USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the state of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 21
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. In 1848, when an effort was made to form the township of Cedarville, some citizens of Ross, opposed to the measure, entered a vigorous protest against it. The parties making this protest said to the commissioners : "Our reasons we will fully set forth in your presence, only adding here that we are unwilling to have any of our township cut off, which is already too small, to gratify the caprice or spleen of any."
The commissioners ordered a notice to be given in three public places of an election for three trustees, a clerk, and a treasurer, to be held on the 21st day of December, 1850, in the town of Cedar- ville, at the house of John W. Walker.
New Jasper was organized into a township on the 9th day of June, 1853. It was taken from the townships of Cæsar's Creek, Xenia, Cedarville, Ross and Silver Creek.
Spring Valley was organized into a township on the 3d day of December, 1856. It was taken from Sugar Creek, Cæsar's Creek and Xenia townships.
Jefferson was organized into a township on the 7th day of June, 1858. It was taken entirely from Silver Creek Township. Pre- vious to the formation of this township there had been an election precinct at Bowerville. The petitioners for the new township were mostly from that part of the township. By the formation of this, the last township in the county, Silver Creek was reduced in size about one-half.
Vance Township. No record has been found showing when Vance Township was organized, or what were its boundaries.
211
THE JUDICIARY.
There was once such a township, and we know that it was organ- ized prior to 1818. It comprised a portion of what is now Madi- son Township, Clarke County, and a portion of Ross Township, in Greene County. After the organization of Clarke County the fractional part of Vance Township that was left in Greene was attached to Ross Township, October 23, 1818.
THE JUDICIARY.
On the 15th day of April, 1803, the General Assembly of the State of Ohio passed an act establishing the judiciary system of that time. It determined that the supreme court of the state should consist of three judges, chosen in the manner directed in the constitution ; that is, they were to be appointed by a joint bal- lot of both houses of the General Assembly; and they were to hold their office for the term of seven years, " if so long they be- have well." This court was declared to have original jurisdiction in all civil cases, both in law and equity, where the title of land was in question, or where the sum in dispute exceeded the value of one thousand dollars. It had exclusive cognizance of all criminal causes, where the punishment was capital; and of all other crimes and offences, not cognizable by a single justice of the peace, it had cognizance concurrent with the court of common pleas.
By this act also, the state was divided into circuits, of which the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Montgomery, Greene, Warren and Clermont composed the first district. A president of the court of common pleas was to be appointed in each circuit, in the same manner as the supreme judges received their appointment. The president, together with three associate judges appointed in a sim- ilar way for each county in the state, constituted the court of com- mon pleas for such county.
The supreme court was to hold its first session,in Greene County on the fourth Tuesday in October, 1803. The time of holding each subsequent session was to be determined by the court itself. The court of common pleas was to sit in Greene County on the first Tuesdays in April, August and December. The first Tuesday in April had passed before the enactment of this law, hence the first court of common pleas held in Greene County was on the first Tuesday of August, 1803.
By an act of the General Assembly, passed April 16, 1803, it
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
was made the duty of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, in each and every county within the state, to meet on the 10th day of May, following, at the places where courts were to be held, and proceed to lay out their counties respectively into a con- venient number of townships. The judges also were required to determine for each township a proper number of justices of the peace, who were to be elected on the 21st day of June following, at such place in each township as the judges should direct. The meeting of the associate judges, on the 10th day of May, for the transaction of certain county business, was called a court. It was, as has been stated before, the first court held in the county; but it must not be understood as the court of common pleas. This was simply a court, not for the trial of causes, but for the transaction of such business as, at a later period, was assigned to the county commissioners.
