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200 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES of such long obscured happenings must of necessity often depend up on the investigation of other writers. The research subsequent to his first publication about Franklin township by the late R. J. Bancroft has cleared much doubt from the name of Logston. It now appears that the once mythical Logston was a soldier of the Revolution ; that he was one of O'Bannon's surveying party at Neville, and afterwards, in 1787-8, for which he was a scout and hunter ; that he often crossed the river for the fine hunting in Ohio ; that he built a cabin or shack for that purpose, that he had a family and moved to Tennessee in 1801 ; and that he left a son, Joseph, who was a voter at the first election of which there is a record in Washington township. But there is no proof that the father considered himself other than a Kentuckian. The most plausible solution of this and all similar traditions of extraordinary pioneer zeal on the north bank of the Ohio is that the facile memories of the aged, have too freely and too early shifted heir heroes from the uncertain safety of Kentucky to the positive danger of the Ohio side. If any should cite the courage of the surveyors or doubt the temerity of their adventures, as an example to be followed by daring home makers in lonely lodges in a hostile land, it should be clearly understood and well remembered that O'Bannon, Massie and Lytle were equals in wood craft with the wiliest warriors, and that they went in strong parties fully armed with scouts and hunters in front and rear and flanks, who could not be passed without giving an alarm that changed every man to a trained and resolute fighter, such as the Indians seldom chose to battle with on equal terms. All this was far different for the lone settlers of whom the rashest must have halted before exposing his wife and children to the horrors of massacre and capture. A similar story is told of Alexander Hamilton of County Tyrone, Ireland, who lived as a hunter in Lewis township with his wife and five children, but of these some or all were born later—the account is hazy. His right was a "squatter's claim" which was nothing ; but, little or less, it was bought by Joseph Clark, Sr., who came with his wife and six children from Pennsylvania in 1795, and soon built a cabin where his undertakings included a small grist mill on White Oak some five years later ; and seven years later another on Bullskin, and CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 201 still later a copper still which at that time did not hinder him or his family from a strict adherence to the Presbyterian Church of which he was an elder for many years. It is not claimed that any settlement during 1795 was made within the present limits of Pleasant township. Properly considered, this makes the reputed early presence of Hamilton and Clark at an aimless spot far back from the river in the jungle of Lewis township more striking and more uncertain. No name in the early days of the region has more curious mention than that of Belteshazar Dragoo. By the bond from Alexander McIntyre in 1791 as stated on a previous page, he was the first on record to contract for a home in Brown County. Some have claimed that he came in 1794 to three hundred acres of land on Eagle Creek. This conflicts with the claim made for Hamilton in Lewis, township. As Dragoo lived in Mason County, Kentucky, it is more probable that he acted according to the time and did not cross the river with his wife and twelve children until the treaty was sure. The next peculiar mention of Dragoo explains his departure from Eagle Creek. It may be hard to refute the claim that he came before all others but it is harder to believe that a sane man would take a wife and a large brood of children into a defenseless cabin miles away from any possible help, and yet none was known to be near. Granting that all the people named had made some preparation to plant corn in Ohio in 1796, from Paxton by the O'Bannon to Dragoo on Eagle Creek, there were not fifty grown people—not one to the mile, as a trace crossed the country between. But the ways into the wilderness were broken ; or to be more literal, the courses into the woods were blazed, and the paths were ready to be widened. There are few scenes of human endeavor that excite more sympathy from a cultivated mind than the consideration of the work done by the pioneers in a forest land. At the thought of a charging line rushing on to death or glory, every nerve thrills with the fellowship of danger, and every sense tingles with the joy of conflict ; but as we look upon the puny might of a lonely man going forth to smite plenty from the gloomy grandeur of the measureless wilderness, our spirit quails at the mighty toil, and we feel that they who staked their lives 202 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES against such awful labor had need of stouter hearts than they who go to sudden battle. We would gladly call the roll of those who made the roads, cleared the fields, and wrought the change for our enjoyments, but the passing of more than a hundred years has worn away many a name that we would' love to hear and be pleased to record ; for it is no idle fancy that after another hundred years, when the hills shall be reclothed with the verdure of ten thousand more dotting homes and the valleys filled with a countless host, many eyes will search these pages for ancestral names borne by heroes in the ancient strife, and, vainly searching they will marvel with vexed pity. for the indifference that, under the specious pretense of mock humility, has forgotten or neglected to perpetuate the honor of its own blood, and thus denied them the peculiar pride of tracing their lineage to those who honored the land of their birth. At last the long and fierce strife for possession had ceased to trouble. The Land of the Blue Limestone and the Home of the Blue Grass had been wrested from savagery. In and after 1796, there was no Indian molestation east of the Little Miami and for many miles north of the Ohio. At last and not before, the Indian Country was ready for the Coming of the Pioneers. Within recent days, we have been accustomed to expect that the occupation of new territory will be announced by presidential proclamation to vast multitudes of home seekers restrained by long lines of soldiers, ordered by electricity and signaled by booming cannon. The news of the Peace of 1795 that opened the fairest garden of America was carried by. tardy messengers on jaded horses to sparsely peopled settlements beyond distant mountains over which roads as yet were scarcely traced. To many on the coast plain, weary of the moaning waves and sterile sands, or tired of struggling with granite fields and lengthy winters, the promise of boundless acres of fertile soil with a genial clime came as a grateful bid to a welcome feast. With some the response was as quick as the power to act, while others just as eager were fain to compose their desire until they could condense their wealth to the limits of a mover's wagon over the rugged marches toward a virgin land of which the tuneful names proclaimed beauty and inspired patriotism. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 203 As the first fruit of the American Revolution, Ohio was founded by a people thor Dughly nurtured in the sentiments and firmly fixed in the fundamental truths of that grandest event in all political history. Their elevation to the proud distinction of being the founders of a mighty state that was to be the mother of many more was not an accident but the natural consequence of their devotion to liberty. Their much marching to and fro in the long conflict had shown that their paternal acres were all too narrow for the rapidly multiplying children of freedom. They knew there was a vast expanse beyond the mountains. They listened to the stories of the marvelous richness of the soil. They knew the way was long. They knew the service was hard. They felt' the reward was sure. They gathered their substance and started forth, not as exiles but as heroes to possess as much of the earth as their strength could compass. They greeted the mountains with hymns of lofty cheer. They gained the heights with gladness. 'They looked not back, but always forward, as they sought the secret trails c f scanty barbarism and changed them to the open paths of peace and plenty. Yet, all this was not quickly and easily done. The nation knew not where to find its revenue. The States were still staggering with .the debts that were the price of their liberty. The people however proud of their victory were poor in purse—very poor, as measured by present standards. The populace long restricted to agriculture had not the steel to edge its tools. The great porch at Mount Vernon was paved with brick made in England and brought in ships that had gone there laden with tobacco. It is difficult to fathom the American depression caused by British, repression which many, inured by long custom, were slow to resent, even after independence was a nominal fact but not an actual commercial condition. From what has been stated, and the most patient research has not found others, an impartial judgment, without intent to provoke or attempt to decide controversy, must conclude that the honor of the first settlement is one that can be assigned to neither localities nor individuals. James Kain, at Williamsburg; Thomas Paxton, near Loveland; Isaac Ferguson, below New Richmond; William Buchanan with the 204 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Wood and Manning families, back of Moscow ; Joseph Clark, in Lewis township ; and Belteshazar Dragoo, on Eagle Creek were _he pioneers whose claims seem equally credible in their respective spheres. Each and all of these, at widely separated points and without conference, seem to have made a simultaneous attack upon a task that would appall their bravest descendants. Nor is it strange that their efforts should have occur -ed at the same time. The chance for which each was waiting came to all alike, and each took his appointed place in the work that had room for many more. But back of them all looms the potent presence of William Lytle, the master spirit of the occasion, whose explorations preceded their possession by four years of excessive hardship and intense devotion to his purpose. The immigration of 1796 was mostly from or by way of Kentucky, where prospective settlers had been restrained by the prohibitory conditions of the war, during which many a story had been told by daring hunters, or by escaping captives, about the marvelous land beyond the river. While the immigration for that year may seem small, it brought much encouragement to those already on the ground, with whom there was some previous acquaintance or quick fellowship. Among the second year settlers, the name of Adam Bricker should come first because of his previous presence with the surveyors and because of his long and patriotic duty on the frontier. He was born in 1762 under the protection of Fort Redstone. In 1780 while he and a brother were absent from their home then on the outskirts of the settlement, all the rest of the family, both parents and children were butchered by the Indians. In 1784 he joined the regulars at Red Stone and served his company as a hunter. In 1785 his company was ordered to Pittsburgh, and later to the forts at Marietta, Cincinnati and Louisville. In 1790 he re-enlisted and served through the rest of the Indian War. Upon his discharge in 1795, he came to Columbia and took service with Lytle as a hunter for the surveying party at and around the camp and by the Big Field. He lived alone in his cabin by the mill until his marriage in 1805 to Rebecca Hartman with whom ten children were born. After their posterity had scattered, word came back that a large connection with the same name CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 205 had been found in Northern Illinois and about the Western Lakes, whose striking resemblance to the Ohio Brickers gave much significance to their tradition of an ancestor who had been an Indian prisoner. That captive most likely was a survivor of the massacre of the Brickers at an age when little was remembered but the name he brought back to civilization. Events disposed so strangely different from all ordinary experience suggest curious reflection upon the spite of fortune. Adam Snider, probably much longer in Lytle's previous employ, has been mentioned as the mild mannered slayer of an intrusive Indian. He lived a single life and was much liked. Ramoth Bunton as he was called, though the name was printed Bunting in the official lists of the Revolution in which he was a soldier, brought wife, a son, James, and Hettie, a sister of Polly hereinbefore mentioned. The name has disappeared. Hettie married and went farther west. But Joseph Kidd, a son of Polly, had twenty-one children. The family of James Kain, then forty-six years old, included his aged father also named James, his mother, his wife, Katherine, his three sons, Daniel, John and Thomas, and three daughters, Mary or Polly, Elizabeth and Sarah. James Kain had done some service in Revolutionary days with the militia of Lancaster, his Pennsylvania home. His sons, Daniel and John, were with Wayne's Army, from which it may be guessed that James, Daniel and John Kain, Bricker, Bunton and Snider had many stories to trade when they happened' to gather round the cabin fires of those first winter days in the wild woods nearly twenty miles away from Paxton's or the sorrowful people at Covalt's. Paxton's stockade from first to last sheltered a people of whom all of the first to come are not clearly mentioned. At the time of the settlement, Colonel Paxton was about sixty years old and had been twice married. Some of the first children were married and remained in Kentucky. Of these some came to their father later on. Some of the second children were well grown and the youngest of