USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 25
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From his home in Sugarcreek township John Wilson, Sr., wielded a potent influence in the community in which he lived and upon the affairs of the state of Ohio after it was admitted to the Union. When the consti- tutional convention of 1802 met, John Wilson was a delegate from Hamil- ton county, of which the territory comprising Sugarcreek township was then a part. He did not spend the rest of his life in Sugarcreek township, for
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he removed to Miami county, Ohio, and his death occurred at West Creek of that county. Neither did all his sons remain residents of the township. George Wilson, who, when the call to arms went forth during the War of 1812, enlisted in the service of the country, removed from the township at an early date. John Wilson, Jr., married Nancy Dinwiddie on October 30, 1806. Daniel Wilson, who was born in Pennsylvania, April 21, 1756, removed from Sugarcreek township in 1811 and his last days were spent in Montgomery county. Amos Wilson removed to Cæsarscreek township in 1805, from which he later went to Clinton county.
OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.
In the spring of 1797 when Daniel Wilson was returning here to settle permanently, he overtook Joseph C. and David Vance in the valley south of where Lebanon now stands. The Vance brothers were on their way up to the valley of the Little Miami to find homes in this new country. Joseph C. Vance entered land along the east side of what is now Main street in Bellbrook, which tract was a part of sections 31 and 32, township 3, range 5. He built a cabin of rough logs about the corner of Main and Walnut streets, somewhat to the rear of where Ephriam Bumgardner's paint shop used to stand. When Greene county was organized in 1803. Joseph C. Vance removed from Sugarcreek township after selling his cabin to James Clancy who used the building as a part of the flourishing tavern which he kept at that time. Vance then went to the new town of Xenia, of which he had been appointed director by the associate judges. In 1805 he resigned his official position of director and went to the newly organized county of Champaign, where he became director of the new town of Urbana. In that county he occupied the same official position as did John Paul in Greene county until his death in 1809. Joseph C. Vance was a native of Pennsylvania and shortly after the Revolution he embarked his family on a flatboat and floated down the Ohio until he landed on the Kentucky side, at which point he was instrumental in the founding of the town of Vance- burg. The cabin which he erected after he became a resident of Greene county was the first one erected on the site of what later became Bellbrook. It was in this house where the township organization was effected and it was here that Rev. Robert Armstrong preached his sermons to the nucleus of the Associate congregation of Sugarcreek township. At the organization of the township Joseph C. Vance was elected the first township clerk.
It was here in Sugarcreek township that Joseph Vance, later governor of Ohio, spent his young manhood. He was remembered by the old pioneers in later years as a young man driving an ox-cart along the Pinckney road. He was a typical pioneer boy, clad in linsey shirt and buckskin breeches which were suspended by knit "gallusses."
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CAPT. NATHAN LAMME.
The early settlers of Sugarcreek township were not without their mili- tary heroes, the most important one of whom was Capt. Nathan Lamme. He was an officer of the Virginian soldiery of the Revolutionary War, and he was entitled to four thousand acres of land of the military reservation. He came to Greene county in 1797 and located land in sections 33 and 27, township 3, range 6, northeast of Bellbrook. He erected his homely pioneer cabin north of the Washington mill. During the Revolution he was pres- ent at the battle of Point Pleasant, having volunteered for the Dunmore expedition in 1774, and after the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and England, he espoused the patriot cause and wore a continental uniform for eight years. When Greene county was organized, he was elected sheriff, which office he held for only three months, as he was compelled to resign to look after his large land interests. He spent the rest of his life in Sugar- creek township, his death occurring in 1834.
One of Captain Lamme's sons was David Lamme, who was only six years of age when he came with his father to Greene county. He became a soldier in the War of 1812, serving first as a volunteer under Capt. Robert McClelland. Later he joined General Harrison, whom he followed through- out the war. Because of his gallantry at the battle of Lundy's Lane, he was promoted to the rank of captain.
A PIONEER SAW-MILL.
