History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 32

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985

USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 32

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On August 17, 1892, Crescent Temple No. 353, Daughters of Rebekah, was organized and occupies same lodge building. Crescent Temple numbers about sixty members.

In 1907 the Junior Order of United American Mechanics was organized. This lodge purchased the lot and building at the southwest corner of Scott and High streets and remodeled the same to suit its purposes. It now num- bers over eighty members.

SCHOOLS, COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIES.

The first school was conducted in a country school house near the rail- road, about one-half mile east of the village, which all the children of the village attended until 1874, in which year a school house was erected in the village. In 1886 the present four-room brick school house was erected at a cost of about twelve thousand dollars. The school now enrolls about one hundred pupils. R. M. Brown is the present superintendent. D. A. Petrey was the superintendent in 1907; C. F. Geeting, 1903; C. M. Eikenberry, 1898; William Buck, 1897; Oscar Creager, 1896; George Buck, 1892.

Some twenty-five years ago a tile-mill was started by one Holtsmiller, who operated it for a number of years. About the year 1900 this mill passed into the hands of Nelson & Myers, who, finding a large body of tile-clay,

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erected a large building and sheds just north of the village, and now operate the plant on a very extensive scale, manufacturing all sizes of clay tile up to twenty-four inches, annually shipping many car loads. This is the most extensive business in the village.

The pipe line for natural gas was laid through the village in 1913, and has quite a number of patrons. The West Manchester Lighting Company was organized some years ago by local parties. They strung wires for street and commercial lighting and have the contract with the village under a fran- chise, but the company buys the current from Greenville, delivered at the corporation line. There are about forty street lights.

The village has a local telephone exchange, the system being connected with the neighboring villages.

The physicians of the village are Dr. C. W. Carter and Dr. Carl Beane.

The business of the town is transacted by one bank, one grain elevator, four groceries, two dry goods stores, one hardware store, one machine shop, one jeweler, one plumber, two coal-yards, one lumber-yard, one livery stable and garage, one furniture store, one agricultural implement store, one butcher, one harness and shoe shop, two barbers, three blacksmiths, tile works and two hotels.

The village owns its own waterworks system, built in 1903, at a cost of about eighteen thousand dollars, the water being obtained from three driven wells near the southeast corner of the town, driven to a depth of some eighty feet, from which water is pumped to a stand-pipe, which supplies the village.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

GRATIS TOWNSHIP.

Gratis is the southeast township of the county, and may be described as rolling land generally. Along the southern line, measuring from the west line, is a strip of level land about three miles long by one and a half miles wide. When the county was first settled this land was wet and much of it swampy, but, by drainage, it has become the most fertile land of the county.

Twin creek touches section 3 and 2, but neither branch of the stream crosses the north line to exceed one-half mile. Elk creek touches sections 35 and 36, but slightly. Into these streams the whole township is drained by smaller streams flowing northwardly or southwardly from a ridge of high land that crosses the township east and west near the center line. It should not be understood that this ridge is a hill, for it is simply the top of the two north and south slopes, and in many places the traveler will cross the divide without observing it unless his attention be called thereto.

Along the eastern side of the township two streams, each called Pleasant run, have their source near the line between sections 13 and 24, one swing- ing north into Twin creek, and the other flowing south in Elk creek. Along each stream is a fine body of gently sloping farm land, exceedingly fertile.

Beginning near the southern border, a road runs directly north, near and along the high land of the western slope for a distance of five miles, with the valley always in sight. There is no more agreeable pleasure drive in the county, the road being good, the view always pleasant and the outlook prosperous.

Along some of the streams is some broken land, but it is of small pro- portions, the land smoothing out as soon as the hill top is reached, and there are no hills of any great height. The climb from Pleasant run, east. of Greenbush, is the longest hill climb in the township, going up a hundred and thirty feet to the county line in a little less than a mile, but the slope is gradual all the way up.