all was born in 1799. What the large and influential Paxton connection has failed to preserve or explain can not be supplied by others. Of the twelve children, ten seem to have come to Ohio, but not all to Clermont, and not all at the same time. 206 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES The people for whom Manning's Station was a refuge were : William and Jane Abrams Buchanan with four children ; John Wood and wife with five sons and two daughters ; David Wood and wife with seven sons and four daughters ; Jeriah Wood and wife with one son and two daughters ; John, Elisha and Nathan Manning, whose wives were sisters of the Wood brothers and who each had children—in all seven couples, some of whose children were born in Kentucky and more in Ohio, but how many of either cannot be learned. In building their Ohio home Isaac and Elizabeth Leedom Ferguson had the help of ten children, Isaiah, Zachariah, Hugh, Isaac, Francis, James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Nancy and Ruth, who were true pioneers that gave a multitude of descendants to prove the worth of their name, and to increase respect for the founders of our local institutions. The family of Joseph Clark has been, and that of Dragoo will be, mentioned. Absalom, a son of Jeremiah and Sarah Dod Day, married Elizabeth, a daughter of George Earhart, at Columbia, which he left at the age of twenty-three and came to Williamsburg in 1796 to claim one of the ten lots donated to the first settlers. Their oldest child, Mary, was born January 28, 1797. At this writing, that is the first birth yet noted in Williamsburg and in Old Clermont. Their second child, Sarah, was born on December 1, 1798, in the Williamsburg home, but their third child, Elizabeth, was born September 25, 1800, on the Day farm by De La Palma in Sterling township. They also had four sons and four more daughters whose progeny forms one of the extensive relationships that interlink the counties of Brown and Clermont. It is pleasant to note that Jeremiah Day came to pass old age with his son, Abraham, and to enjoy a pension granted for service in the Revolution. About the same time with the Days, Widow Mac Kaslin came and gained a home by building a cabin on In Lot No. 51, which is still a choice part of the town. A lot each was given to Polly Kain and Polly Bunton because they were the first women to come to the town. The other two gift lots were taken, but by whom is not known. For on December 15, 1796, the earliest sale known in Williamsburg is attested by a well kept title bond to Ephraim McAdams for In Lot No. 121, and Out Lit No. 79, for which the consideration was twenty-eight CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 207 dollars. This means that the town contained not less than ten houses by the close of 1796, and probably more, for McAdams would hardly have paid scarce money when a lot, could have been had for the asking. The pioneers of the river side remembered that a Revolutionary soldier named David Colclazer had a cabin which some said was built in 1795, and others in 1796, at the mouth of Indian Creek. From their account, he was a mighty hunter after the order of many soldiers who took to trapping. When game grew scarce, he took the course of Logston, and he was killed fighting Indians in the Southwest. His cabin was probably a mere but to shelter himself and furs. Associated with him as a fellow soldier was Larry Byrns, whose service in the War of '76, was recognized by a pension granted September 6, 1819. Tne children of Byrns intermarried with the Buchanans and Nevilles. Edward Salt, an Englishman by birth, has the credit for making the first permanent settlement in the Franklin township of Clermont, to which he came through Kentucky from Virgina with wife, two sons, Henry and John, and three daughters, for. whom he built a cabin in 1796, and started a ferry at the mouth of Bullskin. Thomas Fee, Jr., came to the same vicinity in the same year, but two years later made a permanent home in Washington township. At short intervals, to adjacent points, he was followed by the remainder of the family of Thomas Fee, Sr., who, with eight sons and two daughters, became the founder of this notable Clermont family which has multiplied exceedingly and spread to many parts of the Union. Rodham Morin came into Ohio Township in 1796 and settled below New Richmond near Isaac Ferguson, where he was followed in 1797 by his father, Edward Morin, another soldier of the Revolution, whose numerous descendants have so intermarried with other Revolutionary families that the posterity of the old families form not a chapter but a brigade of the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. James John, another patriot soldier, came next below the Fergusons and made a home at the mouth of Nine Mile for seven children, now mainly represented in the southern townships. Francis McCormick of the Revolutionary service was the 208 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES first to improve the Clermont side of Milford. While his large posterity must mostly be sought elsewhere, his early home has immeasurable fame, for in his cabin was organized the first Methodist Episcopal class and church of all the world that is north and west of the Ohio. The next to make a clearing about Milford was George Conrad, who also raised a cabin to which his wife and four children came the next spring. Their home was about one mile northeast of where Major Riggs was killed as told on a previous page. In the summer of 1796 the Paxton people gained a large accession of what they thought near neighbors, three or four miles away at what has since been famous as Camp Dennison, but was once called Germany, because of the origin of the immigrants, a colony of Germans, who in some degree had repeated a peculiar phase of England's religious experience. For, as those who protested against the formalism of the Established Church of England and insisted upon a personal consecration to a purer life were stigmatized Puritans, so also did it come to pass a hundred years later that a portion of the Lutherans began to notice and then to regret that a mere adoption of creed was superseding deep religious feeling and reverential living, and that dogmatic formulas were usurping the place that belongs only to the Bible ; and, so thinking, they began to insist on the Bible as the basis of theology, to profess a change of heart, and to practice a consequent holiness of life more consistent with their lofty ideals of true piety. For this they were nicknamed Pietists, who became so very unpopular that, like many more of the best in America, they were driven from Europe with goads and whips. After much buffeting, both by sea and land, which included heroic service in the Revolution, a company of these Pietists or German Puritans, determined to test the promised freedom of the Northwest, and, despite their sour belief, proved they were not insensible to the charms of beauty by choosing "Big Bottom," after "Round Bottom," the finest prospect on the most lovely Miami. Here, their leader, Christian Waldschmidt, came in 1796, and with him then, or within a year or two, came Ludwig Freiberger, Jacob Moyer, Jacob Stroup, Johannes Kugler, George Harner, Andreas Freis, Wilhelm Landen, Joseph Bohne, Jacob Lefeber, Hans Leckie, CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 209 Christian Ogg, Friedrick Bichanboch, Kasper Spaeth, Samuel Ruelhi, Hans Rodecker, Valentine Weigans, Hans Maddern, Daniel Prisch, Samuel Backenheim, Andreas Orth and Johannes Mantag. In the following year Waldschmidt's Mill was built. Though across the Miami and in Hamilton County, the influence on western Clermont was so quick and lasting, that it became a large part thereof. If the curious reader should decipher and trace those German names, he will find that most of them have figured largely in the history of Clermont including present days, and always with credit. While most other early names are of British origin, it is pleasant to recall the strong features. the odd speech and the quaint manners of even the first sons and daughters of those worthy exiles for conscience sake, whose descendants have been so thoroughly Americanized that most of them will scarcely recognize the antique names of their ancestors. On the same boat down the Ohio with Waldschmidt, but not as one of the colony, came William Fitzwater, who, at a later date, left a large family in Miami township. Among the many floating down the Ohio in 1796 and mostly going to Kentucky as the safer side were the five brothers, Samuel, James, HeHezekiahJeremiah and Nathan Ellis, from Virginia. Nathan chose to stop within the present limits of Huntington township, where he was the first permanent settler, established a ferry, lived an active, useful life, and twenty years later laid out part of his land for the town of Aberdeen. He was preceded in the township by Ellis Palmer, a hunter, who after clearing lands for others went farther east in Adams County. Jeremiah and Fl ezekiah Ellis settled on Eagle Creek. James and Samuel took the boat on to the fine lands where Higginsport was afterward founded. On these lands bargained for with Colonel Higgins, the original owner, before leaving Virginia, Samuel Ellis laid the plans for an ample fortune which he lived to possess into his ninety-third year. His old age was lightened still more by a pension for Revolutionary service. Because of the early occupation of Maysville as the eastern port to the Kentucky settlements and still more, perhaps, owing to the proximity of Fort Kenton, the stronghold of the almost fabulous Simon Kenton, the Ohio side for miles 210 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES above and below is veiled with a glamour in which mighty hunters come and go in ways that can not be effaced from the old traditions which may have been based on facts rather than imagination. For, the danger gave richer zest to the fascination that lured the venturesome' to chase the forbidden game of Ohio. But the huts for such transient purpose, though claimed by the bravest scouts, do not class with a settler's cabin. William and Anna Dunlap Kinkead with her brother, William Dunlap, built a cabin near. Ripley and then concluded to go to a tract near Chillicothe owned by the father of the Dunlaps. On reaching that tract they distrusted the Indians still lingering there. Their fear was sharpened by the fact that Kinkead's mother had been captured from her husband and three babes, of which one was butchered in her sight, and taken to that same Chillicothe thirty-two years before. During that captivity, the mother's fourth child was born. But, before the year was gone, Bouquet's dramatic expedition to Coshocton in 1764 forced the Shawnees to surrender their captives, and Mrs. Kinkead was restored to her family. Reflecting upon all the horror of the place in that time, young Kinkead stopped not to unpack his goods but straightway returned to the deserted cabin by Eagle Creek, where Anna gave him nine children, of whom seven lived long. After a year with his sister and brother-in-law, William Dunlap married Polly Shepard, whose parents had just come from Virginia to White Oak with several grown children. William and Polly Dunlap started a clearing near the Kinkeads and built a cabin where eight children came and grew to much credit. James and Sarah Jacobs Edwards came from Virginia with three sons and three daughters, of whom some were married. Jane, the wife of William Rains, had a son, John, born October 3o, .1796; and the Edwards family came, when the grandson was six weeks old, to the survey of a thousand acres just below Aberdeen. For that tract Edwards paid one thousand dollars or half what was paid for land about Tobasco a year before, which shows that the prospects of Cincinnati influenced the market. The last name that can be gathered with certainty from all that is remembered of 1796 is that of Colonel Mills Stephenson, who came from Delaware to Pennsylvania and then to Kentucky whence he came to open a farm near CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 211 Ripley. In 1791 Frank Kilpatrick came from Ireland and started down the Ohio with his motherless daughters, Isabel and Jane, aged ten and twelve years. After vain attempts to decoy them to the Ohio shore, the Indians fired at long range and, by chance, shot the father through the heart. The children floated on with their dead father to Maysville where they received much kind care from Richard Applegate, with whom they lived until Isabel married James, and Jane, his brother, Mills Stephenson. Beside the pathetic story of his wife, the personal action of Mills Stephenson graces a pleasing page in the history of Old Clermont. It is not claimed that the families named as actual settlers-include all who came before 1797, for it is quite probable that there were more whose memory has been neglected by descendants who may impute their own omissions to the carelessness of the writer. Such people have little understanding of the anxiety for a full record, which is modified by a haunting fear that something not sufficiently authentic may be admitted. However satisfactory the subsequent performance of the first to come, their number is disappointing to those who have been accustomed to proud declamation about the rapid growth of Ohio. The roll of authentic immigrants during the third year is short. Whether that fact is a lack of record or a lack of immigrants or both is uncertain. The hunters, scouts and in-some sense professional Indian fighters to and fro between Kenton's and Massie's Stations and about Maysville were well at home in the primeval forests now represented by the homes between Higginsport and Aberdeen. Some had acted as scouts and guides for the various hostile excursions from Kentucky. Some had been in the surveying parties and knew the country better than the settlers. But they mostly followed Massie to the Scioto country. An exception was some of the Beaseley family, but the year of their