The total number of votes cast in 1900 on the proposition was 6,256, whereas in 1883 there were
6,382 votes cast. As might have been expected it was the vote of Xenia that settled the question,
since every township in the county except Cedarville, New Jasper and Xenia voted against it. The
cost of the election was $62.10.
DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION.
As soon as the commissioners had a certified result of the election they reported the fact to the
judge of the common pleas court, Thomas E. Scroggy, and on April 4, 1900, he proceeded to
appoint the four men for the building commission. He chose John Little and Albert Wickersham,
Repub-licans, and Henry Barber and William W. Ferguson, Democrats. Little died on October
16, 1900, and on the 22d of the same month Judge Scroggy appointed his son, George Little, to
fill the vacancy. This commission took complete charge of all the details connected with the
erection of the new building, and it should be recorded as a part of the history of the county that
there was not a single word of criticism found with their work from the be-ginning until they
were finally discharged. In fact, the statement has been made that the Greene county court house
of today is one of the very few in the state, if not the only one, that was built without a breath of
scandal connected with it. When the final cent was accounted for, the building was not only paid
out of the funds set aside for the purpose, but there was actually over $12,000 left in the building
fund. Certainly, Greene county has every reason to be proud of its court house, and it owes a
debit to this building commission which can not be measured in money. The commission, by the
way, served without pay, and any one who goes over the voluminous records which they left to
show what they did, will realize that they did an immense amount of work during the three years
that they officiated.
It is not profitable to follow the construction of the court house in detail. The building
commission has left a complete record of the steps, one by one, which they took in getting the
work under way, and the subsequent steps taken until the building was completed and turned
over to the county. The first thing was to find temporary quarters for the transaction of the county
business while the building was in process of construction. On April 16 and 17, 1900, the
following quarters were secured for a period of two years with the privilege of renewing the lease
if the new court house was not ready for occu-
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 133
pancy by that time : The building of C. M. & W. A. Galloway, corner of King and Main streets,
for the court room, clerk and sheriff at an annual rental of $365; two rooms in the Florence hotel
(now the Manhattan hotel) for the probate judge at an annual rental of $300; three rooms in the
Steele building, corner of Main and Detroit streets, for the recorder at an annual rental of $620;
three rooms on Greene street, adjoining the Citizens National bank, and owned by Mary P.
Millen and John M. Davidson, for the auditor, treasurer and county commissioners, at a rental of
$293 annually.
On the day on which the commission found a place for the county officials they let a contract to
John McGary to demolish the old court house, agreeing to pay him $1,675 for the work. The old
stone pillars in front were carefully taken down and are now found at the entrance to Woodlawn
cemetery. All the brick and stone in the building were carefully taken down and used in the
present building, the county receiving about a thousand dollars for the brick and stone, together
with such of the interior woodwork and old furniture as could be sold. All this money went into
the building fund. McGary was to have the old court house torn down by July 1, 1900.
HOW CONSTRUCTION WORK WAS FINANCED.
A total of $184,000 worth of bonds were sold. The first issue was for $100,000 and was sold on
February 28. 1901, to N. W. Harris & Company, of Chicago, for $109,823.20. They were issued
in denominations of $500 each, with four per centum interest, bearing date of March 1, 1901,
$4,000 being due on March 1, 1906, and the same amount due each succeeding year until the full
amount was retired. The second issue was for $84,000 and was sold May 28, 1901, to the
Citizens National Bank of Xenia for $90,482. The county therefore realized $200,305.20 on its
two bond issues. This amount was supplemented by a loan of $3,000 from B. J. Little, and
salvage from the old court house in the sum of $904.97. This brought the building fund up to
$204,210.17. The last report of the building commission, with every item of expenditure
separately scheduled, showed that the total cost of the court house, including equipment of every
kind, also the grading and sodding of the yard, amounted to $191,764.05. This report, therefore,
dated May 1, 1903, showed a balance in the building fund of $12,446.12. It is doubtful whether
another court house in the state has been as economically built as the Greene county court house.
The building commission visited several c0unties in the state in order to get the latest ideas in
court-house architecture, in the meantime having advertised for plans and specifications for the
building. Several architects, submitted plans and those of Samuel Hannaford & Sons, of
Cincinnati, were finally approved on August 16, 1900. The plans and specifications cover
134 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
eighty-one pages in the record. The commission at once advertised for bids to be opened on
September 18, 1900, but it was not until the 6th of the following month that a contract was
entered into with Hennessy Brothers & Evans Company, of Chicago. The successful bidders
agreed to erect the court house according to the proposed plans and specifications for $140,248.
The contractors immediately began work and by March 15, 1901, were ready for the cornerstone
exercises, this date being carved on the stone which featured the exercises of that day. The work
was rapidly pushed and by July 23, 1902, although the building was not quite completed at the
time, the commission and contractors entered into an agreement whereby the county officials
might move in at any time. They all moved in during the first two weeks of the following month,
the vouchers showing that the last bill for moving expense was allowed on August 16, 1902. The
final report of the building commission, as before stated, was made on May 1, 1903.
SELLING AND LEASING OF PARTS OF PUBLIC SQUARE.
