USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 96
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LEWISTON
was a former village in Spencer township, laid out in 1828 by William Lewis. It is now included in the Sev- enteenth ward of the city.
UNDERCLIFF AND RUSSELL'S
are stations and suburban villages on the Little Miami railroad, between Columbia and Red Bank.
TURKEY BOTTOM.
This is a notable track of about one and a half square miles, between the Little Miami river and Columbia. It was found by the first settlers already cleared, for the most part, by the long cultivation of the Indians, and very likely also of the Mound Builders; but still exceed- ingly fertile. From nine acres of it planted by Judge Goforth during the first season of white occupancy, nine
J. J. Langdon.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
hundred and sixty-three bushels of corn were raised ; and Captain Benjamin Davis realized a crop of one hundred and fourteen bushels from one acre. There is also a tra- dition that Benjamin Randolph, having planted a single acre with corn and then compelled to visit New Jersey, came back in the fall and found one hundred bushels of corn, without any attention meanwhile, ready for his in- gathering. Major Stites was its first owner, and leased it out in good-sized lots-unmarked by divisions-to six of the colonists, for terms of five years. The first cultiva- tion of it by the whites had to be done under guard, to protect against Indian surprise. It was almost the sole Columbia cornfield of 1789 and '90, and was the favorite resort of the women and children, for procuring the bear- grass root for fuel.
In the matter of the fertility of the Columbia region, an extravagant local item in the Western Spy and Hamil- ton Gazette for September 11, 1802, with quotation here :
There is in the garden of Colonel John Armstrong, of Columbia, a peach-tree on which there is fruit nearly as big as a half-bushel, and would weigh, it is supposed, from twenty to twenty-five pounds.
TUSCULUM
names a station on the Little Miami railroad in Eastern Cincinnati, and also a district for suburban residence on the neighboring hill, which is called Mount Tusculum, and closely overlooks Columbia both south and east. Over three hundred acres have been handsomely laid out and improved by Judge Joseph Langworth, the im- provements including a fine roadway of about five miles length, called Undercliff avenue, which encircles and in- tersects the entire quarter.
POPULATION.
Spencer township-the little tract now lying outside the city-had nine hundred and ninety-five irhabitants by the census of June, 1880. And yet it had as the larger township, a population of two thousand five hun- dred and forty-three in 1880.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH,
THE LANGDON FAMILY.
The records of the Langdon family in Linwood go back to Philip Langdon, a mariner from Boston, Massa- chusetts, who was originally from England, it is supposed. His seventh child and fifth son was Lieutenant Paul Langdon, who was born September 12, 1693, and died December 3, 176r. He married Mrs. Mary Stacy August 18, 1718, in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and they had seven children; the fifth being John Langdon (the grand- father of James D. Langdon). Lieutenant Paul Lang- don and this son John took part in the Revolutionary war. This John was born June 21, 1728, and died October 10, 1822. He married Eunice Torrey, Decem- ber 29, 1757, and they had a family of eight children,
whose names were John W., Artemas, James, Josiah, Joanna, Oliver, Eunice, and Solomon. Of these Artemas died in infancy, and the brothers, excepting Josiah, all came to Ohio with their sister Joanna, and although they were farming, yet they often officiated as preachers and exhorters in the Methodist church. They settled near Cincinnati, and some of their descendants are living in the old homestead. James, the third son, was the father of the subject of the following sketch. He was born March 27, 1762, and died October 3, 1804. He was married December 15, 1788, to Esther Stebbins, also of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and their children were Richard Chester, James Davenport, Elam Potter, Loren- da, and Joanna. He (the father) died while the children were comparatively young, leaving the cares of the fami- ly on the mother, who was a woman of remarkable energy of character. She was usually known as "Aunt Esther," and as friend, nurse, or neighbor, was very often called upon for advice or assistance. In those days the women spun and wove the cloth for bedding and clothing, and Aunt Esther was a wonderful weaver and spinner. Her father was Moses Stebbins, the son of Samuel, who was the son of Samuel, who was the son of Thomas, who was born in 1620, in England, and son of Rowland Stebbins, or Stebbing, as the name was originally, and who came to America in 1634, and settled in Massachusetts.
