Name of Owner.	Number of Survey	Number of Acres
Warner and Addison Lewis Warner and Addison Lewis Samuel Eddins Robert Pollard Willis Wilson Henry Baylis William Nelson Nancy Grimes Nancy Grimes Carter Page Nancy Grimes Carter Page William Croghan Alexander Balmain Francis Dade   Nancy Grimes   Richard C. Anderson	2,235 2,234 1,044 3,908 2,435 9,672 2,312 2,473 2,312 1,731 2,354 1,729 3,913 1,274 4,377 2,474 and 2,526 2,383	1,000 1,000 1,000 4,222 666 2/3 110 1,640 1,000 640 1,000 1,050 1,000 950 1,200 220 1,740 2,533 1/3

Of these holders of military land, Samuel Eddins was a captain; Henry Baylis, a lieutenant ; William Nelson, a colonel ; Carter Page, a captain; William Croghan, a major; Alexander Balmain, a colonel; Francis Dade, a captain, and Richard C. Anderson, a colonel. Warner and Addison Lewis were probably land speculators, for they owned thousands of acres of land in the county, and it was the practice in the early days for these speculators to buy up land warrants from many of the veterans of the Revolutionary War. Willis Wilson and Robert Pollard were probably heirs or assignees and it is certain that Nancy Grimes was the heir of Capt. William Grimes.

Not all of the surveys included in this table lie wholly within the town-

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ship. Those lying partly within the township are Numbers 2235, 2234, 1044, 3,908, 1729, 3913, 1274 and 2383.

TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE.

Caesarscreek township as it stands at present is located in the south-central part of the county and is bounded on the north by New Jasper and Xenia townships, on the east by Jefferson township, on the south by Clinton county and on the west by Spring Valley township. The surface of the township is somewhat rolling and is fairly well forested with hardwood trees that are native of this section of the country. On the ridges are found many productive upland farms, comprised of soil of rich clay, and here are raised consider-able quantities of corn, wheat and oats. Much of the rolling land affords excellent pasture for hundreds of horses, cattle and sheep and during the year, many swine are "fed out" for the market.

The central part of the township forms the divide between Painters creek and Caesars creek. The former rises in the extreme southern part of Silvercreek township, flows across the northwest corner of Jefferson township, enters Caesarscreek township at its northeast corner and then its course describes a circular course down through the southern part of the township, which the stream leaves near the southwestern corner. This stream has several tributaries, one of which is Mursers run. This stream rises in the surveys numbered 2474 and 2526, flows southwest and empties into Painters creek in the southwest corner of the township. Caesars creek forms a part of the northwestern boundary of the township. It is from this stream that the township derives its name. The creek in turn takes its name from the Negro servant of the officers who commanded the expedition of Gen. George Rogers Clark against old Chillicothe on the Little Miami in 1794. The expedition had progressed all the way from Kentucky without the knowledge of the Indians until they reached the territory now comprising Greene county, but this negro, whose name was Caesar, stole away from the command and brought the intelligence of their impending danger to the Shawnees at old Chillicothe. It is possible that Caesar left the command while it was in the whereabouts of the creek that bears his name.

THE FIRST SETTLER.

Possibly about 1800 David Painter, who had before that year become a member of a settlement of Friends at Waynesville, in what later became Warren county, decided to move northward into what was erected into Greene county in 1803. At the time when he reached his decision to change his place of residence, there was only an old Indian trail which led from Waynesville to Oldtown, but he loaded his few agricultural implements and household

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goods into wagons, and accompanied by his family, moved slowly northward along this old trail. When he reached the creek, which later was given its name in honor of this early settler in the township, Painter decided to establish here his home. His family at that time consisted of three sons, Jesse, Jacob and Thomas, and one daughter, all of whom contributed their whole-hearted efforts to the building of the home in the forest and to the bringing of the soil under cultivation. The land which David Painter settled now comprises the Harvey C. Faulkner farm.

At the time of the Painter family's settlement here, there were only three cabins between Painter's cabin home and Waynesville, but soon afterward other settlers of the same creed of this sturdy Quaker flocked into the town-ship, and a Friends society was organized. Painter himself was instrumental in the organization of this society. The death of this old settler occurred about 1840 and since that year all of his children have followed him to the grave. The Painters were ideal settlers, for they were a thrifty, steady and yet enterprising family. Moreover, their adherence to the creed of the Friends was instrumental in their becoming valuable and moral citizens of the new county and neighborhood. Even though the teaching of the Friends is against war, this first settler of the township waxed warlike when it seemed that a wholesale butchery of whites impended after Hull's surrender at Detroit. On that Sabbath morning when the news of the disaster arrived in the settlement, David Painter, under the exigency of the moment, shouldered his rifle and march off to join the volunteers who were hastening to Urbana to protect the Ohio settlements from the Indians who were reported to be coming southward.

OTHER EARLY COMERS INTO THE TOWNSHIP.

Shortly after the Painter settlement was established, Caleb Lucas, a native of Virginia who had settled temporarily in Warren county, moved northward into what is now Caesarscreek township and located on the Phillip Powers farm. Caleb Lucas was born in the Old Dominion on October 2, 1776, and his death occurred on April 25, 1851. He was a soldier of the War of 1812. A comparatively short time after he settled here in the township, he sold his land to Samuel Martin, the so called Indian doctor. The farm was later sold to Edward Powers, from whom it reverted to his son, Phillip Powers. Soon after Caleb Lucas settled in the township, his brother, John Lucas, settled on the Jamestown pike, on the farm which later came into the possession of his grandson, James Lucas. Since they were high-spirited Virginians, the two Lucas brothers were in frequent altercations with their neighbors and such difficulties were generally settled in fisticuff encounters in which the combatants went at it "hammer and tongs," as it

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was described then. John Lucas was the younger of the two brothers, he having been born on July 29, 1793. His death occurred in 1871 after he had lived almost four score years.

Another settler who came to the township before 1803 was Frederick Price, a Virginian of German descent, who settled on what later came to be known as the D. M. St. John farm. Price remained there until 1830, in which year he sold his holding to Stephen Bones and then removed to Indiana, where his death occurred in 1870.

SOME LATER COMERS.

In 1806 Elisha Bales, a native of Pennsylvania, brought his family, including his four sons, Jonathan, John, Jacob and Elisha, Jr., into Greene county and settled in Caesarscreek township. A part of the family located in the northern part of this township and some members settled in that part of Caesarscreek township which was later included in New Jasper township. The elder Bales spent the rest of his life in the township, improving his farm, and his death occurred in 1828.

