USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 29
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EARLY SETTLERS OF XENIA TOWNSHIP.
The fact that the county seat was established in Xenia township makes the history of the township center in the county seat. The city of Xenia has contained more than half of the population of the township for at least a hundred years, and for a number of years it has contained about one-third the population of the entire county.
So many of the early settlers of the township were residents of the - town that there is not much left to say concerning those who settled in the township outside the town. Again, so many of the land-owners lived in the town that they are identified with the town rather than with the town- ship. The poll-books and enumeration records which have been cited give the names of all the first settlers of the township, and it is not necessary to enumerate them again.
Prominent among the early settlers of the town and township might be mentioned the following: . Frederick Bonner, David Laughead, Henry Hypes, the McCoy family, Hugh Andrew, the Gibson family, John Gregg, the Collins family, Edward Watts, Col. James Morrow, Samuel Goe, James Butler, Thomas Perkins, Remembrance Williams, the Gowdy family, John Lewis, Bennett Maxey, Peter Pelham, Isaac Maitland, Major William Beatty, the Galloway family, Thomas Steele and scores of other families. Most of these concerning whom any definite information has been preserved are noted in the chapter on the history of Xenia.
THE VILLAGE OF OLDTOWN.
The official history of the village of Oldtown is not very interesting, certainly not as interesting as the stories which have found a resting place within its now quiet precincts, stories which go back to the times of the Revolutionary War. A brief statement of the official records of the town, however, may be set forth here in order to give it a respectable setting in the urban life of the county.
It was long after it was a village before anyone thought it necessary to plat the site, or take any steps to set it off from the township in which it was located. In fact, probably its most prosperous years had already passed when John Jacoby and John Neimsick decided to plat it. These two men owned the site, or at least, they owned the part that was surveyed, as wit- ness the following document :
The Town of Old Town [formerly always written as two words] was laid out and surveyed by me in the Month of March, 1838, for John Jacoby and John Neimsick, Pro-
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prietors, on part of a Military Survey on the Little Miami River, originally made for Henry Bell, No. 359. Sandusky Street, runs North and South and is sixty feet wide. Cross Street runs west from Sandusky Street, 166 feet on the South line and 191 feet on the North line and is also 60 feet wide. [The remainder of the document gives the size of the fifteen lots.]
Given under my hand the 26th day of March, A. D. 1838. MOSES COLLIER, Surveyor G. C.
The history of the town for the past seventy years has been uneventful. It has had a succession of small merchants who have served the little com- munity, but its proximity to Xenia has made it impossible for it to grow. At the present time the little hamlet has fewer than two dozen houses, and there is little likelihood that it will ever be any larger. The one store of the village is owned by Fred Towes.
CHAPTER XV.
BATH TOWNSHIP.
Bath township was organized by the county commissioners pursuant to an order of that body, dated March 3, 1807, the order stating that the first election was to be held at the house of Andrew Read on April 29, 1807. The township was cut off from Beavercreek township and originally had much more extensive limits than it has today. The order setting forth the provisions for the creation of the township, together with its limits, is here reproduced as it appears on the old records :
Ordered that the Township of Beaver Creek be and the same is hereby divided into two distinct townships by a line running west with the north Boundary of the 5th [illegi- ble word] of Sections in 7th Range of Townships between the Miami River. The south division shall retain the name of Beaver Creek Township, and the first Election Shall be held at the house of Peter Borders in Beaver Creek Township. The north division Shall be called and known by the name of Bath, and the first Election Shall be held at the house of Andrew Read, Esq., April 29, 1807.
This ambiguously defined township seems to have included all of the present Bath township, a small part of Xenia township, most of Miami (cer- tainly to a point east of Yellow Springs), and all that part of the present Clark county north of Bath and such of Miami as it then included. In 1807 there were just four other townships in the county besides Bath: Beaver- creek, Sugarcreek and Cæsarscreek, the three organized in 1803, and Xenia, which had been organized on August 20, 1805. When Miami was cut off from Bath on June 8, 1808, the latter township was left with its eastern boundary as it is today, that is, so far as Greene county was concerned. But Bath still continued to include a part of the present Clark county until that county was created in December, 1817. As Bath township remains today it contains thirty-seven full sections and the northwest quarter of section 6 in the southeastern corner of the township. This entire township falls within the congressional township land of the county, and, in fact, is the only town- ship in the county that contains no Virginia military land.
TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.
The surface of the township is uniformly level, with a few elevations of no consequence scattered here and there over the township, the most important of these slight elevations being known as Read's Hill, lying between sections 14 and 15. The township falls into two river basins, Mad river
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on the west and the Little Miami river on the east, although most of the surface is drained into the latter through Beaver creek. There was formerly a considerable pond immediately east of Fairfield, but it has disappeared. A number of springs are found scattered over the township and they are the feeders for the numerous small streams that thread the entire township. The Mad river basin is very narrow in the township, a fortunate thing considering the proposed change which is going to befall the township on account of this river. Elsewhere is given in detail how the Miami Conser- vancy plan is going to change the history of the northwestern part of Bath township. It is sufficient to state in this connection that when the Huffman retarding basin is finally installed in the township, it will remove from town- ship control about seven thousand acres-or about eleven square miles. In general terms, this may be defined as all the land west of the present Ohio electric line, with a narrow strip east of it along the lower part of the line in the township. It is not now possible to indicate what this will mean to the township, but it can not but make a great change in things, especially if, as now planned, the village of Osborn is destroyed.
EARLY SETTLERS.
The task of locating the early settlers of Bath township is rendered difficult because of the fact that the township was a part of Beavercreek township for the first five years of the county's growth, and also the fact that the original limits of the township included at least twice as much terri- tory as the township does today. Hence a number, probably half, of the settlers enumerated in 1808 did not live within the limits of the township as it stands today with its restricted boundaries.
It was the custom to enumerate all the inhabitants of a new township as soon as it was organized, so as to keep a check on the voters. The enumer- ation in the newly organized township of Bath was made by David Sleeth. This list includes all the males over the age of twenty-one, the complete list being as follows :
ENUMERATION OF VOTERS IN 1808.
James Andrew, Hugh Andrew, William Anderson, John Anderson, John Adams, Darrow Aims, Zachariah Archer, Samuel Aldridge, John Blue, Sr., John Blue, Robert Blue, David Blue, John Black, George Brown, Samuel Brown, Robert Bell, John Burgess, Samuel Butler, Enoch Bot, Richard Ben- nett, Jacob Beall, John Badley, James Beck, William Barton, Thomas Barnes, John Buffanbarger, Joshua Bozarth, John Barton, Thomas Baeton, John Bot- kins, Adam Chambers, James Chambers, Joseph Carpenter, Christopher, John Carpenter, Isaach Cruzan, Job Clemens, John Casad, Sr., John Casad,
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Jr., Aaron Casad, Jacob Casad, Sr., Jacob Casad, Jr., Samuel Casad, Abra- ham Classmire, Isaac Clemens, John Crumb, John Cromwell, John Gallo- way, Ezra Clark, John Cox, Josiah Carson, Dennis Dunn, Benjamin Deever, Mathew Dinsmore, John Driscoll, Robert Davis, Daniel Davis, Robert Dewitt, George Drummond, Abraham Enlow, William Emmett, Robert Flack, Edward Flood, Jonathan Flood, Benjamin French, John Forgy, James Forgy, Daniel Foley, Arthur Forbes, Thomas Fream, William Freal, William Forqueor, Jonas Forqueor, George Foulk, John Goldsby, Edward Goldsby, William Goldsby, Bridge M. Goldsby, John Goldsby, Sr., James Grimes, Samuel Grimes, John Grimes, William Gregory, James M. Galloway, David Grummen, James Grummen, Nimrod Haddix, William Haddix, John Hall, Jacob Hall, Richard Hall, William Hamilton, Frederick Hosier, Peter Hosier, Ezekiel Hopping, Jeremiah Hopping, Moses Hopping, David Hopping, George Harner, Charles Hefley, Samuel Hulie, Jacob Harbine, David Humphrey, James Johnson, Sr., William Johnson, Arthur Johnson, George Kerkendale, Adam Koogler, Solomon Kershner, Sr., Solomon Kershner, Jr., John Knox, Solomon Kelley, William Lowe, John Lee, Warton Lampton, Justus Luce, Benjamin Luce, Elisha Ladley, John Lardee, Jacob M. Marshall, George Minral, Jonathan Mercer, Robert Mercer, James Miller, Benjamin Miller, Martin Miller, James Miller, Sr., Christopher Miller, Aaron Miller, William Martin, John Martin, William Mears, Daniel Moore, Richard Moore, Sr., Richard Moore, Jr., John Morgan, Charles McGuire, John Mccullough, William McClure, Mathias McClure, John