USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 17
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At the forty-fourth session of the Legislature in 1845-1846 Greene, Fayette and Clinton counties were formed into a senatorial district which was represented by Burnham Martin, 1845-1846, and Franklin Corwin, 1847-1848.
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The convening of the forty-eighth session in 1848 and 1849 witnessed another change in the representation of this county in the state Senate, for Warren, Greene and Clinton counties formed a district. This arrangement obtained until 1850, when the constitutional convention met for the draft- ing of the Constitution of 1851. Aaron Harlan represented this district in 1849 and David Linton in 1850.
During the constitutional convention (1850-1851) Aaron Harlan rep- resented Greene county in the deliberations of that body. In article XI, sec- tion 7, of this document the state was divided into thirty-three senatorial districts and the counties of Greene, Fayette and Clinton were erected into the fifth senatorial district. This arrangement continued from the fiftieth session until the seventieth (1852-1892). The senators during this period were the following: John Fudge, 1852; Isaac S. Wright, 1854-1856; Nelson Rush, 1856-1858; James J. Winans, 1858-1860; John Q. Smith, 1860-1862; Mills Gardner, 1862-1864; John F. Patton, 1864-1866; A. W. Doan, 1866- 1868; Samuel N. Yeoman, 1868-1870; Moses D. Gatch, 1870-1872; John Q. Smith, 1872-1874; Samuel N. Yeoman, 1874-1876; A. Spangler, 1876- 1878; Thomas S. Jackson, 1878-1880; A. R. Creamer, 1880-1882; Coates Kinney, 1882-1884; Jesse N. Oren, 1884-1886; Madison Pavey, 1886-1888; Isaac M. Barrett, 1888-1890; and Jesse N. Oren, 1890-1892.
A new apportionment of senatorial districts was made in the sixty-ninth session of the Legislature wherein the fifth district, of which Greene county is a member, was joined to the sixth. This fifth and sixth senatorial districts is composed of these counties : Fayette, Greene, Clinton, Highland and Ross. This arrangement has continued until the present time. Since 1892 until the present the senators have been the following :
F. G. Carpenter, 1892-1894; James M. Hughey, 1894-1896; Charles F. Howard, 1896-1898; Byron Lutz, 1898-1900; Thomas W. Marchant, 1900-1902 ; James G. Carson, 1902-1904; Thomas M. Watts, 1904-1906; F. C. Arbenz, 1906-1908; Frank M. Clevenger, 1908-1910; Coke L. Doster and G. W. Holdren, 1910-1912; M. A. Broadstone, 1912-1914; Jesse B. Mallow, 1914-1916, and U. G. Murrell, 1916-1918.
GREENE COUNTY OFFICIALS IN 1918.
The following table gives the list of all the county officials in 1918, together with their salaries. The salaries of all county officials are payable at the end of each month and, with very few exceptions, all the officials have a fixed salary. The coroner is the only official in the county whose salary is made up of fees. The county survveyor formerly received certain fees, but the White-Mulcahy act of the 1917 Legislature placed him on a straight salary and provided for the reversion of all fees to the county. He was formerly allowed fifty dollars a month for tax-map drafting. Beginning
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
with June 28, 1917, the surveyor was placed on a straight salary basis, the same as all other officials of the county except the coroner. Some officials are allowed a per diem for the time actually spent; others get only their ex- penses ; still others serve without pay. The following table gives the names of the county officials on April 1, 1918:
Office and Incumbent. Salary.
Common Pleas Judge, Charles H. Kyle.
$4,000
Judge of Probate, J. Carl Marshall 2,410
Clerk of Court, George Sheets
2,115
Prosecuting Attorney, Harry D. Smith 1,600 1 1 1 I I 1 1 1 1
Auditor, Amos E. Faulkner
2,410
Recorder, Benjamin F. Thomas
1,600
Treasurer, J. E. Sutton 1 1 I I 1 J I 1
2,410
Surveyor, Joseph M. Fawcett
2,633
Sheriff, Frank A. Jackson
1,745
Coroner, R. L. Haines
fees
Commissioners, George N. Perrill, Robert Corry and R. D. William- son
1,345
Infirmary Superintendent, M. S. Smith
720
Infirmary Matron, Mrs. M. S. Smith
360
Matron of Children's Home, Miss Mary H. Bankerd
840
County Superintendent of Schools, F. M. Reynolds
2,500
District Superintendents of Schools :
D. S. Lynn, District No. I 1,679 1 1 1
J. H. Fortney, District No. 2. 1,800
C. A. Devoe, District No. 3- 1,600
Deputy Sealer of Weights and Measures, Asa Little. 900
County Board of Elections, J. M. Fletcher, D. O. Jones, Harry Estle, B. K. Ritenour, Roy Hayward 100
Jury Commissioners, John Fudge and B. K. Ritenour, per day.
