USA > Ohio > Darke County > The history of Darke County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; general and local statistics; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; > Part 25
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In regard to the progress of the township of Greenville outside of the clearing of the land and reducing it to cultivation, which steadily went on, it may be here related that after the erection and destruction of Terry's mill and the completion of Dean's, the next enterprise was the erection in 1824, by Samuel Kelly, of a wool-carding establishment near the site, but above where Terry's mill was destroyed in 1813, and within about a year afterward, a mill for grinding grain was added by the same proprietor, who, abont 1828, sold out to John Swisher, who continued both concerns for some years, until the termination of a lawsuit against him by Dr. Perrine, for nuisance, for backing water over the swamps above the mouth of Mud Creek. The outcome of this lawsuit resulted in the virtual destruction of the mill in 1835-36.
In about 1826-27, David Briggs erected a grist-mill and saw-mill on the creek, a mile and a half below the town, which, with little profit to the various owners who have possessed the property within the past forty years, has been in operation until this spring-1880-when its destruction has been determined upon under the pretext of draining the swamp above the mouth of Mud Creek. Will- iam, who, with his brothers, Samnel and Christophher, and his brothers-in-law, Hugh Lourimore and John Culbertson, emigrated to the county in 1816 and 1817 and settled east and southeast of Greenville, at the distance of from two to five miles, built a saw-mill on the dividing branch, near its confluence with Greenville Creek, about the year 1822. This concern rotted down, and was rebuilt several times ; has been in operation, off' and on, on the average, about three months of the year since its first erection. About fifteen years later, John W. Harper built another saw-mill on the same branch, about half a mile above Martin's, which was operated for a number of years, but is now among the things that were.
About the same time that Briggs was engaged in the erection of his mill, Jared Barnes put up a grist and saw mill near the west line of the township, on Greenville Creek. The mills have been remodeled and rebuilt various times, and have been owned by various parties, and are yet in existence, sometimes in run- ning order, but nearly as much of the time lying idle for repairs. The traps
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which have been enumerated constituted the milling facilities of the township to the elose of 1840, and during all the years before that, and much of the time since, the chief dependence of the people of the town and township for the pre- pared material whereof to make their bread, was on mills not merely beyond the limits of the township, but beyond the boundaries of the county.
Notice has already been taken of the tanyard abortions of Routsong & Will- iamson. About 1819 or 1820, Amos P. Baldwin and John McGregor started a tannery on a small scale. on the lot on Water street below the railroad, now occupied by Jack Taylor. Baldwin died about 1821, and the concern, in a year or two, changed hands, and kept on changing until on the death of George Sanderson, the last owner, who operated it in 1855. when it went out of existence altogether ; it was never, so far as known, a source of any profit to any of its owners.
In 1826, William Martin, already named, established a tannery about a quar- ter of a mile up the branch, above his saw-mill. From this concern, for thirty or forty years, his son Robert, and others who ran it, turned out a commodity which they said was leather, but by other people was called horn ; a side of it might be bored or ent when moist, but in the dry state defied awls and edge-tools. In 1831 or 1832, Jacob Herkimer located a tannery between Water street and the Creek, about half-way from the Broadway bridge to the mouth of Mud Creek ; he died in a year or two afterward, when it was taken charge of by his step-son, D. R. Davis, in behalf of his mother and the minor children of Herkimer, after which it changed owners several times, and is now the property of Thomas B. Waring, a recent purchaser. A year or two afterward, William W. Jordan pur- chased a tract of land over the creek and began what is now the Porter Tannery ; it also changed owners onee or oftener before it came into the hands of the pres- ent occupants-the Messrs. Porter-and it, as well as the Herkimer yard, have been carried on continuously through all the intervening years.
Of the other industries of the town of Greenville prior to 1840, it is unneces- sary to speak. There were carpenters and blacksmiths, shoemakers and tailors who did the work required by their customers, who usually furnished the materials to be wrought npon ; at that day there was neither foundry, machine-shop nor plan- ing-mill either in the town or in the county. But in this connection, one other matter of note must be stated. In 1832, Samuel Scott and Edward Donelann commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper, that, having borne various titles and passed through the hands of many proprietors, is yet, after the lapse of forty-eight years, published as the Greenville Journal.
