USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 34
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EARLY SETTLERS.
The Townsley family were the first to locate within what is now Cedar- ville township, Thomas Townsley, the first of the family to arrive, reaching here in 1800. He purchased one thousand acres one mile north of the present site of Cedarville, immediately built his cabin and started in to make his home in the wilderness. In the spring of 1801 he returned to Kentucky and helped his brother John to bring his family to the township. The two families lived in the same cabin during the spring and summer of 1801 and in the fall of that year gathered the first corn grown in Cedarville township.
In 1802 the Townsleys were joined by William McClelland, also a Kentuckian, who located with his family on one hundred and fifty acres along Massies creek about a mile from the present site of Cedarville. He came in the spring of 1802 and succeeded in raising enough corn the first year to furnish sufficient corn meal for the first winter. The same year, 1802, Alexander McCoy arrived from Kentucky with his wife and nine children and bought six hundred acres west of where Cedarville later came to be established. He built a cabin, began clearing a small tract and produced his first crop the same year of his arrival.
The year 1802 saw a number of settlers locating in what was to become Greene county the following year, and Cedarville township nearly half a century later. It must be understood that Greene county did not have a definite existence as a separate county until May 10, 1803, the day on which the associate judges first met and divided it into townships. Up until that time it had been a part of Montgomery or Franklin counties, the most of Cedarville township falling within what was then-in 1802-the county of Franklin.
Among the other arrivals in 1802 were David Mitchell, of Kentucky,
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
who with his wife and four children, located on a quarter section three miles northwest of the present site of Cedarville. He had owned one thousand acres in Kentucky, but like so many of the other early settlers of Greene county, left that state on account of his hatred of slavery. Another of these Kentucky arrivals of 1802, who came here to get away from slavery, was David Laughead. He bought five hundred acres on Clarks run for one dol- lar and seventy-five cents an acre and soon had one of the most prosperous farms in the county. It is probable that Captain Herrod arrived in the town- ship in 1802. He and his family settled east of where Cedarville presently became established and continued to make his home in. the township until his death.
It is impossible to trace the incoming of these first settlers by years, as a glance at one of the early poll-books shows that by the time of the opening of the War of 1812 there were literally hundreds of them scattered over the county. All that can be done in this connection is to select a few of these worthy pioneers concerning whom some definite record has been preserved. Scores and hundreds of others were no doubt equally worthy citizens, but nothing definite is known of their careers in the county. Scores of them died and left no record of their families; other scores lived here a few years and then moved on to other parts of the state or else moved on west to Indiana or other states still farther to the west. A study of the poll-books of the first three decades reveals the fact that hundreds of names found there are not represented in the county today. That is a part of the history of every county in Ohio, and Greene county is no exception to the rule.
SOME OF THE "FIRST FAMILIES."
Between 1802 and 1805 a number of settlers located along the branches of the several creeks traversing the township. It was considered a good plan to build a cabin along the bank of a creek in order to be assured of an ample water supply. Major James Galloway, Jr., seemed to have lived in the town- ship a short time after his arrival here in 1803, but evidently he soon located in the county scat. He was the first county surveyor and as such it is evident that he lived in Xenia. He married Martha Townsley, a daughter of Thomas Townsley, in 1805, the ceremony being performed by Rev. Robert Arm- strong, one of, if not the first, minister in Greene county. It might be noted here that James Townsley, a son of John, was born in 1802, the first boy born in what is now known as Cedarville township. Sally McCoy, who became the wife of Innis Townsley, was born in 1803, and has the honor of being the first girl born in the township. James Galloway, Jr., died September II, 1850, at the age of sixty-eight.
Rev. Robert Armstrong came to the township in 1804 and entered a
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
tract of land on which he lived until his death in 1821 at the age of fifty- five. He was a very active man and was one of the leaders in the county as long as he lived. A more extended mention of his interesting career is given in the chapter devoted to the churches of the county.