Another pioneer of the township was John C. Hale, Sr., who came to this county and settled in Sugarcreek township in 1802. In that year he built a log cabin on the site now occupied by the Mary L. Tate house. Near this cabin his son, Silas Hale, Sr., when only a small boy narrowly escaped being killed by a bear. This cabin was like any other of those days with the exception that its floors were not made of puncheons, but of planks. Of course at that early day there were no saw-mills within a hundred miles of Bellbrook, and the planks were sawed out by hand. The logs were first hewed square and then lined on two opposite sides. The log was then raised at one end so as to permit a man to stand erect on the under side, and another to take his station on top. Both operators could then use the saw with ease. It is quite likely that the man working on the under side of the log got more than his share of saw dust in his eyes and down his neck. Hale supplemented his farming operations by doing the tanning business of the community and his sons in early life became proficient in the art of grinding oak bark for tanning purposes. In 1838 he removed to Indiana where his death occurred on September 25, 1845.
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THREE SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.
Among the early settlers of Sugarcreek township were three soldiers of the Revolutionary War, namely: James Snodgrass, Richard Cunning- ham and John Torrence.
James Snodgrass entered a quarter section of land in the township shortly before Greene county was organized. When the tyranny of George III had exasperated the colonists beyond the point of endurance Snodgrass left his home in Pennsylvania, his native state, to fight for the right and served throughout the war. After pensions were granted the soldiers of the Revolution by the act of 1832, a remittance was due this doughty old soldier, but he refused to avail himself of the money and waxed very angry at those of his comrades-in-arms who did so. "No," he said, "it is not right that a man should be paid for fighting in defense of liberty; and I intend to go down to my grave with the government owing me that debt." And he carried his intention out to the uttermost.
Richard Cunningham was a more recent comer to Sugarcreek town- ship, his name appearing for the first time on the enumeration sheet of the township in 1820, at which time he was the owner of lots 9, 10 and 28 in the town of Bellbrook. He was a native of Franklin county, Pennsyl- vania, and sometime during the spring of 1777 he enlisted for three years in the regiment commanded by Colonel Dunlap, which was a part of the Pennsylvania military establishment during the Revolution. He was under fire at the stubborn battle of Brandywine and withstood the rigors of that terrible winter at Valley Forge. After his three years of service had expired, he re-enlisted as a rifleman and scout. His pension began with the date of March 4, 1831, at the rate of eighty dollars a year.
John Torrence was a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and at the outbreak of the Revolution he enlisted in the regiment of Colonel Dunlap of the Pennsylvania militia. After the war he emigrated to Ken- tucky from which state he moved to Sugarcreek township, Greene county, Ohio, in 1804. He was pensioned under the act of 1832, the pension being granted on May 3, 1833, when the old hero was seventy-four years of age.
CYRUS SACKETT. .
It was on October 17, 1799, at three o'clock in the afternoon, that Cyrus Sackett accompanied by his wife and three children settled on the place which later and for one hundred years was known as the Sackett farm in Sugarcreek township. Cyrus Sackett had emigrated to these parts from Kentucky and here he bought this farm of one hundred and fifty acres
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for two dollars an acre. When the family arrived here, they found their holding covered with a dense growth of timber, and they here pitched their improvised tents made of bed clothing, in which they managed to live for some time until the father could build his cabin. The first dwelling was made of unhewed logs, but after the family had lived in it for several years, the father erected a large hewed-log house. After the death of Cyrus Sackett and his wife, parts of the farm remained in the Sackett name until 1899, a period of one hundred years since the grandfather had settled here.
JAMES COLLIER.
One of the grand old pioneers of Sugarcreek township and of Greene county was James Collier, the first lister of Sugarcreek township, the third sheriff of the county and among the first to serve as community coroner. Because of his comparatively short residence in Sugarcreek township, his activities here were somewhat limited.
James Collier was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, January 4, 1774, and in 1786 his family removed from the Old Dominion to Kentucky, where they remained for several years some eighteen miles north of Crab Orchard. In 1794 young Collier acted as a scout in the Nick-a-jack cam- paign under Col. William Whitley. Soon after the Wilsons settled in Greene county, James Collier, who was a friend of the family, also came up here and located in section 33, township 3, range 6, probably in the early part of 1797. Collier was present at the house of Peter Borders at the first meeting of the court of common pleas of Greene county on May 10, 1803. He received the appointment to take the enumeration of the township of Sugarcreek on that day and began the work on August 3, finishing the task on the seventeenth of that month. At the first election in the township he was a successful candidate for lister. He remained in the township until 1805, when he removed to the new county-seat town of Xenia, for his duties as deputy sheriff under William Maxwell, who resigned on December 17, 1803. Collier, however, continued to serve as deputy until he was elected to the office.
