USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio > Part 12
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giated to Kansas, settling at Olatha, thirty- five miles south of Kansas City, Missouri.
THE COMING OF THE HARBINES TO GREENE COUNTY.
Few families have been as successful in tracing their ancestors back to "the long ago" as has been the case with this honored family. The history as gleaned here and there reads almost like the beginning of fic- tion. The Harbine family descended from the Huguenots, and their early ancestors were driven from their native France to lands where they might worship according to the dictates of their own consciences. Three families of that name left their native lands about the year 1700. One family set- tled in Algiers, where a small town now now bears their name. The other two came to the United States, one settling in West Virginia, and the other in Berks county. Pennsylvania. Peter Harbine was at the head of the last family spoken of, and was the ancestor of our Greene county Harbines. Briefly following out the Scriptural form, we would say of John Harbine, he was the son of Daniel, who was the son of .Adani, who was the son of Peter Harbine, who in 1749 purchased a tract of land from Thom- as and William Penn in the then province of Pennsylvania. Daniel Ilarbine, Sr., had removed to Washington county, Maryland, where, January 17. 1804. the subject of this sketch, John Harbine, was born, and there continued to reside until the year 1828. He was married in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, August 21. 1827. to Miss Hester Herr, and the year following, with his young wife, started for their new home. They drove through in a carriage, and not long
after Mr. Harbine's arrival he purchased the land on which stood the first court house for Greene county. in Beavercreek township. They moved into the building thus obtained. and the husband occupied himself as miller and owner of the Owen Davis mill, the first that was built in Greene county. He con- tinued milling for some years, and finally built extensive oil, flour and woolen mills. together with the store, and became largely interested in the grain trade in Xenia. He also had two mills on the Miami river, where was erected the first cotton factory of this section, and was largely interested in the development of the turnpike system, be- sides being instrumental in securing the building of the Little Miami road. He was warmly interested in the establishment of schools. Politically he was a Whig, and later a Republican. Religiously he was a prominent member of the Reformed church. To him and his estimable wife there was born a family of eight children, all of whom grew to mature years: Daniel R .: Jacob H., who is still a resident of the old home: Mary E., who was married to David G. Steele: Hattie M., who became the wife of the Hon. John Miller : Sarah J. married Dr. William Hagenbaugh ; Anna C., the wife of George Smith: J. Thomas; and B. F. Har- bine.
June 8. 1873. after a life of usefulness. the father, John Harbine, died. At the age of eighteen he was received into full com- munion with the Reformed church at St. Paul's church, near Clear Springs, Mary- land. The esteem in which he was held as a citizen and neighbor was evinced by the large procession that followed his remains to their last resting place in Woodland cem- etery, Nenia, Ohio.
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ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
THOMAS DAVIS, A SOLDIER OF TIIE REVO- LUTION.
At the September term of the court of common pleas of Greene county, Ohio, in the year 1821 personally appeared in open court before the court of common pleas Thomas Davis, aged sixty-five years last January, a resident of Bath township, in the county of Greene aforesaid, who being sworn according to law doth on his oath de- clare that he served in the Revolutionary war, as follows: "I served as a private in the company commanded by Captain Thom- as Young, Western Battalion, in the regi- ment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jo- seph Crockett, in the service of the United States." Mr. Davis had previous to this made application and was receiving a pension of eight dollars per month under what was termed "the law of 1818," which pension was granted him at the rate of eight dollars per month. He made that ap- plication in Clark county, Kentucky, previ- ous to his coming to Ohio. The date of his certificate under the law was No. 7258. He had at the time of making his last applica- tion two children living, a son. John Davis, who was then thirty-six years old, and was a cripple in his left arm, not able to help his parents ; and one daughter. Nancy Davis, aged sixteen years, who was acting as house- keeper. He farther states that he served five years in the Revolutionary war and three years under General Anthony Wayne.
WILLIAM READ
Died at "Read's Hill," near Fairfield. De- cember 25. 1862, aged sixty-nine years. He was born in Paris, Kentucky, January 21.
