GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 175 sidered him too accommodating, for he often started his mill on the Sab-bath for some of his customers who had brought their corn a long distance to be ground. This Sabbath-breaking outraged the religious sense of some of his neighbors, for they felt that it compromised the Christian reputation of the settlement ; accordingly, they threatened the owner of the mill with prosecution if he did not desist from this practice. The miller, knowing that he had the advantage, smiled blandly at the protestations of his neighbors and announced to them that in case any such proceedings were insti-tuted they could carry their corn some thirty or forty miles to the nearest mill or they could grind it themselves with the mortar and pestle in Indian fashion. It is needless to say that his good neighbors desisted from any such action out of consideration for their own convenience, and Owen Davis continued to serve his customers on the Sabbath when they could not come at another time, for he felt that such cases were instances where the "ox was in the ditch." Moreover, this jolly miller was as pugnacious as he was accommodating, for at the meeting of the first court of common pleas of Greene county he plead guilty on August 2, 1803, to a charge of assault and was duly fined eight dollars. It seems that Davis had charged a settler from Warren county with stealing hogs and the latter had resented the accusa-tion with such vehemence that a fistic encounter resulted, in which the miller had the better of the bargain. After the fight Davis repaired himself to the county seat of justice where tradition says he addressed his son-in-law, Gen. Benjamin Whiteman, who was one of the associate judges, after some such manner : "Well, Ben, I've whipped that hog thief. and now what's the damage?" And after paying his fine, he shook his fist at the judge and said, "Yes, Ben, if you'd steal a hog, I'd whip you, too." In 1805 Davis sold his mill on Beaver creek to Jacob Smith, and removed to Miami township where he spent the rest of his life. There, on the present site of the town of Clifton, he erected the first mill in Miami township, the stone foundation of which can still be seen (1918) near the saw-mill, east of the present Clifton mill. Here he served his customers until his death on February 18, 1818. A LATER OWNER OF THE MILL. The fact that there was a mill in this county had some influence upon the settlement of this section, and it was not long after it was opened for business that the sound of the ax could be heard above the mill on Beaver creek, where John Thomas, John Webb and John Kizer were erecting their cabins out of the logs which they had cut out of the neighboring forest. Soon, however, the little mill proved inadequate for the increasing trade and it was abandoned by its new 0wner, Jacob Smith, who erected a larger 176 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO one nearby, a frame structure. He converted this into a woolen-mill later. From a woolen-mill it was changed into a cotton-mill and from that back to a woolen-mill. In October, 1815, James Scott, a young native of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, came with his brother, John, into Greene county to buy a mill and settle here in business. After a few weeks spent in inspecting the mills in this part of the state, he purchased the old mill and the sur-rounding property from Jacob Smith. After the purchase was contracted, Scott and his brother started back to their native state, but the horse of the former died before they reached the Scioto river. Scott, who was very fond of fine horses, knew that he could not find one to his liking here in the West, and he decided to go the remainder of the distance on foot. His average rate of travel on foot the rest of the journey was from forty-five to forty-seven miles a day. The trip was not without incident, for when the two brothers reached a point twenty-five miles this side of Pittsburgh, John became ill and their progress was delayed for some six weeks pending his recovery. In the February of 1816, Scott returned to Greene county and took charge of the old mill, making the entire journey on foot, because he did not anticipate the immediate use of a horse after his arrival here. In the fall of 1816 he returned to Pennsylvania on horesback for his bride, Elizabeth S. Shannon, and soon after their marriage the young people moved to this county in a wagon. They lived in the cabin which was the first county seat of justice, and John Scott lived with them. A few days after they had arrived in the county, Scott and his bride went to Xenia to purchase some necessary household furnishings, and among the articles they bought at the store of James Gowdy was a Dutch oven, a three-legged affair which the early settlers made constant use of in the preparation of the homely but nutritious fare of the pioneer days. The nearest market which James Scott had for the surplus product of his industry was at Cincinnati, and he often sent loads of flour to that young city in an early day by four-horse teams. On one occasion he employed one of his neighbors to take a load of flour to Cincinnati and the trip down was without event. On the return trip, however, the driver's difficulty began. After he entered the forests of Brown and Clermont counties, which were unbroken, he lost his way. He wandered around in the -woods there for several days, but finally reached the mill after an absence of three weeks. JAMES GALLOWAY, SR. Not long after the settlement on Beaver creek, settlers began to enter other parts of what later became Greene county, and one other region of this section was the north central portion of the county. The first settler GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 177 in this north central part was James Galloway, Sr., that g-rand old pioneer who was a very active participant in the making of the early history of the county. James Galloway was born in Pennsylvania on May 2, 1750, and there grew to manhood. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he enlisted in the American cause and, because he was an expert hunter, he was detailed to furnish game for the unit of which he was a member. While the war was in progress, he married Rebecca Junkin, of Cumber-land county, Pennsylvania, November 23, 1778, and then removed to Kentucky. There he stayed for several years, associated with Daniel Boone and the other pioneers of that section, and took part in George Rogers Clark's second expedition against Oldtown. James Galloway's pioneer activities inevitably brought him into conflict with the Indians and incidentally with Simon Girty. At one time when he was unarmed, he met Girty, who fired upon him. Although his wound was dangerous, he wheeled his horse and galloped back to the camp a mile distant, arriving there in a fainting condition. It was found that the ball had passed through the shoulder and lodged near the back of the neck. After carrying the bullet for many years, it was extracted by Dr. Joshua Martin. Even though the ball was a source of great annoyance to him, it served as a barometer to his neighbors, the wound being much affected by the state of the weather. It was early in the spring of 1798 that James Galloway, Sr., brought his family from Bourbon county, Kentucky, and settled five miles north of the present site of Xenia, west of the Little Miami river, opposite the place where the Miami Powder Mills now stand. His family consisted at first of four sons, James, Jr., Samuel, William, Andrew and one daughter, Rebecca, whose influence on the distinguished Shawnee chieftain, Tecumseh, has already been alluded to. Afterward the family was enlarged by the birth of another son, Anthony, and a daughter, Ann. It is a matter of interesting conjecture as to how Galloway erected his cabin, for there were no settlers in that part of the county, since his sons were mere children, the oldest, James, Jr., being only a lad of sixteen years. Suffice it to say, the resourceful pioneer soon had a place for his family. Again, the matter of providing food must have been a serious problem to this old settler whose family was quite large, as he could not carry with him many provisions when he entered this wilderness. Fortunately, the surrounding woods were full of game and James Galloway was a hunter almost without a peer. In those early days the settlers almost universally were moderate users of whisky, but seldom imbibed it to excess. Men in all walks of life had ( 12 ) 178 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO their supply, and any occasion of note, such as the sale of a farm or the signing of a contract, was duly celebrated by an appropriate drink. As the country became settled, a continuous supply of whisky became a necessity, for, although it was not so essential as bread, it was used to a great extent as a medicine. The country was new and chills and ague prevailed. Accordingly, Galloway erected a distillery on the small stream which formerly crossed the Yellow Springs pike, and there he supplied the wants of the settlers. In 1802, Galloway and his son, James, started to Louisville to see about the latter receiving the appointment of surveyor, and during their journey they heard Rev. Robert Armstrong preach. It was by the former's influence and persuasion that Reverend Armstrong came to what later became Greene county to minister to the needs of the settlers here. In this manner the first church society was formed here. A detailed description of this occurrence was written by Andrew Galloway, and this appears elsewhere in this chapter. The church society formed was the old Massies Creek congregation. OTHER PIONEERS. Other families became residents of the northern central part of the county. James Galloway, Jr., the blacksmith, and Adam McPherson had accompanied James Galloway, Sr., from Kentucky, and in the same year, 1798, Thomas Townsley settled near the falls of Massies creek. In 1799 or 1800 George Galloway settled on what became the Yellow Springs pike, just north and west of -the Little Miami river. In the opening year of the century, Solomon McCully settled north of the Little Miami river on what is now the Fairfield pike. Later, Arthur Forbes located on the farm which afterward became the holding of Robert A. Mitchell. John, James and David Anderson settled on what used to be called the Kershner farm, on the Yellow Springs and Dayton pike, and Ezekiel Hopping even farther north in the county. Reverend Armstrong bought a tract of three hundred and one acres from James Galloway, Sr., adjoining the holding of the latter, and James Andrews, the father-in-law of Reverend Armstrong, moved northward from Tennessee into Greene county and settled on a farm just west of the holding of Reverend Armstrong. James Andrews had a large family, consisting of Nancy, the wife of Reverend Armstrong, James, William, Rebecca, John, Hugh, George, Ebenezer and Elizabeth. He was a valuable asset to the settlement of the country, because he was a craftsman, making large and small spinning-wheels; stocking plows with wooden mold-boards and doing the general repair and wagon-making work of the neighborhood. George Junkin, one of the first blacksmiths of the county, estab- GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 179 lished his shop near the Fairfield pike, south of the R. A. Mitchell homestead. In this same neighborhood Matthew Quinn settled in 1803. When Frederick Bonner, Sr., came to Greene county in 1803, he bought two thousand acres of land, two miles south of Xenia. He was a Methodist and formed the nucleus of the Union settlement of that denomination in this county. He was joined by James Butler, Thomas Perkins and Gray Gary in 1804, and -in the following year Tinsley Heath, J. and I. Lloyd and mother, John Fires, Isaac Maitland and John Lewis came to this settlement. The year 1806 saw the arrival of Bennet and Horatio Maxey, and in 1807 Peter Pelham came, at which time the settlement became known as the Union settlement. In 1808 their numbers were increased by the coming of Philip Davis, Theodoric Spain and Alexander Stowel, most of whom had families. There were other families among the earliest settlers of the county. Those in the Beaver creek, Little Miami and Massies creek neighborhoods were Alexander Forbes, William Jenkins, ---- Bromagen, Mrs. Creswell, Alexander McCoy, John and James Stephenson, John Townsley, Josiah and Benjamin Grover, William Maxwell, David Puterbaugh, George Wolf, Jacob Nesbitt, James Tatman, Martin Shoup, Nathan and David Lamme, James Mitchell, Isaac Miller, Alexander McHatton, Andrew Stewart and Col. James Marrow. On Caesars creek Isaiah and William Sutton had settled shortly before 1803. Among the other early settlers of the Sugar creek neighborhood, besides the Vances and the Wilsons, were James Clancy, John and Joseph McKnight, Captain Lamb, William Tanner, James and William Snodgrass, James and Jacob Snowden, Abraham Von Eaton, David McLane and Joseph Robinson. REMINISCENCES OF FREDERICK BONNER, JR. In the early days when the pioneers began entering this new country which bore so much promise of becoming very fruitful, their means of transportation and communication were very rude and caused innumerable and almost unsurmountable difficulties to stand in the way of the incoming settlers. There were no roads except the narrow paths which were used by the military expeditions which had been sent into the heart of the state against the Indians. It is true that the trails of the redskins sufficed as some means of communication, but their utility was negligible, because they only joined the sites of their former villages. There were no bridges and the fords were dangerous. Nothing remained for the early residents of this county but to strike out across the country, following the line of least re-sistance, to the site of their intended abodes. 180 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Such travel was fraught with danger as is shown in the following reminiscences of Frederick Bonner, Jr., who related the experience of his father, Frederick Bonner, Sr., one of the early settlers of this county when he traveled northward from Cincinnati through the dense forest which bordered the banks of the Little Miami, toward the territory which was erected into Greene county in the year in which he became a resident of this section. In the year 1802, father sold his land in Virginia (five hundred. acres) for two thousand dollars, and bought two surveys of one thousand acres each, in what was then the Northwest Territory, at a cost of two thousand dollars. Upon visiting it, and finding it well situated, he returned and began preparations for moving on it the following season. On Saturday, April 1, 1803, we started, and went as far as Petersburg, and remained until Monday. Two other families joined us, and our outfit was all put in two covered wagons, including household goods, a chest of carpenter's tools, and a turning-lathe. To each of these were attached four horses, with bells on the leaders. A one-horse wagon carried the provisions, and the females when they became tired of walking. In addition to these we had a canvas to sleep under at night. On Monday we resumed our long journey to the far west, pursuing a route through southern Virginia, which, in a few days, brought us within view of the mountains ; first, the peaks of the Blue Ridge, then the Alleghany and Cumberland. Crossing these in safety, we reached Kentucky, passing along the Crab Orchard road. Arriving at Lexington, we pushed on to Cincinnati (then a village of fifteen hundred), crossing the Ohio river at that place, May 10, 1803, and camping near the mouth of Deer creek, then some distance from the village. Next morning we went up the river into the Little Miami valley, crossing the river a little above Cincinnati. Here we encountered our first serious difficulty. The water was high, and running swiftly. Our four-horse wagon crossed without accident ; but when the wagon containing the wife of a Mr. Day proceeded as far as the middle, the swiftest part of the stream, one of the horses fell and could not rise. Mr. Day, in attempting to assist, was washed off down the stream with the horses. Father went to his assistance, but the water tripped him up, and he also went struggling down the river to the alarm of all. Fortunately, he got on the same side from which he entered, while Day was still struggling in the river near his horses. Finally, they succeeded in fastening a chain to the end of the tongue, and hitching our horses to it, we drew the wagon out. All this time Day's wife and child were in the wagon, in imminent danger of being capsized into the river and washed away. Mr. Day and family located near the vicinity of this accident and we followed up the river to the present site of Milford, where we found a vacant cabin which father rented for two months. Into this we moved and remained until we could make arrangements to go to our land in Greene county. In June father and some Of the boys went to the land, and selected a spot to build a cabin near Glady run, a branch of the Little Miami, which