There are no railroads touching Gratis township, and it contains no factories except a saw-mill at Gratis and one at West Elkton, and the

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carriage factory of I. Talbert & Sons, now Talbert & Company, at West Elkton. This is the only carriage factory in the county that has survived the fierce competition of the great factories. The only reason that can be given is that they do no cheap work, the buyer soon learning that he has the full quality of work that he paid for; naturally he brags of that fact, and that drives away no customers.

Gratis township is essentially a farming community, the main crops being those generally raised in this latitude. The houses and farms look comfortable and well kept, the land is productive and the farmers prosperous. The origin of the name of the township is given in the chapter on organiza- tion, at least that is the story told by Judge Jacob Chambers and George D. Hendrix, who got it from those who were prominent in the affairs of the county at the time it occurred.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The first settlers of Gratis township were John Leslie and John Long, who, about 1800, some claim as early as 1798, located on section 36. Leslie took the south half and it has been a tradition in the township that near the banks of Elk creek stood a very large sycamore or cottonwood tree, some eight or ten feet in diameter, that was hollow at the base, with an opening some two or three feet in diameter, and he made it his home for about three or four months until he could find time to build his cabin. The next year Leslie brought his family of five sons and three daughters from Penn- sylvania and there are many of his descendants yet living in this and the adjoining counties.

Shortly after Leslie, came Alexander Pugh from Georgia, who bought some eight hundred acres in Pleasant Valley, north of Greenbush. About the same time William Swisher settled on section I, north of Twin creek, and near him, about the same time, Hezekiah Phillips settled; his daughter, Rebecca Phillips, is claimed to be the first white girl born in the county. In 1804 Abraham Neff settled on Twin creek and later built the first mill. In the same year Levi Kinman came, and Abraham Wimmer and Nicholas and Jacob Gift settled at Gratis. A little later, Daniel Boone settled south of Gratis on a stream that yet bears his name. It is claimed he was related to the hunter, Daniel Boone, of Kentucky, whence he came.

At the time the present United States Constitution was adopted. there existed a strong anti-slavery faction, and the Quaker element of the United States, by religion, precept and practice, had always insisted on the prin-

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ciple that Lincoln later expressed so well, that "No man was ever created good enough to own another man." This agitation forced the compromise on the slavery question into the Constitution, and also forced that principle into the Ordinance of 1787, that involuntary servitude, except as a punish- ment for crime, should never exist in the Northwest territory.

The Quakers, on account of their tenets, had for years, in the border and Southern states, been derided and, in some cases, partly ostracised by their slavery neighbors, and looked upon the Northwest territory ( for they were ever a reading people) as the land of freedom. Hence, when the danger of Indian forays had passed, great numbers of them sold out, and, with their families and what they could haul, headed for the Ohio river as the boundary line to be passed. Also many of the younger men came to hunt for homes in the territory, and, when found, they returned and brought back as wives the waiting sweethearts. These are the real reasons that caused many Quaker settlements in this state. These are some of the reasons that made the Quaker settlement in this township, to which must be added the fact that the Great Miami valley was then, as now, reputed to be one of God's garden spots, and the other fact that in those localities from which they came they had to depend much on people of their own faith for con- solation in sorrow and for social enjoyment. Hence, when moving to a new country, they hung together.

During the years 1803, 1804 and 1805, over fifty families from the Carolinas and Georgia settled in southern Preble and northern Butler coun- ties, the central point being around West Elkton, and of the number nearly all were Quakers and all acquired land. Some of them later became pos- sessed of hundreds of acres, many farms yet being owned by descendants of the early owners. We will name a few and, so far as known, their location : Samuel Stubbs, from Georgia, settled in section 29. His grand- son, S. N. Stubbs, still owns most of the farm. With Samuel came eleven brothers, it is claimed, who all settled in the township in that neighborhood or on the land nearby in Butler, and nearly all reared large families. Daniel Chrisman, from North Carolina, settled in section II. Richard Brown, from Georgia, settled in section 20. Jonas Randall, from South Carolina, settled east of West Elkton. Christian Fall and Benjamin Fall, his son, settled near Greenbush. John Riner, from Virginia, settled in the eastern part of the township. Francis Jones, from Georgia, settled near West Elk- ton. Jesse Kenworthy, from South Carolina, settled on section 32. Wil- liam Gifford, from North Carolina, settled east of West Elkton. Nathan Maddock and Samuel Maddock, his father, from Georgia, headed a colony

