The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 30

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

USA > Ohio > Warren County > The History of Warren County, Ohio > Part 30

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Second Court House .- On November 1, 1830, a committee appointed by the Commissioners reported that they had examined the walls of the old court house, and that they were insufficient for repairs. The Commissioners there- upon resolved to build a new court house. They afterward determined to erect it on the ground donated for the purpose in the eastern part of the town. In February, 1832, the Auditor was instructed to advertise in Lebanon, Cincin- nati and Dayton newspapers for proposals for furnishing the materials for the edifice. The plan of the court house at Ravenna, Portage Co., Ohio, was adopted on the recommendation of some Judges of the court. John E. Dey was appointed Superintendent of the construction, and work was commenced in the spring of 1832. The walls were so far advanced in September of the same year that serious damages were caused by a wind-storm in that month to the south wall. The building was not completed until 1835. The total cost was about $25,000. When completed, it was looked upon with pride by the people of the county, and was regarded as one of the most convenient and finely fin- ished court houses in the State. It continues to be the court house of Warren County to-day, and for forty-five years no additions were made to it, nor were any considerable sums expended to keep it in repair.

In 1879, the Commissioners issued a proclamation to the voters of the county, announcing that the court house had been pronounced unsafe, and that the erection of a new court house was deemed necessary, and that it might be found best to procure a new site therefor, more conveniently located. The questions of building a new court house and procuring a new site were sub- mitted to a vote of the electors on the first Monday in April, 1879. The voters, by an overwhelming majority, decided both questions in the negative. The Commissioners, still believing that a new court house was demanded by the best interests of the county, and an affirmative vote being requisite under the laws of the State before a new edifice could be contracted for, again submitted the question, unencumbered by any proposed change of site, to a popular vote in October, 1879, and again the voters gave a majority of more than two thou- sand against the tax for a new court house. Nothing was left but to repair the existing building, and in 1880 the house was enlarged, improved, refitted and given a new appearence at a total cost of $13,000.

Fourth Jail .- The present jail was erected about 1844. Ebed Stowell was one of the chief contractors in its construction. It is a two-story building. The front half, which is the residence of the jailer, is constructed of brick. The prison is built of cut stone, surrounded on the outside with brick. It con- tains six cells, which are large enough to hold four prisoners each. One of the cells in the lower story was so arranged that it could be darkened, and in the days when the laws of Ohio provided for imprisonment in the dungeon of the jail, it was used as a dungeon. This jail has been repeatedly, within the last fifteen years, condemned by Grand Jurors as both insecure and an unhealthy

Digitized by Google

282

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

place for the confinement of prisoners. The cells and interior have, however, generally been kept in as clean and comfortable a condition as practicable, and it still continues the only Warren County prison.

Infirmary .- Until 1831, paupers in Warren County were under the charge of township officers, who let the contracts for the maintenance of the unfortunate poor to the lowest responsible bidders, after due public notice had been given in accordance with the provisions of the law. A farm for poor-house purposes was purchased by the county in 1829, and the same year the construction of a two-story brick infirmary was commenced. The building was fifty-six feet long and thirty feet wide. Smith Ludlum was the contractor for its construction. A large addition was built to this infirmary in 1836. In 1845, a small brick structure was erected for the separate accommodation of insane persons cared for by the county. The infirmary was almost entirely destroyed by fire, in the day-time, December 31, 1866.

The present infirmary was commenced in 1867, and is the largest of the county buildings. It was planned by Capt. William H. Hamilton, who was one of the County Commissioners at the time of its erection. He also served as Superintendent of its construction. The building is three stories high, with a basement nine feet in the clear under the whole structure. It is nearly square, being 90x98 feet, with an open area or court in the center, 36x46 feet. It is built of brick, and contains about seventy apartments. Most of the sleep- ing-rooms are 12x10} feet. The total cost was $51,459.

The Warren County Infirmary was opened for the reception of inmates on April 13, 1831, on which day eleven paupers were admitted. The whole num- ber admitted during the year 1831 was twenty-two. The first Board of Infirm- ary Directors consists of James Cowan, John Osborn and Joseph Kibby, who were appointed by the County Commissioners at their June session, 1831. Robert Porter was the first Superintendent of the Infirmary. Other Superin- tendents have been: A. Thomas; Bonham Fox; Aaron Stevens, 1841-1854: Joseph Jameson, 1854-1858; John Pauly, 1858-1864; William G. Smith, 1865-1872; A. D. Strickler, 1872-1875; E. F. Irons, 1875-1881; David Glass- cock, 1881.