The first member of the Bull family to locate in the township was James Bull, a native of Virginia, who came to Cedarville township in 1803. His father, William, a Revolutionary soldier, also came to the county at the same time, dying October 31, 181I, at the age of seventy-one. James Bull died in 1872 at the age of ninety-six. Many of the representatives of the family are still residents of the county.
William McFarland arrived with his family from Kentucky in 1804. He bought one hundred fifty acres along Massies creek near the present village of Cedarville. He was a man of considerable education for those days and soon became one of the leaders in his community and later in the affairs of the county. He was foreman of the first grand jury in 1804. He died Sep- tember 1, 1816, and is one of the hundreds of early pioneers who are resting in the Massies Creek cemetery.
A number of arrivals in 1805 have left some definite record of their families. Among these are the Kyles, Morelands, Smalls, Reids and Bromagens, the latter the first German family to locate in the township as far as is known. The Kyles are numerously represented in the county today, and for more than a century have been prominent in every phase of the growth of the county. Samuel Kyle was the first of the family to arrive in the county, coming in 1805 and locating on a large tract west of the present town of Cedarville along Massies creek. He had been married before coming from Kentucky, his wife dying in this township in 1813, leaving him with six children. In 1815 he married Rachel Jackson and by the second marriage had fifteen more children, making a total of twenty-one children for the first representative of the family in the county. It is probable that he holds the record for the largest number of children in the county. Samuel Kyle died on February 25, 1851, at the age of seventy-nine. He served as county surveyor and for many years was one of the associate judges of the county, a record of which is given in the chapter on the Bench and Bar of the county. He was the grandfather of Charles H. Kyle, the present judge of the court of common pleas of the county.
SOME OTHER EARLY COMERS.
William Moreland, a Kentuckian, located in 1805 three miles east of the present town of Cedarville on a tract of about two hundred acres. James Small, a brother-in-law of Samuel Kyle, was one of the 1805 group who came from Kentucky. He bought one hundred and fifty acres just north
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO 33I
of where Cedarville later came to be established and there he settled, although he also bought a quarter section in what is now Miami township. He had a family of ten children, two of his children living to be the oldest resi- dents of the township. James Small died on April 23, 1842, at the age of eighty-four and is buried in the Massies Creek cemetery. He was one of the Revolutionary soldiers who located in the township.
James Reid, the grandfather of Whitelaw Reid, the most famous man Greene county has ever produced, was a native of Ireland. In 1805 he arrived in what later came to be organized as Cedarville township and bought a large tract on which he settled with his wife and family of several chil- dren. One of his sons, Robert Charlton Reid, married Marion Whitelaw Ronald in 1820, and it was a son of this marriage who eventually became the most famous man of Greene county. A sketch of the life of Whitelaw Reid may be found in another chapter in this volume. James Reid, the first of the family, died April 13, 1822, and is buried in the Massies Creek cemetery. Robert Charlton Reid died on October 17, 1865.
One other noteworthy arrival in 1805 was Elias Eliah Bromagen, the first native of Germany to locate in the township. He came directly from Prussia to Greene county, bringing with him his wife and large family of children. He set to work in the spring of his arrival and harvested a good crop the fall of the same year. He continued to reside in the township until his death in 1828.
In 1806 a widow of the name of Miller located here with her seven children. She had a brother, John Stephens, who had located in the town- ship a short time previously, and lived with him until she had a cabin ready for her occupancy. She and her children had a very trying time in getting here. They started from Pittsburgh down the Ohio river, but their raft was wrecked at a place called Boat's Run, and they made the way from there to this county on foot, carrying all of their few worldly possessions. The family prospered and one of the sons, Jacob, became one of the substantial farmers of the township. At the time of his death in February, 1885, Jacob Miller was probably the oldest resident in the township.
James White, of Kentucky, arrived in 1806 and at once bought a quarter section adjoining the Bromagen tract. He had two sons and three daughters and a wife who excelled in the art of dyeing dress goods. She was an expert spinner and developed a method of coloring goods which brought her services in wide demand. James White died on July 9, 1817, at the age of sixty- three and is buried at Cedarville.
