USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 24
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
PLAT OF THE VILLAGE OF PAINTERSVILLE.
The Town of Paintersville, in Greene County, O., of which the above is a correct Plat, was laid out and surveyed by the undersigned for Jesse Painter, the Proprietor, on part of a survey, originally made for Nancy Grimes, No. 2354. Main Street and Ash Street are 60 feet wide, Walnut Street is 50 feet wide, alley No. 2 is 16 feet wide and all other alleys are 12 feet wide. The bearing of Main Street is N. 5 E. and the lines of all the streets, lots and alleys (except the South line) are parallel and right angles thereto.
Lots No. 1, 2, 24, 25, 30 & 31 are 60 feet front on Main Street and 80 feet back, con- taining 4,800 square feet. Lots No. 12, 13, 20, 27, 28 & 29 are 60 feet front on Main Street & 140 feet back, containing 8,400 square feet. Lots No. 14 is 70 feet in front, containing
233
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
5,300 square feet; No. 15 contains 5,100 square feet; No. 16 contains 5,490 square feet ; No. 17 contains 6,070 square feet; No. 18 contains 6,540 square feet and all the other lots are 60 feet front & 120 feet back, containing each 7,200 square feet. A stone was planted by my direction at each intersection of the lines of Main and Ash Streets.
Given under my hand this 7th day of September, 1837.
MOSES COLLIER, Surveyor of Greene County, Ohio.
FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE VILLAGE.
As was said before, Paintersville's main street is a part of the James- town pike, which extends a short distance south of the village where it in- tersects with the county road and the New Hope pike. Beginning at the north the first cross street is Ash, which extends westward until it intersects the county road. The next cross street south is Walnut, which is a con- tinuation of the Port William pike joining the county road a short distance from where Ash street does the same.
In all there are thirty-three lots indicated on the original plat. West of Main street and north of Ash street are lots No. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27. Between Ash and Walnut streets and west of Main are lots No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. South of Walnut are lots No. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. East of Main are lots No. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33. The date of the sale of these lots is not on record; however, it is known that the proprietor sold them at twenty and twenty-five dollars each, according to location.
GROWTH AND BUSINESS INTERESTS OF THE VILLAGE.
When the village was platted in 1837, it had two stores, as was stated before, one belonging to Jesse Painter, the proprietor of the village, and the other Jonathan Oglesbee. Soon after the laving out of the town Joseph Oglesbee erected a frame building on the lot later owned by John Mason. Cornelius King built the next building, a brick structure, which later be- came the property of Lewis Thomas. There followed a number of log houses which in time gave place to frame and brick structures. At present the village contains about twenty-five houses. The population of the town in 1881 was about one hundred and fifty, in 1896, one hundred, and at present (1918) about one hundred and fifty. Since the town is not located on a railroad, its progress has been retarded. In the early eighties a nar- row-gauge railroad from Cincinnati to Columbus was projected through the village, but the plan was never realized.
A comparison of the business interests of the village at different dates shows that the movement of population to the urban centers, the rapid means of communication facilitated by the automobile and telephone, and the proximity of larger adjacent towns has caused a lagging in the estab-
234
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
lishment of business enterprises in the town. In fact the town has deter- iorated in this respect. In 1881 Paintersville had a saw-mill, owned by James and Thomas Babb; a carriage factory, by Allen and Eli Powers; a blacksmith shop, by William King; a grocery store, by John B. Mason; a harness shop, by Lewis Thomas and a physician, Dr. William Rowse. In 1896 the town had two grocery stores, one harness shop, two blacksmith shops and one saw-mill.
WINCHESTER.
Few people now living in Greene county have ever heard of the town of Winchester in this county, but a reference to the records in the office of the county recorder reveals the plat of a well-laid-out town by the name of Winchester. In fact there is no town in the county with a more artistic and finely planned set of streets than this town, a town which never got beyond the beautiful plat which its fond promoters had made of it.
Here is the official record on this town :
State of Ohio vys Greene County
THOMAS BABB, proprietor.
Caesar Creek Township, Greeting :
I, Reuben Strong, one of the acting Justices of the Peace of this Township and county aforesaid, do hereby certify that personally came Thomas Babb, a resident of Clinton County, and freely acknowledged the site and title and the within Plat be a true form laid down for the use and purpose of a town within Caesars Creek Township to be estab- lished as a Town by the name of Winchester.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 26th day of February, 1816.
