History of Greene County, Ohio, Part 16

Author: Robinson, George F., 1838-1901
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 934

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ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

Allen, having started brick-making for a licuse, expected to winter in it, but the work did not get along far enough, and so he re- mained in one of the cabins for the winter. Father commenced to cut and hew logs on the site of the cross roads where Homer Hawkins now lives, and got up a story and a half hewed-log house and covered it. It had a stick and mud chimney about half the height of the house: a doorway was cut with no door up, and a coverlid was used for a door. Here father wintered through 1814.

"Perhaps the next thing in order would Le a description of the country. At that time it was almost a wilderness, no clearing being done on the Hawkins or Steele farms, except what part of the Old Town prairie that runs down across the bottoms. The rest of the farms owned by these two gentle- n en was a dense forest with some little bar- rens of large and heavy timbers. The Haines farm had some cleared land and sev- eral acres of prairie on it. Some clearing had been done on a part of the thousand-acre tract that grandfather had reserved for him- self. . At this time the country abounded in wild animals, such as wolves, wild cats and wild hogs. Our nearest neighbors who were landholders were John Haines and Jonathan Paul, the first named gentleman living on part of the farm now owned by John B. Lucas. James Gill owned what is now the Richard Galloway farm, the fair ground, the Crawford, Nesbitt and Wood- row land, also the field adjoining the fair ground on the west side. This James Gill was an Irishman and belonged to what was called 'the whiskey boys,' of whom you have read in history. I have often heard him talk about it in his Irish brogue. He said

it was 'a bad piece of business. - but the old man has long since gone to his rest.

"One of our neighbors was James Tow- ler. Ile owned the lands where David Vor- hces and Peter Bankard used to live. IIc was a local Methodist preacher, and used to go among the Indians as a missionary. and at one time brought a couple of Indian boys home with him to have them educated. They remained in Nenia for some time, forming many acquaintances, and then re- turned to their tribes. Mr. Towler was one of the leaders of the Methodist church.

"Other neighbors were near us, but they were only renters or leasers. 1 will come back to my early boyhood days. I was pretty young when I first commenced going to school, and so did not go regularly. The school was in a little log cabin, located alout where John B. Lucas' house now stands, and my teacher's name was Amos Root. The next school that I attended was located where John Purdom now resides on the Boyd farm. The teacher was Julius Hunter. The next school was taught by Israel Hanes, in a little room in the second story of his own house. Still later Ransom Reel taught school at Old Town. The building in which he taught was of frame and was used for both school and church. William Galloway also taught in the same building about 1822. Thomas Steele was then living with his father in the old brick building on the Gordon lot. He taught school in a little frame building on or near where the Center building now stands. The older brothers and myself were sent to him. I will mention some of the prominent schol- ars as far as I can remember; David W. Connelly and Robert were among them. David was studying surveying, and after-

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wards distinguished himself in surveying for the government in the southern states, especially in Louisiana. Robert died with yellow fever while in the employ of his brother. Then there was James and Ben- jamin Grover: James afterward became clerk of the court of Greene county, and later a prominent Methodist preacher. Others among these pupils were Jack and Henry Barnes, the latter ex-sheriff of Greene county, James and Henry Larue and Jackson . Allen. It may not be amiss to give some of the names of girls or young women. I will commence with the Connelly family. There were Nancy, Martha and Mary Con- nelly. Harriet, Abigail and Joanna Ilivling, Rachel and Margaret Eyler, Mary and Lydia Eyler and Jennie Barnes. There were a host of other boys and girls ; among them were David and John Rader, and two families of Shaws. many of them are beneath the sod and others soon will be.

