The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 25

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

gress would make it a penal offense for a white man to buy a horse from an Indian, as no Indian would walk when he could steal a horse.

Sometimes, however, a white man would steal a horse from the Indians, and we have the record of the conviction of at least one man for this offense. In March, 1796, at Cincinnati, the seat of justice for the whole Miami region, Daniel Mckean, lately arrived from New Jersey, was found guilty of stealing a horse from an Indian. He was sentenced to pay the red man $1, and to re- ceive thirty-nine lashes in the most public streets of the town, and bear on the front of his hat, during the infliction of the punishment, a paper, with the inscription, in large letters: " I stole a horse from the Indians.'

FIRST SETTLEMENTS.

The first settlement within the limits of Warren County is involved in some obscurity. Many of the earliest settlers had purchased their lands long before it was safe to settle upon them. They may have made frequent visits to their lands, and perhaps have begun the work of clearing and making im- · provements, before becoming permanent residents thereon.

Several written accounts concur in representing the settlement at Bedle's Station as the first in the county. The only block-house in the county for pro- tection against the Indians was here erected. It was built of logs, and con- structed in the ordinary manner of block-houses. The distinguishing feature of block-houses was that the upper part of the building above the height of a man's shoulder projected one or two feet over the lower part, thus leaving a space through which rifles could be thrust on the approach of enemies. Be- dle's Station was about four miles west of Lebanon and one mile south of Union Village, and was a well-known place among the early inhabitants. The date usually given for the commencement of this settlement is September, 1795. Although this is one month after Wayne's treaty of peace, it should be remem- bered that it could not at that time be known that the Indians would respect the treaty. Hence the block-house was erected. William Bedle, who, in connection with his son and sons-in-law, established this station, was a native of New Jer- sey. At what time he came to the Western country is unknown. In Littell's Genealogies of the Passaic Valley of New Jersey, it is stated that " William Bedell sold his lands in October, 1792, to his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Littell, and, with his son-in-law and son (James) and their families, removed to a sec- tion of land that he purchased of Daniel Thompson for $250, between the two Miami Rivers, in Warren County, Ohio, where they all settled." The family surname is variously written, but Bedle is the most common orthography in the Warren County records. There were several families of this name among the early settlers of Turtle Creek Township, and all of them were from New Jer- sey. William Bedle probably purchased from Daniel Thompson a land warrant issued by Symmes, as his deed for Section 28, Town 4, Range 3, was executed by Jonathan Dayton and dated November 30, 1795. At the time of the erec- tion of Bedle's block-house, White's Station, on Mill Creek, was probably the nearest and most accessible settlement.

Family traditions give September, 1795, or the month following Wayne's treaty, as the date of the settlement of Mounts' Station, on the south side of the Little Miami, two and one-half miles below the mouth of Todd's Fork. Here, on a tract of broad and fertile bottom land, William Mounts, with his family and four other families, established themselves, and were afterward joined by others. They erected their cabins in a circle around a spring, as a protec- tion against the Indians.

In the spring of 1796, settlements were made in various parts of the county. The settlements at Deerfield, Franklin, and the vicinities of Lebanon

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and Waynesville, all date from the spring of 1796. It is probable that a few cabins were 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. The towns of Waynesville and Franklin were both laid out early in 1796, and it is probable that Deerfield was platted about the same time. Samuel Heigh- way, the projector of Waynesville, built what appears to have been the first cabin in that town March 9, 1797, but numerous tracts in the vicinity of that place had been sold and settled prior to that time.

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, wholly 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 106g 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 adventurers had established themselves on the northeast corner of the section. Some of these adventurers were single men, living solitary and alone, in little huts, and supporting themselves chiefly with their rifles. Others had their fam- ilies with them at an early period. Tradition gives the date of the settlements on some of the forfeited tracts as prior to Wayne's treaty, and, while the exact history cannot now be learned, it is not improbable that some of the claimants of forfeitures may have begun a clearing and erected some kind of a dwelling not long after Wayne's victory over the Indians, and prior to the building of Bedle's block-house. Under the terms of sale and settlement of the Miami Purchase, claimants of forfeitures were required to make and continue improve- ments thereon for a period of seven years, when they were entitled to receive deeds therefor. The claimants were permitted to reside in some station of de- fense. Several claimants in Deerfield Township were unsuccessful in perfect- ing their titles to the tracts on which they had made improvements.