settlement, while early, is uncertain. Whether first or somewhat later, they did not come as far strangers. Kentucky was still a vastly unoccupied land where the people regarded Ohio as a chance for speculation rather than a place for a home. Those able to own Ohio lands were living in Central Kentucky. The machinery for handling real estate north of the river was not ready ; and the re- 212 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES sponse to the call to come west had not begun. Jeptha B ease-ley having married Sarah Fisher came in or ahout 1797 to clear up the vicinity of Ripley. Thomas Cormick came in the same year and gave his name to Cormick Run where he was joined by James and William Long. In that fall Amos Ellis and Thomas McConnell from Pennsylvania after a year or two in Kentucky opened a clearing on Cormick Run and built cabins to which they came the next spring. Ellis had married Mary McConnell, a sister of Thomas, and lived to be one of the foremost citizens of the old County of Clermont and of the young County of Brown. Having purchased of Lytle and Taylor in 1795, Ezekiel Dimmitt from Virginia by way of Kentucky came across in 1796 with James Gest, built a cabin and began a clearing. On November 3, 1797, Dimmitt married Phebe Gest in Kentucky, and with her and her brothers, John and James, came at once to Batavia, not yet to be for twenty years to come, and made their home a center of social and religious importance. Sixteen miles to the northwest, but much nearer Paxtons, Samuel Robinson purchased and began to improve the fine tract now partly occupied by Miamiville. Chapman Archer planted his family to grow strong and influential in Pierce township some four miles southwest of Dimmitts. The Nash family came to Little Indian Creek. Theophilus, William and John Simonton made a start by the mouth of the O'Bannon. Jacob Light had much strange, exciting experience including service in the Revolution. In 1786 he went with wife and child to Detroit, but, after four unsatisfactory years, they returned along the Big Trail to Wheeling. A year later, he boated with his brothers, Daniel and Peter to Columbia. In July, 1792, he was one of five in a boat that was attacked by Indians. Of the five, one was killed, one captured, and himself severely wounded. The one captured was the boy, Oliver M. Spencer, whose after life was notable, and whose Narrative of his Captivity is an excellent book of adventure. Five years later, after much wandering, Jacob Light built the first house on the site of New' Richmond. Daniel Light settled near New Richmond, and Peter Light settled nearly midway between Williamsburg and Bethel. Jacob was the founder of New Richmond and after the favor of fortune, he brought his father, CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 213 also a soldier of the Revolution, to share his plentiful home that had become a landmark on the early Ohio. Under Taylor's management, the land between Nine Mile and the Little Miami, now known as Anderson township of Hamilton County was being settled, and Newtown was becoming a trading point. Farther up the Miami, Waldschmidt gave employment and then his daughter 'xi Matthias Kugler than whom few brought more nervous vigor for the development of Western Clermont. On the riverside from Nathan Ellis at Aberdeen, by his brothers and others at Ripley and Higginsport, by Salt at Bullskin, by Ferguson, Light, Morin and others above and below Twelve Mile, by John at Nine Mile, by McCormick and Conrad near Broad Ripple, by Robinson near Indian Ripple, to Simonton at the Mouth of the O'Bannon and then over the hill to Paxton's, a traveler, watchful for signs of life on Christmas, 1797, might have seen the smoke from certainly not more than forty cal: ins—perhaps less. All the interior, not counting from the banks of the bounding waters but including the fires of Williamsburg, might have been as many as forty more. One can not be certain about how many may have come and gone and left no sign. But far back in the woods at a future cross roads, where some not over plentiful springs give their waters to the clayey banks of a nameless runlet, Providence prepared the plans and gathered leading actors for one of the most momentous conflicts in the refinement of mankind. Obed Denham, a Virginian by birth and a Kentuckian by migration, through personal experience had become an unrelenting opponent of human slavery. Rejoicing at the promise of an escape from the immediate presence of the peculiar institution, he made deliberate .arrangements for his dependents and crossed the Ohio with ample means to found a rustic home in the land of free speech and free conscience. Guided by an impulse higher than reason, he purchased fifteen hundred acres of the huge Breckenridge Survey in the unbroken forest of Tate township, where he proceeded on a well considered plan to found a congenial society for people of his opinion. With him came his wife, Mary, and their children : Timothy, John, James, Obed, Jr., Charity and Sarah ; also his brother, 214 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES the Rev. John Denham, an aged man, with a son, James, and a daughter, Rebecca ; also Jeremiah Beck and his children, Jeremiah, Samuel, Levi, Stephen, Hannah, Ruth and Sarah ; also Kell; Burke, a son-in-law of the leader. They all professed the Baptist faith. Within a year, as soon as the building and clearing permitted, Denham platted a town which he called Plainfield, but which others called Denhamstown, but which all, at a later date called Bethel. In this town, among other things, he gave "Two lots for the use of the Regular Baptist Church, who do not hold slaves or commune at the Lord's table with those that do practice such tyranny over their fellow creatures, for to build a home for the worship of Almighty God and to bury the dead." This was the first legally organized practical emancipation society west of the Alleghani es, and about it we will find marvelous memories. With the advantage of a wealth not possessed by Massie or Lytle General James Taylor, Sr., of Newport, Kentucky, became the holder of many large tracts in the Virginia Military District. Much of this land was surveyed for Taylor by Lytle, who became the older man's agent, attorney in fact, adviser and intimate friend. This association included Massie, and the three men became the chief, earnest and deeply interested promoters of the settlement of the Virginia Military Lands. Taylor having the money and Lytle the energy, they resolved to attract attention eastward from the Miami and northward from the Ohio by building a grain and saw mill at Lytlestown on the East Fork, which would anticipate the first vital needs of a desired class of settlers. The platting of the town suspended because of a blizzard, November 26, 1796, was resumed with spring weather and, on April 13, 1797, that work was finished. From the attention given to the descriptions of the various primitive methods of reducing grain to breadstuff, we might conclude there was a long era of a mortar and pestle, developed into a scooped out stump, with an overhead pounder swung from a springy limb or bent-over sappling, where the scanty grains were smashed by the women, whose leading thought was to fix for another meal. Such a time, if any there was for any in Old Clermont, was of short duration, especially at Williamsburg. The mill at Covalt's Station early in 1789 CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 215 was the first in the Cincinnati region to be driven by water power. In 1790, Wicker sham's floating mill began to run and so continued for years at the first ripple of the Little Miami. A hand mill was a well known implement a hundred years and much more ago. Something like a huge iron coffee mill to be fastened to an upright post and operated with a crank for two men is still to be seen among the Moravian relics at Gnadenhutten. The work was easier when the grain was parched, and the meal from freshly parched corn was and is delicious. The Ferguson family had a hand mill of which the two stones were brought over the Alleghanies on a pack horse. Such a mill was run by pushing or revolving the stone with levers that travelled in a circle. When larger and run by a sweep they were called horse mills. Yet, these could be used with enough man-power. Two stones for a horse mill for grinding grain were brought by James Kain from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Fort Red Stone, and then to Columbia and finally to Williamsburg, where they ceased to travel but not to grind. After ten or twelve years Captain Stephen Smith came and married James Kain's daughter, Sarah ; and, among other things done about his plow and wagon shop before his service in the "War of '12," he set up a horse mill on Lot No. 122. While not positively affirming that Smith refitted Kain's mill, tradition leads to that conclusion ; and the two mill stones used by Captain Smith in his long ago grinding are now in the possession of his nephew, Enoch West Smith, a veteran of the Union Army. With this evidence we must believe that very little if any of the early life of Williamsburg subsisted on pounded grain. Despite the stories of long trips to the Miami Mills, Lytle and Taylor made 1797 memorable by building the first mill west of Chillicothe and east of the Li tle Miami. According to Lytle's papers still preserved, the work was begun in March, 1797, by Robert Winslow, John Campbell, James Sterling and Henry Dunham. 1n September, John Jackson's name appeared on the account to which David Snell and William Morris were added in December. Trees were to be cut for logs that must be flattened for a- dam and squared for framing. The channel of the river m. as leveled across and graded back with an under dip up stream for long timbers laid side by side 216 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES and riprapped with huge blocks of stone covered with gravel and earth, that became thicker as the wall of logs below rose higher and higher for a fall of water, that went directly to the wheels without passing through a race, or at most, a very short one. The site was on the west bank, and south of the foot of Mill street, the most northerly and shortest street on the ancient plats of Williamsburg. In considering the amount of provisions required by the people and their cattle in that undertaking, reason is found for admiring the foresight that began with the clearing and planting of the Big Field. For the transportation of the needed grain at that time would have added much to the cost of the mill. Notwithstanding the gravity of the enterprise, neither of the owners could afford the time for personal supervision. Among the artisans of pioneer days none exceeded the importance of the millwright. The guiding master chosen for that and much subsequent mill building in Brown and Clermont was Peter Wilson, who came from much similar experience in Kentucky. The personal representative in charge of General Taylor's interests was William Perry from Kentucky, who remained in Williamsburg and became the first Sheriff of Old Clermont. He was looked upon as an enterprising man. Afterward, the first house in Madisonville, raised in 1809, and made of logs, was occupied by him as an inn, where, amid much attention to patrons, he seldom kept a long time very sober. Among the assistants much employed by Lytle was John Donnells, a young Irish surveyor, who was one of the company at the camp. He also helped to lay off the town in 1796, and, for work on the mill, he was paid £37 19s 6d, of the old-fashioned currency in which the accounts were kept. William Perry was paid £199 10s 4d, and James Kain was paid £ 20 5s 4d, for boarding. That was only in part. Between July and October Taylor advanced £258 13s 10d. The total expenditure for the enterprise was $2,804.92, in Federal currency. In spite of the cash supplied, the work was slow. Every one in business with the government then had cause to complain of the law's delay—especially, when anything was coming to the individual. Because of various needs in general and vexing trouble in "getting their patents down," Lytle re- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 217 turned to the East in the summer of 1797, with the sympathy of Massie and Taylor. To him at Phi ladelphia, Taylor wrote on August 28, 1797, "We shall very soon be ready for the millwright to go framing." Yet the frame of the grist mill did not go up till the following April. On May r, 1798, John Harris rendered a bill of $6o for a pair of millstones. The same bill quotes 200 pounds of saw mill irons at 18 pence per pound. In another bill, burr iron is charged at 14 pence per pound, and nails at 30. Peter Wilson was paid a total of £225, partly in cash and partly in land. No statement has been found when the grinding began, tut on January 23, 1799, Perry wrote: "It is the completest mill in this country—but people say Earhart don't know how to tend mill." If this was John Earhart, the mine was soon restored to popular favor, for he was known as a plow maker with no superior. On February 9, 1799, 0. F. eatie wrote : "The saw mill is generally going, the grist mill is in tolerable order." On March 8, 1799, William Campbell engaged to manage the mills for one year "for two hundred acres of land within ten miles of Williamsburg" which came to pass. Out of all accounts that have come to hand, the first birth noted between Eagle Creek and the O' Bannon is that of Mary Day on January 28, 1797. The next in Williamsburg is that of her sister, Sarah Day, on December 1, 1798. In the letter of January 23, 1799, Perry briefly reported : A child born to Dan Kain, to John Kain, to Ed Mitzer, to Captain John Armstrong and to myself. With seven babies added to the list, the little settlement was making fine progress. This same letter from Perry also contained some news that gives an idea of the political gossip of the day that may have made Lytle smile with surprise or grit his teeth with defiance. "I have been told