USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 20
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Elijah Adamson, William Aims, Ezekiel Arrowsmith, Christian Aldrich, Paul Butler, Abner Barrett, James Barlow, Henry Bailey, Elijah Chapman, William Chapman, Thomas Cowhitch, John Clark, Walter Craig, Joseph Dickason, Amos Derrough, Isaac Dillon, Archibald Dowden, John Doyle, Thomas Davis, John Dougherty, James Demint, Christopher End- rick, Griffith Foos, John Forgey, John Gard, Henry Huffman, Elijah Har- bour, John Humphreys, Abraham Inlow, Joseph Hill, John Jackson, Thomas Hardin, William Kenton, Simon Kenton, Solomon Kelley, John Kelley, Abner Kelley, Barton Lovett, Arthur Layton, Archibald Lowry, William Layton, Joseph Layton, John Laferty, David Lowry, Robert Lowry, Alex- ander Miller, James Mitchell, William McDaniel, James McPherson, Adam McPherson, John McPherson, Robert McKenney, Christopher McGill, William Moore, Joseph McKenney, James Miller, Joseph McLain, Daniel
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McKennon. Jonathan Milholland, John Miller, Thomas Moore, Christly Miller, Samuel McCollough, William Owens, Daniel Philips, William Palmer, William Powell, John Paul, Joseph Reed, Daniel Robinson, Robert Renneck, William Ross, Thomas Reed, Richard Robinson, Daniel Rector, Thomas Rogers, Charles Rector, Hugh Reed, John Rigdon, John Runyan, Stephen Runyan, Patrick Rock, Jacob Robinson, Phelie Rock, Thomas Red- man, Jeremiah Still, William Smith, Joseph Sutton, James Smith, Paulus Stewart, John Tucker, John Turman, John Tellis, John Taylor, James Ward, William Ward, William Thomas, Thomas West, William Woods, James Woods, Samuel Whiteman, Thomas Pierce and Hugh Cameron. In all there were one hundred and fifteen electors who took part in this election and this list enables the reader to determine the names of the earliest settlers of Mad River township.
The result of this election shows that William McMillan received 50 votes, William Goforth, 55; Elias Langham, I, and Jeremiah Morrow, I. The associate judges had already determined that Mad River township should have three justices of the peace and Adam McPherson, Jonathan Millholland and Thomas Layton were the three candidates who received the highest number of votes. For overseers of the poor, Simon Kenton re- ceived 60 votes ; John Humphreys, 71 ; Thomas Pierce, 21 ; Solomon Kelley, 5; Archibald Lowry, 12: Charles Rector, IT ; John Clark, two; Thomas Red- man, one; Elijah Adamson, 40, and Thomas Davis, 66. The following was the vote for constables : John McPherson, one; Robert McKenney, 57; Joseph Reed, 98; William Chapman, 17; Thomas Moore, 66; William Ross, 17; John Gard, nine; Robert Renneck, five; James Demint, one; Jonathan Mill- holland, two; Paul Butler, two, and Henry Huffman, one. From a list of ten candidates William Ward was elected road master by a majority of twenty over his nearest competitor. Thomas Lowry and John, Dougherty were elected house appraisers, and the latter was also made the lister of taxable property in the township. Robert Lowry was elected township clerk. The vote for fence viewers stood thus : James Demint, 61 ; Alexander Miller, three ; John Clark, 34; Charles Rector, three; William Moore, two; Thomas men became township managers : William Kenton, Elijah Adamson and John Kenton, two; Griffith Foos, 23, and William Ward, two. The following Humphreys.
THE FIRST ENUMERATION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
After John Dougherty had been elected lister of taxable property in Mad River township, he set about his duties of compiling the list of the "free male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one" in that civil division of
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the county. He began this work in August, 1803, and certified the list to the associate judges on September 7, 1803. Since this township extended so far northward, one might think that the task of collecting this data was a herculean task, when it is considered that the means of communication in those days prevented easy access to the different parts of the county, but the inhabitants of Mad River township in those days had chiefly settled in its southern portion, around the village of Springfield and as far northward as the site of the present city of Urbana, Champaign county. Thus the task was not so great as it might seem on first consideration.