was to accommodate us as our new home in the woods. SAMUEL PETERSON, A REAL PIONEER. Although not numbered among the first comers to Greene county, Sam-uel Peterson was a real pioneer of Greene county, where he lived the rugged life of the early settler. He was a native of Virginia, but he left his native state for Greene county in 1815, Where he assisted his brother-in-law, Joseph Bootes, on the latter's farm. He made the long trip on horseback, but after he had remained here during the summer, he returned to the Old Dominion. In the fall following, his father came to this county, bringing with him the 181 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO entire family of five sons and two daughters, and located on a five-hundred-acre tract on Caesars creek south of Xenia, which he had previously purchased. Soon after the arrival of the family, one of the daughters married Jonathan Ketterman, a former resident of the county, and Samuel was sent by his father to Chillicothe to buy a new saddle, a present for the bride, before she began her journey back to her native state with her husband. The father and his five stalwart sons immediately began a vigorous assault upon the dense forest that surrounded them and soon a few acres were cleared and ready to be planted in corn. Markets for this grain were not easily found in those days and if one wished to gain the money equivalent for his crop, he had to pass it through a long process of exchanges. The Petersons first shelled the corn and they then took it to a distillery where they had it made into whisky. The liquor was taken to an iron furnace where it was traded for iron which they sold for a good price. In this manner, decidedly indirect as it was, they found a market for their corn. Samuel Peterson was a powerful man and his feats of strength made him the envy of the young men far and near. He could outlift any young man in the neighborhood with a hand spike at a log-rolling or house-raising, and could cut the timber and make four hundred and fifty rails in one day. It was difficult in those early days to market such a valuable product as flour. When Samuel Peterson was only twenty-one years of age he and four other young men each took a four-horse load of flour to Cincinnati from the Oldtown mill for William Beall. They started early in the morning with ten barrels each and they succeeded, by doubling their teams at the hills, in reaching the present location of Spring Valley by nightfall. By the end of the next day, they stopped within a mile of Waynesville, where Beall hired another team which enabled them to push forward more speedily. After they had reached Cincinnati, they were paid one dollar a barrel for the hauling and started home, making the entire trip in eleven days. The miller, however, was not able to dispose of his product in Cincinnati and he shipped it to New Orleans, from which point he walked back home. In 1882 Peterson was married, after which he lived with his parents for a few years. He then moved to a tract of one hundred acres of unbroken wilderness which was given him by his father. Being a progressive young man, he had previously erected a hewed-log house on his holding. which was considered one of the most imposing structures in the county in those days. As the clearing of his farm progressed very slowly, since he worked by him-self, he removed to Xenia in 1825, where he engaged in wagon-making, but he returned to his farm in 1827. He remained there until 1865, bringing his farm to a high state of cultivation. He then sold his farm and bought another about five miles southeast of Xenia. After the death of his wife 182 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO in 1872, he removed to Xenia, where he spent the rest of his life in well-earned retirement. PIONEER PRICES. Jacob Mills, the companion of Daniel Wilson, the first settler of Greene county, left his home in Warren county in 1809 and removed with his family to Greene county, settling near Clifton, where he and his sons, Jacob, Jr., Daniel, Thomas and John literally hewed a farm out of the wilderness which surrounded their cabin home. Indians often visited the Mills home, but they did not offer any resistance to the entrance of the white men. Jacob Mills, Sr., while a resident of Warren county was appointed major of the first regiment of militia that was organized in the state. After his re-moval to this county, he was elected justice of the peace of Miami township and during his incumbency of nine years, he performed more marriage ceremonies than any other justice in the state. In the autumn of 1809 an old-fashioned singing-school was taught in Xenia by David Wilson, the oldest son of John Wilson, the first settler in Greene county. Young John Mills was anxious to attend in order to cultivate his musical talent, and to see the town of Xenia, which then consisted of some thirty log houses. The singing-school was conducted in the court house, then just finished, and the pioneer girls came on horseback, escorted by their beaux who gallantly assisted them from their mounts. The young ladies were dressed in linsey and a few of the elite appeared in calico, then the extreme of fashion aspired to by a few. All of this, as well as the session of the singing-school, was a source of great interest to young John Mills, and he sallied forth to see the other points of interest in the town. He tells us that at that time all the dwellings were made of logs, excepting one frame house and the brick court house. In front of the site of the present Xenia National bank was a stagnant pond of water, which was the common meeting place of all the geese, ducks and hogs of the neighborhood. Opposite the court house stood a hewed-log structure in which Major Beatty kept a tavern. The forest extended almost up to the court house, for on the present site of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church stood a log cabin belonging to a Mr. Barnes, who had erected his residence in the woods. During the winter of the same year, 1809, John Mills had another occasion to visit Xenia, and he saw a business like young settler selling cider in front of the court house at twelve and one-half cents, one "bit", a quart. He had his stand beside a large stump in the street, by the side of which he built a fire. Being desirous of pleasing his customers as nearly as possible, he heated the cider to a drinkable temperature by placing in the cider a rod of iron which he had heated in the fire. As the rod sizzled in the liquor, he served his patrons. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 183 Prices of many commodities then were much higher than they are now. John Mills related that the material for his wedding suit cost one dollar a yard; the same could now be purchased for a few cents. Labor was cheap, fifty and seventy-five cents being the usual daily wage. Salt, which was so necessary to the early settler, but yet so very dear, was hauled from Cincin-nati, four barrels by a four-horse team, and it was sold readily for four dollars a bushel. Calico was from sixty-two cents to one dollar a yard. In those days a man could sell a load of grain and expend the entire price he received for a small quantity of coarse dry goods. -Whisky was then only three cents a quart. THE CABIN OF THE PIONEER. As soon as possible after the settler and his family had entered the settlement and had decided upon the site for his cabin, his neighbors set a day for the "house raising," which was the occasion for a holiday in the settlement. On the appointed day, the people from the surrounding neighborhood, sturdy men, young boys and girls, the pioneer matrons, young swains and laughing maidens, gathered at the site for the establishment of the new home. A party was delegated as wood-choppers whose business it was to fell the trees and cut them to proper lengths, and a man with a team was near at hand to drag to the cabin site the logs as they were cut, but if they were near enough, the logs were "snaked" along by strong hands and a log chain. The logs were then sorted and placed conveniently for the builders, and two or more men who were expert with the ax went in search of a tree whose grain was straight enough for making clapboards. Another party was employed in making puncheons, split logs hewed on the flat side, for the cabin floor. When all was ready for the raising of the house, four experts were placed, one at each corner, to notch and place the logs, while the rest of the party laid the puncheon floor. Three openings were left in the wall, one about four feet wide for the door, another