In the same year came Robert Faulkner, a brother-in-law of David Painter and a native of Virginia. He located with his family on a tract of land adjoining Painter's place and for many years the Faulkner posterity continued to reside in the community.

In 1807, David Murphy, also a native of the Old Dominion, brought his family to this township and located in the military survey which joined the possession of Caleb Lucas on the west. His wife had fallen heir to this part of the military survey, her father having evidently been a veteran of the Revolutionary War. The Murphys possibly became dissatisfied with their location here and in 1850 the family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.

THE EARLIEST ELECTION RECORD OF THE TOWNSHIP.

When the associate judges laid out the county into townships on May JO, 1803, they ordered that the election for the township of Caesarscreek be held in the house of William J. Stewart in Caesarsville. It is almost a certainty that the election was held sometime later in the year and at the place indicated, but the whereabouts of the poll-book of that first election in the township is not known. On October 9, in the following year, another election was held. and the poll-book of this election is the earliest one found pertaining to Caesarscreek township. From this poll-book one can determine the names of some of the earliest settlers of the township as it was then, but the limited number of electors included indicates that the settlers either were careless in exercising their right of suffrage or were too busy garnering their crops to take a part.

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THE POLL-BOOK.

Tuesday, October 9th, A. D. 1804,

State of Ohio, Greene County, Township of Ceasars Creek. Poll Book of an Election held at the House of Wm. I. Stewart for the purpose of Electing one member of Congress, one member of the Assembly, also one Commissioner and one Senator.

The Electors' Names—Samuel Anderson, Frederick Bonner, James Bonner, Valentine Bone, Jacob Bone, William A. Betty, John Billington, John Campbell, John Casey, Josiah Elam, Edward Flood, Josiah Grover, John Hoop, George Isham, Samuel Lee, Caleb Lucas, Abraham Lucas, Joseph Lucas, Joseph Lambert, Charles Moore, Isaiah McDonald, Dempsey McDonald, Samuel Miller, William McFarland, John McClelland, Samuel G. Martin, John Martin, John. Mendenhall, John Paul, David Price, William Price, Frederick Price, John Stafford, Gardner Sutton, Gennire Sutton, Samuel Sutton, John Sterritt, Joseph Sterritt, Moses Trader and Remembrance Williams.

Judges : Frederick Bonner and Isaiah McDonald.

Clerks : Charles Moore and Chappell H. Bonner.

The result of this election in the township was that Jeremiah Morrow received thirty-nine votes for Congress; John Bigger, forty votes for the state Senate; John Sterritt received twenty-seven votes for state senator and Joseph Tatman, twelve; James Snodgrass, forty votes for county commissioner.

THE FIRST ENUMERATION.

The first enumeration sheet of the township antedates the above poll-book by a year and from it one can obtain the names of many more of early pioneers of the township as it stood in 18433. This enumeration of the free males in the township above the age of twenty-one years was begun by the lister, Joseph Price, on August 3, 1803, and was finished on the tenth of the same month. The additional names which thus can be added to the above list are the following: Isaac Bonner, Samuel Bone, James Corey, William Conkleton, Joel Coleman, Stephen Hoggett, Josiah Hunt, James Lawrey, John Montgomery, Leavitt McDonald, Stephen Mendenhall, William Mullen, Martin Mendenhall, Edward Mercer, Joseph Price, David Price, Jr., Peter Price, David Painter, Nathan Porter, James Porter, Henry Prill, Sr., Henry Prill, Jr., Isaiah Sutton, Jonah Sutton, Amariah Sutton, Lewis Sutton, William I. Stewart, Noah Strong, Reuben Strong, William Stanfield, Leonard Stump, Joseph Wilson, Sr., Joseph Wilson, Jr., Remembrance 'Will-iams.

As this list of names is scanned, the impression must not be gained that these early settlers were all residents of Caesarscreek township as it is today. Reference to the discussion of the changes of the boundaries of the township reveals that many of these settlers no doubt lived in the eastern part of what is now Xenia township or in the present townships of Silvercreek, Jefferson or Spring Valley.

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IMPROVEMENT IN THE TOWNSHIP IN THE EARLY DAYS.

Under the steady strokes of the ax, the magnificent forests in Caesarscreek township gradually gave way before these sturdy pioneers, and soon there were scattered over the whole extent of the township log cabins and log barns which housed the settlers, their families and live stock. As time passed tanneries sprang up here and there to provide leather for the old-fashioned "fare-leathers" saddle and for the shoes used by the pioneer household. Since whisky was held to be absolutely necessary for the early resident of the county in those day to neutralize the heat of summer, the cold of winter, the ravages of ague, stomach trouble, for weddings, for influencing bids at public sales, for influencing voters and for dispensing good cheer on all occasions, several distilleries were erected in the township and did a flourishing business for many years. Then, with the passing years, the prosperity of the settlers became more evident with the abandonment of the old log cabin which sheltered them and their families in the early years of their residence here, and they erected in, their places dwellings of brick or of timber which had known the buzz of the saw-mill. A glance at the assessor's returns for the years 1830, 1833, 1840 and 1841, reveals some of the improvements which were made in the township in those years.

In 1830 David Painter, the first settler in the township, razed his old log house and erected in its stead a brick structure which was valued for taxation at one hundred dollars. In the same year Joel Ellis built a brick addition, valued at one hundred and fifty dollars, to his house. Three years later, it was found that Isaiah Oglesbee was finishing his new dwelling in survey No. 1831, but the value of two hundred dollars which the assessor placed upon it brought a warm protest from the owner, because he thought the estimate too high. In that same year, John Fudge, who was a prominent figure in the politics and government of the county in his day, was the owner of a tannery in survey No. 1383, valued at three hundred dollars. The assessor's returns for 1833 showed that Jesse Faulkner was busily engaged in adding two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of improvements to his holding in survey No. 1274.. James Curl, the owner and operator of a tanyard, the land for which he had leased from Jacob Painter, succeeded in having the value of his enterprise reduced one hundred dollars.

In 1840-41 Joel Peterson was meeting the wants of his neighbors for liquid refreshment with his distillery on survey No. 3708. This enterprise was of considerable importance as compared with other like enterprises of the township, because it was valued at one thousand dollars. The clearing away of the old, friendly log cabins, which gave place to the frame buildings, created the need for a saw-mill and one such was owned by Elijah B.