Those who view the public square in Xenia as it appears in 1918 will wonder why the county
commissioners ever wished to sell lots off of it in the early history of the county, but such are the
facts in the case. And when they found they could not sell, they leased a part of it. So many years
have elapsed since the effort was made to sell off part of the public square that it is difficult to
arrive at the motives actuating the commissioners. It does show, however, that they did not have
a vision as to what the future might bring the county in the way of needed additional room;
certainly they did not contemplate the idea that the county would not only need all of the public
square donated by John Paul in 1803, but actually be compelled to buy additional ground to
provide sufficient room for the jail—and that as far back as 1860.
The year 1817 saw the attempt by the county commissioners to sell some lots from the public
square. It is evident that they were goaded to this action by some citizens who wanted to acquire
a business location on the square, and, incidentally, the thrifty commissioners wished to add to
the county treasury. While the commissioners actually did succeed in selling some lots off of the
square, the sale was later set aside and the lots reverted to the county. It seems a bit queer that
they should have considered the proposition to sell any of the public square, and it seems still
queerer that the lawyers of the city did not inform the commissioners that they had no authority
to sell. But things were done differently in those days, a hundred and one years ago. The story of
this attempt to sell of part of the public square is given with all. facts stated taken direct from the
records of the county commissioners.
Before starting their project the commissioners evidently had a survey
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 135
made of the square, but this plat, if it was made, was not placed on their records. The public
square donated by John Paul in 1803 to the county for public purposes was 198 feet in width and
330 feet in length, with the length running north and south. This tract consisted of four lots of
equal size, each lot being 6 by T0 poles, or 99 by 165 feet. Our forefathers thought in terms' of
poles in the early days, the word rod, a measurement of sixteen and one-half feet, never occurring
in the early records of the county commissioners. Strange to say the early records of the county
do not disclose the agreement between John Paul and the associate judges in 1803 in regard to
the public square.
The commissioners tried. to sell more than half of the square donated to the county by Paul.
Portions of lots 35, 61 and 62 were divided into lots by the commissioners and it was proposed to
sell them to any purchaser who might want them—and had the money to pay for them. There can
be no question that the primary purpose of the commissioners in this whole transaction of 1817
was to add to the county treasury. A local historian, writing in 1881, in speaking of this proposal
of the commissioners, had the following to say :
"They thought, and said, that if a portion of the public ground—the public square—could be sold,
and buildings erected thereon, it would bring a fund into the county treasury and enhance the
value of the part unsold. While one is led to inquire of what especial benefit to the county the
enhanced value land would be, when such land was never to be sold, still he is inclined to
approve the motive that prompts action in that direction unless he finds some selfishness at the
base. But the commissioners thinking that Greene county in its public square, donated to it by
John Paul, had more ground than needed, resolved that part of it should be sold."
SUPREME COURT AVERTS A PUBLIC CALAMITY.
Whatever motive may have been behind the project the fact remains that the commissioners met
on January 4, 1817, and directed that parts of the public square be put on sale. The
commissioners at that time were John Haines, Samuel Gamble and Thomas Hunter, the latter not
being present on the day the sale was ordered. William Beatty, the old tavern keeper, and at the
time the. director of Xenia, was not only authorized but even ordered to sell the lots set aside for
sale. Five lots were placed on sale. Before defining the limits of these lots it should be stated that
Greene street was not yet in existence, this street not being set aside until March 20, 1835. There
were at least three buildings on the square in 1817: the court house completed in 1809 ; the stone
jail of 1815 ; the office building erected in 1814. The court house was in the southwest corner of
lot No. 35 ; the stone jail stood exactly in the
136 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
center of the square; the office building, a brick structure, stood east of the court house, fifty feet
back of Main street.
In following the description of the lots which the commissioners contemplated selling it must be
remembered that the original court house square consisted of four lots of equal size, each lot
being six poles wide and ten poles long, a pole being a rod in length, each lot therefore being 99
by 165 feet. The four lots were Nos. 35, 36, 61 and 62. The language used by the surveyor in
defining the limits of the lots placed on sale is ambiguous in the extreme as may be seen by the
following description of the lots as taken verbatim from the records of the comtnissioners, Vol.
IV, p. 92 : "3 1/2 poles in front & 10 poles back or deep the east side of inlot No. 35." In plain
terms, the lot thus described lay in the southeast corner of the square, and fronted 57 3/4 feet on
Main street, with a depth of 165 feet. There was no Greene street at this time, so the east line of
the lot was the present east line of Greene street. This is the first lot described and is sufficiently
clearly defined to make it plain as to where it lay. But witness the description of the other lots.
"Northwestern corner of inlot No. 61, being 3 poles & 2/5 on Detroit Street and 4 poles on third
Street ; & 3 poles front and 4 poles back of the said lot Joining & lying to the south of the
aforesaid corner—division—also 4 poles on third Street running 6 2/5 poles back, 2 poles in
front being part of inlot No. 61 and 2 poles being part of inlot No. 62, also another division
beginning at the N. E. corner of inlot No. 62 running with the line of the lot S. 12 E. t0 poles and
S. 78 W. 1/) pole N. 12 W. 6 2/5 poles to third Street, thence with said street 4 p0les to the
beginning."
