USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 84
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Rev. Gerberd Egger, the Catholic priest of Harrison, Ohio, was born in Switzerland, educated at Thubingen university, Wurtemberg, and came to the United States November, 1866. He began his ministry at Dry Ridge, this county, where he preached for six years and four months, coming to Harrison in February, 1873. His first station was without the ordinary improvements which belong to places of this kind-no parsonage, no school- house, in debt for the church proper, and, in fact, even the commonest grades of enterprise. He lifted a heavy church debt to a very great extent, increasing the value of church property from three thousand dollars to seven thousand dollars.
Since being at his present location he has won the ad- miration of those even outside of his congregation by his business tact and discipline. The old school-house and church at Harrison, which stood in a dilapidated state in 1873, now are handsome structures of brick. The church proper, with a congregation of four hundred or five hundred souls, was built in 1876; the priest's house, in 1873; and the school-house in 1877. Church prop- erty has advanced from one thousand eight hundred dollars to ten thousand dollars, and healthiness in all departments pervades. No surer sign of advancement in religious matters can be seen than that the minister is liked, the debt being liquidated, and everybody satisfied.
. HARRISON VILLAGE."
This was the first town to be laid out in Hamilton county west of the Great Miami, except the early extinct Crosby, on the banks of that stream. Its recorded plat is dated December 8, 1813, and it was laid out that year by Jonas Crane, at the southwest corner of section eigh- teen and the northwest of section nineteen, just half way across the present township of Harrison, on its extreme west line. A small part of it extends into Indiana. The village is described in the State Gazetteer of Ohio, in 1821, as on the Whitewater river, twenty-four miles north- west of Cincinnati, laid off on the State line, with the main north and south street on that line, and half the village on each side. The post office, we believe, has always been kept on the Ohio side, but the railway station is a little way beyond the line, in Hoosierdom.
Twenty years later, in the State Gazetteer of 1841, Harrison is noted as containing about three hundred in- habitants, with three churches, four stores, two taverns, two groceries, two physicians, three clergymen, one apothecary's shop, sixteen mechanics' shops, one flouring mill, one carding machine, and one hundred dwellings. One-third of the inhabitants then resided on the Indiana
JOSEPH H. HAYES.
Joseph H. Hayes was born April 8, 1824, in Whitewater township, one mile below Elizabethtown, on the Great Miami. . His grandfather, Job, was probably of German descent, and died three months before his son Job, the father of Joseph H., was born. His death was caused by sickness contracted while coming down the Ohio from Pittsburgh. His grandmother, Bulah Tussey, was born in Philadelphia, and came to South Bend in 1791. She was of Yankee origin.
Joseph Hayes, his mother's father, came from Chester county, Pennsylvania, to Switzer- land county, Indiana, and remained as a farmer and machinist until 1836 or 1837, and then moved to Bartholomew county, same State, and died near 1840. His grandmother Hayes was of Swiss de- scent.
On his father's side his ancestors were large, strong, active men. With his mother's people quite the same was common.
His father, Job, settled below Elizabethtown for a few years; took a lease on real estate, made money, and soon moved across the Big Miami to a more favorable site. Here he bought one hundred and ninety acres of land, mostly on the hill, but made in several pur- chases. In Miami town- ship he remained seven years. In 1846 he moved- to Iowa, and died at sev- enty-eight years of age.
Job Hayes, jr., married his consin June 28, 1816, at Middletown, Ohio. His wife died in 1873, being seventy-eight years of age.
Joseph H. remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age, all the while accumulating money outside of the pa- rental roof, his par- ents providing him with common necessities-clothes, boots and food. By his active work, at the age of twenty-one, he had accumulated three hundred dollars, his mother acting as banker. The first year after becoming of age he worked for his father during the summer season, earning in all sixty-five dollars. In the summer of 1846 he engaged with his cousin, Stephen B. Hayes, to work for ten dollars and fifty cents per month, five months. In 1847 he visited lowa, prospected a good deal, and returned in the fall to collect the three hundred dollars, which had been loaned, and returned to the State of his father. But
the money was hard to collect. His notes he did not care to discount, and, by persuasion of his cousin Stephen, leased land for three years, and carried on a sort of co-partnership. At the expiration of this time he rented land of his cousin, Charles G. Guard, and worked four years.