5
Court Bailiff, C. W. Linkhart 960
Court Stenographer, Elsie Canby
1,200
Budget Commission, Auditor, Treasurer and Prosecuting Attorney __
none
County Board of Education, O. P. Mittman, A. L. Fisher, J. E. Hast- ings, J. B. Reif and Welsh none County Board of Visitors, Mrs. Della Snodgrass, Mrs. Carrie I. Rob-
ertson, L. P. Hilliard, John W. Hedges, Mrs. Sarah G. Holler __ expenses Representative, W. B. Bryson. 1,000
Senator, U. G. Murrell 1,000
County Board of Review, Auditor, Treasurer, President of Board of
County Commissioners none
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
To the casual observer the amount that the county pays its officials an- nually seems enormous, but one week in any office in the court house will convince the most skeptical person that the task of properly administering the affairs of any office is not the sinecure that many think it is. The salary paid John Paul in the initial years of the county's existence for the work he did in attending to the affairs of the auditor's, clerk's and recorder's office seems pitifully small when compared with what even the janitor re- ceives now. But it must be considered how the volume of county business has increased since his time.
The historian has been privileged to examine the records in the court house in the various offices extending over a period of more than one hun- dred years. They have been kept in a manner which indicates that the officials have been usually competent. The historian takes pleasure in affiirming that the manner in which the county records are now kept should be a source of gratification to the residents of Greene county. All the records are carefully indexed and many of the originals have been carefully transcribed, thus showing that this county has been more fortunate in the kinds of officials it has chosen than many other counties. There have been exceptions to the usual competency of Greene county officials. A public office is a public trust and should be so considered. The ordinary citizen has an indefinite notion that any one can fill a county office, no matter what his education may have been or what previous experience he has had. More than mere honesty is required; efficiency is just as necessary as honesty. Many an honest man has made a poor official. Some day man will arrive at a state of political perfection when civil administration will be reduced to a science, and until that day arrives we shall go on in our poor, blundering way.
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CHAPTER VIII
OLD SETTLERS AND PIONEER LIFE.
Immigration into the Northwest Territory received its initial impetus after the settlement of Marietta in 1788, but the troubles with the Indians deterred all save the most venturesome and daring from coming northward. It was only after Wayne's defeat of Little Turtle at Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the treaty of Greenville in the year following that the stream of immigration into Ohio became steady and ever increasing. Before the settlement of Marietta the only white men who dared to cross the Ohio from Kentucky and try conclusions with the original owners of the soil were such hunters and explorers as Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone and their kind.
The hunter and trapper was different from the later settlers of Ohio. He led a rough, solitary and hazardous existence. He was a picturesque man in his coon-skin cap and blue linsey blouse, with a yellow fringe of deer skin. His breeches and leggings were of buckskin and he was shod with the footwear of the Indian, the moccasin. He was a rover, for he never intended locating on the soil permanently. His long rifle and precious ammunition furnished him with food and furs, the latter his source of income. He sought the wilderness because he loved it and when the van- guard of civilization approached too near him, he plunged more deeply into the woods because conventions were vexatious to him. In the main, these hunters contributed little to the future of Ohio, but sometimes a few would cease their roving and settle down to the development of the state. Sev- eral became valued members of early surveying parties and finally well- known and valuable citizens of the commonwealth.