There are four separate lots described in the preceding paragraph, but with such ambiguity that it
is difficult to define all of them, particularly the last lot. Greene street, as set off by the county
commissioners in the spring of 1835, was exactly two poles in width, that is, thirty-three feet, the
cutting off of this strip leaving the public square as it is in 1918—ten poles, or 165 feet wide, and
twenty poles, or 330 feet long. It will be noticed that if the sale of the lots in 1817 had been
allowed to stand that the square would not be quite half the size it is today. Certainly, it would
have been a calamity if the supreme court had not set aside the sale of the lots.
The supreme court in May, 1821, refused to approve the sale of the five lots above described.
The county commissioners, therefore, were compelled to call upon the purchasers of the lots for
the return of the notes given by them for the lots. No cash had been turned into the county
treasury, the purchasers evidently not being certain that the sale would be declared legal. William
Beatty, who had been directed to sell the lots at public auction, sold them on the second Friday in
February, and on the 14th of the month placed in the hands of the commissioners promissory
notes in the sum of $3,253. On
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 137
June 6, 1821, the first meeting of the commissioners after the court decision of the preceding
month, James and Ryan Gowdy, purchasers of certain of the lots, evidently being lots Nos. 1 and
5, delivered to the commissioners three notes which they had given for lots, although according
to Beatty's report Ryan Gowdy had been the purchaser of the lot. The complete story of the sale is
summarized in Beatty's report of February 14, 1817, which is here reproduced in full :
To the Honourable Court of Commissioners of the County of Greene, Gentlemen: I have
proceeded to and have sold the lots in Xenia you ordered me to sell; the persons who purchased
and the prices they bought are as follows : John Barber, part of in-lot No. 62, $482; George
Townsley, part of in-lot No. 65, $615 ; George Townsley, part of in-lot No. 62, $315; John
Davis, part of in-lot No. 62, $482; Ryan Gowdy, lot No. 35, $1,381; total amount, $3,253. I
believe the above statement to be correct.
WILLIAM A. BEATTY, Director of Xenia.
MARKET HOUSE PEREMPTORILY REMOVED.
It is definitely stated in the record that the town had erected a market house on lot No. 62. On this
same day, June 6, 1821, the town agreed to remove its market house, or erect a new one. The new
building was to be situated on lot No. 62, as follows: "West end of house to be 8 feet from
Detroit street, and north side to be 12 feet from Third (Market) street, 12 feet also allowed on
south side of house." The town did build a new market house, and there was such a building on
the north end of the public square until sometime during the Civil War. Repeated attempts were
made by the county commissioners to get the town to remove the building, but it was several
years after the first request was made before it was finally taken away. It is presumed that the
market house was removed as a result of a peremptory order of the commissioners, dated March
12, 1859. No attempt has been made since that time to sell any of the public square, although the
county actually leased a part of the square. The commissioners were possessed of the idea that
they had to get a revenue from the square in some way, and if they could not sell any of it, at least
there was nothing in the law to hinder them from leasing a portion of it—and that is exactly what
they proceeded to do.
Few of the older citizens of the county can recall the private buildings which stood on the public
square within their memory. The beginning of the leasing of part of the public square to private
parties dated from June 8, 1827. On that date the commissioners leased to A. M. Miller and
James Collier a part of lot No. 61, the portion leased facing Detroit street beginning 225 feet
north of Main street and running 48 feet south, with a depth of 30 feet. On this lot the lessees,
Collier and Miller, the former a lawyer and the latter a physician, erected what they chose to call
a "law and physick office." Their building was of brick, ,forty by sixteen feet. According to their
lease they
138 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
were to erect the building, keep it in good repair, and on June 8, 1842, fifteen years later, were to
give the county a deed for the building.
But the commissioners were not satisfied with leasing this one lot ; they decided that they could
lease another. Accordingly, on September 1, 1827, they entered into a lease with James B.
Gardiner for a lot immediately south of the one first leased, the second lot facing Detroit street
forty feet and running back thirty feet. Gardiner was a printer and he secured the lot evidently
with the intention of erecting a building for a newspaper, although his lease stated that he might
either put up a building for a printing establishment, or "as he may think proper, offices of law
and physic." His lease, like the one granted, Collier and Miller, was to expire in fifteen years and
whatever building he might erect was to become the property of the county at that time—
September 1, 1842. Gardiner had established a paper in Xenia, The People's Press and Impartial
Expositor, on May 24, 1826, and it continued to be published until it was consolidated with the
Xenia Gazette on January 1, 1829. It is presumed that it was this People's Press, etc., which
found a home on the public square following Gardiner's lease in 1827. His building was to be an
exact duplicate Of the one erected by Collier and Miller.
Subsequently, other parties occupied these two buildings. One housed the store of Samuel
Puterbaugh for a number of years. John Moore conducted a tailoring establishment in the lower
room of the Gardiner building from 1835 until it was removed some time about the middle of the
'40s. R. F. Howard came to Xenia in 1837 and established his office in the upper
room of this same building, remaining there until it was removed.
PASSING A GOOD THING ALONG.