the county is to be laid off this spring. The county town will be below the mouth of Bullsksin. That seems impossible. Col Massie has settled some men on Big Indian and says the town will be there. Many say this place should be it. They say three men are to be elected and lay the county and fix the seat of justice, the Miami to be one line and Eagle Creek another, until the forks, and then run due north till it meets the Miami." By the "Miami" Perry doubtless meant the East Fork at or near Lynchburg. With this understand- 218 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES ing the proposed boundaries, although nearly two years ahead of the action taken, were almost prophetic and show that the county was well studied before the people came, for whom it was to be formed. This letter has the special interest of giving the first known intimation of "the county" in question, and the sentence, "Many think that this place should be it," is a revellation of Lytle's purpose, from the first, to make it so. But that purpose was not ready for performance. In his report to the Cabinet in 1795, Governor St. Clair briefly stated a most important and vivid fact : "There is not a road in the country." In his letter to Lytle already mentioned under date of August 28, 1797, written from his mansion "Belle Vue," now an important Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati, General Taylor says : "I have got the road established to Williamsburg, and from thence to Chillicothe on the Scioto. Have got $150 subscribed for the immediate cutting it out, a good bridle path from the town to Chillicothe. Captain Armstrong has been very friendly in this business. I attended court myself and had this matter fixed. Donnells started on the 25th inst., accompanied by Robert McKinney, one of the Cotterals and one of the Bookovers. They expect to be gone about three weeks. Ludlow has returned from running the boundary between the United States and the Indians, and intends very shortly to set out to survey the military lands on the Scioto, and he and a number of gentlemen from Cincinnati will travel our road." The directness with which this man of many affairs stated his achievement to his partner indicates that he was telling of something that had been a subject of mutual planning. "Our road" to Chillicothe was in two sections. The first section was from Cincinnati by roads laid out at various times and over short distances eastward :- From Fort Miami along Turkey Bottom to Wickersham's mill on the Little Miami, in 1790- From Wickersham's mill three miles from the mouth of the Little Miami to Mercersburg (Newtown) in 1792— From the "Garrison" at Mercersburg (Newtown) to Dry Run and thence by Broadwell's clearing to the Little Miami in 1793. From Newtown in 1797, John Donnells, as directed by Gen- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 219 eral Taylor and assisted by Daniel Kt.in and Robert McKinney, laid a trace to Williamsburg, as related by Taylor, which was finally adopted by the next Court of Quarter Sessions, November 24, 1797. Robert McKinney's name had been familiar at Covalt's Station. The work was under the authority of Hamilton County, and the continuation to Chillicothe is proved by a letter from Donnells to John Lytle, who was taking care of the Kentucky side of their affairs during William Lytle's trip to the East. The lively quaintness of the brief gossip preserved is a sufficient reason for its publication, but the letter, written without thought of publication, supplies a missing link in the story of a great historic highway and also answers several otherwise obscure qt estions. The copy is exact : "Williamsburg, October 4, 1797. "Respected Sir :—I received your letter by Mr. Townsley, by whom I reply. I tried my best to accommodate him. I have no doubt but he will be satisfied in land of your brothers, but I rather expect the land alluded to in your letter to me will not suit him. Be assured I did my duty. I am badly circumstanced at present. I was married ,last Thursday to Betsy Paxton on O'Bannon's Creek, and have only been home about three weeks from running a road from Williamsburg to Chillycothia on Sciota. The distance between the two towns is 6o72 miles. "Dear Sir :—It is at law with me how to manage concerning where to begin housekeeping. My father-in-law insists on my settling near him, but this perhaps woutd not be doing justice to Mr. William Lytle—my best friend. I would rather than twenty pounds I could see him before I fix a place of living. Notwithstanding, I am fully determined to aid and assist him in all his business till he returns. The mill work is going on very well but it will be a dreadful expense—I suppose not less than 1,200 pounds, this currency. This is only a supposition of my own. The town is growing rapidly and everything seems to be in its favor. Scarcely a night since I cut the road to Sciota, but 10 or 12 travelers lodge here. I conclude by remaining your Sincere friend, "JOHN DONNELLS." 220 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES The marriage of Betsy Paxton to John Donnells on Thursday, September 28, 1797, is the first wedding on the Clermont side of the Little Miami. The first marriage in the Scioto Valley occurred on April 17, 1798, over six months later. A date is fixed for the first visit of Mr. Townsley, whose family had long duration about Batavia. No stronger proof of devotion to Lytle need be asked than is stated in this evidently sincere letter. Ludlow and his surveyors travelled on "our road" to Chillicothe and began on the Military Lands before the arrival from the East of the party that cut Zane's Trace. That celebrated road had been greatly desired by Taylor and Lytle, and their success in reaching Chillicothe first was a signal instance of eastern enterprise surpassed by western energy. Williamsburg could be reached by Donnell's Trace through Newtown ; or by the west side of the Miami to the much safer ford at Broad Ripple by Round Bottom, and up the north side of the East Fork to Stonelick and Backbone, and across the level lands to the town, whence Donnell's second Trace bore north 79 degrees East, through New Market to meet the road from the east. During the Indian War, safety was sought along the road by Crab Orchard, in Kentucky ; but when the danger ceased, convenience required a shorter road through Ohio. The best that could be done with a Congress always doubtful and hesitating about internal improvements was a permission to Colonel Ebenezer Zane to cut a Trace from Wheeling to Maysville by way of Chillicothe ; for which he was to have the privilege of locating warrants that he already owned for three sections of six hundred and forty acres each, at three different points, when he should also have the mixed privilege and duty of maintaining the necessary ferries. From one side, this was very inadequate pay for the undertaking, but, on the other hand, he had the golden chance of founding and controlling the markets of the new country. When they came to lay the road, in 1797, there was but one white man's house on the course between Wheeling and Chillicothe, and none for forty miles east of Williamsburg. Zane's share of the project was the sites of Zanesville and Lancaster, for he gave the third section at East Chillicothe to his helpers in the work. Massie attained his CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 221 desire by fixing Chillicothe on the new road, and Massiesburg opposite Maysville, which, after twenty years was revived as Aberdeen. All to the west was left to make its own chance, and eventually get the most good from the road. Before steamboating superseded staging the travel over that road was animated beyond any comparison within modern experience. A perpetual procession of movers marching to the West made a little market at the cross roads that were soon established, at which every extra bushel or pound of the products for miles on either side found ready sale at stimulating prices. The accounts of Taylor and Lytle's mill for 1799 show that corn was 75 cents, rye $1.00 and wheat $1.25 per bushel ; that sawing was done at 5o cents per hundred, and that good lumber was sold at $10.00 per thousand feet. A novel feature was the mounted people, who each generally led a horse and usually travelled in companies for mutual protection. The carriages were so few as to be curious. All visiting was done by horseback, and, if the length of the absence or the consequence of the individual required a surplus, the extra luggage was carried on an extra horse. The merchant who went East for goods and returned in less than ten weeks was considered over hasty, if not reckless, in making investments. An occasional horseman might have been seer with a fellow rider of the gentle sex clinging sidewise at his back. But all that came later and went long ago. It was a day of rude energy and of uncompromising, personal independence. When Donnell's Trace was laid by the upper ford, James Kain quickly perceived that the travel would be turned away from his cabins too big to move and too good to leave. Whereupon, he gathered leis stalwart sons and graded an angling cut through the steep bank, that stood thirty feet high between his place and tne lower ford twenty rods farther east. By this heroic treatment of the vital question, he forever cut off the fraction from Donnell's measured distance of "6o72 miles to Chillycothia.' That half mile saved brought every coming or going traveller directly to Kain's door and added much to his prosperity. "The Dug-Way" also changed the expected growth of the town from the center at Main and Broadway, where the Public Square cornered and where Justice was to have her seat. Before the opening of the 222 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES country farther from the Ohio permitted the migration to flow farther north, the vans of a countless posterity went westward by that way to the Round Bottom Road or over the Deerfield or Lebanon Road to scatter along the Miamis and make that region for many years the wealthiest per capita district in the United States. After the tide of immigration ebbed and went to swell other vacant currents, the parents of the posterity in Brown County that rejoices in tne convenience of the Norfolk and Western Railroad came or went, as business required or pleasure pointed, through the ford by the "Dug-Way," all heedless of the impulsive decision that had lengthened life by shortening the path that was to wait forty years for a bridge. And yet there was good after that. Any who hesitate to act when a public benefit involves a sacrifice of personal ease may learn a lesson from this long gone, but long continuing incident. Sixty-five years after the resolute Kains saw their way and made it with thanks to none, when the tools were rust and the diggers dust, in the drouthy July of 1863, a famous army and its capturing foe came by in headlong flight and equally swift pursuit. Many, very many Confederate troopers seeing the fine pond below rode down the Dug-Way and laved the thirst of the horses whose solid march of ninety-five miles rested that night on the slopes around. The burning of the bridge the next morning by Morgan's men was a blessing to their foe ; for, each and every one of the nearly ten thousand pursuing horses during the day was obliged to go down the Dug-Way and wade the broad ford and be refreshed with a drink. After that, as was told in letters, little water could be had from the wells and cisterns depleted by the raiders, until Brush Creek in Adams county was crossed quite forty miles ahead. If the shades of the Kains could have looked upon the scenes of earthly effort, as some have taught, the relief to the dumb at that strenuous time alone would have been sufficient reward for the labor that made mercy easy. This may seem slight to the slighting, but some will understand, and for such much should be rendered. Kain had other prospective troubles not so easily prevented. On !tine 7, 1799, Benjamin Wood wrote to Lytle : "There is no truth in the story that the savages are hostile. They are CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 223 all friendly. I would like to have your permission to open a tavern here." In that season alarming rumors of Indian hostilities caused many out settlers for the Miamis to turn back toward the forts. CHAPTER X. COMING OF THE PIONEERS--CONTINUED. Settlement Eastward from the Miami—A Methodist Class Formed at McCormick's—The Immigration of 1798 More Than Doubled the Homes—Another Methodist Class Formed—An Official List of Settlers on Eagle and Straight Creeks—Jacob Ulrey and Captain W. H. Ulrey—Philip Gatch—The First Methodist Church North of the Ohio—Francis McCormick—Daniel Fea gins—Round Bottom—More Roads—Warren Malott—John Metcalf—James Poage —John Boude—Benjamin Gardner—Joseph Dugan—Major Shaylor—Robert Christie—Leonard Raper—John Naylor—Joshua Lambert—The Lost Child. After much reflection through the winter of 1797-8, for he was that kind of a man, Jacob Moyer saw a larger life in the woods where Goshen was to be, than was apparent in Waldschmidt's mill that was contemporary with Taylor and Lytle's enterprise on the Middle East Fork. So he went eight miles eastward on the Upper O'Bannon and started the oldest home in Goshen township, which was also the first clearing between the Big Field at Williamsburg and Deerfield on the Miami, where a cabin or two dated from 1796. As the German accent wore smoother, the younger Moyers first dropped the rounding sound, and then the letter "o" from their name, which is now written, Myers, whose number is many and worthy. Philip Smyzor came out from the river into Miami township, where he left not less than eight sons and four daughters whose progeny may be found in many states. Abraham Miller became a neighbor of the Simontons, where Loveland was to flourish. Andrew Apple settled in what was to be known for many years as Olive Branch, and made a much nearer neighbor for Ezekiel Dimmitt on that side. Joseph Avey and Jacob