History of Greene County, Ohio, Part 8

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.

ness, excepting some considerable losses suis- tained by crediting persons who became in- solvent, or proved dishonest. During this time he purchased several lots in Xenia, and his father's farm, two and one-half miles west of town, and a small farm between the two last mentioned places, and put up some valuable buildings in town, and some cheap- er ones which he rented at a moderate price. Mr. Gowdy was a loser by his Jamestown store, and it was discontinued in 1844. . 11- together he was in the dry goods business for forty-four years. He had married Jo- anna, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Town- sley, January 27, 1814, with whom he lived three and one-half years until her decease and that of their only child, a daughter. which took place on the 25th of July, 1817. His wife was then twenty-eight years old. He married a second time, November 1I, 1819. Miss Sarah Brown, who resided at the time in Clark county, Ohio. She was the daughter of John and Margaret Brown, late of Northumberland county, Pennsylva- nia, where she was born and reared, and with whom she lived nine years or more, tin- til the time of her death, March 6, 1829, at the age of forty years. She was the mother of his children, six sons and one daugh- ter, viz. : John Brown, James Ryan, George W., Abigail Joanna, Samuel Philander and his twin brother, not named. He was mar- ried the third time, on the 23d day of April. 1832, at Mansfield, Ohio, to Miss Jane Pur- dy, daughter of Patrick and Jane Purdy, of Richland county, Ohio. They lived a mar- ried life eleven years until her death on the 24th of July, 1843, aged fifty-one years. Of this marriage there were no children.

In the war of 1812 he was a soldier in the company of Capt. Daniel Reeder. He 4

was also treasurer of the Greene County Bible Society for over thirty years, and dur- ing all that time his labor was untiring and valuable. For twenty-three years he was treasurer of the Greene County Coloniza- tion Society, and his zeal in that cause was ardent. He had been a member of the As- sociate Reformed church since its first or- ganization, and contributed of his means to the erection of three successive buildings for that church. In all the benevolent enter- prises of the day for the relief of the suf- fering and the good of his fellow men, or the spread of the gospel, Mr. Gowdy could be relied upon.

And, now. in concluding this sketch of this old pioneer father, listen to his own words: "On a review of my past life, what shall I say, but that goodness and mercy has followed me all my life long? If I should count the instances, they are more than can be numbered by me. Upon the whole re- view of my eventful life. I have much rea- son to set up my Ebenezer, saying: 'Hith- erto hath the Lord helped me,' and trust that He will not leave me when I am old and gray-headed grown, till to this age His strength and power to all to come, I have shown."

RYAN GOWDY.

He was born in Mercer county, Ken- tucky, on the 3d of February, 1795, and died near Francona, June 6. 1863, aged sixty-eight years. He came to Xenia, Ohio, with his brother, Samuel, in the spring of 1806. His eldest brother, James Gowdy. had come to Nenia the year previous, and had established himself in the mercantile business near the corner of what is now known as Greene and Main streets. He had

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

purchased lot No. 34, and had his cabin store opened and ready for trade. Young Ryan, then a lad of eleven years, accepted a clerkship in his brother's store, and there continued until he was of age, when he com- menced business for himself. He made his mark in improving Xenia. In 1827 he built that large and substantial brick house on the southwest corner of Main and Detroit streets, known as the "Nunnemaker corner." ( present site of the ". Allen building )." His next move was to the northwest corner of Detroit and Market streets ( present site of the Reformed church ), where he opened a store and made more improvements. Sub- sequently he purchased a large brick house on Main street, opposite the courthouse ( the same buiding that was burned on the night of the 3d of Angust. 1845, and in which two young men, James Kenney and William Steele were murdered ). Here, in partner- ship with his brother, Col. John Gowdy, he opened another store. A few years later he went to Missouri, but did not remain Jong in that state. Returning to Nenia he opened a grocery and provision store on the northeast corner of Main and Whiteman streets ( present site of William Hannon's grocery ). In 1833 he was elected e mmis- sinner of Greene county, and on the 4th of July, 1830, he met with the board for the last time. While he was a member of the I ard a costly and for those days a very su- perier county jail, was erected, a little back of the northeast corner of the public square. It was als, mainly through his efforts and influence that a large two-story brick market home : the north side of the public square 1. - Heit. He was also in the years 1810 m ] 1820 fre surer of Greene county. In SE compl up his business in Xenia,