The duty yet remains to speak of the changes and progress in other avoca- tions and employments to the end of 1840, and, as the first item, relate the suc- cessions as well as beginnings of those upon whom devolved the duty of afford- ing food and shelter to the wayfarers, including man and beast, for a consider- ation.
Moses Scott, as has already been stated. emigrated to Fort Wayne in 1824. On leaving, his stand was rented to Judge Terry, who remained in it until about the close of 1827. and was succeeded, first. by John Armstrong, who in a short time gave way to Jack Douglass. James Craig, in 1829, purchased the property, occupied the old stand until his brick building adjoining the public square, and the nucleus of the present Wayne House, was completed, into which he removed, and continued the business until 1833, when he rented the stand to Edward Shaffer, whose death occurred in the summer of 1835, after which, his widow continued the business for some months, when she gave way to Charles Hutchin, from JJacksonburg. in Butler County. Hntchin, in 1837, built the Broadway House. now the Exchange Bank and Vantelburgh's grocery, into which he removed, and the house across the street was not again occupied as a tavern until after 18-40. Bascom ceased to keep a tavern in 1829. on the decease of his wife, and his prem- ises were not again ever occupied for that purpose. In 1828, a house (now the
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residence of John Hufnagle, recently built by Dr. Perrine, was occupied by Samuel Robison as a public house, but in a few months he surrendered it to the Doctor, who had taken to himself a wife and needed it as a residence ; and here it may as well be noted that, some four or five years afterward, Mrs. Perrine died, and Per- rine, after some time (how long the narrator fails to remember). ceased to be a householder, and, for the remaining years of his life, was found sometimes here, sometimes at Dayton and sometimes in New Jersey, where he had numerous rela- tives. At last, some two years ago, he died in the lunatic asylum near Dayton, to which, on account of mental aberration, he had for a few years been consigned, beyond the age of more than fourscore years. The widow of Azor Scribner, a year or two after the desertion of her second husband, ceased to occupy the old Scrib- ner stand on Water street. and, for about a year (1828-29), in it was kept, by Isaac Shidler, a tavern after the manner that the woman kept tavern in Indiana, to wit, " like h-1." The establishment ceased " for keeps" in the autumn of 1829. In 1828, Joshua Howell, who had in that year been elected Sheriff, and had, some years previously, been for one term County Commissioner, removed from Fort Jefferson and opened what was called a tavern in a small frame house on Third street, that stood where is now the dwelling of George Studabaker. In 1830, he
erected a frame house on the corner of Broadway and Fourth street, which was dignified with the title of " Travelers' Rest." Howell, who, in the interim after his shrievalty expired, wanted to run for Congress, and did run a sorry race for a seat in the State Legislature, in 1831 sold the " Travelers' Rest " to Nicholas Mark, who, after some years' occupancy, leased it to David Angel, who was its occupant in 1840 and for some time afterward. The further history of the "Rest" will not here be related, further than to say that it was pulled down, some four years ago. to permit the erection of " Allen's Hall" and the " Greenville Bank." In 1830, Francis L. Hamilton enlarged, by the erection of a second story and additions, a frame building on Main street and the public square, opposite the newly erected tavern of Craig, and in it continuously, until after 1840, kept a public house, held in good esteem by all his boarders and the traveling public. In a few years after 1840, Hamilton took charge of a hotel in Richmond, Ind., from which, in a couple of years, he returned to his farm, some three miles north of Greenville, and from there, at a later period. to the town, where he died about two years ago, at the age of more than eighty years. The old tavern stand was removed, within the decade of 1840-50, to give place to the Waring Block. The changes in this department of business, since the close of 1840, will be noted elsewhere.
The progress of business in the mercantile line, prior to the close of 1840, must be noticed, and the changes of the parties engaged in it, as well as the loca- tions where the business was transacted, taken into account. Beside the unre- membered Frenchman and Azor Scribner, mention has already been made of David Connor, Abraham Scribner and the Hoods.
