The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 56

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

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At this time, there were one saloon-keeper and three druggists engaged in the sale of liquor in Lebanon. The crusaders determined to demand that the saloon-keeper should at once entirely abandon his business, and that the drug- gists should sign a pledge "not to sell or give away under any circumstances, any intoxicating liquors, except for mechanical or medicinal purposes " and " to keep in a book set apart for that purpose a register of all liquors sold, showing when, to whom, and in what quantity and for what purpose each sale is made, and such register shall be kept open to the inspection of the committee of the Womans' Temperance Association of this town." Those who refused to comply with this demand were to be subjected to the annoyance of the praying bands of women until they did comply. Nate Wood, the saloon-keeper, declined to abandon his business. The drug firm of Florer & Babbitt signed the pledge as requested. West Glenny and Dr. John McCowan declined to comply with the demands of the crusaders. Street work by the praying bands was begun on February 14, in front of the saloon of Nate Wood, whose doors were locked to prevent the entrance of the women. The drug stores of the two non-comply- ing druggists were afterward visited.

At the commencement of the crusade, probably only a small minority of the citizens of Lebanon indorsed the new method of suppressing intemperance. Rev. F. A. Douglass, of the East Baptist Church, and Rev. E. B. Burrows, of the Congregational Church, were its leading advocates. Nearly all the other ministers of the town soon gave the work their approval. A number of lay gentlemen were conspicuous in their efforts to forward the movement. An ad- visory committee, consisting of five men, met and counseled with the Women's Association. Although the crusade was known as a woman's movement, it was planned, organized, directed and carried forward by men. The street work was distasteful to a large proportion of the ladies who were ardent friends of the temperance cause. Many were with great difficulty induced to engage in the work.

Evening mass-meetings were held twice a week. The first of these was held at the Congregational Church on Tuesday evening, February 17: The officers were: J. P. Gilchrist, President; Dr. S. S. Scoville, Secretary; Robert P

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Boake, George W. Hunt, William C. Lewis, H. Doebler, William C. Monfort. William W. Wilson and John E. Smith, Vice Presidents. After prayer by Rev. J. P. Sprowls, remarks were made by G. N. Carruthers, J. B. Graham. Mrs. Dr. Scoville, Mrs. Ashmore and Rev. J. Murray. The venerable A. H. Dunlevy offered a series of resolutions approving the methods of the crusaders. which were unanimously adopted. Ex-Probate Judge William W. Wilson read from proof sheets an article afterward published in the Star, of which he was then editor, giving a summary of what had already been accomplished in Ohio by " the movement so auspiciously begun at Washington C. H." .. In the present movement," he said, "it is evident that the most effective method ever devised has been resorted to."

The following dispatch was sent to the Cincinnati Gazette, dated Lebanon. February 17, 1874:

"A mass temperance meeting has just been held in the Congregational Church. Such a meeting was never before known in Lebanon. The house was packed. The enthusiasm was fervent. The pledge was circulated and received over 300 signatures. The best citizens are thoroughly identified with the move- ment, and everything bids fair for success."

From this time forward, every means was taken to increase the excitement and silence all opposition. According to Dio Lewis, "a white-heat " was essen- tial to the success of this method. Plans were devised to arouse an epidemical frenzy. The bells of the churches and public buildings were sometimes rung in concert. A large bell placed in a two-horse wagon was drawn through the streets and tolled. Telegrams were received from neighboring towns announc- ing victories by the women. The new movement was pronounced 'God's work.' and human laws were spoken of in terms of contempt and distrust. Commit. tees of women visited business places and private houses to obtain signatures to the total abstinence pledge. The divine origin of the crusade and the certainty of its final success were expressed in the public meetings in the strongest terms. "It came right from God," said one, "and it is bound to conquer from its very nature." Said another: "This is God's work; I believe it will triumph. I know it will. I am no prophet, but no man who seeks votes through grog-shops shall ever be elected to office again in this county." Another: "Every spout through which a rill of whisky now trickles within this corporation shall be so tightly sealed, that this will be one of the driest places in the United States." A tyrannizing system of proscription and denun- ciation of every man and woman who would not indorse the movement was practiced. These means seemed for a time to succeed in their object. During the second and third weeks of the crusade, the writer knew of hardly half a dozen men of temperate habits in the town who were outspoken in their opposi- tion.

