USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 77
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENT
within the limits of what is now Delhi township, was made in 1789, very soon after Columbia, Losantiville, and North Bend were colonized. Judge Symmes took his party to the place last named, now in Miami town- ship, in February of that year; and early seems to have meditated the founding of another colony on the river within his Purchase, which should take the name of South Bend, as a companion to his own home place, North Bend. The new town, or city to be, was laid off some time in the spring succeeding Symmes' arrival, as appears by the following letter of his to his associate Dayton, bearing date that month, and giving a good ac- count of the genesis of South Bend:
North Bend being so well improved by the buildings already erected and making, and fresh applications every few days being made to me for house lots, I was induced to lay off another village, abont seven miles up the Ohio from North Bend, being one mile in front on the river. The ground was very eligible for the purpose, and I would have continued farther up and down the river, but was confined between the two reserved sections. This village I call South Bend, from its being contiguons to the most sontherly point of land in the Purchase.
The place had already, when Symmes wrote, several cabins almost finished, and others begun; "and I make no doubt," adds the judge, "that the whole of the dona- tion lots will soon be occupied, if we remain in safety."
The pioneer settler at the site of South Bend was Timothy Symmes, the only full brother of Judge Symmes. He was also a prominent citizen in New Jer- sey, a judge in one of the courts of Sussex county, and followed his brother to the western country soon after the Purchase was settled. He did not live, however, to see more than the beginnings of the mighty development of the Miami tract, but died February 20, 1797, aged fifty-three. He was the father of Captain John Cleves Symmes, the famous author of the theory of a hollow and inhabitable earth, open for several degrees about the poles, who was residing at South Bend when his uncle, the judge, obtained his first appointment in the army; also of Daniel Symmes, who became a distinguished cit- zen of Cincinnati, serving in many public capacities, as is elsewhere detailed in this work; of Celadon Symmes, who spent nearly all his adult life on a farm three miles south of Hamilton, where he gave the name to Symmes' Corners, a hamlet and post office on the Cincinnati turn- pike; and of Peyton Short Symmes, the youngest of his sons, save one, and in some respects the most distin-
guished of all. He is noticed at some length in our chapter on the Bar of Cincinnati. Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. Symmes, became wife of Hugh Moore, a prominent Cincinnatian, and died in 1834, the same year her only sister, Julianna, wife of Jeremiah Reeder, departed this life.
It was an extensive town which Judge Symmes had laid out, for a beginning; and the judge appears to have entertained extensive expectations for it. He thought it might become the metropolis of the Miami Purchase, or at least the seat of justice for the county about to be or- ganized. In another letter to Dayton, written June 14, 1789, he says:
It is expected that on the arrival of Governor St. Clair, this purchase will be organized into a county ; it is therefore of some moment which town shall be made the county town. Losantiville, at present, bids the fairest ; it is a most excellent site for a large town, and is at present the most central of any of the inhabited towns; but if South Bend might be finished and occupied, that would be exactly in the centre, and probably would take the lead of the present villages until the city can be made somewhat considerable. This is really a matter of im- portance to the proprietors, but can only be achieved by their exertions and encouragement. The lands back of South Bend are not very much broken after yon ascend the first hill, and will afford rich sup- plies for a county town. A few troops stationed at South Bend will effect the settlement of the new village in a very short time.
According to a paragraph in a letter of Judge William Goforth, of Columbia, this place had eighteen or twenty families in September, 1791. A garrison of twenty sol- diers was then stationed there. Among the settlers here was a brother of the Miami purchaser, Judge Timothy Symmes, who spent his latter years and died here. He is best known as the father of Captain John Cleves Symmes, author of the famous theory of concentric spheres and a hollow globe opening near the poles. Young Symmes was residing here when an appointment was obtained for him in the army through the influence of "a friend at court," his distinguished uncle at North Bend.
South Bend, as is well known, did not hold its own in the contest for supremacy, or even rise to the dignity of an incorporated village. Its population fell off, its clus- ter of dwellings was gradually abandoned, and they destroyed or floated away in times of high water; and its very site has become almost traditional. The traveller, however, going to the boats of Anderson's Ferry, which has been established at nearly the southernmost point of the bend for many years, passes directly over a part of the site of South Bend. The last stroke was given but very recently to the ancient town, for which such high hopes were cherished, in the final changing of the name of the post office kept at the adjacent railway station from South Bend to "Trautman's." But for a sign or two in the neighborhood still bearing the old designation, it would speedily pass into utter oblivion. Thus passes away the glory of human hopes, plans, and purposes.