Thomas Paris came from Virginia about 1809 and bought five hundred acres along Massies creek on which he lived until his death, October 6, 1823. He had one of the first orchards in the township, although practically
4
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
all the early settlers started an orchard within the first few years of their arrival. John Paris, another member of the family, became the first post- master of the village of Cedarville in 1834, continuing in office for ten years. John Paris died on July 22, 1858.
The village of Cedarville was laid out in 1816 and has thus had a con- tinuous history for more than a century. Much of the early history of the township clusters around the village and is treated of in detail in the chapter devoted to the town. The town has held most of the industries of the township, most of the churches, and in other ways has included a large part of the active history of the township of which it now contains more than half the population.
PRESENT AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS.
Cedarville township prides itself on its farming and stock-raising, being particularly proud of its stock raisers. Some of the farmers of the township rank with the leaders in the state and nation when it comes to producing a high grade of live stock. The name of O. A. Bradfute is known from one end of the country to the other as a breeder of Aberdeen-Angus cattle, and there are other breeders in the township who have made names for themselves which extend far beyond the confines of the township.
But the township is also known for the quality of its grains and fruits; its clovers and ensilages; its milk and egg products; and for everything that a farmer produces on the modern farm-from silos to sausage. The last reports shows the township credited with the following grain yield for 1916: Wheat, 71, 131 bushels; rye, 4,614 bushels; oats, 3,946 bushels; corn, 210,719 bushels; clover seed, 49 bushels. During this same year the farmers of the township produced fourteen acres of ensilage and 146 tons of sugar corn, much of which went to fill the sixty-one silos of the township, the largest number in any township in the county. There were 3,316 tons of timothy hay; 512 tons of clover hay; 130 acres of alfalfa producing 380 tons of alfalfa for hay or ensilage; and, so the record states, 67 acres of clover were plowed under. The farmers also used 685,740 pounds of commercial fertilizer, considerably more than was used in any other township in the county. Among miscellaneous crops may be mentioned the following: Toma- toes, 48 bushels; potatoes, 1,270 bushels; onions, 370 bushels; 421 sugar trees producing 214 gallons of syrup; apples, 2,840 bushels ; peaches, 40 bushels; cherries, 18 bushels.
The live stock of the township figured up as follows on March 1, 1917: Horses, 1,155; cattle, 2,298; sheep, 3,012, (largest number in the county) ; hogs, 5,970, with 320 lost by cholera; and 16 cholera-infected farms reported. There were 19,271 gallons of cream sold; 55,053 gallons of milk sold; and
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
30, III pounds of home-made butter taken to market. The hens laid 42,960 dozen eggs.
The township reports 17,088 acres under cultivation; 2,358 acres in pasture; 1,875 acres in woodland; 196 acres of orchards; 512 acres of waste land; with a total acreage of 22,029. The woodland is gradually decreasing, although most of the farmers with woodland are keeping their wood lots intact.
MOUNT IDA.
Cedarville township had at least one interesting village of the "paper" variety, a village which was born of the brain of Robert Jackson. This creature of his imagination responded to the classical name of Mount Ida, and found a resting place in Military Survey Nos. 605 and 616. It was surveyed by J. Culbertson on April 24, 1841, certified by a justice of the peace on June 19, 1841, and filed for record on June 23, 1841. That plat shows one street, with twelve lots on the west side and five lots on the east- a total of seventeen lots. This village is another case of a man who had a vision which he attempted to materialize, only to find that it was a vision after all. Today the place is not even a memory, and would be unknown if its plat were not recorded among the archives in the court house.
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CHAPTER XX.
NEW JASPER TOWNSHIP.
When one looks at the map of Greene county as it stands today, he is left to wonder at the processes which were followed in the laying out of some of the townships. For an even half century after the county was organ- ized in 1803 there was no New Jasper township, but on a sunny day in June, 1853, there appeared before the board of county commissioners a lengthy petition signed by one hundred and twenty-eight voters who were residents of a certain tract of territory which they wished to have set off as a new township. They had been living in five different townships for many years : they were from Cedarville, Ross, Silvercreek, Caesarscreek and Xenia town- ships, portions of which five townships they prayed might be formed into a new township to be known as New Jasper.