But the commissioners were evidently persuaded that this leasing of part of the public square was
a good thing for the county, although it is hard to see just how they figured it. They derived no
revenue from the lease, and could not possibly have been the gainer from a financial point of
view until the expiration of the fifteen-year lease which was granted the builders of the two little
brick houses, or "shops," as the records of the commissioners chose to call them. After the first
two buildings were erected, a third party came along and asked for space on the square for a
building, and a third time the commissioners leased a tract for a fifteen-year period. This third
lease, dated September 27, 1828, was entered into with one George Maxwell, who was given
permission to erect and occupy a house on the square, the building to be the same size as the two
private buildings already erected. It was specified in his lease that he was to have the privilege of
making a slight change in the appearance of his building by changing the location of the chimney
and
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 139
one of the windows, but in all other respects it was to be the same as the other two on the square.
It was stated that its "north wall to be 4 feet distant from the house built by Collier & Miller." It
faced Detroit street and stood between the Collier-Miller building and the engine house of the
town of Xenia, the latter being erected in 1831.
It has been practically impossible to determine the shifting occupants of these three private brick
buildings facing Detroit street. As before stated, the two built in 1827 were to revert to the county
in June, 1842. Reference to the commissioners' records for that year disclose the fact that on June
9, 1842, the commissioners rented to Amos Rogers the "Northeast room" of the building on the
public square "next the engine house and hay scales for one year from this day." The lessee was
to pay the county twenty-five dollars a year for the room. The question arises—which building
was this ? The Collier-Miller building or the Maxwell building? The Maxwell lease could not
have expired until 1843, being entered into in September, 1828. In fact, it is apparent that
Maxwell never erected any building at all, and it follows, therefore, that the room rented Rogers
in 1842 must have been in the Collier-Miller building. On this same date, June 9, 1842, Charles
T. Traugh, a lawyer, rented the south room of the same building, paying the same annual rental.
The other building, the Gardiner print shop, was rented by the county on September 24, 1842, to
Richards & Hemble, the lease stating that they were to have "the brick building they now occupy
as a store house on public ground for the term of one year from September 1, 1842." They were
to pay the county an annual rental of fifty dollars. The last reference in the commissioners'
records to these two brick buildings was made on June 10, 1843. On that date it was "Ordered
that Alfred Trader be and is hereby authorized to rent the shops on the public ground in Xenia
and collect the rents for the same until the 1st of April, 1844." The new court house was being
erected during the years 1842-44 and it seems that the county intended to remove the two little
brick "shops" when they began to clear up the ground after the court house was completed. There
is no reference, however, to any order for their demolition, but it seems certain that they were
removed sometime in the summer of 1844. Thus ended the county's connection with private
enterprises on the public square, although the market house and engine house of the city were to
remain on the public square for several years later.
JAILS OF GREENE COUNTY.
No sooner was the organization of Greene county effected and the legal processes of the state
were instituted than there were found violators of the law who had to be incarcerated in some
kind of prison. It was very easy in
140 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
those days to be a violator of the law even if life was very simple, and a glance at the laws and
penalties in use in the early days of the county's existence reveals how drastic the legal code was
then. One of the chief conditions which brought many charges to the county sheriff was the
practice of imprisonment for debt and every early jail in the state was fitted with a special room
for the use of debtors.
Greene county has been a political unit of the state for one hundred and fifteen years, and during
the first fifty-seven years of this period the county erected no fewer than five jails, some of logs,
some of stone and some of brick. It is somewhat difficult to follow the history of the early jails of
the county since it is somewhat confused, due perhaps to the frequent repairing of the buildings
already erected. It is said at the beginning of this paragraph that there have been five jails built,
but that is only a safe estimate. There is ample room for the contention that there have been six
jails; one in 1803; one in 1804, another in 1808, another in 1813, another in 1833 and another,
the present one, in 1860. Thus it seems that in the first twenty-nine years of the county's history it
had five jails constructed or in the process of construction.
THE FIRST JAIL.
When the associate judges first met at the house of Owen Davis on Beaver creek on May 10,
1803, they transacted only county business, hence there was then no need for a jail; but when the
August term came when causes were tried, there was immediate need for a jail. Accordingly on
August 22, 1803, it was "ordered that the larger block house at Mr. Jacob Smith's Mill on Beaver
creek be appropriated to the use of a Jail, and that Benjamin Whiteman, Esq., be appointed in
behalf of the Court to contract for repairing the same." This was one of the blockhouses erected
by Owen Davis to protect the mill from anticipated attacks of the Indians. It seemed to the early
organizers of the county at first to be as equally efficient in keeping men in as it was in keeping
them out. Of course at this time it was definitely determined where the new county seat would be
located and the jail was only temporary and had to be convenient to the place where court was
held. Judge Whiteman soon busied himself with his commission of repairing the blockhouse so
that it would serve as a county bastile and .he employed Jacob Shingledecker to do the work.
Sometime between August and December of that year the work was finished and on December 7,
1803, the court allowed Shingledecker nine dollars and fifty cents for the work he had done upon
the first county jail. This improvised structure .served until the removal of the seat of government
to the new county seat at the forks of Shawnee run in the autumn of 1804.
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 141
THE SECOND JAIL.