COURT OF THE ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
The first court of the associate judges, as we have seen, was held in Greene County on the 10th day of May, 1803. The entire record of that day's proceedings, made seventy-seven years prior to the 10th day of May, 1880, and the first public record ever made in the county by a county officer, is of sufficient interest to justify its quotation here entire, except the description of township bound- aries, which has already been given. The following is the record :
"At the house of Owen Davis, on Beaver Creek, on Tuesday, the 10th day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred and three, William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman and James Barrett, Esquires, produced commissions under the hand and seal of his Excellency, Edward Tiffin, Governor of the State of Ohio, appointing them associate judges of the court of common pleas of the county of Green .* William Maxwell, Esquire, produced a cer- tificate, under the hand of James Barrett, Esquire, bearing date the 20th day of April last past, that the said William had taken the oath to support the constitution of the United States, and of this state, and the oath of office; and then the said William ad- ministered the aforesaid oaths to Benjamin Whiteman and James
#It should be noted that in all the old records of Greene County, and in the statutes referring to it, the name is spelled without the final e, thus, Green County ; also Clarke is spelled without the e, thus, Clark County,
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COURT OF THE ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
Barrett, Esquires; and there was a court held for the county of Green, agreeably to a law in that case made and provided. John Paul was appointed clerk pro tempore to said court, and took the oath of office. The court then proceeded to lay off the county into townships as followeth, to-wit." Here follows the description of the township lines, of Sugar Creek, Caesar's Creek, Mad River and Beaver Creek.
After laying off the townships, and designating the number of justices of the peace that should be elected in each, the court pro- ceeded according to the following record: "It is considered by the court, that on the 30th instant there shall be an election held at the temporary seat of justice, for the purpose of electing a sheriff in said county, agreeably to an act of assembly in that case made and provided."
" Ordered that court be adjourned till court in course."
Attest : JOHN PAUL, C. G. C.
The book in which this record is kept is itself an interesting relic of the past. It can be found carefully preserved in the vault of the clerk's office in the court-house. By the generosity of Mr. Frank Orr, deputy clerk of the court, it has been dressed in a new suit of binding; but like the old man of four-score, who has out- lived two generations of his fellows, and whose age is apparent, although clad in new garments of the most fashionable style, its complexion and worn appearance unmistakably tell that it is old. It is an unpretending volume of twenty-eight pages folio, unruled foolscap, and contains the records of the associate judges' court from May 10, 1803, until January 15, 1807.
FIRST COURT HOUSE.
The first court house in Greene County, or the house in which the associate judges held their first court, and in which the courts of Common Pleas and the Supreme Court were held until June, 1804, was a log structure owned by Owen Davis, and built by his son- in-law, Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, one of the associate judges, a short distance south of the log cabin mill of Owen Davis, and about two hundred yards east of Beaver Creek. It was on what is now (1881) known as the Harbine farm, and about one hundred yards from its south line. It was constructed of straight burr oak logs, hewed on two sides, and had a puncheon floor, made also of
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
burr oak logs, hewed on the upper side, and also planed. Its roof was of clapboards, held in place by long poles laid across them. Its only door was in the east side, near the north end, opposite which, in the west side, looking toward the creek, was the only window, save a small hole, that might be called a window, cut in the south end. The chimney, on the outside at the south end, had its lower part, about eight feet high, of small logs, lined on the in- side with stones, and its upper part of sticks, well plastered with clay. The house was about twenty-five feet square, and contained but one room below, and a chamber above, which was reached by a small ladder, through a hole in the floor near the chimney. The chamber was the sleeping apartment for the family and the stranger. Unlike most log houses of that day, it had a fire-place of moderate size. A short distance south of the building was the well from which the water was drawn with the old-fashioned well- sweep, pole and bucket. At the southeast corner, in one of the logs, was driven a large iron staple, to which in those days was chained a large pet black bear. It was one of the best houses in that part of the county, and was occupied by Peter Borders as a tavern. It is sometimes called the house of Owen Davis, and sometimes the house of Peter Borders. Davis was the owner of the house, and Borders was his tenant.
In 1825, the road leading past this edifice having been discon- tinued and closed up, leaving it in the field, it was moved a short distance north, and put up on the ground now the front lawn of Mr. John Harbine. It was removed from that place in 1833, and the rubbish left from the chimney forms a small mound in front of Mr. Harbine's house, a modest monument of the first court house and tavern in the county. It was put up again on the west side of Beaver Creek, and about two hundred yards from it, on the north side of the road leading to Bellbrook, and was used for more than twenty years as a boarding house for hands at Harbine's mill. In 1857, or about that time, it was finally torn down and the logs con- sumed, save some pieces that were made into canes.