for the window, and a large one for fireplace, on the outside of which the wooden chimney was erected. The chimney was made of sticks laid across each other, with the interstices and the inside plastered up with clay. After the walls were raised to the desired height, the chinks between the logs were filled with "cat" and clay. The clapboard roof was held down by the trunks of small saplings split and laid lengthwise and bound firmly to the structure underneath. Not a nail was used in the structure, wooden pegs being used. After the rollicking house-raisers had gone home, for building a new settler's cabin was always an occasion of festivity, the new resident of the neighborhood began planning to make his house habitable. He soon fashioned a rude puncheon table and some three-legged stools, for those with 184 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO four legs would not adjust themselves to the rough floor. He then made his bed, a low platform built in a convenient corner. As the family grew, a puncheon floor was laid on the rafters, leaving a hole through which a ladder extended into the attic thus formed. Shelves which were supported by wooden pins driven into the walls were placed at convenient points, and on these the pioneer housewife displayed her treasured pewter dishes, basins, and spoons. After the first visit to the nearest supply store, pots were purchased and hung under the shelves. The settler's long rifle hung on a rack behind the door. A rude shovel and a pair of clumsy tongs stood by the wide fireplace. In a corner was the spinning wheel. On pegs driven in the walls hung the extra clothing and bedding of the household. In winter, festoons of dried apples and pumpkin hung from the rafters. Before the day of the candle, the cabin was lighted in the evening by pine or hickory knots, and sometimes the roaring fire in the wide mouth of the fire place furnished the only illumination. Because of the strenuous life of the times and the want of any reason for remaining up at night, the tired pioneer sought his bed early and lighting the cabin was not a necessity. THE PIONEER'S FOOD. Food was plentiful. Game of all kinds was to be had for the shooting and every settler had a long rifle and knew how to use it. Corn was easily grown and there was always an ample supply of it, even though it had to be eaten, at times, when it was half ground, for the hand power mill of Owen Davis did little more than crack the grains. "Pone" and "dodger" were the staple pastry products, and even though they would not have tickled the palate of an epicure, they very effectually stilled the hunger of the pioneer after a hard day's work in the clearing. Both of these homely products of the pioneer culinary art were about the same in make-up, for they were both made out of cornmeal, baked in a Dutch oven, or on a slab of wood or sometimes on a hot stone. The batter was composed of three ingredients, meal, salt and water, and as long as the salt could be obtained, the family was happy. Meal and water were always to be had, but there were times when it was difficult to obtain salt. When salt was scarce, it often required five bushels of wheat in trade to get one bushel of it. In order to effect a variety, some of the good pioneer women mixed pumpkin with the meal batter and thus concocted some kind of meal-pumpkin bread, the name of which seems to have been lost. Corn was also dried in season and was also converted into hominy, but those persons were indeed wretched who were reduced to "hog and hominy." Corn-meal was also molded into "Johnny" cakes, which were baked on a slanting board before the fire. Sometimes 185 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO the batter was packed in cabbage leaves, the product then being called ash cake. It was several years after the first settlement of the county before wheat was introduced; then some families had wheat bread once a week, usually in the form of biscuits, but most of the wheat was sold. MEAT OBTAINED FOR THE SHOOTING. Venison, bear meat, squirrel and other game were to be had at all seasons of the year. Deer meat was frequently dried, as was beef, it then being called "jerked" venison, but for many years there was such an abundance of game available that there was little necessity for laying in a quantity of meat. The friendly hard maple tree furnished the only sugar the settlers had, and it was also the means by which many families could barter for commodities which they could not make at home. It is remembered how Nimrod Haddox was engrossed in making sugar on a large scale when he was overtaken by the flood which carried away a great part of his product. Maple sugar always commanded a good price and many settlers derived a larger revenue from their sugar crop, as did Haddox, than from anything else on the farm. Molasses was plentiful and there are people yet who do not dislike corn' cakes and genuine maple molasses. Wild honey was also abundant and the finding of a bee-tree was hailed with pleasure in the pioneer household. Robbing the rustic hive was a rather precarious under-taking, but such an operation generally resulted in gaining several buckets-ful of honey and more stings from the infuriated insects. Of garden vegetables and berries there were but few for several years. There is no reference in the early pioneer writings to many of our com-monest garden vegetables being in use in the early days of the county. Beets, peas, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, cucumbers and several others were not to be found in the garden of the early settler. Even the potato was not as common as one might think, since it is a native of America, but the friendly pumpkin and a kind of bean, familiarly known as the "cornfield" bean, grew alongside the first cornstalks in the county. It is not certain when the first stove came into use, but there were only a few in use in the county until the beginnings of the '50s. The first stoves were crude affairs, and from the pictures of the stoves for kitchen use which appear in the local newspapers in the '40s, they must have been hard to handle. Before the advent of the stove, the cooking was all done before the open fire. The three-legged Dutch oven with iron lid, spiders, skillets and the ever-present iron kettle comprised the chief utensils for boiling, roasting, baking and frying. A leg of venison, a wild turkey, or 186 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO the ham of a pioneer porker was hung up before the fireplace by a strong cord, and one of the younger members of the household was delegated to turn the roast so that it would be nicely browned on all sides ; however, the unlucky youngster was generally as well roasted as the joint of meat. The family washing was usually done in the yard around the cabin, the water being heated in a large kettle. The washing-machine was as unknown as the flying-machine. The same kettle that was used in the washing was used in the spring in making the family soap for the year. Every well-regulated pioneer household had its ash hopper and its barrel into which every , fragment of fat found its way. CLOTHING OF THE PIONEER. The dress of the pioneer was very plain and generally made of the fabric spun by the female members of the family. This was done altogether in the county until Jacob Smith started the first woolen-mill near where the first grain-mill was erected by Owen Davis. Each farmer had his small flock of sheep and his patch of flax. The wool was carded and the flax was prepared, and both were spun into the family linsey of the day. The men generally sowed the flax, gathered and broke it, and left the women the succeeding steps in its transformation into material to be made into wearing apparel, namely, pulling, spreading to water, rolling, taking up, swingling, hackling, spinning, weaving and making into garments. It surely followed that the pioneer housewife was very economical in cutting out a garment so as to save as much goods as possible. It was seldom that the stoutest of our pioneer grandmothers ever required more than six yards for making a dress for themselves, and they generally had a remnant left for repairs. In fact, everything that the early settlers wore was made in the home : shoes to head gear, socks to mittens, pants to shirt. In addition to wool and flax, clothing was made of hemp and cotton and a mixture of flax and wool or linsey-woolsey. Many a pioneer had breeches (or pants, the word trousers never being used) made of leather, sometimes tanned and sometimes not. And instances are on record where