The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 81

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

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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).

The books in common use were sometimes a horn-book, a flat board or piece of horn containing the alphabet, primer, Dilworth's spelling-book, New Testa- ment, Psalter. Esop's Fables, Capt. Riley, or any book in the possession of the family. Those able to purchase the books afterward added the Introduction to the English Reader, the English Reader, American Orator, American Pre- ceptor, United States Reader, etc., without any regard to system. English grammar and geography were not taught prior to 1825; the higher branches were not known or thought of. The writer has now Goldsmith's Geography, his first school geography, which says in good print that Columbus, the capital of Ohio, is situated on the east side of the Muskingum River.

Each writer furnished two quills per week; each morning, the teacher mended all the pens and set copies, overlooked the writers while learning to form hooks and hangers; heard all the lessons from the various books four times a day, and richly earned his $1.25 a scholar and " board round."

Among the early teachers, Charles Clark, John Cochran, Zebulon Sabin, William Morrow, John McGregor, Shadrach Ditto and William Watson Wick are remembered.

At a meeting of the Township Trustees on the 3d day of May, 1826, at the house of Mary Vandoren, the township was laid out into seven school districts, containing 162 families.

At the present time (1881) the township contains nine school districts, each provided with a good and commodious schoolhouse supplied with all necessary conveniences for the comfort of the pupils.

The amount of tax levied for school purposes in the township, in 1881, is $4.040. Enumeration of youth of school age: white, 469; colored, 5; 474.

VILLAGES.

Fort Ancient is situated on the east side of the Little Miami River, on the College Township road, six miles from Lebanon. At just what date the bottom land on which it is located was first settled is unknown. We know that Isaac Wickersham had a tannery here on a small scale at a very early day. He was succeeded by one Wyatt and he by Robert Jack, who, in 1813, purchased the land and enlarged, to some extent, the tannery. He resided there, opening and improving the farm, till 1838, when he sold out, and, in 1839, went West. The names of James Frazee, John Emil and William Thompson occur as pro- prietors prior to the time the Miami Railroad was built, in 1844, when Francis B. Howell became proprietor. He built a warehouse and storerooms, which were rented or used by his agents. Some years after, another storehouse was built and occupied by various persons till the spring of 1881, when it was burnt.

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

Mr. Howell built a hotel and summer residence here ing 100 guests, which is a place of considerable reso months. For a number of years, this was a good poin ping grain and hogs and is still a good point for hogs, ing decreased since other convenient points have been € a long time a place from which large quantities of Hundreds of bushels of blackberries are shipped from he an exception, from the failure of the crop.

A bridge was built over the Miami, in 1841 or 184: ilton, which was swept away in the flood of the spring pier giving way. It was replaced by an iron bridge 18 same season, by the Wilmington Bridge Company, at a Daniel Perrine keeps the hotel and summer resort is also Justice of the Peace, Postmaster, freight and ex

The Methodist Episcopal Church built a house of . portion of the indebtedness remaining unpaid, it is not There is in the village a public district school, 01 one saloon. The village is at present composed of twel' at the foot of the hill below the old fort, from which it

FREEPORT, OREGON POST OFFICE.

At what time this place took the name of Freepc 1802 or 1803, Nebo Gaunt settled there and built a m ownership of Judge Ignatius Brown and David Brc Gaunt's Mill and Brown's Mill till probably about 182 name of Freeport. In connection with the mill, Davi mill for the manufacture of Spanish brown and its kind for which was procured from some point above the mill

Daniel Kinsey built a carding-mill in 1816, and, cotton factory was built by a company, the latter being long the carding-mill was operated after the burning ( known. James Vanhorn had a blacksmith and auger fac sha Vance had a pottery about 1820. Mark Armitage, a f tory near by. A large frame was erected, in 1844, f paper-mill, by William H. Hamilton & Sons, but not b pose, the machinery, for a barrel factory, was put up time. In 1845, a post office was established, and, an o being in the north of the State, the name of Oregon w: road company refused to change the name of their sta Post Office and Freeport Station.

