The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 24

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2 > Part 24

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Lydia Harvey, died 2d mo., 1st, 1813, aged forty-six years eight months and twenty-five days.

Agatha Harvey, died 6th mo., 18th, 1828.

Isaac Harvey, died 9th mo., 5th, 1834, aged seventy years four months and twenty-seven days.

William Harvey, died 12th mo., 5th, 1857, aged eighty-eight years seven months and twenty days.

Mary Harvey, died 9th mo., 11th, 1863, aged ninety-five years six months · and two days.

Elias Fisher, born 5th, mo., 10th, 1768, died 12th mo., 22d, 1845.

Hannah Fisher, born 3d mo., 19th, 1776, died 7th mo., 6th, 1842.

Preserved Dakin died July 27, 1835, aged eighty-four years.

Joshua Nickerson, died 10th mo., 12th, 1834, aged seventy-eight years ten months and twenty days.

Abigail Nickerson, died 5th mo., 4th, 1854, aged eighty-eight years ten months and five days.

Eli Madon, died 12th mo., 22d, 1871, aged ninety-two years seven months and nine days.

Hannah (Harlan) Maden, died 10th mo., 2d, 1843, aged fifty-nine years six months and three days.

William Harlan, died 5th mo., 3d, 1845, aged seventy-four years six months and twenty-three days.

Charity (Kimbrough) Harlan, died 5th mo., 3d, 1854, aged seventy-seven years four months and twenty-five days.

Enoch Harlan, died 7th mo., 26th, 1866, aged eighty years five months. Elizabeth (Harvey) Harlan, died 5th mo., 9th, 1875, aged eighty-nine years two months and twenty-two days.

Solomon Harlan, died 10th mo., 2d, 1869, aged eighty-seven years eight months and twenty days.

Elizabeth (Berry) Harlan, wife of Nathaniel Carter Harlan, died 2d mo., 1866, aged about ninety years.

John C. Harlan, died 3d mo., 24th, 1876, aged eighty-five years ten months and fifteen days.

Lydia (Hale) Harlan, died 8th mo., 18th, 1875, aged seventy-six years four months and twenty days.

Mount Pisgah, Situated in Survey 3,908 .- This was a church of the Epis-

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.

copal Methodists organized in 1830, and the house was built upon the lands of Francis Mckay. The leading members at its organization and afterward were Aaron Collett, Spencer Robinson, Thomas C. Steele, Henry Goode, Dudley Robinson, Absalom Robinson, Francis Mckay and in all probability others could their namos be called to mind. The meetings were held here until about the year 1845, when they were discontinued, and the organization was allowed to go down. The first funeral sermon preached here was in July, 1830 (and that over the wife of Aaron Collett), by George Maley, a minister of that church long since deceased. After its discontinuance, members who de- sired united with the church at New Burlington. There is yet, as in that day, a burial-place attached, but very few graves are to be found, the principal one being that of Francis Mckay, who died March 26, 1871.

In 1833, the Methodist Episcopal Church at New Burlington was organ- ized, though no building was erected in that year. The congregation assem- bled at private houses, and a few times at the storeroom of John Grant. Among the prominent members, then and afterward, were John Grant, Enoch Pilcher, James Smith, William Hendley, John M. Hendley, William Hurley and Delany Hurley. In 1835, a frame church building was erected, which was replaced in 1874 by the present building, erected under the pastorate of Henry Stokes.

Chester Meeting-House .- Indulged meetings were held by the Friends of that neighborhood, in a very early day, in a schoolhouse upon the lands of Thomas McMillan, Sr. About 1828 grounds were donated, and the present meeting-house erected and burial grounds attached.

Joseph Baxter and Mary (McMillan) Baxter, his wife, died and were bur- ied here in 1829 and 1830, the first in the new burial grounds.

The following are among those of the early settlers buried there:

David McMillan, died 20th of 12th month, 1844, aged seventy-two years nine months and eighteen days.

Hannah (Hussey) McMillan, his wife, died 18th of 9th month, 1849, aged seventy-one years five months and eleven days.

Eli McMillan, Sr., died 9th of 7th month, 1870, aged seventy years nine months and sixteen days.

Lydia (Hussey) McMillan, July 7, 1842, aged thirty-seven years three months and one day.

Enoch Wickersham, died 8th of 11th month, 1862, aged eighty-four years two months and twenty-six days.

Margaret (Mills) Wickersham, died 22d of 7th month, 1870, aged ninety years.

