850 - HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY

SPRING VALLEY TOWNSHIP.

Spring Valley Township was organized in December, 1856; being composed of the eastern portion of Sugar Creek Township. The petition was filed with the county commissioners on the 1st day of December, 1856, signed by R. D. Poague, Robert Evans, and Ambrose Elam, all since deceased. Washington Alexander, Ambrose Elam, and Jason M. Neeld, were the first trustees elected; Joseph Mason the first clerk, and also first justice of the peace.

In 1857, a portion of Xenia and Caesar's Creek townships were added to Spring Valley. W. J. Alexander was successor to Joseph Mason in the office of justice of the peace. Robert Evans, Ambrose Elam, and W. J. Alexander were elected trustees for seven or eight years, and until the death of the two first-named gentlemen; and the latter has held the position almost continuously until the present date.

The township is Republican in politics, generally giving a. Republican majority of from twenty-five to fifty votes on county and state elections. Township officers are generally selected from each of the parties.

The financial affairs of the township have been well, although liberally, managed, the taxes having, been lighter than in any other township in the county, excepting Caesar's Creek, and a part of the time in Sugar Creek.

There are eleven sub-school districts in the township, each of which is provided with a good school building.

All the principal roads are graded, graveled, and well bridged.

There are four Methodist Episcopal churches, one Friends' and one Methodist Protestant Church in the township.

There are three flouring, and two saw-mills, one woolen mill, one oil-mill, one tow-mill, and one beer saloon.

The people are generally industrious, frugal, sober, and moral; largely the descendants of South Carolina and Virginia people.

Spring Valley Township was the home of the late lion. J. G.

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Gest, and is the home of the Hon. I. M. Bassett, both of whom have represented Greene County in the state legislature.

It was also the home of Hon. J. E. Hawes, now common pleas judge; Levi Riddell, Esq., present county surveyor; T. R. Schnebly, Esq., a prominent member of the Greene County bar.

Among the old citizens who were prominent in their day, might be mentioned the names of Hon. John Clark, who was common pleas judge for twenty-one years; Robert Evans, Washington Alexander, R. D. Poague, and Jesse Sanders, who were leading and thrifty farmers, and George Barrett, an enterprising manufacturer, all of whom have passed away.

Michael Daugherty and Moses Walton, two of the pioneers, and the only two remaining among us, have reached a ripe and honorable old age, both having been active and enterprising business men, the former having run the first oil mill ever built in the county. Each of them has, in the past, been engaged largely in the pork and cattle business.

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.

At the date of the organization of the township, Joseph Mason was justice of the peace, having been elected in the old organization of Sugar Creek Township. Mr. Mason served, in all, as justice, twenty-one years. he was also clerk of the township of Spring Valley a number of years, and was a competent officer. He died in the year 18-, at the age of about seventy-two years. His widow still survives, having been several years his junior.

W. J. Alexander was the first justice elected in the new township, but owing to some supposed irregularity in its organization, his office was declared vacant by the order of the common pleas court; a new election was ordered, and Mr. Alexander and A. T. Craig were elected, the former having been elected four terms, and before the expiration of his last term, resigned. Esquire Craig has held the office until the present date. He also held the office of trustee for a number of years, and yet holds the position, and has served in each of said capacities with credit to himself and to the acceptance of his constituents.

George Turner held the office of justice of the peace for one term, Joseph G. Gest for two terms; W. J. Alexander has been trustee for nineteen years, Lewis Smith for four years, Esquire

852 - HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

Craig for eight years, John Morris for three years, Isaac Evans for two years, Robert Evans eight years, Ambrose Elam three years, A. D. Williams three years, Smith Babb one year, N. L. Davis one year.

SPRING VALLEY VILLAGE

Was laid out in 1845, by Edward and Moses Walton, and is situated at the crossing of the Little Miami Railroad with the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Xenia Turnpike, and on the bank of the Little Miami River. Just opposite is a village known as Transylvania, laid out by Jeffrey Truman, about 1820; now owned, except three lots, by W. J. Alexander, the old houses all being torn down, except one which is used as a shop.