ADDITIONAL SETTLEMENTS.
Richard Paul, justice of the peace of Delhi township, is of English descent; his grandfather, Henry Paul, be- ing from London, England, an architect and an early settler in this county; he died in 1820. His father, Rich- ard D. Paul, born in London, 1807, was married to Ann
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
P. Mulford, of Cincinnati. She resided at 519 East Fifth street. The couple moved to the Delhi Hills, where Richard Paul was born in 1833, and where he has lived ever since.
Richard Paul was a machinist for two years-at Hol- bord's, Cincinnati. In 1854 came to his farm; in 1858 was married to Sarah Timbenerman, formerly of New Jersey. He built the new house in 1865, and at that time was elected justice of the peace, which office he has held ever since (1881). He was also township trustee during the war, and probably did as much as any man in his precinct to clear it from drafts. He is an active, but peaceable, citizen of society. In his official position he dockets but few cases, and generally succeeds in effect- ing a compromise with the parties concerned.
WV. L. Williams, of Delhi township, lives on section ten; owns a nice residence and a good farm; was born here June 1, 1810, his father being the old pioneer mail route agent for the Government from 1807 until 1820, and purchasing large tracts of lands here a few years after his coming to the county. Mr. Williams carried on the dairy business for a number of years quite extensively and very successfully. He was married to Miss Apple- gate, of Colorado. Of his family two children are dead. He is known as a prominent citizen in his township.
Sebastian Rentz, jr., of Delhi township, born in Cin- cinnati (1840), but from 1841 up to the present time has been a farmer. His father came from Germany in 1825; kept a bakery in Cincinnati until the family removed to the farm near Warsaw in Delhi township. He married Miss Zoller, of Cincinnati, in 1828. She was from Ba- den, coming here in 1817.
Mr. Rentz obtained a common school education in the city of Cincinnati ; married in 1867, to Miss Louisa Barmann, of Anderson Ferry. He is nicely situated on a good farm of over one hundred acres.
Mrs. L. Wittenstatter nee Kuperferle, came with her husband, now dead, from Germany about the year 1832. Her husband was for a period of thirty years a printer, being employed mostly during that time on one of the German papers of Cincinnati. He died about the year 1874. Mrs. L. Wittenstatter owns the Green House in Delhi township, near the Warsaw pike. She has eight children, five of whom are married.
George McIntyre, deceased, was born in Dumbarton- shire, Scotland, in 1815. When thirteen years of age his father died, and in the year 1828 he sailed for Amer- ica, and after remaining five years in New York came to Cincinnati, where he travelled for the house of Robert McGregor. In 1834 he purchased one hundred and forty acres, comprising what is now the greater part of Home City. He was married twice, his first wife being Emily C. Moore, by whom he had nine children; his second wife was Miss Elizabeth McIntyre, and the fruits of this marriage were six children, all of whom are now dead. Three children by his first wife are dead, and of the six remaining four are living on the homestead place in Home City, i. e., three sons-George M., Peter E., and Edwin D. McIntyre, and one daughter, Mrs. Martha A. Cook. The maternal grandmother of these children
was Adelia Moore, who had seven children: Sarah Ann Silvers, Louisie Hicks, Ophelia Shannon, John Moore, Emily C. McIntyre, Henrietta O'Neil, and Finley Moore. Of these three only are living : Sarah Ann Silvers, Lou- isie Hicks, and Ophelia Shannon. George T. McIntyre was married February 26, 1845, and died June 9, 1880. His wife, Emily C. Moore, died April 22, 1865. Of their children, Mrs. Martha A. Cook, the eldest child, was born April 28, 1848, and married in January, 1866, to Milton H. Cook, who was born October 14, 1845. They have two children: Jesse E. and George T. McIntyre Cook. Mr. Cook, the father, has been train despatcher on the Cincinnati & Indianapolis, and St. Louis & Chi- cago railroads, for seventeen years.
George M. McIntyre was married April 6, 1874, and is the father of three children, all girls. He is a farmer. Mrs. Anna B. Hicks was married August 19, 1873, she has had two children-now dead. Her husband is a carpenter, living at the present time in Cincinnati, but purposes moving to Home City shortly.