The old mill was burned December 25, 1852, } crackers. The barrel factory was used by Daniel Terr; for some time, and, in 1854, Stubbs & Sherwood put tÌ hill mill in it, converting it into a flour-mill, which is at now being owned by Isaac Stubbs, Jr. The railroad, w. 1844, built a woodshed 195x40, which is now taken a the river was built in about 1856 by D. Bennett at the . assisted by private subscriptions.

There are at present in the village one flouring-1 general stores, two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, office, United Brethren Church and public school, T George W. Henderson, physicians, and twenty families. In connection with the village of Freeport, as it is at the old settlement of Mather's mill, one and a half

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built, in 1881, by W. W. Ingraham, a steam saw-mill of large capacity for cus- tom and general work. The railroad officials have built a side-track to it, and considerable quantities of sawed lumber are shipped from that point.

HAMMEL.

The village of Hammel was laid out about the time the railroad was con- structed (in 1844) and took the name of its proprietor. It is on the Miami, opposite Millgrove, and two miles below Fort Ancient, and contains a few families who are engaged in agricultural pursuits. There is a good district schoolhouse there, at which the various religious denominations have occasional services. The bottom lands at this place comprise about 100 acres. A number of large human skeletons have been exhumed there.

There are no other villages in the township, but each school district has its distinctive name, as Oak Grove, Springhill, Silver Grove, etc.

MILITARY.

. Among the early settlers of this township, a goodly number of Revolu- tionary soldiers, and those who served in the war of 1812, appear. They have been named as far as possible, though doubtless some have escaped my inquiries. No soldiers of the war of 1812 are known to be living in the township.

An attempt was made, at the beginning of the Mexican war, to re-organize the militia in this township, but the effort met with ridicule, and, of course. was a failure. David B. Glasscock and James D. Wallace were the only two from this township known to be in that struggle.

In the war of the rebellion, the following list comprises the volunteers from 1861 to the close of the war, as correctly as can be ascertained:

John J. Harris,

Henry Riley, Jeremiah Cochran,

Alonzo Hidey,

William S. Wilkerson,

Charles A. Harris,

Henry Morrow,

George Hardesty, Cornelius B. Eno,

John Allen,

John Hampton,

John Hughes,

George H. Wilkerson,

A. J. Kephart,

William Hughes,

Harrison Williams, Paul Williams, Charles Osborne,

Milton Cree,

Samuel Bowser,

Samuel A. Thompson,

Samuel Morrow, Frank O' Harra,

William Emery, William Mckinney, Eli Mckinney, George Harris, William Flack, James Price,

William Kelsay,

Patrick Gallaher,

Theodore Smith,

Michael Lynch, Elijah Chance,

Simeon Williams,

Richard Brown,

Francis Mills,

Wilson Dunn,

George Harner,

Nathaniel Strong, Elias Barbee, George Barbee,

Alfred Williams,

William B. Strout,

Joseph Reader,

Amos Williams,

Hiram Foster, Harrison Kirk, Asa Brackney,

John W. Barkley,

William Kirkham,

Isaiah Brackney,

Archibald T. Jobe, Andrew Jobe, John O. Smith,

George Hidey, Robert Conner,

Thomas McCray, Jack Penquite, James F. Penquite,

James Thompson,

Wm. Andrew Hathaway,

Christy McCray,

Francis J. Sherwood, Baylis Settlemire, Samuel Sherwood, J. D. M. Smith.