James Davenport Langdon was born June 13, 1792, in Vershire, Vermont. His father was James Langdon, who married Esther Stebbins, December 15, 1788, in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. His parents were both natives of this place, but immediately after their marriage they moved to Vershire, Vermont. He had two brothers, Richard C. and Elam P., and two sisters, Lorenda and Joanna. In October, 1804, his father died whilst away from home on business, after a very short illness of measles. Two years after his death, or in 1806, two of his uncles, John W. and Solomon, with their families, his mother with her family, Andrew Peters and Wales Aldrich and their families, in all about forty souls, moved in wagons from Vermont and came out to Ohio. The journey was tedious and slowly made through the wilderness, there being no roads scarcely, camping at night as they could, sometimes at an occasional tavern or farm house, but oftener in their wagons as night came on. It took about ten weeks to reach the Ohio river at Wellsville, where they embarked on flat boats, taking the wagons aboard, but sending the horses by land down the Ohio side. Floating down the river they landed at Columbia two days before Christmas. That first winter in Ohio his mother and family lived in part of the house of Oliver Spencer-an old building which still stands near the old tanyard. There was only one other house then in Columbia, the McMahon house, and that is still standing near the Columbia railroad station.
This Oliver Spencer was the father of Robert, after- wards a Methodist preacher, Henry E., who was for several years mayor of Cincinnati, Oliver, a judge in the Hamilton county courts, and a fourth son who became a farmer in northern Ohio.
In the spring of 1807 the family located at what was
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
called Red Bank station, on the farms or lands which have ever since been occupied by them and their de- scendants, on and near the Little Miami river. This land was purchased by his uncle Oliver Langdon, who was the guardian appointed in Vermont, out of tracts originally owned by Benjamin Stites. There were only ten or a dozen families then in all of what is now known as Spencer township; they were Eliphalet, Joseph, An- drew, and John Ferris, brothers, and Henry Ferris their cousin-the families of Larned, Allen Witham, Giffins, Nash, Riggle and Williams. A treaty had been made two or three years before with the Indians, and about all had gone to reservations. The first school-house was built by Joseph Ferris on his farm. The first religious society, Methodist, was formed in 1805 in the McMahon house alluded to, and the Baptists built the first church in Ohio in Columbia a few years later which was de- stroyed about 1835. The Methodists built their first church in Columbia about 1840, which was accidently burned and rebuilt on another lot. The settlers for the first year or two lived literally on hog and hominy. The first grist-mill was run by two brothers named Hawley, and was on the Miami near the mouth of Clough creek. Afterwards it was owned and run for years by the Tur- pins until worn out or destroyed.
The brothers and sisters of James D. are all dead. The sister Lorenda married Lemuel Snow in September, 1816, and moved to a farm in Indiana; the other sister, Joanna, also married a farmer, Minervus Swift, in Sep- tember, 1818, and lived four years in Indiana; Elam Potter married Ann Cromwell, a sister of Joseph Crom- well, who kept the famous Broadway hotel so long in Cincinnati. Elam Potter was connected as clerk or assistant postmaster nearly all his life with the Cincinnati post office. Richard was a printer and newspaper pub- lisher, and his widow still lives in Covington, Kentucky. James D., the subject of this sketch, was married to Sarah Phelps December 23, 1818, and has lived on the one spot abont sixty-three years. He has always been actively engaged in farming from his early youth, and owes his good health and long years to good habits and regular living. His uncle Oliver was quite a preacher, and officiated at funerals, baptisms and marriages. After his uncle's death, in 1828 or 1829, he began to preach himself; the text of his first sermon was I Samuel xii- 24-"Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things He has done for you"-and was at a service one Sunday at the mouth of the Little Miami river. There being but few ministers in those days it naturally fell to be his lot to take the uncle's place. So from that on he was continually called on to preach, attend funerals, and solemnize marriages for miles all around the country. He was licensed to preach in 1836 and ordained elder in 1842. During the year 1848 he was superintendent of Cincinnati circuit, and for eight years was a member of the annual confer- ence of the Methodist Protestant church. He was pres- ident of the first temperance society formed in the year 1833 in Columbia township. For years in succession he was a township trustee and school director, and has all
through life been an officer or trustee in Sunday-school.
