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 38
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RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
two saloons, two blacksmith shops, one shoe shop, a post office, a railroad de- pot, a church and a schoolhouse, and a population of about one hundred and fifty inhabitants, with taxable property valued at over $14,000. The town constitutes a special school district, for which a tax of over $1,000 was levied in 1881.
CONCLUSION.
The settlement and progress of this township is greatly retarded by the scarcity of farm lands, and the inability of those desiring to become citizens of the township to purchase them. Large tracts of land are held by non-resi- dents, who have purchased them as a means of speculation. These lands are either farmed for them by hired labor, or are rented out to tenants, who are rarely citizens, and who care little for the welfare of the township. The own- ors of the land are opposed to all public improvements, as they increase the taxes without making the returns from their speculation any larger. To show the real extent of the injury thus endured by the township, we call the reader's attention to the fact that one-fourth of the township, or a total of over five thousand acres of the very best land, is owned by six non-resident proprietors. One of these large tracts is the farm of Mcclintock & Smith, attorneys, of Chillicothe, which comprises 1,118 acres, purchased during the war. This land contains nine tenant houses, and is farmed entirely by tenants. Frede- rick Overly, Esq., manages the immense farm for the proprietors, and cultivates a part of the ground as a tenant. Other instances of a like character could be cited, but our space forbids us to dwell on this subject. Suffice it to say that 'a large part of the township is held by speculators, in tracts of from 150 to 1,100 acres, and, as they prove safe and paying investments to the owners, of course they will not part with the land unless paid a price far exceeding the prices of land elsewhere, and thus those who would enter the township as citi- zens and take an interest in its welfare are crowded out. These farms are rarely worth more than from $50 to $60 per acre, while other farms in the same locality, properly improved, are worth $100 an acre.
There being no stagnant water nor pools of any size in the township, and - on account of the high elevation of the table-lands and the general cultivation of the country, together with the habits of life, diet and equable temper of the citizens, they have been blessed with comparatively long lives. As indicative of this, we mention Thomas N. Adams, who died in 1880, aged one hundred and three years; James Wherry, who died in 1876, aged ninety-three years; Samuel Allen, who died in 1881, aged eighty-six years; Catharine Adams, who died in 1879, aged eighty-seven years; Anna Wallace, who died in 1879, aged eighty-five years; Catharine Jacks, who died in 1880, aged eighty-six years; Benjamin Wilson, who died in 1879, aged eighty-five; and Lawrence Melvy, still living, aged ninety-two; Melinda English, still living, aged ninety-two; Mrs. Lydia Reese, still living, aged eighty-five; and others of like age, who are .still bearing the burdens of life's cares, or have gone to that better land "where the weary are at rest."
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
VERNON TOWNSHIP.
BY C. L. SEWELL.
ERNON Township is one of the original three of which Clinton County was composed at the time of its organization. It then included Marion and parts of Adams, Washington, Clark and Jefferson Townships. Vernon Town- ship is situated in the western part of the county, bordering on Warren County, and as it exists now is bounded: North, Adams; east, Washington; south, Marion, and west, Warren County. Todd's Fork, a tributary of the Little Miami River, Cowan's Creek, East Fork of Todd's Fork and Sowoll's Run, tributaries of Todd's Fork, flow through the township, coming together, or noarly so, in the western part, near the village of Clarksville, making the sconory in that locality picturesque and delightful.
There is groat diversity of soil; tho land in the vicinity of the streams is broken and hilly; the southwestern portion is flat, with a light-colored subsoil; in the eastern part, on the head-wators of Sewell's Run, it is a black swamp, doep and rich. There is but little waste land. The soil for the most part is good and generally adapted to cultivation. The land was originally covered with timber-oak, hickory, black and white walnut, hard and soft maple, pop- lar, beech, elm, ash, sycamore, gum, mulberry, box-elder, buckeye, linden, wild cherry, sassafras, willow, dogwood, ironwood, hornbeam, honey locust, black locust, red bud, black haw, cottonwood, papaw and various bushes, spices, hazel, etc. Sycamores, found only on the margins of the streams, were some. times of immense size; some of the old barns have yet granaries made from sections of the hollow trunks, eight or nine feet across. Poplar is found only on the north side of Cowan's Creek; soft maple grows on the white swamp land; beech and hard maple, or sugar tree, are found in nearly all parts of the township; buckeye is not so common as formerly, the farmers having destroyed them while laboring under the impression that cattle ate the first fruit and woro poisoned. Black walnut trees, of which there were vast numbers in this town- ship, have been cut and shipped off within a few years.