Evidently it has been the contention heretofore that what is here indicated as the second jail was
not a second jail but was the repairing of the old blockhouse, five and one-half miles west of
Xenia on Beaver creek, but evidence seems to point conclusively to the fact that this was a
second jail and was erected in Xenia, but its site is unknown ; however, it is quite probable that it
was located on some part of the public square. Sometime before the first meeting of the county
commissioners on June 11, 1804, the associate judges decided to build a jail, as is shown by the
following order of the commissioners : "Ordered that the Treasurer pay James Barrett (one of the
associate judges) six dollars for services in advertising & selling out the building of the public
Jail." This order was dated July 2, 1804. It is reasonable that this jail was built in the new county
seat, for when the court convened in August, 1804, they occupied the upstairs room in the house
of William Beatty in Xenia. Furthermore, it seems that the court would not be willing to transport
prisoners for trial from a jail located on Beaver creek five and one-half miles away.
The construction of this jail was let to Amos Derrough sometime prior to the meeting of the
commissioners in June, 1804, and on July 2, 1804, the commissioners gave him an order for
thirty-three dollars, in part, for his work. William Chenoweth received fifty-eight dollars for the
iron work; John Walker, ten dollars for two locks for the jail doors, and John Kenny, thirty-five
dollars for labor in its construction.
For some reason the work on the jail was not progressing rapidly enough for the commissioners;
probably the contractor had been taking time off to cultivate his crops. At any rate on August 15,
1804, the commissioners issued the following dictum : "It is considered by the Commissioners
that if Amos Derrough does not compleat the Publick Jail for the County of Greene on or before
the 15th day of September, next, the building thereof shall be advertised and sold to the lowest
bidder." Evidently the threat had its effect, for the contractor hurried the construction so much
that the building was deficient in many details. At their meeting on October 8, 1804, the
commissioners ordered "that the Clerk of the Commissioners issue an order in favor of Amos
Derrough to Joseph C. Vance, for the balance of the money due him for the building of the Jail,
after making deduction of thirty dollars for deficiency of the work; also a deduction of the
amount of his order in favor of William A. Beatty." Since the amount that Derrough actually
received is not indicated, it is impossible to ascertain the exact cost of the building. The fact that
this order was cashed by Joseph C. Vance lends more color to the contention that this was a
second jail, located in the new town of Xenia, for Vance was director of the new county seat.
142 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Clearly this jail building was not at all satisfactory to the commission-, ers and an additional
improvement to be made to it was ordered and advertised for sale on March 12, 1805. The work
was let to James Collier for six hundred and forty dollars, and his task was "the repairing and
New erection of the Public Jail." Prisoners were lodged in the building as the work progressed,
for on November 4, 1805, Collier was ordered to repair a breach made in its walls by escaping
prisoners. The contractor was also allowed a dollar and a quarter for a barrel for the use of the
prisoners. Stoves were not in common use in those days, but on November 5, 1804, the
commissioners appropriated forty dollars which Collier should use to buy a stove. Of course,
such rare comforts were not kept in stock by any of the pioneer merchants of Xenia at that time
and the stove was quite probably 'brought up from Cincinnati by wagon.
Collier had the same difficulty with the commissioners as had Derrough, for on January 6, 1806,
they ordered him to have the building finished by April 1 or the construction would be again
advertised and sold to the lowest bidder. They added that the building would not be held
agreeable to contract unless "it was taken down to the foundation." What they meant by this
expression is difficult to determine. As the fateful first day of April drew near the hearts of the
commissioners softened and they extended the time to the seventeenth of that month, on which
day Collier turned the building over to them. When the commissioners examined the structure,
they felt that it had not been erected precisely according to the contract, hence they deducted fifty
dollars from the amount they paid Collier.
In the ensuing two years several improvements were added to the building. The door facings
were plated and well spiked, so also were the wicket holes in the doors well plated. The grates in
the outside walls were well spiked. Despite all these precautions several prisoners made good
their escape from the bastile, among whom was one Daniel Robinson. He was imprisoned for a
judgment to the amount of $147.68, which was paid by the sheriff, William Maxwell, because
the prisoner had escaped before he had served his time. When the unfortunate sheriff presented
his bill to the commissioners for the amount of the judgment, it was not allowed.
THE THIRD JAIL.
Much was contributed to the sheriff's peace of mind when the commissioners ordered a new jail
to be built and advertised the sale of its construction to the lowest bidder on December 24, 1808.
Before the bids were turned in, the commissioners assured the would-be contractors that the
successful applicant would be allowed the use of all the materials in the old jail. The exact
location of the new jail was not expressly given, save that it was
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 143
to be erected in the town of Xenia. The specifications and detailed description of the building,
dated December 6, 1808, follow :
Ordered that there be a publicic Jail erected on the ground now staked out in the town of Xenia
for that purpose, in the following manner and of the following material (viz.) The foundation to
be dug eighteen inches deep & twenty feet square; a floor of square timber the size of the
foundation to be at least one foot thick ; the first logs of the building to be laid crosswise the
width of the foundation. The Building to be of logs, hewed on two sides, at least one foot thick &
facing at least one foot the full length ; logs to be 18 feet long & the building to be raised 8 feet
high, on the top of which is to be a floor of timber, one foot square, on the top of which is to be a
coat of well wrought mortar at least 4 inches thick. Across the upper floor is to be a girder 10
inches thick and the face to average at least one foot, & to be pinned sufficiently with a 2 inch
pin in every piece of the floor ; in which .(jail) there is to be a good cabin roof ; the corners to be
raised in half dove tailed order, and each log to be pinned at the corner with a 2 inch pin. One
door in the east side to suit the shutters of the jail, which shall have 2 shutters, one hanging on
the outside and one hanging on the inside. One window to suit the old grates, two of which shall
be put into it. Door checks to be six inches thick and the width of the wall to be sufficiently
spiked on with the old spikes ; the doors to be hung with the old hangings. A suitable hole made
for the stove through the upper floor. * The lower floor and at least 3 logs high to be of white
oak. The doors to be secured with sufficient locks, the inside with two good pad-locks & the
outside with one good latch lock. The dirt to be thrown up round the outside of the wall and well
beaten down.