sold out, and the next year went to Califor- nia by the overland route, and from thence to Oregon, a flying trip, but soon returned to San Francisco. He was unfortunate in the land of gold. In a letter he wrote in 1851, he said he had traveled hundreds of miles in California, and could find nothing which he could do. He returned in 1852. Though a business man of early training and mature experience, he preferred teach- ing school, and became a successful instruc- ter. In this pursuit he was so successful that he never lacked for employment. He had been teaching in Richland county some three years previous to his death He was taken ill of typhoid fever. During his sick- ness of five days he was conscious to the last. expressed a desire to see his brothers. naming one of them. His last words in de- clining to take medicine, were: "No use ; it would not do any good." Of his pros- pects in another state of existence he was entirely reticent. In his younger days with- out being foppish he went generally elegantly dressed, the "glass of fashion and the mould of form." He had some eccentricities. was versatile, fluent in conversaton, of ready wit. original and mirth-inspiring humor, and when he chose, of pungent sarcasm. He had transacted much business, traveled far, gone through many ups and downs in his jour- ney through life, and was well versed in the knowledge of human nature. After life's fitfui fever he sleepeth well.

JOHN HEATON, SR.

In the first enumeration of Caesars- creek township, taken in 1803. appears the name of John Ileaton. From the old records we find that his place of nativity was Vir-

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

ginia ; that previous to his coming to Ohio he married Sarah, daughter of John War- den; he had also purchased in Caesars- creek township eighty acres of land. Some time in the year 1823 he died, and was bur- ied in the "Old Mercer graveyard," about four miles south of Xenia, on the Bullskin pike. He left his widow, Sarah Heaton, with the following children: three sons and six daughters, namely : Ebenezer. John and Joseph Heaton; Elizabeth ( Heaton) Millard, Sarah ( Heaton ) Worrel, Lydia ( Heaton ) Eaton, Phebe ( Heaton) Elam, Parmelia (Heaton) Rogers, Hannah ( Hea- ton ) Peterson. His will was recorded May, 1823, in Book E, page 70.

His wife was later buried at his side in the "Mercer graveyard." These are the ancestors of the Heaton family, in Greene county.

JAMES COLLIER.

James Collier was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, on the 4th day of January, 1774, and died in Xenia, Ohio, April 17. 1851. aged seventy-seven years. In 1786 his family emigrated from Virginia, their destination being Kentucky, but on account of his mother's health, they stopped on the River Holstan, in what is now East Ten- nessee, and there remained until the follow- ing summer, when the journey was resumed until they reached their destination in Ken- tucky, some eighteen miles north of Crab Orchard. Here he passed his early youth and manhood on the frontiers of what has been so aptly called the "dark and bloody ground." among a people who, for enter- prise, hardihood and self-reliance and true heroism of character, have never been sur- passed in the annals of the human family.

It was a nursery that produced soldiers and men equal to the days of chivalry.

SERVES AS A SPY.

In 1794, being twenty years of age, he served as a spy in the Nich-a-jack campaign. He was with Col. William Whitley, who had organized in Lincoln county, Kentucky, some six hundred brave Kentuckians. Mr. Collier's place as a spy was in advance of the army that was advancing against the Chikamongas Indians while General Wayne. with a well appointed and disciplined army from Ohio, was marching to join them. The result of Wayne's victory, at the Mau- mee Rapids, in Ohio, is so well known that it is needless to repeat. But it is a fact of local history that it is well worth preserving that lie who is the subject of this sketch and whose body is now laid to rest in our own beautiful Woodland, was also there two years later, March 15, 1796.

ARRIVES AT MIAMISBURG.

At Holes Station, in Montgomery coun- ty, Ohio, on the IIth of April. 1796. Amos Wilson raised his log cabin, the first ever erected for the residence of a white settler within the present limits of Greene county. and soon after he assisted to raise the third house built in the same neighborhood. This is conclusive evidence that our old pioneer friend and fellow townsman of Xenia was well acquainted with John Wilson and his boys, and his coming into Greene county was at the time the Wilsons first settled here.