September 23, 1852, he married Sarah J. Myer, Colonel William H. H. Taylor, son-in-law of General Harrison, performing the ceremony. Mrs. Hayes was of Kentucky extraction; born in Indiana April 5, 1834. By this marriage seven children were born-six sons and one daughter, Alice, Wilson and Charles being dead; Job W., Enos, Isaac D., and Joseph G. are liv- ing, none of whom are married. Mr. Hayes is one out of eleven chil- dren -- six sons and five daughters, five of the family being dead. Mrs. Hayes is one ont of a family of five, three brothers and two sisters. Since marrying, agricul- ture has rewarded him with handsome gains. At twenty-eight fifteen hundred dollars had been accumulated, and the first year after he cleared seven hundred dollars. In the spring of 1855, the second month, he purchased fifty acres for three thousand dol- ars, paying two thon- sand cash and discount- ing the remaining debt before it became dne. When thirty he owned a farm of fifty acres, had moved on it, and was busily engaged in the choice of his life. In 1869 he bought seventy- eight acres of Stephen W. Garrison, paying seven thousand two hun- dred dollars. February, r880, he added again, and now owns two hun- dred and seventy acres of good tillable land. Mr. Hayes is remarkable as a flat-boat man, mak- ing five round trips from Lawrenceburgh to New Orleans.
Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, the former for twenty-three years, the latter for the same length of time.
Educationally, both belong to that class of people who develop by contact with the world, by labor and industry. Great and generous deeds hang in clusters about them, friends respect and admire their many virtues, and many aspire to reach so envied a character.
MR. M. S. BONNELL.
MRS. M. S. BONNELL.
Marcus Seneca Bonnell, a prosperous farmer, occupying a beautiful residence on the dividing line between Harrison and Crosby townships, five miles northeast from Harrison and two miles northwest from New Haven, is a grandson of Aaron Bonnell, who came to the Miami coun- try in 1805, with his brothers Benjamin and Paul, and his married sis- ters, Rhoda and Abigail- a strong delegation for one family at one time. They were all children of Benjamin and Rachel Bonnell, who came from England and settled in New Jersey, where their family was reared. The father was drowned in the East river, near New York, with ten others, November 10, 1798, on a boat crossing from the city to Brooklyn, upon which a number of casks of rum rolled to one side and overturned the frail vessel, with the terrible results above noted. He was then seventy-five years old. His wife survived him until 1812, when she departed this life, in the eighty-fifth year of her age. Aaron, the seventh child and fifth son, was born March 4, 1759, it is believed in Essex county, New Jersey. He was a brother-in-law to Judge Oth- niel Looker, the distinguished pioneer who settled near Harrison in 1801; they having married twin sisters-Judge Looker Pamelia, and Mr. Bonnell Rachel Clark. They had six children-two daughters and four sons, of whom the father of the subject of our sketch was one- Clark Bonnell, born November 18, 1790, in New Jersey. His father, Aaron, was the only one of the Bonnell colony who settled in Harrison (formerly Crosby) township, the others stopping in the neighborhood of Carthage, and taking farms there. Aaron entered the northwest quar- ter of section eighteen, due north of the subsequent site of Harrison village, in the valley of the Whitewater, improved the place, and re- mained there until his death. During his lifetime he drew a pension as an artificer for the Government during the war of the Revolution. His wife also died upon the old place near Harrison. Some time before the death of his parents, Clark Bonnell, who had learned, in part, the trade of a shoemaker in New York State, before the removal of the family to the west, was married to Miss Elsey Wykoff, of a family residing near Harrison, on the Indiana side, and removed to the village, where he pursued his trade for many years, and then removed to a country neighborhood in Ross township, Butler county, five miles from Hamil- ton, where he continued to follow his business. Remaining here about five years, he removed to New London, Butler county, where he lost his wife by death. She was born February 7, 1794, and died in Septem- ber, 1835. Her husband died in Cincinnati in 1864, in the seventy- fourth year of his age. Their children numbered nine, of whom Mar- cus Seneca was the third, and the oldest son. He was born upon the old place near Harrison, in a cabin where his father was then residing, November 8, 1816. He had some schooling in the poor "subscription schools " of that day, which he attended for brief periods, as the press- ing labors of the farm and workshop would allow, and in due time learned his father's trade, beginning to help in a small way when he was but nine years of age. He did not take kindly to the business, as it was too confining, and he was strongly predisposed to farm life; so he
did little at shoemaking after he was fifteen years of age. For about eight years he served as a farm hand at various places in Hamilton and Butler counties, by the month or year, and for the next two years worked Judge Anderson's farm in Butler county, "on shares." Then
