USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 33
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The first settlers arrived in 1806 from Virginia and North Carolina, that year bringing Noah Strong, Thomas Browder, Thomas Moorman and Martin Mendenhall. Probably the best sketch of the early history of any township in the county from a historical point of view is that which was prepared in the fore part of the 'Sos by the late Sylvester Strong, the grand- son of Noah Strong. Noah Strong came to this county from Vermont in 1803 or 1804 and first located in Caesarscreek township. He hauled the logs and helped to build Beatty's tavern in Xenia in 1804. Later he located in Silvercreek township, near the present site of Jamestown and died there on March 14, 1814, at the age of sixty-three. His grandson, Sylvester Strong, whose valuable history of the early days of Silvercreek township and Jamestown is given in this connection, lived in the township until 1836
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
and then removed to Atlanta, Illinois, where he died on January 5, 1900, at the age of ninety-five.
REMINISCENCES OF SYLVESTER STRONG.
In the year 1807 I was two years old and came to Jamestown with my grandfather. We lived on the old Maysville and Urbana road, one-half miles from the present James- town. On the south side of us, at Bowersville, lived a gentleman by the name of Hussey. His descendants are now living in the neighborhood. Harkness Turner settled one mile from the town on General Posey's survey. Martin Mendenhall was proprietor of James- town; he owned the south side of the town, having one hundred and fifty acres of land. The north side of the town was owned by Thomas Browder, who came from old James- town, Virginia, which was the first white' settlement in the United States. Jamestown, Ohio, was named after this town. John Campbell came in the same year and settled where Tod Shelly now resides. Two miles north of Jamestown, the same fall, Isaiah Sutton settled. North of him settled "Grandaddy" Paullin. All of the Paullins of Ross township are descendants and live on the land he settled. These men were our neighbors and when a house was raised people would come for miles around to help. John Shelly and family were neighbors of Washington; they came from Virginia in 1807 and settled on land one-half mile below town. The Shelly family living here now are his descendants. Mr. Shelly and wife lived to be nearly one hundred years old. . The first person buried here was my little brother, who lies in the present Jamestown cemetery. The second person buried was a colored woman brought from Virginia by Thomas Browder. In 1814, on the 14th and 15th days of March, my grandfather and grandmother died of the "cold plague," which was then prevailing in the neighborhood. Within ten days Uriah Paullin, Harkness Turner, Mr. Hussey and the Baptist minister's wife all died of the same dread disease. The town of Jamestown was surveyed in 1815 by Thomas P. Moorman and Mr. Thomas, the Clinton county surveyor. The first house raised was the present Parker Hotel property, which was used as a tavern by Thomas Watson. The next house was built by Dr. Matthias Winans, who used it as a store. He was the first physician of the town, and was the father of the late Judge James J. Winans, of Xenia. The next tavern keeper was Zina Adams, the father of the Adams boys living here. The first Fourth of July celebration was held at this tavern in 1830. Seven old soldiers of the Revolutionary War were present. Among them was a man named Allen, a relative of Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame. His descendants now live in Allentown, Fayette county. Others present were James Snodgrass, Asa Reeves and Samuel Webb. The last named was present at the surrender of Cornwallis and saw that general hand his sword to General Washington. The names of the other three I do not recollect. We got two mails a week; they were brought by a post boy, who carried the mails from Xenia to Washington C. H. When he got within a mile of town he would blow his horn, which brought all the people together. A tanyard was started by John Miller and William Ster- ritt in 1810. In 1812, on the 8th of January, the battle of Lundy's Lane was fought in Canada, over two hundred miles away. When the battle was fought old Martin Menden- hall, who was lying on the ground, heard the cannon roar of the battle. He was a great hunter and killed more deer and found more wild honey than any other man. In 1812, 1813 and 1814 the Shawnees, a friendly tribe of Indians, camped around here. I often visited their camp and traded corn-dodgers for venison ham. We baked our bread in an oven on the coals. An old chief named Chieske, who was too old to be a warrior, lived with us and from him I learned to talk Indian. The first meeting house was built at the forks of the road, two and one-half miles south of town. It was a Baptist church. The first pastor was William Sutton. The first hatter in town was Culies. The first tailor was Ephraim Munthaw, a German.