It may be safely assumed that September, 1795, the date given in Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, is not far from the correct date of the first set- tlement of Warren County. The following dates exhibit the progress of settle- ments up the Miamis:

August 20, 1794, Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers.

December 17, 1794, Hamilton laid out at Fort Hamilton.

August 3, 1795, Wayne's treaty of peace.

September, 1795, Bedle's Station commenced.

November 4, 1795, Dayton laid out.

Spring of 1796, Waynesville, Franklin and Deerfield settled.

April 1, 1796, permanent settlements at Dayton commenced.

April 7, 1796, first cabin raised in Greene County.

As soon as it became known that the treaty of Greenville had secured peace, and that block-houses and pickets were no longer necessary, the tide of immigration, so long delayed by savage hostility, flowed in, and before two years elapsed, the pioneer's ax rang out in every township between the Miamis, and settlements extended up Todd's Fork far into the Virginia Military District.

RAPID GROWTH OF THE COUNTY.

The rapidity with which this region was populated and improved is well known. The rapid growth of Ohio had perhaps never been equaled in the his- tory of the world by any State not possessing mines of the precious metals; of the whole State of Ohio, the growth of the Miami Valley was by far the most rapid; and of the Miami Valley, if we are allowed to judge from the imperfect

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

census of the white male inhabitants twenty-one years old and upward, taken by the Tax-Listers in August, 1803, Warren County contained, the year it was organized, more inhabitants than Butler, Montgomery, Greene or Clermont- Clinton was not then formed-and stood among its neighbors second to Hamil- ton only. Below is given the number of white male inhabitants twenty-one years old and upward in the different counties of the Miami Valley, according to the census of the Tax-Listers, August, 1803:

Hamilton, 1,700; Warren, 854; Butler, 836; Montgomery, 526; Greene, 446; Clermont, 755.

Immigrants came in crowds. Stories of the wonderful fertility of the Mi- ami lands were everywhere circulated in the older States. Some of the stories may have been extravagant, but there were well-attested facts that from hills four feet apart grew four or five stalks of corn one and a half inches in diameter and fifteen feet high, and each stalk producing two or three good ears; and that the first corn-fields at Columbia produced, under favorable circumstances, as high as 110 bushels to the acre. The first corn crop grown in the immediate vicin- ity of Lebanon was raised by Ichabod Corwin, and tended with oxen, after his horses had been stolen by the Indians; yet, though growing among stumps and roots the first year after the ground was cleared, and but imperfectly culti- vated, it surprised him at husking time by yielding 100 bushels to the acre. Facts like these were enough to strike with astonishment the inhabitants of the Eastern and Middle States. They heard them, believed them and came West. Jerseymen, Pennsylvanians and Virginians floated down the Ohio in flat-boats or came with wagons, ox-carts or pack-horses, to find homes in Symmes' Pur- chase and in the Virginia Military Reserve. The reputation of the Miamis ex- tended to Europe, and in Holland, Germany and Ireland, emigrants to America declared that they were going to " the Miamis."

STATES FROM WHICH THE SETTLERS CAME.

