USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 28
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
The business interests of Bellbrook in 1918 are in the hands of the fol- lowing: Automobile dealer, J. Z. Myers; blacksmiths, Charles F. Mills and Eugene Pennewit: cabinet-maker, John Stake; carpenter, J. T. Finley ; coal, W. H. Hodges; furniture, John Stake; garage, Hess Brothers; groceries, C. F. Schwarts, J. S. Turner & Son, O. R. Peterson & Company, W. H. Hodges; livery, James Crowl; physician, Dr. G. C. Hook; postmaster, H. M. Turner; restaurant, W. W. Tate; saw-mill, John Weaver; undertaker, James Crowl.
CHAPTER XIV.
XENIA TOWNSHIP.
The four original townships of the county erected by the first meeting of the associate judges on May 10, 1803, could not long retain their original extent, and the first township organized after the government of the county had been established was Xenia township, August 20, 1805.
The erection of Xenia township was not brought about by the asso- ciate judges, but by the county commissioners, to whom the court of com- mon pleas had turned over the county business in the spring of 1804. It was at a meeting of the board of county commissioners held on the date mentioned above that the following order was issued :
On the Petition of James Collier, John Sterritt, James McCoy and others, it was con- sidered by the Board of Commissioners that there shall be one Township composed out of part Ceasars Creek and Beaver Creek Townships in the following manner :
All the part of Beaver Creek Township, East of the little Miami and above the Mouth of Massies Creek; thence with Beaver Creek Township to the North East corner of Sugar Creek Township; thence with the Sugar Creek Township line to the mouth of Andersons fork; thence up the main fork of Ceasars Creek with the meanderings thereof to the East line of the County; thence North with said line to the North East corner ; thence West to the Miami; thence down the River to the beginning; which shall be called and known by the Name of Xenia Township, and the first election shall be held at the house of William A. Beatty in Xenia.
JOHN PAUL, CI'k.
ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES OF THE TOWNSHIP.
From the above order of the commissioners the extent of Xenia town- ship can be described with a fair amount of clearness. Evidently the place of beginning was the mouth of Massies creek and then the line of the town- ship extended due southward to the mouth of Andersons fork, a tributary of Cæsars creek. The line from that point followed Cæsars creek, presumably up the north branch, to a point in the northeast corner of what is now New Jasper township, which is about eight miles north of the south county line and seven miles west of the east line of the county. The locus of this point is not exactly determined by the order of the commissioners, but it was established before Silvercreek township was cut off from Cæsarscreek town- ship in 1811. From this point the line of Xenia township extended due east- ward to the east boundary of the county. From thence the eastern boundary of the township ran northward to the northeast corner of the county, whose
272
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
boundary had only a few months previously been established along the line of the southern boundary of the ninth range of townships by the erec- tion of Champaign county. From this point the line of the township ex- tended westward, coincident with the northern line of the county, to the Little Miami river, down which the line extended to the point of beginning, the mouth of Massies creek.
Xenia township at the time of its erection was bounded on the west by Beavercreek and Sugarcreek townships; on the north mostly by Beavercreek township and a short distance on the eastern end of the northern boundary by Champaign county (Clark county not being organized then) ; the east and a part of the south by Cæsarscreek township. Some of the townships of the county have been erected wholly or partly out of territory which formerly was embraced within the boundaries of Xenia township, such as the greater part of what is now Xenia township, Cedarville township, Ross township, Miami township, New Jasper township, and Vance township.
CHANGES IN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE TOWNSHIP.
Not long did Xenia township retain its unbroken extent to the eastern boundary of the county. On June 8, 1808, the commissioners erected Miami township which was set off partly from Xenia township and partly from Bath township. The southern boundary of the new township was deter- mined by the north boundary line of section 5, township 3, range 7, and its line extended eastward to the county line. Thus Xenia township lost all of its territory east of the Little Miami and north of the present southern boundary line of Miami township.
At the same meeting of the board of commissioners on June 8, 1808, Xenia township had an acquisition of territory west of the Little Miami, from Beavercreek township. It was then "ordered that the following tract or part of Beaver Creek Township, East of the line hereafter mentioned, be struck off and attached to Xenia Township; viz., Beginning at the North East corner of Section No. 5, Township 3 & Range 7, thence south to the Little Miami." This tract now forms in part the northwest part of the township at present. The township was again shorn of considerable terri- tory on the east by the erection of Ross township on March 4, 18II. The western boundary of the new township began at the northwest corner of Silvercreek township, where the line of Xenia township left the course of Cæsars creek and extended east to the county line. From that point the west line of the new township proceeded northward to the Miami township line.