Teal made the first settlement on the lower East Fork. This was the "Mr. Teal" mentioned by the Rev. James Smith in his journal as having shared his trip in 226 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES October, 1797, when they crossed from Augusta, on "Tuesday, 3rd." That evening they arrived at "Denham's-town," where they found that old man possessing -"both grace and talents with a spirit greatly opposed to slavery." Two weeks after this "Brother McCormick, Brother Howard, Mr. Sewell and myself started for the Scioto," from McCormick's house. Their road was up the East Fork about twelve miles, where they camped out, reaching Williamsburg on Tuesday, the 17th, where they found "eight or nine families." After migrating from the battle ground of Antietam, *here his first child was born in 1762, to North Carolina, and then to Kentucky, John Hill, the elder, finally settled near Loveland in 1798, with several of six sons and two daughters, of whom some were already married. On January 27, 1799, Samuel Hill, not yet twenty years old, was married to Mrs. Francis McCormick's sister, Jane Easton, then not quite sixteen, but an earnest member of McCormick's class, where the courtship began. For, the Hills were zealous Methodists, and made haste to join the class eight miles to the south, where Joseph Hill and his wife Rose, and Philip Hill and his wife Elizabeth, met Ezekiel and Phoebe Dimmitt, with the Gest brothers, who came from ten miles still farther to the southeast. The Hills had the company of John Ramsey and his wife for six miles, and, on the way, they found another faithful brother, William Salter, who lived but two miles from the meeting house which was McCormick's Cabin. The Dimmitts after the second year had the company of Jacob Teal and his wife and of Joseph Avey and his wife, who lived four or five miles out on their path, over which Barbara Malott came a year later, when the Garlands settled out toward the Mitchells, who, for a year before had come in alone from four miles to the northeast. Asel Hitchcock and his wife, Jane, were also members of that class but nothing else is known of them. Jeremiah Hall came with Mr. Johnson and his wife from about Mt. Carmel. Part of John Hints family moved to Warren County, and the older sons came on from Kentucky to Ohio, where John, Jr., Jacob, Thomas and Samuel settled in Stonelick township. There the family has become almost as numerous as the hills that enclose that picturesque stream, and, where-ever found, they keep the faith of their fathers, and remain staunch members of the Methodist Church. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 227 The first cabin in Stonelick township was raised in 1798 by Henry Allison, a brother of Surgeon General Allison, who held his high rank in the armies of Harmar. St. Clair and Wayne. After a year or so, General Allison used the place as a country home until his death on March 22, 1816. Three brothers, Robert, Hughey, and Andrew Dicky, and their brother-in-law, William Hunter, spent the winter of 1798-9 in Williamsburg, after which they made the first settlement in Jackson township of Clermont County. Robert did duty in the Revolution for which he drew a pension. Daniel Kidd also lived a part of the year in Williamsburg before settling in Batavia township. Hugh McLain, a Scotch Irishman, married Mary Allison in Pennsylvania, and came to Columbia early in 1796, and from there to Williamsburg in 1798, to live with his only child, Archibald McLain, Jr., married to Mary, a daughter of William Shaw. The children of Archibald, Jr., intermarried with others in Brown and Clermont until the relationship is puzzling. The complications are obscured by a variation in spelling as shown by the name of the late well known Homer McLean, who followed the spelling of the Clermont branch. The families of Foote and Tweed came in 1798 to the future Ripley, whence several came to Williamsburg to figure as early editors and lawyers who enlarged the local history. In 1798 Jacob Waterfield, then eighteen years old, came with his widowed mother to the neighborhood that was to be known as Felicity, and there founded one of the substantial families of that vicinity. About the same time, Franklin township in Clermont gained three more notable names—Utter, Prather and Sargent. Joseph Utter came west by Braddock's Road to Fort Redstone, where, on October 3, 1791, his noted son, Colonel Douty Utter, was born. [n their family was an orphan child, Adam Reed, who founded a large family. The number is large who are or should be proud to trace their lineage to John G., and Erasmus Prather, who came from Maryland, where James and Philena Pigman Sargent lived, and proved their sense of right by emancipating their slaves, for whom they made all possible provision, and then, with his brothers, James and Elijah, sought a free land in which to rear their children. Those sons and daughters inter- 228 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES married with the Prathers, Fees, Frambes, Parrish and others, who formed a practical emancipation society a dozen miles to the south of Denhamstown. After the occasion demanded,, another ',station was formed farther north at Williamsburg in the movement described as the "Irrepressible Conflict." As soon as the wilderness to the north was broken, these three points running straight through Denhamstown to the polar star became one of the earliest of the main lines of the Underground Railroad. James Sargent was an original Methodist, and, generally speaking, so were the people who came with or gathered about him. While the most desirable tracts had been surveyed with much energy, the owners of the lands were generally distant and disposed to wait for higher prices for what had cost little but the courage to prove their claims. With no, or at least little, agency by or near to forward sales, the settlements on the Brown County side in 1797 and '98 were few. Lewis township received the familes of Charles Baum, Peter Emery and Conrad Metzgar, whose numerous posterity is to be found in both counties and far abroad. When their Pietistic ideas were not antagonized they ceased to be noticeable, and now there is no trace of the ancient austerity. After three years of scattered life that .started from Maryland and stopped awhile at Manchester, and then by the Mouth of Bullskin, George Richardson came with wife and five children. His son Lemuel in 1803 married Nancy, a daughter of the most ancient hunter, Alexander Hamilton. After bearing nine children, Nancy (lied, and Lemuel married Mary Lapole, who had seven children and died. Lemuel then married Elizabeth Shaw, who bore eight children, making twenty-four for one father. After bringing the products of his farm and distillery in Western Pennsylvania for several years to appease the hunger and allay the thirst of Cincinnati, Walter Wall in 1798 descended the Ohio with his family, farming implements, household utensils and domestic animals, to the mouth of Straight Creek in a flat boat, which he broke up and took out into the woods primeval of Pleasant township for a shelter until cabins could be raised and fitted from the boat boards with more than common convenience. A study of such incidents will increase intelligent admiration for the vanguards of our CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 229 refinement. Jacob and Thomas Berry from Pennsylvania made their way about the same time into Pleasant township from the White Oak side. Among those who ventured with Massie to build the Station at Manchester was Benjamin Beaseley. Passing through exploits as thrilling as Highland romance if told with a wizard pen, he came at last to settle for life in Huntington township back of Aberdeen, where he practiced surveying, mostly in Adams County, and gained a handsome estate. There are conflicting accounts of Lewis Shick, whose daughter was the wife of Jacob Berry—one account assigns his coming to 1798 and others five years later. The question like some others depending upon tradition is settled by an official document. A petition presented to Governor St. Clair, January 10, [799, probably includes most of the male inhabitants on the waters of Eagle and Straight Creek, about the close of 1798. The paper presents names of which nothing is known, which is to be expected where restless change was the rule and long residence the exception. Again, some may find a desired hint in the list : Matthew Davidson, Thomas McConnell, Joseph Lacock, Isaac Ellis, William McKinney, William Forbes, George McKinney, Jacob Miller, John Caryon, William Lewis, Fergus McClain, Richard Robison, Henry Rogers, Thomas Ack, Valentine McDaniel, Uriah Springer, Forgy McClure, John Henry, John Redmon, Joseph Jacobs, William Lewcas, John Mefford, William Woodruff, George J. Jennings, Ichabod Tweed, Amos Ellis, James Henry, William Moore, Isaac Prickett, Tom Rogers, William Long, Joseph Moore, Benjamin Evans, Jacob Nagle, Lewis Shick, John Phillips, James Prickett, James Young, Abel Martin, N. McDaniel, Thomas Dougherty, Tom Ash, Samuel Tweed, Jacob Miller, Walter Wall. As yet in all the region between the fringe of cabins along the river and the clapboard roofs of Williamsburg and Bethel, from Dimmitt's by Batavia to Manning's Station on Indian Creek, there was not a tree amiss from Nature's scheme. The first to plunge to the center of this savage seclusion was Jacob Ulrey, who, on March II, 1798, camped near Bantam, on the stream that bears his name and forthwith began what was for some time the most isolated home in the Clermont side. Sixty-two years and more later, the college room-mate and 230 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES friend of the writer was this mighty hunter's gifted grandson, Captain William H. Ulrey, of the Fifth and then of the Second Ohio Cavalry. It is well to take satisfaction in an honorable forefather. It is equally honorable for the ancestor that has such a descendant as Captain Ulrey, who was as true as he was handsome, and as gentle as he was brave. Jacob Ulrey in doing the best that came his chance, lived a useful life that has been well recorded by another hand. But if there were no other merit, his memory deserves mention for founding the family that gave this lovable youth to perish for the Union His service in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry was the battle roll of that regiment until the commission of Captain in the Second Ohio Cavalry was literally handed him in line of battle, under fire, at Hatchie River. Then, from October I, 1862, he was in the van of the ten months' pursuit that captured General John Morgan's command—a campaign that stirs the pride of the North and South alike. Then, after a year under the brilliant Custer in Sheridan's famous victories, it was his lot, in Wilson's wild raid around Richmond to command the battalion that covered the escape of that imperilled army, at Stoney Creek, on June 29, when he fell from the saddle with his right side and arm mangled by a shell, and was captured to die in a prison hospital, July 29, 1864, while not yet twenty-two years old. In searching for chivalry, no one in personal memory so meets the requirements as Captain Ulrey. A dutiful son, a kind brother, a sincere friend, a diligent student, a cheerful companion, he was a Christian without cant, a gentleman without guile, and wise beyond his years. No officer was more loved or better obeyed by his men, and no person was more lamented by those who knew his worth. Adam and Mary Hatton Simmons with four sons and six daughters were a most valuable addition to the settlement about Bullskin. The family were ardent Methodists, with whom the neighbors formed a class, of which Adam was the leader, about a year later than McCormick's at Milford. Samuel Jackson helped to extend the clearings of Washington township, in Clermont. He also did the first tanning in all the region, unless we except the dressing of deer and other skins or furs. That art was generally known and practiced, as such clothing was commonly worn. CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 231 While James Sargent and Adam Simmons with their families and friends were dutiful in their class and domestic devotions in accordance with the discipline of their profession, a man of importance to Methodism and consequence to the public was riding westward with the men of his company, along the new cut traces of Zane and Donnells. The women and children floated down the river with their luggage, and his coming over this new path is the firs) of which there is a record. A devout mind in considering this incident would delight to believe that a gracious Providence IN as directing the preparation of material and spiritual paths, so that both should be united for mortal good and divine design. The name of America first appeared in John Wesley's list of appointments for the year 1770. In 1771. the name appears for the second time in a list of returns to him, reporting three hundred and sixteen members of the new society. i in answer to their cry for a spiritual guide, he sent unto these distant brethren his young and well beloved disciple, Francis Asbury, who at once became the gigantic apostle of the new creed of methodical piety in the New World. The second American upon whom this great, first Bishop laid his consecrating hands and ordaining command was Philip Gatch, who entered upon his Master's work in 1773, when but twenty-two years old. From an earthly view this work was a cruel service, for he angered the people whom he urged to sweeter faith and purer living, so that they fell upon him with savage blows and reviling words, and mockingly clad him with a robe of tar, and beat him upon the face with their paddles, which so injured his eyes that he had to cease from riding abroad, and was obliged to confine his ministrations to such as came to his door asking for the words that would heal their spirit. Among his converts was Elizabeth Smith who owned nine slaves. After their marriage, this conscientious