The religious exercises on the street in front of the saloon and drug stores consisted usually of prayer and singing; at times, an address. These exercises at first collected a considerable crowd of spectators. They were sometimes con- ducted in the rain or snow. Street-praying proving ineffectual, was abandoned the last week in April, and picketing the front and rear entrances of the saloon was substituted. Two or more ladies took their places at or near the doors pro- vided with note-books and pencils for the purpose of taking down the names of all persons entering the saloon. This was continued from early in the morn- ing until late at night for two or more weeks, and proved a great annoyance to the proprietor.

On the morning of May 12, an old colored woman, known as "Old Black Jane," took a chair and seated herself among the ladies guarding the door of the saloon. It subsequently appeared that she was paid for this work by the

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opponents of the crusade. She, too, was supplied with a note-book and pencil. She admitted that she could not write, but she said she made a black mark whenever a colored man entered the saloon-a long mark for a tall man and a short mark for a man of low stature. For awhile, there was some indignation among the crusade leaders, but it was soon found that people were laughing in all portions of the town. That laugh brought to an end the Dio Lewis plan of enforcing total abstinence in Lebanon. The pickets were withdrawn, and the crusade ended May 15, 1874.

Saloon and drug stores sold liquor as before. Within a few months, there were six saloons in Lebanon. At a special election for Councilman, Nate Wood was elected over one of the leaders of the late crusade. J. C. Van Pelt re- sumed the saloon business and afterward was sent to the penitentiary. The crusade left behind it family alienations, neighborhood feuds and a general ill- feeling which were long in subsiding.

COUNTY SEAT REMOVAL CONTEST OF 1879.

In March, 1879, the County Commissioners decided to submit the ques- tion of building a new court house to a vote of the electors of the county. Within one week after public notice of the election had been given, there was held in Morrow a public meeting of the citizens of that place to consider the question of voting a tax for a new court house. The preambles and resolutions adopted at this meeting were printed in a circular and widely circulated throughout the county. They declared strongly against the proposed tax: that a new court house ought to be built without increasing the burden of taxes: that it is just and right that those who are benefited largely by the location of a new court house should furnish the money to build it and save those not pecuniarily benefited from being taxed therefor, and "That the friends of Morrow tender to the people of Warren County the proposition to furnish the grounds and build the new court house by private donations free to the tax- payers, and we fully recognize the right of any and all other towns in Warren County to make similar propositions, leaving it to the people to say where their convenience and best interests require its location."

At the April election, the people of the county, by an overwhelming ma- jority, voted against the tax. The question was again submitted at the Octo- ber election of 1879, with a like result. After the second vote on the question, the citizens of Morrow prepared and industriously circulated a petition to the Legislature praying for a law authorizing a vote on the question of the removal of the seat of justice. The petition set forth the advantages of Morrow as a seat of justice, being at the junction of two railroads and that " Lebanon being off the railroad can afford neither markets nor manufacturing facilities and has failed to develop. the ordinary advantages of a county town."

The people of Lebanon, at first feeling perfectly secure in their possession of the seat of justice, treated the movement of Morrow with contempt. A different course was soon decided upon, and, for some months, the people of the whole county experienced something of the bitterness and animosity which usually result from the agitation of the question of the removal of a seat of justice. Having given up all hopes of a vote in favor of a tax for a new court house, the friends of Lebanon as one means of settling the removal contest urged upon the County Commissioners the necessity of repairing the existing building, and the contract for its extension and repair was entered into by the Commissioners. The friends of Lebanon also circulated throughout the county a remonstrance addressed to the Legislature against the prayer of the Morrow petition. The following extracts are taken from this remonstrance:

"On the formation of Warren County at the first session of the first State

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Legislature, the seat of justice was temporarily established where it now is on account of its central and eligible location, though then in an almost unbroken forest; afterward, Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to locate the seat of justice recommended the same spot, and the General Assembly, by an act passed February 11, 1805, permanently established the county seat at Leba- non, where it has remained undisturbed for three-quarters of a century, and until now no proposition for a change has been made, two court houses having been erected within that time.

