USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 86
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116
*
323
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
on the second of February, 1789, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as he minutely records, on the site of North Bend. It was his intention, as before stated, to take his people and garrison down to the Old Fort; but the high water determined him not to proceed thither until he had more definitely ascertained whether or not that was an eligible site for a town under such circumstances. The flood was an advantage to the North Bend locality, since from his boat, elevated by it, the judge could see, as he described it, "that the river hills appeared to fall away in such a manner that no considerable rise appeared between the Ohio and the Great Miami," so that his pro- ject of a city between the streams had here good hope of realization. The freshet also enabled him to deter- mine the probable exemption of a colony here from in- jury to their homes by high water. It is said, too, that he decided to stop here, six miles short of his purposed destination, in order to be more conveniently situated with reference to his surveyors in the purchase.
The first dwelling occupied by Judge Symmes and family in their new home, is described by Mr. F. W. Miller, author of Cincinnati's Beginnings. It is prob- ably typical of all others that sheltered the party the first few days:
As soon as he had debarked he formed there an encampment, erect- ing a kind of shelter then usually adopted in this region for such pur- pose, consisting of two forked sapplings set in the ground for uprights, with a crop pole resting in the forks of these as a support for [boat] boards leaning from the ground to form the sides, one end of the struc- ture being closed up, and the other left open for an entance and fire- place. In that he remained for about six weeks before being able to provide himself with anything more like a house.
Judge Symmes found his fears of the tract about the mouth of the Great Miami amply justified. On the next day after landing he sent two of the most intelligent members of his party to the junction of the rivers to in- spect the grounds, and upon their return they reported that so much of the neck of land there as was above water was considerably broken with hills and by a small stream of water, so as to forbid the laying out of a city between the two large waters, The following day Symmes himself went down with Captain Kearsey, and made a thorough survey of the region about the old fort. By this time the river had fallen about fifteen feet, leaving great cakes of ice six inches in thickness clinging to the trees, making in some cases canopies of eight to ten feet in diameter. The ice also served him a good purpose in his survey, as showing to what points upon the banks and bottom lands the water had reached. He found "the fine large bottom of land down in the point" covered with water to the depth of many feet, and after making full inspection of the premises he wrote to his partner that "I am obliged to own that I was exceeding- ly disappointed in the plat which we had intended for a city." He prepared and sent them a map of the penin- sula during the flood, which demonstrated the proposed site to be "altogether ineligible."
He writes further: "This (the founding of a city at the point) I pronounce very impracticable, unless you raise her, like Venice, out of the water, or get on the hills west of the township line." He found, indeed, only
room enough for one street between the hill and the overflowed land, and this scarcely half a mile in length. "A small village," he concludes, "is all that I can flatter myself with at the point, if we allow more of a lot than barely enough to set a house on." He thought, however, that they might do well to lay out a plat of fifty or sixty lots there, which was never done, we believe. He was enthusiastic in his description of this part of the penin- sula for the excellence of its soil and the imminence of its growth of wild grass. He estimated the tract at about three thousand acres, of which one thousand were first- rate meadow-land; another third was capable of. tillage, and level enough for plowing; and the remaining third was heavily timbered with richer growths. He suggested to the company that the whole should be reserved as a common manor for the proprietors, under liberal regula- tions for others that might settle in the reserved town- ship. "I have not seen," he says, "fifty acres together, of the most broken of this township, on which an indus- trious man could not get a comfortable living."
The result was a determination to lay out a village where the party had first landed. He accordingly platted the village of North Bend, and South Bend some time after. He kept looking about, however, for a suitable site for a city, and seems to have found two, "both eligi- ble," one about two miles east of North Bend, on the Ohio, a little above the mouth of Muddy creek; the other the same distance north of the bend, in that sweeping curve of the Great Miami about ten miles from its mouth, within which are situated the major part of sections twenty-three and twenty-four, in the northwest ern part of this township. At neither of these points, however, could a city be laid off upon the desired plan of a regular square. "On both," said Symmes, "a town must, if built, be thrown into an oblong of six blocks or squares by four. It is a question of no little moment and difficulty to determine which of these spots is preferable in point of local situation." But in the same letter, of May 18, 1789, to one of the co- proprietors, the judge argues elaborately and stoutly in favor of the latter site, as, being on the Great Miami, it would not be necessary for the inhabitants of that region, going to the proposed city by water, to double around the point at the old fort to reach it, as they would if the city were on the Ohio. He was anxious to have the site of the city determined and get it laid off; as meanwhile he was embarrassed in laying out the lands in that part of the purchase by the uncertainty as to the location of the Miami metropolis. He writes: "As it is uncertain where the city will be built, and whether the point may be reserved for the purpose of a manor or not, I shall be cautious how I set apart particular lots of land until these matters are settled by the proprietors." The end was, as we shall presently see more fully, that the great "city of Miami" to be was laid out where he first landed, from the Ohio river at North Bend nearly to the Great Miami at the present village of Cleves.