1793. and was the second child of Andrew and Catharine Read. During the year 1799 he removed with his parents to Ohio and settled on Mad river, four miles north- east of Dayton, thence removed in the spring of 1802 to near Fairfield, settling upon what has been called "Read's Hill." During the war with England in 1812 and 1813 he served as a teamster. carrying commissary stores from Dayton to Urbana. Bellefontaine and stations far beyond. Still later he served as a private under Captains Stevenson and McClellan, and was stationed at Fort Mc- Arthur, guarding the open frontier and keep- ing a line of communication open to Fort Meigs. After his return home he was mar- ried. in 1814. to Miss Mary Tatman, eldest daughter of Rev. Joseph and Rebecca Tat- man. There were born unto them six chil- dren. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was jus- tice of the peace for many years, and a commissioner for six years. He lacked just twenty-eight days of being seventy years old at the time of his death.
NIMROD HADDON.
During the year 1800 Nimrod Haddox started from Virginia with two pack horses and came to Chillicothe. Ross county, and while traveling at Deer creek met an old friend from Virginia, with whom he stopped over night, and liking the surroundings he prolonged his stay over winter. In the fol- lowing spring he and five other families moved up Deer creek to Lamb's purchase. and squatted on it. After having made a little improvement. learning that his nephew had settled on the Little Miami, he came to visit him, and finally moved in with him.
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After remaining here a couple of years he learned that his mother and family had moved to Kentucky, and he determined to visit her. Packing up, he started ; and about three miles below Dayton he fell in with an- wother old friend from Virginia who per- suaded him to remain all winter and teach a school in the vicinity. In March the smallpox appearing in the settlement he moved across the river and began making sugar. Having good success in this direc- tion, a fine lot of sugar was the result. About this time the great flood took place. The water began to rise and he was com- pelled to cross the river with his sugar to a cabin on higher ground. The water still rising, he moved to a house owned by a Mr. Taylor. This, also, being surrounded by water, he put his sugar in the loft, and they all paddled across to an elevated spot and camped for the night. Mr. Hladdox was placed on watch, and about midnight the water reached them and they were com- pelled as a last resort to cut trees and fall their tops together and climb them, and re- main on them from Friday till Monday with- out food or drink. On Monday the water began to subside, and soon they descended from their perch and went to the house. which was turned around. They rowed their boat to the upper window and crawled in, and finding a large iron kettle in the loft and some meat they made a fire in the kettle and broiled some of it; and also finding a sack of meal stowed away in the loft they mixed this with water and baking it also in the impromptu oven soon had a good meal. On looking for his sugar. he found that it had mostly disappeared. Fully satisfied with his visit, he returned to his nephew's house.
traded a horse for an improvement, and be- came a citizen of our county.
WHAT BECAME OF PETER BORDERS.
From the old files of the "Torchlight" uncler date of October 23. 1851. we find the following: "Died at Irish Grove. Menard county, Illinois, Sylvia Borders, wife of Pe- ter Borders, aged seventy-eight years. Mr. Borders kept the first public house in Greene county, Ohio. And the first courts of said county were held in his house. He was at the time his wife died an old man eighty- four years of age, in good health, and astonishing activity for one of his age.
STEPHIENSONS OF BATHI TOWNSHIP.
William Stephenson, Sr., with his wife and four children, namely, William, James, Peter and John, left the state of Kentucky some time previous to 1803 and settled in Bath township. Greene county, one mile and a half east of the present town of Osborn of land which in later years came to be the home of John Dispenett. His son, Will- iam, was a soldier with the rank of captain in the war of 1812.
JOHN HOSIER, SON OF FREDERICK.
