USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 27
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At the time the only house in the village was the Clancey tavern, but soon after the sale James Webb, the village blacksmith, built his house near the corner of Main and Franklin streets on Main. Other dwellings were soon erected, among which were those of David Black, Daniel Lewis, Joseph Gillespie and Aaron Flowers. The latter had some difficulty in raising his house, for he did not have the heartiest co-operation of his neighbors in his undertaking. After the frame had been put up, it was carried off one night by his spiteful neighbors to the creek and there broken to pieces. Others who became early residents of the village were John Bell and Moses Mills.
ADDITIONS TO BELLBROOK.
As the years passed the steady growth of the town seemed to warrant the laying out of additions. The first of these was made in the latter part of 1830 and was recorded on December 25 of that year. This addition was laid out on both sides of Franklin street, just west of West street and the lots numbered from 85 to 99, hence practically an extension of the original plat of the town. It is not known who laid out this addition, probably the original proprietors of the village.
The second addition to the town was made by John McClure in 1841.
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It comprised sixteen lots, south of the addition of 1830, west of West street and north of South street. Moses Collier, the county surveyor at that time, was employed by McClure to do the platting, which was finished on June 12, 1841. On August 14, following, the plat was certified by Edward Bennett, justice of the peace, and on the same day it was recorded at the court house in Xenia.
The third addition was made by A. B. Hopkins. It comprised eight lots lying in a part of section 2, township 2, range 6, located at the northwest corner of the village and its establishment caused the making of High street, which extends from Main westward across West street. The addition was platted on May 24, 1849, by Samuel T. Owens, the surveyor of Greene county.
BELLBROOK BEFORE 1832.
As noted before, James Webb, the blacksmith, was the first man to erect a new house on the village site and here he opened up his shop for business. If one of his neighbors wanted a horse shod, a shovel mended or a chain or plow share made, he had to bring the iron along with him, because the smith could not afford to keep sufficient material in stock. A little later his shop was used by Silas Hale, who worked there at cabinet-making. Will- iam Holmes also carried on blacksmithing in a shop which stood a little to the rear of the Mills house.
During this time there were several other business interests in the village. Robert Silvers kept a tavern in the house which Aaron Flowers had so much difficulty in building. John Sowards made hats in a shop which stood on the site of the show room which belonged to the Bumgardner carriage shop. This place of business for some unaccountable reason was called the "Old Penitentiary." The first meeting house, which belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church society, stood on lots I and 2.
THE INCORPORATION OF THE VILLAGE.
Sixteen years after the plat of the town was certified, the population of the village had grown to such an extent, that it was deemed advisable to have it incorporated. For this purpose Dr. William Frazier, acting on the suggestion of Dr. William Bell and Robert E. Patterson, framed a petition to the Legislature which was signed by many of the citizens of the village. It was favorably acted upon and on February 13, 1832, the village of Bell- brook was duly incorporated. The first officers of the town were: William Bigger, mayor; Abner G. Luce, treasurer, and Silas Hale, marshal. The present officers of the corporation, who took their seats on January 1, 1918, are as follows: J. H. Lansinger, mayor; W. W. Tate, clerk; H. M. Turner, treasurer ; R. H. Hopkins, marshal; A. R. Howland, assessor; J. L. Myers,
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A. R. Howland, Jobe Anthony and D. H. Hopkins, members of the village board of education.
In the early years of its incorporation, Bellbrook did not need much funds with which to carry on its municipal activities, for on March 9, 1835, there remained "in the treasury of the corporation a balance of $2.98;" and on February 3, 1836, the coffers of the municipality were replenished by Marshal Hale, who turned over to the treasurer $26.35, the tax for the year 1835.
FIRE PROTECTION.
In order to occupy its position as a fully fledged municipality, fire appa- ratus was necessary, and the bustling city council on August 11, 1836, "ordered that John R. Dinwiddie be allowed $23.121/2 for fire hooks, ropes and ladders." The paraphernalia was then stored in the south end of the old log meeting house which belonged to the Methodist Protestant church society. What became of it is not recorded.
