SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE GREENE COUNTY - 75 State senate. His shrewdness, energy, and business foresight might easily have made him the leading spirit of his time ; but John Paul was a restless rover, and Greene County soon became too populous for his pioneer tastes ; so in 1809 he removed to the newer wilderness of Indiana, where again he founded a city—the city of Madison, of the site of which city he was the owner. Here again he was generous in the donation of sites for public purposes, and here he died and is buried. Of the other strong men of that period mention might be made of James and Moses Collier, James and George Galloway, William Maxwell, our first representative in the State legislature and an associate justice, James Barrett, also an associate justice, Owen Davis, whose house was the first capitol of the county, Peter Borders, Jacob Smith, long a member of the State legislature, James Popenoe, Sr., and Peter, his brother, Andrew Read, William A. Beatty, tavern keeper and town director, Frederick and Chappel Bonner, Nathan Lamme, Joseph C. Vance, who laid out the town of Xenia, and whose son afterwards became the. Governor of the State of Ohio, Henry-Hypes, James Towler, Dr. Joseph Johnson, Richard Conwell, and Amasa Read. But, one name is impressed upon the history of the pioneer period a little more distinctly than any other—the name of General Benjamin Whiteman, one of the first group of associate justices, and long a leading citizen of the county. General Whiteman was born in Philadelphia, Pa., March 6th, 1769, and prior to his settlement here had passed through the county three times with expeditionary forces against the Indians—in 1790, 1792, and 1794. In 1799 he made permanent settlement, having previously married in Kentucky the daughter of Owen Davis above mentioned. His first residence was at the original county seat on Beaver Creek, with his father-in-law, who operated a flouring mill. In 1805 he removed to Clifton, where he continued to reside, until his death on July 1st, 1852. General Whiteman was a man of dignity and character, revered for his uprightness, and of great influence in the new county. He and his fellows were the men who fought the Indians, delimited the county, laid out the towns and townships, 76 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-108. established the courts, hewed the forests, and erected a primitive civilization, which some of them lived many years to enjoy. During the period of construction many men came to the front to divide the honors of primacy, but facile priiiceps was Dr. Joshua Martin, born in Loudon County, Virginia, March 23rd, 1791, died at .Louisville, Ky., November 30th, 1865. The greater part of his life was spent in this community. His indeed was a strong character, uniting with personal dignity, sterling integrity, and great professional skill, the arts of the political manager. He was the Mentor of his political party, and the leader in every public enterprise during his long career, and as such became widely known among public men. Scarcely less prominent during the same period were Aaron Harlan, who served his district in Congress, and John Alexander —a man of the most rugged and positive character, the opposite in all things of Dr. Martin, though his long-time friend. Their contemporaries were such men as John Hivling, James B. Gardiner, Major Robert Gowdy, Dr. George W. Stipp, S. W. Reeder, Josiah Grover, Samuel Kyle, Peter Pelham, Samuel Harry, Daniel Lewis, Joseph G. Gest, Sr., Michael Nunnemaker, Thomas Coke Wright, James A. Scott, William Ellsberry, a noted lawyer, Casper L. Merrick, inn-keeper and merchant, Lindsay Hogue, and Dr. Samuel Martin. The modern period, from 1860 down to the present day, produced many men who achieved prominence in the county, and some of them State, and even national, fame. Among the latter were Hon. James J. Winans, judge and congressman, and Hon. John Little, attorney general of the State, congressman and Commissioner of Venezula Claims. John Little's name will ever be memorable to all of this generation 'as that of a man of strong intellect, of kind and generous disposition, a very able lawyer, and a man whose natural tastes led him to pursue successfully many mechanical and manufacturing enterprises, to the great benefit of the community. In political affairs he was widely known, and his judgment was so highly respected that he was frequently called into counsel by governors of the State and presidents of the United States. SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE GREENE COUNTY - 77 With these men were associated such men as Captain Austin McDowell, E. F. Drake, John F. Patton, CoL John W. Lowe (the first Ohio line officer who fell in the War of the Rebellion), Erastus S. Nichols, Col. Robert Stevenson, Dr. C. H. Spahr, Col. Coates Kinney,. John F. Frazer, Dr. John W. Greene, W. B. Fairchild, Joseph W. King, Thomas P. Townsley, Roswell F. Howard, Judge Moses Barlow, Captain Albert Galloway, Benoni Nesbitt, John B: Allen, Isaac M. Barrett, Dr. George Watt, Brinton Baker, David and Eli Millen, James C. McMillan, Aniel Rodgers, Alfred Johnson, and many others, some of whom survive to this day. These, briefly, are the men who, with many others who might properly have been mentioned, liave made Greene County. In discharging the common-place duties of life they have builded a civilization which will endure long after the. personality of each has passed from the memory of men. It is fitting that there should be here recorded in this commemorative book some note of the names of these worthies, at least, "lest we forget." 