The high official positions and characters of Symmes and his associates in the State of New Jersey drew from that State a large number of immigrants to the Miami Purchase. Symmes was Chief Justice of New Jersey at the time he entered upon his Western land project. Gen. Jonathan Dayton, one of his associates, was a Revolutiotary officer, a distinguished statesman, and, at the inception of the speculation, represented New Jersey in the convention which formed the national contsitution. Dr. Elias Boudinot, another associate, was also a Revolutionary patriot, a President of the Federal Congress, and after- ward first President of the American Bible Society. It is not strange, then, that so large a proportion of our earliest settlers were from New Jersey. The lands east of the Little Miami reserved by Virginia for the payment of bounties to her troops on Continental establishment, drew from that State large numbers of Revolutionary officers and soldiers, and others who had purchased Virginia Military land warrants. Among the Revolutionary officers who entered lands in this county, but without settling upon them, were Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates and Col. Abraham Buford. Quakers came from Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas, settling largely in the northern and eastern parts of the county, and Waynesville soon became a noted place among the Friends. Opponents of slavery came from all the slave States to the territory dedicated to freedom, and the first State of the American Republic that never had a slave. Emigrants from the State of Kentucky crossed the Ohio to find better land titles. During the seven years preceding the organization of the county in 1803, there must have been an increase of six hundred persons annually in the territory of the county, and during the seven years succeeding the organization more than eight hundred annually.

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

PRICES AND COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE.

In the year of the first settlement of this county, Cincinnati, the market and entrance-gate for the whole Miami Valley, was a little village, shown by a census of that year (1795) to contain a population of 500 persons, living in ninety-four log cabins and ten frame houses. A voyage to New Orleans was then made by flat-boats in a hundred days. For the journey eastward, the prim- itive pack-horses were beginning to be exchanged for the large and heavy old-time Pennsylvania wagons, with four and six horse bell teams. As a con- sequence of the difficulty attending commercial intercourse, every article the Miami farmer could produce was low; every foreign article he was compelled to buy was relatively high. Corn and oats were 10 or 12 cents a bushel, some- times 8 cents; wheat, 30 or 40 cents; beef, $1.50 to $2, and pork, $1 to $2 per hundred. On the other hand, here are some of the prices for foreign articles our fathers paid at Cincinnati in 1799: Coffee, 50 cents per pound; tea, 80 cents; pins, 25 cents a paper; ginghams, 50 cents per yard; fine linen, $1 per yard; brown calico, 7 shillings 6 pence to 10 shillings; goslin green and gray cotton velvet, 7 shillings 6 pence to 11 shillings 6 pence; cassimere, $3 per yard; cotton stockings, 6 shillings to 15 shillings; bonnet ribbon, $1 per yard; " thin linen for flour-sifters," 10 shillings per yard; " small piece of ribbon for tying cues," 11 pence.

There was little encouragement for the farmer to raise more than he could use at home. In 1806, a traveler wrote that he had no conception how the farmers can maintain themselves with flour at $3.50 per barrel, and pork $2.50 per hundred. The merchants, however, he said, made an exorbitant profit. In four years, those who came from Baltimore or Philadelphia with goods ob- tained on credit had paid their debts and lived at their ease. There was little use for corn even for cattle or hogs, as the cattle found subsistence on the wild grasses of the woods, and hogs lived and fattened on the mast of hickory nuts, acorns and beech nuts.

FRIENDLY INDIANS.

For some years after the whites made their homes in this county, small parties of friendly Indians encamped occasionally near the settlements. They came in the fall for their annual hunt to a favorite hunting-ground on Todd's Fork, now in Clinton, then in Warren County, until as late as the battle of Tippecanoe, encamping sometimes in parties of fifty, with their squaws, pa- pooses, ponies and dogs. A considerable party of Shawnees, Wyandots and Pottawatomies visited the Shakers at Union Village in the summer of 1807, representing themselves in great distress for want of food, and were relieved by the Shakers. The numbers of the tribes which roamed over this region had long before been greatly reduced by the wars with the whites, and still more by the ravages of the small-pox.

The Indians encamped frequently, in the spring, in some of the sugar camps, for the purpose of making sugar-a matter they always attended to. They also visited Salt Run, in Hamilton Township, for the purpose of making salt, although the salt there obtained was of an inferior quality, and manu- factured with difficulty. These savage parties were generally few in numbers. They were considered friendly, but sometimes stole horses from the settlers.

Rev. John Kobbler, the pioneer Methodist preacher, gives the following account of a visit from a party of Indians while he was preaching at Franklin, in March, 1799: "In the time of the first prayer, a company of Indians, to the number of fifteen, came to the door. When we rose from prayer, the old chief fixed his eyes on me and pushed through the company to give me his hand. He was much strung out with jewels in his ears, nose and breast, and the round tire about his head was indeed like the moon. His men all behaved well."

