult to a noble memory that should not pass without contradiction and a fairer statement. Few men have been more methodical or left finer proof of the sincerity of a vast volume of business. As his mission in Clermont was accomplishing his ambition went to other scenes and his great earnings were invested in new enterprises farther west. A mansion was built in Cincinnati near the spot where he had landed with his father on April 12, 1780, when not a stick had been disturbed by white hands on the site of Cincinnati. To that mansion, one of the finest of that age west of the mountains he went in 1810 from Williamsburg, feeling that he had waved a transforming wand over the land, and that he was to be the wealthiest man in the Ohio Valley. The papers that had accumulated in the old stone Land Office were carefully assorted, tied with tape and packed in chests that have not to this day been entirely rehandled. Among these papers are carefully filed letters of authority for all that he sold for others along with the notes taken in the field and calculat- ed in the office. Instead of being careless, his work was a marvel of minute method. He was one of the founders and was president of the board of trustees or manager of the Cin- cinnati College, since developed into the University of Cincin-
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nati. His benefactions were large for that time. He was too busy for public office, too earnest in building larger. When he thought his greatness was a ripening, his schemes were crushed in the financial panic that resulted from the War of 1812, and much of his wealth vanished. On May 26, 1830, he was appointed Surveyor-General of public lands by Presi- dent Jackson. On March 17, 1831, he died in the fine old home that was saved from the wreck of his vast fortune to become still more famous as the home of his distinguished son, Robert T., and of his brilliant grandson, the "Soldier Poet." While regretfully watching the demolition of the historic home for the creation of Lytle Park, I heard one of a passing throng ask, "Who was Lytle, anyhow?" As another answered, "Some old congressman, I guess," there was less wonder about the destruction of Cincinnati's noblest relic.
Although the rolls in proof are not to be found, the report was made that "During the War of 1812, including events im- mediately before and after, the State of Ohio furnished 23,951 soldiers of all arms, including officers, musicians, rangers, scouts, spies and teamsters, being over thirty-three per cent. of the entire male population of the State, above twenty-one years of age ; more than fifty per cent. of those subject to mil- itary duty and nearly fifteen per cent. of all the military forces of the United States called out during hostilities." In that record Old Clermont had filled her quota.
When the import of the redemption of their land from Hull's shameful surrender and the awful massacre on the Raisin by Croghan's defense, Perry's victory and Harrison's triumph on the Thames and the battle of New Orleans had dawned on the nation; and when the ocean also had been freed from British tryanny, Americans took heart again and began anew with larger plans. A result of the war was a com- mercial ruin along the seaboard that caused many sea-faring people to move westward. Of these a number amounting to a small colony came to the vicinity to be called Amelia. Of them, one, Matthew Pease, had been a captain whose life of much adventure had included visits to Paris, where he saw the execution of King Louis XVI. Moved by pity for their misfor- tunes, he helped a considerable number of the fugitive noble- men to escape by secreting them in his ship, when detection
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would have sent him to the guillotine. Captain Pease was remembered as a quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, whose appear- ance gave little suggestion of his connection with affairs as thrilling as any in the pages of romance. The quality of that immigration came into contrast with elements from the south and southeast to the frequent amusement of all, but nothing remains in the fusion to suggest the origin of either.
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CHAPTER XVII.
AFTER THE DIVISION OF OLD CLERMONT.
The Agitation for New Counties-Comparative Population of New Counties-Relative Importance of Old Clermont- Township Histories - New Enterprise - Bridges - New County Seat for Clermont-New Richmond-Batavia- County Seat for Brown-Ripley-Bridgewater-George- town-The Woods Family-The Court House for Brown County-Coincidence in the Growth of Brown and Cler- mont-Better Roads-The Coming of Pikes from the Mar- kets-A Tram Way-The Plank Road Delusion-The Canal Era-Thomas Morris-The Ohio Canal System a Victory for the Union-The Effect of the Canals-Brown and Cler- mont Classed as Anti-Canal Counties-The Use of Steam for Transportation-The First Railroads-The Prosperity of the Flat Boat Times-Flour, Pork and Whisky-The Temperance Movement-The River Trade and Slavery- The Underground Railroad.
As the tide of immigration grew stronger, the settle- ments were made farther and farther from the Ohio, until con- venience demanded more frequent points for the administra- tion of government. The agitation for new counties became a controlling factor in the elections. Much was made of the charge that Thomas Morris contrived a division of Old Cler- mont to gratify a spite against people at the old county seat. As a fact, he was not a member of the General Assembly dur- ing the six years between 1814 and 1820, when that question was debated and decided; and there is no evidence that his presence would have changed the result. The time had come for fixing the permanent form of other counties, as had been done in Hamilton county. Clermont, next to the east, had a surplus of area and population over the standard. Seven sec- tions were also elsewhere clamoring for county rights. The combined interests passed the Act of December 27, 1817, which partioned the counties of Adams, Clermont and Highland, and
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thereby erected the county of Brown. When the census of 1820 was taken two years later, the new Clermont had 15,820 people ; Brown had 13,356; four of the other new counties com- bined had 13.690; the other two new counties combined had 17,962. The total of Brown and Clermont all but equalled the total of the other six counties in question. Moreover, the dividing line between Brown and Clermont is now the longest mutual county line in Ohio, and the distance between the re- motest points in Brown exceeds that of any county in the State. The division of Old Clermont was a necessity, but the . surveying was very painful to Williamsburg, and forthwith the location of the two new county seats was hotly contest- ed.