Captain Kearsey had received orders, probably from General Harmar, simply to accompany the emigrants to their destination, wherever that might prove to be, and
324
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
then occupy Fort Finney. The great flood prevented him from executing the latter part of the order at first, but when the stage of water permitted a landing at that point and occupation there, he was anxious to have Symmes and his people accompany his troops to the old Fort, and was much displeased that the judge did not comply with his desire. He did nothing toward build- ing block-houses for the protection of the settlement; and about five weeks after the landing, or the eighth of March, finding the provisions growing short, he aban- doned Symmes with the greater part of the detachment, leaving him but the rediculous force of four men for the nominal defence of the place. He did not stop at Fort Finney either, but continued on to the falls of the Ohio, whence he did not return to North Bend. Major Wyl- lys was commanding at the falls, and in response to Symmes' repeated and very earnest appeals, he, after some delay, sent Ensign Luce with eighteen men to the new place. These addressed themselves to business at once, and within a week had a tolerable block-house erected at North Bend, and the infant settlement felt more secure. This Ensign Luce is the hero of the ro- mantic, but, alas! unreliable story, concerning the black eyes of a fair dulcina as the cause of the removal of the garrison and fixing of the sight of Fort Washington at Losantiville, and the consequent prosperity of that place and decay of North Bend.
The story of North Bend and other Miami settle- ments will be carried on further in this chapter.
Among the early settlers of the township, were the Silvers, Rittenhouse, Woods, Materns, Howells, and Anthony families.
SETTLEMENT NOTES.
Joseph Dixson Garrison, tavern keeper and groceryman, North Bend, is great-grandson of a Swede or German named Garrison, who was among the first settlers of New Jersey. His grandfather, Abraham Garrison, emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky at a very early day, and set- tled at or near Scott's station, removing in a few years to the Northwest Territory at Losantiville. Here his wife, Lydia Garrison, did considerable doctoring among the people of the place, and here he and his son Joseph, father of the subject of this notice, were eye witnesses of the murder of Benjamin Van Cleve by the Indians. She, in a small way, introduced the manufacture of soap in Cincinnati, and he built and operated the horse-mill on Third street, where the Presbyterian colonists held some of their earliest services. Joseph Garrison is supposed to have been born at Scott's station, and remained with his father at Cincinnati until he was well grown. His son gives the following amusing account of the manner in which he became acquainted with General Harrison:
"He got acquainted with him in rather a comical way. My father had caught a cub bear by killing the old one. He raised it as a pet, and had it under good subjection. After it had grown up to about its full size, he would watch when the army would be on parade or drilling, and would then take his bear and go up on the side-hill above the parade ground, and tie an old camp-kettle to his hind parts and scare him and turn him loose, when the bear
would run for home right through the line of soldiers, and break ranks, and make a grand disturbance. So one day the general followed him home and requested his father to stop him of his sport. I have often heard the general and father laugh about their first acquaintance."
.Joseph Garrison married Merab Conner, near Law- renceburgh, in 1805, and, after some service in aid of the Government surveyors, settled at the Goose pond, in Miami township, where Joseph D. was born, in 1816. The latter in early life tended Garrison's ferry, over the Great Miami, where the Cleves bridge now is, and made several trading trips with boats to New Orleans. He was married in 1852 to Sarah Ann, only daughter of James Smith Leonard, an early emigrant from Canada to the neighborhood of Rising Sun, Indiana. The same day they started for California with a company he had agreed to take through. He there engaged in gold mining until the middle of February, 1855, when they started on their return to the States. While residing at Diamond Springs, California, their first son, now a physician in southeastern Kansas, was born. Two more sons and two daughters are now residing with their parents. After his return Mr. Garrison pursued farming for a time, and then bought his present hotel property in North Bend.