for two years he similarly farmed the old place near Harrison, which had become the possession of his grandmother. He also managed it a similar term for the purchasers of the farm 'after her death - Messrs. George Arnold and Peter Riffner. The latter was father of Martha R., who became the wife of Mr. Bonnell December 8, 1842. He was now residing on a rented farm on the other side of the Whitewater, in the edge of Indiana, where he remained a year and removed to the Frost farm, on Lee's creek, in the north part of the township. This he oc- cupied, on five-year leases, for the period of fifteen years, and so suc- cessfully that he was enabled to purchase the one-hundred-and-forty- acre tract upon which he now lives, in 1856, two years before his last lease expired. To this he removed at the expiration of his lease, and here he has since resided, adding one hundred and fourteen acres to his original purchase, and making a farm of such high excellence and repu- tation that the award of the premium offered in 1880, by the Hamilton County Agricultural society, for " the best farm of forty or more acres, in the general plan of buildings, fields, fences, and
the skill shown in drainage and general cultivation of the several kinds of crops, in care of stock, implements, and tools, etc.," was made to Mr. Bonnell, after careful inspection of his place by a committee of the society. He has, among other improvements, as many as twenty-two and one-fourth miles of under-draining. In 1860 he built the fine resi- dence in which he now lives, and which appears to advantage in our illustration of his premises. He has devoted himself to his business, taking little interest in politics and holding no public offices. He has been for many years a member of the lodge of Odd Fellows of Harrison.
Mrs. Martha Riley Bonnell was the third daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Riffner, and was born February 11, 1815, at the old home near Harrison village. She is still surviving, in a hale and happy age. Their children have been:
Elizabeth Isabel, born September 23, 1843; married John S. Bowles, of Harrison township, December 22, 1866, a farmer, who went to South America in 1874 and is believed to be dead. She now resides with her parents.
Clark Marion, born March 18, 1845; married Sarah Butts September II, 1872; died January 21, 1880. Peter Riffner, born April 20, 1847, died May 22, 1874.
William Riffner, born March 30, 1849; married Miss Jennie Cook December 5, 1870; lives in Henry county, Indiana, a carpenter.
Stephen Easton, born June 21, 1851; died May 6, 1875.
Elsey Alice, born May 5, 1853; married William Butts, a farmer of Crosby township, February 29, 1872; died March 26, 1873.
Emma Angeline, born March 21, 1855; died September 10, 1855.
MOSS ENIY. CO VY
MR. JAMES CAMPBELL.
James Campbell, inventor of the Campbell Improved corn and seed drill, and sole manufacturer of the same at his Pioneer Drill works in Harrison village, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, April 15, 1817. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, on his father's side descended from the famous Clan Campbell, and on his mother's side a Harper. His maternal grand-parents were Alexander and Nancy (Adams) Harper. The Harpers came from Ireland to America in 1794, bringing six children - William, Alexander, James, Mary, Margaret, and Sid- ney. Margaret was born in Donegal, Ireland, October 31, 1787, and was married in 1806 to Andrew Campbell, of Scotch blood, but a na- tive of Londonderry, born July 18, 1774, who had come to this country in 1801. His mother was a Stewart, and he had three sisters, also a brother, John, who was a soldier in the Scotch Greys in the battle of Waterloo, and was killed there. The children of Margaret and An- drew Campbell were John, Mary, William, Alexandria, James, Martha, George, Charles, Andrew Jackson, and one who died in infancy - all born in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Alexander came to the west in 1836, and settled in Harrison as a wagon-maker. His brothers Wil- liam and James followed him thither two years later. They were both blacksmiths, and opened a shop for the prosecution of their business. They were inventive and enterprising, and manufactured a number of implements then new in the country, as cultivators and double-shovel plows. Before that corn had been cultivated in that region simply with harrows, single-shovel plows, and three-hoe flukes. They also introduced a patent spring for wagons, which took the place of the wooden affairs used on the "Dearborn wagons." In 1841 or 1842 Alexander made two corn drills, which failed to do the work, and in 1849 the broth- ers bought the right of the " Dickey drill " and began manufacturing them. It had a roller which ran over the corn after it was dropped, and if the ground was wet it packed the earth on the corn, making a crust and preventing the corn from growing. In 1859 they invented a corn drill, placing the drive-wheel in front and covering the corn with shears. It failed, however, in the dropping and driving arrangements.