McKage, Joseph McCord, Will- iam Mckenzie, Joseph McCune, Alexander McNary, Alexander McHugh, Samuel McKenney, John McPherson, John McGillard, James McDermit, McDermond, John Nelson, Philip Petro, Nicholas Petro, Paul Petro, William Pasel, Andrew Reid, Jesse Rush, Jacob Rush, John Rue, John Rouse- grant, Jacob Ryan, David Read, Jacob Rudy, Henry Sidensticker, Sebastian Shroufe, Sr., Sebastian Shroufe, Jr., Christian Shroufe, Samuel Stewart, John Stewart, Isaac Stout, John Sleeth, David Sleeth, John Smith, Mathias Smith, William Smith, Spencer Smith, Thomas Seymour, Samuel Stits, Evers Stevens, Borxeen Stout, George Shannon, Elijah Stibbins, Francis Sipe, William Stevens, Simon Shover, Samuel Shoup, Jacob Stoker, William Stoker, Joseph Tatman, James Tatman, Peter Taylor, Joseph Taylor, Isaac Taylor, David Taylor, Henry Taylor, John Templeton, Joseph Tole, Jacob Trubee, John Trubee, Silas Trowbridge, John Tingley, Christopher Trubee, Micajah Tole, Joseph Wadkins, Richard Wise, Ziba Winget, Samuel Winget, Reuben Winget, Jacob Wilson, John Wilson, Michael Wilson, Christian Wil- son, Valentine Wilson, Robert Wolburn, Benjamin Whiteman, Ebenezer Wheeler, George Wolf, John Wolf, Sr., John Wolf, Jr., Andrew Westfall, Jacob Vandevanter, Peter Vandevanter, Cornelius Vandevanter.
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This list contains the names of two hundred and twenty-six men of voting age, but how many of them lived within the present limits of Bath township will never be known. It is certain that the Clifton and Yellow Springs settlers were listed with the Bath township residents, while a con- siderable number of them must have lived in what is now Clark county. At the election held at the house of Andrew Read on April 29, 1807, Read himself was elected justice of peace for the west half of this extensive town- ship and Thomas Fream was elected to the same office for the eastern half of the township. It seems that Fream was postmaster at Yellow Springs at this time, a position that he had held since his first appointment on April I, 1805. James Miller, also here enumerated, followed Fream as postmaster at Yellow Springs on October 1, 1810. Again, it may be noted that another one of the above named voters of Bath, Christopher Shroufe, followed Miller as postmaster at Yellow Springs on October 1, 1813.
FIRST PERMANENT SETTLERS.
The first settler in Bath township appears to have been well established some years before the county was even organized in 1803. The year 1800 saw a family by the name of Mercer located on a tract a mile and a half south of the present village of Osborn. Just when the Mercer family came from Virginia to the township is not definitely known, but it was a year or two before 1800. It seems certain that crops were being raised in the township when George Washington was still living.
Mercer had pre-empted a large tract at twenty-five cents an acre, his tract including the site of a large Indian village which had just been deserted only a few years before by the Indians, who, if tradition is right, had been driven from their village by a band of Kentuckians. The Mercers made the township their permanent home, one of the most prominent of the family being H. R. Mercer, who died on June 1, 1873, at the age of seventy.
In 1799 or 1800 there arrived from Kentucky and Virginia a number of families, among whom were the following: George Wolf, Adam Koogler, John Cox and William Wilson. The first child born in the township was Benjamin Wolf, whose birth is recorded in 1800. The settlers recorded in the list of those of voting age in 1808 came largely from Kentucky and Virginia, but it is impossible to trace the sequence of their settlement in the township. It is known, however, that by the time of the opening of the War of 1812 that the township was fairly well settled. During the first decade of the past century there came into the township William, Adam and John Chambers, John and Robert Kirkwood, Nimrod Haddix, James and Joseph Tatman, Robert Frakes and Abraham Huffer. It is not certain that all of these men were living in the present limits of the township, but
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most of them were; all have been credited to the township as it now stands.
William Stevenson, Sr., came from Kentucky with his wife and family in 1803 and located a mile and a half east of the present town of Osborn. He had four sons : William, James, Peter and John, the first named being a soldier in the War of 1812. William Stevenson, Sr., died November II, 1834. There was a large number of the Stevensons in the early history of Bath township, and their descendants are still living in the township.
