The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 43

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

USA > Ohio > Warren County > The History of Warren County, Ohio > Part 43

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).

On the restoration of peace, he resumed the business of surveying. It is known that in 1799 he laid out a road from Vincennes to the Great Miami River, and a published statement gave its length, on his authority, as 155 miles and 48 poles. The Western Spy of July 23, 1799, contained the following:

" Capt. E. Kibby, who, some time since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday reduced to a perfect skeleton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when, by some means he was separated from his men. After hunting them several days without success, he steered his course this way. He has undergone great hardships, and was obliged to subsist on roots, etc., which he picked up in the woods. Thus far report."

Capt. Kibby resided for some time in Columbia, in which place he is said to have built the first stone house. On the formation of Columbia Township, in 1791-the oldest township between the Miamis, and originally embracing parts of Hamilton, Butler and Warren Counties-he was appointed, by the Court of Quarter Sessions, the first Clerk of the township. He also for a time resided in the village of Cincinnati. About the commencement of this cen- tury, he removed with his family to Deerfield or its vicinity.

Digitized by Google

390

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

" During the storm of excitement which followed Aaron Burr's attempted expedition down the Mississippi, rumor, fear, partisan feeling and prejudice endangered the reputation of every man who had even an acquaintance with Burr. The storm was nowhere greater than in Ohio, and Capt. Kibby, who had known Col. Burr as an officer in the Revolutionary war, and had probably met him several times in Cincinnati, in order to protect his reputation, pub- lished, in the Western Spy, an affidavit denying all connection with any scheme against the welfare of the Government. The published report of Burr's trial shows that Kibby was subpoenaed as a witness on the part of the Government, but he did not testify. His name is mentioned in the testimony of Gen. William Eaton, from which it appeared that Burr, in order to win Eaton over to his Mexican scheme, had indulged in loose talk to the effect that a majority of the people about Cincinnati were ready to embark in his expedition, and that " a Mr. Ephraim Kibby, late Captain of the rangers in Wayne's army, and a Brigade Major in the vicinity of Cincinnati, who had much influence with the militia, had already engaged the majority of his brigade, who were ready to march at Mr. Burr's signal."

In 1802, Capt. Kibby was elected a member of the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, but the formation of a State Government prevented the Legislature to which he was elected from meeting. He was elected a member of the first Legislature of the State of Ohio, and served two terms. He had a large family, and his descendants in Warren County are numerous. Judge John F. Kibby, of Richmond, Ind., who is a native of Warren County, is his grandson. Capt. Kibby died April 22, 1809, aged fifty-five years, and was buried at Deerfield.

JOHN BIGGER.

This prominent legislator was a native of Pennsylvania and an early pioneer in the Miami Purchase. He contracted with Judge Symmes for the purchase of lands in the fourth range, northwest of the present site of Leb- anon, and settled thereon, His purchase falling outside of the tract patented to Symmes, he was unable to obtain a deed for his lands until the passage of an act of Congress for the relief of persons who had made written contracts with Symmes, and whose lands were not comprehended in his patent. In 1802, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, but the Legis- lature to which he was elected never assembled, on account of the formation of a State Government. He was more frequently elected to represent Warren County in the Legislature than any other citizen of the county in its whole history. He was a Representative in the first State Legislature, and from 1803 to 1833, he was twenty times elected either a Representative or Senator in that body. In the session of 1821-22, he was Speaker of the House. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of Miami University. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature a member of the first State Board of Equal- ization, and became the President of that body. In 1824, he was elected a Presidential Elector on the Clay Electoral ticket, and in 1826, he was one of three unsuccessful candidates for Governor against Allen Trimble.

Col. Bigger possessed powers of mind which enabled him to discharge the duties of the offices to which he was chosen with credit to himself and the en- tire satisfaction of the community. He was known to be an honest man. He was esteemed for his integrity and uprightness of character, as well as his sta- bility and sound judgment. He was an influential and useful member of the Dick's Creek Presbyterian Church, and served as Ruling Elder in that church from its organization until his death. An obituary notice of Col. Bigger says that " if any trait was exhibited more conspicuously than another, it was that which, in a very eminent degree, entitled him to the character of a peace-

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

391

maker." He was the father of Gov. Samuel Bigger, of Indiana. After an ill- ness of about ten days, he died on his farm north of Union Village, June 18, 1840.