the Spanish-needle was treated as flax and a very substantial cloth made from its fiber. Nearly all classes of people of both sexes wore moccasins of buckskin in winter, while the summer season saw the entire population barefooted. Footwear was ac-counted such a burden (or it might have been an economical measure), the pioneer lasses would carry their shoes to church, stop just before arriving at their destination at some convenient place along the road and put on their shoes and stockings. After church they would take them off again and carry them home. Everyone of the period prior to the Civil War can recall three kinds GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 187 of cloth—linsey-woolsey, jean and flannel—made on the old home loom. Jean was given its beautiful brown color by the juice of the walnut hull and the famous "butter-nut" shirt was known throughout the Mississippi valley. The "pepper-and-salt" woolen cloth was made by using white wool for the warp and black wool for the woof. Every family had its spinning-wheel, reels, looms, warping-bars, winding-blades and all the necessary paraphernalia for carding, spinning and weaving. For at least a quarter of a century after Greene county was settled, every family commonly carded the wool for the family clothing on little cards ten inches long and four inches wide. The children picked the wool and helped to card it, but it was left to the mother and her daughters to do the weaving. AMUSEMENTS OF THE PIONEERS. Pioneer life in Greene county was far from being grave and leaden, for the early settlers seasoned their toil with the wholesome pleasures of their day. Harvestings, husking-bees, quiltings, house-raisings, apple-peelings, and, in any prolonged task, the neighbors came in to help, and this was always the signal for a frolic. They did not forget the unfortunate, for if any neighbor was sick or in need, all hands came out and garnered his grain. The amusements of the early settlers were simple. There were no moving picture shows to attend no shows of any kind, and the many games which we have today were then unknown. Then there were singing-schools, spell-ing-matches and "ciphering" contests which were mental diversions that were a source of more or less amusement to the young folk. Some danced at their homes and others thought the dance was to be utterly tabooed. But many of the best people danced to the music of the fiddle never the violin. The Virginia reel, the schottische, the minuet and the waltz were the favorite dance measures. There was a distinctive "hoe-down" and a number of jigs and shuffles, which were always called for at every gathering. Jumping, running, foot races, wrestling and throwing weights were indulged in whenever young men congregated at log-rollings, house-raisings, and the like. It was a great honor to be known as the best wrestler (always called "rastler") in the community, and every young man thus honored prided himself on his ability to throw his adversary with "overholds" in what was called the "side rastle." Fist fights were common, as occurred between Aaron Beall and Benjamin Kizer at Oldtown atter drill in 1806. Scientific boxing was unknown and boxing gloves would have been laughed at throughout the entire county. As it used to be expressed, "they went at it hammer and tongs." The event in the fall harvest was the husking-bee, which was an occasion of jollity and festivity, in which young and old, little and big, took part. Before the appointed date for the affair, the boys had gone through 188 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO the corn field and had snapped off the ears in the husk. They had brought the spoil in from the field and had heaped it high in the barn yard. The pile was from four to five feet high and was built symmetrically from end to end so that it could be equally divided by the rail which was laid across the middle. In the evening the husking party assembled in the moonlight. Two captains, already chosen, selected their adherents alternately from the crowd until every one was chosen, and then some trusted person from each party inspected the pile for any inequalities in its symmetry. The middle of the pile was then determined and then it was cut at that point. When all was ready each party fell to husking, throwing the ears over the pile in front and the husks behind. Each side worked feverishly, some members pausing perhaps to take a nip from a passing jug. Throughout the contest the captains urged on his helpers by voice and example, and the side which finished first raised their leader to their shoulders with shouts of triumph. The triumphant shouts were the signal to the mothers, sisters and sweet-hearts who were preparing the feast for the exhausted huskers that the pioneer banquet had soon to be ready. Soon they appeared and sat down before the bountiful repast which melted before their sharp appetites. The tables were soon cleared and some thoughtful swain who had brought his fiddle along drew the bow across the strings and struck up a merry tune. Feet began to move to the music and then the dance began. Some fortunate young husker who had saved the red ears which he had husked, now claimed his right of kissing the blushing- young pioneer damsel of his choice amid the banterings and teasing of his companions. It was not until a late or, more properly, an early hour was reached, that the party wended its way homeward, exhausted but happy after the night of pleasure. WROUGHT BETTER THAN THEY KNEW. Thus the early settlers of Greene county lived their lives which were ever full of dreary toil, but withal replete with their pursuit of the wholesome pleasures which added sufficient color to their simple lives. They were not worried by the fluctuations of the market, nor were the good wives perplexed by the radical changes in the style of their garments. Their lives when compared to the hustle and bustle of today seem drab, but they were working with a definite and wonderful objective in view, the making of the wilderness a habitable place in which their children could live in peace and plenty. However, it can be truthfully said that few of those sturdy old pioneers worked with this as a conscious objective. They wrought well—perhaps better than they knew. The heritage of prosperity and plenty which the left the present generation should be preserved and defended by the present citizens of the county and handed down to posterity as unsullied as it was bequeathed to them. CHAPTER IX TOWNSHIPS OF GREENE COUNTY. Greene county now has twelve townships, although during its career of one hundred fifteen years there have been fourteen erected within its borders. The setting off of Champaign county in 1805 bereft Greene county of one of its townships, its largest, Mad River, and the erection of Clark county in 1817 caused another, Vance, to become a memory. The large expanse of territory which composed this county in 1803 was divided by the associate judges at their first meeting on May 10, 1803, into four townships; namely, Sugarcreek, Caesarscreek, Mad River and Beavercreek townships. At that time Sugarcreek township embraced all of what is now included in that township, nearly all of Spring Valley town-ship and the southwest part of Xenia township. Caesarscreek township included all the southeastern part of the county and also the site of the city Xenia. Mad River township was the largest one of all, for it began at the southern boundary of the ninth range in what is now Clark county, about two miles north of Osborn, and extended to the northern limits of the state the full width of the county of Greene. Beavercreek township was the second largest one, including all that part of the county north of Sugarcreek and Caesarscreek and south of the southern boundary of the ninth range in Clark county. It then contained the greater part of the site of Springfield. As the days passed, and the increase in the population demanded the erection of administrative divisions of the county, other townships were established. Xenia township was established in 18̊5, Bath township in 1807, Miami township in 1808, Silvercreek and Ross townships in T811, Vance township in 1812, Cedarville township in 1850, New Jasper township in 1853, Spring Valley township in 1856 and Jefferson township in 1858. TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS. Ohio rejoices in a multiplicity of township officials and the list seems to be increasing instead of decreasing. At the head of the official family of each township is a group of five officials—three trustees, a clerk and a treasurer—while