321
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
THE COMING OF THE MOORMANS.
This interesting sketch of Strong's leaves little to be said about the early history of Silvercreek township and the beginning of the town of James- town. He mentions at least a score of the earliest settlers and locates them in the township with a definiteness which bespeaks well for his memory. Noah Strong erected a large story-and-a-half log cabin in 1811, which was weatherboarded in later years, and is standing in 1918 in a good state of preservation on the farm of Angie and Emma Strong. There are a few other early settlers concerning whom a little additional information has been preserved.
The Moormans, headed by Thomas Moorman, Sr., arrived in the town- ship in 1808 from Campbell county, Virginia. The family was of Irish descent, the first member of the family coming from Ireland in about the year 1690. The family came to Ohio in the spring of 1807 and stopped one year in Highland county, raising a crop there in that year. In the spring of 1808 they came on to Greene county and located one mile east of James- town. Charles F. Moorman was thirteen years old the year his parents located in the township. He was married on November 5, 1816, to Matilda Watson, the youngest daughter of John Watson, and became the father of thirteen children, eleven of them-seven boys and four girls-growing to manhood and womanhood, and all of them becoming useful citizens of the township.
Thomas Moorman, Sr., the head of the Moormans in the county, settled on a thousand-acre tract for which he took a kind of a lease of the owner, Col. John Watts. Moorman became the agent for Watts and had the selling of this extensive tract, Survey No. 1166, Watts allowing him the privilege of using the money at an interest rate of six per cent. A few years later Watts died and when his estate was settled in Virginia it was found that all the remainder of his Greene county possessions had to be sold. At that time there was left only the sixty-acre tract on which Thomas Moorman lived. In order to save this for his aged father, one of his sons, Charles F., bought it for twelve dollars an acre, then a high price for land. Thomas Moorman, Sr., died on October 26, 1845, at the age of eighty-eight and is buried east of Jamestown. Charles F. Moorman died on September 30, 1880, at the age of eighty-five years. The Moormans were instrumental in organizing the first Friends church at Jamestown.
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
Silvercreek township did not seem to have any mills of any description during the first few years of its career, the first grist-mill being credited to Singleton Farmer. His mill was operated by hand, the "mill" being noth-
(21)
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
ing more than a couple of stones so placed that they ground the grain as the operator turned one stone on the other. Chiles Moorman established what may be said to be the first mill, although it was a very crude affair deriving its motive power from the treading of horses or oxen on a large wheel. This mill stood east of Jamestown in the Moorman neighborhood, and seemed to have done a thriving business.
TRANSPORTATION.
Silvercreek township was organized before it had what might be called a highway. In the '30s or '40s a toll road was built in the township, the one from Jamestown to Xenia, and it continued as such until the 'zos before it was taken over by the county and made free. It seems that the toll-road system was the only one which would work in the days before the Civil War, and, though they were an expensive luxury, yet the people were glad to get them, even though it cost as much to travel over them as it does to travel by the railroad today-two cents a mile.
Today the township is threaded in every direction with fine roads, the main traveled highways being kept up to a high state of excellence. The township is reached by three inter-county highways: Dayton-Chillicothe I. C. H., running from Dayton through Xenia and Jamestown to Chillicothe; the other road runs through the township from north to south, the northern half being called the Springfield-Jamestown I. C. H., the southern half the Jamestown-Hillsboro I. C. H. These highways offer the township free and easy access in all directions and have been the means of raising land values in the township, and incidentally being of very material benefit to the town of Jamestown. There are also two pikes leading to Jeffersonville, Fayette county, and one to South Charleston ; also another pike, known as the Waynes- ville road, leading from Jamestown southwest to Waynesville. Two miles south on the Hillsboro I. C. H. there is a connection with the Wilmington pike leading through Port William to Wilmington.