On the heels of the hunter came the first settlers, and, although the life of the latter was less fraught with danger, the early settler had always to keep on the alert to protect his life and property. In the early settle- ments the first house built was a blockhouse, around which the cabins were grouped, as was the case where Owen Davis built his mill on Beaver creek as shall later be seen. The howling of the wolves and the scream of the panther could ever be heard at nightfall, and the buffalo had scarcely yet become a memory. Women and children and even men were not safe beyond the edge of the clearing in the forest around their cabins, but the long rifle was hung over the door of every pioneer home, within easy
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
reach of the settler. At night this effective guardian of the early settler stood by his bed and while he was at work in his "deadening" or was wending his way at the head of his family toward the pioneer church, the rifle was his constant companion.
The most potent weapon of the early settler of Greene county was not the rifle, because the danger from the redskin had passed when this section was first settled. The depredations of the Indian had become a memory, furnishing material for thrilling tales around the fireside during the long winter evenings. This county was overgrown with dense timber which made the growing of the crops a task. Armed only with his ax and firebrand the early settler issued into the forest which surrounded his lowly cabin and cleared a place whereon he could produce sufficient sus- tenance for his family. And with his trusty ax he built his church, his school house and his mill, and before the sound of his steady strokes the bear, the savage, the wolf and the panther fled, never to return.
THE COUNTY'S FIRST SETTLERS.
The first settlers of Greene county were from Kentucky, Scotchmen of the good old Seceder stock, whose consistency and persistency was the right kind to make this new country the garden spot it is. Most of the people who settled Greene county originally came from Virginia, but there was quite a sprinkling of Pennsylvanians and Carolinians. They were sturdy men and brave women who entered this new land and remained here to make possible the happiness which their children now enjoy. As a rule they were the merchant, the farmer, the mechanic, the soldier and the politician, ready to enforce and make the law, to build the mill, to protect the country in time of war and to put their capable hands to the plow or to the helm of the ship of state as the time and the exigency might require. Patient, industrious, economical, with a deep love for learning and with a deep reverence for the religion of their fathers, these early settlers were the right kind of men and women to fashion Greene county from the vast expanse of unbroken wilderness which they found here when they arrived.
It is true that there was dross among the gold, for not long after the county was organized it became necessary to tie up a culprit to a tree in the court house yard and whip him. This was pursuant to the orders of, the court, because the man punished had stolen a quantity of sole leather. Moreover, the old blockhouse which was near the home of Peter Borders, the house in which was held the county's first court, became the impro- vised jail for the community. Evidently a need had arisen for such a place in which to lodge violators of the law.
As time passed, the stream of pioneers into Ohio became greater
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
and thousands loaded themselves and the bare necessities of life into the primitive "arks" or flatboats and floated down the Ohio river to find their new homes. Many of these settlers, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia, became newcomers into Greene county. Their outfit con- sisted, generally, of the smallest amount of bed clothing, a few iron and pewter utensils, an ax, an auger, a flintlock rifle, a knife and a plow, per- haps. The "arks" were constructed' of rough lumber at Pittsburgh or wherever was their starting point. After the emigrant had reached his destination, his rude bark was dismantled and the lumber was sold or was used in the erection of the cabin or barn. The boat was steered by a long oar at the back and the whole conveyance was intended to float with the current. It was easy for one to reach the new lands, but it was difficult for him to return to his old home. On arriving at Cincinnati the new settler of Greene county would load his family and their few belongings into an ox-drawn wagon and strike out northward up through the Miami country to this section.
When the emigrant reached Greene county, he found the older settler ready to give him a helping hand, and the latter would always share his cabin with the newcomer and his family. Children were tucked away in trundle beds or on pallets in the corners of the one room, and clothes and bed clothing were hung up to shield one family from the other as they went to bed. As soon as possible after the emigrant located his holding. which he generally entered at the land office at Cincinnati, his neighbors appointed a day for the house raising and soon he was firmly established in the com- munity.
COMING OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN.