below this group is a corps of justices of the peace, a posse of constables, a set of assessors--and, lastly, a group of highway superin-tendents. In addition to this lengthy list of officials, there are various and 190 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO sundry other positions which come under and are subsidiary to the highway superintendent. The duties performed by the three trustees, the clerk and the treasurer, are all in the hands of one man in the townships of Indiana. Besides, the Indiana trustee has charge of all the schools, selects all the teachers and performs most of the duties of the township highway superintendent in Ohio, for which the Indiana trustee receives two dollars a day for each working day in the year. This by way of comparison. In Ohio each of the three trustees receive one dollar and a half a day for each day employed in, township work, and fifteen minutes is a day in the eyes of the law. Each township treasurer is allowed two per cent. on all the orders issued by him and this averages from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars per annum. Beginning- on January 1, 1918, the trustees will receive two dollars and a half a day. The clerks are paid about one hundred and fifty dollars a year on the average. The justices of the peace and constables are purely fee officers and their remuneration frequently approaches the point of the irreducible minimum. In fact, it is difficult to secure competent justices of the peace and they are constantly resigning so that it is difficult to keep the legal number in office. There is one township in Greene where it has been found to be impossible to find any one to serve in this capacity. Calls for the services of the township constable are very few. The township assessors are allowed four dollars a day and in the spring of 1917 in Greene county they were allowed thirty days to complete their work, but many of them performed all their duties in less than a week. Under the Cass act of 1915 each township was divided into a definite number of road districts, each of which was under the supervision of a township highway superintendent, but the White-Mulcahy act of 1917 revised the former act to some extent bringing about a reorganization of the town-ship administration of roads. Until lately the administration of roads was in rather an uncertain state in Greene county, but the advent of the newly elected township officials into office on January 1918, has operated to put into force the provisions of the last named act. TOWNSHIP OFFICIALS IN 1918. The appended statement gives the trustees, clerks, treasurers, assessors, justices of the peace and constables of each township, all of whom took office on January 1, 1918: Bath—Trustees, C. A. Wilson, C. L. Hoagland, John S. Hower; clerk, R. O. Routzong; treasurer, Harry E. Frahn ; justice of the peace, A. L. Shuey ; constables, Charles B. Snyder, M. W. Lasure, W. A. Schneider; as-sessor, William Sipe. Beavercreek—Trustees, A. D. Kendig, S. W. Hartman, David Archer; GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 191 clerk,. Lewis E. Stewart ; treasurer, J. E. Munger ; justice of the peace, C. C. Coy; constables, Jacob Stewart, G. E. Greene; assessor, G. E. Greene. Caesarscreek—Trustees, C. N. Bales, A. A. Conklin, L. R. jone,s; clerk, C. W. Mussetter; treasurer, G. M. Fawley ; justice of the peace, Charles I. McPherson; constables, W. L. Copsey; assessor, W. E. Mussetter. Cedarville—Trustees, M. W. Collins, R. S. Townsley, H. A. Turnbull; clerk, Andrew Jackson; treasurer, W. H. Barber; justice of the peace, Andrew Jackson, W. P. Townsley ; constable, H. A. McLean; assessor, C. E. Cooley. Jefferson—Trustees, R. W. Oglesbee, C. E. Hargrave, S. H. Vanniman; clerk, W. L. Cline ; treasurer, H. C. Fisher ; justices of the peace, L. S. O'Day, E. A. Story ; constable, F. L. Huffman; assessor, Charles Cline. Miami—Trustees, F. W. Johnson, Edward Meredith, M. W. Ault ; clerk, Towne Carlisle; treasurer, S. W. Cox ; justices of the peace, C. R. Baldwin, William Heffner; constables, Charles Coffman, A. J. Holland; as-sessor, J. A. Tibbs. New Jasper—Trustees, Ezra Brown, W. J. Fudge, E. L. Hagler ; clerk, O. M. Spahr; treasurer, Charles N. Fudge; justices of the peace, W. C. St. John, John Shirk ; constables, none elected in 1917; assessor, Marshall Brown. Ross—Trustees, John Shane, Theodore Hughes, S. K. Turnbull ; clerk, L. R. Rogers; treasurer, J. S. Lackey; justices of the peace, S. J. Tarr ; M. B. Swaney ; constable, Henry Cox ; assessor, Edwin Klontz. Silvercreek—Trustees, C. D. Lackey, Seymour Wade, Frank Johnson; clerk, Frank Shigley ; treasurer, Roy J. Moorman; justice of the peace, none elected in 1917 ; constable, A. Zerner ; assessor, John Q. Ross. Spring Valley—Trustees, John Walton, John W. Soward, Leander Spahr; clerk, Arch Copsey ; treasurer, Ray Eagle; justices of the peace, W. E. Guffy, J. W. Fulkerson; constable, William Copsey; assessor, Joseph Mason. Sugarcreek—Trustees, M. B. Spahr, Frank Wardlow, George Penewit ; clerk, W. W. Tate; treasurer, H. M. Turner ; justice of the peace, Oliver Watson; constable, R. H. Hopkins; assessor, Walton Spahr. Xenia—Trustees, Coleman Heaton, John W. Hedges, Fred Toews ; clerk, Harvey Elan; treasurer, Levi Rader ; justices of the peace, J. H. Mc-Pherson, J. E. Jones; constables. J. C. Andrews, Lester Arnold; assessor, J. E. Watts. RECORDS OF THE VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS. The following chapters devoted to historical sketches of the present twelve townships of the county are given in chronological order. The records are complete in some townships, but only partially so in others. Where the original petition is missing the record book of the commissioners 192 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO gives the exact date of the erection of the township and its original bounds. There were four townships, however, that were not erected as the result of petitions, the four original ones, Mad River, Sugarcreek, Beavercreek and Csarscreek township, being arbitrarily set off by the associate justices on May 10, 1803. One chapter is devoted to the two townships of the county which now no longer exist, Mad River and Vance townships. In these sketches of the townships the churches, lodges, schools, banks newspapers and larger towns are not to be discussed, being included in special chapters. CHAPTER X MAD RIVER AND VANCE TOWNSHIPS. When Greene county was organized in 1803, the General Assembly extended its northern limits to the northern boundary of the state. The county then was a narrow strip of territory about twenty-five miles wide which extended from the northern boundary of Warren county to the north-ern limit of the state. Of course, it was not the intention of the General Assembly that Greene county should henceforth retain this great extent, for in the act creating Greene, Montgomery, Warren and Butler counties, section 7 enacted that all the inhabitants in the newly erected counties of Montgomery and Greene living north of the south boundary of the ninth range of townships should be exempt from any tax for the purpose of erecting court houses and jails in those counties. Obviously then it was the intention of the Legislature that the natural northern limits of Greene county would be the southern boundary of the ninth range. On the other hand the Legislature had a definite purpose in seeing to it that the county should extend to the north boundary of the state, because that vast northern part of the territory of the Commonwealth was unorganized and not under any civil jurisdiction. This act then placed a semblance of civil authority over this section. Such an arrangement courted the organization of new counties out of the northern part of what was then Greene county, and this county was destined to maintain its extensive limits for only two years, for in 1805 Champaign county was erected, which caused Greene county to recede within the limits which the General Assembly intended for it, the southern boundary of the ninth range. The foregoing arrangement compelled the court of common pleas of Greene county to organize this territory north of the southern boundary of the ninth range and thus it was that this county erected the township of Mad River, only to lose it by the organization of new counties in the north. ONE OF THE FOUR ORIGINAL TOWNSHIPS. Mad River township was the largest of the four original townships organized by the court of common pleas on May 10, 1803, when the associate judges, William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman and James