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Hartsook on a part of a tract of one hundred and ten acres in survey No. 2435. The motive power for the plant was derived from an adjacent stream, the volume of which did not always admit of running the mill more than six months of the year. William Whinnery, a tanner of the township, fur-nished the residents of the township with leather. In that part of the township which was later included in New Jasper township William Long and William Hardie had erected, respectively, a brick and frame dwelling, the former of which was valued at four hundred dollars and the latter at three hundred. Evidently distilleries at that more recent date furnished an acceptable market for the corn grown in the township, for Bernard F. Rowe operated a steam distillery and chopping-mill in connection on a one-acre lot which was a part of survey No. 1378.

THE VILLAGE OF PAINTERSVILLE.

The only village in Caesarscreek township as it is today is Paintersville, which is located in the eastern central part of the township, about a mile from the township line, in military survey No. 2254. The town was laid out along the Jamestown pike, which forms the main street of the village. About two hundred yards north of the northernmost lot of the village flows Painters creek.

Before the village was laid out, the site was a part of the farm of one hundred and fifty acres which belonged to Jesse Painter, a son of David Painter, the first settler of Caesarscreek township. Before the town was laid out Jesse Painter and Jonathan Oglesbee owned country stores on its site, where the residents of the surrounding country came to purchase their supplies. A short time before 1840 Painter decided that the modest trading point could take upon itself the dignity of a village of considerable importance and since he was the owner of the surrounding land he secured the services of Moses Collier, the county surveyor, who platted the village in the latter part of the summer of 1837. The work was finished on September 7, 1837, and on the 16th of the same month the plat was received for record and recorded by J. H. McPherson, the county recorder, as follows :

PLAT OF THE VILLAGE OF PAINTERSVILLE.

The Town of Paintersville, in Greene County, O., of which the above is a correct Plat, was laid out and surveyed by the undersigned for Jesse Painter, the Proprietor, on part of a survey, originally made for Nancy Grimes, No. 2354. Main Street and Ash Street are 6o feet wide, Walnut Street is so feet wide, alley No. 2 1S 16 feet wide and all other alleys are 12 feet wide. The bearing of Main Street is N. 5 E. and the lines of all the streets, lots and alleys (except the South line) are parallel and right angles thereto.

Lots No. 1, 2, 24, 25, 30 & 31 are 6o feet front on Main Street and 80 feet back, containing 4,800 square feet. Lots No. 12, 13, 20, 27, 28 & 29 are 60 feet front on Main Street & 140 feet back, containing 8,400 square feet. Lots No. 14 is 70 feet in front, containing

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5,300 square feet ; No. 15 contains 5,100 square feet ; No. 16 contains 5,490 square feet; No. 17 contains 6,070 square feet ; No. 18 contains 6,540 square feet and all the other lots are 60 feet front & 120 feet back, containing each 7,200 square feet. A stone was planted by my direction at each intersection of the lines of Main and Ash Streets.

Given under my hand this 7th day of September, 1837.

MOSES COLLIER,

Surveyor of Greene County, Ohio.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE VILLAGE.

As was said before, Paintersville's main street is a part of the Jamestown pike, which extends a short distance south of the village where it intersects with the county road and the New Hope pike. Beginning at the north the first cross street is Ash, which extends westward until it intersects the county road. The next cross street south is Walnut, which is a con-tinuation of the Port William pike joining the county road a short distance from where Ash street does the same.

In all there are thirty-three lots indicated on the original plat. West of Main street and north of Ash street are lots No. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27. Between Ash and Walnut streets and west of Main are lots No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. South of Walnut are lots No. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. East of Main are lots No. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33. The date of the sale of these lots is not on record ; however, it is known that the proprietor sold them at twenty and twenty-five dollars each, according to location.

GROWTH AND BUSINESS 1NTERESTS OF THE VILLAGE.

When the village was platted in 1837, it had two stores, as was stated before, one belonging to Jesse Painter, the proprietor of the village, and the other Jonathan Oglesbee. Soon after the laying out of the town Joseph Oglesbee erected a frame building on the lot later owned by John Mason. Cornelius King built the next building, a brick structure, which later be-came the property of Lewis Thomas. There followed a number of log houses which in time gave place to frame and brick structures. At present the village contains about twenty-five houses. The population of the town in 1881 was about one hundred and fifty, in 1896, one hundred, and at present (1918) about one hundred and fifty. Since the town is not located on a railroad, its progress has been retarded. In the early eighties a nar-row-gauge railroad from Cincinnati to Columbus was projected through the village, but the plan was never realized.

A comparison of the business interests of the village at different dates shows that the movement of population to the urban centers, the rapid means of communication facilitated by the automobile and telephone, and the proximity of larger adjacent towns has caused a lagging in the estab-

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lishment of business enterprises in the town. In fact the town has deter-iorated in this respect. In 1881 Paintersville had a saw-mill, owned by James and Thomas Babb; a carriage factory, by Allen and Eli Powers; a blacksmith shop, by William King; a grocery store, by John B. Mason; a harness shop, by Lewis Thomas and a physician, Dr. William Rowse. In 1896 the town had two grocery stores, one harness shop, two blacksmith shops and one saw-mill.

WINCHESTER.

Few people now living in Greene county have ever heard of the town of Winchester in this county. but a reference to the records in the office of the county recorder reveals the plat of a well laid-out town by the name of Winchester. In fact there is no town in the county with a more artistic and finely planned set of streets than this town, a town which never got beyond the beautiful plat which its fond promoters had made of it.

Here is the official record on this town :

State of Ohio}ss

Greene County} ss

THOMAS BABB, proprietor.

Caesar Creek Township, Greeting :

I, Reuben Strong, one of the acting Justices of the Peace of this Township and county aforesaid, do hereby certify that personally came Thomas Babb, a resident of Clinton County, and freely acknowledged the site and title and the within Plat be a true form laid down for the use and purpose of a town within Caesars Creek Township to be established as a Town by the name of Winchester.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 26th day of February, 1816.

REUBEN STRONG, J. P. (Seal)

This town was located on the west side of the present Wilmington-Xenia highway, just after the road crosses Caesars creek. There is nothing in the record of the plat to indicate its location any nearer than "Caesarscreek township." As far as is known there was no serious attempt to establish a town on the site, and it is difficult to see at the present time why any one should have thought a town would have made any growth there. The plat on record shows it to have been the best laid-out town in the county. There were seventy-two in-lots and sixteen out-lots, the whole site being surrounded by a street which might be called a boulevard.