WILLIAM C. SCHENCK.

William C. Schenck was born in New Jersey in 1773, and was the son of Rev. William Schenck, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Anna Cummings, his wife. He was a surveyor by profession, and came to Marietta in 1793, and to Cincinnati in 1795. In the winter of 1795-96, in connection with Daniel C. Cooper, he laid out the town of Franklin, and in 1801, with two associates, laid out the town of Newark, Licking Co., Ohio. In 1798, he was married to Betsey Rog- ers, of Long Island, and, with his wife, reached Cincinnati January 1, 1799, where they resided until about 1803, when they became residents of Franklin. He was elected Secretary of the Council in the first Legislature of the North- west Territory in 1799. His name appears in the court records as Foreman of a Grand Jury of Hamilton County in 1799, and as Foreman of the first Grand Jury of Warren County in 1803. He served as a State Senator from Warren County in 1803, 1804 and 1805, and Representative in the Legislature in 1821. In 1814, he was appointed by the Legislature a Commissioner for the perpet- uation of the evidence of the original field notes of the survey of the Miami Purchase, the original notes having been lost in a fire, which destroyed the house of Judge J. C. Symmes. He died at Columbus, Ohio, while serving as a member of the Legislature, on his forty-eighth birthday, January 12, 1821. Gen. William C. Schenck left a large family, of whom the sole survivors, in 1881, were Gen. Robert C. Schenck and Admiral James F. Schenck, both of whom were born in Warren County.

MICHAEL H. JOHNSON.

Judge Johnson was born in Virginia November 10, 1769. Having re- ceived a better English education than was common at that time, he went, when a young man, to Kentucky, where he taught school. He soon afterward moved to the north side of the Ohio, and served as Quartermaster Sergeant under Gen. Wayne, and thus formed an intimate acquaintance with William Henry Har- rison, an Ensign, a few years younger than himself. This acquaintance ripened into an ardent friendship. Their last meeting was at the Williamson House, in Lebanon, while Gen. Harrison was a candidate for the Presidency. Johnson was one of the first settlers at Deerfield, being there as early as 1797. According to the manuscript notes of Judge R. B. Harlan, M. H. Johnson sold goods at Deerfield for Mr. Hinkson, and was the first store-keeper in War- ren County. About 1801, he moved to the high ground immediately north of Hopkinsville, where he resided until his death. He was appointed Assessor of Deerfield Township, Hamilton County, Northwest Territory, and afterward, Auditor of Supervisors' accounts for the same large Township, embracing the greater part of Warren County. He received a commission from Gov. St. Clair as a Lieutenant in the Territorial militia. After the organization of Warren County, he was, in 1803, elected and commissioned one of the first Justices of the Peace of Hamilton Township, and discharged the duties of this office at intervals for about twelve years. He was the first Recorder of Warren County, and, after the creation of the office of Auditor, in 1820, he was the first person to hold that position in the county. In 1809, he was elected a member of the Senate of the General Assembly, and, in 1812, a Representative, serving, in all, seven terms in the Legislature between 1809 and 1819. In the last-named year, he was commissioned by Gov. Brown Collector of Taxes for the Second District. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature an Associate Judge, and served in that position for about ten years.

Digitized by Google

392

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

In politics, Judge Johnson was a Jeffersonian, or anti-Federalist, and afterward an active and ardent Whig. On election days, he was always to be found at the polls. He died at his home, near Hopkinsville, in the seventy- seventh year of his age.

THOMAS B. VAN HORNE.

The subject of this sketch was born in New Jersey June 1, 1783, and came to Warren County in 1807. He was the son of Rev. William Van Horne, a Baptist clergyman, who served as Chaplain in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1807, at Pittsburgh, on his journey to Ohio. His remote ancestors were emigrants from the Netherlands. Thomas B. settled on a farm one mile east of Lebanon in December, 1807, where he engaged in the arduous labors of opening a farm in the forests. He was among the earliest volunteers in the war of 1812, and was placed in command of a battalion in Col. Findley's reg- iment, with the rank of Major, and was surrendered with Hull's army at De- troit. He was soon exchanged, and received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the regular army, in which capacity he continued until the close of the war, being for a long time in command of Fort Erie. At the close of the war, he returned to agricultural pursuits. He was elected a Senator in the Legislature of Ohio in 1812, 1816 and 1817, and was afterward appointed, by President Monroe, a Register of the Land Office in the northwestern part of Ohio, which position he held until 1837. On returning from this position, he again established himself on his farm near Lebanon, where he remained until his death, a quiet and sober, but industrious and useful, citizen. He died September 21, 1841, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Leb- anon.