REUBEN STRONG, J. P. (Seal)
This town was located on the west side of the present Wilmington- Xenia highway, just after the road crosses Cæsars creek. There is nothing in the record of the plat to indicate its location any nearer than "Cæsarscreek township." As far as is known there was no serious attempt to establish a town on the site, and it is difficult to see at the present time why any one should have thought a town would have made any growth there. The plat on record shows it to have been the best-laid-out town in the county. There were seventy-two in-lots and sixteen out-lots, the whole site being sur- rounded by a street which might be called a boulevard.
AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS OF CAESARSCREEK TOWNSHIP.
The prosperity of Caesarscreek township depends entirely upon its agri- cultural operations. As was said before, the township lacks the alluvial valleys of broad bottom lands of some of the other townships of the county, but the fertile clay soil of its uplands yields bountiful crops of corn, wheat, oats and rye. The general condition of the surface admits of the grazing of large numbers of cattle and sheep. It is one of the best hog-raising dis-
235
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
tricts of the county, there having been "fed out" over six thousand hogs in the township in 1917. The dairy products of this section also are quite important sources of wealth.
It is interesting to compare the agricultural statistics of sixty-seven years ago with those of the present (1918). Returns of the census of 1850 com- pared with the detailed agricultural report of the county for 1917, compiled from the returns of the township assessors show the following :
LIVE STOCK.
For its size the township grows a comparatively. large amount of live stock, of which hogs predominate. In the following table are included butter and wool :
1849
1917
Horses, number
804
756
Cattle, number
1,108
1,136
Sheep, number
4,027
422
Hogs, number
4,036
6,183
Butter, pounds
69,923
214,120
Wool, pounds
11,026
216
1
1
In the report of 1850 the mules in the township numbered six, and cattle were divided as follows: Cows, probably for dairy and breeding pur- . poses, 118; work oxen, 2, and other cattle, apparently beef cattle and the like, 988. A striking feature of the report for 1917 is the number of hogs in the township which succumbed to the scourge of cholera. In all 712 porkers died from this disease and 27 farms were infected. Within each hog was the possibility of an animal weighing two hundred pounds and let the average price for hogs for the year be fifteen dollars a hundred weight, then the death of each hog entailed a loss of thirty dollars. Since there were 712 hogs that died of the disease, then the total loss in the township because of this disease was $21,360. There has been a tremendous increase in the production of home-made butter in 1917 over the year 1849.
GRAIN, SEED AND VEGETABLES.
The table which follows compares the grain, seed, vegetable and mis- cellaneous production in the township in the years 1849 and 1917:
1849
1917
Wheat, bushels
21,513
39,136
Rye, bushels
830
413
Corn, bushels
124,205
147,987
Oats, bushels
937
8,147
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
I I
1
I
I
I
1
1
236
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Buckwheat, bushels
Barley, bushels
Flax seed, bushels
Clover seed, bushels Irish potatoes, bushels Sweet potatoes, bushels
Tobacco, pounds
Honey, pounds
Hives, number
Maple syrup, gallons Maple sugar, pounds
Timothy, tons
Clover, tons
Total
Alfalfa, tons
ment in the grain production of the township; however, in one instance,
increase has been in the production of oats. It should be said again in com- that of rye, the production has fallen off about one-half. The most striking
paring these statistics that the township is in no wise as large now as it
1917. Of course alfalfa was an unknown crop in the township in 1849. only eighty pounds creates the impression that the return is not full for in this interval, but the fact that thirty-five hives succeeded in producing overlooked by the assessor. Honey production has had a remarkable decrease report of 1917 one would judge that the "grow potatoes" movement was ship. The growing of clover seed shows an appreciable increase. From the and flax seed is no longer carried on to any appreciable extent in the town- considerable than it seems at first sight. The growing of buckwheat, barley seen that the increase in the production of corn and wheat is much more of which was largely taken from Caesarscreek township. It can then be was in 1850, due to the organization of New Jasper township, the territory
USE OF LAND IN THE TOWNSHIP.
