Memoirs of the Miami valley, Part 10

Author: Hover, John Calvin, 1866- ed; Barnes, Joseph Daniel, 1869- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, Robert O. Law company
Number of Pages: 684

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 10

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In the winter of 1790-1, a strong party, estimated at probably four or five hundred, made an attack on Dunlap's Station, at Cole- rain. The blockhouse at that place was occupied by a small num- ber of United States troops, commanded by Col. Kingsbury, then a subaltern in the army. The fort was furnished with a piece of artillery, which was an object of terror to the Indians; yet that did not deter them from an attempt to effect their purpose. The attack was violent, and for some time the station was in imminent danger. The savages were led by the notorious Simon Girty and outnum- bered the garrison at least ten to one. The works were entirely of wood, and the only obstacle between the assailants and the assailed was a picket of logs that might have been demolished with a loss probably not exceeding twenty or thirty lives. The garrison dis- played unusual gallantry, frequently exposing their persons above the pickets to insult and provoke the assailants; and judging from the facts reported their conduct was as much folly as bravery. Col. John Wallace, of Cincinnati, one of the earliest and bravest of the pioneers, and as amiable as he was brave, was in the fort when the attack was made. Although the works were completely sur- rounded by the enemy, the Colonel volunteered to go to Cincinnati for reinforcement. The fort stood on the east bank of the Big Miami, and late in the night he was conveyed across the river in a canoe and landed on the opposite shore. Having passed down some miles below the fort, he swam the river and directed his course for Cincinnati. The next day he met a body of men from that

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

place and from Columbia, proceeding to Colerain. They had been informed of the attack by persons hunting in the neighborhood and who had been sufficiently near the fort to hear the firing when it began. The Colonel joined the party and led them to the station by the same route he had traveled from it; but before they arrived the Indians had gone. Abner Hunt, a respectable citizen of New Jersey, who was on a surveying tour in the neighborhood of Colerain at the time of the attack, was killed before he could reach the fort. His body was found, shockingly mangled. The Indians had tied him to a sapling within sight of the garrison and built a large fire so near as to scorch him, inflicting the most acute pain. And he was thus literally roasted to death.

The route of St. Clair, in his disastrous campaign of 1791, passed through Butler county, and in September of that year Fort Hamilton was built at the crossing of the Great Miami on the site of the present city of Hamilton. It was intended as a place of deposit for provisions and to form the first link in the communica- tion between Fort Washington and the object of the campaign. It was a stockade of fifty yards square, with four good bastions and platforms for cannon in two of them, with barracks. In the summer succeeding an addition was made to the fort by order of Gen. Wilkinson, which consisted in enclosing with pickets an area of ground on the north part, so that it extended up the river to about the north line of the present Stable street. The southern point of the work extended to the site afterward occupied by the Asso- ciate Reformed church. From manuscript left by the late James McBride and published in Howe's Collections, the following items of early history are gleaned :

Late in the fall of 1792, an advance corps of troops, under the command of Major Rudolph, arrived at Fort Hamilton, where they wintered. They consisted of three companies of light dragoons, one of rifle, and one of infantry. Rudolph was a major of dragoons from lower Virginia. His reputation was that of an arbitrary and tyrannical officer. Some time in the spring seven soldiers deserted to the Ohio river, where, procuring a canoe, they started for New Orleans. Ten or fifteen miles below the falls of the Ohio they were met by Lieut. (afterward Gen.) Clark and sent back to Fort Hamil- ton, where a court-martial sentenced three of them to be hung, two to run the gauntlet, and the remaining two to lie in irons in the guardhouse for a stipulated period. John Brown, Seth Blinn, and a man named Gallagher were the three sentenced to be hanged, and the execution took place the next day. Five hundred soldiers were drawn up in arms around the fatal spot to witness the exit of their unfortunate comrades. Immediately after the sentence had been pronounced on these men, a friend hastened to Fort Washing- ton, where he obtained a pardon from Gen. Wilkinson. But he was too late. The execution had been hastened by Major Rudolph, and the friend arrived at Hamilton fifteen minutes after the spirits of these unfortunate men had taken their flight to another world. Their bodies were immediately committed to the grave under the gallows. The two other deserters were sentenced to run the gaunt- let sixteen times between two ranks of soldiers, and this punish-

MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

ment forthwith was carried into execution. The lines were formed in the rising ground east of the fort, where afterward Front street was laid out, and extended to the intersection of Ludlow street.