couple freed their slaves, and then freed themselves by seeking a land of free thought and free action. In the fall of 1798, the whole household and their friends to the number of thirty-six souls, came to Wheeling, where the weaker took boats and the stronger took horses. The Rev. James Smith, the patriarch's 232 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES brother-in-law, who had spied the land the year before, coming and going through Kentucky, came with them over the shorter Trace, and, when they reached Williamsburg, he led them to the crest of Backbone Ridge whence they gazed down the valley of the East Fork. Though bereft of virgin verdure, travelled artists are delighted with the scene which a kind fortune has withheld from speculative promoters, until it can be occupied by scientific homes, untrammelled by antiquated inconvenience. Through this valley, "fair as a garden of the Lord," and soon to be a most charming suburb of the Queenly City, they went on toward the end of the Delectable Hills, and tarried some weeks at Newtown, until Gatch could bargain for the fine tract at the fork of the Little Miami, where the Mound Builders had flourished and perished ages before. Amid all that abounding beauty and promise of plenty, Gatch made a generous home near to Francis McCormick. Of his companions in the journey west, Ambrose Ransom settled to the westward ; his son-in-law, James Garland, with his brother, Peregrine Garland, went next to the north, and John Pollock to the southwest which was accomplished in the winter and spring of 1799. In the meantime, Francis McCormick had labored zealously to obtain full ecclesiastical recognition of his little society according to the regulations prescribed by Wesley and practiced by his followers. In pursuance of this sacred purpose, he made several trips to Kentucky, where he had spent some months before settling on the Miami in 1796; but owing to the overcrowded work of that immense and scantily supplied circuit, no one of greater authority than his own could be spared to institute his church. It was through McCormick's personal persuasion that the pious young Ezekiel Dimmitt was induced to come to Batavia and prepare the wilderness for the coming of the Lord. And it was McCormick's zeal that won James Smith to persuade Gatch to leave Virginia. At last there came a time when his prayers were answered by Rev. John Kobler, the presidng elder of all Methodists who lived in Kentucky and Tennessee. The annals of his church tell that, "He was a man of saint-like spirit, dignified and ministerial bearing, untiring labors in preaching, praying, and visiting the sick ; preaching ability CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 233 above mediocrity, tall, slender, with an energy of soul that far surpassed that of his body." His own journal tells that, "I crossed the Ohio at a little village called Columbia, and fell upon my knees upon, the shore and prayed for divine blessing upon my mission." No other prayer of th kind has been more fully granted. "That evening," he continues, "I reached the house of Francis McCormick, ten or twelve miles away on the Miami River. On Thursday, Augus 2, 1798, I preached at his house to a tolerable congregation on Acts XVI, 9: 'And a vision appeared to Paul in the night ; there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us.' It was a time of rejoicing from the presence of the Lord, who gave testimony to the word of His grace. The little band was much rejoiced at my arrival among them, together with the prospect of having circuit preaching and all the privileges and ordinances of our Church." Such is the brief 'but circumstantial account of the institution of the tremendous moral force of Methodism in a vast territory where its votaries are numbered by multiplied millions, and its influence only bounded by eternity. Francis McCormick, "the man of Macedonia," was large of form, mighty of muscle, and strong and weet of voice, so that people heard his song with rapture and left their scorn of Methodism unspoken in his presence. His humble cabin has long since vanished and its location is not certain. But as the importance of marking notable scenes comes to be better understood, it should be a proud occasion for those who love the Methodist faith to gather 'round and raise a memorial inscribed to this effect : HERE STOOD THE CABIN OF FRANCIS McCORMICK, WHERE AND BY WHOM, A. D. 1796, THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH WAS FIRST PLANTED IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST OF AMERICA. McCormick's joy at the coming of Gatch and his companions was unbounded, for he knew that the small, weak eyed man 234 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES was a spiritual giant. The settlement now held three duly licensed preachers, who went proclaiming the Gospel in all directions, not only on the Sabbath, but all other days, often holding two days' meetings, and keeping up quarterly meetings held in different places, but mostly at McCormick's. Settlement, as Milford was then called, to which even women would come walking twenty and thirty miles. Late in 1799 Miami Circuit was constituted, and "Ezekiel Dimmitt's House," sixteen feet square, was made one of the "preaching places." That was six years before the Methodists had a preaching place in Cincinnati. In the mean while, the "Gatch House" was the regular and accepted place for the Bishops, Asbury, Whatcoat and McKendree. Thus early was the moral machinery put in action by McCormick and Gatch, who were yoke-fellows to the end. We will see more of Gatch as a citizen. Ludwig Freiberger was one of the oldest of the Pietists at Waldschmidt's Mill, having one daughter married to Jacob Moyer or Myers already located on the Upper O'Bannon, and another to Jacob Stroup ; but in order that- they should have lands that he could not expect long to enjoy, he started out in 1799 to clear a farm on the site of Goshen. Perhaps, unfamiliar with English writing, he never knew how much his name was changed and abused in the translation that followed the sound and lost the noble meaning of Free-hill-man, and instead became the unmeaning Lewis Frybarger. Jacob Stroup settled two miles away, in the same township, and raised three sons and thirteen daughters who each so far as traced, founded other farms and families. Soon after Daniel Morgan came to the neighborhood and after making a clearing also made leather in the second tanning place noted in Old Clermont not yet known by that name. George Earhart with his wife whose maiden name was Elizabeth Fanchon came from Pennsylvania by way of Columbia, whence they followed Absalom and Sarah Day, their daughter, to a permanent home in Brown County near the line and by the road from Mt. Orab to Williamsburg. Their eldest child. John, was an excellent mechanic in woodwork and built himself a superior house on the spot where the Hon. James E. McKever lives. The other children of George Ear- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 235 hart were George, Jr., Huldah, Tryphenah, Mary, Sanford, Samuel and Peggie, who left connections that were in a large sense the foundation of that part of Brown. By them in both time and place were the homes of John Anderson and Moses Leonard, whose wife, Elizabeth, was a sister of Anderson, who was born in Maryland, February JO, 1773, and so had but a child's hazy memory of the Revolution. But Leonard, born in Pennsylvania, in 1759, was in the battle of Brandywine. A chapter would not suffice to name the numbers and worth of the posterity of these families—the Days, Earharts, Andersons—and Leonards, who broke the solitudes of the interior of Brown County on the western side. Still farther south a family of most useful mechanics grew up in the home of Henry Willis, whose daughters at a later date married to the names of West, Davis, Parke and Bred-well. Aaron and Brazilla Osborn, brothers, came to Bethel in 1799, and so did Brazilla's daughter, Mary, who received a lot from Denham, as the first born in the town. Still farther south, the Sargent neighborhood which might mean a township, now was enlarged by Samuel Walraven, Joshua Pigman and Daniel Judd, whose families still continue. Walraven and Judd intermarried with the Sargents, and Judd, in particular, became a much whispered name in connection with the Underground Railroad. On the west, Adam Simmon's class was increased by a local preacher—the Rev. George Brown—who possessed the usual zeal and piety of the early itinerants. William Slye bereft of a leg in the Revolution, came there at -alit time, but his descendants went still farther. Fine illustration of pioneer ways is found in the story of Daniel Feagins, who held the rank of Captain in the Revolutionary army. He came down the Oh, o in 1786 with several families on an "Ark" that like all others touched at Limestone Point, where Kenton told them of the certain danger at that time of going farther. All but Feagins persisted and perished. After living ten or twelve years on the Kentucky side, he crossed over with his wife Violet and several of their nineteen children and made the first break in the forest a little south of where Georgetown was to be founded a generation later. His elder sons, Daniel and Fielding, who came to Ohio, served in the border war under Kenton. While Fielding and his brother- 236 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES in-law, Absalom Craig, were hunting back of Augusta, Craig was killed in the act of stooping to drink from a spring, while the other escaped by instant flight. Afterwhile, Fielding was asked for food at his Ohio cabin by two Indians. Making sure that on.?, wore the bullet pouch used by Craig when he was killed, Fielding, determined on revenge, followed and shot the wrongful or unlucky possessor of the fatal pouch—wrongful, if the actual despoiler of Craig—unlucky, if not guilty but merely wearing a tell-tale trophy that linked a double trouble. The second Indian fled, as had been done in Kentucky by young Feagins, who buried his victim on the west bank of White Oak about a mile below Georgetown, threw the owner-less rifle into deep water, and kept the deed secret, until the skeleton was exposed in 1832, by the wash of a flood. The incident will be better understood by modern readers with the explanation that, in those days with little ornament, the natural love for some distinct article was often gratified by an inlaid rifle stock, by an engraved powder horn, or by a beaded bullet pouch. Captain Feagins and most of the family drifted onward and elsewhere before a civilization that perplexed him with complex customs. His still-house caused Christian Smith, who settled near him about the same time, to sell out and go to Lewis township. William Lyon, who helped in the early surveys, was close to Feagins and left many to remember him. Jacob Miller came to Lewis township about 1800, but his name appears in the petition of 1798. James Roney came at that time. William Moore, another signer of the petition, settled near Georgetown in 1798, where he raised twelve children, whose children have had much respect. James Moore came about the same time to Jefferson township. Joseph Laycock with his family came from Virginia in time to sign the petition of 1798 Another of his early coming is found in the birth of his son, William, on April 3, 1799, in Union township. Another son, Levi, born in Virginia in 1793, married Mary, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Mann Washburn, who came in 1800 from Pennsylvania to Jefferson township. James and John H enry, who also signed the authentic petition, probably came from Mason County, Kentucky, where the name was frequent. William Cochran, born in Ireland in 1722, after Revolutionary service in Pennsylvania came by Kentucky to the CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 237 eastern edge of Huntington township in 1796, where he was followed eight years later by his son, the noted General John Cochran. William Cochran must be noted among the earliest born of all who are buried within the present limits of Brown County, but his last years belong to the Adams County history. Fergus McClain, named in the petition of 1798, was a refugee from the Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania, who found safety in the obscurity of Eagle Creek at that time. Tradition claims that he was a Free Mason. If so he was the first to live within the limits of Brown and Clermont. The Isaac Ellis in the petition was a brother of Amos Ellis, but his posterity went farther west, and nothing is left but this brief notice. John Mefford came to the same neighborhood, and so did John Redmon, Robinson Lucas, Jriah Springer, James and John Prickett and their' families. The presence of these people in or before 1798 is proved by their names or some of the family on the petition. Most of These soon after went farther back from the Ohio and began the settlement of Franklin township in Brown County, where they were joined by John and James Lindsey, Joseph Abbott, Greer Brown and James Dunn. These names mainly re )resent heads of large and well grown families much united y intermarriage. Matthew Davidson, the first name on the petition, was a stone cutter by trade and built the stone jail in Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, where he ived ten years before settling in Ohio. The family founded by John and Mary Housh Evans came to Huntington township in i800, whence a large and influential connection has gone abroad. Nicholas Devore did Revolutionary service from Pennsylvania and his wife, Sarah Decker, came from a family that did the same. They were among the first that went to Kenton's Station, whence their son, David Devore, came to Red Oak in 1800, where he lived and prospered sixty useful years, esteemed for intelligence and respected for integrity. The first cabin in Levanna was raised in 1799 by John Liggett. About the same time William Park from Ireland and by Pennsylvania came to Lewis township with his wife and eight children. Stephen Bolender came to the same township with his wife and nine children. 