"I will now speak of the town and its surroundings. The city did not extend be- yond Church street on the north side, Mon- roe street was the east limit, Water street was the south limit, and the boundary line on the west was the Cincinnati pike and West street. Most of the buildings were on Main street. John Alexander, the grand- father of William J. Alexander. had his home on a large lot in the vicinity of whete Henry Il. Eavey's fine residence now stands ; also and close by and belonging to him was an orchard and deer park. The principal merchants were James and Ryan Gowdy, Ilivling and Nunamaker and John Dodd. The hotels were the Hivling House, Collier House and the Browder House. This latter house was kept in the hewed-log house that stood on the site where the wholesale gro-

cery now stands. Quite a contrast between it and the Florence Hotel of to-day. A tan- yard stood on the site of Chandler Brothers' coal office. A small stone building was used as a shop, and Robert Gowdy carried on the business. A blacksmith shop was run by John Williams in a log cabin shop that stood on the lot where Mrs. William B. Fairchild used to reside on Market street. And in this shop the first elephant that was ever shown in Xenia was put on exhibition, and many of us had the chance of seeing our first elephant. The public buildings of the town consisted of a court house, jail and market house. The court house occupied a part of the same ground that the present one does. It was a plain square building with a cupola to designate its use. In that house I cast my first vote. The jail was a small stone building made of those soft yel- low stones, such as lie east of James Rall's slaughter house. These stones proved an easy thing for the prisoners to pick holes through. The market house was a two- story structure, built with pillars, a sufficient distance apart to form stalls on each side and open at each end. This building stood on the public square, on Market street back of the court house."

(In revising Mr. Hawkins' "old-time article" for publication the editor of the Gazette, on what was deemed good author- ity. made a correction about the market house, and gave a description of Xenia's market house a decade later than the one about which Mr. Hawkins wrote, hence the following from him :

"Editor Gazette : The market house that I spoke of was on Main street and only one story high, and was nearly in the middle of the street : its one end was perhaps two or

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three rods east of Detroit street, and ex- tended up in front of the court house, and was so situated that they could drive on either side of it. The one on Market street was of later date. I do not known that I could find a man to prove the above, but nevertheless it is true .- David Hawkins." )

"I will now tell of some prominent gentlemen who were large land owners and w hose land bordered on the town. The first of these was James Galloway, who owned a large tract of land bordering on the west and northwest of the town. The next was David Connelly, who owned the large tract of land north and northeast of the town, and now owned by the Silas Roberts' heirs. East from this was the Robert D. Forsman farm, and the Benjamin Haines tarm, or the Henry Conklin farm as it is now. With the southeast and south I was not acquainted until it came to the Judge Grover farm, which has since been nearly all taken into the city. Mr. Grover's house is the present residence of Coleman lleaton. On the southwest was the farm of Henry Hypes, father of Mrs. Maria Drees and Mr. Samuel Hypes ; some of his land bordered on James Galloway's land. Close by James Gallo- way's land lay Samuel Gowdy's farm. Not far from these last named farms lay the gravel bank, a large portion of which was owned by Abraham and John Hivling. Abraham Hivling also owned that portion of land north of Church street and west of Detroit out as far as the Gordon's. This was then farm land and contained within its borders a house, barn and such other buildings as pertain to a farm. The Gordon property, except the old brick house and lot that is southeast of them, and all land west to the Richard Galloway line, was owned

by James Gowdy. Most of it was farm land, but the north end was forest, including John T. Harbine's lot. But the city has covered this farm land and even the forest. On the lot where Fawcett's jewelry store now is stood a little one-story brick house, which was first used as a school house, but it was afterward occupied by a man by the name of Tolbert as a hatter's shop, so there has been some change there.

"I will now come nearer home; nearly all of Richard Galloway's farm was a for- est. We had no public road, but such roads as farmers have in their woodland to haul rails and wood over. A small field was cleared where tht race track now is in front of the Galloway house, and the field west close by was also cleared, but from there the remainder of the way home was through the woods, which in some places were pretty thick. When we left Shenandoah county our colony numbered twenty in all. 1 am the only one left in the county, and all but three of these have been laid beneath the sod. Obed Allen, if living. is in Rochester, Indiana, and Ilomer Allen is in Bellefon- taine, Ohio."

JAMES SCOTT, A SOLDIER OF 1812.