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of some fifty people to the land of freedom; they settled generally in southern Preble and northern Butler. Samuel Maddock settled in section 32. Thomas Stubbs settled near West Elkton. Joseph Stubbs and his son, John, settled on section 34. Jonathan Roberts, from North Carolina, settled just across the line in Butler county, but many of the families have since moved into this township. George Kelley, from Virginia, settled near the middle of the township. Simeon Loop, from Pennsylvania, settled in the western part of the township. All the above named are claimed to have come before the close of 1805.

William Hixon, from Georgia, came in 1806 and settled in section 9. Thomas Talbert came in 1807 and settled near West Elkton. Elijah Men- denhall, from Georgia, settled in 1806 in section 34. Martin Sayler, from Maryland, settled on section 3 in 1809. He was a millwright and helped build most of the mills for a number of years. William Clevenger, from New Jersey, settled on section 24 in 1806. Nathan Hornaday, from North Carolina, settled in section 18 in 1806. Peter Prugh, from Maryland, set- tled on section 26 in 1813. A few years later than the above we find the names of Job Smith, John Thomas, Joseph Mullendore, Jacob Furrey, Abraham Flory, David Branson, Elias Mackey and Jonathan Horner, who appear as owning land in the township. Those early settlers nearly all left large families and their names are still prominent in the community. Race suicide was unknown in that generation.

CHURCHES.

About 1848 the Congregationalists built a church at Greenbush, but the membership was not strong enough to support it, and some ten years later they sold out to the Methodists and United Brethren, who, for many years previous, had maintained organizations, and they continued to use it to- gether until some twenty years since. Then the Methodists sold their in- terest to the United Brethren, which is now the only church in the place, numbering about fifty members. The pastor, Charles Snyder, serves both the church here and at West Elkton. It is said that the Sunday school num- bers a great many more than the church, which predicts a bright future for the church.

The German Baptists have the only country church in the township, a fine frame structure, located at the crossing of the Quaker trace and the Gratis and Camden roads. The first church was a small frame church about a mile east of the present building, on the same road, built in 1858, and

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locally known as the Brubaker church, but, proving too small and not cen- trally located, about 1890 the present site was purchased and a new build- ing erected. The church seems to be in a prosperous condition. In 1874 they erected a fine brick church at the northwest corner of section 1, which was called Twin Valley, or Lower Twin, church, but as the years passed the population shifted, and it was found that a church located in Gratis would be more central and better accommodate the brethren. And as the old Presbyterian, later Reformed, church had died out, the building was for sale; so the church was bought, more ground purchased and the structure improved. Since about 1912 the old location has been abandoned. The church now numbers about seventy-five members and Aaron Brubaker is pastor.

EDUCATION.

The first school taught in the township was in 1806, in a log school house about a half mile southeast of West Elkton, and soon thereafter there were other schools started, all subscription schools, of course. There are now seven good schools houses in the township outside of the villages. The township has been agitating the question whether to centralize the schools or join the south half to the West Elkton school and the north half to the Gratis school.

Since the above was written, just that result has been accomplished, and Gratis has also been given a strip off the south side of Lanier town- ship, while West Elkton is seeking a strip off the north side of Wayne town- ship, Butler county. The results will make two strong schools, with first- class material.

DISTILLERIES.