"So nearly exactly in the center of the county is the present county seat. that of the two diagonal lines uniting the extreme corners of the county, one passes through the town, the other within a short distance of the corporate limits. It is not only the geographical center; it is the center of population: the center of the largest and most populous township; and the center to which a greater number of free macadamized highways converge from all directions than to any other town in the county, or perhaps in the State. The taxes for new bridges and road improvements alone in case of removal would exceed the cost of a necessary court house improvement on the present site.

"The county buildings, the jail, a new infirmary, costing $60,000, other infirmary buildings, the infirmary farm of seventy-seven acres, a new County Orphan Asylum, are all centrally located at or near Lebanon, convenient to the administration of legal business, and could not be relocated except at great cost."

The Morrow petition and the Lebanon remonstrance were presented to the Legislature. The whole county had been thoroughly canvassed in the interests of both parties. The signatures to the petition numbered 2,148; those to the remonstrance, 3,750. A bill in accordance with the prayer of the petition was introduced into the Senate. The bill, petition and remonstrance were referred to one of the standing committees of the Senate. This committee, after hearing arguments from representatives of both parties, on February 12, 1880, agreed unanimously to report against the bill. This ended the contest for the removal of the county seat from Lebanon.

EFFORTS OF LEBANON TO OBTAIN A RAILROAD.

The first survey for the Little Miami Railroad, the first railroad built to Cincinnati, was made by Gen. O. M. Mitchell, who had lived in Lebanon until he received his appointment as cadet at West Point. He was anxious for the road to pass through Lebanon and made his survey up the Turtle Creek Valley, diverging from the present line of the Little Miami road at a point above Foster's. The elevations east of Lebanon were then supposed to be too great for a locomotive. In addition to this impediment, the road, it is said. received no encouragement from some of the leading business men of Lebanon at that time. Soon after the completion of the Little Miami road, some of the enterprising citizens of Lebanon had a conference with the President of that road with a view of inducing the company to straighten and thereby shorten their line by adopting the route through Lebanon. This route would shorten the line five miles. The railroad company required a subscription of $40,000 to the capital stock of the road, from the people of Lebanon, before making the proposed change. After three or four weeks spent in canvassing Lebanon and vicinity, $46,000, in good subscriptions, were obtained and presented to the directors of the railroad company. The company declined to make the altera- tion at that time.

A few years later, an effort was made to secure a road from the Little Miami through Lebanon to Dayton. The survey was made and assistance was expected from the Little Miami Company in its construction. This movement failed and the people of Lebanon paid the expenses of the surveys.

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In 1850, a proposition was made to build a branch road from the Little Miami, at Gainesboro, to Lebanon, in which the citizens of the latter place were to give the right of way and to pay one-half the cost of construction. After a year's negotiation, the project was abandoned, the citizens of Lebanon alleging that the Little Miami Company had failed to comply with its promises.

The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Xenia Railroad Company was organized about 1852. The citizens of Lebanon and vicinity subscribed liberally to the stock of the company, the right of way was secured and a considerable amount of work performed on the line, when the contractor for the construction went into bank- ruptcy, leaving Lebanon again without a railroad and with a loss of $100,000.

In 1866, a proposition was received from the Little Miami Company that they would construct a branch from Gainesboro to Lebanon if the citizens would donate one-half of its cost, or $60,000. The people of Lebanon raised $64,000 and proffered it to the company, but the company again failed to com- ply with the proposition.