These houses or cabins were erected near the present village of Ferry, southwest

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

of Bellbrook. Ohjo. Two months later Mir. Collier made a trip to Fort Defiance, in June. 1790, traveling on Wayne's trail, or military road. He performed the journey alene and en foot, sleeping on the ground. with no shelter but his blanket : he was well armed. and had no other dependence for seli-protection but his trusty rifle, and his courage and presence of mind. The object of his lonely journey through the wilderness was the recovery of stolen horses, an object which he failed to accomplish. He returned some time during the same month and took up his residence in this county, at which time there were not more than a dozen settlers within its present borders, nor was the coun- ty organized until seven years afterward.

There can be no doubt but what Mr. Col- lier made his home for a while in the Wil- son and Mills settlement. near Clio, or Fer- ry. as it is now called. We next find him lo- cated on the farm of Capt. Nathan Lamme, a soldier of the Revolution, whose land was north of the present town of Bellbrook. We have also from the old records of the county evidence that he was present at the house of Peter Borders, on Beaver, when the county was first organized, and was appointed to take the enumeration of Sugarcreek town- ship. Ile received that appointment May 10, 1803. and commenced the work Angust 3. 1803. and finished on the 10th of the month, reporting the names of seventy-one. who, at that time, were residents of what is now Sugarcreek, then comprising all of Spring Valley and a portion of what is now Xenia township, that were over the ages of twenty-one years.

Seven days' work! We are filled with wonder and surprise when we read his re- port. And think of the condition of the coun-

try at that early day! Covered with the prim- itive forests, no roads, or pikes, as now- nothing but bridle paths for pack horses, that led from one settlement to another.

FIRST ELECTION IN SUGARCREEK.

On the 21st of June, 1803, the electors of Sugarcreek township held the first elec- tion in the township, at the house of Mr. James Clancey, whose cabin at that time was located on the present site of the town of Bellbrook. Our honored old pioneer was one of the candidates for the office of town- ship lister, and Joseph C. Vance, the father of Governor Vance, was a candidate for clerk at the same election.

MOVES TO XENIA.

In the spring of 1805 he takes his de- parture from Sugarcreek township, 'and moves to Xenia. He was at this time act- ing as deputy sheriff, under William Max- well, who had on the 17th day of December, 1803, resigned his position as associate judge, and had been elected sheriff of the county. Capt. Nathan Lamme had previous to Mr. Maxwell's election been the sheriff (by appointment ). but finding that it inter- fered too much with his large landed inter- est. had resigned. Mr. Collier continued to act as deputy until 1807, when he was elect- ed sheriff.

SHERIFF OF GREENE COUNTY.

Mr. Collier served out the constitutional term. While he held this office the county was the temporary residence of certain des- perate characters, whose lawless acts of vio-

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

lence and crime, had driven them to the fron- tiers beyond the jurisdiction of laws, or out of reach of the ministers of justice. Num- bers of them were ronfederated together at different points, forming a chain of commu- nication, all the way from Kentucky to Can- ada. They would warn each other of ap- proaching danger; would mutually assist each other in rescues, escapes and conceal- ments. They would receive, conceal and convey stolen property from one to the oth- er, which rendered detection and conviction very difficult. Several daring robberies were committed in the county. It was no unu- sual circumstance in those days for citi- zens, on retiring to rest, to bar the door se- curely, and place a gun and ax at the bed- side ready for self-defense in case of a noc- turnal attack. An instance of their audacity and success may suffice to illustrate the state of the times.

JOIN WOLF ROBBED).

Thirteen robbers, armed to the tecth, with faces concealed with black crepe, one night entered the house of John Wolf. Sr., a citi- zen near the site of the village of Byron, and robbed the owner of about four hundred and fifty dollars in specie. Not satisfied with the amount of booty obtained. they threatened the owner of the house with torture, pro- posing to pinch his fingers in a vise, unless he informed them where more money could be found. They would have carried their threats into execution but for the opposi- tion and influence of one of their number, more human than the rest.

Mr. Collier was instrumental in breaking up their association and driving them from the county. His vigilance, intrepidity and

perseverance was such that they had neither rest or security. He, with his assistants, hunted them from their hiding places, sur- rounded their houses in the night season, and arrested every one he could lay his hands on, until, finally, they were all either captured or driven from the county, and the citizens were left in peace and security of life and property.