The township now has the reputation of being one of the dryest of the dry, but traditions from the early settlers still linger, which indicate that it was not always thus. From 1811 to 1830 there is said to have been from fifteen to twenty small distilleries in the township, nearly all, if not all, within the northern half of the township, for the Quakers, then as now, would have none of it. During those years, or a part thereof, Christian Fall. Daniel Chrisman and Peter Riner operated such stills, and there were others, each man using his own grain. Those who had no still, traded grain for whisky, and it now is averred that the quality was of the best. The use of whisky was so common at all gatherings, such as harvesting, log rollings and house raisings, that none but the strongest-willed and the bravest men

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dared refuse to furnish it; but the movement to curtail the trouble breeder spread because it was right, until today it is used only in secret. But the township was not alone in the distilling business, for there were during that time a hundred stills operated in the county for longer or shorter periods.

CEMETERIES.

There are, or were (some are now forgotten), a number of small cemeteries, called family cemeteries, scattered about the township. Some settler lost a wife or child, or the settler himself died, and, the roads being only trails and there being no regular public cemetery, a little plot of ground, generally on high land, was fenced off on the farm. The body of the loved one was deposited there, and carefully guarded. As their neighbors lost some member of their families they were granted permission to bury on the family plot, and in this way sometimes quite a number of graves were made. One such, on the land formerly owned by Jonas Brubaker, who mar- ried Rebecca Phillips, the first white girl baby of the county, is now inclosed by an iron fence, and lies on the hill top about a hundred yards west of Fair View cemetery at Gratis. It is now kept up by the township trustees, as are several others.

Fair Mound cemetery, at West Elkton, now called locally the Quaker cemetery, was laid out in 1805, and the first person to consecrate the ground with her dust was Martha Maddock, one of the family that was so prom- inent in leading the hegira of Quakers from Georgia and the Carolinas to the land of freedom. She died in 1805, being the first white person to die in the township. The cemetery continued to be used until the limited space was practically filled a few years since, when it ceased to be generally used.

In 1870 a new, large and fine cemetery was laid out by the township trustees on the high land north of the village, and it is now occupied by many graves. The name, Fair Mound cemetery, is still retained for this one. In 1832 a public cemetery was laid out just west of Gratis, then Win- chester, and the first burial was Richard Housel, the same year. But as time passed, the silent majority became too great, and in 1870 a new ceme- tery, called Fair View, was laid out, to which additions have since been made, until it now extends from the Eaton to the Camden road, and is one of the finest burial grounds in the county.

The Greenbush cemetery is located near the south line of section 13, the land really being willed in the first place by John Riner for a public ceme- tery, but there was an error in the will, which was later cured by a deed

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from John Chrisman. The first burial is said to have been that of Mrs. Betsey Ellis, in 1828.

All the cemeteries since 1875 have been placed by law in the care of the township trustees, and as we see, in the few short years of life, how rapidly the cemeteries are expanding, and then remember how long time is, we can not but think Bryant was right when he wrote:

"All that tread the earth are but a handful To the tribes that slumber in her bosom."

WEATHER.

There has been handed down a tradition from the early settlers that during the winter of 1803-4, there was a snow fall of over thirty-two inches, being the deepest ever known. I received the story from reliable old men of the township over forty years ago, who had been so told by their fathers.

One other incident I can not help relating was told me in 1880 by John Chrisman, as reliable an old man as lived in the township, who was born in 1797, and came to Pleasant Valley with his father in 1805. He said that during the winter season about the close of the War of 1812, I think about 1816, while he was yet a boy, some member of the family being sick, a doctor was sent for. He came, of course, on horseback, and when he reached the house in Pleasant Valley it was snowing so violently that it was impossible to see more than about a hundred feet, and the thunder was pealing and rolling so loudly that the doors and windows rattled. The doc- tor, without knocking, threw open the door, jumped inside, slammed the door shut, and exclaimed, "It's a thundering snow-storm," which Mr. Chris- man said so well described it that he never forgot it, and that he, before or since, never saw any such storm.

PIONEER INCIDENTS.

The early white settlers found no Indian villages in the township, ex- cept along Twin creek. Along the east part of the north line was a camp of Miami Indians, who seemed to belong to a band of that tribe that was lower down on that creek. They had a trail through the township, going to the trading post at Fort Hamilton, and hunting parties of Indians camped for short times at some of the springs, but no one was ever molested by them. It has been very seldom, if ever, that Quakers and Indians fought.