One of the settlers of 1796, at North Bend, was An- drew Scott, a Scotch immigrant from Redstone, Penn- sylvania, who was one of the first blacksmiths to erect a shop and open for business here. He remained at the Bend about six years, and then went on a farm, dying in Crosby township in 1831. His son James also worked for a time at blacksmithing here, and then became a teacher-one of the first in point of both time and repu- tation, in Hamilton county. He was also a civil engi- neer. He removed to Crosby township, where he was justice of the peace for several years, and was one of the founders, in 1803, of the Whitewater Congregational church at New London, Butler county. He died of cholera in 1834. His numerous descendants still reside in Crosby township.
Christopher Flinchpaugh was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- many, in 1799, and came to America in 1817, settling in Miami township the same year. He was married to Eliz- abeth Columbia in 1821. Three years later he embraced religion, and the same year commenced preaching the gospel. He was a member of the United Brethren church. He used to have such men in his congregation as General Harrison, Judge Short, and numerous other distinguished men of our country. When he became a Christian he could neither read nor write. A short time after he began in the ministry he was assigned to a cir- cuit of four hundred miles. The distance had to be travelled on horseback, and he was obliged to preach thirty-two times every four weeks. He filled the pulpit in Cincinnati, in both the English and German churches, and was presiding elder two years. At present he is re- tired, but preaches occasionally. He is highly respected by all who know him, and has indeed been a public ben- efactor. His faithful wife died July 30, 1880, at the ad- vanced age of seventy-eight. They have had twelve children: Jacob; William; Caleb; Christopher; Simon,
325
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
married to Sarah Swayen; Mary, the wife of Caleb Ren- unger; Christina, the wife of Adam Swartz, of Indiana; Henrietta, the wife of Jesse Herron; Charlotte, now married to Charles Becker; Hannah, Mrs. John Swayen ; Elizabeth, married to Francis Markle; and Susie.
Henry Flinchpaugh was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- many, March 9, 1792. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the French army and took part in the campaign against Moscow, led hy Napoleon Bonaparte, suffering all the privations of the terrible retreat. He fought in the battle of Leipsig, also in Waterloo, and in the latter battle escaped without a wound. In 1817 he came to America, and, while passing through Pennsylvania, at the town of Lancaster, married Johanna Schmidlapp. The same year he settled in Butler county, Ohio, where he remained about a year, when he came to Hamilton coun- ty and settled at first in the town of Miami, but after- ward moved to a farm in Miami township. The place is now owned by Emanuel Faigle. He came to America poor, but succeeded in amassing a large property. He was a member of the church of United Brethren, and in politics was a Democrat. His death occurred October 7, 1852. His wife died October 1, 1863. Their family consisted of twelve children: David, now married to Maria Fleming; Henry, married to Cynthia Creech; Hannah, the wife of. William Creech; Mary, married to Frederick Ulmer; Caleb, married to Rachel Ingersoll; Jacob; William, married to Eliza Brown; Harriet, Mrs. Gottlieb Metzzer; John, married to Fanny Yanney; and three that died in early childhood.
Caleb Flinchpaugh was born in Hamilton county, in the house in which he now lives, in the year 1828, Feb- ruary 14th. He has always followed the business of farming. He was married February 27, 1851, to Miss Ingersoll, of the same township. She died August 13, 1879, leaving eight children. He is at present township trustee, an office held by him during the past six years. He has also been on the board of education fifteen years and has a deep interest in everything pertaining to the cause of education. A zealous member of the United Brethren church, he has had several offices of honor and trust in the church. Politically he is a Democrat. He has an interesting family of eight boys, all living, and all at home. Their names are-William H., David, Wesley R., Isaac Y., Jacob S., Frank, Anderson, and Eddie.
John M. Flinchpaugh was born in this county in 1838, and has always been a farmer from preference. He was married in 1863 to Miss Fanny Yanney, of Miami town- ship. A Democrat in politics, he has filled the place of councilman of the village one year. His five children are-Charles E., Nora L., Harry E., Jennie, and James E.