The loss of the territory comprising Ross township was partly com- pensated for by a gain of territory at the expense of Beavercreek township
273
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
in 1816. It was then "Ordered by the board of Commissioners that so much of Beaver Creek Township as lies below the mouth of Massies Creek and running down the meanderings of the Little Miami so far that a due South line to the line of Sugar Creek Township will include the dwelling house of Jonathan Paul & Jacob Hisewonger, be and the same is hereby attached to Xenia Tp. It is therefore ordered that Moses Collier survey said line and make report thereof the 4th day of July, next, and that Robert Gowdy agreed to pay all expenses of survey &c." On December 2, 1816, the board of commissioners acted favorably upon a petition for the addition of a part of Sugarcreek township to Xenia township. The following appears on the record book of the commissioners for that date: "On the petition of Frederick Bonner & others, praying for (illegible) of Sugar Creek Town- ship as may be East of a line commencing on the (illegible) line of Sugar Creek Township, at the corner of Beaver & Xenia Townships, and to run South untill it crosses Glady Run ; thence to run a South East course so as to intersect Xenia Township line about the South West corner on Cæsars Creek, to be attached to Xenia Township." Thus with a few minor later changes, the western boundary of Xenia township was determined by 1817.
The eastern boundary of the township was not determined until after the erection of Cedarville and New Jasper townships, respectively, in 1850 and 1853. Before the erection of these two townships, the southeastern boundary of Xenia township was Cæsars creek and the eastern line of the township was the western line of the present township of Jefferson produced until it intersected the southern border of Miami township. The erection of Cedarville township restricted the township of Xenia within its present northeastern borders and the part of New Jasper township north of Cæsars creek was stricken off from Xenia township. Thus Xenia township was in general confined to its present borders by 1853.
THE PRESENT BORDERS OF THE TOWNSHIP.
The present irregular shape of Xenia township has not resulted from the caprice of the surveyors who have platted it or its residents, but seems to have arisen from the formation of the townships which have been stricken in part from its territory. The fact that certain petitioners wished to be- come residents of the new townships formed caused them to have the sur- veyor to include their farms within the newly erected political units of the county. The fact that their farmns lay in that part of the county where the military surveys obtained, made the resulting line of the new townships irregular. It follows then that the western line of Xenia township is fairly regular, but the one on the east make the township look like a patch (18)
274
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
in a crazy quilt. Beginning at the northwest corner of the township, the line runs east one-half mile, thence north one-half mile, thence east about one and one-half miles, thence south one mile, thence east to the river, thence abruptly southward after crossing the river a short distance about one-half mile. The line then runs southeast about three miles; thence south about a mile; thence east in an irregular course; thence in a line bearing somewhat west of south to a point not quite a mile south of the Baltimore & Ohio rail- road; thence southwest one mile, southeast one-fourth of a mile, southwest one-fourth of a mile, southeast one-half a mile, southwest a half mile and southeast one mile to Cæsars creek. From this point the line follows the meanderings of the creek for about three miles to the Peterson farm; thence north three-fourths of a mile; thence a little north of west three miles; thence one-fourth mile northwest to the Columbus pike, which it follows a quarter of a mile northeast; thence northwest one mile; thence a little west of north about a mile and a half; thence north three miles to the Little Miami which it follows a mile northeast; thence north one mile, west one-half mile, north one mile, west one-half mile and north a mile and a half to the place of beginning. This gives one a conception of the broken boundary line of Xenia township.
Xenia township is touched by eight townships. It is bordered on the northwest by Bath; on the north by Miami; on the northeast by Cedarville; on the east by Cedarville and New Jasper ; on the southeast by Cæsarscreek ; on the south and southwest by Spring Valley; by Beavercreek on the west, and the corner of Sugarcreek township touches Xenia township on the south- ivest.
TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE.