James . 1. Scott was born in Northumber- land county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1794. In 1812 he was a member of one of the companies composing a brigade of soldiers which left Pennsylvania and started to the scenes of action in which Hull and his forces were then engaged. On arriving at Pitts- burg they learned of Hull's surrender, and were ordered to Erie, where Perry was then engaged in building his fleet. At Pittsburg they were furnished with tents and other

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necessary equipments for their comfort, hav- ing been obliged to sleep in the open air, or sheds, pigpens or whatever old buildings they could find a place of shelter for a time. They remained for a short time and were ordered to Buffalo. where they were de- tained until late in December of that year, when they were discharged. They were left to get home as best they could, and young Scott with many others traveled the distance, over two hundred miles, on foot through the forest. They drew one month's pay while at Erie, which was all the wages that Scott received until he had been a resi- dent of this county some time. He again joined the army in 1814. Ilis brigade met once, organized at Danville, Pennsylvania, and proceeded toward Sandy Hook. They reached Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and here learned of the treaty of peace, and were discharged.

In October. 1815. he came on a tour vi inspection to this and adjoining counties in company with his brother John. They were acquaintances and friends of John Jacoby ( who then owned and run the Old Town mills ) and his family, and with them they made their headquarters during their stay in this section. General Robert T. Fors- man was then a single man and lived with Henry Jacoby, in partnership with whom he ran a distillery. He sold out his interest to his partner not long after the building of the distillery.

During this trip Mr. Scott saw very little of Xenia, making a few short visits to the place. It then contained very few frame or brick buildings. The principal business houses were built of logs, and nearly all the dwelling's were log structures of a variety of styles and sizes. At that time there was a

tavern about where John Glossinger's saloon used to be, kept by an Englishman. There was another just east of it kept by Thomas Gillespie, who was afterward appointed land commissioner in the northern part of the state by President Jackson. Connelly then kept the tavern near the old Hivling cor- ner. James Collier was then running his famous house on Detroit street and a Mr. Watson was proprietor of another on the south side of Main street, west of Detroit.

The first mill built in the county was a small structure erected in 1799 near the site of the Harbine mill at Alpha. Some years after it proved too small for the increasing trade and was abandoned for a larger one, a frame building erected near by. A woolen mill was also built and put into operation at the same place. It was afterward used as a cotton factory for some time and then again converted into a woolen mill. This mill property then belonged to Jacob Smith. who was a member of the fourth general assembly of the state in 1805. as a senator from this and Clinton counties, which office ne filled several times afterward.

After weeks spent in the inspection of the different mills in this part of the state Mr. Scott and his brother John negotiated for the purchase of this property from Mr. Smith and then started back to Pennsylvania. They had not journeyed as far as the Scioto river when James' horse died. The animal was an excellent one. and as usually found in the west at that time horses were of an in- ferior stock. Mr. Scott would not pur- chase one with which to complete his jour- ney home, but proceeded on foot. Some days he traveled as much as fifty miles, and would very often reach the point designated in the morning as the stopping place for the

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following night some time in advance of his brother who was on horseback. Their aver- age rate of travel during the entire journey was between forty five and forty-seven miles. Twenty-five miles this side of Pitts- burg, at a place then called Bricklings Cross Roads, his brother was taken very ill and they had to remain at this place some six weeks until the sick man was able to proceed on the journey. They arrived home during the holidays. Mr. Scott returned to this county in February, 1816, and assumed charge of the mill purchased of Mr. Smith. Not anticipating the immediate use of a horse after his arrival here, he declined to bring one with him and made the entire journey on foot. In the fall of the year he again returned to Pennsylvania, this time making the trip on horseback.

MARRIAGE OF MR. SCOTT.

On the 17th of October, 1816, he was married to Elizabeth S. Shannon, who was then living with her parents not far from Milton, Pennsylvania. She was born July 6, 1796. Mrs. Scott had a brother living in Piqua, Ohio, and another in Pennsylvania, these three being the only surviving mem- bers of a large family. John Shannon, who once lived at Alpha, this county, was an- other brother. Soon after their marriage they moved to this county in a wagon. They lived in the house in which the first court. were held in this county, which was then the residence of Peter Borders, and in which he kept a tavern for many years.

John Scott, who had accompanied James on his first visit to this county, lived with them here. He was a millwright and crect- ed a number of mills in this and adjoining

counties. He afterward settled in Miami county, where he died in the eighty-second ycar of his age. Captain Casper Snyder. James Fulton and two of James Scott's sons, William and David, learned the trade with him.

