USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 12
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 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
It will be noticed in the following census report that the population of the part of Clifton and Yellow Springs in Miami township; Bowersville, in Jefferson township; Fairfield and Osborn, in Bath township; Spring Valley,
I20
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
in Spring Valley township; Bellbrook, in Sugarcreek township; Xenia, in Xenia township, and Cedarville, in Cedarville township, are in some instances not listed separately. In those cases the population of these towns is in- cluded in the township in which they respectively lie. The population of Cedarville, Jefferson, New Jasper and Spring Valley townships were not listed in 1840 and 1850 because they mere not yet erected into townships and the population of these is included in the existing townships.
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870 1860
1850
1840
Bath Township
1213
1255
II84
1557
1648
2713
2079
1702
Fairfield
292
312
310
380
397
Osborn
866
948
713
656
639
Beavercreek Town-
ship
1959
2070
2198
2470
2289
2230
2059
1755
Cæsarscreek Town- ship
915
1039
1057
II74
III4
II83
1870
1738
Cedarville Township 1236 Cedarville
1059
1189
1355
I18I
753
687
Jefferson Township- Bowersville
966
1158
1529
1643
1277
1280
Miami Township _.
853
933
888
1067
1096
994
1865
I230
Part of Clifton.
204
204
230
289
280
Yellow Springs __
1360
I37I
I375
I377
I435
I309
New Jasper Township
845
874
918
1013
1084
893
Ross Township
IOII
II4I
I230
I335
1076
I212
1369
1336
Silvercreek Township
964
I109
1213
1278
1169
I196
2565
2444
Jamestown
II33
1205
II04
877
532
48c
Spring Valley Town-
ship
912
938
963
1163
III3
1641
Spring Valley-
443
522
538
376
1290
Sugarcreek Township
958
IO16
947
1278
II69
1635
3082
2379
Bellbrook
238
352
3,50
425
369
Xenia Township
3303
3633
33II
3376
2254
6977
4032
3517
Xenia
8706
8696
730I
7026
6377
3024
1406
I278
1006
1521
1608
1570
297
370
29733 31613 29820 30013 28038 26290 21945 17507 FURTHER POPULATION STATISTICS.
There are more colored people in Greene county in proportion to its population than in any other county in Ohio. The federal census of 1910 returned a total population of 29,733 for the county, of which number 3,970 were colored. This shows that the colored population is 13.4 per cent. of
I2I
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
the total population. Of the 3,970 colored people, 2,465 are listed as black and 1,505 as mulattos. As regards sex the colored population is divided, I,197 male and 1,973 female.
The 1910 census returned 107 farms, totalling 5,200 acres, which were owned and operated by colored farmers. These 107 farms were valued at $518,230; the farm buildings were valued at $141,000. There can be no question that the presence of Wilberforce University has been a potent factor in the life of the colored people of the county. This institution has been providing practical courses in agriculture, and the results of this work are being shown in the county already.
A glance at the census totals from 1840 to 1910 reveals some interest- ing facts. The greatest number of residents Greene county ever had was 31,613 in 1900, the very slight gain of 793 over the number in 1890. The total in 1900 was more nearly approached in 1880, but curiously enough the population decreased in 1890. It is noticeable that the population of the villages has not decreased so markedly as that of the rural districts. The most striking growth of any village has been that of Jamestown, the popu- lation of which in 1860 was 480 and by 1900 had increased to 1205. There has been a steady increase of population in Xenia until it numbered 8,706 in 1910, which indicates a centralization of the population in the county seat. Obviously, Greene county, like many others, illustrates the movement of the rural population to the urban centers. In 1910 the total seems to presage a decrease in the county's population, but this is not a disaster by any means, even though the thinkers of a century ago preached such a doctrine. In one sense it is a mark of progress; for, as a rule, a high increase in population is accompanied by a proportionately high death rate and an inversely pro- portional lowering of the standard of living. This country is yet new, for one hundred years in the history of a community is no more than a decade in the life of an individual. American communities, like "Topsy," have "jes' growed," and just now an adaptation is going on. This adaptation is in progress in Greene county, which, if nothing untoward occurs, will result in the highest welfare of all.