Digitized by

Google

393

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

CHAPTER IX. PHYSIOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES.

TOPOGRAPHY.

T HERE are no very high elevations and few rugged hills in Warren County, but the surface is far from being a level plain. The southwestern corner of the county is but thirteen miles in a direct line from the Ohio River at Cin- cinnati, yet the broken and hilly surface characteristic of the Ohio River coun- ties is not found even in the southern part of Warren. The county is gener- ally well drained, and on its first settlement only limited areas were too wet to be speedily brought under cultivation. The greater part of the county is drained by the Little Miami. This stream, which has a general direction southward, makes its most important deflection in this county, and flows due west for eight miles. Warren holds more of the river's course than any other county. About one-third of the surface is drained into the Great Miami, chiefly by means of Clear Creek and Dick's Creek. The two Miamis are but twelve miles apart, measured on a line from Franklin to Waynesville, this being their nearest approach to each other.

Although the county is comparatively near the majestic Ohio, it cannot be said to slope toward that river; in fact, the surface has no general slope in any direction. Important streams are found running toward every point of the compass. Turtle Creek and Muddy Creek, which drain a considerable portion of three townships, and have their sources sixteen miles apart, flow toward each other for nearly their entire courses, and before the two streams are deflected to enter the Little Miami, they approach within half a mile of each other.

The water-shed between the two Miamis passes from the northern boundary through the highlands about Raysville southward to the vicinity of Utica, thence westward to Red Lion, thence southwestward through the Shaker lands into Butler County. This water-shed is not a ridge, but a range of high land, frequently level. What was formerly known as the Shaker Swamp was found on this water-shed. The parting line of the waters passes not far to the west of the southwestern corner of the county, and in the vicinity of Socialville the lands have an elevation of 500 feet above the Ohio and 200 feet above the ele- vation of Lebanon.

In the southeastern part of the county is found a part of an extended flat-lying tract which takes in a part of Clermont, Clinton, Brown and High- land, the surface of which is almost a dead level, and which originally con- stituted an area of white-oak swamps. The swamps of Harlan retarded the settlement of that township for many years. They have now been mostly drained, but the descent from them is so slight that there are localities in which the water can be taken with nearly equal facility in different directions. A post office and railway station in this region have been appropriately named Level. The flat-lying tracts of Warren County, however, are only the begin- nings of an extensive region, and do not constitute any large proportion of the territory of the county.

An interesting feature of the topography of the county is a broad valley of alluvial lands stretching from the Little Miami at South Lebanon to the

Digitized by

Google

394

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

Great Miami at Middletown. Through this valley, the lower part of Turtle Creek and Muddy Creek find their way into the Little Miami and Dick's Creek into the Great Miami. The old Warren County Canal followed this depres- sion and was without any intermediate locks from Middletown to within three miles of Lebanon. The probable union of the two Miamis by means of this ancient channel has been suggested by geologists. Dr. John Locke, in the report of the first Ohio Geological Survey, wrote as follows in describing the view from a hill overlooking this valley:

"This hill commands an extensive view of the fertile valley of Dick's Creek and its contiguous hills to the westward. Southwardly it looks quite across the valley to Monroe, which is four miles distant on the opposite side of it. It was in June, and the whole earth was a garden of verdure. The valley of Dick's Creek has an exceedingly fertile soil, black alluvion, extending in a plain quite across it. It produces fine grass and corn, but is almost too strong for wheat. How so small a rivulet as Dick's Creek could have excavated a valley 300 feet deep and three or four miles wide-a valley sufficient for the majestic Ohio itself, is a geological problem which I am unable to solve. Did the Little Miami ever pass in this direction? The canal now building from the Miami Canal to Lebanon through this valley might seem an absurd under- taking; but to open a conveyance for the produce of such a region is well worth the enterprise, independent of the interests of the thriving town at its ter- minus."

Prof. Orton thinks the two rivers were once united by means of this ancient channel, there being no rocky barriers in the way. Either the Little Miami held the western direction, which it now has. from Morrow to Deerfield, or, as is more probable, the valley of the Great Miami was opened out by glacial erosion southeastwardly to the Little Miami, the direction in which glacial action has been most conspicuous in Southwestern Ohio.