The Hosier family came from Shenandoah county, Virginia, in 1803, and located on a tract between the present village of Osborn and Fairfield. John Hunt had pre-empted the land, but Jacob Hosier bought the pre- emption rights of Hunt for twenty-five cents an acre and paid the govern- ment two dollars an acre for the land. At that time there was one lonely cabin on the site of the village of Fairfield. In 1819, John Hosier, one of the sons of Frederick Hosier, married Mary Haddix, a daughter of Nimrod Haddix, one of the most prominent of the first settlers of the township. John Hosier died on December 24, 1869, at the age of eighty-one and is buried at Fairfield. Most of the other members of the Hosier family located in Beavercreek township.
Nimrod Haddix, Sr., came to Bath township in 1803 to make his perma- nent home and lived there until he was accidentally killed in 1820 by falling from a load of hay. His son, John, coming in at the same time, died on March 29, 1884, at the age of ninety-seven, and is buried in the Cox ceme- tery in Bath township. Many interesting stories are related about Nimrod Haddix.
SOME SIDELIGHTS ON THE TOWNSHIP.
Every township collects narratives of incidents of interest during the course of a century and Bath has its full share. Some are true, some not, and others combine both fictional and factual features, but all of them have a certain interest to those who call this township their home.
A Murder Story .- About the year 1809 sums of money were stolen on the same night from the homes of John Wolf and Dr. John G. Folck, the first robberies of any consequence in the township. About the same time a peddler was robbed and his murdered body thrown into a well nearby. The three robberies were apparently the work of the same party or parties. A number of persons were suspected of the robberies and murder, and finally a man by the name of Kent was arrested on general grounds. It was not possible at the time to fix the crimes on him, but while he was in jail he managed to make his escape through the efficient assistance of a two-inch auger. He was never apprehended, but, so the story goes, he was seen in Canada a number of years later by one of the residents of Bath township
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who knew him. Kent informed this man that he could make some startling revelations if he so felt disposed, but it seems that he was not so disposed. Although it was generally supposed that he was connected with the rob- beries and murder, yet nothing more was done about the matter.
TRANSPORTATION.
Mad river runs across the northwestern corner of Bath township, and in the early days of the county's history it was sometimes used to carry produce down the river. This was done especially in the spring of the year, when there was an abundance of water, but it is probable that little trafficking was ever done up the river. The first settlers cut out bridle paths through the woods, but it was at least twenty years after Mercer came to the town- ship before they had any paths which might be dignified by the name of roads. One exception to this statement must be made in the case of the road which ran through the township connecting Dayton and Springfield. From early days the road between these two cities led through Bath town- ship, and today this is one of the fine roads of the county, the road being what is known as an inter-county highway. The '50s saw the first railroad through the township, the Mad River line, and this made a great change in the growth of the township. The township now has two steam roads and one electric line running through the Mad river valley, all three lines passing through the village of Osborn, and the electric line through Fair- field. However, it now appears that both steam roads will be changed and run east of Fairfield about half a mile east of the town.
TYLERSVILLE, NOW KNOWN AS BYRON.
On May 19, 1841, in the days of John Tyler, William Sensiman had recorded a town bearing the name of Tylersville, located in Bath township, on the northwest quarter of section 12. The plot contained 7.38 acres divided into twenty-five lots, 50 by 1941/2 feet, the lots being stretched in a row along the north side of the road running between Yellow Springs and Dayton.
There has been a store of some kind at Byron since the beginning of its existence, but it is practically impossible to trace its shifting ownership. One of the best remembered of the old-time store-keepers-the title of all the merchants of the place-was the late Mitchell J. Ennis, who began busi- ness here in May, 1861, and continued to deal in postage stamps, sugar, calico and other commodities from that time until his death in 1887. As near as can be determined Ennis first became identified with Byron shortly after the place was platted in 1841 ; it may have even been during the course of that year. He had learned the saddlery trade as a youth and in the fore part of the '40s located his shop at Byron, then called Tylersville, and for
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eight years made harness and did all kinds of leather work for the com- munity. He then began clerking in the one store of the place, the store being owned by the firm of Shaner & Wilson, who were probably the first merchants in the place, and the next decade found Ennis clerking in the village store. It passed from the hands of Shaner & Wilson to Folkerth & Son, and from the latter to Wolf & Son. It appears that Ennis bought out Wolf & Son in May, 1861; at least, he secured the store in that year and from that time until his death on September II, 1887, he combined the duties of postmaster with his mercantile business. He had been born in Sugarcreek township on April 30, 1818, and was therefore sixty-eight years of age at the time of his death. He never married. He was a Mason and Oddfellow and had held all the chairs in both lodges. For nearly half a century he was a prominent figure in the life of his community.