CHAPTER VI.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF GREENE COUNTY.
COURT HOUSES.
There have been three court houses erected in Greene county, the first in 1809, the second in 1843, the third in 1902. During the first six years of the county's history the sessions of the local courts were held in private houses, while the little county business which was transacted during these few years by the various county officials was probably transacted in their respective homes. All the records of the clerk, auditor, recorder and sheriff might have been carried around in the arms of these officials, and, as a matter of fact, each of these officials might easily have carried all the records of the first six years into the new court house when it was ready for occupancy in 1809.
But it is necessary to go back to 1803 to get at the beginning of the court-house history of the county. When the act providing for the organ- ization of the county was being prepared some provision had to be made for the first meeting of the courts, and the author of the bill, William Max- well, then a resident of what later became a part of Greene county, knew, of course, of the house of one Owen Davis, at the time occupied by a tenant by the name of Peter Borders, and that it was about as centrally located in the proposed new county as any other. Accordingly this log cabin was desig- nated as the meeting place for the first court of the county, thereby becoming for all legal purposes the first court house of the county.
This cabin has long since disappeared, but fortunately there has been preserved a fairly definite description of this first gathering place of the officials of Greene county. The cabin was erected in 1799 by Benjamin Whiteman and stood in Beavercreek township, about five miles west of Xenia, two hundred yards east of Beaver creek, a short distance south of the rude log mill of Davis, and, to more definitely locate it for the present generation, it was about a quarter of a mile south of the present village of Alpha.
DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT TEMPLE OF JUSTICE.
And what kind of a log cabin was this where the first official business of Greene county was transacted? It was about twenty-five feet square,
123
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
with one room below and an attic above which was reached by a ladder through a hole in the ceiling. The building was constructed of burr-oak logs, hewed on two sides, with a floor of the same material, the logs for the floor being smoothed with an adz to make them comparatively level. This sort of a floor certainly would have had the merit of being substantial, whatever other imperfections it may have had. The roof was made of clapboards, tied in place with long poles running the full length of the roof, such roofs being the only kind then in use. The whole structure was put together with- out the use of a single nail, and it may be said that it was just as substan- tially put together as many of the buildings of the present day. This build- ing had but one door, this being on the east side near the north end, and opposite to this one door was the one window. It is true that there was a small hole in the south side of the cabin, but it was more for ventilation than light, and was not intended to serve any other purpose than as a place for the escape of the smoke when it became too thick in the room. The south side of the large room was largely filled with a huge fireplace such as was to be found in all the early log cabins of the county. The chimney of the fireplace was built on the outside, as was usually the case, the first eight feet of the chimney being built of small logs, lined with stones, the upper part of the chimney being made of sticks well plastered with clay.
This was the building where the first court in Greene county was held on May 10, 1803. The building had been erected by Benjamin Whiteman in 1799, as before stated, and by him sold to his father-in-law, Owen Davis, the latter having rented it to Peter Borders sometime before 1803. Max- well, who introduced the bill for the organization of the county, knew, of course, of the size of the building and judged that it would be the best, all things considered, which could be found within the limits of the proposed county for a temporary meeting place for the courts. At the time the court met there in the spring of 1803 Borders, the tenant, seemed to have had an ample supply of ardent spirits of various degrees of intoxicating potency on hand. At least, he had a sufficient amount on hand to engender enough fighting to provide several cases for the court which met within the building.
BUILDING STILL STANDING IN 1846.
A reference to the accompanying cut shows this primitive seat of jus- tice, the cut being a reproduction of a pen drawing by Howe made for that historian's "Historical Collections" in 1846. The cabin was still standing at that time and Howe made a special trip out to Beaver creek to make the sketch. It will be noticed that there is an old-fashioned well-sweep a short distance from the house, but this was probably not there in 1803. At one corner of the building was tied a large pet black bear, a plaything for the
124
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
children not uncommon in those days. Howe's cut also shows the small log building, about ten by twelve feet, which stood a few rods northeast of the house, built as a smoke house, and used as the grand jury room when that august body first "sat on the body of Greene county." It was in this smaller building that the petit juries retired to consider the guilt or inno- cence of alleged violators of the law. About two hundred yards from this cabin, dwelling house and court house, stood the log blockhouse which served as the first county jail, described later in this chapter.