Some time afterward Gen. Wayne arrived at the post, and although frequently represented as an arbitrary man, he was much displeased with the cruelty of Major Rudolph and gave him his choice, either to resign or be cashiered. He chose the former, re- turned to Virginia, and subsequently, in company with another gentleman, purchased a ship and went on a trading voyage to Eu- rope. It is related that they were captured by an Algerian cruiser and that Rudolph was hanged at the yardarm of his own vessel.

In the summer of 1792 two wagoners were watching some oxen, which had been turned out to graze on the common below the fort. A shower of rain coming on, they stepped under a tree for shelter, and some Indians, who had been watching from under the covert of the adjoining underbrush, rushed suddenly upon them, killed one, and took the other prisoner. The latter was Henry Shafer, who afterward returned and lived for many years a few miles below Rossville, on the river.

In September, 1793, the army of Wayne marched from Cin- cinnati to Fort Hamilton and encamped in the upper part of the prairie, about half a mile south of the present city, nearly on the same ground on which Gen. St. Clair had encamped in 1791. Here they threw up a breastwork, the remains of which may yet be traced at the point where the present road strikes the Miami river. A few days afterward they continued their march toward the In- dian country. Gen. Wayne detailed a strong guard of men for the defense of the fort, the command of which was given to Major Jonathan Cass, of the army of the Revolution, and father of the Hon. Lewis Cass, later prominent as a United States Senator from Michigan. Major Cass continued in command until the treaty of Greenville.

On December 17, 1794, Israel Ludlow laid out, within Symmes' purchase, the original plat of the town of Hamilton, which he at first, for a short time only, called Fairfield. Shortly afterward a few settlers came in. The first settlers were Darius C. Orcut, John Green, William McClennan, John Sutherland, John Torrence, Ben- jamin F. Randolph, Benjamin Davis, Isaac Wiles, Andrew Christy, and William Hubbert. Previous to 1801 all the lands on the west side of the Great Miami were owned by the United States, conse- quently there were no improvements made on that side of the river, except by a few squatters. There was one log house built at an early period near the west end of the bridge. On the first Monday in April, 1801-at the first sale of United States lands west of the Miami, held at Cincinnati-a company purchased the site of Ross- ville, on which, March 14, 1804, they laid out the town. John Reily was the agent for the proprietors.

The first settlers of Hamilton suffered much from the fever and ague, and, being principally disbanded soldiers, without energy, and many of them dissipated, but little improvement was made for the first few years. In those early times horse-racing was a favorite amusement and an affair of all engrossing interest. On public days,

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

indeed on almost every other Saturday, the streets and commons in the upper part of the town were converted into race-paths. The race course comprehended the common from Second to Fourth street. On grand occasions the plain within the course and near it was occupied with booths erected with forks and covered with boughs. Here everything was said, done, eaten, sold and drunk. Here was Black Jack with his fiddle, and his votaries making the dust fly with a four-handed, or rather four-footed reel; and every fifteen or twenty minutes was a rush to some part to see a "fisticuff." Among the bustling crowd of jockeys were assembled all classes. Even judges of the court mingled with the crowd, and sometimes presided at the contests of speed between the ponies of the neigh- borhood.

Soon after the formation of Butler county Hamilton was made the county seat. The first sessions of the court were held in the tavern of Mr. Torrence, and later sessions were held in the former messroom of the fort. In 1810 the court was removed to a room over the stone jail, and in 1817 transferred to a newly erected court- house. At their July term, in 1803, the court selected the old mag- azine within the fort as a county jail. It was a heavy-built log building, about twelve feet square, with a hipped roof coming to a common center, and surmounted by a ball. The door had a hole in the center shaped like a half-moon, through which air, light, and food were conveyed, while on the outside it was secured by a pad- lock and hasp. It was very insecure, and escapes were almost as frequent as committals. It was the only jail for Butler county from 1803 to 1809. A small log house, formerly a settler's store, was used as a clerk's office. The house erected by Gen. Wilkinson, in 1792, for officers' quarters, was converted into a tavern, kept by the county sheriff, William McClennan, while the barracks and artificers' shops were used as stables.