The township has had an interesting railroad history, which is treated in detail in the chapter devoted to Transportation in the county. A brief summary of the railroads of the township may properly be included in this connection. There is now only one railroad through the township, although more than one has been projected during the past half century. The first one proposed was to start from Dayton and go east to Belpre to open the coal fields of the state. The road was to pass through Xenia and James- town in Greene county. When this road was proposed in the '50s the town- ships of the county were asked to subscribe stock and Silvercreek township soon took stock in the amount of ten thousand dollars, all but one thousand dollars of this full amount being collected within a short time. The road
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO 323
seemed on the point of being constructed at once, the right of way was secured, the grading was done from Dayton east as far as Jamestown-and then every- thing was stopped. It is not necessary to set forth here the causes underlying the failure of the railroad company to complete the road at that time, but the facts are that it was twenty years before the road was actually built through the county. When the project was revived in the middle of the '70s, Silvercreek township, with the aid of a special act of the General Assembly of the state, raised the other thousand dollars which they had prom- ised for the road in the '50s. The road was for many years known as the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, but in the summer of 1917 was taken over by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. It was subsequently completed from Dayton to Wellston, never to Belpre, its original eastern terminus, and daily train service is now maintained between Dayton and Wellston, a dis- tance of one hundred and twenty-three miles. According to present indica- tions the road will soon be greatly improved, additional trains added to its service and it will become, therefore, a more valuable road to Greene county in general and to Jamestown in particular.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
The schools and churches of the township are discussed in detail in other chapters. The school history of the township in general is very much like that of the other townships of the county; subscription schools were prac- tically all that were to be found before the '50s, since which time there have been free public schools open to all the children of school age. Jamestown has had excellent schools for the last half century, and today has a system of schools that will compare favorably with any in the state.
The Friends were among the first to establish a church in the township, the Moormans being of this faith and starting a church east of Jamestown soon after they arrived here. The Baptists were also early in the field and are said to have been holding services as early as 1803. Later the church became divided, as did all the Baptist churches in the county, and two separate congregations arose about 1837. The Christian church made its ap- pearance about 1828, its establishment being largely due to the efforts of Dr. Mathias Winans of Jamestown, and there were soon two churches of this denomination in the township. Both branches of the Chris- tian church, the so-called Campbellite branch, now known as the Disciples, and the New Lights are represented in the churches of the township. Then the Methodists and Presbyterians found a home in Jamestown, along with the Colored Baptist church. The history of these churches may be found in the chapter devoted to the churches of the county.
.
CHAPTER XIX.
CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP.
The organization of Cedarville township in 1850 followed an agitation which had been carried on for some years prior to its actual organization. There can be no question that it was the influence of the village of Cedarville which furnished the impetus for the organization of Cedarville township. The citizens of Ross, from which the new township was largely created, objected strenuously to any curtailment of their territory and it was two years after a formal effort was made to establish the township that its peti- tioners succeeded in getting the sanction from the county commissioners for its organization.
In 1848 the first effort to organize the township was met by a counter petition on the part of residents of Ross township, a protest so vigorous that the commissioners refused to grant the prayer of the petitioners. In their protest the Ross citizens said, "Our reasons we will fully set forth in your presence, only adding here that we are not willing to have any of our township cut off, which is already too small, to gratify the caprice or spleen of any." Evidently when the hearing on the petition was held, although the commis- sioners' records are discreetly silent concerning just what did occur, the Ross objectors were in sufficient force to kill the petition.
Two years later, however, the proponents of the new township were successful and their petition, dated October 28, 1850, was favorably acted upon by the commissioners on the 6th of the following December. The peti- tion, together with the action of the county commissioners, is here repro- duced as it appears on the official records :
PETITION FOR ERECTION OF CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP.
To the Honorable Board of Commissioners of Greene County, Ohio:
The undersigned petitioners submit this, the application for the erection of a new township in the County of Greene, composed of territory taken from the townships of Xenia, Caesars Creek, Ross and Miami, bounded and described as follows: [The descrip- tion and boundaries.] The undersigned petitioners, a majority of the householders resid- ing within the boundary of the proposed new Township, as aforesaid, having given notice of the presentation of the petition as required by law, respectfully submit to the Honorable Board that they believe the proposed new Township necessary; that the interests of the people of the county, as well as those of the petitioners, will be promoted thereby; that the present subdivisions of the County were made at a time when the population was sparse, and on account of the increased population of the above described district of our county within the last few years together with the prospective increase and development
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
of its resources, renders it highly important and necessary to meet our increasing wants by wholesome changes and regulations. Oct. 28th, 1850.