A record has been kept and preserved, giving the names and dates of ad- mission of all the poor who have been admitted into the institution from its opening to the present time. The record also shows what persons have died and were buried at the infirmary, and the persons who have been removed by their friends or had become able to support themselves. On April 13, 1881, the semi-centennial anniversary of the infirmary, there had been received into the institution 3,816 persons.

Orphan Asylum and Children's Home .- Mary Ann Klingling made a be- quest of about $35,000 for the endowment of this institution. She died Au- gust 16, 1867, aged sixty-nine years. She was a native of Frankfort-on-the- Main, Germany, and had resided in Lebanon for about twenty years preceding her death. Two of her brothers had been druggists in Lebanon before her ar- rival in this country. After their death, she had no relatives in America. She was never married, and, although possessed of considerable property, much of which consisted of real estate, she lived with great economy and plainness. Exaggerated reports of her wealth and a peculiar bonnet and dress worn by her, which may have been in vogue in Germany a generation before, attracted to her the gaze of the people whenever she appeared upon the streets. Miss Klingling was buried in the old graveyard at Lebanon, and at her own request. expressed in her will, no tombstone was erected over her grave.

The will of Mary Ann Klingling, after providing for two small annuities. contained the following: "Believing that great good may be done by the

Digitized by Google

283

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

erection and endowment of an orphan asylum, where poor white children who have lost one or both of their parents may receive a sound moral and Christian education, and, if necessary, be supported during their minority; and trusting that the fund set aside by this will for that purpose may receive large additions from those disposed to favor so charitable an enterprise, I do, therefore, devote to this purpose all the rest and residue of my estate."

The will further provided that if, within three years from her death, there should not be such additions made by others as would produce an equal income, then the whole amount should be tendered to the village of Lebanon, or to Warren County, or to both, the said corporations furnishing a like sum for the benefit of the asylum. But if no arrangement of this kind was effected within six years, the whole estate was to be conveyed to the German General Protest- ant Orphan Asylum of Cincinnati. The testatrix desired that the site of the proposed new orphan asylum be at or near Lebanon; that it be not controlled by any particular sect, and that the income of the estate be not expended in costly buildings. James M. Smith and Robert Boake were the executors of the will.

Warren County accepted the bequest and complied with the conditions on which it could be received. As the will provided only for an asylum for orphan children, an act of the Legislature was obtained enabling the county to unite with the asylum a home for indigent children whose parents were both living.

Fifty-three acres of ground, one mile west of Lebanon, were purchased for the institution in 1873, at a cost of $8, 162. A building planned by Joel Evans, with rooms to accommodate 100 children, was erected in 1874, at a cost of $22, - 928, to which additions and improvements have since been added costing $8 .- 500. The first Board of Trustees, appointed by the Court of Common Pleas, consisted of J. P. Gilchrist, President; Joel Evans, Secretary; Benjamin A. Stokes, William H. Clement, Lewis G. Anderson and John P. Keever.

The object of the institution is to furnish an asylum for orphans and in- digent children of the county under sixteen years of age, where they will be supported and provided with physical, mental and moral training, until suita- ble homes in private families can be procured for them, or until they are capa- ble of providing for themselves, or their parents or guardians for them.

Persons desiring to adopt children, or to take them as apprentices, must present to the Board of Trustees satisfactory testimonials of character and fit- ness to have charge of the training of such children. The Trustees reserve the right of supervision over the children sent out from the institution, and the privilege of visiting them.

ROADS.

The first roads in Warren County were mere traces or paths for horses. The trace of Harmar's army was used as a road at the beginning of this century. Public highways were soon located, but these for years were little more than tracks through the woods cleared of timber, with few bridges, and in the rich and fresh condition of the soil became almost impassable in the wet seasons. Wagoning, however, was a most important business, and it was common for several wagons to travel together for the mutual aid to be derived from com- bining teams when a wagon stuck in the mud. It was wagoning in this way, as well as driving a wagon-load of provisions for Harrison's army on the swamps of the St. Mary's in 1812, that gave the popular sobriquet of "the wagoner boy " to Thomas Corwin, who, it is said, proved himself "a good whip and an excellent reinsman."