His wife had an experience in coming to Ohio (which was the year before the marriage, or 1817) very similar to that of her husband. She was born in Hollowell, Maine, on May 1, 1797, and was the daughter of Ebenezer and Sarah Phelps. She had four brothers, William, John, Alfred and Nathan, with one sister, Eliza, who came in wagons all the long journey from Hollowell, Maine, to Columbia. The brothers and sister (who married Jon- athan Livings) all settled in Indiana, and raised families there. Dr. Ebenezer S. Phelps, the oldest brother, lo- cated in Middleton, Massachusetts, where he and his family now reside. James D. and Sarah had a family of nine children-James, Sarah, Cynthia, Harriet, Cyrus, John, Elam, Edwin and Henry. There are now living only the father and three of the children-John P., Elam C., and Harriet. John P. occupies the homestead and is a farmer, and has one son, James W., who lives near his father, and is a farmer. The old family dwelling had become so out of repair and dilapidated, in 1877, having been used for some sixty years, it was torn down by John P., and a modern and commodious dwelling was built on the site. John P. has been mayor of the village for three successive terms, and been commissioned twice as magistrate for the township. Elam C. resides on part of the homestead farm, has had four children, three now living. These two brothers, from time to time, have been called upon to take part in affairs of the township and village. Elam has served seventeen years as school trustee, several terms in village council, two or three terms as treasurer of township, and both the brothers are members and workers in church and Sabbath- school, taking an active part in all public enterprises. Harriet became the wife of Rev. Charles H. Williams, a minister in the Methodist Protestant church. She has three sons living, and for several years her home has been in Springfield, Ohio, where the sons are connected with railroads, and the husband is an active church officer. The sons James, Cyrus and Edwin, and the daughter, Sarah, died young or unmarried. Cynthia married Dr. H. E. Morrill, and her home was in Brook- lyn, New York, where an only daughter survives her, and who is now the wife of Dr. Hugh Smith. The son, Henry, became a physician and surgeon, and acted as such during the late war, in the Seventy-ninth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, which was with General Sherman during that wonderful march through the South, which virtually brought the war to an end. His widow survives him and one son, Willie Carson. The doctor, after the close of the war, practised medicine in Columbia for several years, and his office was within gunshot almost of the old Spencer house, in which his grandmother and father spent the winter of 1806-7.
The record of the family of James D. Langdon: James D. Langdon, born June 13, 1792; Sarah Phelps, born May 1, 1797, died September 11, 1863, married December 23, 1818. Their children were : James Har- vie, born November 23, 1819, died June 27, 1842; Sarah, born October 1, 1821, died December 15, 1825; Cynthia, born August 23, 1823, died January 9, 1861;
á
HOMESTEAD 1804
JOHNSONS GROVE.
RESIDENCE OF C. B. JOHNSON, (BUILT IN 1821.) NEAR MT, HEALTHY, HAMILTON CO., O.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
Harriet, born July 25, 1825, still living in Springfield, Ohio; Cyrus Stebbins, born January 5, 1828, died Feb- ruary 1, 1864; John Phelps, born December 8, 1829, living in Linwood, Ohio; Elam Chester, born March 31, 1832, living in Linwood, Ohio; Edwin Mattoon, born December 20, 1834, died July 26, 1847; Henry Archer, born May 28, 1839, died May 13, 1876.
John P. Langdon married, for his first wife, Mary Williams, May, 1855, and James W., a son by this mar- riage, is living, and married to Lida Durham, and occu-
pies part of the father's farm. John P.'s second marriage took place in April, 1861, to Keturah Nash, and the couple still occupy the homestead place, and the old father lives with them.
Elam C.'s first wife was Cynthia Allen, of New York State. She died in December, 1868, leaving two girls. His second wife was Martha F. Nash (whose sister mar- ried as above), a native of the old Columbia township. Two children have been born to them, one living only.
SPRINGFIELD.
ITS ERECTION.