J. D. Howe, James Howe,

Joseph Lister,

Milton Brewer,

Joseph Whitaker,

W. D. Dakin,

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Robert Mills,

Henry Osborn,

Frank Cunningham,

Henry Riley,

Nathaniel Thompson,

Clay Edwards, Jobn Homan,

James Weeks,

Samuel Terry,

Patrick Clark Hathaway, Martin J. Ely, Andrew Wilson,

Samuel J. McCray,

William Glascock,

Thomas Sherwood, Joseph Murray, D. W. Terry, George Cummins,

Benjamin Cummins,

Cornelius J. D. M. S. Hath- away. Joseph H. Murray, Joseph Milner,

Daniel Lee,

John C. Williams, Delt Worley, Amos Ward,

David Ayers,

Ezekiel Crowell, John Ragen,

Bryant Curl,

Jacob Bowser,

George Vandorin,

Elwood Bowser,

George Morrow,

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

George W. Thomas, Shannon Hunt, Edward Shannon, George King,

William L. Paris,

William Kelsay, Marcus Underwood,

James F. Thompson,

John Dale,

John Millakin,

Charles Ratchins, John B. Read.

ONE HUNDRED DAYS' MEN.

E. T. M. Williams,

George H. Wilkerson, Thomas S. Wilkerson,

Lucius G. Wilkerson,

Samuel Williams,

Morris Morrow,

William Loucks.

Alfred Humphrey,

UNION TOWNSHIP.

Union Township was organized January 3, 1815, from Turtle Creek and Deerfield. The following were the original boundaries: "Beginning on the Little Miami River at the northeast corner of fractional Section 12, in the north boundary line of the second entire range; thence west with the said line to the southeast corner of Section 19, Township 4, and Range 3; thence north with the section lines to the southwest corner of Section 21, in Township 4, and Range 3; thence in a direct line to the northeast corner of said Section 21; thence with the section lines east to the northeast corner of the fractional Sec- tion 3, on the Little Miami River, in Township 5, Range 3; thence down the river with the meanders thereof, to the place of beginning." In 1860, nine sections from the eastern part of Union were added to Salem Township. The present eastern boundary line of the township is the section line bounding Sections 19, 20 and 21 on the east.

As Union Township now is, it is the smallest township in the county. It contains fifteen entire sections and six fractional sections. The number of acres in the three smallest townships of the county, as taken from the County Audit- or's books in 1880, were as follows: Massie, 13,622; Salem, 13,459; Union, 11,970.

Deerfield, now South Lebanon, is one of the oldest towns of Warren County. The time of its first settlement is not known with certainty. It is probable that the town was laid out in 1795, and the first settlement commenced in the spring of 1796. Tradition holds that the colony which established Mounts' Station, two miles further up the river, found a single cabin on the site of Deerfield, as they passed up the Little Miami. Tradition fixes the time of the settlement at Mounts' Station as the Autumn of 1795. Rev. James Smith, whose journal is quoted in the general county history, was in Deerfield in Octo- ber, 1797, and records the fact that "it is a new town, having been settled since spring twelfth month," that is the spring of 1796. This accords with the statement in Howe's Historical Collections, which fixes the settlement at Bedle's Station in September, 1795, and says: "Shortly after, a settlement was commenced at Deerfield, by Gen. David Sutton, Capt. Nathan Kelly and others." In a series of articles on the early history of Lebanon and vicinity, published in 1867, A. H. Dunlevy says: "In my first number, I stated upon the authority of another who was among the first settlers, that Deerfield, Franklin and Waynesville, as well as Bedle's Station, had small settlements in 1795. Upon further examina- tion, I am now satisfied that this was a mistake, and that Bedle's Station alone was settled in 1795, and that not till September of that year." According to

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David B. Glascock, Patrick McGwinn, Thomas Urton, Joseph Penquite, Barclay Vandoren, Mart Clark, Oliver Howe,

Charles Urton, Alfred Cowden, John W. Cowden, John H. Graham, Alfred Vandoren,

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the inscriptions on tombstones in the Old Graveyard, at Deerfield, Nathan Kelly emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1791, and settled at Deerfield in 1797; and Andrew Lytle, who was one of the first settlers at Deerfield, settled in Warren County in 1796.