On September 21, 1795, William Bedle, from New Jersey, set out from one of the settlements near Cincinnati with a wagon, tools and provisions, to make a new settlement in the Third or Military range. This was about one month after the fact had become known that Wayne had made a treaty of peace with the Indians. He trav- eled with a surveying party under Capt. John Dunlap, following Harmar's trace to his lands, where he left the party and built a blockhouse as a protection against the Indians, who might not re- spect the treaty of peace. This was the first attempt at permanent occupation in what is now Warren county, and Bedle's Station came to be a well-known place in its early history. It was located five miles west of Lebanon and nearly two miles south of Union vil- lage. There several families lived in much simplicity, the clothing of the children being made chiefly out of dressed deerskin, some of the larger girls being clad in buckskin petticoats and short gowns. About the time of the settlement of Bedle's Station, however, or not long afterward, William Mounts and five others established Mounts' Station, on a broad and fertile bottom on the south side of the Little Miami, about three miles below the mouth of Todd's Fork, building their cabins in a circle around a spring as a protec- tion against the Indians. But South Lebanon, originally called

MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

Deerfield, is probably the oldest town in the county. Its proprie- tors gave a number of lots to those who would erect houses on them and become residents of the place. On January 25, 1796, the pro- prietors advertised in the Centinel of the Northwest Territory that all the lots they proposed to donate had been taken, and that twen- ty-five houses and cabins had been erected. Benjamin Stites, sr., Benjamin Stites, jr., and John Stites Gano were the proprietors. The senior Stites owned nearly ten thousand acres between Lebanon and Deerfield. Andrew Lytle, Nathan Kelly, and Gen. David Sut- ton were among the early settlers at Deerfield. The pioneer and soldier, Capt. Ephraim Kibbey, died there in 1809, aged 55 years. In the spring of 1796 settlements were made in various parts of the county. The settlements at Deerfield, Franklin, and in the vicini- ties of Lebanon and Waynesville, all date from the spring of 1796. A few cabins may have been erected at Deerfield and Franklin in the autumn of 1795, but it is not probable that any families were settled at either place until the next spring. Among the earliest white men who made their homes in the county were those who settled on the forfeitures in Deerfield township. They were poor men, destitute of means to purchase land, and were willing to brave dangers from savage foes and to endure the privations of a lonely life in the wilderness to receive gratuitously the tract of 10623 acres forfeited by each purchaser of a section of land who did not commence improvements within two years after the date of his purchase. In a large number of the sections below the third range there was a forfeited one-sixth part and a number of hardy adven- turers had established themselves on the northeast corner of the section. Some of these adventurers were single men, living alone in little huts and supporting themselves chiefly with their rifles. Others had their families with them at an early period.

The site of the present city of Dayton was selected in 1788 by some gentlemen who designed laying out a town by the name of Venice. They entered into an agreement with John Cleves Symmes, for the purchase of the lands. But the Indian wars which ensued prevented the extension of settlements from the immediate neigh- borhood of Cincinnati for some years, and the project was aban- doned. Soon after Wayne's treaty, in 1795, a new company, com- posed of Gens. Jonathan Dayton, Arthur St. Clair, James Wilkinson, and Col. Israel Ludlow, purchased the lands between the Miamis, around the mouth of Mad river, of Judge Symmes, and on Novem- ber 4th laid out the town. Arrangements were made for its settle- ment in the ensuing spring, and donations of lots were offered, with other privileges, to actual settlers. Forty-six persons entered into engagements to remove from Cincinnati to Dayton, but before spring most of them had scattered in different directions and only nineteen fulfilled their engagements. The first families who made a permanent residence in the place arrived on April 1, 1796. The first nineteen settlers of Dayton were William Gahagan, Samuel Thomson, Benjamin Van Cleve, Solomon Goss, Thomas Davis, John Davis, James McClure, John McClure, Daniel Ferrell, William Hamer, Solomon Hamer, Thomas Hamer, Abraham Glassmire, John Dorough, William Chenoweth, James Morris, William New-

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

com, and George Newcom. Judge Symmes was unable to complete his payments for all the lands he had agreed to purchase of the government, and those lying about Dayton reverted to the United States, by which the settlers were left without titles to their lots. Congress, however, passed a pre-emption law, under which those who had contracted for lands with Symmes and his associates had a right to enter the same lots or lands at government price. Some of the settlers entered their lots and obtained titles directly from the United States; and others made an arrangement with Daniel C. Cooper to receive their deeds from him, and he entered the resi- due of the town lands. He had been a surveyor and agent for the first company of proprietors, and they assigned him certain of their rights of pre-emption, by which he became the titular proprietor of the town. In 1803, on the organization of the state government, Montgomery county was established and Dayton was made the seat of justice, at which time only five families resided in the town, the other settlers having gone onto farms in the vicinity or re- moved to other parts of the country. The increase of the town was gradual until the war of 1812, when it became a point on the thor- oughfare for the troops and stores on their way to the frontier. Its progress was then more rapid until 1820, when the depression of business put an almost total check to its increase, but the com- mencement of the Miami canal, in 1827, renewed its prosperity.