Connor, after the treaty, and near the time that Scribner and the Hoods engaged in business, as has elsewhere been stated, removed to Recovery ; at a later period, he was on the Mississinewa. below Llewellyn's mill. where he was located at the time of the murder of the Indians, in 1824, that raised him to the chieftainship. At a later period, he went down the river below the Broad Riffle, within the limits of what is now Grant County, Ind., where his death occurred about 1848. His wife never left Greenville, but continued to reside there until her decease, in March, 1851. Scribner, as has been stated, on the death of his second wife, went to the Maumee, having sold out his stock to Henry House, but, after a few months' absence, returned early in 1823, repurchased from House, and con- tinued in business until his death, in 1847.
The Hoods were succeeded by Alexander Delorac, and he in a few months gave way to Charles Neave, who remained but a short time, when he returned to Cincinnati, in 1822, and for thirty years or more was a member of the firni of T. & C. Neave, extensively engaged in the iron and hardware business in that city.
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
About the time that Neave left. Nicholas Greenham, of Piqua, established what might be called a branch of his Piqua house at Greenville, which was with- drawn in April, 1825.
In the fall of 1826, Loring R. Brownell, also from Piqna, came with a stock, and continued until late in 1833 or early in 1834. He sold his stock to James M. Dorsey and Henry Arnold. In three years, or near that, afterward, Dorsey withdrew, and Arnold alone carried on the business of the house until after 1840, and now, forty years later. is still in business as a member of the firm of .H. & H. N. Arnold. In the latter part of 1827. John McNeil engaged in business in a small way, and in about a year sold out to F. L. Hamilton, who, in a year or cigliteen months, sold to W. B. Beall, in 1830, who, in the spring of 1831, was joined by Francis Waring, who several years later became sole proprietor, and continued in business until 1876. His death occurred in 1878. Beall died about 1855 or 1856. About the same time that Beall commenced business, Allen La Mott and Josiah D. Farrar, as the firm of La Mott & Farrar, commenced and continued until after 1840. In 1834 or 1835. Milton Bailey bought a stock of goods, and in a brief period gave place to John Baird, who in short meter " blew out of the bolt ropes " and went to Texas or Arkansas, leaving creditors to " wail- ing and gnashing of teeth."
About the same time that Bailey started in business, William Martin, who has before been named as proprietor of a saw-mill and tanyard, employing a rela- tive as clerk and salesman, laid in a stock at Cincinnati, and opened out in Green- ville. In a year or little more, Martin ascertained that he was " in bad shape ;" to keep things from getting worse, dismissed the clerk ; to meet pressing demands, borrowed $1,000, which amount, with what should have been the profits, he found had been sunk, and sent what remained in care of his son, William Martin, Jr., to Recovery, about the close of 1835 or early in 1836. In the end he weathered the storm, but in after years, after the establishment was closed out, he frequently stated to friends that it would have been far more than $1,000 in his pocket if he had never " tried on " being a merchant.
In 1834, John C. Potter came from Butler County, and engaged in the mer- cantile business, which he continued until the death of his wife, daughter and himself from cholera, in Angust, 1849. A year later came his brother Hiram Potter and Samuel Davis, from Jacksonburg, in Butler County, who for a time carried on the mercantile business, as the firm of Potter & Davis. The firm dis- solved in 1838 or 1839 ; Davis went to Piqua, and Potter continued business as successor of the firm until his death in June, 1845.
The trading house of Connor, afterward occupied by Greenham, was on the east corner of Water and Sycamore streets. The Hoods, Delorac and Neave on the northwest side of Water street, between Elm and Vine. The establishment of Scribner was first in a log house. out of town as then laid out, near where is now located the gas works, and subsequently on the south corner of Main and Elm, and in 1830, he again removed down Main street between Sycamore and the public square. MeNeil, Hamilton & Beall were in the same location, which stood on the site of the Waring Block, and two or three years later Beall & Waring were at the Kipp corner. in a building which, at a later day, when it was the " Buckeye House," was burned down. Brownell first located between Sycamore and Elm on Main street, where Dr. Lynch now resides ; at a later day at the cast corner of the public square, on Broadway, to which La Mott & Farrar, who first were in the old stand of MeNeil. Hamilton & Beall, removed, in 1833. and when he was succeeded by Dorsey & Arnold. They transferred the concern to the west corner of Broad- way and Third. Bayley & Barrd were on the west side of Main, between the public square and Sycamore. John C. Potter first opened at the same place, and then, after erecting the Katzenberger building, which served as storeroom and dwelling, occupied it until his decease, in 1849. Potter & Davis were at first in Bascom's corner. afterward in what is yet known as the Hiram Potter House, between the public square and Walnut street.