This list is of historical interest to the present, for by it one is enabled to add to the list of early settlers who were included in the poll-book of the first election. The numerous additions leads the investigator to think that either the early residents of Mad River township were very careless about their exercise of the right of suffrage, or the settlers in this district had had numerous accessions since the election in June of 1803. Possibly both in equal measure accounted for the enlarged list which was submitted by Dougherty in September, 1803. The additional names of old settlers ob- tained from the enumeration sheets of the lister follow :
Allen Adair, Frederick Ambrose, Isaac Anderson, Edward Armstrong, Adam Allen, Seth Arnett, George Bennett, Robert Boyce, Thomas Burt, James Bishop, George Brown, John Crossley, Elijah Chapman, Cornelius Carter, Elnathan Corry, John Dawson, Domnic Donley, Jonathan Donnell, John Denny, Nathan Fitch, Daniel Goble, Aaron Gooden, Enos Holland, William Holmes, Henry Huffman, Silas Johnson, Jonathan Johnson, Joseph Kizer, James McDonald, William McDonald, Archibald Mckinley, Robert McMains, William McColloch, George Manford, Burrel Mills, Edward Mercer, Hinian Nichols, Thomas M. Pendleton, William Palmer, Eleazer Piper, Daniel Philips, William Paul, James Paul, David Prunty, James Robetelle, Jacob Read, John Read, Mathias Ross, Benjamin Ross, William Rhodes, Thomas Robinson, Joseph Simons, Jacob Server, Thomas Scott, James Scott, Charles Stoss, Henry Sturm, Lewis Summers, Sampson Tol- bert, Benjamin Turman, Isaac Turman, Christopher Wood, Joseph Whittle- sey, Adam Wise, Hugh Wallace, Thomas Wallace, Basil West, Christopher Weaver, William Weaver, John Welsh, John Wirt, Thomas Lowry, Joseph Layton, Robert Layton and Joseph Lefaw.
There were several of these early residents of Mad River township who exercised a strong influence in the development of the counties of Clark and Champaign, which were formed in great part from this early township of Greene county. Among these should be mentioned, Simon Kenton, William Ward, James McPherson, James Demint, Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry.
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WILLIAM WARD.
William Ward, one of these early residents of Mad River township, was the founder of Urbana, Champaign county, and the proprietor of the site of that city. He was born in Greenbriar county, Virginia, December 14, 1752, and died on December 24, 1822. He was a soldier of the Revolution and was a lieutenant in the battle of Point Pleasant, where his father, Capt. James Ward, fell. After the war he returned to Virginia where he married. Later, about 1790, he removed to Kentucky and settled near Maysville.
It was the search for the family of his brother, John Ward, that drew William Ward into the Ohio country, the former having been captured by the Shawnees in one of their raids into the land of the white man. William Ward persuaded Simon Kenton to accompany him into the Mad river coun- try, since he heard that the family of his brother resided thereabout, and when the two men arrived in the country north of the site of Springfield, they were so delighted with the land that they decided to enter tracts in this section. They returned to take up their residence here in 1802. Ward made his home about four miles north of the site of Springfield.
After Champaign county was organized in 1805, Ward, with true Yankee shrewdness, purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land which he considered to be the most acceptable site for the new county seat, and then he approached the commissioners of the new county with a proposition to locate the seat for the new county on this tract. The scheme met with the approval of the commissioners and Ward became the proprietor of the new county seat of Urbana, and he doubtless found the venture a lucrative one.
Ward soon removed to Urbana and there he made his home until his death in 1822. He was an old-school Virginia gentleman, who believed in good farming and he kept the best breeds of cattle and horses. His manners were stately and decorous and he was kind to his neighbors and liberal to strangers needing assistance in a new home. He was a Presbyterian as was his family, but he freely entertained ministers of all denominations in his home.
JAMES DEMINT.
Little is known of James Demint save that from the old records on file in the court house he was known to have been the proprietor and owner of the original site of Springfield. Obviously this early resident of Mad River township fully realized that at no distant date the large northern civil divi- sion of Greene county would be divided into other counties. He sought to forestall such a situation by causing to be laid out the city of Springfield, the plan of which was certified on September 5, 1803. The original plat of the city is now on file in Vol. 9, page 520, of the deed record in the office of the recorder of Greene county.
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It is certain that from the first Springfield was intended to be a county- seat town, for this old plat shows a public square to be laid out. Originally the town contained ninety-six lots, all of which contain seventy-two perches, excepting the eight half lots surrounding the public square. The streets were all four poles wide and the alleys all one pole in width. Following the plat are the following words :
Before me, Joseph Layton. a justice of the peace in and for the County of Greene, personally came James Demint of the county aforesaid, and acknowledged the within plat of the town of Springfield to be true and accurately laid off as it within is presented. Acknowledged before me this 12th day of September, 1804.