" The Jenkins Graveyard."-This is unquestionably the oldest graveyard in the township, if not in the county .* Is situated three-quarters of a mile east of New Burlington, to the left of the pike leading from that village to Lumberton. About one-third of it lies to the north of Greene and Clinton County's line, in the territory of the former, the two-thirds south, or within the limits of the latter. It is upon lands in Survey 571, entered by Albert Gallatin in 1787, and purchased by Aaron Jenkins in 1799 .. The first body buried there was that of the latter -Aaron Jenkins -- in the year 1807, now seventy-five years ago. The lands were set apart by him in his lifetime for that purpose, and have since borne his name. It belongs to no sect nor church, but is kept up by the townships of Spring Valley, in Greene, and Chester, in Clinton. Among those who assembled here at the burial of Jenkins, and who have long since followed him, were George A. Mann, Adam Shillinger, Caleb Lucas, Ebenezer Lucas, James Hawkins, Samuel Spray, together with the

*The burial ground at Centre dates from 1804.

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CHESTER TOWNSHIP,

wives of some of these, and the family of the deceased. Many years have passod and gone since then; many have come, lived out the average age of man, and then, too, gone the way of all the world. Men of to-day who are tot. tering under the weight of many winters were then but boys of tender years, and soon they too shall be remembered only with the silent throng.

The following is an incomplete list of some of the first and second pio- neers buried hero:

George A. Mann, died May 4, 1821, aged ninety.five years.

Elizabeth Mann, died January 17, 1830, aged eighty-four years.

Caleb Lucas, died April 26, 1851, aged seventy-four years six months and four days.

Mary. (Price) Lucas, died September 1, 1863, aged eighty-one years six months and twenty-two days.

Henry Mann, died February 4, 1858, aged seventy-eight years ten months. Rachel A., wife of Henry Mann, died March 15, 1862, aged seventy-six years eight months and twenty-eight days.

Charles Mann, died December 24, 1865, aged eighty-three years eight months and twenty-three days.

Lydia (Jenkins) Mann, died April 5, 1838, aged fifty-two years.

David Mann, died July 29, 1856, aged seventy-two years five months and nine days.

Rachel Mann, his wife, died August 7, 1873, aged seventy-eight years four months and twelve days.

Michael Icenhour, died May 16, 1850, aged eighty years eight months and eighteen days.

Isabella Icenhour, died April 7, 1852, aged seventy three years eight months and three days.

John Craft, died March 29, 1856, aged seventy-six years seven months.' John Arnold, died January 23, 1876, aged soventy-sovon years.

Rachel (Lucas) Arnold, died October 18, 1846, aged thirty-five years six months and five days.

Burgess Morgan, born August 9, 1746, died July 9, 1851, aged one hun- dred and ten years eleven months and eleven days .*

Elizabeth Morgan, died September 15, 1861, aged one hundred years.

John Grant, died September 30, 1875, aged seventy-two years one month and one day.

Eliza Grant, died September 3, 1859, aged fifty years nine months and eleven days.

Jonah's Run Meeting-House is situated in survey No. 770, on the pike leading from Harveysburg, in Warren County, to Wilmington. The church belongs to the Free- Will Baptists, and was organized in 1838. Mercy Collett, a daughter of Daniel and Mary Haines Collett, gave twenty-six acres of land to her executor, in trust for the endowment of the same, so long as the organi- zation was kept up, and when that ceased the proceeds to go to the American Baptist Foreign Missions.

The burial grounds attached are covered by the same endowment, and were set apart for that purpose at the same time. Mercy Collett died Decem- ber 22, 1839, and was the first laid away in these grounds, at the age of nearly fifty years.

The following are among those now laid away in that quiet spot, and were among the township's first and second pioneers:

William Gaddis, died July 23, 1844, aged seventy-two years.

Elizabeth Gaddis, died September 15, 1854, aged seventy-five years.

*There is certainly some mistake in this .-- P. A. D.

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.

Jonathan Collett, died October 10, 1865, aged seventy-eight years. Sarah Mckay Collett, died October 22, 1852, aged fifty-four years. Daniel Collett, Jr., died September 20, 1862, aged sixty-seven years. William Bailey, died June 16, 1869, aged eighty-seven years. Peter Dick, died December 12, 1847, aged sixty-five years. John Moore, died November 3, 1863, aged seventy years. Margaret Craig Moore, died October 18, 1858, aged sixty-seven years. William Whetsoll, died July 23, 1868, agod eighty-five years. Susannah Whetsell, died October 9, 1864, aged seventy-three years. Mary Craig Ellis, died March 4, 1877, aged eighty-three years. Elizabeth Rankin, died January 17, 1865, aged seventy years. William Harlan, died December 23, 1876, aged sixty-five years. Elizabeth Moore Harlan, died August 10, 1866, aged fifty-one years.

Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting .- The early settlers of Chestor Township were by a large majority members of the church of Friends, or Quakers. The customs of their fathors and grandfathers were rigidly enforced and complied with, and none moro so than the necessary provision of erecting at once a suit- able building in which to meet and worship God. As early as 1807, the set- tlers along Cæsar Creek erected the "old log house," yet standing on their grounds, and on which the Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting-House now stands, in Warren County. The meetings held there in those days were "indulged," and among those known to its earliest organization were Henry Millhouse, Sr., Robert Millhouse, Sr., John Furnas, David Whitson, Joel and William San- ders, Amos Hawkins, Sr., Mordecai Spray. "At Miami Quarterly Meeting, held the 12th of 5th month, 1810, the committee appointed to attend Centre and Cæsar Creek Preparative Meetings produced the following report: 'We, the committee appointed on the proposition of Centre Monthly Meeting, hav- ing attended Centre and Cæsar Creek Preparative Meetings, after a free con- ference on the subject of our appointment, agree to report as our sense that we apprehend it may be useful to concur with the proposition, and that Centre Monthly Meeting continue to be held at Centre, at the usual time in each month, and that another monthly meeting be established at Cæsar Creek, to be held the last seventh day in each month, to be called Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting,' which, claiming the attention of this meeting, is united with. Jo- seph Cloud, Joel Wright, John Stubbs, Thomas Horner, are appointed to at- tend at the opening thereof, on the last seventh day of the present month, and their preparative meeting to be held on the fifth day preceding."

Pursuant to the foregoing minute, Friends assembled at the time appointed, and when the afore-mentioned attended, and a monthly meeting was opened, the minutes and proceedings of which are as follows: " At Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting, held the 26th of 5th month, 1810, Robert Furnas was ap- pointed Clerk this year. The meeting then concluded."

This is the history of Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends. Time, on its relentless wings, has flown on, and seventy-two years have gone since then, and with them all those who assembled there on that occasion. In 1849, the present frame building was erected, and meetings are held there on the first and fifth days of each week. If we turn to the graveyard hard by and ex- "amine the silent marble, we find these names:

John Furnas, died 9th of 3d month, 1830, aged sixty-four years seven months and four days.

Samuel Spray, died 20th of 3d month, 1836, aged seventy-seven years eleven months and twenty-seven days.

Mary Spray, died 18th of 6th month, 1843, aged eighty-two years and six months.

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Charity Cook, died 13th of 11th month, 1822, aged seventy-six years and eleven months.

James Hawkins, died 24th of 11th month, 1840, aged eighty-four years and ten months.

Sarah Wilson Hawkins, died 26th of 3d month, 1871, aged ninety-seven years ten months and seven days.

Amos Hawkins, died 13th of 10th month, '1844, aged seventy-two years seven months and twelve days.

Ann Millhouse Hawkins, died 4th of 2d month, 1855, aged eighty-three years two months and eight days.

Henry Millhouse, Sr., died 22d of 5th month, 1821, aged eighty-five years.

Robert Furnas, Sr., died 16th of 2d month, 1863, aged ninety years seven months and nineteen days.

The Wesleyan Methodist. - In 1844, the great question then agitating the people politically had grown to mammoth proportions, and the public feeling one of intensity and vehemence. In fact, it grew so bitter and protracted that it became the prevailing topic, and none knew where or when, to a certainty, the end would come. For years, like the black cloud of a midsummer day, it had muttered in the distance, with its deep voice of thunder, the occasional flash of lightning foretelling the coming storm. The Congress of our land was locked in the desperate struggle; State Legislatures had grasped and had undertaken the solving of the mighty problem; the churches, schools, and the families of our land, were and had been engaged in long and fierce debates upon the subject. The question of which I speak was the election of Polk, and the desire and demand on the part of the Southern States for additional slave territory. Already had the blighting curse extended throughout the length and breadth of fourteen States, and yet the demand was for more. Two millions and a half of human souls were then crying aloud for freedom (and had been for over half a century), in a country whose chief corner-stone was grounded on civil and religious liberty. So malignant did it finally become that a split occurred at Now Burlington, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the anti-slavery members going off by themselves, and, on the - day of --- , 1844, the latter pur- chased of John Compton Fractional Lot No. 2 of Lot No. 1, southwest square of that village, the consideration being $100. They erected thereon, by subscrip- tion of money and labor, a frame church edifice, yet standing. The church was organized under the discipline and doctrine of the American Wesleyans, and its adherents were denominated "Woolly-Heads" by their late brethren in . the church. The following are the names of the prominent movers in the new church: John Grant, Elizabeth Grant, Peter Harrison and wife, John Harri- son and wife, Delaney C. Hurley and wife, Walter B. Hamilton and wife, and probably others, could their names be called. They received several adherents, and prospered for a number of years. But the war, and the liberation of those human souls from bondage, closed the prime object of these people, and they afterward identified themselves with the Episcopal Church. In 1870, the building was sold, and became the property of the Orthodox Friends, who hold therein semi-weekly meetings.