Mr. Scott tells of a case of sharp prac- tice which occurred in the neighborhood of Alpha some time before he came to the county, but of which he often heard after his arrival here. Jacob Ilerring was the owner of a tract of land near Beaver creek, north of Alpha. An adjoining tract lying between his land and the creek contained some very excellent bottom land, and on it there were some very fine springs, and this Herring desired to possess. Benjamin Whiteman learned of this desire and know- ing that the land had not yet been entered by any one went to Herring, assumed the right to sell the land, bargained with him for its sale at five dollars per acre, went immediately to Cincinnati and entered it in his own name at less than half that price, then returned and made Herring a deed for the land. making quite a sum of money in the operation, which Herring could have retained had be known to what party the land belonged.

While running the mill Mr. Scott once sent his team to Cincinnati with a load of four. On the return the driver missed the way and after wandering about in the for- ests of Clermont and Brown counties for many days finally reached the mill again after an absence of about three weeks.

A few days after moving to this county with his wife Mr. Scott came to Xenia to purchase necessary household goods. He selected a number of articles, among them a "dutch oven" at James Gowdy's store, had

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them set aside, and then drove his team to John Mitten's chair factory, which stood where the Grand Hotel now stands, to pur- chase some chairs. Having driven away from the store without paying for what he had selected, or telling Mr. Gowdy where he was going (he presumes that Gowdy thought he was going to leave the goods on lis hands and had gone home without them ) Mr. Gowdy sent John Ewing, a clerk in the store, in search of Mr. Scott and to inquire if he had forgotten the articles set aside for him. Mr. Scott satisfied him, however, by returning to the store after he had gotten the chairs and paying for the articles and taking them home.

The German Reformed, as it was called. the Lutheran and. New Light were the only church organizations in that part of the county when Mr. and Mrs. Scott lived at Alpha. Their ancestors were Presbyterians. and as there was not then any organization of that denomination near them they at- tended the services of the Reformed and Lutheran churches for a number of years. These two denominations built a large log church about 1820, near the site of the pres- ent brick church edifice on the Dayton and Xenia road near Alpha. The two congre- gations occupied the church alternately. Rev. Thomas Winters, who lived near Day- ton, the father of the popular David Win- ters, now of Dayton, and Rev. Thomas Win- ters, of Xenia, was then pastor of the Re- formed congregation. Rev. David Winters. then a young man, preached the first sermon Mr. Scott ever heard him preach in this church. Mr. Scott knew of but one Methi- odist family in the township at that time. It was the family of Jacob Nesbitt, father of Benoni Nesbitt, of Xenia. There was

then no congregation of Dunkards in the township, but there were a few persons there oi that denomination, and through their ef- forts were induced to settle there, until in later years a congregation was organized. and still exists at Zimmermanville. Soon after the organization of the first Presby- terian congregation in this city, and when Rev. Moses Swift. now of Allegheny, was its pastor, Mr. and Mrs. Scott united with it, and have since remained members of that church.

Mr. Scott was well acquainted with . 1.5- sociate Judges Houston and Haines, who were his neighbors for a long time. Among other personal acquaintances and friends during the first year of his residence in this county were Henry Ankeney, Captain Jacob Shingledecker. Captain Robert MeClellan and Major James Galloway, who were sol- 'diers in the war of 1812. Mr. Hugh .An- drew, Mr. George Wright and Mr. Scott were the only pensioners of the war of 1812 under the old law that were living in 1879 about Xenia.

Mr. Scott said that the people then liv- ing in Beavercreek township were the most sociable and hospitable, honorable and up- right in all their dealings of any community in which he had ever lived. It was made up principally of people from Pennsylvania and Maryland. His mill custom then extended to the east and south, east a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles. In addition to attending to the running of the mill he held the office of justice of the peace in that township for five years.

After conducting the mill business for over ten years the property was sold to a Mr. Herr, and from him to Mr. John Har- bine, and Mr. Scott then took charge of

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what was then called Staley's, afterwards Tresslar's, mill, a few miles farther down the river, where he remained for a short time.