Henry Flinchpaugh was born in the town of Miami in 1819, and followed the business of farming till of age. Then he opened a store on Taylor's creek, in which he remained five years, when he removed his stock of goods to Harrison, and remained another five years. He is a natural mechanic, and has worked considerably at the gunsmith's trade. During the gold excitement in Cali- fornia he made rifles for a number of men who went over the plains to that State. He is now engaged at his
trade. He was married in 1843. In politics he is a Democrat. His three children are-Harriet L., now Mrs. Valentine Fagely; William M., married to Julia Siepen; and John F., still living at home.
David Flinchpaugh was born in Butler county, Ohio, in 1818, and was moved with the family to Miami town- ship the same year. He has held the office of township trustee three years, and has been school director more than thirty years. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He married Maria Fleming, a native of Pennsylvania, in 1842, and settled, the same year, on the farm which he now occupies.
John B. Matson was born in this township in 1796, and married Lucretia Y. Buck, of the same place, in the year 1826. She died after thirteen years, leaving six chil- dren. Two years later he was married to Milchia Van- gorder. His first settlement was made on the farm now owned by Mrs. A. W. Flowers, the same on which he was born. He was a Democrat, and has been in the office of justice of the peace for one term. He died on the same farm in 1875, at the age of eighty years. His nine children are James, married to Elizabeth Houts; Oliver, married to Louisa Stephenson; John B., married to Cynthia A. Brown; Lucretia, who died when four years old; Job, married to Catharine Derrick; Lovina, who died in infancy; Albert, married to Anna Chambers; Charlotte D., now the wife of Amasa W. Flowers; and Narcissa, Mrs. Richard C. Flowers.
John B. Matson was born in this township in 1831. He attended Farmers' college, at College Hills, one term. In 1854 he was married to Cynthia A. Brown, of the same county. He is a Democrat in his political be- lief. His children are James B., married to Mary Mc- Sweety; Minnie, the wife of Asa C. Bouham ; Mary, now Mrs. Thomas M. Gerard; Kate, Fannie, who died at the age of seven years; Frank, who died at three years of age; Hattie, now living at home, and Bessie, who died an infant.
Chalon G. Guard was born in this county on March 15, 1819. In 1841 he was married to Leah H. Comeges, of Dearborn county, Indiana. He was township trustee for several years, and, in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a member, he was steward during many years. In his political faith he was a Republican. He died October 21, 1873. His children are Angeline, Maton B., married to Sophia D. Moore, and now living in Indiana; Simeon G., married to Inez M. Lewis, and now in Kansas; Rachel M., Ezra G., Almira H., the wife of Stephen W. Rittenburg; and Eunice W., now Mrs. Luther Fisher, of Illinois.
John McGee was born in New Jersey in 1807. He came to Ohio in 1829, and settled on the farm on which he now lives in Miami township. In 1833 he married Nacky Brown, from Clermont county. He has held the office of trustee in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He has long been a Republi- can. His children are Sarah, Robert, married to Sallie Fazely; John, Jane, now Mrs. Michael Sargent, and Annie.
Abel Ingersoll was born in New Jersey in 1794, and
1
326
HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
was brought to Ohio in 1801. His first home in this State was in Whitewater township, on the farm owned at present by Mr. Hopping. He married Elizabeth Polk, of Pennsylvania. At one time he served in the place of constable during a series of years ; was a member of the United Brethren church; in politics was always very liberal, voting for the man that seemed to him best. He died in this township in 1850 at the age of sixty-six. Seven years later his wife died. They. had eight chil- dren: Isaac, married to Mary A. Herron; Patience, married first to John Herron, and afterward to Arthur Henry; Rachel, the wife of Caleb Flinchpaugh; Eliza- beth, now Mrs. Robert Martin, of Indiana; and four that died in early infancy.
Isaac Ingersoll was born in this county in 1817. Oc- tober 31, 1844, he married Mary A. Harron. Several years he has served as township trustee, and two years was township treasurer. He has always lived on the farm on which he was born. He is, in politics, a Democrat. He has five children: Joseph, now married to Florence Marklin; Nancy, Daniel, and Elizabeth, not living at home, and one that died while an infant.