No block-house or fortification for protection against the Indians, was built at Deerfield. The fortified stations along the Little Miami were as fol- lows:

Cavolt's Station, at Round Bottom, twelve miles up the river from its mouth, and a little below the present site of Milford. It was erected by Abra- ham Cavolt, in 1789 or 1790, and is believed to have been the first station, pro- perly so called, erected in the Miami Valley.

Gerard's Station, sometimes called Gerard and Martin's Station, was about two miles from the mouth of the Little Miami, and was erected about 1790.

Clemens' Station was on Round Bottom, about one-half mile below Cavolt's.

The last of the stations about Cincinnati are believed to have been McFar- land's, near the site of Pleasant Ridge; and Bedle's Station, near the site of Union Village. The former of these was erected in the spring of 1795, and the latter in the autumn of the same year. Mounts' Station, as the settlement of William Mounts above Deerfield was sometimes called, was not a fortified station.

Waldsmith's Mill was attended by early settlers of Deerfield and vicinity. It was not far from Miamiville, and built by a German named Christian Wald- smith, who emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1796. The mill was so far com- pleted in the Autumn of 1797, that Waldsmith started one run of stones for grinding, and two copper stills, for making whisky.

The plat of the town of Deerfield, was not placed on record at Cincinnati for six or seven years after the town was laid out. On December 6, 1800, the Legislature of the Northwest Territory passed an act requiring the origi- nal proprietor or proprietors of such towns, as had already been laid out in the ' Territory, to cause an accurate map or plat of the same to be recorded in the County Recorder's office, within one year from the day on which the act took effect, May 1, 1801. A failure to comply with the requirement of the act was punishable with a fine of $1,000.

The plats of the three towns which had been laid out within the present limits of Warren County prior to the passage of this act, were received by the County Recorder at Cincinnati for record as follows: Deerfield, April 23, 1802; Waynesville, April 28, 1802; Franklin, August, 12, 1802.

The description and certificate accompanying the plat of Deerfield, as re- corded, are as follows:

A Plan of the Town of Deerfield in Hamilton County, Territory North West of the Ohio situate lying and being in the First Fractional Section and in Section No. 2 in the Fourth Township of the Third Entire Range. Town lots are 8 poles on the River and 10 poles back. Lots 77, 78, 91 and 92 are Public Lots. Streets are all East and West and all three poles wide except one which is the Main street and four poles wide, with streets parallel thereto running North and South three poles wide. Lots numbered 9, 10, 11, 20, 27, 30, 31, 38, 37, 44, 45, 46, 47, 51, 55, 57, 68, 69, 70, 71, 87, 98, 99, 100, 105, 107, 108, 113 and 65 were given to the first settlers of said Town, the residue of said lots except the public lots for sale. John S. Gano, Benjamin Stites Sr. and Benjamin Stites Jr. hereby present the fore- going plat to be recorded, containing one hundred and forty-four half-acre lots.

For John S. Gano, Benjamin Stites, Sr. and Benjamin Stites Jr. AARON GOFORTH.

TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES NORTH WEST OF THE OHIO, 88

Hamilton County.

Be it remembered that on the twenty-third day of April, 1802, personally appeared before me the undersigned one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas within and for the County aforesaid, Aaron Goforth, who being duly sworn deposeth and saith that AA

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.

the within is a true and accurate map of the Town Lots of the Town of Deerfield in said County, as he the said Aaron verily believes. [Signed] AARON GOFORTEL. Sworn and subscribed before me the day and year first above mentioned.

SAMUEL RABB.

Received and recorded 23d of April, 1802.