More than one hundred and twenty-five years ago, in 1796, a little band of sturdy pioneers set out from Kentucky northward into Ohio, where they intended to find a suitable place to establish their homes. These men were John Wilson and his sons, Amos, George and Daniel, and Jacob Mills. They crossed the Ohio to Cincinnati and struck out northward on the mili- tary road which General Wayne had hewed out of the forest three years before, wandered off to the Little Miami river and eventually entered within what later became Sugarcreek township, Greene county. Here they were so impressed with the land that they decided to settle. This land was far different then from what it is now, for it was a vast expanse of un- broken, virgin forest, which had never known the woodsman's ax. These men, who were the kind that carve out empires in the wilderness, did not enter this wild country with the expectation of finding existence an easy one, for they undoubtedly understood the trials, hardships, drudgeries, dan-
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
gers and privations of pioneer life. Only two years before, 1794, had Gen- eral Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers, and had created in Ohio a semblance of safety for the incoming white settlers. The Indians were sulking and were only waiting for a leader to spring up to lead them against the whites and drive them back across the Alleghanies. These fear- less frontiersmen had nothing but the ax and fire with which to clear a place for their patches of corn, beans and pumpkins and to hew a home out of the wilderness. Whenever their larder needed replenishing, they started out in the woods with their long squirrel rifles.
Soon after John Wilson and his sons and Jacob Mills arrived here, they purchased land, the aggregate amount being one thousand acres, which lay at what later became the junction of Montgomery, Greene and Warren counties. Amos and George Wilson purchased a quarter section each, ad- joining their father in'Greene county, while their brother's holding was found later to lie in Montgomery county. Jacob Mills, who was allowed the surplus in his survey, became the owner of two hundred acres in War- ren county. Immediately the little band of pioneers erected a small cabin, April 7, 1796, on the land of John Wilson for the temporary accommoda- tion of all, while they cleared a small tract in each of their holdings on which they planted a few vegetables and a little grain. This cabin, it is believed, was the first one erected by a white man within what is now Greene county.
DIFFICULT JOURNEY INTO THE WILDERNESS.
Not wishing to subject their families to the dangers of overland travel when they made their initial trip into the wilderness, the pioneers had left their wives and children back in Kentucky, but when they had finished planting their little patches of beans, corn, potatoes and pumpkins, they returned to the Blue Grass state for their loved ones to bring them out into the new country in Ohio. Procuring an ox-team and a wagon, all five of the pioneers loaded their families and their household goods and few agricultural implements into their lumbering conveyance, and struck out for the Ohio river. They crossed the river at Cincinnati and then they started out northward for the little cabin and clearing in the almost in- penetrable woods of what later became Greene county. The journey into the wilderness was not at all an easy one, for the well-improved roads which now characterize the overland transportation of southwestern Ohio were not then in existence. Their only means of access to the north was the military road which General Wayne had cut out of the forest as he moved northward against the Indians in 1794. This road was full of stumps and was little more than a path, but it was nevertheless better than
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
none. Travel was not without danger and the sturdy pioneers walked along beside the wagon with their long squirrel rifles held in readiness for instant use. Whenever the axle of the wagon mired too deeply for the patient oxen to extricate the pioneer equipage from the mud, the settlers put their shoulders to the wheel to eke out the flagging strength of their plodding oxen. When night came a halt was made at a convenient spring and the good wives would alight from the wagon to prepare the simple but delicious repast which was so characteristic of the pioneer table. On the arrival of the little party in what later became Sugarcreek township, they stowed their goods in the little cabin where all five families remained until by their joint efforts other houses were erected on the holdings of each. This was called the Wilson settlement.
Here the five families comprising the little settlement began the pros- perity which the later comers into Greene county enjoyed. They were very advantageously located, for they utilized the bounteous gifts with which nature had surrounded them, and the liberal reward which came to their labor prompted these first settlers to bend their energies toward advancing the settlement of this region. Since the land where they located was heavily wooded, they had much difficulty in clearing sufficient ground for the plant- ing of crops, but they were not dependent alone upon the return from their agricultural pursuits. The forest afforded deer, bear, turkeys, pheasants, squirrels and other game for the pioneer table, and the oaks and beech trees furnished the mast for the pioneer hog, which did not appear to be even a distant relative of the improved breeds now found in Greene county. With these natural auxiliaries, the table of these early settlers was not at all scantily supplied, and with the cornbread, venison, bacon, beans and milk, for they drove a cow or two before them as they entered the country, the Millses and Wilsons had sufficient food to afford complete satisfaction to their appetites which were sharpened by the day's work in the clearings.