It was in this house in Beavercreek township that all the sessions of the courts were held during 1803 and 1804, and up until November 15 of the latter year. The chapter on County Organization recites in detail the steps taken to establish the county seat at Xenia and it is not necessary to repeat the facts in the matter in this connection. Suffice it to say that the site was selected in the fall of 1803, but that it was not until the summer of 1804 that any attempt was made to build a house of any kind on the site. Of course, it was not supposed that a court house could be built at once, and, pending the construction of a temple of justice, it was presumed that some private residence would be erected which might serve as a temporary meet- ing place for the courts.
FIRST COURT HELD AT XENIA.
The summer of 1804 saw two dwelling sites being cleared on the site of the future county seat, and presently two log cabins began to rear their walls on the two respective sites. One of these enterprising settlers was William Beatty, the other was Rev. James Towler. The Beatty house, a two-story log structure, designed as a combined dwelling house, public tav- ern and temporary court house, stood on lot 13, on Main street (then called Chillicothe street ), opposite the present court house, and on the same lot now occupied by the fruit and confectionery store of Kellel Ammer, the building now being owned by C. P. Dowling. The Towler house, erected by Fred- erick Bonner, the first carpenter in the village, stood on South Detroit street, the site now being occupied by H. H. Eavey's wholesale house.
These two houses were in the course of construction at the same time, and it seems that there was a race to see which one would be first completed. It was the understanding that the first one completed would have the honor of housing the court until such a time as the county would have a court house erected. Whether the race was to the swift or not is not known, but the fact remains that the tavern keeper succeeded in getting his house finished before the preacher. It is a matter of tradition, no documentary evidence having been found to substantiate the statement, that Beatty had taken the foresight to rent the upper room of his tavern to the county
125
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
commissioners for a court room before he had the building completed. Be that as it may, he rented the room for this purpose, and here in the second story of this tavern of Beatty the first court in Xenia convened on November 15, 1804. He had opened his house for the reception of wayfarers on October I, and it was in his tavern that all of the early settlers spent their first night in the present city of Xenia.
No picture of any kind of this tavern is known to be in existence, but it has been described by pioneers who saw it standing many years after the village was laid out. Its greatest length was from east to west, with its west end about forty-five feet east of the southeast corner of Detroit and Main streets, the site of the present Xenia National Bank. It is apparent that the whole of the second floor was used for county purposes, although there is nothing to indicate as much. The court room itself was in the west room of the second story, and it is very probable that the remainder of the floor was used for the other offices of the county officials. This second floor of the Beatty tavern remained the headquarters of the county's official life from November 15, 1804, to August 14, 1809, a period of nearly five years. Thes new court house in the public square was then ready for occupancy and the business of the county was transferred to its new quarters.
FIRST COURT HOUSE.
The first building erected by the county as a court house stood within the present public square, but not in the middle of the square as might be imagined. It stood in the southwestern corner of the square. When the county commissioners got ready to build in the fore part of 1806, the square was completely covered with a dense growth of native forest trees and their first step was the letting of a contract to William Tindall to clear off a large enough tract to accommodate the court house. For this work Tindall was allowed the sum of six dollars, and the inference is that he either took the timber as part payment for his work or that he did not value his services very highly.
The contract for the first court house was let on January 6, 1806, to William Kendall in the sum of $3,396, the commissioners at that time being James Snoden, John McClain and David Huston. The proposed building was to be of brick, forty feet square, twenty-eight feet in height, with a hipped roof, and cupola in the middle. The cupola, which was the distin- guishing feature of all the early court houses in Ohio, was at first designed to be fifteen feet high and ten feet in diameter, but the height was eventually increased to twenty-five feet. The building faced Main street, standing sixty- two feet from the street, with its principal entrance on the south side. As originally designed the building had a door on the west ( Detroit street) side,
126
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
but for some reason this proposed entrance was bricked up before the build- ing was finally completed.