The Commissioners being satisfied from the testimony of James Townsley, John S. Owens, John W. Walker and John Gibney, that thirty days notice of such intended appli- cation was first given by advertisement at three public places within the bounds of said proposed change and that said petition was signed by a majority of the householders residing within the bounds of said proposed change, and that the laws governing the erection of new townships have been complyed with in all respects and believing that the prayer of the petitioners is reasonable and just; it is therefore ordered that the territory comprised within the bounds described in the petition be and the same is hereby erected a Township to be called and known by the name of Cedarville Township, and that the Auditor be required to record the boundaries of said township in the book of record.
Ordered that notice be given forthwith by advertisement in the public places in said Township of Cedarville that an election will be held on the 21st of December, 1850, in the town of Cedarville, at the house of John W. Walker in said township, for township officers, viz : three trustees, a clerk and a treasurer to serve until the next township election and until their successors are elected and qualified. December 6, 1850.
BOUNDARIES OF CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP.
The boundaries of the new township of Cedarville as determined by the board of county commissioners were as follow :
Beginning at the Little Miami at the N. W. Corner of that part of the land of Moses Collier, taken from Galloway's survey, No. 7011; Thence S. E. with the line of said Collier's land to the point of intersection with the N. W. boundary line of Finley's survey, No. 435; thence S. W. with the said line of said survey to its point of intersection with the N. E. boundary line of Scott's survey, No. 429; thence S. E. with the original survey lines dividing the surveys of Finley, No. 435, and Culbertson, No. 605, on the N. E. from Scott's No. 429, Gray's No. 603 and Fowler's No. 929, on the S. W. to the S. E. corner of Culbertson's survey, No. 605; thence through the lands of George Townsley to Moudy's mill; thence from said mill along the county road intersecting the Jefferson, South Charles- ton and Xenia turnpike, and terminating at the fork of the Federal road and the Xenia and Jamestown turnpike; thence along said turnpike to its point of intersection with the line between Silver Creek and Caesars Creek townships; thence along said N. to the S. W. corner of Ross township; thence N. with the Ross township line to the point inter- sected by the S. E. boundary line of McAdams survey, No. 2247; Thence N. E. with said line to the S. corner of Gates' survey, No. 1560; thence N. E. with the S. E. boundary line of said survey to the E. corner of said survey; thence N. W. with the line of said survey to the lands of Hugh Watt and John Gibson; thence N. E. with the line dividing the lands of Hugh Watt and R. Irvine; thence to the Federal road near the dwelling house of T. Townsley and E. of it; thence E. with the said road to its intersection with the S. W. boundary line of survey No. 559, Jacob Brown's; thence with the said line to the S. corner to the S. corner of survey No. 784; thence N. E. with the line of said survey to its intersection with the line dividing the lands of Thomas T. Bird and James Taylor ; thence along along said line to its intersection with the S. E. boundary line of survey No. 786; thence N. E. with the said line of said survey to the line of survey No. 558; thence with the said line of said survey to the W. corner of said survey; thence N. E. with the line of said survey to a point where it is intersected by the N. E. boundary line of survey No. 1352; thence with the said line of said survey to the line dividing Greene and Clark counties; thence with said county line W. to the intersection with the Cortsville road; thence $. following said road near to J. Townsley's where said road intersects the Xenia and Miami township line; thence W. along said line to its intersection with the Little Miami river; thence down said river to the point of beginning.
THOMAS COKE WRIGHT, A. G. C.
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
MILITARY SURVEYS.