Why did these forefathers take this step? Did they think they could live happier lives? Was it a political move, a religious, educational, social, fraternal, financial or civic motive which moved them to this action? There was no village of any considerable size within the limits of the proposed township; all of its prospective inhabitants were within easy distance of Jamestown, Cedarville or Xenia. Yet, for some reason these one hundred and twenty-eight voters, and practically all of them farmers, appeared anxious to have a township which they could call their own. Accordingly, they signed a petition and presented it on June 9, 1853, to the county commis- sioners, the petition setting forth in a curious roundabout way the limits of their proposed township. This petition and the answer thereto appear on the records couched in the following language :
The petition of John Fudge and one Hundred and Twenty Seven other Householders was this day presented to the Board of Commissioners praying that a new Township may be set off embracing the Territory included in the following lines, to wit: Beginning in the Township road leading from Xenia to Jamestown at the corner between the lands of Jonathan Williamson and Hugh Boyd and in the line of Cedarville Township; thence easterly with the line of Cedarville Township to the crossing of the McCrosky road; thence with the said McCrosky road to the corner of Hugh J. McCrosky thence south- erly to the corner of Junkins and George; thence nearly the same course to the Northwest corner of Gideon Spahr's Farm; thence with his line nearly the same course to John Spahr's Northeast corner; thence with the same course with his line to Levy Turner's Northwest corner; thence same course to the south fork of Caesar's Creek; thence down the creek with the meanderings thereof to the land line of Elijah Turner; thence with his line and Gideon Baynard's to Thomas Bone's line; thence with this line to John Fudge's line; thence with the line of said Fudge and Bone to the line of David Ford;
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
thence with the line of said Ford and Fudge to Samuel Petterson's line; thence with the line of said Petterson and Ford and John Lucas to the corner between said Petterson and C. and G. Weaver thence with this line to Caesar's Creek; thence up the creek to the corner between John Tresslar and Abel Wilkinson; thence with their line to Wilford Mc- Daniel's line; thence with the line of John Tresslar, W. McKindric Johnson, George Mallow and R. W. Johnson to the line of G. Gultice.
It appearing to the Board of Commissioners that a majority of the Householders residing within the boundary of said proposed township have signed said petition and that thirty days previous notice of the application has been given by advertisement at three public places within the bounds of said proposed township; it is therefore ordered by the Board of Commissioners that the boundaries of said township so made be recorded in a book according to the provisions of the statute; and that said Township be called and Known by the name of New Jasper and the Commissioners thereupon gave notice of the election of officers in said Township.
The petition was granted and the new township started off on its career in the authorized legal manner. As in the case of other townships cut off from townships earlier formed, the first settlers of the township are recorded in the previously formed townships. In the case of New Jasper the poll- books of five other townships would have to be searched in order to trace the incoming of the settlers; even then it would not be possible to determine where the voters lived, since the poll-books do not give the residence of the voters within the township. For this reason it is exceedingly difficult to trace the early settlers who located within the limits of what became New Jasper township in 1853.
MILITARY SURVEYS IN THE TOWNSHIP.
All of the land within the township falls in the Virginia Military Survey, thirteen surveys being wholly or partly within the limits of the township as it is defined today. These surveys, their proprietors, number and acreage thereof, are given in the appended table :
Proprietor.
Survey Number.
Acres.
Samuel Eddins
817 and 8380
1,000
William McGuire
I240
666 2/3
John Belfield
I373
1,100
Tarpley White
1376
1,000
Clement Biddle
I378
1,200
John McAdams
1995
1,333 1/3
Benjamin Spiller
2358
1,480
Richard Anderson
2383
2,533 1/3
Benjamin Spiller
3910
1,300
Alexander Armstrong
1
1
1
1
4546
I33
Richard Call
4809
177 2/3
Warner and Addison Lewis
1
1
1
2244
1,000
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
I
1
1
1
I
1
1
I
I
I
I
1
1
1
1
1
I
I
1
1 1
I
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
336
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.