MILLS.

The streams in the township in days gone by furnished the motive power for saw-mills. grist-mills, fulling and carding mills, which have, in every in- stance, long since gone into decay upon their banks. In a journey through the township to-day, one cannot help noticing their ruins, and what excites the interest of the people of our time is to know where the water came from by which they were made to perform their labor and furnish to the early settlers

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.

the necessaries of life. But these little mills and their dams (if such the lat- ter might be called) were built in the most homely manner, and fashioned to do the most work for the least outlay of expense. The machinery was in each case very simple in construction, brief in its details, and required but little skilled labor to build, or, when built, to keep in repair. Neither did owners of these little mills depend upon them, in every instance, for their chief sup- port, but, on the contrary, made them a secondary matter, and operated them at night, wet days, or in the winter season of the year, while at other times they cleared their lands or tended their growing crops. They are gone, the cause in some cases being an insufficiency of water, but in a majority of cases they served their purpose to their owners and gave way to the mills of modern times.

In those days, the fall and winter rains (when the country was new, and in its primeval form) did not run off all the ground, as in the torrents of to- day, but remained upon the land; nor did the constant action of the sun's rays then, as now, produce rapid evaporation. The beds of these forest trees were filled with fallen leaves and limbs, until the free passage of the water was held back, and, in many cases, wholly prevented from flowing at all. It then spread itself over the low places, and thus formed pools, ponds and miniature lakes, which slowly trickled out and down to the mills, where it furnished sufficient power to run them, if necessary, a great part of the year. But the flight of time went on; the lands were cleared out and, under the warm rays of the sum- mer sun, evaporation followed, and these fountains succumbed to their magic influence. Following in the line of advancing civilization came the open, and then the blind, or tile, drain; and to-day, where stood the heavy timber and these lakes of water, the eye is gladdened by fine farms and fields of waving grain.

Among the first of these in the township was a mill erected by Robert Millhouse, at the mouth of Buck Run, but operated by the waters of Cæsar Creek. When built, it was a saw-mill only. In after years, a corn stone was placed therein, and corn grists were ground there. George Arnold erected upon his lands, and upon the banks of Buck Run (or just above the bridge, on the "Dakin Corner pike"), a saw-mill that remained in use for very many years. Lower down on the run, the Millhouses erected a carding and fulling mill, which remained there until 1828, when it was torn down and removed to the lands of David Jay, Sr., where it was made into a schoolhouse, under the su- pervision of the Cæsar Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends.

On Trace Branch, west of the township house, in a very early day, there was in operation a carding and fulling mill. James Brown owned it in 1816, and it is presumed that he built it. In after years, a saw-mill was connected with it. It has long since gone into disuse. Another enterprise that flourished to a considerable extent in the early settlement of the township was the distill- ing of whisky and brandy in little copper stills. They have been so long gone into decay, however, that it is difficult to locate them with any degree of cer- tainty.

ROADS.

It will be a difficult matter for me, in the absence of exact data, to settle upon the earliest road traversing our corporate limits. I am of the opinion, however, from what information I can get, that the first one to be laid out for that purpose was the one from Waynesville to Wilmington. Tradition says, in a very early day the road from Waynesville to Wilmington passed north of where Harveysburg now is, north of the McIntyre Tavern to Oakland, thence by way of Centre to Wilmington; that it was a perfectly straight line, blazed by an Indian, who received for so doing one gallon of whisky. But let this be

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CHESTER TOWNSHIP.

true or not, I have already referred in these pages to the remarks of John Leonard, where he says, " The points on the route that were then ,well known, and which we had to pass on our way "-in 1805 .- " from Cincinnati to our in- tended home on the creek " -- Todd's Fork-" were Waynesville and Oakland." This road, then, was there in 1805, and John Leonard passed over it. It also connected two points then well known to the emigrant, viz., Oakland and Waynes- ville.