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS OF CAESARSCREEK TOWNSHIP.

The prosperity of Caesarscreek township depends entirely upon its agricultural operations. As was said before, the township lacks the alluvial valleys of broad bottom lands of some of the other townships of the county, but the fertile clay soil of its uplands yields bountiful crops of corn, wheat, oats and rye. The general condition of the surface admits of the grazing of large numbers of cattle and sheep. It is one of the best hog-raising dis-

State of Ohio

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tricts of the county, there having been "fed out" over six thousand hogs in the township in 1917. The dairy products of this section also are quite important sources of wealth.

It is interesting to compare the agricultural statistics of sixty-seven years ago with. those of the present (1918). Returns of the census of 1850 com-pared with the detailed agricultural report of the county for 1917, compiled from the returns of the township assessors show the following:

LIVE STOCK.

For its size the township grows a comparatively large amount of live stock, of which hogs predominate. In the following table are included butter and wool:

	1849	1917
Horses, number Cattle, number Sheep, number Hogs, number Butter, pounds Wool, pounds	804 1,108 4,027 4,036 69,923 11,026	756 1,136 422 6,183 214,120 216

In the report of 1850 the mules in the township numbered six, and cattle were divided as follows: Cows, probably for dairy and breeding purposes, 118; work oxen, 2, and other cattle, apparently beef cattle and the like, 988. A striking feature of the report for 1917 is the number of hogs in the township which succumbed to the scourge of cholera. In all 712 porkers died from this disease and 27 farms were infected. Within each hog-was the possibility of an animal weighing two hundred pounds and let the average price for hogs for the year be fifteen dollars a hundred weight, then the death of each hog entailed a loss of thirty dollars. Since there were 712 hogs that died of the disease, then the total loss in the township because of this disease was $21,360. There has been a tremendous increase in the production of home-made butter in 1917 over the year 1849. GRAIN, SEED AND VEGETABLES. The table which follows compares the grain, seed, vegetable and miscellaneous production in the township in the years 1849 and 1917:

	1849	1917
Wheat, bushels Rye, bushels Corn, bushels Oats, bushels	21,513 830 124,205 937	39,136 413 147,987 8,147
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Buckwheat, bushels Barley, bushels Flax seed, bushels Clover seed, bushels Irish potatoes, bushels Sweet potatoes, bushels Tobacco, pounds Honey, pounds Hives, number Maple syrup, gallons Maple sugar, pounds Hay-    Timothy, tons    Clover, tons       Total Alfalfa, tons	83 50 I 2 20 2,874 273 ------ 1,075 ------ 436 14,690	------ ------ ------ 136 ------ ------ 2,710 8o 35 911 ------ 1,010 879 1,889 222

The interval between 1849 and 1917 has witnessed striking improvement in the grain production of the township; however, in one instance, that of rye, the production has fallen off about one-half. The most striking increase has been in the production of oats. It should be said again in comparing these statistics that the township is in no wise as large now as it was in 1850, due to the organization of New Jasper township, the territory of which was largely taken from Caesarscreek township. It can then be seen that the increase in the production of corn and wheat is much more considerable than it seems at first sight. The growing of buckwheat, barley and flax seed is no longer carried on to any appreciable extent in the township. The growing of clover seed shows an appreciable increase. From the report of 1917 one would judge that the "grow potatoes" movement was overlooked by the assessor. Honey production has had a remarkable decrease in this interval, but the fact that thirty-five hives succeeded in producing only eighty pounds creates the impression that the return is not full for 1917. Of course alfalfa was an unknown crop in the township in 1849.

USE OF LAND 1N THE TOWNSHIP.

In 1850 the improved acreage in the township was 12,693 and that which was unimproved was 9,904. In 1917 there were 9,846 acres of cultivated land in the township; 820 used for pasture; 1960 acres of timber; 176 acres of orchard land and 428 acres of waste land, all of which made a total of 13,236 acres owned in the township. In the same year the number of renters

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working for wages on farms was 3 the number of farms rented to tenants, 9, and the number moving from farm to town, 2. In 1850 the estimated value of the farming implements in the township was $19,243.

SOME MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTIONS IN THE TOWNSHIP.

Because some items that appear in the report of 1917 do not occur in the one of the year 1850, they will be discussed miscellaneously. In the autumn of 1916 the apple trees of the township yielded spoil amounting to eight hundred twenty bushels. The proximity of canning factories affords the farmers of the township today ample market for the nineteen tons of sugar corn they grow. There is another kind of corn-canner which is in extended use in the township and that is the silo, which the farmer of sixty-seven years ago no doubt would have considered sheer nonsense. At present there are twenty-six of these corn-canners in use in the township and in the fall of 1916 they were filled with five hundred ninety-one tons of ensilage. In connection with the use of ensilage for cattle feed, it is well to discuss the dairy products of the township during the last year. Many farmers of the township own cream-separators, another machine unknown in 1850, which enabled the owners to sell during 1917 16,720 gallons of cream. At the same time they also found ample market for the 14,102 gallons of milk which they sold during the year. In the recital of these sources of prosperity in the township, one must not forget the hens, which laid 101,126 dozens of eggs.

LAND IMPROVEMENT IN THE TOWNSHIP.

While the farmers of the township are producing their crops, they do not lose sight of the fact that the fertility of their soil can become impoverished. Nothing is better for recruiting the energies of a soil than the turning under of Clover sod and the farmers of the township thus disposed of two hundred seventeen acres of clover sod during the last year. At the same time they made ample use of the other important asset of every farmer, barnyard manure. During the year they utilized 429,740 pounds of commercial fertilizer. Although the greater part of the township is upland soil, there are tracts which need reclaiming by drainage, and the owners of Caesarscreek township soil laid nine hundred seventy-two rods of drain tile during 1917.

CHAPTER XIII.

SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP.

The first official act of the associate judges after the first court of common pleas was organized af the house of Peter Borders on Beaver creek, on May 10, 1803, was the laying off of the original townships of the county, and the first one of these to have its delineaments recorded on the minute-book of the court was Sugarcreek township, as follows :

The Township of Sugar Creek shall Begin at the North West Corner of Section No. 10, on the west line of said County ; thence South with said line to the Southwest Corner of said County ; thence East, crossing the Little Miami, and the same course continued four miles East of said river ; thence North so far that a line west will strike the Beginning—and that Elections in said Township shall be held in the House of Wm. Clemsy (James Clancy).