The land is well watered with springs and streams; where no springs exist, water is easily found by digging wells. There are some of the works of the ancient Mound-Builders in this township. On the lands of J. A. Losh are the remains of a circular fort, and some mounds on lands of George Villars and others.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The first settler of Vernon Township was David Sowell. Early in the yoar 1798, he became the owner of one of Archibald Campbell's surveys, No. 2,250, on the East Fork of Todd's Fork, in what is now Clinton County (when the Sewells came it was called Hamilton County, Territory Northwest of the Ohio River), and made arrangements to move to it with his sons, John and Aaron, and his son-in-law and daughter, Peter and Hannah Burr. In 1798, the Sewell family, in company with Isaac Tullis, Mary Hendricks and some of the Cowans, came to Pittsburgh in wagons, and there embarked in a flat-bot. tomed boat and proceeded down the Ohio River to the present site of Colum. bia. From that point they went to Bedell's Station, in what is now Warren County, one mile south of where Union Village now is. The precise timo the Sewells remained at Bedell's Station is left in some obscurity. We quote from the writings of Judge Harlan on this subject: " On the one side it is in. sisted that the stay was short, about such as would be sufficient for travelors
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and their beasts to rest and recruit a little, and that the party at the end of their temporary halt went immediately to and settled on their lands. On the other hand, it is insisted that on their arrival at the station, they could not find their land nor any one who could find it, in consequence of which they re- mained at the station until some time in 1801 or later."
It is more than probable that the Sewells came in 1798, as the following proof seems to indicate. At the southwest corner of Survey No. 2,250, the Sewell Survey, is an oak tree, marked in the outer bark and still plainly visi- ble, with the initials "D. S., 1799." The initials are for David Sewell, and it shows that their land was found in 1799 and the corners established by a surveyor. And it is not reasonable to suppose that they would remain as far away from their land as Bedell's Station, twenty milos, in order to improve it. Tho deeds to Aaron and John Sewell of part of the land, dated in 1801, show that it had not only been found, but had been divided into three parts. We , have taken pains to get the opinion of David A. Sewell, the oldest living in- habitant born in Verhon Township, on this subject. He says his father fre- quently told him when they came, and in their trips together to Cincinnati has showed him the route or trail from Columbia to this place. They only made a short halt at Bedell's house and came immediately to their lands; they experienced some difficulty in finding the boundaries of their land and had to employ a surveyor to fix the corners. They built their first cabins, three joined together, where Patrick Ford now lives, in which they lived until the year 1801, when the land was divided into three parts and each built on his own land- David, still living where he first built; John, where the heirs of Ira Taylor now live, and Aaron, on land now owned by C. L. Sewell.
The Sewells came in wagons, cutting their road through the unbroken forest, and the route they came is still known as the "Sewell Trace," crossing Todd's Fork near the town of Rochester, and passing near where Nauvoo Schoolhouse used to stand. At the time of the Sewell settlement, there was no person living nearer than Lebanon, distant fourteen miles. There was no mill on the Little Miami. They went to Chillicothe to mill, taking four horses with pack-saddles; were two days on the road going, and two com- ing back. The ground was covered with poa-vines, which made excellent feed for their horses.
About the year 1803, James McGee, in company with his brother-in-law, John McGregor, came from Loudoun County, Va., and settled where his daugh- tor, Miriam Marshall, now lives, McGregor building his cabin on what is known as the Caleb Smith farm.
Jonathan Lawrence settled where Sarah Sever now lives, in the year 1806. Thomas Austin came from North Carolina in 1809, and settled on the farm lately owned by Evan Hadley. James Harris emigrated from Loudoun County, Va., in 1809, and settled near the village of Clarksville. William Hadley came from North Carolina in 1810, and settled on the farm now owned by M. P. Marshall. William Austin came in 1811, and settled on Cowan's Creek, near where Mt. Pleasant Church now stands. James Villars settled in Vernon Township in 1813. Josiah Biggs, Lemuel, John and Parson Garrison.and David Ferris. were early settlers of this township. After this the township filled up rapidly.
The lands of the township are what is known as military lands, and were mostly owned in large tracts by persons living in older States. It was heavily timbered, not a stick amiss, as the saying is. A settler having purchased his land at a very low figure, and having selected a location near some spring, he went to work to erect his mansion. Out of the abundance of materials all around him, this was no great task, and in a few days he had his house completed.