It is probable that the first blacksmith at Byron was Jacob Griner, and it seems certain that he was located there several years before the town was platted. William Wilson entered his shop as an apprentice and after three years in the shop, spent one year traveling as a journeyman blacksmith, after which he returned to Byron and bought the shop and tools of Griner. For eighteen years he kept the shop, selling it in order to locate on a farm which he had bought. He farmed for a number of years and in 1872 he removed to Fairfield, where he died on December 4, 1881. Griner died at Dayton on January II, 1882, and is buried at Fairfield. Guy Lindamood has been located at the village for a number of years with a blacksmith shop. Julius Wilson is the proprietor of the only store in the place, having succeeded Charles Watt, who had been there several years. There are now about twenty- five persons living in the little hamlet.
MIAMI CONSERVANCY DISTRICT OF BATH TOWNSHIP.
The latter part of March, 1913, witnessed the most devastating flood in the valley of the Great Miami river basin within its history. While this flood caused comparatively little damage in Greene county, yet as a result of this flood a comprehensive scheme to prevent the recurrence of such a disaster has been planned which, when completed, will include a part of the county. Therefore, in this present history of Greene county it is neces- sary to discuss this scheme in so far as it relates to the county.
A brief account of the flood is apropos. The rainfall began on March 23, 1913, and continued until March 25, during which time there was an average precipitation of 8.8 inches over the basin of the Great Miami river. The net result of this unprecedented rainfall was an enormous loss of life, property and land values. It is known that three hundred and sixty-one people lost their lives, and there are others who were never accounted for.
Dayton Street. "The Ohio Exchange," a Landmark of Old Stage-coach Days.
Street Scene. Looking North from M. E. Church Tower. VIEWS IN FAIRFIELD.
U. S. AVIATION FIELD, FAIRFIELD, OHIO, IN JUNE, 1917.
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There were also thirty-two commitments to the insane hospital, each case being specifically attributed to the horrors attendant on the flood. The prop- erty loss has been estimated at $67,383,574, an amount which does not include the depreciation of land and property values because of subsequent condi- tions arising from the flood. Of this staggering amount the loss at Dayton alone is set forth at $47,254,200 and that of Hamilton and Butler county at $9,568,224. The Big Four Railroad estimated its loss at $1,250,000; the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton at $1,000,000; the Erie Railroad at $25,000; various electric lines at $2,000,000.
Before the flood had fairly subsided plans were begun to make a study of the Great Miami basin with a view to preventing the recurrence of such a catastrophe in the future. It is not necessary in this connection to enter into a discussion of all the schemes proposed; but for the purpose at hand, it may be stated that it was finally decided to build a number of so-called retard- ing basins-five in number-which were to act in the nature of reservoirs, and in that way place such a check on the flow of water as to prevent devas- tating floods.
In order to get the situation into a tangible shape so as to proceed, the General Assembly of the state passed an act on February 6, 1914, cited as "Conservancy Act of Ohio," and under this act all the work has been planned and will be carried through to completion. The cost of the undertaking has been estimated from ten to twenty millions, the cost to fall upon the benefited property owners.
THE HUFFMAN RETARDING BASIN.
The basin of the Great Miami river includes only one entire county- Miami-but it includes practically all of Montgomery, Preble, Butler, Darke, Shelby, Logan, Champaign and Clark, with portions of Hamilton, Warren, Mercer, Auglaize, Hardin and Greene. All of Greene county in the basin lies in Bath township, in the extreme northwestern corner of the county. As has been stated, the plan as now outlined provided for five retarding basins : Lockington, in Shelby county; Englewood and Taylorsville, largely in Miami county, but reaching down into Montgomery county; Huffman in Greene county, backing up slightly into Clark county, and lastly, the Germantown retarding basin in Preble and Montgomery counties. Of these basins, the Taylorsville is the largest ( 1, 133 square miles) and the Huffman next in size (671 square miles)
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