The contractor began work in 1806, but evidently must have been either a very slow workman or was hindered in some way during the progress of construction. It was not until three years later that he reported the build- ing about done. The commissioners were getting impatient at the delay and on July 1, 1809, appointed James Miller and Matthew Dinsmore, disin- terested parties, who, with a third party of their own selection, were to ex- amine the building and report as to its condition. They reported that the building in the main was satisfactory, but that some of the plastering was not up to specifications. Kendall proceeded to satisfy the commissioners on this score, and on the 14th of the following month the building was for- mally accepted by the commissioners as completed. There were some parts of the building which did not meet with their entire approval, while on the other hand, other parts were even better than the specifications called for. Although there is no record as to when the various county officials moved into the new court house, it is fair to presume that they at once took posses- sion. The first meeting of the court of common pleas in the new court room was on September 26, 1809.
OTHER COUNTY OFFICE BUILDINGS.
It seems queer that within five years from the time the first court house was completed it was deemed necessary to build additional quarters for county officials. Such however was the case, whatever the cause therefor may have been. The records of the commissioners state that on June 4, 1814, the board passed a resolution ordering the erection on the public square of a building for the use of the clerk of the court of common pleas and the county commissioners. The contract for the building was let on July 4, 1814, to David Douglass for the sum of $749.50. This structure was a small, one-story, brick building, and stood about fifty feet north of Main street and between the court house and Greene street. It was ready to be turned over to the county on September 4, 1815, at which time it was ac- cepted by the commissioners. A small porch, known in those days by the high sounding name of "piazza," was built along the front of this little build- ing in 1820 by John Harbison. This building was razed shortly after the office building of 1832 was erected.
The second office building of the county, a much more pretentious struc- ture, and what some taxpayers chose to call a court house, was provided for in 1832. It would have seemed that if the county was so imperatively in need of room at that time a new court house would have been erected, but at this late day, so far removed from the scenes of those days, it is impos-
127
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
sible to follow the vagaries of the county commissioners. At any rate on May 1, 1832, the commissioners entered into a contract with Daniel Lewis for the erection of what were termed "public offices." The building, a brick structure, was erected in front of the office building of 1814, east of the court house, its front line being flush with Main street, and its east end twenty- two and a half feet from the west side of Greene street. It was sixty-three feet long and twenty-two feet wide, its length being from east to west. It had two stories and contained six rooms, three on each floor. These six rooms were occupied as follows: First floor-west room, clerk of the court of common pleas ; middle room, auditor ; east room, treasurer ; second floor- west room, clerk of the supreme court; middle room, recorder, east room, sheriff.
One is left to wonder what use was made of the court house proper. This new office building housed all the county officials except the county commissioners, although the judge, when present, probably had his office in the court house. It would have seemed that the clerk of the common pleas court, at least, would have remained in the court house, but even he was transferred to the new building. The inference is that the court house was not a very satisfactory building, but the commissioners' records do not afford any explanation of the seemingly queer situation. Furthermore, to add to the humorous situation, the county commissioners had but fairly got the officials ensconced in the new building when they began preparations for erecting a magnificent new court house. According to the best evidence the structure of 1832 was demolished in 1842, after it had been occupied only nine years. It had cost the county $2,100 to erect the building. It seems that the original contractor, Daniel Lewis, associated three other men-John H. Edsal, and Henry and John Barnes-with him in the erection of the building.
SECOND COURT HOUSE.