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Small trees of the forest, unhewn, made the sides; long shingles, split out of logs, laid on the top and hold down by long polos laid on them, formed the roof; mud and sticks stopped the cracks between the logs; sticks laid up out- side the house and plastered with mud formed the chimney; windows without glass, floors without boards. This mansion was without beauty, but possessed the merit of meeting his necessities, protecting his family and making him comfortable. Having completed his house, he proceeds to cut down and burn the timber near his cabin for his "truck patch," subsisting in the meantime mostly on game. The ground was new and rich, and Indian corn would al. most grow in the woods. Having grown a patch of corn or wheat, he was a long way from a mill, through an almost pathless forost, no roads, no bridges; he would have to take his grist on a horse or on his back. Relying entirely upon himself, sturdy, self-reliant, he overcame all obstacles, cleared out the forest and assurod tho futuro comfort of himself and his family.
The first intimation sometimes that a settlor would have of the coming of another would be tho cloar ringing of his ax as he fellod trees to build his cabin. As the country filled up, the settlers rendered one another material aid, and the previous settlers would welcome a new-comer by meeting, on a named day, cutting down timber and building, or assisting him to build, his house, and in a day or two at farthest, the new-comer would be safely housed and prepared to live.
Tho wants of tho early settlers were few. In summer, the whole family would turn out to help pick brush, burn the logs and cultivate the "patches." In winter, around the huge fire-place, they formed the family home circle, all living, cooking, eating and sleeping in the same room. Here their children were born without the usual manipulations of the "doctor," and, when one of the family died, he was laid tenderly and tearfully away beneath some large tree where the family could visit the grave.
Old persons never tiro of telling of the good old times, and contrast the simplicity of manners, their strict honesty in all their dealings, their froodom from strife, bickerings and law suits, their perfect equality socially, etc., with the jealousies, strife, peculation, lack of political and moral honesty, thieving. pauperism, etc., of the present day, and we are inclined to favor their view of the matter. But we know human nature is such that we are apt to look over the evils of men's lives after they are gone, and remember only the good, and so, perhaps, they forget the evils and bad features of early life and remember only what is pleasant.
PERSONAL SKETCHES OF EARLY SETTLERS. 1
David Sowoll was born in Loudoun County, Va., in 1746. In the year 1768, he was married to Mary Tullis; he raised a family of three children -- Hannah, John and Aaron. Hannah, the oldest child, was married to Judge Peter Burr, for several years Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Clinton County, July 10, 1790.
Aaron Sewell, better known to many of our people as Judge Sewell, and an emigrant to that part of the Northwest Territory known as the State of Ohio, was born in Loudoun County, Va., on the 27th day of August, 1774. His father was David Sewell, and his mother's name Mary, maiden name, Mary. Tullis. He had one brother and one sister older than he was. John Sowell, the brother, died a resident of Clinton County in 1822; his sister, Hannah Burr, wife of Judge Peter Burr, for several years Clerk of the Court of Com mon Pleas for Clinton County, also died in Clinton County, in 1816. David Sewell, father of Judge Sewell, early in 1798, became the owner of one of Archibald Campbell's survey, No. 2,250, on the Little East Fork, in what is now Clinton County, containing 1,200 acres, more or less, and made arrangements
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to move to it with his sons and son-in-law and daughter, the sons to go at once and the son-in-law and daughter to follow at an early day afterward. Up to this time, Aaron had remained a single man. In view of the long journey be- fore the family, he deemed it best to take a wife to himself. Accordingly, on the 5th day of April, 1798, in Frederick County, Va., where the family was then living, he was married to Mary Hendricks, a sister to the wife of- his_ brother John.
As a history or account of the journey of the Sewells from there to Ohio is given in the early settlements, it is not necessary to repeat it here. The three families lived near to one another, where Pat Ford now lives, until the year 1801, when Judge Sowell's father deeded him about 334 acres of land on the southeast side of the survey, where he built his cabin close to where C. L. Sewell now lives. He soon afterward built a large hewed-log house, which is still standing and is occupied as a dwelling.
The first born of Aaron Sewell and wife was their daughter Elizabeth. The family record shows that she was born in Hamilton County, Territory North west of the River Ohio, July 24, 1799. She was married to Aaron Oxley, a soldier of the war of 1812, October 30, 1817. They raised a large family, who are all deceased, except Fannie Oxley, the youngest child, who lives in Now Vienna, in Clinton County. Mrs. Oxley died about the year 1859. Her husband died in 1879, at the age of ninety-six years. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Sewell was Ezra Sewell, born in Hamilton County, Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, March 14, 1801. Ezra married Sarah Baily; they raised a large family. Four, John, Mary Harden, Aaron and Rebecca Cast are yet living on the lands formerly owned by their father.