Bar-rett, met at the house of Owen Davis on Beaver creek in order to organize the county in accordance with the act creating the county. In fact these ( 13 ) 194 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO four townships were the only ones erected by the associate judges, for on the following year they were relieved from this duty by the commissioners, which office was established by an act of the General Assembly on February 14, 1804. After the judges had been duly installed in their official positions they then set about the laying off of the county into townships. When they had described the limits of Sugarcreek and Cazsarscreek townships, they erected Mad River township in accordance with the following order : All that part of the County lying North of the South boundary of the Ninth Range of Townships shall compose a third Township, called and known by the name of Mad River. Elections in said Township shall be held- at the house of Griffith Foos, in the Town of Springfield. This south boundary of Mad River township, the southern boundary of the ninth range of townships, extended east and west coincident with the National road, through the city of Springfield. It is needless to say that it was the largest township in the county, its width being that of the county from east to west and its length extending from its southern boundary to the northern limits of the state. THE FIRST ELECTION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP. In accordance with the order of the associate judges the election was held in Mad River township at the house of Griffith Foos in Springfield on June 25, 1803, for the purpose of selecting three justices of the peace, overseers of the poor, constables, a road master, house appraisers, listers of taxable property, a township clerk, fence viewers, township managers and the electors at this time also voted for a congressman. The judges of this election were James Woods, John Clark and Thomas Redman, and the clerks were John Dougherty and Robert Lowry. The poll-book of that election shows the following to be the qualified electors of the township at that time: Elijah Adamson, William Aims, Ezekiel Arrowsmith, Christian Aldrich, Paul Butler, Abner Barrett, James Barlow, Henry Bailey, Elijah Chapman, William Chapman, Thomas Cowhitch, John Clark, Walter Craig, Joseph Dickason, Amos Derrough, Isaac Dillon, Archibald Dowden, John Doyle, Thomas Davis, John Dougherty, James Demint, Christopher End-rick, Griffith Foos, John Forgey, John Gard, Henry Huffman, Elijah Har-bour, John Humphreys, Abraham Inlow, Joseph Hill, John Jackson, Thomas Hardin, William Kenton, Simon Kenton, Solomon Kelley, John Kelley, Abner Kelley', Barton Lovett, Arthur Layton, Archibald Lowry, William Layton, Joseph Layton, John Laferty, David Lowry, Robert Lowry, Alex-ander Miller, James Mitchell, William McDaniel, James McPherson, Adam McPherson, John McPherson, Robert McKenney, Christopher McGill, William Moore, Joseph McKenney, James Miller, Joseph McLain, Daniel GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 195 McKennon. Jonathan Milholland, John Miller, Thomas Moore, Christly Miller, Samuel McCollough, William Owens, Daniel Philips, William Palmer, William Powell, John Paul, Joseph Reed, Daniel Robinson, Robert Renneck, William Ross, Thomas Reed, Richard Robinson, Daniel Rector, Thomas Rogers, Charles Rector, Hugh Reed, John Rigdon, John Runyan, Stephen Runyan, Patrick Rock, Jacob Robinson, Phelie Rock, Thomas Red-man, Jeremiah Still, William Smith, Joseph Sutton, James Smith, Paulus Stewart, John Tucker, John Turman, John Tellis, John Taylor, James Ward, William Ward, William Thomas, Thomas West, William Woods, James Woods, Samuel Whiteman, Thomas Pierce and Hugh Cameron. In all there were one hundred and fifteen electors who took part in this election and this list enables the reader to determine the names of the earliest settlers of Mad River township. The result of this election shows that William McMillan received 50 votes, William Goforth, 55; Elias Langham, 1, and Jeremiah Morrow, 1. The associate judges had already determined that Mad River township should have three justices of the peace and Adam McPherson, Jonathan Millholland and Thomas Layton were the three candidates who received the highest number of votes. For overseers of the poor, Simon Kenton re-ceived 60 votes; John Humphreys, 71 ; Thomas Pierce, 21 ; Solomon Kelley, 5; Archibald Lowry, 12 ; Charles Rector, 11; John Clark, two ; Thomas Redman, one; Elijah Adamson, 40, and Thomas Davis, 66. The following was the vote for constables : John McPherson, one; Robert McKenney, 57; Joseph Reed, 98; William Chapman, 17; Thomas Moore, 66; William Ross, 17; John Gard, nine; Robert Renneck, five; James Demint, one; Jonathan Millholland, two; Paul Butler, two, and Henry Huffman, one. From a list of ten candidates William Ward was elected road master by a majority of twenty over his nearest competitor. Thomas Lowry and John. Dougherty were elected house appraisers, and the latter was also made the lister of taxable property in the township. Robert Lowry was elected township clerk. The vote for fence viewers stood thus : James Demint, 61; Alexander Miller, three; John Clark, 34; Charles Rector, three; William Moore, two; Thomas men became township managers : William Kenton, Elijah Adamson and John Kenton, two ; Griffith Foos, 23, and William Ward, two. The following Humphreys. THE FIRST ENUMERATION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP. After John Dougherty had been elected lister of taxable property in Mad River township, he set about his duties of compiling the list of the "free male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one" in that civil division of 196 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO the county. He beg-art this work in August, 1803, and certified the list to the associate judges on September 7, 1803. Since this township extended so far northward, one might think that the task of collecting this data was a herculean task, when it is considered that the means of communication in those days prevented easy access to the different parts of the county, but the inhabitants of Mad River township in those days had chiefly settled in its southern portion, around the village of Springfield and as far northward as the site of the present city of Urbana, Champaign county. Thus the task was not so great as it might seem on first consideration. This list is of historical interest to the present, for by it one is enabled to add to the list of early settlers who were included in the poll-book of the first election. The numerous additions leads the investigator to think that either the early residents of Mad River township were very careless about their exercise of the right of suffrage, or the settlers in this district had had numerous accessions since the election in June of 1803. Possibly both in equal measure accounted for the enlarged list which was submitted by Dougherty in September, 1803. The additional names of old settlers ob-tained from the enumeration sheets of the lister follow : Allen Adair, Frederick Ambrose, Isaac Anderson, Edward Armstrong, Adam Allen, Seth Arnett, George Bennett, Robert Boyce, Thomas Burt, James Bishop, George Brown, John Crossley, Elijah Chapman, Cornelius Carter, Elnathan Corry, John Dawson, Domnic Donley, Jonathan Donnell, John Denny, Nathan Fitch, Daniel Goble, Aaron Gooden, Enos Holland, William Holmes, Henry Huffman, Silas Johnson, Jonathan Johnson, Joseph Kizer, James McDonald, William McDonald, Archibald McKinley, Robert McMains, William McColloch, George Manford, Burrel Mills, Edward Mercer, Hinian Nichols, Thomas M. Pendleton, William Palmer, Eleazer Piper, Daniel Philips, William Paul, James Paul, David Prunty, James Robetelle, Jacob Read, John Read, Mathias Ross, Benjamin Ross, William Rhodes, Thomas Robinson, Joseph Simons, Jacob Server, Thomas Scott, James Scott, Charles Stoss, Henry Sturm, Lewis Summers, Sampson Tolbert, Benjamin Turman, Isaac Turman, Christopher Wood, Joseph Whittlesey, Adam Wise, Hugh Wallace, Thomas Wallace, Basil West, Christopher Weaver, William Weaver, John Welsh, John Wirt, Thomas Lowry, Joseph Layton, Robert Layton and Joseph Lefaw. There were several of these early residents of Mad River township who exercised a strong influence in the development of the counties of Clark and Champaign, which were formed in great part from this early township of Greene county. Among these should be mentioned, Simon Kenton, William Ward, James McPherson, James Demint, Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry.   