These facts lead me to conclude that it was there in 1802, and possibly earlier yet than that. The Bullskin, that started at the Ohio River, and trav- ersed the State due north, was laid out in 1807, and extended to the lakes. Then came the. "east and west, " or the "Jenkins Mill " road, that extended from Port William (now) to Mt. Holly, on the Little Miami, crossing the Bull. skin in the village of New Burlington. Another started from the old State road, at the village of Clarksville, and intersected the Bullskin just south of- where the latter village stands to-day. They were in those days but pathways through the woods-were filled with stumps, logs, tree-tops and sloughs, around and through which the teamster had to pilot his heavily laden wagon. To-day, after over fifty years have passed, what a change! The roads of that day are gone, and in their places we see the fine graveled and macadamized highways.

The time when this spirit took hold of the people has not been long since. The writer of this is yet a young man, but he can very well remember when there was nothing but toll pikes in Clinton County. In the winter season, to get off of a toll road was to get into trouble, and not only that, but lots of it. When spring came, the difficulties were multiplied, and on many of these roads travel was almost totally suspended, unless they accomplished the journey upon horseback; and this calls to my mind the "green leggins" so common in those days, a few of which the writer of this can remember having seen; and to go off on a journey without them in the early months of the year was something not to be thought of for a moment, for they were as much of a necessity, al- most, as the horse.

Following in the wake of these awful roads came the plank road, of which kind but one was constructed in the township, and that upon the Wilmington & Harveysburg road, in the year 1852. It was made of sawed oak plank, one and one-half inches in thickness, eight or ten feet in length, laid down on the ground. It was never a success, for the plank would spring, or. rise up at the ends, and, in wet weather, become very slippery. It was the source of several accidents, and was not favorably received by any one. In a few years, gravel was placed upon the planks, and in time they were buried out of sight. In. . some places, however, at this late day, ends of these planks can yet be seen, but they will soon disappear forever.

About 1867, a spirit of enterprise took a deep hold upon the people, not only in this section, but it became universal throughout the State, and contin- ued until every road, almost, became a graveled highway. So far did this en- terprise extend with us that every road now leading from our village is passable at all seasons of the year, for every kind of vehicle, and, in the summer sea- son, are the resorts for, pleasure riding by the people of our neighboring county towns.

Accompanying these highways came the many fine bridges, of both wood and iron, that are found suspended over the streams throughout the length and breadth of our corporation.

RAILROADS. -

In the fall of 1871, it was proposed by certain capitalists of the East to build a railroad that was to extend from the Ohio River at Huntington (where

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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.

it was to connect with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad) to Dayton. It was further proposed, upon the part of the said corporation, by Col. Trimble, its President, that if the people along the line of said road would raise $800,000, the company would complete and equip the same. The first meeting in the township in the interest of this enterprise was held at the Methodist Episcopal Church in this village, on the evening of November 21, 1871, at which time Peter Harrison was called to the chair, and H. G. Cartwright made Secretary.

Col. Trimble, the President of the road, being present, addressed the meeting at length, after which a committee of twelve was appointed to solicit stock and secure the right of way.

On the evening of the 23d of November, the committee met at the store of John Grant, and organized by electing Samuel Lemar permanent Chairman, and A. H. Harlan, permanent Secretary. On motion of John Grant, the pa- / pers submitted by Allen Linton, and setting forth the conditions upon which the people of Chester Township would subscribe stock, was adopted, to wit:

"We whose names are hereunto subscribed do severally agree with and promise to the Southern Ohio Railway to take and pay for the number of shares of the stock of said company set opposite our names, of the value of $50 each, payable in installments on the total sum subscribed by each of us, as may here- inafter be required by the Board of Directors of said road; Provided-first, That the aforementioned road will pass from Hillsboro to Dayton via Wil- mington, Clinton Co., Ohio, crossing Cæsar Creek in said county near the vil- lage of New Burlington, Ind .; that enough stock be taken to complete said road in accordance with the proposition of C. P. Huntington, President of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company; and provided further, that the amount subscribed by us be expended on the line between Wilmington and Dayton."

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The history of Clinton County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest territory, Volume 2, Part 24

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Durant, Pliny A. ed; Beers (W.H.) & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1410