The surface of New Jasper township contains some of the best and some of the poorest land in the county. It has a diversified surface, with extensive level tracts and some which are so rolling as to be termed hilly. There are several places in the township where for more than half a century a fine quality of stone has been quarried, there being two especially fine quarries opened. The highest point in the township marked by the govern- ment lies near the northwestern corner, near Stringtown, the altitude there being one thousand fifty-nine feet. There are a number of places in the township slightly less than one thousand feet above sea level, most of these lower places being along the lower course of the branch of Cæsars creek. This creek drains the entire township, the surface being thrown in relief in such a manner that the rainfall is readily carried away.
EARLY SETTLERS.
As has been stated, it is difficult to determine the early settlers of New Jasper township owing to the fact that this township was a part of several other townships all during its pioneer days. It appears from the best evi- dence that William G. Sutton, a native of Kentucky, who arrived in 1812 with his family, was the first permanent settler to make his home in the territory now comprised within the township. Closely following Sutton, and while the War of 1812 was in progress, came the Bales family. This family consisted of Elijah Bales and his wife and minor children, together with four of his sons, John, Jacob, Elijah and Jonathan, with their wives and families. The Bales family came from Tennessee, a state which furnished quite a number of the early settlers of the county.
The Shooks, Deans and Spahrs came during the period of the War of 1812. Three Shook brothers arrived in 1813, David, Harmonia and John, the latter having a family. William and Daniel Dean were the first repre- sentatives of that family to locate here. Philip Spahr came with his family in December, 1814, and the descendants of this family are still found in the county in large numbers. Following the close of the War of 1812, in 1815 and including the period up to 1820, there were but few settlers who located within the limits of what is now New Jasper township. Among these were Leonard Hagle, William Long, Jacob Smith, the Coffers, Clines and a few other families. But the region apparently did not attract many new settlers; rather it was settled up by the numerous children of the first settlers. With every one of the first families having from ten to twenty children each, it did not take many years to furnish a sufficient number of settlers to occupy the township as it stands today.
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
LAND TROUBLES.
Many of the first settlers had difficulty in getting the titles to their lands straightened out, the difficulty arising from the fact that some unprin- cipled Kentuckian by the name of Coleman sold so many fraudulent tax-rights to unsuspecting settlers. This made it necessary for some of the settlers to pay for their land a second time, rather than lose it with all the improve- ments they had placed on it. The commissioners' records bear ample witness to this trickery on the part of Coleman, and there were other land grafters in those early days. Most of the land in the county was bought for from two dollars and a half to ten dollars an acre. When a settler was unable to make his payments he frequently had to lose everything he had invested, together with whatever improvements he had made.
EARLY INDUSTRIES.
The subject of industries in New Jasper township may be very briefly dismissed, since it has probably had fewer than any township in the county. For some reason there were no mills along Caesars creek in this section, the settlers going to the mills at Xenia, Oldtown, Cedarville or Jamestown. It is true that there is one early mill on record-a combination saw-mill and corn-cracker-which was run by water power, but it disappeared so long ago that it is difficult to determine where it stood.
THE STONE INDUSTRY.
Excellent limestone crops out in various places in New Jasper township, and efforts have been made at different times to open quarries. Long & Mallow opened a stone quarry along the banks of Caesars creek, west branch, and near where the railroad crosses the creek. The railroad built a spur down to the quarry in order to handle the output of the quarry, which, as first projected, was to be the largest and best equipped the county had thus far seen. The firm spent thousands of dollars in stripping off the dirt and getting ready to take out the stone. They even went so far as to put in a tile factory in order to make use of the clay which they were stripping from the stone. But the firm was in active business only three or four years, closing down the quarry in about 1908, and the railroad company has since removed the spur which was installed. Another firm which was interested in getting out stone in New Jasper township was the firm of Conklin & Bickett, which had a quarry near the one of Long & Mallow.
AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS.
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