238 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Notwithstanding every foot of the land was set apart as a reward for the Revolutionary service of the officers and soldiers of Virginia and, despite the surprising number of patriots that came at dates that meant middle life for all, and old age for many, very little was actually occupied by the patriot to whom the warrant for the land was given. So universally were these warrants transferred that it is claimed that hardly an officer of Virginia's line came to Ohio and took personal possession of his Bounty land. One was Colonel Robert Higgins, whose father was a native of Dublin, Ireland, who was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Virginia from where he went as captain of a company. He was soon promoted a colonel, but was unfortunately captured at Germantown and remained a prisoner till the surrender of Cornwallis. It is told that he came to Ohio, before any settlement, to locate his own warrant, under which he surveyed one thousand acres of the fine valley at Higginsport. In 1798 he came to the opposite side of the river, from which he moved in the spring to his land—his own in a peculiar sense, where his name has had the leading place. The general downward course of the Little Miami through and from Milford is southward until the great division of the river is reached, where the united stream takes the direction of the East Fork and trends west with lofty banks that curve around a river plain that is bounded a mile farther to the west by the bending hills that stretch away toward Cincinnati. On the Clermont side the hills rise quickly from the water's edge and go to Mt. Carmel through a survey of nine hundred seventy-seven acres that has the significant number of 1775, and bears the name of George Washington, to whom it was given by his grateful Virginia in part for his service. The view of the Forks of the Miami from these hills is a scene of surpassing beauty, of which the Clermont side is known as Milford, which had much more significance in early days. The ripple below the mill that gathered a settlement there was the first safe ford out from the Ohio, whose highest flood barely reaches the pond below. We have seen that McCormick and Gatch chose the vicinity for their earthly paradise. We have also noted that the people first impressed with the peculiar characteristic of the west side named it Round Bottom. Ama- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 239 teur speculators unmindful and probably unaware of the rare and early romantic interest have substituted the double name of Terrace Park for what should have been COVALTS. Through this valley and by that station was much of the immigration that came from Cincinnati or that went farther west. In the, wilds of Western Maryland there was a log structure known as Davenport's Meeting House, in which Thomas Scott, afterward Judge Scott of Ohio's Supreme Court, and Edward Tiffin, afterward first State Governor of Ohio, used to preach. In that house, Henry Smith and Francis McCormick preached their first efforts. That meeting house stood on the head waters of a stream called Bullskin. Whether these circumstances had anything to do with a transfer of that peculiar name to a creek in Clermont and to the large Methodist migration to its waters has not been decided, but the coincidence seems more than accidental. The location of the Sargent and Simmons people on the Ohio, and of the McCormick and Gatch congregation on the Miami, both at vitally central approaches to Old Clermont, must have had fine influence for their church. However this may have been, the Bullskin landing was a noted debarking point for Methodist families from the eastern churches, and for many others, who got both spiritual and secular information from the circuit riders who served as colonizers as well as evangelists.Under authority of the Quarterly Court of Hamilton Count) in 1796, a road was laid out from the mouth of the Little Miami, thirty-two miles up the Ohio River by Ichabod Miller assisted by John Whetsone 'and Ignatius Ross. We can be certain of that road having nothing but commercial reasons, which regarded Bullskin as a controlling point for t he settlement of the interior. That road to Bullskin and Donnell's Trace to Williamsburg laid a year later were, at that date, Cincinnati's most ambitious attempts at road making. For the military roads to the northwestern forts were not directed by civil authority. To Bull-skin landing, the most important then on the Ohio side between Manchester and Columbia, there was a trace to other landings and ferries to the east. Th united travel from all climbed the hills toward Felicity which was not, and went to Denhamstown and Williamsburg and farther west. Several 240 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES years passed before this road was legally laid, but for a score of years, it was popular as "the Augusta and Round Bottom Road " only second in importance to the Chillicothe road, of which it was a branch with the forks at Williamsburg. To the north of this there was no road and no need for any for some years. The extension of Zane's Trace from Chillicothe in a southwesterly course to Maysville, passed through the southeastern portion of Huntington township to what was called Massietown, and is Aberdeen. The 'settlements in Brown as yet were not definite enough to attract or direct a fixed way through the woods where each could wander as he thought most convenient. Such was the chance or lack of chance for travel in 1800, when Nathaniel Donham came out to Pierce township to found a proudly permanent connection, after twenty-five years of wandering, from New Jersey to Round Bottom, where he had lived about Covalt's Station for the preceding six years. Hezekiah Lindsey and Rev. William Robb came at the same time to the same vicinity, and helped to form a Baptist society. The Fitzpatricks settled nearby. George Richey was added to the Bulls kin settlement, near to Peter Goslin, and along with the five Miller families. Philip Moyer and two brothers, Thomas and Levi Hunt, settled farther north, near the Bolenders of Lewis township. John Behymer began his farm on the edge of Anderson township, in Hamilton County, but his children soon crossed the line into Clermont. Maurice Witham, a Baptist preacher, was one of the first of a very considerable number who followed him from Maine, and formed the settlement now called Withamsville. His children were grown and s ome married with families, so that the Bennetts, Warrens, Bradburys and Lanes, of or from that neighborhood, revere his memory. Daniel and Joshua Durham and John White all came to that part in 1800 and all are represented to this day by more or less numerous descendants. Timothy Day and James Phillips gave a start to the Mt. Carmel settlement, but most of their interests belonged to Hamilton, of which the large,• part was still wild land. Samuel Davis came to be a neighbor of the Teals and Aveys by taking his chance across from Perintown. Andrew Shetterly was another member of the Pietist church in Pennsylvania that came to Goshen, which CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 241 was farther increased by John Irwin. Ephraim McAdams, mentioned as an early purchaser of lots in Williamsburg, spent much time there before the coining of his family, which subsequently became a large connection. The Crane family came to Bethel, where their descendants are both numerous and influential. The South and Frazee families both date their residence in Bethel from 1800. Jeremiah Smith came then to near Felicity, where he had the first chair shop. For more than a hundred years the name of Roudebush has meant hard sense, fair dealing and honest thrift. The parents of the Clermont branch were Daniel and Christina Snively Rondebush, who came from Maryland and Pennsylvania, through Kentucky, to Goshen township,' whence their descendants have spread over Clermont and intermarried with other families, with an increased influence. It has been claimed that some one or more of the connection have held honorable position in the public service for almost a hundred years. To politicians this may seem the limit, but to one who has confidence in the American people, it seems the height of commendation. Among the hundred families who cam in, or before 1800, were four brothers : William, Dory, John and Peter Malott, of whom the first three were Revolutionary soldiers. William and John settled near Perintown, and the other two northeast of Williamsburg, one being on the Brown County side. Their lot, generally, Was one of hardy toil on the farm or in the woodland. Among the multitude of their descendants were two brothers, William Warren, and. Wellington, and a sister, Josephine, who, by some occult selection, received a remarkable degree of literary instinct, which prompted them to give their short lives to books, and their zeal to composition, which, in Warren, reached such proficiency as would have made him famous if he had lived longer, or lived where fortune smiled on such endeavor. From a log school ho Ilse, by a rude deadening, where crude teachers had scarcely more than read the text they tried to teach, Warren, by no choice of his own, was brought in his seventeenth year into a neighborhood where he was made welcome to the writer's library, which opened a new heaven to his hitherto fettered aspirations and unlettered surroundings. Thenceforth, he was a slave to books, 242 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES and, with incredible speed, became a fellow spirit with the masters of literature. Out of great love for their inspirations, he began to answer his favorite authors with his own thoughts, wreathed into pretty story and graceful song, which found a place in eastern periodicals and caused the editors to ask for more, with a compensation that lured him to deeper study. But the most, and what seemed much to some, that could be done for the shy boy, was to make him editor of a hot political weekly, where he was all out of tune. For people could not see the visions which glorified a life otherwise marred by a long wasting consumption, that closed his life July 15, 1869, before he was twenty-five years old. His tales and poems, collected to a surprising number by his proudly sympathetic brother and sister, are pervaded by a delicate taste, and among them are many fine thoughts and much verse of perfect measure and exquisite beauty. This much, at least, in the story of the land of his trials, is due to the melancholy memory of the gifted boy, whose gentle life, though chilled with penury, was robed with finest fancy, decked with poetic gems, and thrilled with delicate harmonies. William McMahon lived on the lower East Fork in 1800, and near were three brothers, William, James, and George Davison. To the north were another three brothers, John, Jacob and Frederick Long. The last was a Methodist preacher, with such strong, emotional speech, that his sayings are still quoted. After the Allisons, who did not last, the first permanent settlement in Stonelock township was made by John Metcalf, a brother of Governor Metcalf, of Kentucky. While not so noted in that day as the governor, his descendants probably more than leveled the difference. The two-story hewed log house he biult in 1809 is still good, and so is the two-story stone house built in 1819, end to end with the first. Mrs. Metcalf was Susan, a daughter of John Shields, who came from Maryland to Columbia in 1792, and then to Miami township. Elizabeth, a sister of Susan, married John Glancy, and his brother, William Glancy, married Elizabeth, the oldest daughter of John and Susan Metcalf. Mary, the second daughter, married seorge, a son of Francis McCormick. Nancy, the third daughter, married Elnathan Whetstone. Milly, the youngest, CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 243 married Timothy Kirby, a celebrated pioneer surveyor and landholder north and west of Cincinnati. He also owned many thousand acres in Brown and Clermont counties. The daughters of Timothy and Milly Kirby married ; Colonel Donn Piatt of great editorial fame, and General Henry B. Banning, of military and congressional note. Abel Reese was about the first Methodist in the neighborhood of Georgetown, his cabin being an early preaching station for miles around. As he always fed the congregation between sermons, the services were very popular. Modern people. know little how that custom prevailed. It was made necessary by the distance that was traveled to hear the infrequent sermons that, when the preacher did come, were continuous through the day, and sometimes longer, except pauses for refreshment. Men who never bid a stranger to their table may now gain a reputation for liberality through a subscription. In the olden time it was as pious to feed the hungry, as it Was to taste the bread and sip the wine at a communion service. George, John and Daniel Evans, about this date, took up land near the mouth of White Oak, and Colonel James Poage came to the site, where he projected the town of Ripley twelve years later. Another very notable man of that day was Colonel John Boude, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1765. He started to Kentucky in 1793, and finally settled opposite Augusta, where he established a ferry that became noted as the eastern end of the Round Bottom road. It is claimed that he built the first brick house in all that part of the country, in 1817. The first settlement on upper White Oak was made in 1800, in the northern part of Scott township, by Robert Wardlaw, from Virginia, by way of Kentucky, who came with married and well grown children. Of these, William, a soldier in Captain Jacob Boerstler's company, from 01(1 Clermont, was killed at the battle of Brownstown. Benjamin Gardner served New York in the Revolution with a zeal worthy of his ancestors, who left England ninety years