In 1870, the Cincinnati & Springfield Railroad was projected. A written agreement was entered into at Cincinnati by which the projectors bound them- selves to locate the road through Lebanon, on condition that $250,000 was raised and donated to the road. Large as was the amount which was to be subscribed and paid, not for stock, but as a gift, more than the required amount was raised; $265,000 in good subscriptions were raised, chiefly by the people of Lebanon and vicinity; but the road was built through Dayton and Franklin, the company claiming that the agreement had been signed before the organization of the company was effected.

In 1874, efforts were commenced to secure a railway through Lebanon by the construction of a three-feet gauge road .. The Miami Valley Narrow-Gauge Railway Company was organized and books for subscriptions to its capital stock were opened at Lebanon, December 14, 1874. The history of the troubles and misfortunes of this company cannot here be detailed. Liberal subscriptions to the stock of the company were made; work on the road was commenced; the company became involved in litigation with the contractor; its property passed into the hands of a receiver, leaving the stockholders with an incompleted road- bed and a heavy debt. The road was completed from Cincinnati to Utica Sta- tion by the Cincinnati Railway Company, and, after unsuccessful efforts extending over more than a third of a century, the year 1882 finds Lebanon an important point on a railway extending from Cincinnati to Toledo.

Long as has been the delay in obtaining railway communication, it is not too much to say that no town in the Ohio Valley has made more efforts. or been more liberal in the subscription of stock and money, and offers of donations and right of way, for the purpose of securing a railroad, than Lebanon.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.

BY W. C. REEDER.

The date of the first settlement of this township, outside of the town of Franklin, is obscure. We find that William Barkalow and his brother, Derrick, came about the year 1804, and bought all the land from the mouth of Twin Creek to the present Hydraulic Dam, and reaching from the Miami River west to where Carlisle Station now is. It is said that there was a log cabin standing just north of the present residence of Mr. L. G. Ander- son, built probably as a shelter for stock. When Mr. Barkalow bought the

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land. he placed some rails across the door to keep the cattle out, and when he returned with his family, he jestingly pretended to hand the key to one of the family, and sent him ahead to unlock the door ready for the family. The Bar- kalow family descended from the above two brothers are still represented in the neighborhood.

About the same time, the Maxwell family, the Russells, the McCashens and the Campbells settled in the township.

In a part of the township now included in Clear Creek Township was born Mr. Joseph Barnett, who claimed, in after years, that he was the first white child born in the township. Mrs. Susan McCashen, who is still, at the age of eighty-seven, living about two miles east of town with her son-in-law, Mr. John Sholts, Sr., claims that she was the first child born in the township.

The early settlers had the usual perplexities and trials encountered else- where by the pioneers. The land was cleared of its heavy growth of timber, which, being so plentiful, was of no value, and was got rid of by means of log- heaps, which, being burned, furnished a clear space upon which to cultivate the crops. The hard labor consequent upon this process of clearing land, was counter-balanced by the pleasures of the corn-husking, the quilting frolic or the country dance.

The rich soil, while it amply repaid the cultivator, came near burying him and his horses in the springtime, so that the most common mode of traveling was on horseback.

The Miami River was either forded or crossed by means of a ferry-boat. owned and managed by Mr. William Barkalow.

The Miami Indians were in the neighborhood for many years, and some of the oldest citizens remember it as a common occurrence that the women of this tribe gathered on the west bank of the Miami, and wove their baskets or worked at the various occupations which fall to the lot of the Indian women. There seems to have been no trouble from the Indian tribes after the first set- tlement.

From records of the township now in possession of Dr. O. Evans, Sr., it appears that as early as 1802, or one year before the organization of the county, James McCashen was Justice of the Peace.

Settlements were made about the neighborhood of Carlisle in the spring of 1804 and 1805, by Arthur Vanderveer, of Freehold, N. J., who, in company with the Barkalows, had entered the tract of land on the Great Miami River, before spoken of. At the same time came Daniel Dubois and Dr. Benjamin Dubois, and, within the next ten years, several families from New Jersey came to this township and the southern part of Montgomery County, forming what is known to-day as the Jersey Settlement. The Lanes, Schencks, Denises, the Conovers, Poasts, Wykoffs and the Barkalows have all been well known in this part of the county since.