Without a study of the population of that period. even thoughtful readers will not comprehend the local significance of the dissolution of Old Clermont. According to the census of 1820, when the intervention of two years could have made but little difference in the comparison, without the division of the county, Old Clermont would have ranked as the second county in Ohio, Hamilton alone being ahead. And with the change, the New Clermont was twelfth and Brown the four- teenth among the thirty-six counties then existing.
Any comprehensive statement of the families then present, like that made for the territorial time, is something far beyond the scope of this history. An attempt carried through several weeks and even months portended such proportions that the undertaking was relinquished as something far beyond any general interest. Every patron of this work has been re- quested for such work, and others have no greater right to special consideration.
From the proud position of being the logical, central cap- ital of a most important section of the State, Williamsburg was suddenly confronted with a prospective loss of all such prestige by a line passing within sight of her roofs. But with the ad- vantage of sufficient public buildings, attention was taken from the impending removal of the county seat by. other schemes, of which a narration will have more general interest than a recital of what has had more or less explicit attention in various township histories prepared by those nearer in time and place than can ever happen again. Whoever has a
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copy of such work is earnestly advised to treasure his posses- sion carefully, for the sources of such recitals have failed ; and rhetoric must be invoked to retouch the fading tints of tradi- tion.
In 1818, the first year of the new counties, New Clermont appropriated nearly a thousand dollars for road and bridge work, more in fact than all before for that purpose. Alexander Blair was appointed to superintend the construction of a bridge across the East Fork, and men of high standing were placed in charge of the improvement of the leading highways and new roads were laid in every direction. But the bridge at Batavia was not built until 1825, and that was replaced by another for which two thousand eight hundred and thirty- three dollars were appropriated in December, 1829. By author- ity of the state a toll bridge was built in or about 1818, at Mil- ford, over which all that was tributary to the Anderson State Road and northeast from Little Miami was accommodated. In 1822 a bridge over Twelve Mile was granted, but a bridge westward from central Brown was not authorized until 1838, and finished until 1845. That bridge was built in two sec- tions across the island at the foot of Main street and lasted until swept away by a flood in 1858. The replacing single span bridge burnt by Morgan's Raiders, July 15, 1863, as told in another page, was probably the largest piece of destruction by them suffered in the county. The people of southern and central Clermont and far into Brown regarded the Union Bridge across the Miami, below Newtown, as the greatest local event of that half of the century. The story of that bridge belongs to Hamilton county, and. strange to say, has little mention there. but the importance was much to those who waited for it until 1836. Everywhere else in both Brown and Clermont bridge construction seems to have waited until the building of toll roads started the custom.
The agitation for a new county seat insisted that Wil- liamsburg was on one side of the county, and with fine con- sistency, urged a removal to New Richmond, where the ma- chinery of county government was taken in August. 1823. The November term, and then the March term of 1824 were also held there in a building donated for the purpose. Al- though the miracle of navigation by steam had been ex-
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emplified on the Ohio in 1811, by the first voyage along western waters by a self-propelling vessel, and although steam boats were coming to be a regular condition, no assertion of the su- periority of a location on the river could be made to prevail against the obvious inconvenience of the place for a majority in the county.
In or about 1807, General Lytle succeeded in selling Sur- vey Number 1774 to George Ely, who had come from New Jer- sey. With an enterprising spirit, he foresaw that his thousand acres occupied a fine position on the Donnell's Trace and that a town at the crossing of the East Fork was needed for the convenience of the valley. Being elected sheriff for 1814 and 1815, he heard much of the expected change in county bound- aries, and so planned with John Collins and the County Clerk, David C. Bryan, to be ready for new things. On October 24, 1814, they recorded a plat previously prepared, for a town named Batavia. Ten years later that town was fixed upon as the county seat with fair approval. One hundred and forty- four square rods of land were reserved for the expected county buildings. In the meantime a fine stone church for that day was built by the Methodist people under the leadership of Ezekiel Dimmitt, the earliest pioneer of the vicinity. That house was begun in 1817, and slowly finished. But it was very useful, both as a church and as a school house. When the future of the town came to the turning point, the church house was offered for a court house until a special house could be provided. The proposal was decisive and the courts were held there from May 14, 1824, until the court house still in use was accepted on New Year's Day, 1829. That building cost three thousand four hundred and eighty-three dollars, under contract with Ezekiel Dimmitt, but Dimmitt lost not less than fifteen hundred dollars in the transaction.
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