The earliest deeds for lots in Deerfield were executed by John Stites Gano as follows : On April 14, 1797, to John Kreker, Lots 70 and 107; to Peter Keever, for Lots 71 and 118; to Elnathan Cory for Lots 47 and one out- lot; to Thomas Cory for Lot 32 and one outlot. The consideration expressed in all these deeds is $2. On the same day, Gano executed to Isaac Lindley in consideration of $10 a deed for Lots 65 and 66 and one outlot of four acres: and to Martin Keever, in consideration of $10 a deed for Lots 105 and 111 and two outlots. On June 20, 1797, James Cory received a deed for Lots 22, 26 and 27, consideration $5.

At the beginning of the present century, Deerfield was the most impor- tant place on the Little Miami above Columbia. It was made a stopping-place for many of the early settlers in different parts of the county. Early emi- grants frequently left their families at Deerfield while the first improvements were being made on their new farms.

Capt. Nathan Kelly, Capt. Ephraim Kibby and Andrew Lytle, whose names appear elsewhere in this work, were among the early permanent settlers at Deerfield.

William Snook came from New Jersey and settled in the township in 1801, and the following year his brother, John M. Snook, also settled here. The latter was a Captain in the war of 1812.

Ignatius Brown, who was for three terms an Associate Judge of War- ren County, was an early settler at Deerfield, and he is said to have taught the first school at that place.

David Fox, Sr., settled on Muddy Creek, west of Deerfield, about 1797 or 1798. He lived on the farm, on which he settled, until his death. In connection with his son Absalom, he built a grist-mill on Turtle Creek and operated a copper still. In the Fellowship Churchyard are tombstones with these in- scriptions : "David Fox, died January 23, 1847, aged eighty-two years six months and sixteen days." "Sarah, wife of David Fox, died June 7, 1850. aged eighty-two years eight months and twenty-six days." David Fox was ac- companied on his removal to this township by his brother Jonathan and his brother-in-law, Sampson Sergeant.

Capt. John Spencer settled on Turtle Creek on Section 9, near the northern boundary of this township, in 1796. His wife, Ann Spencer, was a daughter of Capt. Robert Benham. Capt. Spencer served in the war of 1812, and died April 22, 1835.

James Venard came from the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, Va., and settled on what is now known as the Daniel Hufford farm. The date of his settle- ment is not known, but his youngest son, William H., who is still living in this township, one of the oldest of the living natives of Warren County, was born near Deerfield May 3, 1798. James Venard brought with him his wife, Nancy Graham, two sons, John and Francis. Jr., his father, Francis, Sr., and his mother. The family was remarkable for longevity. Francis, Sr., lived to be about one hundred and three years of age; his wife about one hundred; they were both buried at Deerfield. Their children all lived to the age of about ninety-five years, and died at nearly the same age. Two brothers of James Venard, Thomas and Stephen, settled in the vicinity of Utica about 1798.

Gen. David Sutton was an early settler and for many years the best- known citizen of Deerfield. He was a native of Hunterdon County. N. J. The

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UNION TOWNSHIP.

date of his settlement at Deerfield is unknown. He kept one of the first taverns at that place, and at his house elections for Deerfield Township were appointed to be held, both under the Territorial and early State governments. On the organization of Warren County, he was appointed the first Clerk of Court, and held that position for twelve years, from 1803 to 1815. He was a Representative in the Legislature in 1816, 1818 and 1823. At the com- mencement of the war with England in 1812, he left the duties of his office as Clerk of Court to the charge of John Grigg, afterward a distinguished book-publisher of Philadelphia, raised a company and went into the service of the Government as Captain in the first army that was raised in Ohio. He was soon afterward elected Colonel at Urbana. He was for many years a Gen- eral of the militia. In politics he was originally an Anti-Federalist or Jeffer- sonian Democrat, and, on the formation of new parties in 1828, he became an adherent of the Jackson party. At the time of his death, he was the Demo- cratic candidate for State Senator from Warren County. He died September 15, 1834. in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was buried at Deerfield.