THE FIRST ELECTION IN THE TOWNSHIP.
After the organization of Sugarcreek township on May 10, 1803, the election was held, June 21, of that year at the house of James, not William, Clancy for the purpose of electing the necessary officers for the administra- tion of township affairs. In the poll-book of this election the names of the majority of the residents of the township at the time of its organization are preserved as follow :
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POLL-BOOK
Of an election held in Sugar Creek Township, Greene county, Ohio, this 21st day of June, 1803. Judges, Robert Buckles, James Snoden and Nathan Lamme; clerks, John Wilson and Daniel Thomas.
The Elcctors .- Alexander Armstrong, James Barnes, Alexander Barnes, James Barrett, James Barrett, Sr., James Buckles, Robert Buckles, William Buckles, Samuel Brewster, Ephraim Bowen, James Collier, James Cunningham, Thomas Enis, John Enis, Isaac Garard, Joseph Hale, John Heaton, Jacob Hosier, Nathan Lamme, John McKnight, William Miller, John McLane, Samuel Martin, Ezekiel N. Martin, John Night, Willis Northcutt, Cyrus S. Sackett, Jacob Snoden, James Snoden, Robert Snodgrass, William Snodgrass, Absalom Thomas, Daniel Thomas, William Tanner, John Vance, Abraham Vaneaton, Joseph Vandolah, Daniel Wilson, John Wilson, Sr., John Wilson, Jr.,
As a result of this election William McMillan received the majority of the votes of the township. for representative to Congress; James Collier was elected township lister; Joseph Vance, township clerk; Abraham Van- eaton, fence viewer ; Robert Snodgrass, John McLane and Robert Marshall, trustees; George Wilson, house viewer.
THE FIRST ENUMERATION.
In accordance with the duties of his office of trust, James Collier took the enumeration. He made the statement in his report as follows:
A list of all the free males above the age of 21 years within the township of Sugar Creek, Greene county, State of Ohio, begun August 3, 1803; ended on the 10th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1803.
JAMES COLLIER.
In his reported list several names were included which did not appear in the poll-book of the election in the June preceding; hence some of the forefathers apparently had not availed themselves of the right of suffrage; some had left the township or some newcomers had taken up their resi- dence here. The additional names are the following: Seth Anderson, Samuel Anderson, James Bruce, James Clancy, David Curry, Joshua Car- man, Joseph Camel, Samuel Enis, Jeremiah Enis, John Gowdy, Andrew Gowdy, Jacob Harner, Benjamin Harner, John Hale, Thomas Hale, John Irwin, Joseph James, Samuel Martindale, Isaac Martin, Isaac Miller, Robert Marshall, John Marshall, Joseph Robinson, Sr., Joseph Robinson, Jr., Edward Robinson, James Snodgrass, William Snodgrass, Jr., Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Vance, Jr., and John Vance, Jr.
TWO ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
In the early years of the township, there were two associate judges of the court of common pleas of Greene county who were early settlers of Sugarcreek township. The one, James Barrett, was one of the original asso- ciate judges, while the other, James Snoden, who was one of the first com- missioners of the county, did not become an associate judge until 1809.