Ezra Sewell was a large man, slow and deliberate in his motions, rather cynical and severe, but just and honorable to a high degree in all his dealings. He was a farmer; would have no office. Thrifty, industrious, economical, he . prospered and acquired considerable property. Though I have lived in the family for years at a time, I do not recollect of ever hearing him utter a cross word, or one word of complaint of his good wife. He died in the year 1872, at the age of seventy-one years.
Their next child was John Sewell, born in Warren County, State of Ohio, in 1803, he died in 1823. Then came David A. Sewell, born in 1807; Aaron R. Sewell, born in 1811, and Mary, now Mary Fordyce, born in 1813. The last three are still living, vigorous for their ages, which gives hope of many years of usefulness.
In the yoar 1814, Mr. Sewell was elected a Justice of the Peace for Ver- non Township. The office was one of great dignity at that time, and was gen- erally bestowed on the most substantial citizens. Since then, there has been some change in the bestowal of this really important office. Now a commis- sion as Justice of the Peace is not a patent for exalted worth. In the year 1817, Mr. Sewell was elected by the General Assembly of Ohio one of the As- sociate Judges of Clinton County, to fill the vacancy on the bench occasioned by the expiration of the term of Judge Thomas Hinkson. He was re-elected in 1824 and again in 1831; whole term twenty-one years.
In or about the year 1823, Judge Sewell erected a grist-mill and saw-mill on the Little East Fork, about two miles above Clarksville, where David Pond now lives. The improvement was one of great utility to the neighborhood. The stream which was depended on to furnish the power was small, but at that time, when the head-waters in the vicinity of Morrisville were in a forest and the flow of water was obstructed by logs and brush, when the meanderings of the main stream were such that it almost cut off sections of its own course at places, it furnished power nearly all the year; but after the streams were
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cleaned out, and the land ditched, and the main channel straightened, the water passed off so rapidly that in the dry season it would not run the mill. Steam mills in time came into use, and water-mills on the small streams went out of use. The Sewell mills shared the common fate-decay seized upon the buildings, a freshet swept away the dam, the wash from the hillsides filled the race, and now there is scarcely a mark to show where these once flourishing mills stood.
Judge Sewell was not a distinguished hunter, but out of two who are known to have killed an elk each, he was one. This feat was performed in early times not far from the mouth of Wilson's Branch. In person, Judge Sewell was tall, straight and spare. In general conversation, he was not a man of many words, but he expressed his ideas clearly, sensibly and candidly. His integrity was beyond question and his moral character unblemished. He died about the year 1842, at the age of sixty-nine years.
About the year 1803, James McGoo came from Loudoun County, Va., in ' company with his brother-in-law, John McGregor, and settled in Vernon Town- ship. Mr. McGoo was a farmor and a hard- working man. He died about the yoar 1811, leaving a widow and a large family. His widow, familiarly known as Granny McGee, survived her husband fifty years, raising a large family. Jane, the eldest, married Reed Garrison, and some time afterward moved to Indiana. Elizabeth married John Villars, a brother of James Villars, of this township, and moved to Illinois. -- married James Mitchell. Rebecca mar- ried Macajah Moore, father of F. M. Moore, President of the Clinton County National Bank, and raised a large and useful family, near Cuba, in Clinton County. And Miriam, the only one living, married George Marshall, in the year 1829, and has lived all her life on the farm where her father settled. She is now seventy-six years old and lives with her son, George Marshall, Jr.
John McGregor moved from Vernon Township to Wilmington.
Jonathan Lawrence, an early settler of Vernon Township, was born in Cumberland County, N. J., August 30, 1774; his wife was Elizabeth Mulford, who was born in the same county June 25, 1779. While they were young, they were taken to the State of New York. They were married, in 1799, and, in the year 1802 came to Clermont County, Ohio, with Samuel Perrin. They spent some time in that neighborhood; then came to Vernon Township, in 1806, and settled on the farm now owned and occupied by Sarah Sever. Here Mr. Lawrence shared all the privations and hardships of the early settlers' life, cleared his land, etc .; he was a prominent and useful man in the affairs , of the township; was Trustee for many years and was in all respects a good citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence raised a family of four children. Nancy, tho eldest, married Thomas Wilkerson, August 20, 1829; Tamsen, the second child, married Aaron Sowell, called Blacksmith Aaron to distinguish him from other Aaron Sewells, November 7. 1833; Jonathan, the third child, married Mary A. Marshall, December 20, 1840, and Nathan, the youngest, married Eliza J. Marshall, February 17, 1848.