Mr. Collier continued to act as sheriff until the election of 1811, when he gave way to Capt. John Hivling.

CORONER OF GREENE COUNTY.

He was, in 1814. elected coroner of Greene county, and continued in that office until the year 1820, when he was succeeded by David Connelly. He was again chosen coroner in 1826, and continued in that office until 1830.

REMOVES TO XENI.I.

We will now return to the time when Mr. Collier removed from Sugarcreek to Xenia. It is said that the first person buried in the pioneer graveyard at Bellbrook was the wife of James Collier. He afterward married the daughter of Jacob Smith, who was a man of note in the early history of the county. The same Jacob Smith, whose body our Masonic brethren removed from the llarbine farm and reinterred in Wood- land cemetery. Nenia, in 1808.

It must not be supposed that Mr. Collier had not been in Xenia previous to 1805 ; his duty as deputy sheriff would oftimes bring him to Nenia, and besides that we find in the old records of the county the following : "On the 15th day of November, 1804. Jo- seph C. Vance conveyed to James Collier lot

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

No. 60, sce bock 3, pages 3 and 4. Records of Decds ; and again a year later on the 8th day of November. 1805. William .A. Beatty. director of the town of Xenia, conveyed to James Collier let No. 58, book A. page 150.

ERECTS HIS CABIN.

On lot No. 60. facing on Detroit street, about twenty feet back from the inside line of the sidewalk, Mr. Collier erected in the summer of 1805 his cabin, a one-story. hewed-leg. with two windows down stairs. and with a door in the center, with what is called one-half window up stairs over the two windows to give light into the attic room above. That building is still stand- ing in Xenia to-day ( 1899) and belongs. I believe, to a MIrs. Middleton, and is the first house east of the colored high school build- ing, East Market street. Xenia. It has been weatherboarded outside, and is still in pretty good condition. When they were removing the old Collier house the original home of Mr. Collier was just back of it. and was bought by Mr. Middleton and removed to its present site. It was in this building that Mr. Collier and his young wife, nee Rachel Smith, daughter of Jacob Smith, com- menced their married life.

We find the following in the records of the probate court, under date of June 5. 1805: "Married by the Rev. Joshua Car- man, James Collier to Rachel Smith."

1 SOLDIER OF THE WAR OF 1812.

It seems quite natural to see the name of James Collier enrolled among the nation's defenders in the war of 1812. as will be seen from the following taken from the official

records: "1 do hereby certify that James Collier did volunteer under the proclama- tion of the governor and the circular of General Harrison, on the 15th day of Sep- tember, 1812, and the said Collier did act the part of a faithful soldier during his con- tinuance in my company, and is hereby dis- charged. Given under my hand this the 5th day of January, 1813. Daniel F. Reeder. captain."

THE OLD COLLIER HOUSE.

This house was built the summer after his return from that tour of duty in the army. When first erected it consisted of one room and hall fronting on Detroit street. with two rooms in the rear. It was a wooden frame, built over with brick ; as was jokingly said at the time of its erection, it was "a frame house weatherboarded with 1.rick." It was opened as a public house he- fore being finished, the front room being the bar-room. In 1814 the south end was built. Reuben Hixon, who removed to Lebanon. made the bricks, and some brickmasons from Kentucky put them up. Mathew Alex- ander, the father of Captain John Alex- ander, did the wood work. The north end was built some years later. At the time the first part was erected there were two other brick houses in Nenia, besides the court house: one of them stood where (1859) John F. Patton's drug store used to stand. and the other on the ground now occupied by John Knox's saddle shop, or near that.

The court and bar put up at the Collier House from the commencement. and it was far known and noted as a tavern. Recruit- ing officers boarded at the Collier House in the time of the war of 1812, and a British

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

officer and his servant, who were prisoners of war, were there on parole. Court mar- shals, courts of inquiry and courts of appeal were frequently held in this house by militia officers. The office of commissioner of in- solvents was kept in it until the law abolish- ing imprisonment for debt went into opera- tion. The first regular ball in Xenia came off at the Collier House. Such was the scarcity of females who could, or would, dance that girls were enquired after, and brought to town from a distance of eight or ten miles. It was kept by Mr. Collier as a public house for twenty-nine years, and for a while the regular mail stage stopped there.