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James Barrett, who was a venerable man when he became a resident of Greene county, was a native of Virginia, and although he knew little of court procedure and jurisprudence, he made up for the deficiency in his legal education by a great store of common sense and homely justice. Even though his decisions would hardly stand the scrutiny of a learned judge of the twentieth century, they were rendered in compliance with his deep and stern sense of pioneer justice. His family on coming to Ohio in 1800 located on Dick creek in what is now known as Butler county, but in the autumn of 1801 Barrett set out northward to seek a location for his home where he and his family could open up a farm of their own. When he had advanced as far as Sugar creek he found a tract of land which fulfilled his expectations, and he returned to his family and imparted the intelligence to his stalwart sons that he had decided upon a site for their future opera- tions. His sons accompanied him northward and the father purchased a half section in what later came to be organized as Sugarcreek township. The entire family removed to their new holding on April 12, 1802, and began clearing their new land. After Greene county was erected, the Legis- lature appointed Benjamin Whiteman, William Maxwell and James Barrett associate judges for the newly organized county on April 6, 1803. Thus it was that James Barrett became one of the first members of the common pleas bench of Greene county. He served until 1810, when his advanced age caused him to lay aside the responsibilities of his judgeship and return to his farm, where his death occurred in May, 1822. He was buried in one corner of the orchard on the old farm.
JAMES SNODEN.
One of the most eccentric of all the associate judges that Greene county ever had was James Snoden, who was an early settler of Sugarcreek town- ship. He became a resident of this region in 1799 and built his cabin north- west of the present site of the village of Bellbrook in the southeast quarter of section 2, township 2, range 6. He was an extensive landowner in those early days, his lands embracing all of the eastern part of the above-named section which comprises all the western part of the village of Bellbrook, This he sold to Stephen Bell and Henry Opdyke in 1815, when he removed to Indiana where he died. The first official position which James Snoden occupied in Greene county was that of county commissioner, he being asso- ciated with Jacob Smith and John Sterritt as the first board of county com- missioners. It was not, however, until 1809 when James Snoden took a place on the bench of the local court of common pleas and his associates at that time were David Huston and James Barrett.
Judge Snoden was an eccentric justice, but with all of this there is
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nothing on record which implies that he ever handed down a decision on any case which did not teem with strict justice to the plaintiff and defendant even if his opinion was not couched according to the legal parlance in vogue at that day. Tradition says that the judge was very reluctant to take an oath, so reluctant in fact that he refused to comply with the command of Judge Francis Dunlavy in 1810 and thereupon the recalcitrant associate justice was ordered to the county bastile for contempt of court. When the sheriff, James Collier, received the order to lodge the stubborn justice in jail, he refused to comply with the order of the court, possibly because he saw no ill in the attitude of Judge Snoden and probably because he and the associate judge were old friends. The upshot of the matter was that Collier was also lodged with Judge Snoden in the county jail.
Judge Snoden was very punctual in his attendance on the court of common pleas, but he had a deep aversion to riding, as had many of his neighbors of Scotch descent. He was wont to start out early in the morn- ing from his home in Sugarcreek township and walk to Xenia, arriving there in time for the opening of the session of court. He was once prevailed upon by members of his family to ride while making one of these periodic visits to Xenia, but when he started he neglected to mount his horse. He slipped his arm through the bridle rein and walked leading his horse. The judge no doubt fell into deep meditation upon some occult and elusive point of law, and the horse slipped the bridle and turned his attention toward the more pleasing prospect of wandering through the then unexplored pas- tures of the Little Miami bottoms. The judge, however, continued his jour- ney undisturbed and did not discover the absence of his mount until he had arrived in Xenia.
AN ECCENTRIC BACHELOR.
John McLane, one of the early commissioners of the county, and who served for several years as associate judge after taking the place of James Snoden on the bench, settled in the north part of section 4, township 2, Sugarcreek, range 6, in the last years of the eighteenth century. He came here from Lexington, Kentucky, a confirmed bachelor, with no companions but his dogs and long squirrel rifle. Often at night as he lay courting sleep in his rude cabin, he found his slumbers disturbed by the howls of the wolves and the screams of the panthers around his lonely habitation in the unbroken forest which comprised his holdings. To prevent these denizens of the forest from becoming too friendly, he built and kept up a huge fire in front of his abode.