Obviously the bounds of the township as set forth by this order of the court were very vague. Apparently Sugarcreek township then embraced all of what is now Sugarcreek township, all of Spring Valley township and a part of Xenia township. The northeast corner of the township was located just south of the city of Xenia, the southeast corner approximately where the southeast corner of Spring Valley now occurs and the northwest and southwest corners have remained where they were established by the associate judges. The court clearly 'did not have the extent of the township in mind, for when Xenia township was organized in 1805 no mention was made of the fact that a part of it came from Sugarcreek township. It was not until 1856 that Sugarcreek township was confined to the bounds which it has today by the organization of Spring Valley township.

CONGRESSIONAL LANDS.

Sugarcreek township proper is located in the extreme southwest corner of the county, bounded on the west by Montgomery county, on the south by Warren county, on the east by Spring Valley township and on the north by Beavercreek township. It contains all of sections 34, 35 and 36, town-ship 4, range 5; all of sections 4, 5, 6, 10, and 12, with fractional parts of sections 3 and 9,- township 3, range 5, and all of sections 31, 33 and 34 with fractional parts of sections 32, 27 and 28, township 3, and range 6. These sections form almost a perfect parallelogram running north seven and east three sections, inclusive.

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MILITARY LANDS.

On the northeast part of the township is added a part of what is known as the Virginia Military Survey, the territory which lies between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers. As no survey of these lands was made by the state, each claimant could locate his claim wherever he pleased and the result was much confusion in the location of their respective land plats. Many of them overlapped, a condition which subsequently led to much litigation. Again, this system, or lack of system, created the system of land platting between these two rivers which has continued to be a source of great worry to the surveyors of later years. The majority of the owners of these land grants in Ohio never saw their holdings and many of the old Revolutionary soldiers, who were in need of ready money in the early years of the nineteenth century, sold their warrants to speculators who would adver-tise in Virginia that on a certain date they would be in a designated vicinity for the purpose of buying land warrants. Thus it arose that many of the ultimate holder of these surveys were not soldiers of the Revolution at all and very few of them were either heirs or assignees of the old heroes. The majority of the lands in Sugarcreek township are in the congressional surveys and the original holders of tile military surveys in this township follow :

Name.	Survey	Acres.
John Crittenden Robert Beals Alexander and James Parker Elias Adsit Pamelia and Penelope Russell George Holland William Fowler Pamelia and Penelope Russell	No. 904 No. 975 No. 3,610 No. 14,067 No. 2,566 No. 3,585 No. 760 No. 2,565	1,000 1,000 780 14 500 240 1,000 1,730

.

Clearly every one of these original holders of the military lands in Sugarcreek township were absentee owners, for the first poll-book and the first enumeration sheet of the township do not include one of these names. The majority of these persons were veterans of the Revolution, for John Crittenden was a lieutenant ; Robert Beals was a captain ; Alexander Parker was a major; James Parker was a lieutenant ; George Holland was a lieutenant, and Pamelia and Penelope Russell were the heirs of Maj. John Russell. These men did not confine their holdings to one tract, for Lieutenant Crittenden was entitled to 2,864 acres, but he owned only 1,000 acres in Sugarcreek township.

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TOPOGRAPHY AND DRAINAGE.

Sugarcreek township is well drained, for in addition to its river and near-rivers, several lesser streams ramble around through the small valleys which they have cut in the surface. Little Sugar creek, a small stream, rises in the extreme northwest corner of the township and flows toward the center where it forms a confluence with Big Sugar creek, which rises in Montgomery county. This juncture takes place just south of Bellbrook, and from thence on the stream is known simply as Sugar creek. It is probably from this stream or possibly from the abundance of sugar tree timber which formerly was so plentiful in this section that the township derived its name. It is certain that Sugarcreek township in the earlier days was a district where much maple sugar. and "tree molasses" was manufactured by the old-fashioned methods. From the point where Big and Little Sugar creeks join, the main stream flows in a southeasterly direction until it joins the Little Miami about a mile southeast of Bellbrook. The Little Miami river enters the township at the northeast and flows southward little more than half the distance of the' township, at which point it abruptly turns eastward and enters Spring Valley township.

In general the whole extent of the township is considerably broken, especially along the river, but in the eastern and southern sections, the land is high and rolling, with fertile, beautiful valleys intervening here and there. The soil of the highland is rich clay with a limestone base, especially in the north, while in the .south the base is of sandstone. In the latter section fruit growing is carried on with much success. Of course in the valleys and bottom lands is found the rich, black alluvial soil. The industries of the township are wholly agricultural and the chief products are wheat, corn, oats, rye and tobacco. Considerable attention is given to the culture of the plant last named and superior grades which command good prices are raised in the township. When the first settlers of Greene county came into this township, they found the land heavily timbered and the great labor entailed in making "deadenings" and clearings made the bringing of the soil under cultivation a comparatively slow process. The most important forest trees that were found here then were the sugar, the walnut, the ash and the poplar. The steady plying of the woodsman's ax and the entrance of the steam saw-mill was the'signal for the melting away of the heavily timbered districts. To the earlier residents of the township the Little Miami afforded waterpower for the flour- and saw-mills. In the north part of the township, which is underlaid with limestone, considerable building stone was formerly quarried and at present these stone deposits afford a large quantity of excellent material for the building and the up-keep of the excellent roads of the township.

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THE EARLIEST SETTLERS IN SUGARCREEK TOWNSHIP.

One hundred and twenty-five years ago the territory which is now known by the name of Sugarcreek township was an unbroken wilderness. Herds of deer roamed through the forest and occasionally a bear was to be seen. It was not long after this time that the land could continue in its primeval state, for in 1796 the first settlement in the township and indeed the first settlement in Greene county was made. Gradually the tenacles of civilization had been extending up the Little Miami in what was then Hamilton county until the southern boundary of Greene county was reached. There is considerable disagreement about this first settlement in the township. It is safe to say that it occurred in the spring of 1796, that the first cabin was erected in that year and that the first settler was named Wilson. Just which member of the Wilson family was the first settler and which one built the first cabin remains a matter of doubt. One version of this settlement is given' in the chapter on the first settlers of the county and another will be submitted at this point.