Up to this time James assisted his brother, but the latter becoming discouraged, James then took it into his own hands, aud invented two other drills, which also failed. In 1863 he invented one on the princi- ciple according to which he is now manufacturing, which is in general use throughout the south and west. In 1877 he added some improve- ments for dropping cotton as well as corn and other small seeds, and also made it a fertilizing drill. He adopts for his implement the name "Pioneer drill," because it was the first successful one of the kind, and is still in advance of all others. Over seventy-five thousand are now in use in different parts of America and Europe. One of his nephews, James A. Campbell, was formerly associated with him in business, but recently retired, and Mr. Campbell conducts it alone. He has been
MOS
NG VON
MRS. MARIA CAMPBELL.
successful from the time of his humble beginnings in Harrison, reaping the rewards of industry, intelligence, and enterprise, and has added largely to his facilities for manufacturing. His blacksmith-shop occu- pies one building, the machine-shop another, and still another is used for the putting together and shipping of the drills. His manufactory, at the corner of Sycamore and Walnut streets, is just opposite the spot where he began business in the village in 1839. Several times, how- ever, he has suffered reverses, being once entirely burnt out, the last day of August, 1867. Since then his business has steadily increased, and he has now the largest manufactory of any kind in Harrison, on the Ohio side. For some years he was a Free and Accepted Mason, but has not for some time given much attention to the order. With nearly all his family, he is a member of the Christian or Disciple church. He is a Republican in political faith, having been opposed to slavery ex- tension ever since the Cass, Van Buren, and Taylor campaign, when he voted for the Kinderhook statesman on the Free Soil ticket, and voted steadily with that party until Republicanism was organized.
Mrs. Maria (Matsenbaugh) Campbell is of Pennsylvania German stock, daughter of Samuel and Rachel Matsenbaugh. Her father, as well as Andrew Campbell, of her husband's family, was a volunteer of the War of 1812. Her parents moved from Pennsylvania to New Lis- bon, Columbiana county, at an early day, and thence to Harrison shortly before her marriage. Her father, born August 9, 1794, in Vir- ginia, died here December 24, 1850; her mother, born in Maryland March 1, 1799, also died here July 14, 1868. Maria remained at home with her parents until her marriage with Mr. Campbell, June 17, 1849, since which time her history has been identified with that of her hus- band. 'She is likewise a member of the Christian church in Harrison, and faithfully discharges her various duties as wife and mother, and in all other relations of life.
Their children have been :
Sarah Louisa, born May 1, 1850 ; died twenty-two days thereafter.
Angie, born October 29, 1851 ; residing with her parents.
Hattie Belle, born March 7, 1853 ; married July 26, 1874, to George F. Orr; residing in Harrison, Mr. Orr being an assistant of his father-in- law.
Benjamin Franklin, born October 21, 1855; died December 5, 1859, of membranous croup.
Ella Dora, born February 24. 1859; book-keeper in her father's office. . Albert Martin, born August 30, 1860; at home, head machinist in his father's establishment.
Harry Ogden, born November 4, 1864; also an assistant in bis father's manufactory.
Elmore Edward, born September 29, 1867; at home, a 'ad in the schools.
319
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
side. "The line of the Whitewater canal passes through the town, and is now in progress."
The village has had a quite satisfactory growth, con- sidering that it has no special advantages of position. In 1830 it had but one hundred and seventy-three inhabi- tants. In 1850, under the stimulus of the Whitewater canal and the general growth of the country, its popula- tion had advanced to nine hundred and forty; in 1860, to one thousand three hundred and forty-three; and in 1870, to one thousand four hundred and seventeen, of course all in Hamilton county. Last year (1880) the census found one thousand five hundred and fifty in- habitants within its limits, on the Ohio side.
Mr. William F. Converse was the first mayor of the village. Among other mayors have been Benjamin Bookwalter, 1866-8; and A. E. West, 1873-4.
In the years 1856-7 a large brick edifice was put up near Harrison for the purposes of a private academy, called the
institute. The expense of its erection and equipment was borne mainly by Mr. George Oyler, whose son, G. W. Oyler, then a recent graduate of the Farmers' college, at College Hill, was its first principal, and has since become a well-known teacher in the county.
The St. John's Catholic church, ministered to by the Rev. Father C. Eggers, is located here.