The lowest land in the county is the bed of the Little Miami at Loveland, which is about 125 feet above low-water at Cincinnati. The railroad at the same point is about thirty feet above the bed of the river. The water-shed between the Miamis, near the northern boundary of the county, holds the high- est land, which is about 625 feet above the Ohio at Cincinnati. From the lowest to the highest land there is, therefore, a vertical section of 500 feet. The highest lands in the county are believed to lie nearly midway between Ridgeville and Raysville.

A hill one mile east of Utica, on the farm of William Morris, is interest- ing from the fact that near its summit is the highest point of contact between the Upper and the Lower Silurian systems observed by Prof. Orton, and from this point was determined for the geological survey the dip of the blue lime- stone strata in various directions. According to Prof. Orton's measurement, with the aneroid barometer, the point of contact between the two systems on this hill is 574 feet above the Ohio, the summit of the hill being 595 feet. According to the same authority, the altitude of the upper limit of the blue limestone series on Spring Hill, is 572, or only two feet lower than that found on the Morris hill.

The following table of elevations is the most complete one for the county ever published. For the purposes of comparison, the elevations of several points in adjoining counties are given. On account of their peculiar interest, the elevations of important points along the whole line of the Cincinnati Northern Railway, from Cincinnati to Waynesville, are given. Elevations found by railroad surveys are much more reliable than those taken from the geological report, which were obtained by use of the aneroid barometer. It should be remembered, however, that railroads and canals usually seek the lines of lowest

Digitized by Google

Google

Digitized by

Samuel Harris

Digitized by Google-

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

397

level, especially in crossing water-sheds, and they, therefore, do not fairly represent the variations of altitude in the country through which they pass. It may here be stated that the highest and the lowest land in Ohio are found in the Miami Valley, the latter being at the mouth of the Great Miami, the for- mer in Logan County and measuring 1,540 feet above the level of the sea.

In the following table, all measurements are computed from Jow-water at Cincinnati, which is 441 feet above the ocean and 134 feet above Lake Erie, according to Col. Whittlesey. By adding to the figures in the table 441 feet, therefore, the elevation above the sea will be obtained, and, by subtracting 134 feet, the elevation above Lake Erie will be obtained:

ELEVATIONS ABOVE LOW WATER AT CINCINNATI.

Bed of Little Miami River at Loveland.

.125

Railroad track at Loveland ..

154

Spence's Station, M. & C. R. R. .388

Morrow ..

.200

Lebanon, public schoolhouse lot.

.315

Mason ..

.887

Franklin, canal lock.

248

Spring Hill, Washington Township.

.600

Raysville, highest point on railroad from Dayton to Cincinnati.

607

Warren and Montgomery County line on T., D. & B. R. R ...

.584

T., D. & B. R. R. Crossing of Ridgeville and Waynesville pike. .514

Utica Station. .

.534

Rock Schoolhouse, three miles southeast of Lebanon

.485

Blanchester ..

538

Bethel, Clermont County

490

Middletown, canal level.

.211

Hamilton, canal basin.

169

Spring Valley

.333

Xenia. .

.491

Wilmington.

.551

CINCINNATI NORTHERN RAILWAY.

[The number at each stake multiplied by 100 gives the distance in feet from Court street, Cincinnati. ]

No. of Stake.

Elevation.

Court street, Cincinnati.

105

Effluent Pipe street.

178

Eden Park entrance.

234

McMillan street.

354

Cincinnati & Eastern Railroad junction.

202

260

Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad junction.

292

185

Montgomery pike.

480

398

Jones & Cashin's.

507

439

Hamilton and Butler County line.

880

448

Butler and Warren County line.

948

500

Summit on Ross farm.

960

519

J. Milton Thompson's farm

986

496

J. L. Thompson's farm. .

1,015

467

Mason. .

1,155

987 240

Lebanon Pike, Hageman's.

1,836

Muddy Creek ...

1,374

232

Lebanon pike (Avoca).

1,439

247

Foot of Broadway, Lebanon.

1,578

270

Main street crossing, Lebanon.

1,610

305

Crossing of Waynesville pike.

1,716

458

L. D. Williams's farm.

1,804

551

Waynesville, High street.