After the admission of Ohio into the Union, Congress applied three per cent of the proceeds of the public lands sold within the State to the construction of roads in the State. This three per cent fund was applied under the direction of the

Digitized by Google

284

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

Legislature. The roads laid out and constructed by authority of the Legislature were known as State roads. The first and most important State roads in Warren County were those described in old statutes, as "the State road leading from Chillicothe by the court house in the county of Warren to the center of the College Township west of the Great Miami," and "the State road from Cincin- nati to Chillicothe by James Hopkins' tavern east of the Little Miami." For opening and making both these roads, the Legislature made the first appropria- tions February 18, 1804. The second-named State road followed the general direction of the road now known as the Montgomery pike. Leading as it did from Cincinnati, the commercial emporium of the State, to the then capital of the State, where it united with Zane's trace, leading from Wheeling through Zanesville, Lancaster and Chillicothe to Limestone, it was for more than a quarter of a century the great route of travel eastward from Cincinnati.

Below are given the roads in Warren County which received the benefit of the three per cent fund in 1820, the amount appropriated for each road and the names of the Commissioners appointed by the Legisiature to expend the money. The total amount appropriated in the State was $59,000, of which Warren County received $1,000.

On the State road from Chillicothe to the College Township west of the Great Miami, for the part west of Lebanon, $50, William Boal; for the part east of Lebanon, $50; John T. Jack. On the State road from Lebanon by way of Jacob D. Lowe's to Cincinnati, $150; William Coulson. On the State road from Lebanon leading through Waynesville, $100; Noah Haines. On the State road from Waynesville to Wilmington, $50; Noah Haines. On the road from Lebanon to Hamilton, $75; Jonathan Tullis. On the State road from Lebanon to Wilmington, $100; James Wilkerson. On the State road from Cincinnati to Chillicothe, by James Hopkins' tavern, east of the Little Miami, $145; John Hopkins. On the road leading from Lebanon to Williamsburg, by way of Deerfield, $50; John Hopkins. On the road leading from Lebanon to Dayton, as far as Benjamin Carty's, $50; and from Carty's north, $25; and on the road from Carty's toward Xenia. $25; Henry King. On the State road from Dayton to Cincinnati. which passes through Franklin, $100; Samuel Caldwell. And the sum of $30 was appropriated for opening and improving a road, or so much thereof as lies in the county of Warren, from Wilmington to intersect the State road from Chillicothe to Cincinnati, at a point east of the Little Miami; Mahlon Roach, Commissioner.

For more than the third of a century after the organization of the county. we had no graveled or macadamized highways. Long after the road through Lebanon became an important stage route, the coaches stalled and were left in the mud, while not unfrequently the passengers rode the horses into town: and along the route Postmasters sat up at night awaiting the arrival of the mail due one or two days before. Stage coaches began to be important means of carrying passengers and mails on the principal thoroughfares in Ohio about 1825. After the completion of the National road as far as Columbus, about 1836, travel from Cincinnati to the Eastern cities was diverted to Columbus through Mason, Lebanon and Waynesville. The time in 1837 was forty-nine and a half hours from Wheeling to Columbus, and twenty-four and a half hours from Columbus to Cincinnati. In 1842, Charles Dickens made the stage coach journey from Cincinnati to Columbus over a macadamized road the whole way at the rate of six miles an hour. Leaving Cincinnati at 8 o'clock in the morning, the passengers dined at Lebanon, and, traveling all night, reached Columbus a little before 7 o'clock the next morning. The great novelist de- scribes the coach in which he rode as " a great mail coach, whose huge cheeks are so very ruddy and plethoric, that it appears to be troubled with a tendency

Digitized by

Google -

Digitized by Google

M I Wales

Digitized by

Google-

287

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

of blood to the head. Dropsical it certainly is for it will hold a dozen passen- gers inside. But wonderful to add, it is very clean and bright, being nearly new."

Before the first railroads in Ohio were completed, there was a demand for a more rapid method of communicating intelligence than the mail-coach. On July 1, 1837, a horse express was put on the road from Fredericktown, Md., to Cincinnati, carrying special mails from the Eastern cities. The schedule time of this express is given as follows: Forty-four and a half hours from Baltimore to Columbus, fifteen hours from Columbus to Cincinnati, by way of Dayton and Franklin. The route for the horse express was sometimes through Lebanon Along the route, the people were on the lookout at their doors to see the blooded horses, ridden by boys, go by on the run. The inaugural address of President Polk, in 1845, was carried from Columbus to Cincinnati in nine and a half hours by special express. This is said to have been the fastest mail time ever made by horses in Ohio. being about eleven and a half miles per hour.