78 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1968. MASSIE'S CREEK. WILBUR D. NESBIT. I've just been wondering, Bill, if you remember Massie's crick— Or "creek " they call it nowadays— with sumac growing thick Along the banks, and willows that bent down to make a shade Above the dreaming shallows where we boys one time would wade. Remember how it used to loaf sedately through the town And out into the pasture lands, and then would hurry down Between the cliffs, and how it sang a song to you and me That told us of the outer world, the rivers and the sea ? I've just been wondering, Bill, that's all—if you still hear it sing, If you can shut your eyes and see the spray that it would fling Above the rocks, until it sparkled on the hanging ferns That nodded from the mossy cliffs in hidden nooks and turns. MASSIE'S CREEK - 79 Remember how we used to throw our bare selves down, and lie A-looking through the checker-work of good green leaves and sky, And count the cloudships sailing through the sea of limpid blue — Ah, then we did not know how much that meant for me and you! The sunshine shuttled through the leaves and jeweled all the stream As laughter sometimes bubbles through the mazes of a dream, And we knew not that roundabout the big world waited then To rob us of our boyish ways when we should grow to men. I've just been wondering, Bill, if you can hear old Massie's crick Call softly through the summer days ? And does your heart beat quick In answer? Does your mind leap back into the long ago , And laugh and sing and dream again the days we used to know ? A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 81 A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS.. Greene County is a member of that very fertile group of counties in southwestern Ohio drained by the two Miami Rivers and their tributaries. In its average value of farm lands per acre ($31.63 according to the census of 1900), Greene County stands twelfth among the 88 counties of the State, and the counties which outrank her include within their limits the cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, Canton, Springfield, and Hamilton, which of course affect favorably the prices of land about them. The county is traversed from north to south by the wide alluvial valley of the Little Miami ; its north:. west corner is crossed by the Mad River valley; and connecting these two is a broad valley, excavated ages ago by the Mad River when its course was different from the present, but now occupied by the little stream called Beaver Creek. Greene County lies within the area covered by the Glacial Drift. This is a deposit of clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders which, geologists agree, was carried southward from the region of the lakes, and deposited in its present position, by glaciers. The weathering of the drift produced the county's fertile soils. These soils include: (1) The black upland soil, excellent for corn and blue grass, formed by the weathering of the drift where it lay in flat tracts, and found especially in Ross and the other 82 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. eastern townships. (2) The common upland clay soil (often called "oak land" because various oaks, especially white. oak, naturally grow on it). It is derived from the drift where the surface was sloping, and is a very durable soil and productive when properly cultivated. (3) The rather dark colored and very productive soil known as "sugar land," on which grow naturally not only sugar maples but also ash, hickory, walnut, etc. In some places it is called "mulatto" soil. It was formed from gravels on the highlands. (4) The bottom lands of the valleys, deposited by the agency of the streams. CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. The Falls from above. Underneath the drift, in a typical section of the county, lies what geologists have called the Niagara group of rocks, consisting. of limestones interspersed with shales, and belonging to the Upper Silurian period. It is found over the entire eastern half of the county and also in a small area in Beaver Creek Township. Its A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 83 beds of limestone, in descending order, are : the Guelph or Cedarville, the Springfield, the West Union, and the Dayton. The two former are chiefly valuable for lime and road metal and the two latter for building purposes, although much common building stone has been taken froth the Springfield bed. The large output of lime from the Cedarville kilns comes from the Cedarville bed, while the Dayton stone is quarried at New Jasper and elsewhere 'and may be seen in . the new Episcopal church in Xenia and in many other buildings in the county. Each product excels in CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. The Pass. its own field and finds a wide market. Separating the Dayton and West Union beds is a layer of shale, best seen on the Neff Grounds at Yellow Springs. It is this peculiar arrangement of strata—soft shale capped by limestone—that produced equally the gorges of the Little Miami and Massie's Creek in Greene 84 - GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. County and the gorge of the Niagara River. The water, wearing away the shale more easily than the overlying limestone, undermines the latter till at length a portion breaks off, and this proCess . is repeated many times as the falls recede up stream, 'leaving below them an