The most prominent man of the early days of settlement was Samuel

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Stubbs, whose persistency, earnestness and energy succeeded in having Gratis township set off as it now exists, as told in the chapter on organization, where is found the story as told by George D. Hendrix. Samuel Stubbs took a prominent part in the early affairs of the county and was reputed to be a cool-headed man, fearless in his espousal of what he believed to be right. His people in the South having suffered at the hands of the British while he was a boy, the memory thereof never left him, and, although a Quaker, he strongly supported the War of 1812. Many of his qualities seem to have been inherited by his youngest son, Jesse Stubbs, who early in life began to take a part in the affairs of the political parties. In 1859 he was elected to the Legislature, in spite of his known anti-slavery views. He threw his influence and vote there to secure the election of John Sherman as United States senator, and the contest to defeat Sherman had been so fierce and bitter that the latter never forgot Jesse Stubbs. He was the most active and prominent member of the "underground railroad," that aided many escaping slaves to safety, and I have heard him say that he took pride in the fact that no runaway slave that reached West Elkton ever was caught -he just disappeared. At one time some half dozen slaves were secreted in the attic of his house while the slave hunters were riding the streets of the little town. Jesse Stubbs was born on November 13, 1809, and died in 1888.

In 1877 D. C. Stubbs, locally called Clint Stubbs, was elected and served four years as representative. Like many other Quaker boys, he looked upon the Civil War as a fight for the freedom of the human race, and he could not stay at home in peace. So he enlisted as a private in the Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served nearly four years, returning home as lieutenant-colonel of his regiment. He was under Sherman from Chattanooga to the Grand Review, and his promotion tells the story of duty well done-no comment could make it better.

When Clint Stubbs was first elected to the Legislature that body was Democratic. One O'Connor had been elected as a representative from Day- ton, and was placed on several important committees. O'Connor, by his dictatorial, vindictive, partisan methods and bitter speeches, embittered the Republicans, especially Clint, against whom he seemed to delight to launch his fiercest attacks, even to the extent of swelling his exaggerations until they could be only designated as lies. Clint some way got a "hunch," and, after the Legislature adjourned, a quiet Quaker could have been seen cir- culating through southern Michigan, gathering data for something. When the next session of the Legislature came he rose and preferred charges against O'Connor, that he was not an elector, and never had been, and

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never could be legally elected as a representative, because he had been sen- tenced as a felon to the Michigan state penitentiary ; had served out his full term of several years to the last day, and had never received a pardon restoring him to citizenship. In proof thereof, Stubbs filed affidavits of identity and certified copies of the indictment, trial, sentence and service in prison. A committee was appointed, and reported that the charges were true, which report was adopted. O'Connor was unseated and dropped out of sight, but it was a long time before the Republicans permitted the Demo- crats to forget the "O'Connor Legislature." D. C. Stubbs was born in 1838, and died in 1902.

VILLAGES.

The formation of the villages is set out in the chapter on organiza- tion of the county.

There are but two incorporated villages in Gratis township. Green- bush is a collection of houses in the eastern part of the township, making a settlement with about forty people that formed about a store and a couple of churches located at the crossroads of the Pleasant Valley and West Elk- ton and Germantown roads.

GRATIS.

The village of Gratis was originally called Winchester. The post- office was named Gratis by the postal authorities, because there were other Winchesters in the state, but the people held on to the village name long after it became certain that the postal authorities would not change. When, in the run of years, a number of people had bought lots just outside and around the village, a movement started to extend the boundaries and change the name to Gratis, so there would be but one name. Accordingly, in 1902, the council petitioned the common pleas court to change the name to Gratis, and the court so ordered it to be done. About the same time they applied to the county commissioners to take into the corporation the surrounding ter- ritory, which also was so ordered, and the village assumed its present name and boundaries.

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History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 32

Author: R. E. Lowry Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 985

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985