13,236 acres owned in the township. In the same year the number of renters of orchard land and 428 acres of waste land, all of which made a total of land in the township; 820 used for pasture; 1960 acres of timber; 176 acres was unimproved was 9,904. In 1917 there were 9,846 acres of cultivated In 1850 the improved acreage in the township was 12,693 and that which
1849
83
50
12
20
2,874
273
1,075
436
14,690
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
I
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
I
I
I
1
I
I
1
I
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
I36
80
2,710
35 911
I,OIO
879
222
1,889
Hay-
I
1 1
1
1
I
1
The interval between 1849 and 1917 has witnessed striking improve-
1917
237
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
working for wages on farms was 3; the number of farms rented to tenants, 9, and the number moving from farm to town, 2. In 1850 the estimated value of the farming implements in the township was $19,243.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTIONS IN THE TOWNSHIP.
Because some items that appear in the report of 1917 do not occur in the one of the year 1850, they will be discussed miscellaneously. In the autumn of 1916 the apple trees of the township yielded spoil amounting to eight hundred twenty bushels. The proximity of canning factories affords the farmers of the township today ample market for the nineteen tons of- sugar corn they grow. There is another kind of corn-canner which is in extended use in the township and that is the silo, which the farmer of sixty- seven years ago no doubt would have considered sheer nonsense. At present there are twenty-six of these corn-canners in use in the township and in the fall of 1916 they were filled with five hundred ninety-one tons of ensil- age. In connection with the use of ensilage for cattle feed, it is well to discuss the dairy products of the township during the last year. Many farmers of the township own cream-separators, another machine unknown in 1850, which enabled the owners to sell during 1917 16,720 gallons of cream. At the same time they also found ample market for the 14, 102 gallons of milk which they sold during the year. In the recital of these sources of prosperity in the township, one must not forget the hens, which laid 101,126 dozens of eggs.
LAND IMPROVEMENT IN THE TOWNSHIP.
While the farmers of the township are producing their crops, they do not lose sight of the fact that the fertility of their soil can become impov- erished. Nothing is better for recruiting the energies of a soil than the turning under of clover sod and the farmers of the township thus disposed of two hundred seventeen acres of clover sod during the last year. At the same time they made ample use of the other important asset of every farmer, barn-yard manure. During the year they utilized 429,740 pounds of com- mercial fertilizer. Although the greater part of the township is upland soil, there are tracts which need reclaiming by drainage, and the owners of Caesarscreek township soil laid nine hundred seventy-two rods of drain tile during 1917.
CHAPTER XIII.
SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP. .
The first official act of the associate judges after the first court of common pleas was organized at the house of Peter Borders on Beaver creek, on May 10, 1803, was the laying off of the original townships of the county, and the first one of these to have its delineaments recorded on the minute-
book of the court was Sugarcreek township, as follows :
The Township of Sugar Creek shall Begin at the North West Corner of Section No. 10, on the west line of said County; thence South with said line to the Southwest Corner of said County ; thence East, crossing the Little Miami, and the same course continued four miles East of said river; thence North so far that a line west will strike the Beginning- and that Elections in said Township shall be held in the House of Wm. Clemsy (James Clancy).
Obviously the bounds of the township as set forth by this order of the court were very vague. Apparently Sugarcreek township then embraced all of what is now Sugarcreek township, all of Spring Valley township and a part of Xenia township. The northeast corner of the township was located just south of the city of Xenia, the southeast corner approximately where the southeast corner of Spring Valley now occurs and the northwest and southwest corners have remained where they were established by the asso- ciate judges. The court clearly did not have the extent of the township in mind, for when Xenia township was organized in 1805 no mention was made of the fact that a part of it came from Sugarcreek township. It was not until 1856 that Sugarcreek township was confined to the bounds which it has today by the organization of Spring Valley township.
CONGRESSIONAL LANDS.
Sugarcreek township proper is located in the extreme southwest corner of the county, bounded on the west by Montgomery county, on the south by Warren county, on the east by Spring Valley township and on the north by Beavercreek township. It contains all of sections 34, 35 and 36, town- ship 4, range 5; all of sections 4, 5, 6, 10, II and 12, with fractional parts of sections 3 and 9, township 3, range 5, and all of sections 31, 33 and 34 with fractional parts of sections 32, 27 and 28, township 3, and range 6. These sections form almost a perfect parallelogram running north seven and east three sections, inclusive.