In the spring of 1797 the Wilson settlement received a valuable addi- tion to their number in the person of John Vance, the father of Joseph C. Vance, one of the earliest officials of the county, who settled on the present site of Bellbrook. Soon after his coming, Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, Col- onel Maxwell, John Paul, who was the proprietor of the site of Xenia, and Owen Davis, who built the first mill in the county, all located on Beaver creek.
OWEN DAVIS, THE FIRST MILLER.
One of the first indications of the coming of civilization in the early settlements was the erection of a mill where the pioneer took his grain for grinding, and the miller followed close upon the heels of the first settler. Before the miller made his appearance in the community, the pioneer had
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
to grind his grain in his own improvised mill which was little better than that of the mound builder or the Indian. Sometimes it was a rude mortar and a stone pestle with which he made his coarse meal, the same to be made into the "Johnnycakes" so common in pioneer days. Since this method of grinding was at best a slow process and since the settler had to work from dawn until dark in clearing his land in the forest so that he could plant his crops, a division of labor was necessary and the miller and his mill became an absolute necessity.
The settlement in Greene county was no exception. When Owen Davis, a native of Wales, settled on Beaver creek in the spring of 1797 he saw the need of the settlers and straightway began the construction of a mill. He had to work on it during his spare moments, for he had to establish himself and family on their farm securely before he could complete his rude mill. Finally, he finished it in 1798, to the gratification of his neighbors and opened it up for business. This mill in no wise approximated the complete flouring plants of the county today, for its patrons furnished the power themselves. The buhrs were of stone, fourteen inches in diameter and three inches thick. Nevertheless, it satisfied the needs of the settlers so well that two blockhouses were built a little east of the mill, so that when danger necessitated, a line of pickets could be extended from one to the other, which would, at the same time, give protection to the mill. This first in- dustrial enterprise of Greene county was located on what is now known as the Thomas Brown farm, a short distance from Beaver creek, near the south line of the Harbine farm. The home of Peter Borders, the house in which the first court in the county was held and which stood on thee farm belonging to Owen Davis, stood near the mill. Nearby stood the little log house which served as the jury room. One of the blockhouses, which was a source of protection to this infant industry, later became the county jail.
Since this was the only mill for miles around, its patrons came with their grists from far and near to grind their corn. Oftentimes as many as seven settlers would gather there with their bags of corn, "spell each other at the crank," hear all the neighborhood news, load their meal on their horses' backs and return home. Members of the "Dutch Settlement," in Montgomery county, thirty miles away, would bring their corn to the Davis mill, and after they had ground their meal, they would camp out there that night and depart for home early the next morning.
AS PUGNACIOUS AS HE WAS ACCOMMODATING.
Owen Davis was a very genial and accommodating man, often remain- ing up the whole night to oblige his customers, who had frequently come long distances for their meal. In fact, some of his good neighbors con-
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
sidered him too accommodating, for he often started his mill on the Sab- bath for some of his customers who had brought their corn a long distance to be ground. This Sabbath-breaking outraged the religious sense of some of his neighbors, for they felt that it compromised the Christian reputation of the settlement; accordingly, they threatened the owner of the mill with prosecution if he did not desist from this practice. The miller, knowing that he had the advantage, smiled blandly at the protestations of his neigh- bors and announced to them that in case any such proceedings were insti- tuted they could carry their corn some thirty or forty miles to the nearest mill or they could grind it themselves with the mortar and pestle in Indian fashion. It is needless to say that his good neighbors desisted from any such action out of consideration for their own convenience, and Owen Davis continued to serve his customers on the Sabbath when they could not come at another time, for he felt that such cases were instances where the "ox was in the ditch."
Moreover, this jolly miller was as pugnacious as he was accommo- dating, for at the meeting of the first court of common pleas of Greene county he plead guilty on August 2, 1803, to a charge of assault and was duly fined eight dollars. It seems that Davis had charged a settler from Warren county with stealing hogs and the latter had resented the accusa- tion with such vehemence that a fistic encounter resulted, in which the miller had the better of the bargain. After the fight Davis repaired himself to the county seat of justice where tradition says he addressed his son-in-law, Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, who was one of the associate judges, after some such manner : "Well, Ben, I've whipped that hog thief and now what's the damage?" And after paying his fine, he shook his fist at the judge and said, "Yes, Ben, if you'd steal a hog, I'd whip you, too."
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