The building next to where now stands the Reform church, and which formed an ad- dition to the Collier House, was built by Phillip Good, father of Judge Good, of Sid- ney, Ohio. Dr. Joshua Martin lived in it when he was first married, and continued to live there until he had a house built, which he occupied until the time of his death.

Peter Pelham. Esq., one of the Greene county commissioners in 1812, and for sex- eral terms afterwards, and also who was the first auditor of Greene county in 1820, also lived in this house. He was born in Bos- ton, Massachusetts, in 1747, and he was noted for his ardent piety, benevolence and numerous charities. He died in 1822. Many of the oldest citizens of Nenia still remember the old land mark, extending north from the Galloway buildings to the south line of the present Reform church on Detroit street. In the files of the Torch- light, of July, 1859. appears a notice that it is to be sold. "this noted property will be sold at public sale by the executors of the estate of the late James Collier."

No building in Xenia has a history which

equals in interest the history of this now dilapidated structure. It is a relic of the old times, the times of bridle-paths and corduroy roads, of horseback traveling and saddle bags, dating before turnpikes had entered in- the imagination of men in the west. Mr. and Mrs. Collier never had any children to brighten their home, and the ones we have had in our county by that name were the children of his younger brother, Moses, who was ten years younger than James, a sketch of whom will appear further along. And as so much could be said of James Collier. we will for fear of wearing the patience of the reader close this history by adding a tribute to his memory as furnished by his old and intimate friend. Thomas Coke Wright, who says, when asked if he had anything to say, after the death of his old friend, in the year 1851: "He, like many of the old pio- neers, had his strong points of character, which stamped him with originality. The incidents of his early life evinced that he was enterprising and resolute. He originally had a good constitution and much hardihood and powers of bodily endurance. which en- abled him to endure cold and the inclemen- cies of the seasons with impunity. If while hunting in the tall woods of the west, night finding him far away from any human hab- itation or shelter it made little or no dif- ference to him. Kindling a fire from a flint and steel, he would pass the night without a tent or blanket, or other covering than the canopy of heaven. He possessed much firmness and decision of character, and when his mind was made up, his purpose fixed, it was no easy matter to turn his determination. He possessed the faculty of concentration in a great degree, and whatever he engaged in he pursued with all his mind and all his

ROBINSON'S HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

might. If employed in some out-door labor and it came on to rain, and his mind intent on the business on hand. he has been known to continue on as though unconscious that any rain was falling. In all his dealings he was strictly honest, and truth was an idol with him. Not one particle would he swerve from the literal naked facts and woukl tolerate neither ideality nor embel- lishments, but adhere to the simplicity of truth in all his narrations and statements.

"Most cordially did he detest falsehood and meanness in every station in life: he was always the good honest worthy citizen. discharging every duty as a public officer and private citizen to the best of his skill and ability, faithfully and honestly. In his friendships he was sincere and true, and his attachments ceased only with life. His memory was very retentive, and was richly stored with a vast number of facts and in- cidents, historical and biographeal, concern- ing carly time- in the west, which he could relate with an accuracy and minuteness of detail that was truly surprising. Ile could point out and correct more errors, which have found a place in western history, than perhaps any other man now living, and could his biography have been written, connected with all the information he possessed, it would have proven a treasure to western history. It would have preserved numerous facts, now lost forever, and corrected divers errors in accounts already given to the pub- lic, which will now go down to history as true. For instance. Butler in his history of Kentucky says: "In the attack of Colonel Bowman made on Old Town in July. 1779. the Indian chief. Black Fish, the one who had headed an expedition against Harrods- burg, and had taken Boone prisoner, was

killed." Whereas, that same Indian was killed in Kentucky early one Sunday morn- ing, within three miles of where Mr. Collier was at that time. He had broken into a set- tler's house, and was engaged in a desperate struggle on the floor with the owner of the premises, when his daughter. a brave young woman, seized a hunting knife, flew to the assistance of her father and stabbed the In- dian. The Indians were ashamed to have it known that their famous war chief had fal- len at the hands of a white squaw, con- cealed his rank and name at the time, and afterwards countenanced the report that he had fallen in battle.

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History of Greene County, Ohio, Part 8

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