In general the level, prairie-like areas of the township lie to the west and northwest of the city of Xenia and the more hilly and rolling sections are in the eastern and southeastern parts of the township. The parts of the township which are rough are found to the southeast along Cæsars creek and where Massies creek cuts the northeast part of the township in the vicinity of Wilberforce. The average elevation of the township is approx- imately nine hundred and fifty feet. The lowest elevation is where the val- ley of the Little Miami leaves Xenia township and enters Beavercreek town- ship, this point being here about eight hundred and four feet above sea level. The highest point in the township is ten hundred and eighty-eight feet above sea level, which point is located about two and one-half miles southeast of Xenia on the Wilmington pike. Even though the valley of the Little Miami is wide and very productive, it is flanked by higher land which stretches away eastward in a broad plateau some one hundred feet higher than the level of the valley. A very large part of the soil of the township admits of
275
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
cultivation and at present of the thirty thousand acres of land owned in the township, twenty-seven thousand have been brought under cultivation. In the main this arable land produces excellent crops of wheat, corn and oats, and the fine blue-grass pasture lands afford thousands of horses, cattle, and sheep ample grazing lands. In the pioneer days, the township was covered with an excellent growth of fine hardwood timber-oak, walnut, sugar and some cherry-but these forested areas have melted away before the axes of the incoming settler and their descendants. This cutting away of the forests has had a decided effect upon the drainage of the township, a part of which was formerly covered with swamps. When the city of Xenia was young, its site was so swampy that the hogs of the early residents wallowed in Main street and disported themselves in the ooze of the court house yard. With the cutting away of the timber and the extended use of drain-tile ditches, this has all changed.
The drainage facilities of the township are excellent, for it lies in the basin of the Little Miami river, which, with many of its tributaries, cut courses through the soil of the township. The river enters the township on the north and flows southwestward across the northwest corner. The first tributary of the river on the north in the township is Jacoby branch, which rises in the western part of Miami township, flows southward into Xenia township and empties into the Little Miami a short distance south of Goes station. Conner branch finds its source in the extreme northwestern corner of the township and flows southeastward into the Little Miami. Massies creek, named for Nathaniel Massie who was one of the early dis- trict surveyors of the military land, rises near Cedarville and flows in a general westward direction until it reaches a point a short distance north of Oldtown where it is joined by Oldtown run. The stream then empties into the river about a half-mile northwest from the village of Oldtown. Shawnee run, at the forks of which the site of Xenia was chosen in 1803, enters the Little Miami about three miles and a quarter west and a little north of the county seat. Glady run, a small stream which finds its source in the south- castern part of the township, flows westward a mile and then turns south- west and leaves the township at its southwest corner. This stream then continues southwest and empties into the Little Miami not far from Spring Valley. Cæsars creek forms the southeastern boundary of the township.
THE FIRST ELECTION OF XENIA TOWNSHIP.
Before the erection of Xenia township the residents in the greater part of this territory wended their way through the forests southward to the house of William I. Stewart in the town of Cæsarsville where they votcd as residents of Cæsarscreek township. When the commissioners erected the
276
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
new township of Xenia at their meeting on August 20, 1805, they ordered the first election in the new township to be held at the house of William A. Beatty, the first tavern keeper and the director of the new town of Xenia, for the purpose of electing the necessary township officers. In order that all elections in the township held during that autumn might be held on the same day, the township election was deferred until the regular fall election on October 14, 1805.
The poll-book of that first election is given with all its excessive capi- talization and misspelled words and names; after each misspelled name there follows the correct spelling :
This is a Poll book of the Election held in Xenia Town Ship, Green County, State of Ohio, on October the 14th, in the year of our Lord, one thousand Eight hundred and five. Alexander McCoy, Henry Henly [Henry] Hanes, John Pull [Paul], Judges, & John Kindal [Kendall] & Charles Moore, Clerks of the Election, were severally sworn as the Law Directs Previous to there [their] Entering on the duties of there [their] Respective offices-as I, one of the justices of the piece [peace] Do Certify.
(Signed) W. M. MCFARLAND.
The Electors .- Josiah Grover, John Burrell, John Paul, John Ruth, William Yates, William McConnell, Francis McCoy, John Alexander, William Ruth, William King, John Marshall, William McClelling [McClelland], Michael Follom, John Stevens, Samuel Chris- well, John Mendinghall [Mendenhall], Thomas Bull, Richard Bull, William Kindell [Kendall], Bues [?] Haregrave [Hargrave], Davis Edge, William Gardner Sutton, Samuel Brazelton, John Anderson, Moses Collier, Jacob Cutler, David McKay, David Bonnor [Bonner], Jamcs Spain, James McKay, Moses Hoggate [ Hogate], James Dunkin, Bennet Maxey, William Edge, James Hail [Hale], Thomas Simson, Samuel Ruth, John Goode, Daniel Cottrell, Alexander McCoy, Adam McConnell, Thomas Townsley, Robert Bogas, Samuel Anderson, James Bruce, James Towler, Frederick Bonner, Gray Gary, William McFarling [McFarland], Robert Davis, John Luis [Lewis], William Hillis, Berry Ald- ridge, John Hoop, James Townsley, John Gregg, James Bonner, James Morrah [Morrow], James Stevenson, Theodore Spain, James Butlar [Butler], William Gorden [Gordon], Joseph Wilson, Joseph Sterrot [Sterritt], John Townsley, John McCoy, David Hillis, Andrew Gipson [Gibson], William Gipson [Gibson], Joseph Kile [Kyle], Benjamin Hanes, William Stevenson, John Williams, William Anderson, James Barkley [Barclay], Thomas Pirkens [Perkins], Paris Horney, Samuel Kile [Kyle], Richard Mendinghall [Menden- hall], David Lawhead [Laughead], John Ervin, John Hillis, James Porter, Joseph Spencer, Robert McCoy, Membrance [Remembrance] Williams, Nathaniel Porter, Benjamin Laird, James Bull, Charles Moore, John Bull, Henry Haines, Dems [Dempsey] McDaniel, Jacob Steel, Wm. A. Beatty, Alexander McCoy, Jr.