There is only one instance on record where this worthy celibate experi- enced the emotion of fear. While at the various log-rollings in the sur- rounding country, he had heard the settlers boasting of the prowess of their
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dogs in fighting wildcats and this made John McLane somewhat envious for the reputation of his own canine associates and he decided to test the valor of his dogs at the first opportunity. While out hunting one day his dogs treed a member of the species wildcat. It was the intention of McLane to drive the cat from its lair into the open where his dogs could have the opportunity to show their prowess. He laid aside his rifle and slowly began the ascent of the tree which was the refuge of the wildcat, but he had not approached to within ten feet of the varmint when it rolled itself into a ball with every hair standing on end. Viciously it glared into the eyes of McLane and screeched out a warning. After repeated attempts to distract the attention of the beast which continued to glare straight into his eyes, the doughty hunter had a sudden attack of the "buck ague" and slowly and cautiously descended the tree. After he had once regained solid earth and possession of his nerves, he shot the cat. In later years when relating this adventure, he maintained that this was the only time when he ever became frightened. It is quite probable that McLane never again attempted to test out the wildcat fighting proclivities of his dogs under such conditions.
When the General Assembly passed laws in the early part of the nine- teenth century concerning the establishment of public schools, it received the most bitter opposition of John McLane. Since he was a bachelor, he could see nothing but flagrant injustice in his paying taxes for supporting schools for the children of other persons. His denunciation against the Legis- lature was very strong, and he denominated the members thereof who voted for these laws "a set of dung-hill gods" from whom he prayed for deliverance.
MILITARY HISTORY.
In the days before the War of 1812, musters of the militia of the town- ship were held every other Saturday on the little meadow that lies in front of the Eleazer Williamson house. The militiamen were armed with hoes, pitchforks, wooden guns and with other equally deadly weapons. There, with the aid of stakes driven in the ground at proper places, they were enabled to perform all the movements of the march and drill to the gratification of their commanding officer and the unbounded admiration of all the bystanders.
When the War of 1812 broke out Capt. Ammi Maltbie and Captain Crawford raised companies from residents of the township. The news of Gen. Isaac Hull's disgraceful surrender on August 16, 1812, at Detroit, reached the people of the township on Sabbath morning and like wild fire soon spread all over the countryside. The report had it that the Indians were advancing southward, killing and scalping as they came. On the next morning the whole country was in arms. Every ablebodied man volunteered for service and each furnished his own accouterments and rations. By night not an
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ablebodied man was to be found in the whole township, for the volunteer companies had marched northward to Urbana to meet the Indians who were thought to be nearing that place. Soon the scare passed and they returned to their homes. Gen. William Henry Harrison by his signal victories over the British and Indians at the Thames and Lundy's Lane in Canada and Perry's victory on Lake Erie saved the West from the British.
IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Soon after Lincoln's call for volunteers, Bellbrook and Sugarcreek town- ship responded nobly and began sending forth their sons to fight for the preservation of the Union. The first soldier from the township to give his life on the field of battle was James Naylor, a resident of Bellbrook. He fell at the battle of Chancellorsville, while fighting doggedly to stop Jack- son's invincible flank attack.
During the four long years of war, Sugarcreek township received its full measure of sorrow. It was a loyal township in a banner-winning county, sending, according to the published roster, two hundred and five soldiers to the front.
At present our country is in the midst of another war and again the township has been called upon to give its share of men and money. The township has responded nobly to calls in behalf of the Red Cross and other funds and has subscribed liberally to the Liberty Loans. Above all, many of its sons are now in training for service.
EARLY CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.
Among the first, if not the first denomination to have ministers in the frontier settlements, were the Baptists, and the settlement of Sugarcreek township was no exception. The first minister of the gospel in this com- munity was Daniel Clark, a Baptist and one of the most strict of his sect. He preached here in the cabins of the settlers in the early days before the organization of the county as often as once a month. In those days specie was very scarce in the settlement and the salaries of the early ministers were made up of whatever the settlers could give. Reverend Clark's salary con- sisted mainly of deerskins which were then a very acceptable medium of exchange as well as a common material for clothing. In 1799 he organized in that region the first church society in this section, the Baptist ( Predestina- rian) church at Middle Run, which is yet an active organization, the congrega- tion's present house of worship being in the extreme southwest corner of Sugarcreek township, just north of Ferry. It is not known what became of this pioneer minister, for his name does not appear in the first poll-book and the first enumeration sheet of the township: hence it is assumed that he left these parts for other fields before 1803.
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