The court house completed in 1809, as has been shown, was not at all satisfactory. After 1833 practically all of the county business was trans- acted in the office building completed in that year, but this was not altogether a satisfactory arrangement. In fact, from the time the county officials moved out of the court house in 1833, there had been a sporadic agitation for a new court house, but it was not until 1841 that the agitation resulted in definite action on the part of the county commissioners. On October 9, 1841, the commissioners let the contract for the second court house, the con- tract being let in two parts : John M. Rader and William C. Robinson, stone and brick work; A. E. Turnbull, carpenter work and finishing, including the plastering, and the installation of fire-proof safes. Owing to the fact that
128
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
the records of the commissioners for this year are missing the exact cost of their second court house is not known. Rader and Robinson agreed to do the brick and stone work for $4,864; the bid of Turnbull was $6,172; the stone columns cost $458.66, this being apart from the bid of Rader and Robinson. Walter King, the architect, was paid $35 for the plans and spec- ifications.
The old court house was sold at public auction to John Culters and brought only $199, which was probably all it was worth, judging from the fact that county officials would not live in it. The purchaser agreed to have it removed by March 1, 1842. The construction of the new court house was hurried by the contractors and by November 24, 1843, it was completed and accepted by the commissioners. A bell was installed at a cost of two hundred dollars and a clock in the cupola added one hundred dollars more to the total cost of the building. This building with a few minor interior improvements remained as built in 1843 until 1875.
A study of the commissioners' records reveals a few interesting facts concerning the court house between 1843 and 1875. On November 24, 1855, the board entered into an agreement with Greaves & Stutsman, "gass fitters," to pipe the building for gas. This was, of course, artificial gas, which had just been introduced in Xenia. The contract called for the piping and installation of the necessary fixtures to light the "offices, halls and isles" of the court house, for which the commissioners agreed to pay the gas fitters the sum of $162.25.
It might be mentioned here that the famous iron fence around the pub- lic square, which will be remembered by all the older generation of the county, was contracted for on December 13, 1856. The contract was let to Horton & Macy, for $2.96 a running foot, the posts to cost $5.50 each, the fence to be completed by August I, 1857. It is not certain how much fence was orig- inally contracted for, the record stating that it was intended to enclose only a part of the public square. When the contractors were paid for the fence, the account shows that they had erected five hundred and two feet of fence and put in forty-two posts, the total cost to the county being $1,716.92. It was completed sometime in the spring of 1858, the date not being given, although it was stated that the fence was paid for out of the county's rail- road dividends. The complete record of this fence may be seen in the com- missioners' record, Vol. VII, pp. 421-422. This fence was later extended to include the entire square, and remained in place until the commissioners by a resolution dated July 6, 1891, ordered the iron part removed and part of it used around the jail lot and the remainder at the county infirmary where it is still doing serviceable duty in 1918. The fence proper was set in a solid stone base, about two feet high, and after the fence was removed it
HOUSE OF OWEN DAVIS, BEAVERCREEK TOWNSHIP, WHERE THE FIRST COURT WAS HELD.
OLD COURT HOUSE, 1846-1901.
129
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
was planned to allow the stone to remain in place, the idea being that it would protect the court house lawn and at the same time give a sense of completeness to the public square. But it was soon found that the stone curbing, if it may be so called, was an extremely attractive loafing place in the summer, and there seemed to be no way of getting rid of the scores and even at times hundreds of loafers who daily congregated along the stone wall. Finally, when the present court house was built, the commissioners removed the wall, thus ending the history of the famous iron fence which had stood through two generations of the life of Greene county.
ADDITION OF 1875.
The court house completed in 1843 received its first and only addition in 1875. However, an effort had been made as early as 1867 to build an addition to the court house, but for some reason, not disclosed in the com- missioners' records, the effort came to naught. The only reference to the abortive effort of 1867 is found in the agreement made April 3, 1867, be- tween the county commissioners and the firm of Blackburn & Koehler, architects of Cleveland, Ohio, who were employed on that date to provide the plans and specifications for the new county infirmary. After reciting the compensation to be allowed the architects for their work in connection with the infirmary, the agreement goes on to say that the commissioners further- more agree to "pay the said architects three per centum of the cost of plans and specifications for a proposed addition to the court house in case the said addition is built while the infirmary is in course of construction." Evi- dently nothing was done at this time toward building such an addition, but it is evident that the project was being seriously considered.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.