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EARLY MILLS.

One of the greatest difficulties attending the settlement of the Northwest Territory was the want of mills to furnish meal and flour. The builder of the first grist-mill in a settlement was justly regarded as a public benefactor. The completion of the mill increased the value of neighboring lands and en- couraged immigration. The settlers for miles around not only cheerfully met to help at the raising of a mill, but frequently labored gratuitously in the con- struction of the dam.

The earliest settlers of Warren County got their grinding done at Wald- smith's mill, on the Little Miami, twenty miles below the central part of the county, and near the site of Milford. The first mill on the Little Miami with- in the limits of the county was built about 1799, by William Wood, at the site now occupied by King's powder mills, and where the town of Gainesboro was afterward laid out. Wood's mill passed into the hands of Hunt & Lowe, by whom it was owned for many years. About 1799 or 1800, Henry Taylor built a mill on Turtle Creek, within the present corporate limits of Lebanon. There were several small mills erected on the streams running into the Miamis within ten years after the first settlements, and, although these streams furnished a more permanent supply of water than in later years, yet even then the mills were not able to do much work in the drier seasons, and were generally abandoned. Jabish Phillips built a mill about 1802 on the Little Miami. midway between the sites of Morrow and South Lebanon, after- ward long known as Zimri Stubbs' mill, and soon after. Nebo Guantt built one at the site of Freeport. There was a mill erected at an early day at Franklin, and on January 23, 1802, Shubal Vail announced in the Western Spy the com- pletion of his fulling-mill on the Great Miami near the "Big Prairie." In 1806, Brazilla Clark commenced the construction of a mill below the site of Foster's Crossing, which was afterward owned by Piercy Kitchell, and six years later Gov. Morrow built one a mile lower down on the Little Miami. In the county road records, mention is made of Capt. Stites' mill-dam, in Novem- ber. 1804; " John Haines' mill at Waynesville." 1805; " Robert Each's mill on Todd's Fork." 1805; "Dr. Evan Bane's mill-dam near the county line," Jan- uary, 1805; and "Samuel Heighway's mill," 1805. Some of these may have been saw-mills.

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, HAMILTON COUNTY, TERRITORY NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO.

This extensive township embraced the greater part of the territory now included in Warren County. It was formed under the Territorial laws, by the County Commissioners, about eighteen months after the first settlement at Be- dle's Station. Deerfield, the most important settlement on the Little Miami above Columbia, was the capital, and early elections for the Deerfield district were held at the house of David Sutton, in that town. When the people failed to meet and elect a Constable and Assessor, the County Commissioners filled these offices by appointments. On June 10, 1797, the Commissioners ap- pointed Benjamin Stites, Jr., Assessor, and Isaac Lindley, Constable and Col- lector for Deerfield Township. The tax return that year for the whole town- ship was $111.15. Stites' fees were $5.20, and Lindley's $2.30.

Peter Drake was appointed Assessor in 1798, and Joshua Drake, Constable and Collector. In that year, the Assessor was paid $11.21 for his fees, and the Constable and Collector, $4.13.

In 1799, Michael H, Johnson was Assessor; fees, $3.22; William Sears, Constable; fees, $6.19; William Mounts, Collector. Total assessment of the township, $366.22. In the same year, Timothy Boothby was Lister of the

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

township, and enumerated the white male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age. His fees amounted to $21.

In 1801, Ephraim Kibby was Lister, and Alexander Hamilton and Henry Taylor, Valuers of Property.

ELECTIONS.

The first elections for Representatives in the Legislature were held at Cincinnati, the seat of justice of the extensive county of Hamilton. There was so little of democracy in the government established by the celebrated or- dinance of 1787 that the settlers were seldom called on to exercise the right of suffrage. Under that ordinance, no one could vote unless he was the owner of fifty acres of land. All the officers of the Territory were required to be residents for specified periods, and all to be land-owners-the Governor, to own 1.000 acres; the Secretary and Judges, 500 acres each; the members of the Legislative Council. 500 acres each; the members of the House of Repre- sentatives, 200 acres each.