The first fire of any size destroyed what was known as the Academy which stood near the Old-School Presbyterian church in 1852. This abandoned seat of learning belonged at that time to Harrison Vaughan. In 1855 the large two-story building which stood on the first alley north of Franklin street, off of Main, and in which Ephraim Bumgardner had his carriage shop, was burned. The fire spread to the neighboring livery stable belonging to Samuel Elcock's hotel. The old Magnetic Hotel burned in 1893 and the bath house shared the same fate in 1913. The Bellbrook Inn, the com- petitor of the old Magnetic Hotel, burned in 1900.
THE MAGNETIC SPRINGS.
In 1882 Andrew Byrd, who had bought the old United Presbyterian church at the corner of Main and Walnut streets, began the repair of that building with the intention of making it into a dwelling house. He started to dig a well in the basement of the house but at a depth of only a few feet encountered so strong a vein of water that digging was stopped. When all was ready for the plastering of the house, Robert Butler was employed to do the work and the water with which he mixed the mortar was obtained from the shallow well. To the amazement of Butler, the trowel which he used became magnetized so that it would pick up lath nails and after some experimentation it was found that any piece of steel allowed to remain in the water from this well for a short time would become magnetized.
Immediately the probable medicinal properties of this water occurred to Byrd and a sample of it was taken to a chemist for analysis. This analysis was quite formidable in the matter of the names applied to the various com- ponents, and these names appeared especially so when they were emblazoned
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upon large advertising posters by the promoter and a local artist. Soon the finding of this "fountain of youth" became noised about in the village and many of the citizens began to take the healing waters for all sorts of ail- ments. Testimonials were gathered from those thus benefited and these recommendations were sent to the newspapers and were printed all over the country. The free advertising which thus heralded the finding of the "fountain of youth" brought a continuous stream of vistors to Bellbrook, each bringing some kind of vessel in which to carry away a portion of the healing waters. On one Sunday during the first paroxysm of excitement occasioned by the discovery of the "Magnetic Springs," as the well had been named, the streets of the village were completely filled with equipages of all descriptions, and the crowd for that one day alone was estimated at five thousand.
Byrd abandoned his intention of using the old church as a dwelling house and turned the building into a "sanitorium" to which the suffering members of the human race could come for treatment for all manner of diseases. Byrd sought to increase the flow of water by digging the well deeper and wider, but he was not so fortunate as to tap another vein of the precious water. The result was that the increased flow only diluted the strength of the water from the healing source. When it seemed that the financial suc- cess of the undertaking was on the decline, Byrd sold the old church and bath house which he had constructed nearby to the Ohmer brothers of Day- ton, who turned the sanitorium into a hotel under the supervision of George McIlwain. A long addition was made to the old church on the left and the business continued to thrive. Later the owners of the hotel sold their interests to Arthur Duffy, who owned the establishment until it burned in 1893. Duffy then built a bath house on the site of the old hotel and a dancing pavilion on the hill above. When the enterprise lost its commercial value, Duffy sold bath house, pavilion and well to Michael McMullen, a wealthy member of the city council of Cincinnati, in 1909. McMullen fitted up the pavilion and grounds for a summer home. It was surrounded with well- kept lawns and the beautiful natural scenery of "Mullen Camp," as the place was called, made it one of the prettiest places in the county. But the bath house shared the same fate as the old hotel on October 21, 1913, when it, too, burned to the ground.
Of course Bellbrook had visions of growth. The Bellbrook Magnet in 1884 said: "Notwithstanding the extreme cold weather, the demand for magnetic water is still on the increase and the prospects for a boom in the spring is a fixed fact. Now is the time to buy lots."
Some lively members of the community decided that Byrd did not have a monopoly on all the magnetic water in the township and they organized
.
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a company, sold stock and built the Bellbrook Inn on the other corner of Main and Walnut streets, near what was claimed was another spring just as good as the original. As time passed this enterprise ceased to be a paying one and several members of the Bellbrook community have souvenirs of the discovery of the magnetic spring in the form of certificates of stock in the Bellbrook Inn. Finally, after withstanding the vicissitudes of fortune for many years, the Inn shared the fate of its old competitor, the Magnetic Hotel, for it burned sometime in 1900.
FIVE HUNDRED INDIANS IN BELLBROOK.
After Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur had bought the lands belonging to the Indians north of the Greenville treaty line by the treaty of St. Marys in 1818, certain tracts were reserved for the remnants of the Wyandotte, Delaware and Seneca tribes. But these reservations were subsequently ceded to the United States. The last of these aborigines of Ohio to leave were the Wyandottes, who turned over their lands to the government in 1842.
During the July of the next year, these Indians, numbering at least five hundred, were removed to Kansas. After they were all collected, they started for Cincinnati, and as the weather was pleasant, they made the journey overland. During that month their long wagon train passed through Bell- brook and they pitched their wigwams between the village and Little Sugar creek, where they prepared to spend the night, and during their brief stay were visited by many of the villagers. The Indians did not remain long, for by seven o'clock the next morning their great caravan had already started on its way toward Cincinnati. From there the redskins boarded a river boat which took them to Kansas, where they were met by their kinsmen who had preceded them.
THE ONLY CASE OF HOMICIDE.
The only homicide ever committed in the village or township occurred on February 20, 1858, when Andrew Kirby stabbed John Stanton with a butcher knife. The scene of the tragedy was a house in the southeast part of the village, on East street, belonging to Mrs. Cusic. Kirby immediately ran to the house of Silas Hale, who was then justice of the peace, to sur- render himself. Stanton lived only a short time. At the trial Kirby was defended by Hon. Thomas Corwin, but was sentenced to a life term in the Ohio penitentiary.
THE PORK INDUSTRY AT BELLBROOK.
In the early days of the Miami country, pork-packing was an important industry in all the small towns of the valley. In those days the farmers drove their hogs to the slaughter houses at or near the village, the carcasses were
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then cut up, and the finished product was hauled to Cincinnati by wagon. In later years, after the advent of the railroad, the meat was taken to the nearest station and sent by rail to that city. In those days Bellbrook was an important local center in the pork business and and thousands of hogs were slaughtered here and sent down to Cincinnati.
This industry began in Bellbrook on a more or less extensive scale as early as 1835, when B. F. Allen erected a large brick pork house in the village. This building was used for this purpose until Allen retired from the business. As the years passed the business prospered and thousands of hogs were killed for the market in Bellbrook. The four men who were well-known cutters were Joshua Brelsford, Charles Wright, George Sebring and Eber Turner. Sharp Weller barreled the sidemeat. David Snoden had charge of the bulking of the meat in the cellar, where it was cured with lake salt. The kettles for rendering the lard were located on the east part of the building and David Raper generally had charge of this work. The cooperage came from Dayton and Centerville, the barrels and kegs being brought by teams from these two towns. The cracklings were sold to the soap factories at Dayton. After the meat was cured, it was hauled to Spring Valley to be shipped by rail to the markets. After the packing season was over, there being 10 refrigeration facilities in those days, the pork house was cleaned and whitewashed on the inside. It then became, on account of its size, the social center of the community, being used for singing-schools and the like. These singing-schools were taught by Newton Carman, Thomas Harrison, H. Vaughan and others, at two dollars a term.
In 1839 a slaughter house was erected at the junction of the two Sugar creeks, south of Bellbrook. This was a rough, substantial, low, one-story building, built of hewed logs, and was used for about three seasons or until a flood swept the entire establishment away into the Little Miami and the site was abandoned for slaughter-house purposes. Alexander Hopkins was the manager of the establishment. A second slaughter house was built on Alexander Hopkins' farm on North Main street, near the top of the hill, so that access could be had to the large spring there. This structure of heavy frame was erected about 1843 and in it thousands of hogs were slaughtered. The third, or Western slaughter house, which was erected about 1844, was a substantial frame building, located on the Dayton pike, just west of town near a large spring. This plant could turn out daily from two hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty hogs. Alex- ander Hopkins also was superintendent of this slaughter house, William Law was "sticker," and Charles M. Rosell had charge of the scalding. The cleaners were Tom Duffy. George Snowden, John Sebring, John Belt, Pat Kirby and others. Some lard rendering was also carried on at the slaughter house and Henry Harmon had charge of this part of the work.
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THE BUMGARDNER CARRIAGE WORKS.