Down in the neighborhood of Cincinnati lived John Wilson, one of the pioneers of that section. He was a native of New Jersey, from which state he had removed to Pennsylvania. From the Keystone state he had floated down the Ohio by flatboat to Kentucky. It was only a step across the Ohio into the new country and he with his family, which included four sons, crossed some time prior to 1796 and temporarily settled in the neighborhood of Cincinnati. Two members of this family had heard of the opportunities for settlement in the wilderness northward in the valley of the Little Miami in the territory which was later erected into Greene county. Accordingly in the spring of 1796 these two brothers, George and Amos Wilson, were joined by Jacob Mills and they all set out northward along the course of the river. The two brothers located on section 4, township 3, range 5, while Mills, as he discovered after Greene county was organized in 1803, settled just across the line in Warren county. The place on which the Wilson brothers raised their temporary cabin was about three-fourths of a mile east of the little village of Clio or Ferry. This rude hut, which sheltered the brothers while they were clearing enough land for planting a little patch of corn and a few beans and pumpkins, was about twelve feet square, without floor or chimney and was constructed of unhewed logs. This cabin was raised on April 7, 1796. After the brothers had cleared about three acres of land and had put in their "crops," they returned to Cincinnati to care for their crops there. It is quite possible that they had come northward to locate a tract before buying it, hence their return to Cincinnati also enabled them to negotiate for the purchase of the land whereon they had settled.

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During the absence of the two brothers, another member of the Wilson family, Daniel, came up into this country and located just west of Ferry in the southwest part of section 10, township 3, range 5, where he cleared two acres and prepared the logs for his permanent cabin. He remained here until he was 'joined by his brothers, George and Amos, who returned from Cincinnati in the fall of 1796. They were accompanied by another brother, John Wilson, who was also desirous of locating in the new settlement. Immediately the four brothers set to work raising their homely cabins in the clearings they had hewed out of the dense forest, the first one being that belonging to Daniel, which was located about sixty rods west of what later became the site of the village of Ferry. Another was erected for George somewhat east of the present site of the village and still another for Amos to the north. After their cabins had been fitted with some of the rude furnishings of the pioneer cabin which could be fashioned here in the wilderness, the four brothers returned to Cincinnati for their families. In the latter part of the winter of 1796-97, George and Amos Wilson and their respective families took up their residence in their new homes in Greene county, but Daniel did not arrive in the new settlement until March 3, 1797.

COMING OF THE ELDER WILSON.

Soon after the Wilson brothers had settled, their reports of this new country to their father, John Wilson, Sr., were so flattering that he decided to pay them a visit, thinking that if the land came up to his expectations he, himself, would remove from his farm near Cincinnati and settle with his sons here. The elder Wilson was in no wise disappointed with this new country, for he decided to come northward and settle with his sons if they would build him a cabin. The younger Wilsons gladly accepted the propo-sition and immediately set to work erecting their father's cabin in 1800 and 1801, its site being about three-fourths of a mile east of the site of the village of Ferry. It was a two-story structure, built of hewed logs, quite a palatial residence for Greene county in those days. The floor was of puncheons and an extensive fireplace, which occupied the whole west end of the lower story, seemed a measure of the sons' gratification at their father's coming to their new settlement. For many years this old house stood a relic Of the first settlement of Greene county in Sugarcreek township.

From his home in Sugarcreek township John Wilson, Sr., wielded a' potent influence in the community in which he lived and upon the affairs of the state of Ohio after it was admitted to the Union. When the consti-tutional convention of 1802 met, John Wilson was a delegate from Hamil-ton county, of which the territory comprising Sugarcreek township was then a part. He did not spend the rest of his life in Sugarcreek township, for

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He removed to Miami county, Ohio, and his death occurred at West Creek of that county. Neither did all his sons remain residents of the township. George Wilson, who, when the call to arms went forth during the War of 1812, enlisted in the service of the country, removed from the township at an early date. John Wilson, Jr., married Nancy Dinwiddie on October 30, 1806. Daniel Wilson, who was born in Pennsylvania, April 21, 1756, removed from Sugarcreek township in 1811 and his last days were spent in Montgomery county. Amos Wilson removed to Caesarscreek township in 1805, from which he later went to Clinton county.

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.

In the spring of 1797 when Daniel Wilson was returning here to settle permanently, he overtook Joseph C. and David Vance in the valley south of where Lebanon now stands. The Vance brothers were on their way up to the valley of the Little Miami to find homes in this new country. Joseph C. Vance entered land along the east side of what is now Main street in Bellbrook, which tract was a part of sections 31 and 32, township 3, range 5. He built a cabin of rough logs about the corner of Main and Walnut streets, somewhat to the rear of where Ephriam Bumgardner's paint shop used to stand. When Greene county was organized in 1803, Joseph C. Vance removed from Sugarcreek township after selling his cabin to James Clancy who used the building as a part of the flourishing tavern which he kept at that time. Vance then went to the new town of Xenia, of which he had been appointed director by the associate judges. In 1805 he resigned his official position of director and went to the newly organized county of Champaign, where he became director of the new town of Urbana. In that county he occupied the same official position as did John Paul in Greene county until his death in 1809. Joseph C. Vance was a native of Pennsylvania and shortly after the Revolution he embarked his family on a flatboat and floated down the Ohio until he landed on the Kentucky side, at which point he was instrumental in the founding of the town of Vanceburg. The cabin which he erected after he became a resident of Greene county was the first one erected on the site of what later became Bellbrook. It was in this house where the township organization was effected and it was here that Rev. Robert Armstrong preached his sermons to the nucleus of the Associate congregation of Sugarcreek township. At the organization of the township Joseph C. Vance was elected the first township clerk.

It was here in Sugarcreek township that Joseph Vance, later governor of Ohio, spent his young manhood. He was remembered by the old pioneers in later years as a young man driving an ox-cart along the Pinckney road. He was a typical pioneer boy, clad in linsey shirt and buckskin breeches which were suspended by knit "gallusses."

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CAPT. NATHAN LAMME.

The early settlers of Sugarcreek township were not without their military heroes, the most important one of whom was Capt. Nathan Lamme. He was an officer of the Virginian soldiery of the Revolutionary War, and he was entitled to four thousand acres of land of the military reservation. He came to Greene county in 1797 and located land in sections 33 and 27, township 3, range 6, northeast of Bellbrook. He erected his homely pioneer cabin north of the Washington mill. During the Revolution he was present at the battle of Point Pleasant, having volunteered for the Dunmore expedition in 1774, and after the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and England, he espoused the patriot cause and wore a continental uniform for eight years. When Greene county was organized, he was elected sheriff, which office he held for only three months, as he was compelled to resign to look after his large land interests. He spent the rest of his life in Sugar-creek township, his death occurring in 1834.