Claysville, two miles south of Spring Valley, was laid out by Elias Adrit and John Speer, in the year 1845; situated on the railroad, and has a grain house owned and operated by Mr. A. Alexander. There are five dwelling houses in the village.

The village of Spring Valley has a population of about four hundred souls, and is the voting place for the township.

Moses Walton, one of the proprietors of the village, still resides there, and has been a very enterprising and active business man for many years selling dry goods, etc., and packing pork, besides farming on a very extensive scale. His sons have for several years past been manufacturing buggies on a very extensive scale, until during the past winter, when their factory was destroyed by fire.

In 1844 Mr. George Barrett, father of Hon. I. M. Barrett, erected a woolen mill, and managed it successfully until his death, which occurred about three years past, since which time his son, I. M. Barrett, has managed the factory, together with his extensive flouring mills and grain and pork house.

There is a flourishing school in the village, composed of three grades, with a very imposing and commodious school building, situated on an eminence just east of the village.

EARLY SETTLERS.

Michael Daugherty, the oldest citizen now living in the township, was born in Philadelphia, in 1801, of Irish parents. Moved to this township and engaged in the manufacture of linseed oil on Glady

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Run in 1829. In 1832 he built a mill where Spring Valley now stands, and manufactured oil and woolen goods for a number of years; was also extensively engaged in the dry goods business, pork packing, and driving cattle to the eastern market; and by his industry and perseverence, contributed largely to the prosperity of the county. Mr. Daugherty reared a family of ten children, all of whom are respectable business men and women, some being quite wealthy. Mr. Daugherty has reached a good, ripe old age, and moves among us an honored relic of a generation past and gone.

Josiah Elam, Edward Mercer, Jesse Sanders, William, Samuel, and Robert McKnight came to the township about 1802-1805, and settled on the waters of Caesar's Creek, and made the first settlement in the township. All lived many years, and were honorable and useful men in their day.

Mr. Elam was a revolutionary soldier, and raised a family of ten children, one of whom was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mr. Elam's family were all respectable men and women, and lived and died without a stain against the character of any. Three daughters still survive, and are models of integrity and virtue. One lives in Logan County, one in Logansport, Indiana, and the remaining one, Mrs. Truman, relict of Jesse Truman, lives in Transylvania, in this township.

CHURCHES.

In 1818, the Murser's Run Baptist Church was organized by Aaron Lambert, Hanby, and a few others, near Caesar's Creek, about four miles east of Spring Valey, who built a log meetinghouse, which was used until it burned down, a few years ago, after which the church was removed to a new building, in Caesar's Creek Township, where it still exists, with about thirty members.

The Spring Valley Baptist Church was organized in 1844, by Judge Clark and family, Washington Alexander and family, Elias Adair and family, and others, in a log school house, two miles west of Spring Valley, who held their meetings in the school house during the winter, and in the grove during the summer, until the spring of 1848, when they built a frame meeting-house in the village. This church prospered until 1860, when, by death and removal, its organization was abandoned.

The Friends or Quaker Church was organized in 1808, by Ed-

854 - HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.

ward Walton, William and John Mendenhall, and William Stanfield, and their families. They built a log meeting-house about three miles east of Spring Valley, where they continued to worship until 1844, when they built a frame house near Spring Valley. This house was occupied until 1877, when the society purchased the Baptist meeting-house in Spring Valley, and reorganized and changed their name from " Richland " to the " Spring Valley Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends." ' They number about one hundred members, and are in a flourishing condition.

The Sardis Methodist Episcopal Church was formed at the residence of William Davis, who settled in the township in 1817. The society was organized by William Davis and Thomas McCool, both local preachers, Jacob Medscar, James Lyle, and others, in 1820. The church held its meetings at William Davis' until 1828, when they built a log house on the farm of Mr. Davis. In 1850, they moved to Spring Valley, and built a frame house. It has a membership of sixty.

The Glady Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1835, by James Schnebly, James Baldwin, and others. They held their meetings at Mr. Schnebly's residence until 1864, when they built a frame house, about four miles north of Spring Valley, on the Xenia and Bellbrook road. The society is small.

The Protestant Methodist Church was organized in Spring Valley, in 1849. The principal organizers were Michael Daugherty, M. A. Gest, and Mrs. Johanna Morris.