Nancy Wilkerson and Tamsen Sewell moved to Indiana with their hus. bands. Nathan also went to Indiana, and all three are deceased. Jonathan still lives in Vernon Township, and we will write more of his life anon. Jona. than Lawrence, Sr., died in 1834, and his wife in 1839. At the time Mr. Lawrence settled in Vernon Township, there were no settlements on the south of him; the territory of what is now Marion Township was an unbroken wil. derness. Every settler had to cut his own road from the older settlements to his own land. One of the roads used was known as the Sewell Trace. The nearest mill was at Deerfield, on the Little Miami River. When Mr. Law. rence raised a barn, in 1816, he went to Lebanon to get some coffee for the oo-
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casion, and paid 75 cents per pound for it. The prices of all goods and gro- ceries were in the same proportion.
The first settlors southwest of Lawronco's, in Vornon, were Ethan Griffith, Thomas Parks, J. R. Smith, Joseph Henry and Thomas Fugato. The heirs of J. R. Smith and Josoph Henry still own the land.
William Austin, one of the early settlors of Vernon Township, was a na- tive of Maryland. He was born in Prince George's County, and his wife, Elizabeth, was born in Calvert County; they were raised principally in Albe- marle County, Va. Mr. Austin's ancestors came from England in the latter part of the seventoonth century; they were married, in 1798, and went to Sur- ry County, N. C., early in 1799, bought a farm and lived there a little more than twelve years. In the fall of 1810, he came on horseback to look at Ohio and Indiana, and, being satisfied as to the location, ho moved his family, arriving at his brother's, Thomas Austin's, on Todd's Fork, ono and one-half miles abovo where Clarksville now is, on the 23d of October, 1811, the family con- sisting of William Austin and wife with their six children, Mr. Austin's father, Samuel Austin, and a young woman by the name of Nancy Clark. The family remained on Todd's Fork for two years; but, in the meantime, Mr. Austin pur- chased 323 acres of land in William Barlow's survey, No. 3.643. Ho built his cabin on the banks of Cowan's Creek, in January, 1814, and moved into it, but in 1821 he built a frame house on another part of the farm where he lived un- til his death.
Mr. and Mrs. Austin had nino children. One died in infancy; Thomas, the oldest, died in his eighteenth year; Samuel S., the second son, married and settled in Clarksville, and engaged in the tanning business; he also ran a shoe shop and did a great deal at butchering; he was Justice of the Peace for many years; was a vory enthusiastic and devout Methodist, was Leader, Stew- ard, exhortor and local preacher in the M. E. Church: after a laborious iife, he died, on the 17th day of September, in the seventy- fourth year of his age; Mary, the only daughter, married Jonathan Tribboy and died in her fifty-sixth yoar; James B. entered the ministry in the M. E. Church in the twentieth year of his age, and, after traveling in various parts of Ohio for nearly thirty years, he died, in the fifty-second year of his age; William R. settled on part of the old place and followed farming, and he was sixty-seven years old when he died; Benjamin N. settled on part of the old farm, and followed farming; he was twice married, and had fourteen children; the writer of this article was better ac- quainted with Benjamin than with any other member of this remarkable fam. ily; have been connected with him in a business way, have been to his house, eaten at his table, and, though I have met many men, I do not think I ever found a man so thoroughly careful to deal fairly and honestly with his fellow-men, so religious without making a display of 'his religion-in fact, so nearly perfect in our estimation as Benjamin N. Austin; but this is a digres- sion. Henry R. was a farmer and lived near Mor.'sv lle awhile, but finally set tled in Chester Township, where he died in the fifty-seventh year of his age: David S., the youngest son, is still living on the old farm; William was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church for nearly fifty years; was the first Methodist who preached in Wilmington, and he and Ambrose Jones organized the first Methodist society in that place; he labored extensively on the Sabbath in this county, and often went into Warren, Clermont and Brown Counties to hold meetings; his cabin was a preaching place for a number of years, and, in the spring of 1817, he and James Villars, Sr., donated a little more than two acres of ground to the church, on which they built a log house for a church and called it Mt. Pleasant, which was used in summer to hold meetings in, but not being finished for several years, they held service in winter in the cabins;
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