A little to the northeast of this building was a small 10x12 house made of small logs or poles, for a smoke-house. This, during the time of court, was used as a jury-room. In this several grand juries sat on the "body of Greene County," and found indictments against the violaters of the law. To this room also, petit juries retired to find their verdicts in the civil and criminal cases that were brought
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COURT IN COURSE.
before them. About two hundred yards northeast of the old court house stood the block house, which on the 19th day of August, 1803, was appropriated to the use of a jail. It is described as "the larger block house, near Mr. Jacob Smith's mill." Previous to this time, Owen Davis had sold his mill to Jacob Smith.
" COURT IN COURSE."
The associate judges met in court a second time on Thursday, the 4th day of August, 1803. This was the adjourned meeting till " court in course." What is meant by this phrase, "court in course ?" By act of assembly, passed April 16, 1803, it was made the duty of the associate judges to hold a court for the transaction of county business, on the next judicial day after the adjournment of the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Common Pleas, according to act of assembly, passed April 15, 1803, was to meet on Tuesday, the 2d day of August, 1803. It did meet on that day, and continued its term through Wednesday the 3d, and on Thurs- day, the 4th, commenced the "court in course."
The only county business transacted at this court was the grant- ing of three licenses for keeping tavern, and the appointment of James Galloway, sen., treasurer of the county.
The granting of licenses for keeping tavern was in accordance with a territorial law, passed by the first General Assembly of the Northwest Territory, and approved December 6, 1800. By this law, no person was permitted to keep any inn, tavern, or public house of entertainment, in any town, county, or place, within the limits of the territory, unless first recommended by twelve respect- able freeholders of the county where such public house was to be kept. All persons, except tavern or inn keepers, were forbidden, under severe penalties, to sell to any person alcoholic drinks in small quantities ; and tavern keepers, under like severe penalties, were required not knowingly to suffer any disorders, drunkenness, rioting, betting, or gaming for money. They were also required to furnish good entertainment for man and horse, under the penalty of five dollars for the first offense, and eight dollars for each sue- ceeding offense.
After eighty years have passed away, and the primitive taverns and the primitive men have disappeared with the gliding years, the modern grumbler at some slight annoyance in a first-class hotel
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
wonders what was meant by good entertainment in those early times, when the entire family, landlord, landlady and children, judges, and attorneys of the court, servants, and travelers, were all gathered for lodging into one sleeping apartment, such as the first court house in Greene County would afford, in its one upper room.
At this court licenses were given to Archibald Lowry and Grif- fith Foos, permitting such to keep tavern in the town of Spring- field, each paying eight dollars for the license, besides the legal fees. Peter Borders was also licensed to keep tavern in his own house, the court house, "for the space of one year next ensuing this date, and it is considered by the court that he pay four dollars for license, together with all legal fees." The amount paid for license was in part discretionary with the court. The applicant was required to pay either four, eight, or twelve dollars, as the judge might determine. It may be inferred that at this time it was more profitable to keep tavern in the town of Springfield than on Beaver Creek, since the court required eight dollars for a license at the former place, and but four at the latter. The legal fees paid were in each case one dollar to the court, and one dollar to the clerk. The license fee was appropriated to the use of the county.
James Galloway, sen., who was appointed treasurer, was the father of James Galloway, jr., who two days before this, August 2d, had been appointed surveyor, and whose name appears in con- nection with very many of the early surveys of the county.
On the 19th of the same month (August), the court met again to lay the levy and adjust the business of the county. But the lister of taxable property in Mad River Township failing to return his book, court adjourned until the next day at 12 o'clock. On the next day, Saturday, August 20th, the court convened, but the lister again failing to appear, it adjourned till Monday, the 22d; and then again, for the same reason, till Friday, the 26th, when the said lister presented his book. On Monday, the 22d, the court ordered that a bounty of fifty cents should be paid out of the treasury for each wolf killed in the county, "agreeably to a law in that case made and provided." The law on which this action was based was passed at the second session of the first General Assembly of the Northwest Territory, and approved December 2, 1800. It provided that the courts might offer such bounties for killing wolves as they deemed proper, provided no bounty exceed one dollar for a wolf under six months old, or two dollars for one over six months old.