* N. B. which is to be well plated with iron, which plate is to extend 6 inches above the floor, on
which hole a small brick chimney is to be built through the roof, which is to be secured in the
usual manner against sparks. On each side of the door there is to be plates of iron on the joints;
between the checks & wall spiked into the checks and wall for 6 inches above and below each
hinge; into the checks there is to be large nails drove within one-half inch of each other & in the
same manner is to be nailed the wall for 6 inches round the door inside and outside & round ; the
window is to be nailed in the same manner, one foot inside and outside.
JOSIAH GROVER, CLK. PRO TEM.
On the day appointed for the bids to be considered, it was found that William A. Beatty, the first
tavern keeper in Xenia and the second director of the county seat, was found to make the lowest
offer, but the amount of his bid is not included in the records of the commissioners. It was the
original intention that this jail should be a building of one story, but as the work progressed, the
commissioners decided upon adding a second story. This conclusion called for the following
addition to the record on June 16, 1809:
William Beatty, the undertaker of the jail now building in the Town of Xenia, agrees to raise
another story of seven feet high as the clear, the wall to be the same sort of logs and to be raised
in the same manner as the lower story ; the upper floor of the lower story to be mortered as
directed in a former order. There is to be five small sleepers to face even with the morter ; to
have a door and a window similar to them in the lower story, except the nailing around them; the
upper floor of the lower story to be laid with loose plank ; the upper floor ,of all, to be laid with
Jogs at least a .foot thick, well squared and laid close to girders, and of the same kind and pinned
in the same manner as was to have been on the first story; the hole for the stove pipe chimney
and roof all to be done agreeably to the afore mentioned order. There is to be suitable stair steps
to the upper door. Said Beatty is allowed $40 for additional work. The above undertaker is to
have the benefit of all the remaining materials of the old jail and if there should not be sufficient,
144 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
they are to be furnished at the expence of the county. Said undertaker agrees to compleat the
whole of said work against the 15th day of August, next.
J. GROVER, CLK. B. C.
Although this jail was by far a more substantial building than its predecessors, the repeated jail
deliveries decreased its effectiveness as a county bastile. It was accepted from the contractor 0n
October 18, 1809, and in the summer of 1813 the commissioners declared it to be in a bad
condition. It has been said that this jail burned down after July 20 of that year, but it is more
probable that the need of a new jail was so pressing that the erection of a new one was
mandatory.
THE FOURTH JAIL.
It was on July 20, 1813, that the commissioners inspected the jail which had been finished by
Beatty in 1809 and soon after they filed their adverse report concerning its condition on that day,
they began making plans for a new county bastile. The sale of the construction of the proposed
jail was advertised for September 13, 1813, and on that day the building was let to James Miller,
the lowest bidder, at ten hundred and eighty-four dollars, the building to be of stone.
The builder of this jail, James Miller, was a Scotchman who came to America when he was a
very young man. After he had settled on Clarks run in Greene county, his letters to his old father
back in Scotland were so full of enthusiasm concerning the county, state and neighborhood that
the old gentleman decided to follow his son to this country and settle with him. By his son's
letters the elder Miller became so familiar with this part of the country that he thought everyone
in America surely knew his "wee Jamie." While en route from Philadelphia, where he landed on
American soil, to Clarks run, Greene county, the old gentleman was wont to ask whom he met,
"De ye ken one Jamie Miller, the stone mason, who lives on Clarks run, Greene county, Ohio ?"
Ere the elder Miller arrived at his son's home, he found that his son, Jamie, was better known
here and in Scotland than at any intermediate point.
After the building of the jail had been awarded to him, James Miller set to work upon his task,
and completed it ready to turn over to the county on December 16, 1815. The jail building was
located in the center of the public square, north of the court house, so that the west end of the
former was in the line of the east end of the latter. The jail extended lengthwise north and south.
It was the intention of the commissioners to build a jail that would successfully contain the
prisoners and would withstand the ravages of fire. The building was used for jail purposes until
May 5, 1836.
Notwithstanding the precautions of the sheriff and the commissioners this stone jail was broken
no less than three times during the years of its
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 145
usefulness. On March 4, 1822, John . French was allowed a dollar and a quarter for repairing a
"breach made in the jail by Prisoners." The commissioners were compelled to repair damages
resulting from the same cause by orders dated April, 1823, and March 10, 1824.
Nineteen years after Miller turned the jail over to the commissioners, it became almost unfit for
use and a new and fifth jail building was planned. While the new jail was in the process of
construction, the old stone jail was used for lodgment of prisoners. Shortly before the new
building was completed, the latter was sold at auction along with the old office. The latter was
bought by Samuel Crumbaugh for forty-three dollars and fifty cents, and, possibly because of
some sentiment, the old jail was purchased by its builder, James Miller, for one hundred and
forty-three dollars.