Mr. John Hosier, of Osborn, Bath town- ship. Greene county, Ohio, died on Friday. December 24, 1869. at the mature age of eighty-one years. He was born in Shenan- doah county, Virginia. in 1789, to which piace his parents had removed and where they made their home until 1797. They brought up a family of seven children, of
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whom John was the youngest save one. In 1797 the family removed to this state, which was then but a part of the "Northwestern territory," and in a wilderness condition. in- habited or rather occupied by the "red men of the forest." They made a halt in Mason county for about four years, where they rented some land and lived as most "back- woodsmen" lived in all new countries in a primitive way, with wants few and easily supplied. There were the carcasses of wild animals, many varieties of which abounded in every part of the great Northwest. The bread was made from corn meal, which was ground in little hand mills, somewhat like those in eastern countries, as in Bible times "upper and lower mill stones." the upper being turned by a pin of wood or iron in- serted in the top, and near the outer rim or edge, for the hand of the operator to take hold of while the other hand supplied it with corn. It was sifted through a primitive screen, made of untanned deerskin, with holes made with the tines of a common table fork, which had been made red hot for the purpose. This process of burning the skins, through which the heated fork tines passed, prevented it from resuming its original shape again, and the seared and crisp material served the purpose for which it was designed for long periods, and was certainly a good substitute for the wire sieve of to-day, though the process, like the grinding, as above described. was decidedly slow and tedious, compared with the method of doing the same work in our old settled country. At the end of the four years the family made another journey toward their present home. and halted at a point near Cincinnati. called Columbia, at that day. Here they stayed more than two years. In coming
from Shenandoah they stayed one entire win- ter in a rude camp which they hastily con- structed for the purpose at the mouth of the Little Kanawha river, and where they had expected to embark on a flat boat for their coveted western home, with their two horses and two cows and household goods and provisions, but with no wagon or other vehicle to facilitate land transportation. The boat did not come as anticipated, and they had no recourse but to make "virtue a neces- sity," and winter where they were, in their rude cabin, three miles from any white in- habitants and under the necessity of winter- ing their animals on browse, which they cut for the purpose in the surrounding for- ests, together with a little corn which they secured from the nearest settlement. They had no meat on their table with the excep- tion of a large fat bear, which one of the larger boys had killed, with now and then a wild turkey. Their bread during the long winter was made from corn that was pound- ed in the hole of a large stump, hollowed out for the purpose with fire, a spring pole pestle being used for the purpose of mash- ing it. The next spring they embarked on a flat boat, according to their original plan, and finally landed on the shore of the Miami river near Cincinnati. At this place, three miles from Cincinnati, they occupied a farm which was owned by a Mr. Isaac VanNess. The house was back from the river, on the "second bottom," though some of the im- proved ground was on the "lower bottom." nearer the river. They' were yet on this farm of Mr. VanNess when the great flood of 1803 occurred and where their cows got surrounded with a wide waste of whirling waters, while they had a little more than sufficient standing room on a little patch or
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knoll, just enough to keep them from be- ing swept away by the seething flood. At one time, during the progress of the flood, our subject, with another brother, came near being drowned by the upsetting of their nar- row, shapeless log of a canoe, with which they were striving to convey some food to their imprisoned animals, an eddy in the seething flow brought them into collision with a log which was being whirled along at a rapid rate and which upset them : how- ever, he managed to grasp a branch of an elm tree and to climb among its branches, where he rested until his brother got safe to land, and returned with another raft of the same kind, and which had been dug out just the day before, as if to be providentially ready for the occasion. There were no levees to confine the accumulated waters of the spring freshet within the legitimate banks of the river and, of course, they spread themselves out into the forest on either side of the stream proper until the Miami valley was like a vast lake, or an inland sea, or like the great father of waters in width and volume.
They came here in the valley of Mad river in 1803. and settled upon the eighty acres of land upon which our subject re- sided until his death, midway between the village of Osborn and Fairfield. The land had been pre-empted by John Hunt, as were most of the government lands in that im- mediate locality by different individuals. They paid Mr. Hunt two shillings per acre for his pre-emption rights and then paid the government agent two dollars per acre, with five years payments. But the land was in a state of nature, covered by a thick growth of plum and hazel bushes. Fairfield had but a single hut at that time, and there were but
few inhabitants anywhere in the vicinity. Their household goods were unloaded in the woods, where they had no shelter but the canopy of the heavens, until they could hastily construct a tentlike structure of their bedclothes on short sticks set in the ground. After they had made their first payment on their land they found themselves destitute of available means, and, of course, depended upon their good constitutions, their acquired skill in battling with the hardships and pri- vations of pioneer life, and, of course, on the blessing of God. They had all of their provisions to procure by their labor in work- ing for others who needed their services. Wages were low, and pries of provisions were correspondingly low. The price of a day's work with sickle in harvest was only four shillings, yet there was an active de- mand for it: all of the grain of the country had to be cut with the sickle for several Years, and until the grain cradle was in- vented and brought gradually into use. They got their grain, corn and wheat ground sometimes at McCormack's mill on Mad river, nearby on the "chopping mill' of the late John Knisley, sometimes at Mr. Steel's mill at Midway, near the site of Mr. Felix Wise's present woolen factory, and some- times at Mr. Davis' mill near Clifton. The flour wherever made was bolted by turning the machinery by hand. This was usually done by the owner of the "grist" so as to accelerate the process of making the wheat into flour and bran. This vicinity to Tat- man's prairie near Fairfield enabled them to share with others in cutting the grass of that prairie for their cows and horses in the first winter.