While there he was elected sheriff of the county and assumed the duties of that office in 1828, and held the office for two succes- sive terms. At that time the county jail was an old stone building, which stood on the west side of the present city park. The county did not then provide a residence for the sheriff, and he lived in a small frame house on the same lot on Bast Second street where he was living at the time of his death. This building was moved in late years to East Church street. In 1833 he was elected to the state legislature and served one year as representative. . Before going to the leg- islature and after his return from that body he held the office of justice of the peace in Nenia. He was then elected sheriff and re- entered that office in 1836, again serving two terms. Soon after the beginning of the first term a new jail was built in connec- tion with a sheriff's residence, on the east side of the public square, was completed, and Mr. Scott and his family settled in the resi- dence thus furnished them. The washing for the prisoners was done at the expense of the sheriff, who also had to furnish all nec- essary fuel and was paid only twenty-five cents per day for boarding each prisoner confined in the jail. There were then very few sheriff sales : people then helped each other out of their financial difficulties, and there were few failures in business. What- ever sheriff sales there were then, were al- most exclusively sales in partition.

The law authorizing imprisonment for debt was then in force, and among many others confined in jail on that account while

Mr. Scott was sheriff was Dr. Thomas Neal, who was sentenced to a long term of im- prisonment. On account of his unusual trustworthy disposition in a matter of that kind he was for awhile allowed the priv- ileges of the jail yard during the day, and some times they permitted him to take a stroll about town. After his release Mr. Scott and others who took an interest in his welfare set him up in business in a small botanical drug store and succeeded in get- ting him a small practice. His wife, known by all as "Auntie Neal," was a general fa- vorite in the town and especially with the children. The old couple removed to Jamestown some years after and there they died not a great while ago.

In 1839 Mr. Scott was again elected representative to the legislature, and this time served two terms. Among others whom he remembered as members of the leg- islature when he was one of that body, and with whom he was then acquainted, he men- tioned Thomas W. Bartley and David Todd, both of whom afterwards became governors of the state: Joseph Vance, who was then in the senate and had been governor ; Sea- burry Ford, who afterwards was governor ; Charles Brough, who afterwards became a very prominent citizen of Cincinnati, and who was a brother of John Brough, who was then auditor of state and was afterward elected' governor : George II. Flood, after- ward United States minister to Texas be- fore its annexation ; Judge Smith, of War- ren county, father of Judge Smith, so well known in our present courts : Aaron Harlan, who was once a member of congress from this county ; George D. Hendricks, who was once noted for his ready wit. Once when Hendricks had the floor another member

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arose and said : "Mr. Speaker, is there any- thing before the house?" When Hendricks. referring to the member that had interrupted him, exclaimed soto voce, "Yes, there is a thing from - county before the house." At another time a member, a Baptist preach- er, presented a bill providing for the erec- tion of a dam across one of the largest trib- utaries to the Muskingum river. He was very earnest in urging the passage of the bill and made an unnecessarily frequent use of the name of the structure for which the provision was urged, and when he closed his speech Hendricks arose and said: "Mr. Speaker. I move that the word "dam" be struck from this bill: the frequent use of such profanity is decidedly corrupting to the morals of this august body."

While at Columbus Mr. Scott became intimately acquainted with Judge Bellamy Storer, who was often in that city on legal business. During his first term in the legis- lature he drew up the bill for the incorpora- tion of the first bank ever incorporated in Xenia, called "The Xenia Bank," with John Hivling, president, John Ankeney, James Galloway, John Dodd, James Gowdy, Gen- eral R. D. Forsman, Silas Roberts and others as incorporators. This bill was pre- sented by George D. Hendricks, and by him its passage was materially aided. While in the legislature the second time Mr. Scott presented a bill for the incorporation of the Dayton and Nenia Turnpike Company. This bill was passed, but he thinks that the road was built under a subsequent incorporation. The first bank in Nenia, however, was or- ganized in 1818, with William Elkins cash- icr.

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History of Greene County, Ohio, Part 16

Author: Robinson, George F., 1838-1901 Publication date: 1902 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 934

Author: Robinson, George F., 1838-1901
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 934