JOSEPH LAYTON.
The plat was not filed with the recorder of Greene county until 1824 as is shown by the following :
In presence of Griffith Foos and Isaac Newland the within old plat of the town of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, was recorded in my office on the 28th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1824, in obedience to an act of the General Assembly of the said state, passed February 2, 1824.
JOSIAH GROVER,
Recorder, Greene County, Ohio.
TAXATION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
After the election was held in Mad River township, the court of common pleas laid the first levy on the county, and John Dougherty, the lister for the township, brought in the report that there were within the borders of the township two hundred and forty-three horses and four hundred and ninety- two cows. Simon Kenton owned a mill valued at one hundred and fifty dol- lars ; William Chapman, one at one hundred dollars ; Jonathan Donnell, one at sixty dollars; James Demint, one at twenty-five dollars and Isaac Zane, one at two hundred and fifty dollars.
Since section 7 of the act creating Greene county exempted all the resi- dents of Mad River township from paying taxes for the purpose of erecting public buildings, the common pleas court ordered that the residents of this township should pay two cents less on each horse and one cent less on each cow, which is to say that the tax in Mad River township on each horse would be twenty-eight cents and eleven and one-half cents on each cow. The levy on mills and houses of fifty cents on each one hundred dollars value was not reduced. It thus followed that the quota of this township to the county's funds totaled one hundred and forty-three dollars and ninety-nine cents.
TAVERNS IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
At the second meeting of the court of common pleas of Greene county on August 4, 1803, Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry were granted licenses to keep taverns in the town of Springfield, for which they paid into
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the treasury of the county four dollars, plus the legal fees. By this time Springfield was becoming a bustling town and the numerous settlers who were going northward into the new country, had to find some place for shelter while enroute to their new homes.
One of the most picturesque of all the tavern keepers in Greene county at that time was James McPherson who lived about twenty miles north of Springfield. On June 13, 1804, he presented a very interesting petition to the court of common pleas of Greene county for the right to keep tavern. His awkward grammar, bad spelling and faulty punctuation indicate that his ability to frame petitions was far less than his prowess in pioneering and fighting Indians. The petition is reproduced verbatum:
To the Worshipful Court of Greene County Humbly Sheweth
That whereas your petitioner hath been Solicited from time to time by travellers from remote distance, as well as adjacent, that hath been and now continuous to explore the flourishing & fertile Lands of Mad River, to ask Licence from the Honorable Bench to keep a Public House of entertainment, that of such a Place of Conveniency for a recourse for shelter hath often suffered in the Recogniting in the said Tour thro the extensive Country, & being as yet almost unsettled for many miles from my dwelling; and besides all this he further adds with said lawful indulgence must sustain great loss, for am at times much crowded with sojourners to the dissatisfaction of private life with no manner of profit out of the attending fatigue, his habitation being north from Spring- field 20 miles, from Chillacotha 60 miles west, Autaway Town 40 miles North west, from Mr. Isaac Zane's 10 miles west; your Petitioner hopes to Obtain, and of your Clemency, the said Licence, and as in duty Bound Shall pray-
Peter Oliver Simon Kenton
JAMES McPHERSON.
Thomas Davis
J. L. Galloway
Joseph Sutton
Lewis Davis
May 20, 1804.
John Fisher
Lewis Sutton
George M. Barnett William Moore
This gives one an idea of the extent of Greene county at that time, since the habitation of James McPherson was twenty miles north of Springfield. It is quite possible that his house was the outpost of the civil jurisdiction of this county at that time. His dwelling was located approximately at the line between Logan and Champaign counties. But the most interesting thing about this petition is the petitioner himself. James McPherson, or "Squa-la- ka-ke" (meaning the "red-faced man"), was a native of Carlisle, Cumber- land county, Pennsylvania, but his wandering disposition drew him westward and incidentally into conflicts with the Indian owners of the soil. At one time when he was connected with a minor military or scouting expedition against the redskins, he was captured by the Indians at or near the mouth of the Great Miami. Since his captors were in the employ of the British at Detroit, he eventually was turned over to them, and for many years he was
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an emissary of the British Indian department under the leadership. of Elliot and McKee. During his service with the British he married an American woman who had been captured by the Indians, and after Wayne's treaty in 1795 he became connected with the Indian department of the United States government. He continued in charge of the Shawnees and Senacas at Lewis- town until his removal from office in 1830, a few years after which date his death occurred.