2,180

290

OLIMATE.

The climate of the county, like that of Ohio and a great part of the United States, is one of extremes. The extremes are of temperature rather than of moisture, as the rains fall usually at all seasons in sufficient quantities for the

Digitized by

Google

398

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

purposes of supplying the wants of vegetation. It is comparatively rare that crops are destroyed, or so much injured by lack of moisture that there is not enough of the principal productions both for home consumption and shipment. An entire absence of rain for weeks attracts universal attention.

The extremes of temperature marked by the thermometer are 30° below zero, and 1034° above zero F. It is rare for the mercury to fall 16° below zero, or to rise above 98°. The mean annual temperature is about 52°, or 2º lower than that of Cincinnati.

The mean annual precipitation of rain and melted snow cannot be far from forty-two inches. More rain falls in a series of years in June than in any other month, and less in September. The moisture which gives fertility to the Ohio Valley comes chiefly from the Gulf of Mexico and the winds from the southwest are most likely to be rain-producing. The winds from western di- rections predominate far above all others, those from the southwest being the most frequent, the northwest next and the southeast next. The least frequent winds are from the north. A register kept by Mr. J. H. Jackson in the hills of Cincinnati, for thirty-five years from 1814 to 1849, shows that the average annual winds at noon were as follows:

From the southwest. 131

From the northwest.

From the southeast.

From the west. 34

From the northeast. 80

From the south 26

From the east.

From the north.

GEOLOGY.

In briefly describing the geological features of the county, only the lead- ing points can be noticed. The attempt will be made to treat the subject in such a manner that it can be understood by any intelligent reader, although unacquainted with the technicalities of geological science. Free use will be made of the information contained in the reports of the two Ohio geological surveys, and especially of Prof. Edward Orton's papers on the Southwestern Geological District in the report of the last geological survey. The line of junction between two geological formations passes through several counties in Southwestern Ohio, of which Warren is one. The physical features of the county are thus very similar to those of Preble, Montgomery, Miami, Clinton, Greene and Clark. Warren County shows better than any of the others the uppermost beds of the blue limestone formation, called the Lebanon beds.

The blue limestone strata are the floor of the county. Over these strata there are four or five outliers of the Cliff limestone, occupying in all not more than ten square miles of the area of the county. Over both blue and Cliff limestone formations are spread the deposits of the Drift period, consisting of superficial clays, sands, gravels and bowlders. The geological strata of the county, beginning with the lowest, are the blue limestone, called the Cincin- nati group, the Clinton formation, the Niagara formation and the Drift. In a chart of geological history, the formations constituting the stratified rocks of the county belong to the Paleozoic era, the blue limestone belonging to the Hudson River period, of the Lower Silurian age, and the Clinton and Niagara limestones belonging to the Niagara Period and the Upper Silurian age. The beds of drift belong to the Human era and Glacial epoch.

From the lowest exposed rocks in the county to the highest, there is a vertical scale of about 500 feet divided among the three formations as follows: Niagara Limestone, 50 feet; Clinton Limestone, 16 feet; Blue Limestone, 434 feet.

Digitized by Google

399

HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

The Blue Limestone is the principal formation of the county, as well as of Southwestern Ohio. The strata of this formation are surprisingly level in an east and west direction, but dip from a height of 450 feet, at Cincinnati, to that of 275 feet at Lebanon, or an average fall northward of about six feet to the mile; and, from the central part of Warren County, northward thirty-five Iniles, to the central part of Miami County, the average descent is four feet per mile. The formation is supposed to have a total thickness of about 800 feet. The Ohio Geological Survey divided the entire blue limestone strata into three beds, the Lebanon beds, or the highest, having a thickness of about 300 feet, the Cincinnati beds, 450 feet, and the Point Pleasant beds, 50 feet. The greater part of the blue limestone found in Warren County belongs to the Lebanon beds. The name was given by Prof. Orton to the series of rocks for the reason that the entire bed is better exposed, and can be more readily studied, in two places east of Lebanon than any other locality. The Lebanon beds are found in the northern parts of Butler, Warren and Brown Counties, and make up the whole of the blue limestone formation of Preble, Montgom- ery, Miami, Clark, Greene and Highland Counties. In the Great Miami Val- ley, they are found from Hamilton to Troy, and, in the Little Miami Valley, from Morrow to Xenia.

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 43

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