William Maensley was born in Virginia in 1785, where he married Nancy Bussel. She died, leaving six chil- dren, in Miami, in 1822. He came to this State in 1815, but had lived for a time previously in Boone county, Kentucky. His first Ohio settlement was made at North Bend, on the farm now the property of Charles Short. In politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died in Ripley, Indiana, in 1837. He had six children : James, at pres- ent in Texas; Moses B., now married to Eunice Hayes; John B., married to Mary J. Ingraham; Eliza, the wife of David Jones, of Indiana; Samuel, married to Catha- rine Gronendike; and Stephen W., married to Mary Vangorder, and a resident of Indiana at the present time.
Moses B. Maensley was born in Boone county, Ken- tucky, in 1814, and was, while very young, brought by his parents to North Bend, Ohio. He has held the offices of constable and treasurer for his township, and has also been steward in the Methodist Episcopal church, where he has a membership. In politics he is a strong Republican. In 1846 he built a warehouse at Cleves and began the buying of grain, which he followed twenty years, when he abandoned it and took up farming. Twelve years previous to the above date he was in busi- ness on the river between Cincinnati and New Orleans. It took an entire year in those days to make one trip. In 1839 he was married to Miss Eunice Hayes, of this township. They have had nine children: Anderson B., married to Mary H. Lewis; Anna H., and Alvin C .; James F., married to Anna Markland; Abiatha B., the wife of Otto Lowe, of Indiana; Fanny M., Job H., Ara- bella, and Chalon G.
Job Hayes was born in this county-North Bend-in 1791. His father, Job Hayes, died on a boat three months before his birth; he was buried on the bank of the Ohio river with such care to conceal the body from the Indians that even his friends were unable to discover the place of his burial. He always followed the business
of farming. His children were: James, married to Penina Conner; Sarah, the wife of Levi Miller, now living in Indiana; and Job, married to Johanna Hayes, and living in Iowa.
Job Hayes, jr., owing to the great distance to school, was obliged to study evenings at home, which he did by the firelight as best he could. He married Johanna Hayes, of Butler county, June 29, 1816, and first settled on the farm now owned by the Miller heirs, in Whitewater township. In politics he was a Democrat; in religion, a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in Madison, Iowa, February 4, 1868. His wife died at the same place four years later. Their family consists of eleven children: Mary, Levi M., Joseph H., married to Sarah Myers; Omer, married to Mary A. McEllhaney; Sarah M., the wife of Isaac Stephens, of Indiana; Isaac D., married and living in Iowa; Martha, Jacob, Samuel F., married to Mary Marsh, and now of Iowa; and Bue- lah, married first to Corydon Swift and afterward to Bar- ney Mullin.
Joseph H. Hayes was born in this county in 1824. In 1852 he married Sarah Myers, also of this county. He has served as township trustee one term, is a member of the Methodist church, and in politics is a Democrat, His seven children are: Job W., Enos, Alice D., Isaac D., Joseph G., Wilson, and Charles.
Thomas Markland was born in Maryland, in 1765. He was a cooper by trade, which business he carried on with farming all his life. He married Anna M. Somers, a native of Virginia, and came to this State in 1805. He reached Green township, of this county, on the sec- ond day of April, and settled on the farm now owned by Charles and Washington Markland. At that time the nearest white settler was two miles distant, and the nearest church had to be reached by going eleven miles. The.school was two miles from his farm, and the nearest grist-mill twenty-seven miles away. There was no saw- mill within reach.
He helped Bailey Guard land at Lawrenceburgh, Indi- ana, about the year 1806; was the first manufacturer of barrels in that part of the county. In politics he was an Old Line Whig. He died in 1825, and his wife's death occurred in 1837. They had a family of eleven children, eight boys and three girls-Elizabeth, the wife of William Rogers; Leah, wife of Henry Towner; Martha, now Mrs. James Anderson; Jonathan, married to Julia Sam- mons; Benjamin, married to Fanny Rogers and after- wards to Emily Edwards; John, whose wife is Mary Miller; William, whose wife is Mary Sammons; Noah, married to Jemima Sammons; Washington, married to Mary Hammond; James, now in Indiana, whose wife was Phobe Moore and afterward Eliza Creech; and Charles, married to Jane Gardner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.