James Benham was born in Washington Co., Penn. August 9, 1784, and died in this township at the age of eighty-five years and sixteen days. His father, Peter Benham, removed with his family to the present site of Newport, Ky., in the winter of 1793-94, where he stopped on a tract of land belong- ing to Capt. Robert Benham. The next year, Peter Benham returned to Pennsylvania on business and died there, leaving in Kentucky his widow and five children, James, John, Peter, and two daughters, afterward Mrs. Thomp- son Lamb and Mrs. Nathan Smith. The widow removed to lands near Turtle Creek, purchased with the proceeds of Peter's estate. She died in 1805, when her eldest son, James, was just twenty-one years old. At his mother's request, he promised her not to marry until his young sisters were grown up, and to keep them together. True to his promise, he remained single until 1818, when he married Miss Mary Robinson; in 1821, he married Miss Mary Russell, and in 1827 he married Mrs. Lydia Irwin. By his first two marriages he had no children; by his third wife, his children were James I., Mrs. Rebecca Snook, Mrs. Martha Stokes and Mrs. Lizzie Bone. James Benham was twice elected Justice of the Peace, but he never' sought office. His long life was passed as a quiet farmer; in politics he was a Whig, and afterward a Repnb- lican; in religion he was for the last forty or fifty years of his life a Univer- salist. Gen. Durbin Ward, who was the intimate friend of James Benham wrote soon after his death: "The writer who knew him as the highest type of humanity-an honest man-and who loved him for nearly thirty years, mourns the loss of the wisest man he ever knew, and whose daily life he would be glad to be good and great enough to follow as an example."

This township was within the region through which the earlier settlers at Columbia, Cavolt's Station and other settlements ranged the woods on the hunt for straggling Indians. The frontiersmen spoke of hunting and killing Indians as they would of wolves, bears or other wild animals. Col. Whit- tlesey, of Cleveland, writes as follows: "In 1844, I spent an evening with Benjamin Stites, Jr., of Madisonville, Ohio, the son of Benjamin Stites who settled at Columbia, near Cincinnati, in 1788. Benjamin, Jr., was then ' a boy, but soon grew up to be a woodsman and an Indian fighter. Going over the incidents of the pioneer days, he said the settlers of Columbia agreed to pay $30 in trade for every Indian scalp. He related an instance of a man re- ceiving a mare under this arrangement. I met another old man who then lived near Covington on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, who said he had often gone up the Miami on a hunt for scalps. With most of these hunters, the bounty

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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNT

was a minor consideration. The hatred of the red n motive."

No more pleasant description of the woods of early spring-time, as they appeared to the first immi than that contained in the following paragraph fron M. Spencer, who was familiar with the country as e months in the years 1792 and 1793 was a captive an

I have often thought that our first Western winters \ earlier, and our autumns longer than they now are. On the trees were putting forth their foliage ; in March, the red-bi wood. in full bloom, checkered the hills, displaying their be and in April, the ground was covered with May apple, blc great variety of herbs and flowers. Flocks of parroquets w plumage of green and gold. Birds of various species, and o tree to tree, and the beautiful redbird, and the untaught sc woods vocal with their melody. Now might be heard the : now the rumbling drum of the partridge, or the loud gobble seen the clumsy bear, doggedly moving off, or urged by p retreating to his citadel in the top of some lofty tree ; or himself erect in the attitude of defense, facing his enemy ar the timid deer, watchfully resting, or cautiously feeding gracefully bounding off, then stopping, erecting his stately ] around, or snuffing the air to ascertain his enemy, instantly bushes at a bound, and soon distancing his pursuers. It ser but for apprehension of the wily copperhead, who lay silent beneath the plants waiting to strike his victim ; the horrid rous, however, with head erect amidst its ample folds, prep: erously with the loud noise of his rattle, apprised him of dan and insidious savage, who, crawling upon the ground. or n trees and thickets, sped the deadly shaft or fatal bullet, you in the confines of Eden or the borders of Elysium.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 81

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