239
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
MILITARY LANDS.
On the northeast part of the township is added a part of what is known as the Virginia Military Survey, the territory which lies between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers. As no survey of these lands was made by the state, each claimant could locate his claim wherever he pleased and the result was much confusion in the location of their respective land plats. Many of them overlapped, a condition which subsequently led to much liti- gation. Again, this system, or lack of system, created the system of land platting between these two rivers which has continued to be a source of great worry to the surveyors of later years. The majority of the owners of these land grants in Ohio never saw their holdings and many of the old Revolutionary soldiers, who were in need of ready money in the early years of the nineteenth century, sold their warrants to speculators who would adver- tise in Virginia that on a certain date they would be in a designated vicinity for the purpose of buying land warrants. Thus it arose that many of the ultimate holders of these surveys were not soldiers of the Revolution at all and very few of them were either heirs or assignees of the old heroes. The majority of the lands in Sugarcreek township are in the congressional surveys and the original holders of the military surveys in this township follow :
Name.
Survey.
Acres.
John Crittenden
.No.
904
1,000
Robert Beals
No.
975
1,000
Alexander and James Parker
No.
3,610
780
Elias Adsit
No. 14,067
14
Pamelia and Penelope Russell
No.
2,566
500
George Holland
No.
3,585
240
William Fowler
No
760
1,000
Pamelia and Penelope Russell
No.
2,565
1,730
I
1
1
1
I
İ
I
I
I
1
1
1
Clearly every one of these original holders of the military lands in Sugarcreek township were absentee owners, for the first poll-book and the first enumeration sheet of the township do not include one of these names. The majority of these persons were veterans of the Revolution, for John Crittenden was a lieutenant; Robert Beals was a captain; Alexander Parker was a major; James Parker was a lieutenant; George Holland was a lieu- tenant, and Pamelia and Penelope Russell were the heirs of Maj. John Russell. These men did not confine their holdings to one tract, for Lieu- tenant Crittenden was entitled to 2,864 acres, but he owned only 1,000 acres in Sugarcreek township.
240
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE.
Sugarcreek township is well drained, for in addition to its river and near-rivers, several lesser streams ramble around through the small valleys which they have cut in the surface. Little Sugar creek, a small stream, rises in the extreme northwest corner of the township and flows toward the center where it forms a confluence with Big Sugar creek, which rises in Montgomery county. This juncture takes place just south of Bellbrook, and from thence on the stream is known simply as Sugar creek. It is prob- ably from this stream or possibly from the abundance of sugar-tree timber which formerly was so plentiful in this section that the township derived its name. It is certain that Sugarcreek township in the earlier days was a district where much maple sugar and "tree molasses" was manufactured by the old-fashioned methods. From the point where Big and Little Sugar creeks join, the main stream flows in a southeasterly direction until it joins the Little Miami about a mile southeast of Bellbrook. The Little Miami river enters the township at the northeast and flows southward little more than half the distance of the township. at which point it abruptly turns east- ward and enters Spring Valley township.
In general the whole extent of the township is considerably broken, especially along the river, but in the eastern and southern sections, the land is high and rolling, with fertile, beautiful valleys intervening here and there. The soil of the highland is rich clay with a limestone base, especially in the north, while in the south the base is of sandstone. In the latter section fruit growing is carried on with much success. Of course in the valleys and bottom lands is found the rich, black alluvial soil. The industries of the township are wholly agricultural and the chief products are wheat, corn, oats, rye and tobacco. Considerable attention is given to the culture of the plant last named and superior grades which command good prices are raised in the township. When the first settlers of Greene county came into this township, they found the land heavily timbered and the great labor entailed in making "deadenings" and clearings made the bringing of the soil under cultivation a comparatively slow process. The most important forest trees that were found here then were the sugar, the walnut, the ash and the pop- lar. The steady plying of the woodsman's ax and the entrance of the steam saw-mill was the signal for the melting away of the heavily timbered dis- tricts. To the earlier residents of the township the Little Miami afforded- waterpower for the flour- and saw-mills. In the north part of the town- ship, which is underlaid with limestone, considerable building stone was formerly quarried and at present these stone deposits afford a large quantity of excellent material for the building and the up-keep of the excellent roads of the township.