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HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
At the close of 1840, all the mercantile business of the town was transacted within the four blocks adjoining the public square.
It must here also be stated that previous to that time, in a country town like Greenville, the mercantile business was not divided up into the various branches of dry goods, groceries, iron and hardware, groceries, queensware and drugs, medi- cines, paints and dye stuffs. Every dealer had nearly a little of everything, and but very little of anything. The whole stock of merchandise in every department, brought to the town in a year, would not have been equal to the spring purchase at this day, in the department of dry goods alone, of Moore & Winner, H. & H. N. Arnold, or Wilson & Hart. Prior to that year, no separate and distinct con- cern known as an iron and hardware store, drug store, clothing store (no Jew had yet appeared in the town), boot and shoe store, or grocery, had existed in the place. But the whole truth may as well be known. There had been traps, called groceries, kept by " Dad " Warren. Ethan Powers and Josiah Shaw, where a potato or a button were sold for a fivepenny-bit, and the customer given as a gratuity a drink of " bald-faced whisky." Under the old license laws the grand jury deemed it their business to intermeddle with these institutions, and they were soon " dried up."
During all the years over which this narration reaches, the progress of the town and township of Greenville, as well as the county of Darke, although some- times slow, has been onward.
The census of 1820 showed the population of Darke County to be 3,717, and in that enumeration was included the inhabitants of what was then Mercer County, the territory of which then embraced part of the counties of Shellby and Auglaize. The inhabitants of what now remains as Darke County could not have exceeded 2,000. At the close of 1824, the town of Greenville had within it thirteen families, all told, the total number, old and young, being less than 100 souls. The census to be taken the present year, 1880, will reveal the fact that the town now contains about or quite four thousand inhabitants.
Several things in the early years withheld in town and county progress and improvement. The valleys of Bridge Creek, Mud Creek and the West Branch were then impenetrable swamps, covered by willows and inhabited by wolves.
In 1820, the sale of Government lands on a credit ceased, and early in 1825, all thus previously sold had to be paid out or forfeit to the United States. Sev- eral thousand acres were forfeited, and the certificates of several thousand more, as the laws then permitted, were relinquished to be applied in discharge of what remained due on the remaining portion. The mortality of the years 1821 and 1822, and of 1829 and 1830, contributed to prevent emigration. The furor for speculation in wild lands in 1836 and 1837 broke out, and even the banks of the Mississippi Indian Territory, as well as that which the Government owned, were staked out into city and town lots continuously from Keokuk to St. Paul. The bank crash of the latter year came when "red dog " and " mad dog," "wild cat" and every kind of paper money went down into simple rags, and the projected cities and towns from the Ohio to the Mississippi, with few exceptions, remain on paper only to this day. Many of the lands purchased as a speculation in Darke County remained unimproved and unsold for thirty years, and some of them to this day. Nevertheless, in spite of all these drawbacks, Darke County (the soil of which, fifty years ago, the more a man owned of it the worse he was off), has moved on, until now it ranks, if not the first, yet among the first in the State of Ohio.