Ephraim Bumgardner established a carriage-manufacturing plant in Bell- brook some time after 1840 and his enterprise was flourishing in the '50s. He had a large two-story building on Franklin street where he carried on his work. In the late '6os and the early 'zos the carriage factory, then located on lots 49 and 50 on Main street, had reached considerable propor- tions, it then consisting of blacksmith, wood-working, paint and trimming shops, and it was said at that time the product of its concern surpassed that of any other place in southern Ohio. It was the custom in those days for the employees of the carriage shop to board at Bumgardner's house and among those who thus sat at their employer's table in the late '6os were Horatio Kemp, Albert Blease, Alva Smith, Albert Kemp, Harry Butler, Lewis Raper, Thomas Gibbons, William Luce, "Bud" Truman, William Davis, Theodore Schaffer, Samuel Raper, Samuel Willoughby, William Willoughby, William Thorne, John Cathers, William Cathers, Patrick Gib- bons, Lewis Dingler, James Maloney, Charles Cunningham, Charles Mills, Amos Harnish, Baty Weller and John Weise. This enterprise ceased some thirty or forty years ago.
A PIONEER UNDERTAKER.
In the early days before the coming of the undertaker to this section people would prepare, with the help of their friends and neighbors, the bodies of their loved ones for burial. The first undertaker in Sugarcreek township and one of the first in Greene county was John M. Stake, who was actively engaged in this business in Bellbrook for sixty years at least and was in 1897 the oldest living member of his profession in the county if not in the state.
John M. Stake was a native of Maryland, where he was born on October 20, 1808. When he was eighteen years of age he began learning the trade of cabinet-maker, and in 1834 began plying his trade and under- taking at Boonesborough in that state. He had married in the meantime and in 1838 he removed to Bellbrook where he bought out the business of Andrew Byrd, who was engaged in cabinet-making here at that time. Stake's place of business stood at the corner of West and Franklin streets, where he manufactured coffins and furniture for many years. He was one of the first men in the county to have a hearse and the first person buried from this hearse in the township was the father of Michael Swigert, Sr., whom Stake interred in the old Beavercreek church yard. Before the day of the hearse, the coffin was called for at the shop, the corpse put in it at the residence, and then hauled to the cemetery in a common wagon. Stake made some of the early interments in the pioneer cemetery at Bellbrook, and
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in 1852 he buried the first person, Mrs. Rachel Hopkins, in the new Bell- brook cemetery. He also buried the first person in the Catholic graveyard at Dayton. Formerly there was a graveyard located on a mound near the Tresslar mills, but it has long since been abandoned. Stake made the first interment in this cemetery and the corpse was taken across the Little Miami in a canoe, as the river was too high to be forded and there were no bridges. The first horse Stake used when he came to the village cost him five dollars, and, although it was somewhat lame, it was a serviceable animal as a hearse horse for many years. During the many years that he was in business, Stake buried between five thousand and six thousand bodies.
THE INVENTION OF THE FIRST REAPER.
It is said that Bellbrook is the place where the first machine for cutting wheat was invented. In his little work shop in an obscure part of the village the inventor, Jesse Sanders, a mechanic, had worked on the problem of per- fecting a machine which would eliminate the cradle. He worked on the reaper at his spare time from 1840 until 1845, and finally it was completed. During this time he had taken into his confidence Ephraim Sparks and Cap- tain Fryant, who gave him some valuable suggestions on the mechanism of the machine. On the day appointed for the testing of the reaper a large crowd of the villagers and neighboring farmers congregated at the farm of Jacob Haines to see the reaper tried out; but, as the story goes, a stranger was also in their midst and he examined the reaper carefully and made many inquiries concerning its construction. The bystanders thought little of the man's actions at the time, for they were intensely interested in the little machine which had acquitted itself so well at its first test. It is said that when the McCormick Company of Chicago put a reaper of exactly the same pattern on the market in the following year, a suspicion was created in the minds of the neighbors of Sanders that the affable stranger seen on that day was none other than one of the agents of that company and had appro- priated Sanders' invention. Sanders never realized anything for his labors and died a poor man after giving to the world one of the greatest inventions of the age.
TAVERNS, HOTELS AND TRANSPORTATION.