Cedarville township lies east of the Little Miami river and hence falls entirely within the Virginia Military Survey. The official records show that there are thirty-eight surveys in whole or in part within the limits of the township. Of these, eleven contain one thousand or more acres of land, and only three less than one hundred acres. It is interesting to note that Major- Gen. Horatio Gates, of Revolutionary fame, had a survey of two thousand five hundred acres in the township, the largest in the township. The com- plete list of surveys, together with the names of the original proprietors, and the number and acreage of each survey, is exhibited in the appended table :
Proprietor.
Survey Number.
Acres.
Baylor Hill
5,58
1,000
James Culbertson
605
666
James Culbertson
616
500
Lewis Stark
786
1,000
Baylor Hill
1324
1,000
Hughes Woodson
1352
700
Maj .- Gen. Horatio Gates
1560
2,500
John McAdams
2247
1,333 1/3
Stephen Mason
2267
1,200
Warner and Addison Lewis
2272
1,000
James Wright
2962
1,000
James Ryalls
3283
200
George Friskett
3376
100
James Lemmon
3376
200
Thomas Christie
3400
528
William Tompkins
3745 and 3746
1,000
James Culbertson
4148 and 4149
650
William White
4367
250
James Wright
437I
130
William Moore
4372
140
William White
4378 and 4554
455
James Merriweather
4473 and 4624
500
Thomas Browder
4503
340
James Merriweather
4504
199
Francis Dade
4561
125
Thomas Browder
4667
50
Simpson Foster (representatives)
5352
100
Benjamin Grimes
5626
153 1/3
James Galloway, Jr.
6550
150
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327
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
James Galloway, Jr.
6972
600
James Taylor
14132
75
William Fitzhugh
615
1,000
Baylor Hill
1324
1,000
James Galloway, Jr.
70II
70
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1
At the first election held in the township at the house of John W. Walker on December 21, 1850, the following officers were elected: Trustees, Thomas A. Reid, Hugh Watt and Samuel Barber; clerk, Samuel Thatcher ; treasurer, J. C. Nisbet ; constable, John M. Crain. This election brought out one hun- dred and seventy-three voters, and it is fair to presume that most of the qualified voters cast their ballots at this first election in the township.
TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.
Cedarville township is one of the best farming districts of the state. The soil, a rich, black loam, has a goodly depth and with proper crop rota- tion has maintained its pristine fertility to a remarkable degree. Within the last few years the addition of commercial fertilizer has brought up the poorer sections of the township to where they produce as good crops as those more favored by nature. The entire township lies in the basin of the Little Miami river, and is drained into that watercourse through Massies and Caesars creeks and their various branches.
The township has been one of the chief centers of the limestone and lime industries for many years. Forty or fifty years ago the manufacture of lime was the most important industry in the village of Cedarville. Massies creek in several places has cut its channel through the stone, the gorge being in some places as much as forty feet in depth. The township also boasts of one of the finest Indian mounds in the state, a full description of which is given in the chapter dealing with the geological formation of the county.
TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES.
The wayfarer who travels the excellent highways that now thread the township in every direction never stops to think that there was a day not so long ago when the roads of the township were practically impassible for three or four months a year. The Townsleys, among the first of the settlers, opened the first road to the county seat, the road beginning near the site of the present village of Cedarville. The first roads were hardly more than bridle paths through the woods, but they answered the purpose until better ones could be provided. The first road which might be dignified by the name of a highway was the Columbus pike, which was built through the township in the middle of the '40s. It was the first gravel road in the township, and when a line of large overland stages began running over this road in 1845
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328
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
between Columbus and Cincinnati, the people of Cedarville township and Greene county thought they were at last in touch with the outside world. A little later the Federal road was laid out through the township, this road being the longest straight road in the whole county. In the latter part of the '4os the township was all excited over the building of the railroad from Columbus to Xenia, which was to pass through the center of the township from northeast to southwest, and through the village of Cedarville. This is the only railroad which has ever reached the township, although not the only one that has been projected. Between 1896 and 1902 there were repeated attempts to get an electric line through the township, but these never got farther than the paper stage. One line was surveyed and apparently at one time a road was going to be built, but the project finally was abandoned after one man had lost a considerable fortune in trying to get it under construction.
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