It is Certified by us that the No. of allectors [electors] at this Election amounts to Ninety-six.
Attest :
Charles Moore John Kendall, Clerks.
JOHN PAUL HENRY HAINES ALEXANDER McCOY, Judges.
The names of the electors have been given in the order in which they occurred on the poll book, and from this list can be determined the ma- jority of the residents of the township at the time of its erection. It is quite probable that there were some electors in the outlying districts of the town- ship, which extended almost from the Little Miami to Cæsars creek and to
277
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
the northeast corner of the county, who could not find it convenient to come to Xenia on the day for the election. It is certain that the story of the life of each one of these earliest residents of the township would be most inter- esting to the present generation of readers, but the narrative of their strug- gles, joys, sorrows, manner of living and the like is for the most part lost forever.
THE EARLIEST ENUMERATION SHEET.
As is seen in the histories of some of the other townships, additional names of old settlers were found in the old enumeration sheets which were compiled by the listers. It is quite probable that such listing of "freemen over the age of twenty-one years" was ordered soon after Xenia township was erected, but, if there was such a list, it has unfortunately been lost. The earliest enumeration sheet of the township was compiled by Moses Col- lier, the authorized lister, in 1807. From his list the names of residents of the township, as it then was bounded, are added, as follows:
William J. Aldridge, John Allen, William Allen, James Anderson, John H. Anderson, Daniel Anderson, Samuel Alexander, Mathew Alexander, Angelo Adams, Ephraim Adams, Bartholomew Berra, William Bull, John Boyd, David Boyd, Elias Bromagen, Daniel Boyle. Jonathan Brown, James Bunton, Henry Baldwin, Elisha Bales, Jonathan Bales, Samuel Bone, Will- iam Burnside, George Bobletts, Elkanah Bramlett, Henry Bray, Walter Creswell, William Campbell, Benjamin Cutler, Cornelius Collins, James Collier, Joseph Conkelon, Andrew Cronk, John Chambers, Elgin Driskoll, John Donnelly, Andrew Davisson, John Dooley, Elijah Embree, John Ellis, William Ellis, William A. Ellis, Michael Fullam, John Fires, Benjamin Grover, Samuel Gowdy, Thomas Embree, James Gowdy, Robert Gowdy,
Samuel Gamble, John Graham, Joseph Graham, Thomas Godfrey, John Gal- loway, John Gaddis, Mathew Hillis, James Hillis, Sampson Hillis, Jacob Helmick, Joseph Hammel, Robert Hammel, Enos Holland, Tinsley Heath, James Hickman, William Hickman, William Horney, James Hays, Ahab Inman, John Irwin, James Junkin, William Junkin, Arthur Johnson, David Johnson, Reuben Johnson, Phillip Jackson, Abraham Larue, James Lynn, James Lloyd, John Lloyd, Samuel Lynn, William Leonard, John McClure, David Mitchell, John Mitchell, James Miller, Jacob Miller, William Miller, Horatio Maxey, John McFarland, Robert McFarland, David McCoy, James McCoy, Daniel McMillan, John Mitten, John Mattox, James Merrifield, John Marshall, William Morgan, Evan Morgan, Isaac Maitland, Levitt McDaniel, Wilson McDaniel, Isaiah McDaniel, George Merriman, Aaron Mendenhall, Adsit McGuire, Nieuwanger, James Neeley, Sr., James Neeley, Jr., Michael Peterson, John Porter, Joseph Porter, Samuel Picklesimer, William Price, David Price, Eli Pendry, Jonathan Paul, Henry Phenix, John R. Robbins,
278
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Stephen Roper, Alexander Ross, Conrad Richards, Arnold Richards, An- drew Scott, Moses Scott, John Stull, William Stanton, Hezekiah Sanders, Calvin Sayre, James Small, Michael Spencer, James Stevens, John Street, John Sale, Frederick Shagley. John Shagley, John Sterritt, William Stan- field, William Townsley, John Tucker, Joel Thornburgh, Isaac Vandeventer, Jonathan Wallace, Jonathan H. Wallace, Thomas Whalen, James White, William Ward, George Ward, William Witty, John Wilson, Stephen Winter, James Winter, Jesse Watson, John Watson, Arthur Watts.