The need of a new township, to be carved from the northern part of the originally great Cincinnati township, was not felt with any pressure or made necessary by the pushing of settlement up the Miami purchase, until after Wayne's victory in 1794. This greatly stimulated re- moval from the hamlets along the river to the rural districts and invited rapid immigration from abroad. The next year the court of general quarter sessions of the peace for Hamilton county answered a demand of the growing settlements and somewhat numerous stations up the Mill Creek valley for a new municipality. Spring- field township was accordingly created, to begin at a point in the meridian bounding the east side of township three, in the first entire range, two miles south of the southeast corner of said township three (that is, the present corner of Springfield township); thence north two miles to said southeast corner of township three; thence east two miles to the meridian; thence north six miles to the northern line of the entire range one; thence west to the east boundary of Colerain, which was then as now; thence south along Colerain and South Bend town- ships eight miles; thence east to the place of beginning.
This boundary deprived Springfield of its present range of sections on the north, in range two, township two; but south of the south line of that range gave two tiers of sections-twelve in all, to the present south line of Sycamore, also the ranges of sections across what is now the north part of Mill Creek township. The western boundary of Springfield was the same as now, except that it began one mile south of its present beginning, and extended two miles further south than now. The old township contained just sixty sections.
In the general reconstruction of the townships of Hamilton county in 1803, Springfield suffered a change. It was now so bounded as to include the two western tiers of sections in township four, of the first entire range, which it had previously, but which are now in Sycamore
township; the two sections next north of them in the second entire range, township three, also in Sycamore, which Springfield did not have before; the five eastern tiers of sections in township three, of the first entire range, all of which Springfield covered previously, but now lost the last tier on the west; one tier of sections immediately north of these, in range two, township two, which was a new acquisition of five sections to Spring- field; and the same amount on the south, from what is now Mill Creek, but was only five-twelfths of the former possession of Springfield in this direction. By these changes the township had not greatly altered its form, but had shrunk in size from sixty to fifty-four sections.
Springfield now includes the whole of township three, in the first entire range, and the tier of sections next on the north, in township two, range two. It is thus, but for a somewhat broken line on the north, a regular paral- lelogramı of uniform length, seven sections with Sycamore and Springfield townships, and of even width-six miles -with Mill Creek township. It contains forty-two sec- tions, some of them being of less than full size, and so yielding altogether but twenty-five thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-six acres, and is, with the exception of Sycamore, which has the same number of sections but more acres, the largest township in the county. The south, east, and west boundary lines are run straight, with approximate exactness; the first section parallel from the south is also well run, as well as the meriadians in general; but the parallels proceeding from the second begin at once to break their regularity and soon become exceedingly uneven, growing more and more so to the north line of the township and county, which is here the most broken of any part of the county line, in places almost equaling the zigzags of a Virginia rail fence.
GEOGRAPHY.
Springfield township is bounded on the north by But- ler county, on the east by Sycamore township, south by Mill Creek township, west by Colerain. The southeast
46
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
and eastern parts ot the township are in the Mill Creek valley, which pushes some way, in its breadth and pictur- esque effects, up the West fork, into the interior of the township. The remainder of Springfield has the general character of the Hamilton county plateau. The heads of the West fork of Mill creek are just across the south line of the township, in Mill Creek-one at College Hill, the other a mile and a half east, near the Winton pike. The stream, with its tributaries, thence winds through or touches at least twenty-six sections of this township, with the main waters of Mill creek, which, at the point where they leave the township west of Carthage, approaching within a mile and a quarter of one head of the West fork, from which source the creek is here distant, by the very involved courses of the streams, scarcely less than eighteen miles. The East and West forks unite in this township, about a mile north of the southeast corner, and flow two miles and a half to their exit from Spring- field, a mile and two-thirds west of the corner. Some of the affluents of the East fork intersect the north part of the township, one of them stretching more than halfway across the northern tier of sections. In the northwest corner flow several of the headwaters of streams that make their way thence into Butler county and to the Great Miami at the northward. By all these the town- ship is very abundantly watered, and has its surface broken into many varied and picturesque forms.