Dr. Dubois was one of the first physicians in this region, and all the grown folks, as well as the rising generation for miles around knew the taste of his medicines.

The markets of this region were, of course, not the best; hence grain and produce were cheap, wheat being 12 cents per bushel; butter, 3 to 5 cents per pound, and eggs, 2 to 3 cents per dozen. The stately deer, the wild turkey and the black bear furnished the farmer with active recreation, while the Great Miami from its clear waters furnished those who preferred quieter sport an abundant supply of the finny tribe. The thrifty New Jersey people, however, did not let the waters glide by without making use of them in another way.

Accordingly, they built flat-boats, and loading upon them their surplus farm products, when the spring floods swelled the river, floated down to New

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Orleans, where they sold first the cargo and then the boat, coming home in some instances on foot. Great amusement was caused by an honest old farmer taking a boat-load of turkeys to New Orleans, when the wild turkey was found in great abundance. After a few years, mills were built, and then the grain in the more compact form of flour, was shipped on the flat-boats. The mills in early days were of composite character, both grinding and sawing being done at the same mill. The Van Tuyls built one at an early day near Twin Creek; but not only the mill has all disappeared, but also the race that led to it. The Vanderveer Mill. just south of the present Hydraulic Dam, was the main mill for many years. It was erected by Arthur Vanderveer at a very early day.

The erection of dams on the river stopped transportation by the river, and then the large old-fashioned Pennsylvania wagon carried produce to Cincinnati and dry goods and groceries back.

The furniture used was generally home-made, or made in the immediate neighborhood; the shoes and hats were made by the traveling mechanic, who worked at one house until that family was supplied, and then passed to another, the shoes and hats being renewed but once a year. The women, besides their customary avocations, amused themselves and employed their leisure hours at the large or small wheel, the loom or in knitting, and she was considered as unfit to wed who had not laid up against her wedding a goodly supply of linen, such as was needed for the general wants of the household. All wore gar- ments, the value of which they knew by the toil that had sufficed to produce them. Sometimes the garments of the men were made by an itinerant tailor, who served as did the shoemaker and the hatter, but generally the women made all the garments, attended to the dairy, the poultry and the garden, and not unfrequently, worked in the fields with the men, making "hands" as well as any one.

In 1829, the Miami Canal, from Cincinnati to Dayton, was completed. This served as an outlet for the grain, pork, etc., of the township, and in con- sequence. the prices of these commodities increased as did the acreage of grain raised.

In 1825, a line of stages had been established, from Columbus to Cincin- nati. and this. of course, gave greater facilities for communication with the outside world.

Schools were established in the township at an early date, many of the in- structors being Irishmen, frequently men of much education, but dissipated and reckless, who, having lost rank or prestige at home by means of their bad habits, came to America, and, preferring anything to manual labor, taught school, after a fashion, beating into the refractory skulls of dull pupils the things that they could not readily assimilate and make a part of themselves. The teacher, if a single man, boarded round; the institution of learning was a log-hut with a few windows, covered with greased paper in lieu of glass, many openings, once chinked, but now open, and a vast fire-place occupying one end, in which the huge logs, chopped by the pupils (there was no such thing as janitor known), served to roast the side which was nearest. School com- menced early in the morning and continued till late at night, with but few in- termissions. The three "R's" and spelling wer . the branches to which most attention was paid, and an inspection of old records has inspired us with an admiration of the writing done and the figures made by some of the pupils of those early schools. Not only were the pupils under the care of the teacher at school, but during the time occupied in going to and fro, and woe be to the boy or girl who failed to bow or courtesy when met by a stranger. The teacher was expected to know one thing thoroughly, viz., corporal punishment in all its various forms. As the population increased, the funds arising from the sales

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 56

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