The first election for Representatives from Hamilton County was held in pursuance of a proclamation of Gov. St. Clair, on the third Monday of Decem- ber, 1798. At this election, Robert Benham, who soon after moved from Cin- cinnati and became a resident within the present bounds of Warren County, was elected one of the Representatives.

On the 12th of September. 1799, a special election was held for the selection of two additional members of the House of Representatives from Hamilton County. At this election the vote stood: A. Cadwell, 347; Isaac Martin, 265; Francis Dunlevy, 260; J. White, 65; T. Brown, 55. Francis Dunlevy contested the election of Isaac Martin, but the House of Representa- tives decided in favor of Martin by a vote of yeas 9, nays 8.

In October, 1800, an election was held for Representatives in the second Territorial Legislature. This election was held under a law, passed by the first Territorial Legislature, which required the polls to be opened in each county at the court house on the second Tuesday in October, 1800, between the hours of 10 and 11 in the forenoon, and to be kept open until 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and again opened the next day from 10 until 5 o'clock, and then finally closed, unless some candidate or the judges desired the election to be continued, in which case the poll was to be open the third day from 10 until 3 o'clock. The election at Cincinnati continued three days. The vote was taken viva voce. There were seven Representatives to elect from Hamil- ton County, and the following is the vote of the successful candidates: M. Miller, 284; J. Smith, 273; F. Dunlevy, 229; J. Morrow, 212; D. Reeder, 204; J. Ludlow, 187; J. White. 162. On the same day, William Lytle was elected for the ensuing session in place of Aaron Cadwell, who had removed from the Territory. The vote stood: William Lytle, 153; F. Dunlevy, 140. Thirty-five persons had been announced by their friends in the columns of the Western Spy as candidates, and at least twenty-four of them received votes. The total number of votes cast at this election cannot now be ascertained.

The election of members of the convention to form a State constitution in October, 1802, was attended with great excitement. It was the first election north of the Ohio in which entered questions of national party politics. One of the questions before the people was whether a State government at all should at that time be formed. The enabling act of Congress, under which the elec- tion was held, provided that, after the members of the convention had assem- bled. they should first determine, by a majority of the whole number elected, whether it was or was not expedient to form a constitution and State govern- ment at that time. The friends of Gov. Arthur St. Clair and the Federalists generally were opposed to the formation of a State government; the Repub-

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licans generally favored an immediate admission of the Territory into the Union as a State. At the last session of the Territorial Legislature, the oppo- nents of a State government had been largely in the majority, and, under the lead of Jacob Burnet, of Cincinnati, had passed an act having for its object he division of the Territory into two future States, a measure, which, had it re- ceived the sanction of Congress, would long have delayed the admission of both into the Union. The act passed the Council unanimously, and the House by a large majority. A minority of seven Representatives, two of whom were Jeremiah Morrow and Francis Dunlevy, entered their solemn protest against it, and began an appeal to the people and to Congress with a fixed determina- tion to defeat the division of the Territory and to secure an early State govern- ment. They were successful. Congress not only refused to divide the Terri- tory, but passed an act to enable the people to form a State government. The canvass which preceded the election of members of the convention was one of great bitterness; fast friends became enemies for life. The increasing unpop- ularity of Gov. St. Clair, who was accused of a tyrannical and arbitrary exercise of the powers of his office and the declining fortunes of the Federaliste in the States intensified the popular excitement.

Some weeks before the election, Representatives from seventeen Republican societies in Hamilton County met at Big Hill, and nominated the following ticket, all but two of whom were elected Francis Dunlevy, William Goforth, C. W. Byrd, Jeremiah Morrow, J. W. Browne, J. Kitchell, Stephen Wood, John Paul, Thomas Smith and John Wilson. The Republicans were over- whelmingly successful, not only in Hamilton County, but throughout the State.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 25

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081