The first tavern was the old Clancey House which has already been described. Another was called the Mansion House. This latter had a very high sign post in front with the name emblazoned on it in large characters. A part of this old tavern is now used for a dwelling, the last house on South Main street on the west side. On the northwest corner of Main and Frank- lin streets was the Eagle Exchange with its sign post. The Green Bay Tree, a brick building on the west side of North Main street and which is still
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standing, was also a well-known center in the earlier days. One of the most interesting of these taverns was the Eagle Exchange which still stands on the corner before mentioned. Alongside its great chimney is the old tavern bell in its little belfry, where it has hung for almost three-quarters of a cen- tury.
In the early '40s a stage line was run from Dayton to the Little Miami railroad at Spring Valley, and Bellbrook, which is four miles distant from the latter place, was a station on the stage line. The coach drawn by six prancing horses of the best blood, each in a fine set of harness and with a full set of bells, would rumble in from the west from Dayton along Frank- lin street and stop at the Eagle Exchange. When the stage was all ready to resume its journey toward Spring Valley, the driver would wind his bugle and the passengers would clamber up into their seats, and with a parting blare of the horn, the stage would start away. Oftimes the bugler would continue his calls until they would die away in beautiful echoes among the surrounding hills.
During the latter part of the past century several railroads were pro- jected through Bellbrook and Sugarcreek township, and at one time two surveying parties crossed their chains in the southwest part of the village. All of these activities were considered a good omen, but still Bellbrook and the entire township has no steam railroad. In the '7os many of the citizens of the town had visions of the place becoming a bustling manufacturing center, if it could only be favored by having a railroad pass through it. The town, however, was forced to wait the advent of the electric cars. The Dayton & Xenia Traction Company projected a line through the village to Spring Valley from Dayton during the latter 'gos and on March 5, 1900, the first car passed through the town. The cars began to run regularly on Monday, April 23, following, and on that day general business in the village was laid aside to greet this beginning of a new era for Bellbrook. The first car arrived at half past seven in the morning, and those of the citizens of the village to board this first car were Harry Weaver, Frank Newland, J. H. Racer, Charles Mills, Doctor Hook, Frank Pennewit, Patrick Gibbons, Mrs. John Marmon, Miss Caroline Harmon and Miss Emma Racer. Thomas Degnan was the conductor and E. W. French the motorman. During this first day eight cars arrived.
GROWTH AND DECLINE OF BELLBROOK.
The growth of Bellbrook was about normal and reached its zenith in 1850, when the population of the village was five hundred and two. The "two" were colored, and one of them was Lucretia Johnson, more familiarly known as "Aunt Cressie," who was held in high esteem by her white neigh-
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bors. The population in 1870 was 369; in 1880, 425; in 1890, 350; in 1900, 352, and in 1910, it was 238. It is thus apparent that Bellbrook is having the same experience as hundreds of the smaller towns in the United States, where there is a concentration of population in the larger cities.
BUSINESS INTERESTS AT BELLBROOK.
About 1812, three years before the village was laid out, James Gowdy, the first merchant at Xenia, decided to extend his business by establishing a store in the settlement which later became known as Bellbrook. He opened a store in a little log cabin which stood at about the northeast corner of Lot No. 50, but soon found that the business would not pay and he left the place for a more promising field. The first blacksmith to locate in the village was James Webb, who came in 1815. Silas Hale was the cabinet- maker. John C. Hale, Sr., was the tanner. John Sowards furnished hats for the masculine members of the community. In 1840 the following men had stores : Benjamin Allen, Silas Hale and the firms of Harris & Allen and Harris & Larew.
In the early 'zos the business interests of the village were in the hands of the following: Alexander Patterson and Harry Richards, shoe shops; Samuel Lamb, Samuel Dinwiddie and Jesse Watson, wagon shops; Samuel Lamb and Charles Killian, cooper shops; Brazil Pancoast, Jacob Boroff and Charles Miller, blacksmiths; Ross Tampsett, pump shop; John M. Stake, cabinet-maker and undertaker; Joseph Black, drug store; Thomas Austin, grocer ; William Hopkins, dry goods; Campbell's grocery; Silas Hale, gen- eral store; Mrs. Farley, grocer; Ed. Kline, tin store; Ephraim Bumgard- ner, carriage factory and livery stable.
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