THE FIFTH JAIL.
After the commissioners had decided that the old stone jail was no longer fit for use, they began
in earnest to plan for a new building. Before they brought forth their adverse opinion of the old
jail, dated January 22, 1834, they had considered the erection of a new jail at their meeting on
August 1, 1833. When they began making plans for the new jail after January 22, 1834, they
decided that it should be of stone and the material should be obtained at the quarry of Daniel
Dean. On April 1, 1834, they went to Dayton to get some ideas concerning jail construction, for
which journey they allowed themselves two dollars each. After they returned from their tour of
investigation, they decided on that day to suspend the construction of a new jail and repair the old
one.
The question was taken up again at their meeting on June 7, 1834, and the commissioners
decided to go to Chillicothe to get additional data concerning jail construction. Shortly after their
return, they decided upon the immediate construction of the new jail and advertised the sale of
the construction work to the lowest bidder. The work was let to Daniel Lewis on September 2,
1834, for the sum of forty-six hundred dollars. The building, which was of brick and was two
stories high,, was to be located on the northeast corner of the square, twenty feet from the east
line of the square. It was to face the north and was to be forty-four feet long and forty feet wide.
The first arrangement provided for alleys, twelve feet wide, one on the south side of the building
and one on the east side. There were requests made by the citizens of Xenia to change this plan,
to which the commissioners hearkened and had the jail located twelve feet farther south, thus
cutting off the alley on that side. After the building was finished the commissioners enlarged the
jail lot by adding twelve feet on the south side thereof.
On June 24, 1836, the building was finished and turned over to the
10)
146 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
county, but soon afterward it was found necessary to make an addition to the building. The
sheriff's quarters needed a kitchen, which was to be fourteen feet wide and sixteen feet long. The
erection of this was let to David Rader and William C. Robinson on July 4, 1836, for one
hundred and forty-six dollars.
THE SIXTH AND PRESENT JAIL.
The grand jury declared the old brick jail a nuisance in 1858, and John Fudge, one of the county
commissioners, was delegated on July J0, 1858, to examine sites for the erection of a new jail.
Apparently the commissioners realized at this time that it was desirable to establish the county
jail on some other site than on the public square. The matter of the selection of a site dragged
along until March 12, 1859, when the county fathers de cided to defer the building of a new jail
because of the lack of funds. Somewhat later in the year, the commissioners thought the time ripe
to take up the question again and they concluded to build the jail forthwith, using the funds
which had arisen from the dividends the county had received from its investment in railroad
stock. Yet the question of the site of the jail remained a difficult one to solve.
DETERMINING THE SITE FOR THE NEW JAIL.
The commissioners were not alone in their belief that the county bastile should be located on
some other spot than the public square, for on September 1, 1859, four hundred and twenty-eight
citizens of the county petitioned the county fathers to locate the jail on some other site than on
the public square. They maintained that the square should be preserved unobstructed by any
buildings other than the court house. It is quite possible that the greater number of these
petitioners were residents of Xenia.
In addition to this petition the common council of Xenia also sought to bring pressure upon the
board of commissioners, in order that the new jail should not be erected on the public square.
The methods used by the council almost resulted fatally to the object which they had in mind.
Along in the '20S the associate judges had granted the city of Xenia the right to build a market
house on the public square, fronting Market street, then Third street, but this building gradually
fell into disuse and the commissioners ordered the city to remove it on March 12, 1859. The
common council did not readily assent to the request of the commissioners, much to the
discomfiture of the latter body,. On September 1, 1859, the council notified the board of
commissioners that the city would remove the old market house, if the new jail would not be
erected on the public square. This proviso angered the board of commissioners because they
considered it bordered upon impudence and because the council had no right to place such
stipulations upon the re-
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 147
moval of the market house. Apparently out of pique the commissioners decided to locate the site
for the new jail on the public square.. This order was not passed unanimously, for one of the
board, Robert Jackson, maintained that the jail should not be erected as the commissioners
ordered, but he added that the city council should be forced to remove the market house. The
intention of the commissioners was not carried out, because they and the city council got together
on February 8, 1860, and the latter assented to remove the market house; however the record
does not reveal whether or not the commissioners gave the council assurance that the site for the
new jail would be located on the public square.
After the altercation with the city council was settled, the commissioners found resistance
coming from another quarter. On March 9, 1860, two petitions against the jail were read at a
meeting of the board. The first one was in opposition to the change of the site of the county jail,
because, in the first place, the building should be convenient to the court house, and in the second
place, because the purchase of another site would create a need for additional taxes. The second
petition was not only opposed to the change of site, but also to the erection of a new jail. These
latter petitioners were not in favor of a new jail, declaring that there was no necessity for it and
also that it would create the need of additional taxes "at a time when the burthen is sufficient
onerous." The commissioners could not entertain these petitions, since they thought that the
ruling motive for submitting these petitions was the fear of additional taxes. They declared this
position was untenable because the new site and the erection of the new jail would be paid for
out of the railroad dividend fund. They also felt that the fact that the grand jury had declared the
old jail was a nuisance was sufficient ground for the erection of a new jail.