The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad runs through the entire easternmost tier of sections, in a somewhat winding course of about eight miles. The Cincinnati & Springfield railroad, commonly known as the Dayton Short Line, almost bisects section No. I, in the southeast corner, but does not elsewhere touch the township, except across a corner of the next section north. It has a course in Springfield of only about one and a half miles. The College Hill narrow-gauge rail- way now runs to a point half a mile west of · Mt. Pleas- ant, entering from the south and having about two miles of track within the township. Another narrow-gauge line, called the Cincinnati, Avondale & Hamilton rail- road, has been projected, to enter Springfield from the direction of Avondale, where it would form a junction with the Miami Valley (now Cincinnati & Northern), upon section No. 7, nearly half a mile west of the Cin- cinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, and run with a general parallelism to that line to Glendale, where it would strike to the northwest, leaving the township on section No. 19, two miles and a half from the northwest corner. This, however, is believed to be a dead project. The old Hamilton turnpike runs through the township almost on a due north and south line, through Mount Pleasant, one mile east of the Colerain line. The Ham- ilton, Springfield & Carthage turnpike, on the old mili- tary road, or Wayne's trace, strikes a bee line from Carth- age, on the first meridian west of the Sycamore boundary througe Hartwell, Wyoming, and to Glendale, whence it diverges to the northwest, passing through Springdale to its exit from the county in the direction of Hamilton. The line due northward from the point of divergence is continued by the Princetown turnpike to the north county
line. The Winton pike, and several other fine roads, also aid in the accommodation of the Springfield people. The Lebanon pike barely more than touches the south- east corner. The Miami canal also crosses that angle, but farther in the interior, striking diagonally, in a course of about two miles, through sections Nos. 1 and 2, and passing the villages of Carthage, Hartwell, and Lockland. These with other villages named above, and also Spring- dale, are also the principal places in the township, al- though many others have been platted, particularly on the railway lines, as will appear near the close of this chapter.
TOWNSHIP OFFICERS.
The first, nominated by the quarter sessions court in 1795, were: John Ludlow, clerk; James Wallace, over- seer of the poor; Henry Tucker, Jacob White, overseers of highways; Isaac Martin, John Vance, Luke Foster, viewers of enclosures and appraisers of damages.
Under the order of 1803, defining new boundaries for the township, the voters in Springfield were required to meet at the house of Jonathan Pittman, and elect three justices of the peace.
April 24, 1809, under the system then prevailing, Zebulon Foster and Joseph Jenkins were commissioned by the governor of the State as justices of the peace for the township of Springfield, each to hold his office for the term of three years.
We find the names of other Springfield justices pub- lished as follows: 1819, Abraham Lindlay, William Snodgrass; 1825, Charles Swaim; 1829, Thomas Scott, James Whalon, Alexander Mayhew; 1865-8, Samuel McLean, John L. McGill, R. McGilliard; 1869, Mc- Gilliard, McLean, Thomas Evitt; 1870-1, Evitt, Mc- Gilliard, C. B. Ruffin; 1872, Evitt, McGilliard, E. P. Newell; 1873, McGilliard, Newell, Joseph O. Durham; 1874, Durham, McGilliard, F. M. Douglass; 1875-6, same, with Jeremiah Gross; 1878, Robert Carson, D. J. Smith, H. P. Mayhew; 1879-80, Smith, Mayhew, R. J. Stauverman.
HISTORICAL NOTES.
The cattle brand of the township, fixed by the court of quarter sessions in 1795, was E.
It is noted that by 1810 Springfield had already a pop- ulation of about fifty-eight to the square mile. It had a total number of seven thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine inhabitants by the census of 1880.
In the Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, of Cincin- nati-the number for July 9, 1800-William Ludlow advertises his farm in Springfield township, of thirty to forty acres, for sale, and offers to take a brood-mare for part pay. Farming property, evidently, was cheap in those days.
The Mound Builders left some remains of interest in this township, although none great in extent. A fine old mound, of considerable size, near the Station spring, was destroyed many years ago, in grading for a turnpike. Mr. Olden says:
In cutting through it the earth presented the appearance of having been deposited from vessels little larger than a peck measure, as small heaps of that size and of entirely different kinds of earth were found
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
deposited or thrown promiscuously together, showing that the builders of the work had no knowledge of the domestication or use of the lower animals, and that all their great works were constructed entirely by human hands.
Another, said by Mr. Olden to correspond pretty nearly in size to this, still stands on the Maynard French farm, section eleven, southwest of Glendale. He says:
It is seventy-three feet in diameter north and south, and sixty-three feet east and west at the base, with an altitude of eight feet. It is cov- ered with forest trees, oak and ash, some of which are more than twenty inches in diameter. Some persons in digging into it years ago left two uneven and ill-looking depressions, which mar the appearance of this otherwise beautiful little mound.
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