Among the first settlers who established themselves in Miami county was John Knoop. He removed from Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1797. In the spring of that year he came down the Ohio to Cincinnati and cropped the first season on a farm, four miles above Cincinnati. That summer he made two excursions into the Indian country with surveying parties and at that time selected the land he afterward occupied. Early the next spring, in 1798, he removed to near the present site of Staunton village and, in con- nection with Benjamin Knoop, Henry Garard, Benjamin Hamlet, and John Tildus, established there a station for the security of their families. Mrs. Knoop there planted the first apple tree introduced into Miami county. They remained at the station two years, during which time they were occupied in clearing and building on their respective farms. At this time there were three young single men living at the mouth of Stony creek, and cropping on what was afterward called Freeman's Prairie. One of these was D. H. Morris, and at the same time there resided at Piqua, Samuel Hilliard, Job Garrard, Shadrach Hudson, Jonah Rollins, Daniel Cox, Thomas Rich, and a man named Hunter. These last three had removed to Piqua in 1797, and together with the company at a nearby station, comprised all the inhabitants of Miami county from 1797 to 1799. In the latter year John, afterward Judge Garrard, Nathaniel and Abner Garrard; and the year following, Uriah Blue, Joseph Coe, and Abraham Hathaway came in with their families. From that time all parts of the county began to receive numerous immigrants. For many years the citizens lived together on footings of the most social and harmonious intercourse. For their accommodation they sought the mill of Owen Davis, afterward known as Smith's Mill, on Beaver creek, a tributary of the Little Miami, some twenty-seven

MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

miles distant. Two days were consumed in the trip. Only one man was killed in the settlement from 1797 to 1811. This person was one Boyier, who was shot by a straggling party of Indians, supposedly through mistake.

For some time the most popular milling was at Patterson's, below Dayton, and with Owen Davis, on Beaver; but the first mill in Miami county is thought to have been erected by John Manning, on Piqua bend. Nearly the same time Henry Garrard erected on Spring creek a corn and sawmill.

Staunton was the first place of permanent settlement in the county and the nucleus from which its civilization spread. It was the first platted town. Among the earliest settlers of Staunton were Levi Martin and Andrew Dye. Most of the pioneers wore buckskin pantaloons. One was Tom Rogers, a great hunter, who lived in two sycamore trees in the woods. He had long gray whiskers, a skull cap and buckskin pantaloons. The first survey of Troy was made by Andrew Wallace, in 1807, with additions from time to time. On December 2nd of that year Robert Crawford was appointed town director, and he gave bonds to the county commissioners to pur- chase the land for the seat of justice and lay it off into streets and lots.

The first white family who settled in Shelby county was that of James Thatcher, in 1804, who settled in the west part on Painter's run, and Samuel Marshall, John Wilson, and John Kennard came soon afterward. The first court was held in a cabin at Hardin, May 13 and 14, 1819. Hon. Joseph H. Crane, of Dayton, was the president judge; Samuel Marshall, Robert Houston, and William Cecil, associates; Harvey B. Foot, clerk; Daniel V. Dingman, sheriff, and Harvey Brown, of Dayton, prosecutor. The first mill was a sawmill, erected in 1808 by Daniel McMullen and Bilderbach.

Logan county was first settled about the year 1806. The names recorded of the early settlers are Robert and William Moore, Ben- jamin and John Schuyler, Philip and Andrew Mathews, John Mak- imson, John and Levi Garwood, Abisha Warner, Joshua and Samuel Sharp, David and Robert Marmon, Samuel and Thomas Newell, and Benjamin J. Cox. In the War of 1812 the settlements in this county were on the verge of civilization and the troops destined for the northwest passed through this region. There were several blockhouse stations in the county : Manary's, McPherson's, Vance's and Zane's. Manary's, built by Capt. James Manary, of Ross county, was three miles north of Bellefontaine; McPherson's stood three-fourths of a mile northwest, and was built by Capt .. Maltby, of Green county ; Vance's, built by ex-Gov. Vance, then captain of a rifle company, stood on a high bluff on the margin of a prairie, about a mile east of Logansville; Zane's blockhouse was at Zanes- field.