As a sequel to what has been related of the early history of Greenville, town and township, it may not be improper to say something of some of the actors in that history who have now gone hence. It has been stated that among the arriv- als after the treaty were Archibald and James Bryson, natives of Bedford County, Penn., who became settlers in Greenville Township. Archibald Bryson, on the organization of the county, was chosen a County Commissioner, and re-elected to
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a second term of that office, and served at intervals in other public duties. For a period of twelve years, from 1816 to 1828, his influence and opinions as to men and measures served more than that of any other man to direct and control public action, and it may be said that this influence was exercised honestly and judi- ciously. He hated demagogues, and "greased no man with the oil of fool." The ascendency which he had maintained passed over to and was exercised by Scrib- ner for a succeeding period of about ten years. Since that time, no other indi- vidual has been able, without the co-operation of rings and cliques-and, in the days of Bryson and Scribner, rings and cliques had not been imported-to guide and govern Darke County. Now and then, some man took it into his head to " go it alone," but such only made a mistake, and were " left out in the cold." Archi- bald Bryson, about 1840, emigrated to Western Indiana, and died near Pittsburg, in Carroll County, about 1865. James Bryson, who had served several years as Justice of the Peace, was for some years County Commissioner, and for seven years was Associate Judge of Darke Common Pleas, continued to reside in the county until his decease, not far from the time of his brother's death.
A. Studabaker, who has been named as one of the earliest settlers in the county. was a resident of Greenville Township thirty-seven years. 1815-52, until his death, and was for many years a County Commissioner. He was destitute of education, but was a man of sound judgment, good executive ability, and strictly honest. Talbot, in 1822 or 1823, went to Indiana, put himself on good behavior and short rations, and was some years later elected to the shrievalty of one of the river counties down the Ohio, after which nothing further is known of his his- tory to the writer. David Irwin was County Collector of taxes in the days when the office was sold at auction. In after years, he was County Treasurer, in which office he died, about 1846, and was succeeded by his son James in the same posi- tion, in which he also died, about 1851.
David Briggs, a very worthy man, came to this county as early as 1810; was elected a Justice of the Peace as early as 1816, or previous ; was County Treas- urer in 1819 or 1820. In 1828, by Scribner's direction, was elected County Commissioner, and, three years later, by his commandment, was defeated for the same office. Mention has been made of John Craig. He was the third County Auditor, and, while holding the office, died in 1825. James Craig, his brother, a year later, married the only daughter of Robert Gray, one of the proprietors of the town when first laid out, and raised a family of daughters, three of whom yet survive. After the discovery of the California gold fields, he went there, seeking to mend his fortunes, and three years later returned, and soon after died. His widow died a few years later. There was another James Craig, stepson of Judge Terry, and brother of Alexander. David and Seymour Craig. He was elected Sheriff of the county in 1830, and died a few months later, in 1831. Joshua Howell has been spoken of as a Commissioner and Sheriff. Three others, John, Thomas and Jerry, were here between 1827 and 1835. All were ambitious. and had reasonable luck. Joshua had been Justice, Commissioner and Sheriff; John was Sheriff after Craig's death four years ; Thomas was six years a Justice ; and, in the fall of 1835, at the end of John's term, Jerry was anxious to be his succes- sor. Old Billy Chapman, in his Yankee accent. declared that "Darke County had been Howelled enough." Other people thought so, and Jerry was left. The whole race left the county soon after, and the truth may as well here be spoken, that not one of them possessed capacity to fit them for any public employment, and the further truth, borne out by the record of more than forty years, may as well be stated. that the proclivity to elect asses to office in Darke County ceased not when the Howells were gone.
The writer must here bring this chapter to a close. In his younger days, he was intimately acquainted with a number of individuals who had been in the armies of Harmar, St. Clair and Wayne. He was also intimately acquainted with nearly all the early settlers of Darke County, in which he has himself resided for
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more than fifty-five years. The matters which he has related that occurred before he came upon the scene he obtained many years ago from the statements of those who had personal knowledge of the facts they related, and on whose truth he could rely ; and the remaining statements of events since he came to the county were nearly all within his own personal knowledge. Of all of whom he has spoken, not half-a-score remain, and of those above mere childhood who dwelt in Greenville when he came to the place, not one is left-all are gone !
A few incidents of early years have been omitted, and of some of them men- tion should be made.
In 1828, a stray printer on his rambles came into the county, named Benja- min S. Bullfinch. At that early day "teetotalism" had not made any serious inroads. Bullfinch, when under the influence of " Baldface," entered somebody's house and promiscuously appropriated a watch of the value of more than $10, as it was alleged and proved. He was arrested, indicted and tried, and as drunken- ness was not then a justification of theft, was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for a year. This was the first conviction for an offense punishable by a sentence to the penitentiary in the county.
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