before that for conscience sake. He ca me to Brown in 1800; with several children, among whom was Matthew Gardner, who left the Quaker faith of the family and became the lead- 244 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES ing local apostle, founding the Christian church, between the Miami and Scioto. Joseph and Deborah Norman Dugan came to the settlement, now called Higginsport, in 1800, with three children, to whom nine more were added. One of the sons, Jesse, married Christina Heizer, and of their children, Maria was married to Amos F. Elli in 1858. This amiable and accomplished woman was gaining much attention to her writings, mostly poetical. But the promise of a literary career was broken by lingering illness, and shortened by early death. Major Joseph Shaylor was one of the few officers of the Revolution who became a part of the regular army. His service in the Revolution began as an ensign, June 25, 1776, and continued with several promotions until the disbanding of the army, June 3, 1783, thus lacking but a few days of seven years. He entered the new organization of the army with a subsequent service of the most arduous kind on the frontier, until retired by age. While stationed at Fort Washington, like his associate, General Allison, he bought a "plantation," as it was called in his letters, on the East Fork, about the mouth of the run that bears his name. There he passed the remainder of his ,eventful life, and was buried, but where was .a matter for a liberal reward offered by, and obtained from, eastern relatives, not trained to respect the western spirit that scoffed at any claim or even mention of ancestral consequence. The arrogance of family pride may become one of the most contemptible of follies. But a pride in personal affairs, so exaggerated as to slur or ignore ancestral worth, is one of the most despicable of vanities. Such false sentiment or rather brutish indifference, is like tuneless ears that hear the noise of music, but not the soul-thrilling harmonies they cannot appreciate. Such untaught independence, without sympathy for the fine affection that renders honor to the worthy dead, should go its callous course in silence, and with pity. But when such ignorance grows insolent and flaunts for notice, the offense and the offender should be marked with the shaming brands of scorn. An unmarked grave is a possibility for a soldier in war, but it is a painful thought that so many of our brave defenders have fared no better in peace. Year by year their diminish- CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 245 ing bands of comrades meet to strew flowers upon the increasing graves that too often are only known by a faded flag, that should be replaced with marble and bronze. Major Shaylor's case was not exceptional, for then are several hundred graves of the heroic defenders in the cemeteries of Brown and Clermont, going to a nameless fate. And this is in face of the nation's offer to mark every such gray e upon proper proof. The indifference seems equally deplorable in all the counties around. We would that a word conic be spoken to break this apathy before it is too late, for yet another sacred spot. It is possible that John and Jasper Shotwell came to Williamsburg in 1797, and it is certain that t hey were there before 1800 ; for there is proof that Jasper loaned a thousand dollars, which was a remarkable transaction in those days. Benjamin Frazee was in or about Bethel before 183o, and so were James and Josiah Boothby, Joseph Trout, Samuel Brown, James South and Samuel Nelson. Amos Smith was midway on the road to Williamsburg, where Samuel Armstrong tarried a few years, and had sufficient influence to be one of the first commissioners. Alexander Martin was a resident of Pleasant township. John Cotteral was a part of the Paxton settle vent, where lived "one of the Cotterals," who helped Donnells to cut the "Chillycothia Trace." After his marriage to Betsy Paxton, Donnells yielded to his father-in-law's insistence and settled "near him." Jesse Swem, a soldier of '76, was living near the Fergusons, by Twelve Mile, and so was John Fagin, while farther east was John Abraham, William Carothers, and Henry Newkirk. Josephus Waters was still farther east on the Ohio and became prominent in the affairs of Brown County. Houton Clarke, born in England. and soon afterward brought in 1773 to America, came to Bethel in 1798, where he was married in 1806 to Nancy, the oldest of the thirteen children of Rev. Gerrard Riley. The resulting family formed one of the most influential through a hundred years to come in Clermont. About the same time that Houton Clark came to Bethel, Williamsburg became the home of some English-born people, whose position was so peculiar among the many Revolutionary soldiers there or nearby, that they formed a special group. That group included the families of Robert Chris- 246 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES tie, Leonard Reaper, Joshua Lambert and John Naylor, who were treated with much kindness. For they also were soldiers in the American Revolution, but, and it was told with a side look, they wore the red coats of King George instead of the Continental blue. The story of Robert Christie is well worth while, for those who would review the ways of fate that long ago. He was the younger son of a Scottish laird, with a plentiful prospect ; but in a boyish rage he left home and, in his seventeenth year, enlisted in the British army, where he became a sergeant under Cornwallis at Yorktown. After the surrender, he refused to return to England, and thereby, as a technical deserter, sacrificed the estate that fell to him upon the death of his only brother, the childless Laird of Beech Green. He married Frances Burdett, of a good Virginia family, and learned the weaving of old-time coverlets, now highly prized. A pair of these won the admiration of William Lyttle, "tired of his rambling" and thinking of "some one who would keep him at home." At any rate, some lots were given in exchange, that are now included in the countless values of Fountain Square. But, as with the estate in Scotland, Robert could not bide the time. And so he let another fortune go and came out to Williamsburg to live in a cabin on the lot where is now the writer's home. A little later the family lived in another cabin that stood on the slight rise, a good stone throw south from the eastern end of the Main Street bridge. There, on September 3, 1803, was born the youngest of the ten children, William B. Christie, the most eloquent pulpit orator of his generation, who, if we may believe tradition, has not since been excelled in seraphic sweetness of speech. Chilled by want, sorrowing for his father's increasing intemperance, and thrilled with the aspirations of conscious ability, the boy was timid before his rude companions, until their coarse taunts about his poverty aroused his rage, and then his passion brooked no opposition. After awhile it was understood that he was a dangerous subject for sport. But for those who met him fair, he was gentle and obliging. In person, he was tall and slight. His complexion was that striking contrast of pale features and hectic cheeks, lit by dark, brilliant eyes, all framed by glossy black hair, the combination only found among the black-eyed sons of Scotland. He knew his power and was CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES - 247 full of pride that he could use it all for his divine Master: He died at the age of thirty-six, in the dawn of his greatness. Leonard Raper was also surrendered by Cornwallis at Yorktown, after years of service for the crown. Like Christie, he decided to give the rest of his life to the -young Republic. He was born in 1752, and after the Revolution, married Temperance Holly, who was eight years younger. Their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born April 16, 1783, and was married, probably at Columbia, May 4, 1797, to John Kain, then with his father at Williamsburg, where Margaret, the first child of John and Elizabeth, was born December 23, 1798, making the fourth born in the town. Such authentic incidents and dates are a sure base for the investigation of other relations. Raper had the reputation of great ability in mathematics, and was a fine surveyor, whose work was always on the frontier, and ahead of the settlers, first in Virginia and then in Pennsylvania, where his distinguished son, the Rev. William H. Raper, was born September 24, j793, in a palisaded station, whence the family was soon moved to Columbia. Raper's reputation gained the notice of Lytle, Ilk ho persuaded him to Williamsburg to take up the work that, up to 1798, had been done by Donnell's. The family started a farm in what got the name of Concord, where the once-feared "Red Coat" lived most usefully and peacefully, until his death, March 18, 1831, when the farm was taken by his sons, Samuel and Joseph. Holly was a popular sheriff of Clermont. William H. reached great fame as a Methodist preacher, as may be read on many pages of other annals. In the rough weather when surveyors and children could spare three or four months from regular tasks for school work, Leonard Raper acted as the first teacher of whom there is any record between Loveland and Aberdeen. If there were no other merit, ti is should entitle him to remembrance with the first and best. After fighting some time for the King, John Naylor began to see the justice of the American side and decided his course by deserting from the British and casting his lot with the Patriots. When the war of '12 came around, the old man proved his devotion by volunteering in the American army and going against the King. He married a sister of the Rev. John Miller, whose wife was Eliza, a daughter of Major Daniel Kain. Their descendants went elsewhere. 248 - CLERMONT AND BROWN COUNTIES Joshua Lambert was a musician, who fifed for the King's marches all the way from Boston Common to Yorktown, and then became a stout American. He finally settled three miles south of Williamsburg, where, on February 12, 1800, was born his daughter, Deborah, who married John Day, a Revolutionary descendant, at Felicity, from which many can trace to another union of the ancient strife. When he changed flags, Lambert also became a Methodist and a founder on August 29, 1804, of the Clover church. There was another fife major in Williamsburg, when Lambert came, William McKnight by name, and a tailor by trade; but he kept time for the Continentals, as they called themselves, for they felt they were fighting for all America. He left no family and none can tell the place of his cabin. Another tailor was Ebenezer Osborne, who came to Williamsburg before 1800, and lived in one of the cabins grouped about Lot 324, for sake of the big spring around which his children played, all unconscious of the dreadful doom that was to give the eldest a fearful fame, for in all English reading there is no recital of minor life more pitiful than the story of Lydia Osborne the lost child, which began on the evening of July 13, 1804, and became a dread reality the next day—just fifty-nine years before the Morgan raid thrilled the vicinity with another calamity. But that came later. Thought seems to stray from the task of conning long-gone names, and instead seeks to explore the sea of incidents in the crowded prospect. Fragmentary records suggest otner names that could be mentioned before closing the roll of those who came before the new century began. But it is impossible to fix certain dates for their coming. In a large measure mention has been made of tne people present when the questions of civil government required and received close attention. Of course, there were others whose names have not survived the wear of time—some who came, tarried awhile and moved on, to repeat their struggle elsewhere, without leaving a token of remembrance—some who remained to spend all their good or ill of life in the toilsome task of taming the wilderness, where their descendants ha\ e ceased or turned to other sources, and left none to tell of their once prevailing presence—and some whose heedless posterity neither knows of nor cares for any record. CHAPTER XI. THE EARLIEST HOMES The Traits and Trials of the First to Come—The Pioneer's House—The Roof—The Prow—The Floor—The Beds—The Fireplace—Their Cooking—Their Farming Tools—The Age of Wood—The Forest Seclusion—The Glamour of Tradition —The Positive Proof of Journals and Ledgers—Scarcity of Money—Fur Currency--What They Bought—The Drug and Book Trade—Bartering—Whisky—A Complete Pioneer Outfit—The Awful Stress of Life—Maple Sugar Making—Woman's Work—The Philosophy of the Desire for Remembrance. It is, indeed, a special task to truly tell the traits and trials of the first to come. Whoever recall tne fireside talks of an ancient grandsire or his saintly dame, outworn in making others glad, who told the tales they heard in sunny youth, from those who came when all the world was woods, have fine but fading scenes in what has become a legendary age. Even now, the spirit of the doubting Thomas is abroad demanding to see and touch the print of the nails. But the wounded hands and tortured side are gone from mortal gaze. The pioneers are as extinct as their Shawnee opponents. Except for the memory of their virtues and the legacy of their achievement, they are a people whose like will not be seen again. No pen from Fancy's wing can write the page to make them seem as once they were. The homes they built, the tools they used, the dress they wore, the scenes they viewed, have been so changed that scarcely aught remains but the words that told their thought and make their life akin to ours. If they could repeople the "old clearings" it is doubtful whether their surprise or our wonder would be the greater. The rugged independence of some fell little short of indifference as they trusted to luck afoot and chanced any change with a rifle, a knife and a hatchet. Others packed traps and ax on a horse or put their little all in a cart. The more fortun-