One of Captain Lamme's sons was David Lamme, who was only six years of age when he came with his father to Greene county. He became a soldier in the War of 1812, serving first as a volunteer under Capt. Robert McClelland. Later he joined General Harrison, whom he followed through-out the war. Because of his gallantry at the battle of Lundy's Lane, he was promoted to the rank of captain.

A PIONEER SAW-MILL.

Another pioneer of the township was John C. Hale, Sr., who came to this county and settled in Sugarcreek township in 1802. In that year he built a log cabin on the site now occupied by the Mary L. Tate house. Near this cabin his son, Silas Hale, Sr., when only a small boy narrowly escaped. being killed by a bear. This cabin was like any other of those days with the exception that its floors were not made of puncheons, but of planks. Of course at that early day there were no saw-mills within a hundred miles of Bellbrook, and the planks were sawed out by hand. The logs were first hewed square and then lined on two opposite sides. The log was then raised at one end so as to permit a man to stand erect on the under side, and another to take his station on top. Both operators could then use the saw with ease. It is quite likely that the man working on the under side of the log got more than his share of saw dust in his eyes and down his neck. Hale supplemented his farming operations by doing the tanning business of the community and his sons in early life became proficient in the art of grinding oak bark for tanning purposes. In 1838 he removed to Indiana where his death occurred on September 25, 1845.

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THREE SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.

Among the early settlers of Sugarcreek township were three soldiers of the Revolutionary War, namely : James Snodgrass, Richard Cunningham and John Torrence.

James Snodgrass entered a quarter section of land in the township shortly before Greene county was organized. When the tyranny of George III had exasperated the colonists beyond the point of endurance Snodgrass left his home in Pennsylvania, his native state, to fight for the right and served throughout the war. After pensions were granted the soldiers of the Revolution by the act of 1832, a remittance was due this doughty old soldier, but he refused to avail himself of the money and waxed very angry at those of his comrades-in-arms who did so. "No," he said, "it is not right that a man should be paid for fighting in defense of liberty ; and I intend to go down to my grave with the government owing me that debt." And he carried his intention out to the uttermost.

Richard Cunningham was a more recent comer to Sugarcreek township, his name appearing for the first time on the enumeration sheet of the township in 180, at which time he was the owner of lots 9, 10 and 28 in the town of Bellbrook. He was a native of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and sometime during the spring of 1777 he enlisted for three years in the regiment commanded by Colonel Dunlap, which was a part of the Pennsylvania military establishment during the Revolution. He was under fire at the stubborn battle of Brandywine and withstood the rigors of that terrible winter at Valley Forge. After his three years of service had expired, he re-enlisted as a rifleman and scout. His pension began with the date of March 4, 1831, at the rate of eighty dollars a year.

John Torrence was a native of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and at the outbreak of the Revolution he enlisted in the regiment of Colonel Dunlap of the Pennsylvania militia. After the war he emigrated to Ken-tucky from which state he moved to Sugarcreek township, Greene county, Ohio, in 1804. He was pensioned under the act of 1832, the pension being granted on May 3, 1833, when the old hero was seventy-four years of age.

CYRUS SACKETT.

It was on October 17, 1799, at three o'clock in the afternoon, that Cyrus Sackett accompanied by his wife and three children settled on the place which later and for one hundred years was known as the Sackett farm in Sugarcreek township. Cyrus Sackett had emigrated to these parts from Kentucky and here he bought this farm of one hundred and fifty acres

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for two dollars an acre. When the family arrived here, they found their holding covered with a dense growth of timber, and they here pitched their improvised tents made of bed clothing, in which they managed to live for some time until the father could build his cabin. The first dwelling was made of unhewed logs, but after the family had lived in it for several years, the father erected a large hewed-log house. After the death of Cyrus Sackett and his wife, parts of the farm remained. in the Sackett name until 1899, a period of one hundred years since the grandfather had settled here.

JAMES COLLIER.

One of the grand old pioneers of Sugarcreek township and of Greene county was James Collier, the first lister of Sugarcreek township, the third sheriff of the county and among the first to serve as community coroner. Because of his comparatively short residence in. Sugarcreek township, his activities here were somewhat limited.

James Collier was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, January 4, 1774, and in 1786 his family removed from the Old Dominion to Kentucky, where they remained for several years some eighteen miles north of Crab Orchard. In 1794 young Collier acted as a scout in the Nick-a-jack cam-paign under Col. William Whitley. Soon after the Wilsons settled in Greene county, James Collier, who was a friend of the family, also came up here and located in section 33, township 3, range 6, probably in the early part of 1797. Collier was present at the house of Peter Borders at the first meeting of the court of common pleas of Greene county on May 10, 18̊3. He received the appointment to take the enumeration of the township of Sugarcreek on that day and began the work on August 3, finishing the task on the seventeenth of that month. At the first election in the township he was a successful candidate for lister. He remained in the township until 18̊5, when he removed to the new county-seat town of Xenia, for his duties as deputy sheriff under William Maxwell, who resigned on December 17, 1803. Collier, however, continued to serve as deputy until he was elected to the office.

THE FIRST ELECTION IN THE TOWNSHIP.

After the organization of Sugarcreek township on May 10, 1803, the election was held, June 21, of that year at the house of James, not William, Clancy for the purpose of electing the necessary officers for the administration of township affairs. In the poll-book of this election the names of the majority of the residents of the township at the time of its organization are preserved as follow :

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POLL-BOOK

Of an election held in Sugar Creek Township, Greene county, Ohio, this 21st day of June, 1803. Judges, Robert Buckles, James Snoden and Nathan Lamme ; clerks, John Wilson and Daniel Thomas.