Jacob Story, of Riverside, was born in Germany, October 21, 1818. His father, with a family of seven children, came over, arriving in Cincinnati December, 1831, and in 1838 moved to Delhi, where he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, tenth of August, 1869. The mother died in Fatherland. Jacob Story was mar- ried in 1841 to Miss Saloma Hatmaker, whose parents came from Baden and settled in Indiana in 1817, but removed to Cincinnati in 1826, where they followed the business of vegetable gardening (twenty-first ward.) The father died in the year 1846, and the mother in 1857. Mr. Story bought the land he now owns in Cullom Station, the bottom in 1854 and the hillside in 1859, on which he has his vegetable garden, and out of which he has made a good living. He is the father of eight children and ten grandchildren. The oldest son is dead. The family are members of the Presbyterian church.
Thomas Wyatt, of Fern Bank, moved to this place in 1843, then owned by Judge Matteson, now by Mr. Short. His father, William Wyatt, came from England in 1832, but died in 1833. The family canie west, settling in Indiana in 1839, where they lived until their removal to Fern Bank. In 1855, Mr. Wyatt married Miss Jane Vanblarieum, of Delhi. His mother, Hannah Drew, the year died in 1860. She was then living with her son Thomas.
John Kahny, vegetable gardener of Trautman Sta- tion, came here in 1845. His father, Anthony Kahny, born in 1785, came to Cincinnati in 1817, where he lived for twenty-eight years, working for a season at Harkness' foundry, but gardening most of that time. His first gar- den extended from Sycamore to Broadway, and from Seventh to Ninth streets. In 1833 he moved to the cor- ner of Wood and Fifth streets, and put up buildings on lots owned. He not only had a garden there, but also at Sixth and Seventh streets, west of Stone street. In 1844 he moved to Delhi, where he continued his former business until 1866, when he died. The mother died in 1875. John Kahny was married in one year after com- ing here, his wife, Anna Dahner, being a Prussian. He
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JAMES P. WILLIAMS.
James P. Williams, of Delhi township, was born January 29, 1804, on the south branch of the Potomac, Hampshire county, Virginia. His grandfather, Richard Williams, was a resident of this place at the time of the French and Indian wars, and a few days before Braddock's defeat nineteen Indians beset the house, killed his father, his mother, and one of his brothers; his wife being in the yard milking escaped; but he and his little daughter, eighteen months old, were made pris- oners. They were taken to Fort Pitt, where the child was taken from him. From Fort Pitt, on the day of Braddock's defeat, he was taken to Detroit, and after some days escaped, taking with him a French- man's gun and ammunition, and pushed forward, first by curve lines, then in a more straight direction. Before this he had feasted on wild berries and horse flesh; but the trying ordeal was yet to come. He was pursned by the Indians and again captured. He had waded through a deep stream, the water went over his head and wet his powder, and for three days he went on until, being pressed by hunger, he stopped to dry his powder, when he found it all dis- solved. He went on, dug sarsa- parilla for sustenance; at one time found a fish which a bird had dropped, and ate that; once a fawn, which he roasted, picked the bones and marrow, and care- fully preserved the meat for future use. After this, for three suc- ceeding days, he found a squir- rel; he afterwards caught and ate a polecat; at another time he saw a hawk fly up and going to the spot found a wild turkey; some- times for two and three days he would get nothing, and his flesh and strength would desert him; rivers and streams he crossed by wading, and on rafts made of logs, but fortune did not favor him long at a time. He would be captured by the Indians, taken back, hands pinioned, closely guarded, and again would escape, but appar- ently only to be recaptured. He was finally captured, taken to Fort Pitt, and doomed to be shot, but to this some one objected, fearing his spirit would haunt them. He feigned derangement, but understood everything they said. He was closely guarded, as before, but while the guards were asleep he shook off his shackles and made his escape. He finally arrived home safe. The last time he was captured the In- dians made him a cook, and by his cleverness won their confidence. He remained with this tribe a long while, and had plenty to eat. They went to war and left him with the squaws, when he made his escape. He died September 3, 1786, in Virginia, aged sixty-five years. His
wife, Susannah, died the twenty-third of February, 1785, aged fifty-five years. They were Methodists. Bishop Asbury often preached at his house.