ever-lengthening ravine. Thus the Falls of Niagara and the little cascade at Yellow Springs are yery closely related indeed, for they fall over the same bed of limestone and gnaw away at the same stratum of shale at their base. The scenery at Clifton and Yellow Springs, described elsewhere, is well known ; the "Cedarville cliffs," on Massie's Creek, are less accessible and less striking, perhaps, but no whit behind the others in beauty. A DESCRIPTON OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS -85 Next below the Niagara group lies the Clinton, and near New Jasper both are quarried, the Niagara (Dayton) for building and the Clinton for road metal. The Clinton is also Upper Silurian, but beneath it is a series of limestones and shales which geologists call the Hudson or Cincinnati and which they assign to the Lower Silurian, or Ordovician, period. These rocks are not exposed in the higher, eastern half of the county, as they are ther6 covered by the Clinton and Niagara, but in the western part, where the upper rocks have been ground away, the Hudson series is found immediately below the blanket of drift and may be seen plainly in ravines and cuts, as for instance about Goe's Station. The Hudson limestone abounds in fossils; it has furnished some building stone. These are the oldest rocks which may be found on the surface of Greene County ; beneath them, of course,, lie still older ones, some of which have been penetrated to some depth by wells in the effort to find deposits of oil and gas, but so far without paying results. The county has an area of about 460 square miles, a population, (in 1900) of 31,613, and a tax value (in 1907) of $19,302,291, corresponding to about $40,000,000 actual value. Its principal crops in 1907 were as follows : corn, 2,588,294 bushels (average, 46 bughels to the acre) ; wheat, 721,592 bushels (17 per acre) ; oats, 109,236 bushels ; potatoes, 70,561 bushels ; tomatoes, 19,685 bushels ; rye, 12,227 bushels ; barley,. 4,085 bushels; clover hay, 721 tons ; other hay, 25,756 tons ; alfalfa, 302 tons ; tobacco, 627,908 pounds; eggs, 750,995 dozen; maple syrup, 5,745 gallons. In April, 1908, there were in the county, in round numbers, 10,000 horses, 15,000 cattle, 18,000 sheep, and 32,000 hogs. In the raising of fancy stock the county holds a remarkable record, which is told of in the special article by Mr. O. E. Bradfute. The Greene County Agricultural Society was organized in 1839 and has held a county fair annually ever since. The original grounds were between Columbus Avenue and Church Street, in Xenia, but for many years the fair has been held in leased grounds on the northwestern edge of the city. It seems probable that the county, will soon purchase these grounds. Last year the Society's receipts were almost $10,000, and nearly as much was A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 87 paid out, including $8,700 in premiums and racing purses. The fair lasts four days and the exhibits are always notable, as befits the champion stock county. The records for the half-mile track are : pace, 2 :11 1/4; trot, 2:15. The Society has between six and seven hundred members. There are in the county twelve townships and thirty voting precincts. In politics the county has been Republican ever since the organization of the Republican party. The normal plurality is in the neighborhood of 2000, but owing to factional trouble in the dominant party Matthew R. Denver, Democratic, came within six votes of carrying the county in 1906. A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 89 BATH TOWNSHIP. Rev. H. B. Belmer. This township is the northwest corner of the county. It was organized, n 1807 and extended originally two miles further north, into whit is now Clarke County. It has eight churches, so located that all the people are within three or four miles of a church. The Bath Presbyterian church is in the western part of the township ; the rest are located in towns. There is also a township high school, about half a mile from Fairfield, central in the township. It occupies a fine building erected only a few years ago. Both Osborn and Fairfield also have their own high schools. OSBORN is an incorporated village of about 1000 inhabitants. Traveling men say it is one of the best kept towns of its size in the State. It has cement sidewalks, graveled streets, water and electric light, and fire department. Both the Erie and Big Four Railroads pass through it, as also the Ohio Electric Railway, .which is now working to have a continuous line from Cincinnati to Toledo and run through cars between these points. A visitor will notice the large number of beautiful homes with their surroundings kept in neat trim. This is largely due to the fact that most of these homes are occupied by their owners, and Most of the renters even follow their good example. The village is ten miles from Dayton, making it convenient for many employed in Dayton to live here. A number of school teachers employed in the township and elsewhere also live here. There are four churches in the place. The Lutheran church was organized in the Fairfield Methodist church in 1848. In 1850 the railroad now called the Big Four was. built and the town of Osborn began to spring up; some foresaw that Osborn would become the more important town and the Lutheran congregation was transferred to that place. But as there were members of various other denominations in that neighborhood a union church was built in 1853. The Lutherans used the building half of the time only till 1872, when they secured entire control and ownership of it. This church was remodeled and virtually rebuilt in 1898 and is now a A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 91 very neat and churchly structure. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1858, being an offspring of the Fairfield church. Its building was also reconstructed and added to some years ago and it is in a prosperous condition. The Presbyterian church was organized in .1865 and has a substantial brick building affording a very good audience, room. All these churches are located on the main old residence street which, though its proper name is Johnson Street, is often called Church Street. The Catholic church, though having a substantial membership, is generally served by priests coming from Dayton. The four groceries and two dry-goods stores of this place are well stocked with first-class goods, supplying both town and country for miles around. Osborn also has three flouring mills and two elevators. These mills have the best of modern machinery and make the, highest grade of roller-process, flour. The elevators handle and ship great quantities of corn ; very little wheat is shipped away, as the country around does not furnish enough for the mills, which are kept busy day and night the year 'around. Two of these mills are run by water power, furnished by a dam in Mad River a mile above the town. Great quantities of both hard and soft coal are shipped here for use in the town and surrounding country. There is also a whip factory employing some thirty hands (there are only four whip factories in the whole State of Ohio). This factory makes whips in price from $1.50 a dozen to $25 or more for a single whip.. The benevolent orders are represented by a lodge of the I. 0. 0. F., the K. of P., and the J. 0. U. A. M. There is a weekly paper, The Osborn Local. FAIRFIELD is the oldest village in the township, with a somewhat peculiar history. Settled, in 1799, in the early days—earlier than 1840—it was a thriving, growing town. Such it would have continued to be but for one mistake of its people and neighboring farmers. When the now Big Four Railroad was being located they wanted to pass through Fairfield. Now ,the general direction of this road from Dayton to Springfield is northeast, cutting diagonally all farms it passes through. The farmers did not want their fine farms spoiled in this way, and they fought off the rail- A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 93 road successfully. As a result Osborn sprang up and became the flourishing town Fairfield would have been; and instead of merely standing still, Fairfield even lost some of the business it formerly had. It had no railroad convenience till the Dayton and Springfield electric road 'was built throtigh it. The population of Fairfield is given in the last census as 312. It has a Methodist and a Reformed church. The Methodist church seems to have been the earliest organized, though its date has not been ascertained. The Reformed church was organized in 1843, and is the offspring of the Byron church. It has been in a prosperous condition from the beginiaing-, having begun in a great revival, a spiritual impulse felt to this day. The village also has a lodge of Odd Fellows, and Steele Post No. 623 Dept. of Ohio G. A. R. This Post attends to the decorating of, soldier graves on Memorial Day in eight different burying grounds. BYRON, on the Yellow Springs pike, is an old hamlet that has less business and importance than formerly in earlier times. Its dozen or so houses are now without the store, post office, and saddler's shop 'of former days, but a blacksmith shop remains. Byron's chief honor is the church and cemetery near it. Here are buried many of the old settlers, reaching back even into the 18th century. The Byron Reformed church dates back to a very early day; it was formerly a union church, the Lutherans owning and using it jointly with the Reformed. (Editor's note  may take comfort in the reflection that if it has fallen behind in the race for population and business it has preserved its fine old houses and streets and is the most picturesque town in the county. We regret that the views do not give an adequate idea of its charm. Since 1904 it has held an annual reunion and home-coming). BEAVER CREEK TOWNSHIP. Beaver Creek Township is one of the original four, and formerly extended as far north as. Lake Erie. It is a beautiful valley, fertile, well timbered, rolling and picturesque, noted for its fine farms. The high ridge separating the waters of Beaver Creek and Mad River is a particularly fine fruit belt, where good AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 95 peaches do Well. The Pennsylvania and C., H. and D. Railroads and the Dayton and Xenia Traction road cross the valley. The pikes are well kept and the scenery is fine. Beaver Creek Township is the cradle of Greene County. In its little log court house in 1803 the county was organized. There was the first administration of justice, the first exercise of suffrage through the ballot box, and the first legal punishment of crime. There was the first mill north of Cincinnati where corn was ground for the settlers. It was built by Owen Davis in 1798 and called the Alpha Mill from the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The court house, mill and two blockhouses, erected for defense, were near enough together to be inclosed in a stockade should the Indians become troublesome. The old log court house was the first licensed tavern in the county. It was .purchased with the