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COURT IN COURSE.
On the same day also the court ordered that the larger block house near Mr. Jacob Smith's mill (the house alluded to above) should be used as a jail, and that Benjamin Whiteman, Esq., be appointed in behalf of the court to contract for repairing the same.
On the 26th day of August, 1803, the first levy of taxes was made in Greene County. Its indebtedness, past and prospective, for that year was thoroughly itemized, and amounted to $292.48. This was exclusive of the collector's fees, which the court fixed at six per cent. of the amount collected, and the treasurer's fees, for receiving, safe-keeping, and disbursing, which were fixed at three per cent. The collector's percentage amounted to $19.28, and the treasurer's to $9.64. This would make the entire indebtedness of the county for that year $321.40, which was, as we shall see, $144.64 less than the receipts. This balance the clerk entered on the record as depositum.
The first item in this indebtedness was $25 to the commissioners, for selecting a place for the seat of justice. These commissioners were appointed by a resolution of both branches of the legislature, in accordance with an act of the General Assembly, passed March 28, 1803. They were appointed especially to locate the seat of jus- tice in the particular county named. They were not to live in the county, nor own any real property within it, nor to be less than twenty-five years of age.
Another item of interest was $6 paid to Joseph C. Vance, for carrying the election returns of Sugar Creek Township to Cincin- nati, and a like sum to David Huston, for taking the returns of Beaver Creek Township to the same place. What election returns were these, and why were they taken to Cincinnati? Greene County, as we have seen, was largely taken from Hamilton and Ross, and, according to Article VII, Section 3, of the Constitution, as to right of suffrage and representation, it was considered a part of the counties from which it was taken until entitled, by numbers, to the right of representation. By an act of assembly, passed April 15, 1803, the returns of the election for sheriff and coroner were required to be made to the associate judges, who were to give to persons standing highest a certificate of election, and on that cer- tificate the governor was authorized to grant a commission. The sheriff and coroner were, at this time, the highest county officers elected by the people. The returns, in case of their election, were not sent to Cineinnati; it must, therefore, have been the returns in
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
the election of senators and representatives to the state legislature. This election occurred on the second Tuesday in October, and there- fore the work of carrying the returns to Cincinnati had not been done at the time that the allowance was made.
An allowance of $9.50 was made to Jacob Shingledecker, for repairing the jail. This work had not yet been done. Benjamin Whiteman had been appointed, only four days prior to this, to con- tract for said repairs, and we find this item, and the two items concerning the carrying of election returns to Cincinnati, men- tioned in the record of the clerk, made on the 7th day of Decem- ber, 1803, after the returns had been conveyed to their destination, and the jail had been fitted for its occupants. The associate judges and the clerk of the court were each allowed $1.50 per day for their services.
To meet the expenses of the county this year, taxes were levied on real and personal property. Houses and mills were to be taxed 50 cents on each hundred dollars of their valuation. Horses were taxed at 30 cents a head, and cows at 122 cents a head. There was but one house taxed this year. It was situated in Sugar Creek Township, and was taxed $1, and, of course, was valued at $200 or more. The inhabitants of Mad River Township had been exempted from paying taxes for the erection of public buildings, and hence their levies were reduced two cents on each horse, and one cent on each cow. The owner of each horse, therefore, paid 28 cents, and for each cow 112 cents.
Why the inhabitants of Mad River Township were exempted from taxes for the erection of public buildings, we are left to con- jecture. No record affords any information. At the time that this levy was made, the seat of justice, or county seat, had been located at Xenia. It could not, therefore, go farther north. Mad River . was the largest township in the county. Its south line was about twenty miles north of Xenia, and at no distant day a new county would be organized out of a part of Greene, and Mad River would belong to it, and it would be just that they should be exempted from erecting public buildings in Greene, when they were so soon to be called upon again to build in the new county .*
According to the report of the listers, there were in the county
*This was accomplished by the organization of Champaign County two years later, 1805.