Peter Williams, father of James Peter, was born in Virginia, and married there Miss Ann Dugan, who was of Irish descent, but re- moved his family to the Scioto valley in 1807. At that time General Meigs was Postmaster General, with whom a Mr. Granger, a great friend of Mr. Williams, had influence, and secured for him an appoint- ment under the Government of establishing mail routes in the west. He began operations in Cincinnati as a centre, posted pack-horses all over the country, and employed carriers for the different routes. The mail was packed down one side of the river from Cincinnati to Louisville and up the other side once every two weeks; like- wise at regular intervals from Cincinnati to Chillicothe, Ohio, Maysville, Kentucky, and other points. In 1820, when John Mc- Lean was postmaster, stage routes were established, but Mr. Williams was financially succes- ful, and with the money made a large purchase of one thousand two hundred or one thousand four hundred acres in Delhi township, purchasing section eleven and other lands reserved, not of the Symmes tract. He was born in 1770, and died February 23, 1837. Ann Williams, his wife, died July 13, 1828. She was born October 8, 1776.
They reared a large family, James Peter Williams being the third child. He was born and reared on the home farm, section eleven, Delhi township; attended to his father's business, which, ow- ing to its magnitude, made his a responsible position. On the farm alone were about fifteen men to look after, to be paid off, and in addition the mail agents to be looked after and every three months their claims to be adjusted. The horses on these routes were posted about forty miles apart, but the work was profitable as well as onerous. On March 19, 1829, he married Harriet Mayhew, of Massachusetts, whose father was a school teacher in Martha's Vineyard, and after their marriage the parents lived with them until their death. Mr. Williams has reared a large family, and been an active business man all his life, the business consisting in managing his estates. He never performed manual labor outside of making extensive surveys of roads, farms, filling out deeds, etc. He was an adept surveyor, and frequently employed to adjust questions of surveying. He shipped produce, hay, corn and pork to New Orleans.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
has been for twenty-three years ministerial treasurer of the township.
George Thompson, of West Seventh street, Cincinnati, was born in England in the year 1827, and when eleven years of age, of his own accord, came to America, where, with only half a crown, he began perambulating among the cities of Boston, Providence, New York, Albany, and other places, hunting work, enduring hardships, priva- tions, and in all leading a life full of romantic incidents and adventures. When nineteen years of age he came to Cincinnati (1846); in 1862 went to Europe, and soon after his visit to that country went to the army, remain- ing until 1866, where he supplied the troops with meats. From 1846 until 1862 he was a butcher in Cincinnati. In 1866 he went into the fertilizing manufacturing busi- ness, and took the first contract let by the city for remov- ing the animal and vegetable decays from its precincts. The office of the Cincinnati Fertilizing Manufactur- ing company, is now located at 847 and 849 West Sixth street. His son, E. A. Thompson, is one of this firm, and W. R., another son, is of the firm of George E. Currie & Co., Delhi. The Cincinnati com- pany are properly scavengers of the dead refuse of the city, which is taken to the company in Delhi, who manu- facture from the hog product, from bone and meat super. phosphate of lime, from the hard bone, bone meal, and from the soft bone, bone flour. The factory grounds are extensive, covering fifteen acres. The father was mar- ried in 1849 to Miss Jane Foster. William R. was born in 1850; in 1874 began business, and in 1875 was mar- ried to Miss Florence L. Mehner. E. A. Thompson was born in 1854. He was married to Miss McCrane, of Cincinnati. E. A. Thompson and his brother live in Riverside.
Henry Trautman, of Trautman, Delhi township, came from Germany with his father, George Henry Trautman, when only ten years of age. His father left the Father- land in 1845, came to Cincinnati in 1846, and died the fourteenth of July, 1878. The mother died in 1874. They lived near Trautman station and were vegetable gardeners.
Henry Trautman was married May 7, 1861. His parents lived with him during their latter days, leaving the garden and vineyard in his charge. He now owns a valuable piece of ground, twenty-two acres in all, which is under a high state of cultivation and yields an abun- dance of produce, which he markets off in Cincinnati.
Claus Drucker, of Home City, deceased, came from Hanover, Germany, in the year 1842; married Eliza- beth Laudenbach, of Oldenberg, in 1845; came to Cin- cinnati in 1846; was a sugar refiner, at first having his office where the Miami depot is now, but afterwards kept a shoe store on Fulton street and employed a number of young men to work for him. In 185 1 he purchased from the Cincinnati Building association some lots in Delhi, and came here in 1852, where he carried on a store until he died, May 13, 1878. The mother died in 1873. Mr. Drucker was a prominent man of his township, took an active part in all public improvements, and during the war contributed much in many ways towards furthering
the Union cause. The store is now owned by his son, John Drucker, and his son-in-law, Mr. Barmann. Of the children, Kate Drucker was born October 13, 1837. She is the eldest of those living, and was married to Jo- seph Barmann, son of Lawrence Barmann, an old settler of Anderson Ferry, in 1879. Anna Drucker married Herman Hegebusch, fresco painter of Home City, July 29, 1876; she died January 29, 1877. Frederick Drucker was born December, 1852; was married October 30, 1877, to Miss Sophia Maurer, of North Bend. Her parents were old settlers of Miami township. John Drucker was married May 18, 1880, to Miss Clara Barmann, of An- derson Ferry. Messrs Drucker and Barmann are doing a lively business in Home City.