THE END OF MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
As was shown before it was not the intention that Greene county should henceforth retain the immense territory which was conferred upon it at its erection, and on February 20, 1805, Champaign county was established by an act of the Legislature, and the first meeting of the board of associate judges took place at the house of George Fithian in Springfield on April 20, 1805. The county line then passed a short distance south of Springfield on the line between the eighth and ninth ranges. It extended east and west about two miles north of the present site of Osborn, four miles north of Yellow Springs, about four and three-fourths miles north of the bank of the Little Miami and the present corner of Greene and Clark counties at Clifton, and five and one-half miles north of the present southeast corner of Clark county. Thus was Mad River township cut off of Greene county, which was relieved from further civil jurisdiction over the vast territory which formerly belonged to it. Be it as it may, Greene county has a just claim on those old pioneers who later made their homes in Champaign, Clark and Logan coun- ties. In fact Simon Kenton at one time operated a small shop on the public square of Xenia.
VANCE TOWNSHIP.
Another township of Greene county that has ceased to exist is Vance township, which was erected out of Miami township in 1812. Vance town- ship was located in the northeast corner of the county, north of what is now Ross township. It was bounded on the east by Madison county, on the north by Champaign county, Clark county not being erected at that time; on the west by Miami township, and on the south by Ross township. It received its name from the fact that there were five of its residents whose name was Vance and who, in all probability, had much to do toward influencing the county commissioners to erect the township.
There is little of historical matter concerning Vance township that has come down to the present, its career lasting only six years, and one is able to find only fugitive references to it in the records. It was at the court house in Xenia in a meeting of the commissioners on October 31, 1812, there being present Thomas Hunter, Peter Pelham and Benjamin Grover, that the town- ship was erected, pursuant to the following order :
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Ordered that Miami township be divided as follows, to wit: Beginning at the north- east corner of Section 30, in fifth township, on the north side of the Greene County line; thence south with the section line to the Miami River; thence to the Northwest corner of Ross Township; thence with said township line to the Greene County Line; thence with said County line to the place of beginning. The said new Township shall be called and known by the name of Vance Township.
Ordered that Samuel Kyle, Esq., do survey and lay off Vance Township agreeable to the above order, and make report thereof to the next court of the Commissioners.
Ordered that the first meeting of the Electors of Vance Township, for the purpose of electing township officers, shall be at the House of Adam Peterson in said Township, on the first Monday of November, next.
THOMAS HUNTER, Clerk.
It can be clearly seen that Miami township had then a much greater extent than it has now, for it then extended southward from Champaign county to its present southern boundary line, and from its present western boundary line it extended eastward to the county line. Therefore there was sufficient territory out of which the new township of Vance could be erected.
In accordance with the order of the commissioners, the county surveyor, Samuel Kyle, set about to define more clearly the bounds of the new town- ship; and in obedience to the order of the commissioners he had ready for the board at its next meeting a report of the survey of the same. To pre- sent a clearer idea of the whereabouts of Vance township and at the same time show an old-fashioned surveyor's report, the following is appended :
Pursuant to an order from the honorable Board of Commissioners of Greene County, Ohio, I proceeded, on the 31st of December, 1812, to survey and lay off Vance Township, as follows, Viz.,
Beginning at a stake and white oak, Northeast corner, section No. 30, in Township 5 and range 8; thence South with the line of this section, (crossing a branch at 3 miles and 17 poles, and the North fork of the Little Miami 3 Miles and 143 poles, again at 3 miles and 169 poles) 4 miles and 135 poles to the Little Miami River; the South East 2 miles and 202 poles to three elms and a burr oak at corner of Ross Township; thence east 7 miles to three white oaks in the line of Greene County, corner also to Ross Township Thence North crossing the east fork of the Little Miami at three miles and 255 poles, and a branch at 5 miles and 129 poles, 7 miles to a black oak, white oak and hickory at Corner of Greene County ; thence west (crossing a branch at 136 poles, and the north fork of the Little Miami at 6 miles and 196 poles) 7 miles and 242 poles to the beginning .- Jan. 2nd, 1813. Cornelius Collins SAMUEL KYLE,
Conrad Collins Robert Hamia MKR.
Surveyor G. C.
Thus Vance township was a tract of land almost seven and three- fourths miles square and it contained approximately sixty square miles.
EARLY SETTLERS.