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 197 WILLIAM WARD. William Ward, one of these early residents of Mad River township, was the founder of Urbana, Champaign county, and the proprietor of the site of that city. He was born in Greenbriar county, Virginia, December 14, 1752, and died on December 24, 1822. He was a soldier of the Revolution and was a lieutenant in the battle of Point Pleasant, where his father, Capt. James Ward, fell. After the war he returned to Virginia where he married. Later, about 1790, he removed to Kentucky and settled near Maysville. It was the search for the family of his brother, John Ward, that drew William Ward into the Ohio country, the former having been captured by the Shawnees in one of their raids into the land of the white man. William Ward persuaded Simon Kenton to accompany him into the Mad river coun-try, since he heard that the family of his brother resided thereabout, and when the two men arrived in the country north of the site of Springfield, they were so delighted with the land that they decided to enter tracts in this section. They returned to take up their residence here in 1802. Ward made his home about four miles north of the site of Springfield. After Champaign county was organized in 1805, Ward, with true Yankee shrewdness, purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land which he considered to be the most acceptable site for the new county seat, and then he approached the commissioners of the new county with a proposition to locate the seat for the new county on this tract. The scheme met with the approval of the commissioners and Ward became the proprietor of the new county seat of Urbana, and he doubtless found the venture a lucrative one. Ward soon removed to Urbana and there he made his home until his death in 1822. He was an old-school Virginia gentleman, who believed in good farming and he kept the best breeds of cattle and horses. His manners were stately and decorous and he was kind to his neighbors and liberal to strangers needing assistance in a new home. He was a Presbyterian as was his family, but Ile freely entertained ministers of all denominations in his home. JAMES DEMINT. Little is known of James Demint save that from the old records on file in the court house he was known to have been the proprietor and owner of the original site of Springfield. Obviously this early resident of Mad River township fully realized that at no distant date the large northern civil divi-sion of Greene county would be divided into other counties. He sought to forestall such a situation by causing to be laid out the city of Springfield, the plan of which was certified on September 5, 1803. The original plat of the city is now on file in Vol. 9, page 520, of the deed record in the office of the recorder of Greene county. 198 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO It is certain that from the first Springfield was intended to be a county-seat town, for this old plat shows a public square to be laid out. Originally the town contained ninety-six lots, all of which contain seventy-two perches, excepting- the eight half lots surrounding the public square. The streets were all four poles wide and the alleys all one pole in width. Following the plat are the following words : Before me, Joseph Layton, a justice of the peace in and for the County of Greene, personally came James Demint of the county aforesaid, and acknowledged the within plat of the town of Springfield to be true and accurately laid off as it within is presented. Acknowledged before me this 12th day of September, 1804. JOSEPH LAYTON. The plat was not filed with the recorder of Greene county until 1824 as is shown by the following In presence of Griffith Foos and Isaac Newland the within old plat of the town of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, was recorded in my office on the 28th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1824, in obedience to an act of the General Assembly of the said state, passed February 2, 1824. JOSIAH GROVER, Recorder, Greene County, Ohio. TAXATION IN MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP. After the election was held in Mad River township, the court of common pleas laid the first levy on the county, and John Dougherty, the lister for the township, brought in the report that there were within the borders of the township two hundred and forty-three horses and four hundred and ninety-two cows. Simon Kenton owned a mill valued at one hundred and fifty dol-lars ; William Chapman, one at one hundred dollars ; Jonathan Donnell, one at sixty dollars; James Demint, one at twenty-five dollars and Isaac Zane, one at two hundred and fifty dollars. Since section 7 of the act creating Greene county exempted all the residents of Mad River township from paying taxes for the purpose of erecting public buildings, the common pleas court ordered that the residents of this township should pay two cents less on each horse and one cent less on each cow, which is to say that the tax in Mad River township on each horse would be twenty-eight cents and eleven and one-half cents on each cow. The levy on mills and houses of fifty cents on each one hundred dollars value was not reduced. It thus followed that the quota of this township to the county's funds totaled one hundred and forty-three dollars and ninety-nine cents. TAVERNS 1N MAD RIVER TOWNSHIP. At the second meeting of the court of common pleas of Greene county on August 4, 1803, Griffith Foos and Archibald Lowry were granted licenses to keep taverns in the town of Springfield, for which they paid into GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 199 the treasury of the county four dollars, plus the legal fees. By this time Springfield was becoming a bustling town and the numerous settlers who were going northward into the new country, had to find some place for shelter while enroute to their new homes. One of the most picturesque of all the tavern keepers in Greene county at that time was James McPherson who lived about twenty miles north of Springfield. On June 13, 1804, he presented a very interesting petition to the court of common pleas of Greene county for the right to keep tavern. His awkward grammar, bad spelling and faulty punctuation indicate that his ability to frame petitions was far less than his prowess in pioneering and fighting Indians. The petition is reproduced verbatum : To the Worshipful Court of Greene County Humbly Sheweth That whereas your petitioner hath been Solicited from time to time by travellers from remote distance, as well as adjacent, that hath been and now continuous to explore the flourishing & fertile Lands of Mad River, to ask Licence from the Honorable Bench to keep a Public House of entertainment, that of such a Place of Conveniency for a recourse for shelter hath often suffered in the Recogniting in the said Tour thro the extensive Country, & being as yet almost unsettled for many miles from my dwelling; and besides all this he further adds with said lawful indulgence must sustain great loss, for am at times much crowded with sojourners to the dissatisfaction of private life with no manner of profit out of the attending fatigue, his habitation being north from Springfield 20 miles, from Chillacotha 6o miles west, Autaway Town 4o miles North west, from Mr. Isaac Zane's 10 miles west ; your Petitioner hopes to Obtain, and of your Clemency, the said Licence, and as in duty Bound Shall pray— Peter Oliver Simon Kenton JAMES MCPHERSON. Thomas Davis Joseph Sutton John Fisher Lewis Sutton George M. Barnett William Moore J. L. Galloway Lewis Davis May 20, 1804. This gives one an idea of the extent of Greene county at that time, since the habitation of James McPherson was twenty miles north of Springfield. It is quite possible that his house was the outpost of the civil jurisdiction of this county at that time. His dwelling was located approximately at the line between Logan and Champaign counties. But the most interesting thing about this petition is the petitioner himself. James McPherson, or "Squa-la-ka-ke" (meaning the "red-faced man"), was a native of Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, but his wandering disposition drew him westward and incidentally into conflicts with the Indian owners of the soil. At one time when he was connected with a minor military or scouting expedition against the redskins, he was captured by the Indians at or near the mouth of the Great Miami. Since his captors were in the employ of the British at Detroit, he eventually was turned over to them, and for many years he was .