Mr. John Hosier was married, in 1819. to Miss Mary Haddix, sister of John Had-
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dix, of Osborn. She was the mother of thirteen children. Mr. Hosier was converted to the service of God in 1840 and connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. His opportunities for attending religious meet- ings had been few and far between. The first meeting that he attended was at "Read's Hill," east of Fairfield village.
He lived to see many changes, and was one of the most useful men that lived in his day and generation. He was not the man to make himself too conspicuous in the neigh- borhood where he lived, unless it was that he was known for his modesty and moral worth, for his honesty and integrity could not be called in question ; he would be known as a good man, good citizen and a good Christian, and such he was in the judgment of charity. Hle had lived to see our com- try pass through conflicts with foreign powers successfully, and then the great re- bellion which threatened the life of the na- tion. He lived to see peace restored to our country. When his time came he was ready to go.
JAMES MC PHERSON'S APPLICATION TO KEEP TAVERN IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP.
"To the Worshipful Court of Greene coun- ty, humbly showeth :
"That whereas your petitioner hath been solicited from time to time by traveler's from remote distances as well as adjacent. that hath been and now continue to explore the ile urishing and fertile lands of Mad river, to ask license from the Honorable Bench to keep a public house of entertain- men. That for want of such a place of con- vening for a recourse for shelter hath often sufficed in their recognizing in the said tour
through this extensive country, and being yet almost unsettled for many miles from my dwelling. And beside all this he farther adds that without said lawful indulgence to obtain said license, must sustain great loss ; for at times am much crowded with sojourn- ers to the dissatisfaction of private life, with no man near of profit, but an entire fatigue. His habitation being north from Springfield twenty miles, from Chillicothe sixty miles. Ottawa Town forty miles northwest, from Mr. Isaac Zane's ten miles west. Your peti- tioner hopes to obtain and of your clemency the said license, and as in duty bound will ever pray. Signed by
"JAMES MCPHERSON.
"May 20, 1804."
The petition was also signed by Simon Kenton, Peter Oliver, Thomas Davis, Jo- seph Sutton, John Fisher, J. T. Galloway. Lewis Davis, Lewis Sutton, George M. Smith, William Moore.
The author of this remarkable petition. James McPherson, or Squa-la-ka-ke. "the red-faced man," was a native of Carlisle. Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was taken prisoner on the Ohio at or near the mouth of the Big Miami at the time of Loughry's defeat, and was for many years engaged in the British Indian department. under Elliott & McKey. Married a fellow prisoner, came into our service after Wayne's treaty, 1795, and continued in charge of the Shawnees and Senecas of Lewistown until his removal from office in 1830, since which he has died. His nearest neighbor at this time was Isaac Zane, living ten miles east. Our own grand old pioneer. Major James Galloway, was up in that part of the state in the year 1800, and there can be no doubt but that he was intimately acquainted with
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McPherson, Zane and others of the pioneers of that section of the country. Years after- ward he gave from memory his recollections of that part of what is now Logan county. and which had been from 1803 until 1805 a part of Mad River township, Greene coun- Iy, previous to the organization of Cham- paign county at that date. thus circumserib- ing Greene in its northern limits. And again in the fall of 1817 we gave to Clark county a part of our northern territory, yet we have historically the satisfaction of knowing that all of their carly inhabitants or pioneers were first ours. And when Logan and Champaign counties point with pardonable pride to the home and place where the body of Simon Kenton was laid to rest "after life's long and fitful sleep." we can open our little poll books and the enumeration of the pioneers of Mad River township in Greene county from 1803 to 1805 and see the name of the aforesaid Simon, and we listen as he is being inter- viewed by John Daugherty. "lister" of Mad River township for the year 1803. and we hear him say in answer to the questions that are asked him: "This mill here on Mad river is worth, I suppose, one hundred and fifty dollars." Any cattle? "Yes, I have three horses and twenty-two cattle."