The Electors.—Alexander Armstrong, James Barnes, Alexander Barnes, James Barrett, James Barrett, Sr., James Buckles, Robert Buckles, William Buckles, Samuel Brewster, Ephraim Bowen, James Collier, James Cunningham, Thomas Enis, John Enis, Isaac Garard, Joseph Hale, John Heaton, Jacob Hosier, Nathan Lamme, John McKnight, William Miller, John McLane, Samuel Martin, Ezekiel N. Martin, John Night, Willis Northcutt, Cyrus S. Sackett, Jacob Snoden, James Snoden, Robert Snodgrass, William Snodgrass, Absalom Thomas, Daniel Thomas, William Tanner, John Vance, Abraham Vaneaton, Joseph Vandolah, Daniel Wilson, John Wilson, Sr., John Wilson, Jr.,

As a result of this election William McMillan received the majority of the votes of the township for representative to Congress ; James Collier was elected township lister ; Joseph Vance, township clerk ; Abraham Vaneaton, fence viewer ; Robert Snodgrass, John McLane and Robert Marshall, trustees ; George Wilson, house viewer.

THE FIRST ENUMERATION.

In accordance with the duties of his office of trust, James Collier took the enumeration. He made the statement in his report as follows :

A list of all the free males above the age of 21 years within the township of Sugar Creek, Greene county, State of Ohio, begun August 3, 1803 ; ended on the 10th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1803.

JAMES COLLIER.

In his reported list several names were included which did not appear in the poll-book of the election in the June preceding; hence some of the forefathers apparently had not availed themselves of the right of suffrage; some had left the township or some newcomers had taken up their residence here. The additional names are the following: Seth Anderson, Samuel Anderson, James Bruce, James Clancy, David Curry, Joshua Carman, Joseph Camel, Samuel Enis, Jeremiah Enis, John Gowdy, Andrew Gowdy, Jacob Harner, Benjamin Harrier, John Hale, Thomas Hale, John Irwin, Joseph James, Samuel Martindale, Isaac Martin, Isaac Miller, Robert Marshall, John Marshall, Joseph Robinson, Sr., Joseph Robinson, Jr., Edward Robinson, James Snodgrass, William Snodgrass, Jr., Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Vance, Jr., and John Vance, Jr.

TWO ASSOCIATE JUDGES.

In the early years of the township, there were two associate judges of the court of common pleas of Greene county who were early settlers of Sugarcreek township. The one, James Barrett, was one of the original associate judges, while the other, James Snoden, who was one of the first commissioners of the county, did not become an associate judge until 1809.

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James Barrett, who was a venerable man when he became a resident of Greene county, was a native of Virginia, and although he knew little of court procedure and jurisprudence, he made up for the deficiency in his legal education by a great store of common sense and homely justice. Even though his decisions would hardly stand the scrutiny of a learned judge of the twentieth century, they were rendered in compliance with his deep and stern sense of pioneer justice. His family on coming to Ohio in 1800 located on Dick creek in what is now known as Butler county, but in the autumn of 1801 Barrett set out northward to seek a location for his home where he and his family could open up a farm of their own. When he had advanced as far as Sugar creek he found a tract of land which fulfilled his expectations, and he returned to his family and imparted the intelligence to his stalwart sons that he had decided upon a site for their future opera-tions. His sons accompanied him northward and the father purchased a half section in what later came to be organized as Sugarcreek township. The entire family removed to their new holding on April 12, 1802, arid began clearing their new land. After Greene county was erected, the Legis-lature appointed Benjamin Whiteman, William Maxwell and James Barrett associate judges for the newly organized county on April 6, 1803. Thus it was that James Barrett became one of the first members of the common pleas bench of Greene county. He served until 1810, when his advanced age caused him to lay aside the responsibilities of his judgeship and return to his farm, where his death occurred in May, 1822. He was buried in one corner of the orchard on the old farm.

JAMES SNODEN.

One of the most eccentric of all the associate judges that Greene county ever had was James Snoden, who was an early settler of Sugarcreek township. He became a resident of this region in 1799 and built his cabin north-west of the present site of the village of Bellbrook in the southeast quarter of section 2, township 2, range 6. He was an extensive landowner in those early days, his lands embracing all of the eastern part of the above-named section which comprises all the western part of the village of Bellbrook. This he sold to Stephen Bell and Henry Opdyke in 1815, when he removed to Indiana where he died. The first official position which James Snoden occupied in Greene county was that of county commissioner, he being associated with Jacob Smith and John Sterritt as the first board of county commissioners. It was not, however, until 1809 when James Snoden took a place on the bench of the local court of common pleas and his associates at that time were David Huston and James Barrett.

Judge Snoden was an eccentric justice, but with all of this there is

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nothing on record which implies that he ever handed down a decision on any case which did not teem with strict justice to the plaintiff and defendant even if his opinion was not couched according to the legal parlance in vogue at that day. Tradition says that the judge was very reluctant to take an oath, so reluctant in fact that he refused to comply with the command of Judge Francis Dunlavy in 1810 and thereupon the recalcitrant associate justice was ordered to the county bastille for contempt of court. When the sheriff, James Collier, received the order to lodge the stubborn justice in jail, he refused to comply with the order of the court, possibly because he saw no ill in the attitude of Judge Snoden and probably because he and the associate judge were old friends. The upshot of the matter was that Collier was also lodged with Judge Snoden in the county jail.

Judge Snoden was very punctual in his attendance on the court of common pleas, but he had a deep aversion to riding, as had many of his neighbors of Scotch descent. He was wont to start out early in the morning from his home in Sugarcreek township and walk to Xenia, arriving there in time for the opening of the session of court. He was once prevailed upon by members of his family to ride while making one of these periodic visits to Xenia, but when he started he neglected to mount his horse. He slipped his arm through the bridle rein and walked leading his horse. The judge no doubt fell into deep meditation upon some occult and elusive point of law, and the horse slipped the bridle and turned his attention toward the more pleasing prospect of wandering through the then unexplored pastures of the Little Miami bottoms. The judge, however, continued his journey undisturbed and did not discover the absence of his mount until he had arrived in Xenia.

AN ECCENTRIC BACHELOR.

John McLane, one of the early commissioners of the county, and who served for several years as associate judge after taking the place of James Snoden on the bench, settled in the north part of section 4, township 2, Sugarcreek, range 6, in the last years of the eighteenth century. He came here from Lexington, Kentucky, a confirmed bachelor, with no companions but his dogs and long squirrel rifle. Often at night as he lay courting sleep in his rude cabin, he found his slumbers disturbed by the howls of the wolves and the screams of the panthers around his lonely habitation in the unbroken forest which comprised his holdings. To prevent these denizens of the forest from becoming too friendly, he built and kept up a huge fire in front of his abode.

There is only one instance on record where this worthy celibate experienced the emotion of fear. While at the various log-rollings in the surrounding country, he had heard the settlers boasting of the prowess of their