James Mackinzie, M. D., of Delhi, was born March 14, 1816, in Columbiana county, Ohio. His father, James Mackinzie, a draughtsman was born September 21, 1771, in Edinburgh, Scotland; came to America in 1810; served in the War of 1812; came to Ohio in 1813, where he died at the advanced age of one hundred years, February 21, 1871. He was a temperance advo- cate, being the first farmer in the country to establish evening meals and harvest a crop without whiskey. His wife, Ellen Burrows, was from the county Down, and of Scotch parentage; she died September 18, 1868, at her son's residence in Delhi. When James Mackinzie was sixteen years of age he learned a trade, at nineteen years of age he became a partner in a dry goods store, and obtained his education by attending night-school, spend- ing one year at Du Qusne college, Pittsburgh, also read medicine while in business, and afterwards completed his course in the Cincinnati Medical college, and practiced his profession before the war in Columbiana county. In 1849 went to California and built the fourth house that was erected in San Francisco. After Fort Sumter was fired on, he reported to President Lincoln and General Scott, entering the service as a private soldier, was after- wards in the commissary department, was promoted to the rank of major and served in the medical department before the war closed, since which time he has lived and practiced his profession in Delhi. In 1854, the eleventh of May, the doctor married Marion W. Washington, whose father was Samuel W., great nephew of General Washington's brother, Lawrence Washington. Her father was legatee of General Washington's estate. Mrs. Mac- kinzie has in her possession a buckle of General Wash- ington that has been handed down from one family to another till the present time. The family history of the Washingtons need not here be sketched, as it is familiar to our readers. Daniel Washington, her father, was born February 14, 1787, near Charlestown, Virginia. He married Catharine Washington, a relative, and died March, 1867. His wife died at the age of seventy-four years.
Peter Cross, of Delhi, is a native of Prussia. His father, John Cross, was a wagonmaker. Peter Cross was born in 1827, left Prussia in 1851, landing in New Orleans, at which place he remained one year, but in 1852 removed to Delhi. In 1853 he was married; is a bricklayer and lives in easy circumstances.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Valentine Gind, of Delhi, came from Germany when ten years of age-January, 1854. His father landed in New Orleans, coming from there to Delhi, where he has lived since, being a stonemason by trade. His father, Sebastian Gind, was a wagonmaker. His mother, Theresa Younker, was from Baden; she died before the father and his children sailed for the New World. Val- entine Gind owns a small farm adjoining Delhi.
Peter Shiffel, basket-maker, came to Delhi town in 1862 ; formerly lived in Cincinnati, where he was married in 1857. His father, Phillip Shiffel, was a basket-maker and carpet-weaver on Long Island; he died in 1849. In 1855 Peter Shiffel came to Cincinnati. He does not own any property.
Charles Gerth, proprietor of the Eleven Mile house (saloon), is of Teutonic origin; came to the United States, and settled in Delhi in 1863, where he has been ever since. He was formerly a shoemaker, but left this trade and was section foreman on the Ohio & Mississippi road for ten years previous to his present proprietorship. Mr. Gerth has been married twice, and has two children dead.
Shipley W. Davis, son of Zadock and Elizabeth Davis, -nee Bassett-of Massachusetts, was born at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, in the year 1816. His parents had thirteen children, of which he was the seventh. His mother, at the age of ninety-three, June 13, 1873, de- parted this life; his father died in June, 1819. In 1841 he married Harriet Cullour, of North Bend. One son, W. L. Davis, M. D., was hospital stewart in Sherman's raid to the sea, and is now a practicing physician (Old School). Henry W. Davis, another son, has been teach- ing in Myers' school district fourteen years. Edward Davis, a third son, is a physician at Dent, Ohio. Mr. Davis' farm is in Delhi township, and over a mile from the city limits.
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