TURNPIKES.

In 1835, the first macadamized road to Cincinnati was built. The turnpike from Lebanon to Cincinnati was completed about the year 1838, and turnpikes from Lebanon to Dayton and Waynesville were completed one or two years later. From this time forward every year added a few miles to the macadamized roads of the county. The Cincinnati, Montgomery, Hopkinsville, Roachester and Clarksville Macadamized Turnpike Company was chartered in 1834, and the road completed to Hopkinsville about 1840. It is worthy of note that, while this pike followed the line of one of the oldest and most important State roads leading to Cincinnati, yet no bridge was built at the crossing of the Little Miami until the construction of the turnpike, when a toll-bridge was completed at Foster's Crossings. The first turnpikes were constructed by incorporated companies and were toll-roads. Since the year 1865, a large number of free pikes have been constructed, and most of the toll-pikes in Warren County have been made free. The county has now 126 turnpikes, with an aggregate length of about 550 miles, constructed at a cost of over $500,000. The county stands among the very first in the State for the number and excellence of its graveled roads. Perhaps few villages of its size in the United States are better favored in the particular of good roads leading in every direction than the county seat of Warren County.

CANAL8.

Of the three great improved methods of land transit-railroads, canals and turnpikes -- canals were first in the order of time. Of the two great canals con- necting the Ohio with the lakes, constructed by the State, one passed through the north western part of Warren County. The Miami Canal, begun in 1825, completed to Dayton in 1828, was an improvement of the very highest value to the northwestern part of the county and to the town of Franklin.

WARREN COUNTY CANAL.

In February, 1830, an act was passed incorporating the Warren County Canal Company, authorized to construct a canal from Middletown to Lebanon. The line of the canal passed through a valley of unsurpassed fertility, produc- ing vast quantities of corn, wheat, oats, barley and pork, which it was believed would be transported by this branch of the canal system. The company was organized and proceeded to construct the work. In 1836, the Legislature passed an act requiring the canal commissioners to take possession of the work, adopt it as a State work, and cause it to be completed within two years The canal was adopted by the State in accordance with an amicable agreement be- M

Digitized by

Google

288

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

tween the canal commissioners and the Warren County Canal Company, the State paying the company 50 cents on the dollar on what had been expended The company was composed of men deeply interested in having the work com- pleted, and agreed to suffer a loss of 50 per cent on what they had expended, the whole amount being $22,000. The amount expended by the State was $217,552.

The canal was made navigable for boats about the year 1840, but the Board of Public Works, in 1852, in a special report, declared that the work could not be said to have ever been completed, and that they were satisfied that it never was properly constructed, nor was it ever in a suitable condition for the naviga- tion of boats of over forty tons. After about eight years unprofitable operation. the canal was abandoned, chiefly in consequence of the difficulty experienced in keeping it clear for navigation.

The canal followed, for the greater portion of its course, a low but broad channel, by means of which geologists believe that the Great and Little Miami Rivers were once united. No locks were necessary between Middletown and the Muddy Creek Valley. There were four locks within a few miles of Leba- non. The greatest cause of the failure of the work was the introduction intc the canal of a small stream, called Shaker Run, which, in times of flood, filled up its channel with a vast quantity of earth, sometimes to the top water-line and extending five or six hundred feet each way from the confluence. This sc frequently impeded and delayed navigation that it virtually drove boats away from the canal. Another hindrance to navigation resulted from the fact that the Dick's Creek aqueduct was placed so high as to prevent the passage of boate heavily laden. The canal remained in a ruinous condition after a breach had been made in the embankment at Shaker Creek, about 1848. No attempt was made to pass a boat over it after 1850, although as late as 1852 an attempt was made to have the State repair the work. The water for the canal, which entered at the western terminus, was drawn from Mad River, and passed through the Miami and Erie Canal twenty-one miles. The amount required was 1,800 cubic feet per minute. At the eastern terminus, the water was obtained from the two branches of Turtle Creek. A dam was constructed on the East Fork, and, on the North Fork, a reservoir was constructed, covering about forty acres. Joseph Whitehill's mill was built at a lock on this canal, about three miles west of Lebanon. The State leased the power for two runs of stones at this mill. which was valued at $15,000. The water, after passing the mill-wheels, found its way into Turtle Creek.