At the first election held in said town- ship, June 21, 1803. at the house of Griffith Foose, town of Springfield, John Daugherty and Robert Loughry, clerks, and James Woods, Thomas Redman and John Clark. judges. At this election appears the name. among others selected for the different of- fices, Simon Kenton, who was chosen to act as overseer of the poor. The subject of this sketch. James McPherson, was present and cast his ballot and helped to organize. The
compiler of this sketch has the original peti- tion of James McPherson framed and ready to return to the new court house among a number of papers of historical interest. Among the signers of this petition is the autograph of Simon Kenton.
MAJOR THOMAS CARNEAL.
Major Thomas D. Carneal, founder of Caesarsville, Greene county, Ohio, and one of the earliest settlers of Cincinnati, but of late years a resident of Frankfort. Kentucky, died at the residence of Nicholas Longworth in Cincinnati. November 3. 1800, aged sev- enty-six years. In the early days of Ohio he was an extensive speculator in wild lands, and located many warrants in the Virginia military district. A few years since he set up a claim to sundry tracts of land on Caesar's creek in this county, but never pur- sued the matter to adjudication.
Like all others who invested in lands in the Ohio valley at an early date, he realized a fortune. He was the founder of the town of Caesarsville, which place was located four miles southeast of the present city of Nenia. on the farm where now ( 1899) resides our old friend, Pad Peterson. And strong hopes were entertained that it would become the permanent county seat of Greene county. Buildings were erected for that purpose and a house that was to be used as a "court house," and east of this building was the public well ( that can be seen to-day, 1899), covered with a large flat stone, located in the barn lot of Mr. Peterson. And scattered here and there were some twenty-five or thirty cabins, which at that early date ( 1800) was to be the county seat of Greene county. At the organization of Greene
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county into townships, May 10. 1803, by order of court this was to be the voting place of Caesarscreek township, and was un- til the organization of Xenia township, Au- gust 20, 1805.
William J. Stewart was acting as justice of the peace, a very important office at that day, as the tally sheets of elections will show more votes were cast for the candidates for that office than in the fall for governor of the state. Mr. Stewart seems to have been active in trying to help settle or to legalize methods that would have a tendency to build up and create a population, as the following record will show.
Married at Caesarsville at the house of William J. Stewart and by him, November 8, 1803. Mr. Samuel Bone to Miss Aletha Beason : by the same, May 10. 1803. Mr. Samuel Ruth to Miss Jane Wilson; again by the same, under date of July 12. 1804. Mr. John Price to Miss Hannah Davis ; and again. April 19. 1804. Mr. Reuben Strong te Miss Anna Wilson.
JOSHUA BELL.
He was a native of Harford county, Maryland, but was raised in Baltimore coun- ty. He came to Caesarsville in April, 1807, and had not been in the village but a short time until we find in the records the fol- lowing notice: "Married June 23, 1807. Mr. Joshua Bell to Miss Mary Bales by the Rev. Bennett Maxey. She was a sister of John Bales, and we find from the records that Mr. Bell was keeping tavern in the same house that had been erected for a court house and continued to do so until the year 1829, when he removed from Greene colin- ty first to Indiana, then to Henry county.
Iowa, in 1841, where he continued to live until July 1. 1856, when notice is sent back to his old home that at the above date he had died at the age of eighy-six years. Nu- merous receipts and papers in the old records will show that he was acting as agent for Mayor Carneal in collecting interest and other money that were due Mr. Carneal for lands sold to the early settlers, but who never was a resident of the county, but was largely interested in what was termed wild lands.
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