In 1872 the Jackson Building and Loan association, for operations at Harrison, was organized, its certificate of incorporation being filed with the secretary of State, June 4th of that year.
The pottery operated here was started so long ago as 1829.
THE CENSUS.
The census in 1870 gave Harrison township two thou- sand one hundred and seventy-five people; in 1880, two thousand two hundred and seventy-seven.
MIAMI.
ORGANIZATION.
The original Miami township was one of the creations of the court of general quarter sessions of the peace in 1791, at the same time as Cincinnati and Columbia town- ships were erected. Its boundaries were then defined as beginning at a point on the Ohio, at the first meridian east of the mouth of Rapid run, thence due north to the Great Miami, thence down that stream to the Ohio, thence up the Ohio to the place of beginning. These included not only the entire tract now occupied by the township but also the eastern part of Delhi, a strip of Green two sections wide, and about one-third of Colerain township. In some of the old documents the limits of Miami are more simply stated as "beginning at the southwest corner of Cincinnati township, thence down the . Ohio to the mouth of the Miami, thence up the Miami to the west boundary of Cincinnati township, thence south to the beginning."
In the general rearrangement of 1803, compelled or suggested by the creation of several new counties from the still extensive Hamilton, the boundaries of Miami were cut down considerably from the northward, while they were extended one range of sections to the east- ward. The were now described as "commencing at the mouth of the Great Miami, thence north on the State line to the Miami, thence up that stream to the north boundary of fractional range two, thence east nearly four miles to the northeast corner of section twenty-four in fractional range two, town two, thence south to the Ohio, thence westward to the place of beginning." These con- fines gave the township no further reach to the northward
than it now has, but extended the present north line three miles to the eastward, and gave Miami a strip of as many sections' breadth from what is now Green township and about half of the present Delhi, the east line of the town- ship intersecting the Ohio about a mile below Anderson's Ferry, or near Gilead Station.
By the time the change of 1803 was made it had been discovered, as may be ascertained by a careful reading of the definition of boundaries, that some part of the course of the Great Miami, near its mouth, lay wholly in the State of Indiana; so that a narrow strip of territory lay to the east of it, between its channel and the State line, which did not belong to Miami township or to Hamilton county. This river is famous for its changes of course; and several of its ancient beds may be plainly traced fur- ther up the valley, besides many indications of slighter modifications of channel. It is probable that across the tract lying within a mile of the stream, between Guard's Island and the mouth of the Great Miami, its waters have advanced and receded many times. Quite recent maps of the State and county exhibit a belt of territory here that still belongs to Indiana; but, since the surveys upon which these are based were made, the river has again so encroached upon its eastern banks that it is be- lieved all its shore in that direction is in Hamilton county and the State of Ohio, except perhaps a small tract near the Ohio & Mississippi railway bridge.
GEOGRAPHY.
The extreme western boundary of Miami township at present, therefore, may be stated with almost literal exact- ness as the Great Miami river, separating the township
320
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
from Dearborn county, Indiana. The remaining entire boundary on the west-and on the north, too, is also the Great Miami river, dividing Miami from Whitewater township. Next east of the township, along its entire border in this direction, is Green township; and on the south are the Ohio river, separating it from Kentucky, and a mile's breadth of the northwest part of Delhi town- ship.
The township lies in fractional ranges one and two, town one of each. It has but nine full sections, all of them in range two, and none in the peninsula below North Bend and Cleves; but has twenty-two fractional sections, and thus secures a very respectable amount of territory. Its acres count up fourteen thousand and fifty- seven. Its extreme length is on the eastern border and for about three-fourths of a mile in the interior-just six sections, this strip being included between the same par- allels which bound Green township on the north and south. The shortest length is between the point of the elbow of the Great Miami, at the south end of Cleves, and the Ohio river about two-thirds of a mile. The greatest breadth is on a line crossing the township east and west from the northernmost point in the great bend of the Ohio, from which North Bend is named, not quite six miles; the shortest is on the extreme north line, be- tween the Great Miami and the northeast corner of the township-three-quarters of a mile. From the east line of the township to the meridian drawn from the south- west corner that is, the State line, the distance is over seven miles, and from the southwest corner-the extreme end of the peninsula-to the northeast corner is just ten miles. Miami is thus seen to be a very singularly shaped township, deeply indented on the south side by the Ohio river, and on the north and west in several places by the windings of the Great Miami.
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