The Maimi valley is rich to excess in names of men known to the nation as possessed of rare intellect, wide attainments and great force of character ; and it would seem to be fitting in this con- nection to give biographical mention of some of the noted char- acters :

Othniel Looker was born in New York, in 1757. He was a

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

private in the war of the revolution and a man of humble origin and calling. His history is little known, but, being speaker in the Ohio Senate, by virtue of that office he became acting governor for eight months when Gen. Meigs resigned to go in President Madison's cab- inet. He was later defeated as a candidate for governor by Thomas Worthington.

John Reily was born in Pennsylvania, in 1763. In 1791 he re- moved to Cincinnati, and in 1803 settled in Hamilton. He served as a member of the first constitutional convention of Ohio. His friend, Judge Burnet, in his Notes, refers to Reily's character and services. He was clerk of the supreme court of Butler county from 1803 to 1842, and died at the age of eighty-seven years. He was a man of clock-work regularity of habits and system, and could in a few minutes find a paper he had not seen in twenty years. In every respect he was a first-class man.

Jeremiah Morrow was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 6, 1771. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, the family name be- ing originally Murray. In 1795 he removed to the northwest terri- tory and settled at the mouth of the Little Miami river, but soon moved up to what is now Warren county. In 1801 he was elected to the territorial legislature ; was a delegate to the first constitutional convention, in 1802; was elected to the state senate in 1803, and in the same year to Congress, serving for ten years as the sole repre- sentative of Ohio in the lower house. In 1814 he was commissioner to treat with all of the Indians west of the Miami river. From 1813 to 1819 he was a member of the United States senate and served as chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1822 he was elected governor and at the end of his term was re-elected. He served as canal commissioner in 1820-22, and he was also the first president of the Little Miami railroad company. In 1841 he was again elected to Congress, and he died March 22, 1852. While in Congress, Mr. Morrow drafted most of the laws providing for the survey and disposal of public lands. He introduced measures which led to the construction of the Cumberland road, and in February, 1816, presented the first report recommending a general system of internal improvements.

Daniel C. Cooper was born in Morris county, New Jersey, November 20, 1773. He came to Cincinnati about 1793, as the agent for Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, who was interested in the Symmes purchase. He obtained employment as a surveyor, and his business gave him an opportunity to examine lands and select valu- able tracts for himself. In 1794-1795, he accompanied the survey- ing parties led by Col. Israel Ludlow through the Miami valley. As a preparation for the settlement of Dayton, by the direction of the proprietors, in September, 1795, he marked out a road from Fort Hamilton to the mouth of Mad river. In the fall and winter he located 1,000 acres of fine land in and near Dayton. In the sum- mer of 1796 he settled there, building a cabin at the southeast cor- ner of Monument avenue and Jefferson street. About 1798 he moved out to his cabin on his farm, south of. Dayton. There, in the fall of 1799, he built a distillery, "corn cracker" mill, and a sawmill, and made other improvements. St. Clair, Dayton, Wilkinson, and

MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY

Ludlow, on account of Symmes' inability to complete his purchase from the United States, and the high prices charged by the gov- ernment for land, were obliged to relinquish their Mad river pur- chase. Soon after the original proprietors retired Mr. Cooper pur- chased pre-emption rights and made satisfactory arrangements with land owners. Many interests were involved, and the transfer was a work of time. He was intelligent and public-spirited, and to his enlarged views, generosity, and integrity, and business capacity, much of the later prosperity of the city was due. He induced set- tlers to come to Dayton by donations of lots, gave lots and money to schools and churches, provided ground for a playground and a public common, later known as Cooper park, and built the only mills erected in Dayton in the first ten years of its history. He was appointed justice of the peace for Dayton township, Oct. 4, 1799, and served till May 1, 1803, the date of the formation of Mont- gomery county. In 1810-1812 he was president of the Select Council of Dayton, and he was seven times elected a member of the state legisature. Mr. Cooper died, July 13, 1818.

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Memoirs of the Miami valley, Part 10

Author: Hover, John Calvin, 1866- ed; Barnes, Joseph Daniel, 1869- ed Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Chicago, Robert O. Law company Number of Pages: 684

Author: Hover, John Calvin, 1866- ed; Barnes, Joseph Daniel, 1869- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, Robert O. Law company
Number of Pages: 684