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COURT IN COURSE.
at this time 679 horses and 1,266 cows, Beaver Creek and Mad River containing more than were found in Sugar and Cæsar's Creek. In Beaver Creek there were 241 horses and 430 cows. Mad River had 243 horses and 492 cows. The amount of tax levied this year was $393.04. The amount received for tavern licenses was $20, and $53 had been paid into the treasury as fines. The receipts of the county for 1803 were, therefore, $466.04, about one-ninth of which consisted in fines, which might suggest the query, whether the morals of the people are not quite as good after a period of nearly eighty years, as in those primitive times ?
Nathan Lamme was appointed to collect the county levies, and the treasurer was ordered to pay the several county creditors agree- ably to the statement "this day made, and account to the court for the balance."
The next court of associate judges was held on the 7th day of December, 1803. In the meantime William Maxwell had resigned his office as judge, and had been elected sheriff, and Andrew Read had been appointed in his place. At this meeting, upon the peti- tion of Jacob Smith and others, it was ordered that a road be laid out from "Springfield, passing the Yellow Springs; thence, passing Jacob Smith's mill; thence, through Mr. Maxwell's lane; thence, to intersect the Pinckney road, at or near Isaac Morgan's." Will- iam Maxwell, Lewis Davis, and Thomas Townsley were appointed viewers of the road, and James Galloway, jr., surveyor. Although this was not the first road in the county, it was the first to be estab- lished by the legal authority of the county. This road was entirely west of the Little Miami River. It was about two miles west of the river, at the point where the iron bridge crosses it in the Dayton road, which leads past the Greene County fair grounds. Jacob Smith's mill was the mill erected by Owen Davis, and occupied the site of Harbine's mill, on Beaver Creek, about one mile above its mouth. Isaac Morgan's was about two miles southwest from the mill. This new road, therefore, terminated in the Pinckney road, about two miles southwest of Jacob Smith's mill. The Pinckney road extended from the Pinckney pond, a short distance south. of Beaver Station, across the Little Miami, past the house of Peter Borders (the old court house), and on, southwest, past Isaac Morgan's. From Isaac Morgan's, east, it was closed up as soon as the new road was established, leaving the old court house in the field.
We have seen that the county expenses for the year 1803 were
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
$321.40. For the year 1804 they were $265.82, and the taxes assessed this latter year amounted to $402.81. In 1803 but one house was taxed, valued at about $200. The tax on this was $1. In 1804, the value of real estate taxed, consisting of mills and houses, was $4,325, and this, at 20 cents on each hundred dollars, paid a tax of $8.65. There were in the county this year 1,040 horses, which paid 20 cents a head, and 1,727 cows, at 8 cents a head. This tax of 1804 was levied by the county commissioners, who came into office, and held their first court, on the second Mon- day in June of this year.
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
The first Court of Common Pleas for Greene County, was held at the house of Owen Davis, occupied then by Peter Borders, on the 2d day of August, 1803. The presiding judge was Francis Dunlevy, and the associate judges William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman, and James Barrett. Daniel Symmes was prosecuting attorney, and there came a grand jury, to-wit : Wm. J. Stewart, foreman, John Wilson, Wm. Buckles, Abram Van Eaten, James Snodgrass, John Judy, Evan Morgan, Robt. Marshall, Alex. C. Armstrong, Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Wilson, John Buckhannon, Martin Mendenhall and Harry Martin, who were sworn a grand jury of inquest for the body of Greene County. After receiving the charge they retired out of court, and held their deliberations in the small pole cabin or smoke house that has been described above; but they found no in- dictments, except against persons who engaged in quarrels on that day, after the court had convened. Seventeen witnesses were sworn and sent before the grand jury, and nine bills of indictment found the same day for affrays, assaults and batteries committed after the court had been organized in the morning. It was evidently a great day for the county, and the people were gathered in quite large numbers ; here was the presiding judge and his associates, prosecut- ing attorney and grand jury; here was the court house and jury .room, and also the tavern of Peter Borders, whose bar was well sup- plied with whisky. Men drank, disputes arose, fights occurred, in- dietments were made, and fines assessed all on the same day.
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