At last on March 13, 1860, the commissioners, having determined definitely upon locating the
new jail off the public square, bought from James McCarty the north half of in-lot No. 64, on the
south side of Market street, for nine hundred and fifty dollars. This lot is sixty-six feet wide and
eighty-two and one-half feet deep. This location did not please some of the women residents of
the city who framed a petition against the action of the board. They felt that the influence of
taking prisoners to and from the jail along Market street to the court house would be bad and
unsightly. The ladies did not present the petition in person but placed it in the hands of John
Alexander to submit to the board. Anticipating this same condition, the commissioners. had
already bought additional land so located that a passage way from the jail. to the court house
would open on Greene street. This tract was a part of lot No. 64, fronting on Whiteman street,
and was sixty-six feet wide and eighty-two and one-half feet deep, having a thirty-three
148 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
foot front on Greene street. This land was purchased from Samuel Crumbaugh on April 4, 1860,
for thirteen hundred and fifty dollars. On April 17, a part of this last realty acquisition, forty-two
by sixty-seven feet on the southeast corner, was sold to David Rader. On this date John B.
Gowdy; David Rader and George F. Payne were allowed the use of this alley to the jail from
Greene street. This passage off Greene street is still in use.
THE BUILDING OF THE JAIL.
Bids for the erection of the new jail were ordered t0 be advertised for, March 13, 1860, and on
April 16 the construction of the building was let to John Scott. The building, which included the
sheriff's residence as well as the jail, was to be of brick. It was turned over to the sheriff on
December 8, 1860. During the time in which the jail was in the process of construction, a
temporary place for the lodgment of prisoners had to be provided and a "lock-up" was built by
the city of Xenia aided by the county.
At first the jail lot was inclosed partly by a picket fence and partly by a closed one. These were
built by Norris & Miller for eighty-eight dollars and sixty-seven cents. They were torn down later
and in their stead on the north and east was placed a part of the old iron fence which was taken
down from around the court house in 1891. On October 4, 1875, the building of a stable for the
use of the sheriff was let to J. M. and W. Rader and Samuel Peterson. This structure, which was
made of brick, was twenty-five by forty-nine feet. Its total cost was somewhat in excess of six
hundred dollars.
RULES FOR THE USE OF THE JAIL.
After the new jail was turned over to the sheriff on December 8, 1860, the commissioners drafted
a set of rules governing the use of the building and its inmates and these rules were enforced on
January 1, 1861. The first one determined the parts of the building which should be used by
different kinds of prisoners. The cells on the balcony in the west hall were designed for the
confinement of female prisoners; also the balcony and room at the head of the box staircase,
extending from the jailor's office. The east hall and cells were designed for prisoners who were
charged with more serious crimes and the west hall and cells below the balcony for those'
charged with lesser misdemeanors. The second rule had to do with the care of the building. Every
four months the entire inside walls of the jail were to be whitewashed, but the iron work was to
receive no coat of calcimine. Each cell in the prison during its period of occupancy had to be
cleaned thoroughly every two weeks. The third and last rule, determined among other things that
the prisoners, who were well behaved, would be permitted the use of the halls in the day time,
but each one had to be locked in his cell at eight o'clock in the evening.
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 149
At this time (1918) this jail, which was finished in 1860, is doing good service. It has been kept
in a good state of repair and it bids fair to be a place for the lodgment of the county's prisoners
for several years to come.
THE GREENE COUNTY INFIRMARY.
In the first twenty-five years of the existence of the state the principles followed in caring for the
poor and destitute were not at all in accordance with the methods now in use. It was the practice
in those days for some landowner or the operator of a woolen mill or some other industry to
engage the services of the unfortunates in their service by making application to the township
trustees. The unfortunate was then bound out to the lowest bidder, for there was some
competition among landowners and the like for his service, because pauper labor was very cheap.
After the pauper entered the service of the successful applicant, it was the duty of the latter to
feed, clothe and otherwise care for his charge. It did not always follow that the owner of the
services of the pauper was strict in performing his part of the contract. This arrangement was not
entirely in accordance with the democratic feelings of the West, but the practice had grown up in
the eastern part of the country, which section had copied the system from England, where there
were until the thirties the most atrocious "poor laws."
As the years passed and the ebb and flow of emigration passed over the state of Ohio, a more
democratic spirit permeated the residents of this section which caused the people to look with
disfavor upon the promiscuous binding out of indigents without hedging about the binding-out
with sufficient safeguards to the pauper. At the same time with the increase in population, the
number of destitute persons increased and it became apparent that proper and more satisfactory
measures must be taken to provide for the comfort and care of paupers. To this end a bill "for the
establishment of county poor houses" was passed by the General Assembly, which provided that
any county having within its borders a sufficient number of paupers was empowered to purchase
grounds, whereon suitable buildings were to be erected, to which all the infirm and needy ones
were to be admitted. Thus the old vicious system of indiscriminately selling the services of
indigents by civil authority was abolished throughout the state.
THE BINDING OUT OF A PAUPER.
This did not mean that the practice of giving indigent children into the hands of persons to rear
and teach an occupation ceased. Even nowadays that is done. At the meeting of the infirmary
directors on February 8, 1839, the following was spread upon the minutes of the board:
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