241
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
THE EARLIEST SETTLERS IN SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP.
One hundred and twenty-five years ago the territory which is now known by the name of Sugarcreek township was an unbroken wilderness. Herds of deer roamed through the forest and occasionally a bear was to . be seen. It was not long after this time that the land could continue in its primeval state, for in 1796 the first settlement in the township and indeed the first settlement in Greene county was made. Gradually the tenacles of civilization had been extending up the Little Miami in what was then Hamil- ton county until the southern boundary of Greene county was reached. There is considerable disagreement about this first settlement in the township. It is safe to say that it occurred in the spring of 1796, that the first cabin was erected in that year and that the first settler was named Wilson. Just which member of the Wilson family was the first settler and which one built the first cabin remains a matter of doubt. One version of this settlement is given in the chapter on the first settlers of the county and another will be submitted at this point.
Down in the neighborhood of Cincinnati lived John Wilson, one of the pioneers of that section. He was a native of New Jersey, from which state he had removed to Pennsylvania. From the Keystone state he had floated down the Ohio by flatboat to Kentucky. It was only a step across the Ohio into the new country and he with his family, which included four sons, crossed some time prior to 1796 and temporarily settled in the neighborhood of Cincinnati. Two members of this family had heard of the opportunities for settlement in the wilderness northward in the valley of the Little Miami in the territory which was later erected into Greene county. Accordingly in the spring of 1796 these two brothers, George and Amos Wilson, were joined by Jacob Mills and they all set out northward along the course of the river. The two brothers located on section 4, township 3, range 5, while Mills, as he discovered after Greene county was organized in 1803, settled just across the line in Warren county. The place on which the Wilson brothers raised their temporary cabin was about three-fourths of a mile east of the little village of Clio or Ferry. This rude hut, which shel- tered the brothers while they were clearing enough land for planting a little patch of corn and a few beans and pumpkins, was about twelve feet square, without floor or chimney and was constructed of unhewed logs. This cabin was raised on April 7, 1796. After the brothers had cleared about three acres of land and had put in their "crops," they returned to Cincinnati to care for their crops there. It is quite possible that they had come north- ward to locate a tract before buying it, hence their return to Cincinnati also enabled them to negotiate for the purchase of the land whereon they had settled.
(16)
242
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
During the absence of the two brothers, another member of the Wilson family, Daniel, came up into this country and located just west of Ferry in the southwest part of section 10, township 3, range 5, where he cleared two acres and prepared the logs for his permanent cabin. He remained here until he was joined by his brothers, George and Amos, who returned from Cincinnati in the fall of 1796. . They were accompanied by another brother, John .Wilson, who was also desirous of locating in the new settle- ment. Immediately the four brothers set to work raising their homely cabins in the clearings they had hewed out of the dense forest, the first one . being that belonging to Daniel, which was located about sixty rods west of what later became the site of the village of Ferry. Another was erected for George somewhat east of the present site of the village and still another for Amos to the north. After their cabins had been fitted with some of the rude furnishings of the pioneer cabin which could be fashioned here in the wilderness, the four brothers returned to Cincinnati for their families. In the latter part of the winter of 1796-97, George and Amos Wilson and their respective families took up their residence in their new homes in Greene county, but Daniel did not arrive in the new settlement until March 3, 1797.
COMING OF THE ELDER WILSON.
Soon after the Wilson brothers had settled, their reports of this new country to their father, John Wilson, Sr., were so flattering that he decided to pay them a visit, thinking that if the land came up to his expectations he, himself, would remove from his farm near Cincinnati and settle with his sons here. The elder Wilson was in no wise disappointed with this new country, for he decided to come northward and settle with his sons if they would build him a cabin. The younger Wilsons gladly accepted the propo- sition and immediately set to work erecting their father's cabin in 1800 and 1801, its site being about three-fourths of a mile east of the site of the village of Ferry. It was a two-story structure, built of hewed logs, quite a palatial residence for Greene county in those days. The floor was of puncheons and an extensive fireplace, which occupied the whole west end of the lower story, seemed a measure of the sons' gratification at their father's coming to their new settlement. For many years this old house stood a relic of the first settlement of Greene county in Sugarcreek township.
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.