surrounding acreage in 1827 by Mr. John Harbine. He and Mr. Needles laid out the town of ALPHA in 1854. When what is now the Pennsylvania railroad was built Mr. Harbine gave the land required and the station was named HARBINE. It was a lively manufacturing center with its distillery, flour, cotton, woolen, grist, saw and oil mills and did a large tobacco, grain and shipping business. From the first mill and the first barrel of flour which was marked "Alpha," the name has clung to the place. There are, in the town, a nice brick church, a school, a post-office, coal office and two stores and at upper Alpha a large K. of P. Hall, blacksmith shop, and Beaver Creek Township High School built in 1888. The population of Alpha is about 200. The waters of Beaver Creek have turned the wheels of the grist mills for more than a century and the old dam is an attractive place for picnics and fishing parties, but the site of the blockhouses is no longer indicated and the valley is peaceful, productive and beautiful. TREBEINS, formerly known as Pinckneyville, Frost Station and Beaver Station, is two miles nearer to Xenia. For many years a large distillery, and milling business was done there. The distillery has now given place to a tobacco warehouse. A German Reformed church and a school house are midway between Alpha and Trebeins. A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 97 ZIMMERMAN is about two miles west of Alpha on the Dayton pike. It has a blacksmith shop and grocery, a school and two Dunker churches. The population is about 100. The railroad station is a quarter of a mile distant and is called SHOUP'S ; there is one store. there and about fifteen people. S. CAESAR'S CREEK TOWNSHIP. This township, one of the four into which the county was divided in 1803, originally included all the southeastern section of the county but has been successively reduced to its present limits by the formation of other townships. PAINTERSVILLE„ the only town, was laid out in September, 1837, for the proprietor, Jesse Painter. It is ten miles southeast of Xenia. It has a Methodist Protestant church, a school, two stores, barber, wagon, and blacksmith shops, restaurant, and saw mill. Societies are represented by the Knights of Pythias and the Junior Order, each with its auxiliary of ladies (the Pythian Sisters and the Daughters of America respectively). Population,. about 125. CEDARVILLE TOWNSHIP F. A. Jurkat. Cedarville Township was organized in 1850 from portions of Xenia, Miami, and Ross, to which fact its singular outline is due. The natural antipathy to new things led to a protest on the part of the inhabitants of the older townships, which however was of no avail. It lies entirely within the Virginia Military District, and incidentally the Cedarville School District treasury is benefited annually to the extent of about fifty dollars from the Federal Government—a relic of the famous Revolutionary War grant. The area of the township is 23,000 acres. The soil is very fertile, and underlaid with limestone, which is the basis of one of the chief industries. The chief stream is Massie's Creek, named after a noted Indian fighter. In its efforts to reach the Little Miami it has. cut its way through the rock; forming cliffs forty feet deep and a mile long, one of the most picturesque A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS - 99 scenes in America. Along its course are a fort of the prehistoric races and a mound which occupies a prominent place in the landscape. (See the article by Prof. W. K. Moorehead). The first settlers were John and Thomas Townsley, who came here from Kentucky in 1801. They were soon reenforced by a colony of Scotch Covenanters from the Chester District of South Carolina, who left there because of their antipathy to slavery. These immigrants were a great reenforcement to the struggling congregation of Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters, which had been established in 1804. In spite of a division in 1833 into "Old" and "New Lights," these congregations have vitally determined the religious life of the township. The village of CEDARVILLE, was laid off by Jesse Newport in 1816, long before the township was formed. It has been variously known as Newport's Mill, Manna's Store, the "Burgh," and Milford. To avoid confusion of post offices and perpetuate the memory of the cedars, the present name was adopted in 1834. The population, which was 1189 in 1900, is now about 1300. It is on the P., C., C. and St. L. Railroad. The interests of town and township are closely allied in all matters, religious, civil, and industrial. There are six churches in the village: the Reformed Presbyterian, New School, founded 1804; Reformed Presbyterian, Old School, founded 1833; United Presbyterian, founded 1830 ; Methodist Episcopal, founded 1804; Colored Baptist, founded 1830; and the A. M. E. church. Cedarville College is described elsewhere. The first school house in the township was erected in 1806; the first in the village was started in 1823. There are now eight school houses in the township, and the village has a high school. The first newspaper, the "Enterprise," was founded in 1876. It was succeeded by the "Herald," which still flourishes. In 1902 was founded the Record." Among prominent buildings may be mentioned the township hall, built in 1888, and the public library, representing a donation of $11,000 to Cedarville College by Andrew Carnegie. Aside from the cereal products, the farmers of Cedarville Township take pride in their fine breeds of cattle, sheep and hogs,