The following is the last estimate made by an engineer of the costs of re- pairing the Warren County Canal. It was made in 1852. It is published in full, as it names the chief points along the line of the canal:

To the Board of Public Works: GENTLEMEN-Having examined the Warren County Canal thoroughly, with a view to putting it in good order and repair for navigation, I now submit an estimate of the expense of so doing:

Safety gates and repairs, etc., at reservoir at Lebanon. $ 500 00

Repairs at Jno. M. Snook's mill-dam. 100 00

Repairs at dam across Turtle Creek, at Lebanon. 250 00

Lock No. 1, at Lebanon, repairs at same, also new gates entered 500 00

Lock No. 2. 500 00

Aqueduct across branch of Turtle Creek-repairs to trunk, towing path, bridge and abutments. . 500 00

Lock No. 3 requires new gates and repairs to stone work, etc .. 500 00

Lock No. 4 requires new gates and repairs to stone work, etc. 500 00 Repairs to waste gates. 200 00

To carry off the water of "Shaker Race," or run, the sum of. 3,000 00

Repairs and re-building wooden culverts. 1,200 00

Dick's Creek, Main Branch, trunk, 60 feet, at $20 per foot. 1.200 00

Digitized by Google

- 1

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

Rebuilding stone abutments and adding stone pier, in all, 250 perches, at $5 per perch. ..

1,250 00 Rebuilding waste gates and weir at north fork of Dick's Creek .... 500 00

Rebuilding three waste weirs, each 200 feet long .... 450 00

Lock No. 5, at Middletown, requires new gates, and repairs to stone trunk. 500 00

Lock No. 6, at Middletown, new gates, entire repairs to stone work. 500 00 Rebuilding bulk-head, and puddling new gates at north end of feeder to Warren County Canal, near Middletown .. 500 00

Removing deposits for canal feeder, and thoroughly bottoming same (20 miles), in all, 105,600 cubic yards, at 16 cents per yard. 16,896 00 Closing breaches in banks, and repairing same, in all, 15,900 cubic yards, at 13 cents per cubic yard. . 2,067 00

Total amount. $31,613 00

The above sum of $31,613 I consider ample to put said canal in good repair.

In many places the canal is filled to the depth of two and a half or three feet, whilst at others but little deposit is found; the banks have been cut through in many places to accommodate private roads; at other points, they have been broken by freshets and musk- rats. The space below the trunk of Dick's Creek Aqueduct was always too small to vent the water passing in said creek during freshets, and the consequence was the banks of the canal were overrun and frequently broken. My estimate, however, contemplates an enlargement of the water way to more than double the present. The gates of all the locks are almost entirely gone, and must be rebuit, and probably several new miter sills will have to be furnished.

Respectfully submitted,

JOHN W. ERWIN, Rest. Engineer, Miami and Eric Canal.

LITTLE MIAMI CANAL AND BANKING COMPANY.

The navigation of the Little Miami by means of slack water and canals was proposed in the early history of the State, but it was never carried out. In 1817, the Legislature incorporated the Little Miami Canal and Banking Com- pany, authorizing it "to construct such dams and locks, and to open such canals as may be necessary for a practicable ascending and descending boat navigation on the Little Miami River from the Ohio to the town of Waynesville." The incorporators named in the act were Abijah O'Neall, John Satterthwaite, Rich- ard Mather, Thomas Graham, Isaac Stubbs, Ralph W. Hunt, Jeremiah Mor- row, John Elliot, Patterson Hartshorn, Zaccheus Biggs and John Armstrong. The company was authorized to carry on a general manufacturing and banking business; the capital stock was to consist of $300,000, and the subscription books were to be opened in March, 1818, at Cincinnati, Milford, Gainesboro, Lebanon and Waynesville. The company was authorized to receive tolls at the rate of 10 cents per ton at each lock. It was expected that the canal would make Gainesboro, which had been laid out two years before, a thriving town, but work on the canal was never commenced, and Gainsboro, never attained the importance anticipated by its projectors, and long ago ceased to exist as a town.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 30

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