MILITARY LANDS OF THE TOWNSHIP.
Since the greater part of the territory of Xenia township lies east of the Little Miami, it falls within the lands which were set apart as a Virginia military reservation for the veteran regiments of Old Dominion in the Rev- olutionary War. In the list of these lands which follows not all of the sur- veys are included in toto within the borders of the township; it has been the intention to include those surveys which are partly included in the township.
Name of Proprietor.
Survey. 387
No. of Acres.
John Jameson
No.
1,200
Henry Bell
389
1,000
John Stokes
390
1,000
George Scott
429
1,000
John Wood ford 1 1
516
2,200
George Gray
603
990
William Dark
870
I30
John Fowler
929
1,000
John Woodford
I39I
2,500
Warner and Addison Lewis
2236
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis
2237
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis
2239
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis
2240
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis.
224I
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis
2242
1,000
Warner and Addison Lewis
2243
1,000
Jacob Brown
2263
965
Archibald Campbell
2264
1,000
Charles Bradford
2277
1,200
Charles Bradford
2278
1,200
Lewis Booker
3576
475
George Holland
3586
250
William Croghan
3912
750
John Harvie and Beverley Stubblefield.
4340 and 4422
250
I
I
I
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
I
1 1
1
1
I
1
1
I
I
1
I
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1 I
1
1
1
1
1
1
!
1
1
1 1
1
I
1
1
I
I
1
I 1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
$
1
1
I
279
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Daniel Bailey
4819
I7
George Galloway
7280
40
Robert D. Forsman
10864
331/2
Pamelia and Penelope Russel
2567
826 1/3
William Fowler
760
1.000
Pamelia and Penelope Russell
2565
1,730
James Knox
70I
700
Alexander Parker
- 577
300
James Galloway, Jr.
70II
70
Warner and Addison Lewis
2272
1,000
Archibald Campbell
2265
1,000
William McGuire
I240
666 2/3
John Woodford
I392
2,500
Richard C. Anderson
2383
2,533 1/3
John Woodford
548
2,200
Beverley Stubblefield
3099
200
James Fowler
465 1 and 4626
266
I
I
1
I
I
I
I
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
I
1
I
I
I
I
I
1
I
1
1
1
I
Of these thirty-four original proprietors of military land in Xenia town- ship a few more than one-half were veterans of the Revolutionary War; they were Lieut. Henry Bell, Lieut. Jacob Brown, Lieut. Charles Bradford, Lieut. Archibald Campbell, Maj. William Croghan, Col. William Dark, Capt. George Gray, Lieut. George Holland, Col. John Jameson, Col. Richard C. Anderson, Capt. John Stokes, Maj. William Russell, Capt. Beverley Stubble- field, Maj. Alexander Parker, Maj. James Knox and Lieut. William McGuire. Moreover, reference to the first poll-books and the first enumeration sheets of the township and of the townships from which Xenia township was erected, reveals that not one of these original proprietors became residents of the township. The remainder of these original proprietors were either land speculators, who had purchased the land warrants from the veterans, heirs of the old soldiers or district surveyors who had found land in the military reservation for which no warrant had been issued.
CONGRESSIONAL LANDS OF THE TOWNSHIP.
Only a small part of the territory of the township falls west of the Little Miami river and is included in the congressional land of the county. This region comprises the northwestern corner of the township, on the west- ern bank of the Little Miami. By section, township and range, these lands are as follows: Fractional sections Nos. 6 and 4 and whole sections No. 5, township 3, range 8; whole sections Nos. 35 and 36 and fractional sections Nos. 23, 28, 29, 33 and 34, township 4, range 8. Unfortunately the re- mainder of the township was not laid out in regular sections, as is the con-
1
I 1
280
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
gressional land, for the irregularity of the military surveys has resulted in many boundary disputes and attending litigation.
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.