It would be of interest to know the names of the men who exercised their right of suffrage in that first election of the newly erected township on the first Monday on November, 1812. Unfortunately the poll-book for this election is not to be found, and the earliest list of the residents of the town-
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ship is derived from the tax list compiled by Jeptha Johnson, the lister, and dated May 26, 1813. The following were the owners of taxable property in Vance township on that date :
Charles Arthur, Charles Alsop, John Bacock, John Branson, George Buffenbarger, Mathew Bolen, John Briggs, Richard Bloxom, William Brooks, Abraham Bash, Jacob Bowman, Isaac Cooper, Thomas Cooper, Len- ard Crane, John Calloway, James Curtis, Robert Davis, Peter Dewitt, Wil- liam Edgar, Michael Fallum, Alexander Foster, Daniel Griffin, William Gowdy, John Garlough, Sr., John Garlough, Jr., Prudence Gibson, George Hembleman, James Hays, William Harpole, George Humphreys, Richard Ivers, Jeptha Johnston, Jacob Knave, Christopher Lightfoot, Thomas Mills, Lewis Mills, Jacob Miller, George Miller, William Marshall, William More- land, Robert Mitchell, George Nagley, Sr., John Nagley, Henry Nagley, William Paullin, Ebenezer Paddick, Solomon Peterson, Adam Peterson, Michael Peterson, John Pollock, Conrad Richards, John Reese, Owen Reese, John Ross, Abner Robertson, James Stewart, John T. Stewart, Samuel Stewart, Seth Smith, John Standley, George Stapleton, Moses Scott, Joseph Thornbury, William Thompson, Thomas Thornbury, Isaac Vandeventer, David Vance, Joseph Vance, John Vance, Ephraim Vance, William Van- dolah, Richard Vickers, Robert Walburn, Merida Wade, John Willet, George Weaver, Sr., George Weaver, Jr., John Wilson, Anna Wilson, Joseph Wil- son, and John Walters. These eighty-three persons who were the owners of taxable property in Vance township clearly formed the bulk of the residents there.
The poll-book of an election for the purpose of electing two justices of the peace for the township on June 5, 1813, adds a few more names to the list, namely : Thomas Thompson, William Pringle, James Stewart, Reuben Young and Spencer Wilson. The judges of this election, the first of which there is any record in the township, were John Garlough, George Nagley, Sr., and Moses Scott. The clerks were James Curtis and William Pringle. John T. Vance and David Vance were elected justices of the peace.
THE WEALTH OF VANCE TOWNSHIP.
From the returns of the taxable property by the lister of the township, Jeptha Johnson, it is shown that there were one hundred and twenty horses and two hundred and sixty-three cows within its borders. There were com- paratively few owners of real estate in the township as shown by the return of Henry Nagley in 1814. Although the list is certified by him as being a true list of all the land in Vance township, yet the small number of holders of land seems to point toward a mistake or carelessness on the part of the lister. In this report the rate of the land is given (whether it is first, second
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or third), the number of acres, the present owner, the original owner and the parts of sections and the townships All of the land lay in the eighth range. The report follows: George Hembleman, 342 acres of second-rate land, fractional part of section 29, township 6; Ebenezer Paddick and Joseph Hall, 160 acres of second-rate land, northeast quarter of section 24; Peter Buffenbarger, 597 acres of second-rate land, whole of section 5, township 5; Peter Buffenbarger, 82 acres of second-rate land, fractional part of section 4, township 5; Robert Elder, 616 acres of second-rate land, whole of section IO, township 5; John Garlough, Sr., 160 acres of third-rate land, southeast quarter of section 24, township 5; Thomas Mills, 160 acres of third-rate land, northwest quarter of section 23, township 5; William Gowdy, 160 acres of first-rate land, northeast quarter of section 23, township 5. According to the return there were only 2,437 acres owned by resident landowners in Vance township in 1814.
THE END OF VANCE TOWNSHIP.
The organization of Clark county in 1817 sounded the knell of Vance township, for the line between the newly erected county and Greene began at the northeastern corner of Greene county, five and one-half miles south of the line between the eighth and ninth ranges. Since the northern boundary to Vance township began at the northeast corner of the fifth township in the eighth range, part of it was included in the new county and part of it re- mained in Greene. Since the portion of it still remaining in Greene did not longer warrant it remaining a separate civil division of the county, it gave rise to the following order of the board of county commissioners on Novem- ber 2, 1818:
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